Transforming Problems Into Happiness: Episode 5

In episode 5 of Book Club with Sarah Sati, Sarah discusses the concept of bodhicitta as it relates to buddhist teachings. She then reads from chapters 6 and 7, which cover the development of bodhicitta, the idea of the self cherishing thought as the enemy, and the practice of giving and taking (tonglen). Sarah concludes session with a brief tonglen practice before offering homework of engaged bodhicitta through the application of tonglen in day to day life. This is the second to last session and concludes the main body of the text.

Book Club is an opportunity to take a Buddhist text and explore it deeply from a more modern perspective. The second book in the Book Club Series is Transforming Problems into Happiness by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. It is not necessary to own the book to enjoy these sessions, which combine reading, explanation, and opportunities for direct experience to the listener.

See Sarah's live events to join the next session.

Transcript

Welcome back beautiful people.

I'm Saraswati.

If you don't know me already and once again this is book club and we are nearing the completion of this second book club series so that's pretty exciting.

Today we're actually going to be covering the last two chapters of the text so you may be thinking why isn't this session of book club over but I'll talk about that.

We'll cover chapters six and seven and we'll just follow our usual process beginning with a motivation setting.

We'll reflect a little bit on the homework from the past session.

I have a piece that I want to teach a little bit on and then we'll read from the book,

Practice and close with some more homework and a dedication today.

Let's start now with our motivation setting.

However you are is perfect but if you would like to adjust yourself here to come into a more meditative posture please do that now.

Your eyes can be open or closed.

There's no right way to do this practice.

Let's take a moment to settle getting out any last minute movements simply allowing ourselves to find some physical stillness.

If it feels safe perhaps you'd like to place some awareness on your breath and in this space allow yourself to extend and emphasize your exhalations.

You can perhaps imagine that any tension or resistance or defensiveness dissolves with each exhale.

I'd like you to consider the quality of generosity now.

Reflect on how setting a motivation to benefit others with our practice is an act of generosity.

Perhaps you can visualize yourself helping others,

Sharing your time,

Your knowledge or your resources.

Just simply reflecting on your practice and being motivated to benefit others with it is its own act of generosity.

Now I'd like you to think about the patience required to develop a motivation such as this even if the motivation to benefit others doesn't yet fully real.

Acknowledge that this is also an opportunity to practice patience.

Perhaps you can recognize that with time and practice this motivation to benefit others will grow and become more authentic.

Take a moment to consider the possibility that when we prime our minds with the motivation to benefit others,

We're more likely to act in ethical ways.

And then we're linking things here,

Perhaps seeing that this ethical action helps us in refining our conduct and growing our mindfulness.

Maintain this motivation day in and day out.

Finally,

Reflect on how diligence in maintaining this motivation to benefit others day in and day out leads to the blossoming of wisdom.

Remind yourself of the importance of consistent practice.

And then take a few deep breaths.

Allow these reflections to simply settle.

You can drop the reflections now if that feels good.

And let's repeat this collective motivation in call and response.

May my mind be clear enough to use these teachings for the benefit of myself and others.

May my mind be clear enough to use these teachings for the benefit of myself and others.

May all sentient beings benefit from my knowledge.

May all sentient beings benefit from my knowledge.

And may the world thrive in peace and joy.

May the world thrive in peace and joy.

Just rest here for a moment,

Free of defensiveness in an open and relaxed way.

And open your eyes.

Look around the space you're in.

Maybe you can feel a sense of gratitude for how this space supports you and your practice.

Take a few clearing breaths if that feels good and just let it go.

Okay,

So let's revisit our homework from the last session.

Perhaps you recognized actually that I,

I don't think it was so subtle that I weaved into the meditation,

The paramitas that we covered in our last session,

Paramitas being translated as the six perfections.

So just to refresh you about this concept in the Buddhist teachings,

Which was a prominent theme in our last session,

We can use practicing these qualities deeply in the process of transforming our own mind.

And that is what I invited you to do last session.

The six paramitas translated as the six perfections,

Just as a reminder,

Are generosity,

Patience,

Ethical conduct,

Diligence,

And wisdom.

Why am I missing one right now?

Generosity,

Patience,

Ethical conduct,

Diligence,

And I don't know why I'm blanking on one right now,

But I'm not going to worry about it.

So I'm just curious,

If you chose a paramita to focus on in between sessions,

It's the,

It's not gratitude or forgiveness.

It'll come to me.

It'll come to me.

And but if you chose one last session,

I really invited you to a concentration.

Is that funny?

That's funny to me.

So I'm going to restate them.

So we can remind ourselves for those of you who did or didn't do the homework.

So we have generosity that's typically seen as the first paramita,

Patience,

Ethical conduct,

Concentration,

Diligence,

Or persistence.

And then the sixth is wisdom.

And we don't really think about wisdom as a quality that we work on developing,

But rather what develops or blossoms out of our work with the other five paramitas.

So whether you did the homework or not between sessions,

I just want to bring your attention now to if one or more of these really speak to you in terms of your lacking.

So remember,

In book club,

We do not shy away from looking at our flaws or imperfections.

That's the place where we have the most growth to do.

So we bravely look to where are we lacking?

Are we really impatient?

Are we very greedy?

Yeah,

Do we lack a lot of concentration or focus?

Maybe we have a tendency to give up very easily on things.

Maybe we're somebody who lies quite often,

Even in small ways,

Like lying about why you don't want to go out with a friend on a on a night because you want to stay in but you're afraid they'll be mad at you.

So you lie and say something like you're sick or your kid is sick.

Not that I've ever done something like that.

So just reflect now for a moment on how or on which one of these or maybe a few of them really stand out for you.

The invitation last week was to choose just one,

And really practice it deeply in your life.

And reminding you that,

For instance,

Generosity,

They don't have to be so literal.

It's not like you have to give all your money away.

But maybe you could give away $1,

Or some clothes you're hoarding,

Or some food to someone who is hungry,

Or some time to a loved one who is suffering.

There are many ways that we can give away generosity or that we can practice concentration,

For instance,

By brushing our teeth.

We stay present with the act of brushing our teeth the whole time.

So maybe you did do this or not.

I would love to hear about your experience if you did work with one this week.

But either way,

I just like you to take a moment in silence to reflect on how practicing one or more of these has improved your life or could improve your life,

Especially if you are to commit to it fully.

So again,

Generosity,

Patience,

Ethical conduct,

Concentration and diligence.

And if you did do the homework,

Maybe spend just a moment here reflecting on how integrating this into your life influenced your actions and your mindset.

So you may have noticed in the meditation that I linked all of these together.

And in fact,

That is how the teaching is presented.

It's not so much that generosity exists by itself.

But generosity exists with patience and with ethical conduct,

And with concentration and with diligence.

And from all of these linkages,

Wisdom is born.

So there is likely the chance that you when practicing one or more of the paramitas saw that they were all interconnected.

And I just want to bring your mind to that now.

And,

And remind you,

And maybe I've said this before,

And if not,

Maybe I'm saying it for the first time.

The Buddhist teachings are not singular teachings,

Like here is one teaching,

And here is another teaching,

And they're separate from each other.

But actually,

I learned this early on in my own practice,

You can vet a teaching of the Buddha by if it contains all other teachings within it.

So what does this mean?

This means if you're wondering,

Is this really a teaching from the Buddhist teachings or Buddhist teachings,

You can ask yourself,

Does this one teaching contain the other teachings within it?

So how does generosity contain patience,

And ethical conduct and diligence?

Or,

You know,

How does patience include generosity,

Starting to see the interconnected nature of these teachings.

And this will actually benefit us as we practice more and more deeply,

Because interconnectedness is one of the core concepts in Buddhism.

Okay,

So let's drop the homework for now.

It's gently expanding as we've moved through next session,

As it being our last session,

I won't be offering any homework.

But this session,

I will be offering a little taste.

And as we move deeper into this work that we're doing together,

We start to see how every piece of homework that I've offered is actually connected with every other piece.

So we've looked at what is our definition of happiness?

And is it leading to our benefit or suffering?

We've looked at what is it what happens in our lives when we start to view our problems as benefits rather than problems.

And we've started to expand and expand in this way.

And today,

We're going to expand even further by creating a specific practice,

And by using a specific practice in our lives.

And I'm really going to invite you as we get closer to that to seeing how that specific practice actually contains the paramitas within it.

But before we get to the reading,

I want to offer a teaching moment really fast because this week's reading,

Which is on chapters six and seven,

Deals with a core concept in Buddhism,

And that is the concept of bodhicitta.

So I'm sure that you've heard of this concept before.

Or maybe it's very,

You know,

Old to you,

And you're really quite familiar with it.

Or maybe it's quite new,

Maybe you've never heard of it at all.

But it is the central tenet in Buddhism bodhicitta.

And I want to give some,

Some context to this concept before I read,

Because I think that will really allow us to deeply understand today's,

Today's reading.

And that's just sort of part of our ongoing effort to deepen our personal experience with these Buddhist concepts.

And so bodhicitta,

Being a central concept in all Buddhist lineages,

But especially in Mahayana Buddhism,

It really underlies all practice and all teachings.

It's often translated as the mind of enlightenment or the mind of awakening.

So maybe you've heard that before the mind of enlightenment,

Or the mind of awakening.

And this represents the compassionate wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.

The compassionate wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Maybe you want to drop the word enlightenment perfectly okay,

Make this more of a secular experience for you.

And I would invite you to use the word healing,

To use our healing for the benefit of all sentient beings.

And this being a compassionate wish.

So there are two types of bodhicitta inside of the Buddhist teachings.

The first is aspirational.

And the second is called engaged bodhicitta.

Aspirational bodhicitta refers to this heartfelt wish.

So it's really about the intention to attain enlightenment or healing for the benefit of all sentient beings.

It's like the initial spark of compassion in our hearts,

Compassion,

And maybe altruism.

And it's this spark that begins to motivate a practitioner to embark on the path.

And this spark doesn't have to just be about others,

Because you have to remember that you are included in the list of all sentient beings.

So it's also a compassionate wish for yourself,

You are not excluded from this.

It's not like,

You're only aspirationally thinking,

I hope I benefit everyone but myself.

It's actually everyone and myself.

So that's an important distinction I want to make.

And cultivating aspirational bodhicitta involves generating and nurturing this compassionate intention.

And this typically happens through reflect reflection and some particular practices.

But really,

It's just the wish.

It's,

It's likened,

Often to planting a seed in our hearts,

A seed of compassion.

And then we are continually nurturing it,

We're continually watering it,

And increasing it in that way.

So an example of aspirational bodhicitta practice would be reciting a verse that you're likely familiar with,

May I attain enlightenment,

For the benefit of all sentient beings,

Or may I attain healing,

For the benefit of all sentient beings,

May I attain wisdom for the benefit of all sentient beings,

You can really use any word there that fits most for you in your life.

And then typically,

With aspirational bodhicitta,

We're invited to reflect on the suffering of others,

And how we wish to alleviate it.

And how this alleviation,

How this wish to alleviate the suffering of others,

Really helps in making this aspiration real inside of us,

It's not expected that you immediately come out the gate,

And you hear someone say,

Okay,

Yeah,

Wish for everyone else to be free from suffering,

And then poof,

You are just wishing that oftentimes,

There's some resistance to that.

And that is actually totally normal,

Absolutely acceptable.

And another thing I just love about the Buddhist teachings,

Because we don't have to believe it at first,

We have to trust that it's going to take us somewhere.

But we don't have to know that it's going to take us there.

And so we simply generously offer compassion in our hearts to others.

And we patiently practice with diligence.

And so again,

You can kind of maybe see the parameters in there,

Maybe not kind of because I'm sort of spelling it out.

So the second type of bodhicitta,

Just to move things along refers to the practical application.

So we had aspirational,

This is like our intention.

And then we have engaged,

And this is how we apply this intention,

This compassionate wish,

Through concrete actions in our lives.

It really involves taking steps towards enlightenment by practicing the six paramitas.

So now we're thinking about the six paramitas,

We're contemplating them.

But now in engaged bodhicitta,

We're actually intentionally practicing them.

We're actively working to benefit others in some particular way.

Remember,

You are part of all sentient beings.

So actually,

I just wrote my newsletter for the month of August.

And I write about this.

It's,

It's not the case that you are meant to just jump right in to practice working for the benefit of others.

If you are yourself in a state of suffering or need,

The first person who takes the oxygen on the airplane is you.

So we start always with ourselves.

And that is also engaged bodhicitta,

Offering ourselves relief from suffering.

So I just want to make sure that I'm really clear about that.

Don't forget yourself in the process of extending compassion.

Always remember that you are part of all sentient beings.

And so engaged bodhicitta is really about transforming our intention into these real life actions.

And that's something that we did from this last session,

This last session,

I invited you to take the idea of the paramitas off the cushion,

And out of the mind,

And bring them into daily life.

So hopefully you had a chance to do that.

But if not,

It's never too late.

And you can,

Of course,

Rewatch this or rewatch the last episode and then work on practicing this.

And we'll do a little more of this later.

An example of engaged bodhicitta is,

For instance,

Participating in any activity that benefits other people.

So this can be like volunteering,

Or offering help in some way to those in need,

Practicing compassion and patience in really difficult situations.

Like,

For instance,

When I was at the airport,

On whatever day it is,

I got to California,

It was like 25 hours of travel,

People were in bad moods at the airport,

I do not think working at an airport seems like a very great job,

People did not seem very happy.

I'm sure they have that the people that work at airports have to deal with a lot of stress people,

There were many moments for me to practice patience and compassion.

And so this is engaged bodhicitta.

This is the guy at the luggage rack who said,

Especially you go upstairs with your luggage,

I'm not helping you.

That is this is a true story.

And then me saying,

Okay,

No problem.

And my daughter saying,

Why was that guy mean to you?

And I said,

Maybe he's having a bad day.

So we are extending generosity,

We are extending compassion,

We are extending patience,

And we're doing it in our lives,

Off our cushions.

And that's really where the work matters.

It's great that you can be compassionate all by yourself on a cushion in a room where there's no interruptions.

But let's face it,

Why would that be of benefit to you,

You could do that your whole life and still never change anywhere else.

And the real import is to affect our lives in meaningful ways.

So there are a few different ways we can cultivate bodhicitta.

I've mentioned some already,

But one way is to really reflect on suffering.

You can think about people who suffer.

Now,

Again,

You want to titrate this depending on your particular life experiences.

If you're in a suffering place,

It's not going to be beneficial to just jump into thinking about how everyone else is suffering.

If you are actually really legitimately suffering from depression or something like this,

Then you want to expose yourself a little more carefully.

That's beyond the scope of today.

But I just want to make sure I say that.

We can also just practice things that foster loving kindness.

And we can do this in small meditations or in ways we go about our daily life.

We can use things like mantra,

And the wish to attain the wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of others.

And also the six paramitas,

This is really engaged bodhicitta.

So by understanding and cultivating aspirational and engaged bodhicitta,

We can really develop a deep and enduring commitment to the path and to our practice.

And that's what we're looking for.

And this commitment,

It doesn't just transform our own lives.

But this also benefits all beings.

So even if it doesn't in particularly end the suffering of every person on the planet,

Which,

You know,

It won't,

But the wish to end the suffering is itself a benefit to others.

And that's something that I invite you to really think about.

So it was important to cover this topic,

I felt very important,

Because that's what we're going to be reading about today.

And as I said,

I imagine you've heard the term before,

You know,

Maybe it's quite new,

But still,

Having a bit more context on it,

I think is going to really help us understand today's teachings better.

So now let's get into it.

Let's read from chapters six and seven of transforming problems into happiness by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

A reminder,

These are the last two chapters in this text,

But it's not our last session,

Because there's still the afterword.

And the root text I'd like to read.

Chapter six,

Experiencing your problems for others.

Using problems to generate bodhicitta and to destroy self cherishing.

Problems give you the opportunity to train your mind in bodhicitta,

The wish to become enlightened in order to free all beings from suffering.

As your compassion for others grows,

You increasingly come to feel that it is unbearable when any other being experiences suffering.

Practicing bodhicitta,

Exchanging yourself for others,

Means renouncing yourself rather than others and cherishing others rather than yourself.

Unless you exchange yourself for others,

You cannot become enlightened.

And even in samsara,

You will never find happiness.

Forget about the happiness of future lives.

Without bodhicitta,

You will be eternally frustrated,

Even in the activities of this life.

No matter how hard you strive toward happiness in your everyday life,

You simply cannot experience it unless you develop a good compassionate heart.

Without a good heart,

You will never have peace in your life.

The practice of bodhicitta is not only for those who seek enlightenment or the happiness of future lives.

Everyone will benefit from practicing it.

The practice of bodhicitta does not require a belief in reincarnation or even in karma.

Virtue results in happiness,

Non-virtue in suffering.

It's that simple.

You can see for yourself in your own experience.

If you want happiness,

Even just your own day-to-day happiness,

You must practice the good heart,

Bodhicitta.

This means exchanging yourself for others,

Renouncing yourself,

And cherishing others.

Even though bodhisattvas might experience problems as a result of past negative karma,

They experience those problems for the sake of other living beings.

They think,

By experiencing this problem,

May I alleviate the suffering of others.

Thus,

Instead of being problems,

Unfortunate events become sources of happiness.

Instead of being miserable conditions,

They become happy conditions.

Instead of causing a miserable life,

They cause a happy life.

If you practice renouncing yourself and cherishing others,

You can experience your problems for the sake of others.

In this way,

No matter what,

You have a happy life.

Problems do not disturb you.

They only help you and all beings to actualize the path to enlightenment.

In order to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all living beings,

You must destroy your enemy,

The self-cherishing thought.

This self-cherishing thought is the single greatest enemy to your own success,

Your own happiness,

And that of all other beings.

As long as self-cherishing dwells in your heart,

There is no space to generate bodhicitta,

So there is no way to achieve enlightenment and perfectly guide all living beings.

Following self-cherishing thoughts brings only pain,

Failure,

And disharmony.

The stronger your selfish mind,

The stronger your anger,

Jealousy,

Attachment,

And dissatisfaction.

The more selfish you are,

The more attachment and dissatisfaction you have,

And thus the more difficulty you experience in your life,

One thing after another.

Your selfish mind wants you to be the best.

It wants you to be the smartest,

Most successful,

Most accomplished,

Most attractive.

It wants you to be the first among all others.

Your selfish mind wants you alone to succeed and others to fail.

And when the expectations of your selfish mind are not met,

Jealousy,

Anger,

Ill will,

Strong attachment,

And other disturbing thoughts arise in force.

Then,

Under the influence of these negative thoughts,

You perform various unskillful,

Non-virtuous actions and accumulate even more negative karma.

If you follow self-cherishing thoughts,

Not only do you not experience even temporal happiness in that very moment,

But as a result of this negative karma,

You experience in the future only more of the suffering of suffering.

The less you practice exchanging yourself for others,

And the stronger your selfish mind becomes,

The more disturbing you will find people and situations.

The more you cherish yourself and are concerned about only your own happiness and your own problems,

I have this problem,

I have that problem,

When will I be happy?

The more you will experience misfortune and disturbing thoughts,

And the more you will label these as problems.

Every time a problem arises,

The essential thing is to immediately become aware that the problem comes from your selfish mind,

That it is created by self-cherishing thoughts.

Every time you have a problem,

You should immediately try to see this process of evolution.

As long as you put all the blame outside yourself,

There can be no happiness.

In reality,

All the difficulties of life come from self-cherishing thoughts.

Furthermore,

All problems are the result of negative karma accumulated in the past due to self-cherishing thoughts.

In the past,

Under the influence of self-cherishing,

Whenever you allowed disturbing thoughts to arise,

These disturbing thoughts motivated negative karma.

But you must understand that the problems you experience in your life now are related not only to past negative karma accumulated under the influence of the self-cherishing thought,

But also to the self-cherishing thought in your mind at this very moment.

One of the most important things that Mahayana thought training teaches is putting all the blame on the self-cherishing thought,

Where it belongs.

In this way,

You develop aversion to the self-cherishing thought and come to see it as your enemy.

Thus,

Instead of identifying with and obeying the self-cherishing thought,

You separate yourself from it,

And then all your daily activities become pure Dharma practice.

No matter what difficulties and circumstances arise,

Put all the blame on the self-cherishing thought.

Recollect how every difficulty is due to the shortcoming of self-cherishing.

Then,

On top of that,

Give back to the self-cherishing thought all the problems and undesirable things that the self-cherishing thought has given you.

The self-cherishing mind wants you to look elsewhere for the source of your problems,

But with this practice you lay the blame squarely on the root cause,

Self-cherishing itself.

Without this understanding,

Our problems cause us to create negative karma.

But by using your problems as weapons to destroy self-cherishing,

Whatever problem you are experiencing becomes a means to eliminate ignorance and negative karma.

This is especially useful if the problem is unavoidable.

By sending problems back to the self-cherishing thought and destroying it,

Your experience of problems really becomes Dharma practice.

Experiencing problems on behalf of others,

Exchanging yourself for others,

Is the practice of bodhicitta.

There is no question that this is the most skillful,

Most effective way to purify your mind and attain the ultimate happiness of enlightenment.

Even if you cannot do this practice,

Even if you cannot completely exchange yourself with others,

You can still give every undesirable thing that happens to you back to the self-cherishing thought and destroy it.

If you can do that,

Even every problem you experience becomes pure Dharma.

Experiencing problems becomes the remedy to self-cherishing.

Experiencing problems becomes the very best Dharma practice.

Using the difficulties in your life in this way becomes virtue.

Even though you may not rely completely upon the Buddha,

Dharma,

And Sangha,

Even though you may not have faith in the law of karma,

If you use your problems to destroy your own selfish mind,

Your own self-cherishing thoughts,

You are practicing pure Dharma.

Whatever difficulties arise,

Put all the blame on your self-cherishing thoughts.

Instead of thinking,

This is my problem,

Think,

This is the problem of my self-cherishing thoughts,

And then destroy the self-cherishing by turning the problem back on it.

Whatever energy you would have used to eliminate an external problem can now be used to eliminate your self-cherishing instead.

It is especially effective to use your fears about being judged or criticized to destroy self-cherishing.

If you can do this continually,

Then fears,

Worries,

And paranoia cannot arise.

This is the deep,

Essential psychology that really wipes out the self-cherishing thought,

The source of all your problems,

And makes it non-existent.

There are inevitably many problems in your life that you will have to endure,

That you will have to experience again and again,

That you have to learn to live with.

Sickness,

Misfortunes,

The infirmities of age,

Depression,

Anxiety,

Family problems,

Relationship issues,

Death of loved ones,

Many of these things are unavoidable.

Some people are always being scolded or beaten by an alcoholic wife or husband.

Whenever they are home,

There is quarreling and fighting,

They do not separate,

And there is always unhappiness and disharmony in their lives.

You may feel trapped in a heavy,

Awful situation of this kind,

And believe you have no escape.

You may believe that the circumstances are difficult or impossible to change.

Though you may not be able to change the external circumstances,

You can change how you use your mind.

One very effective thing you can do is to think,

All these problems have been given to me by my self-cherishing thought.

Give all these problems back to your self-cherishing thought,

And then decide to experience your problems on behalf of others.

This is the bravest,

Most powerful practice you can do.

Think,

The reason that I have not yet been released from these problems is that from beginningless time,

I have cherished myself and renounced others.

From now on,

I am going to live my life only with bodhicitta.

I am going to cherish others.

Think this to yourself and know that this is the source of all happiness.

If you change your attitude from cherishing yourself to cherishing others,

All your problems stop.

All confusion is stopped simply by changing your attitude.

This single practice of exchanging yourself with others stops all the confusion and every problem.

When you have a problem,

Another practice you can apply is the Mahayana thought transformation practice of taking and giving,

Tonglen.

Visualize taking all the suffering of other beings into your own heart,

And then imagine giving everything,

Your own body,

Possessions,

Happiness,

And merit to others.

Many other beings have the same or similar problems as you do.

Practice taking upon yourself their experience of those particular problems,

As well as the suffering and causes of suffering of all other beings.

Imagine that whatever problem you are experiencing is due to willingly taking upon yourself the problems of others,

Thereby relieving them of all suffering.

In this way,

You experience your problem for the benefit of others.

When you are able to think that you are experiencing your problems for other living beings,

You transform your experience of those problems into virtue.

Because you are experiencing your problem on behalf of all those with similar problems,

As well as all those with other problems,

Your experience becomes great purification and a very skillful means to accumulate extensive positive potential.

The number of beings for whom you experience the suffering is infinite,

And thus you can develop infinite virtue,

Transforming illness into the path.

Another thought transformation teaching says,

Disease is the broom that sweeps away negative karma and obscurations.

Thus,

You can feel happy when you become sick by thinking,

The fruit of negative karma I've created in the past is ripening as this experience of sickness,

In this life,

At this moment.

If I were not experiencing the results of my past negative karma now,

The suffering I would experience in the future would be much greater.

By experiencing it now,

I have the opportunity to purify myself.

Thinking like this allows you to live your life with a relaxed,

Happy mind.

You do not get depressed or upset about your health or about any problem.

As your mind is relaxed,

External conditions do not disturb you,

And you are able to continue your Dharma practice.

You are able to move closer to ultimate happiness.

Also think,

In the past I have practiced taking other beings suffering upon myself,

And dedicating my body,

Possessions,

Happiness and merit to others.

Now I have received the sufferings,

Negative karma and obscuration of others,

So therefore I have succeeded in my practice of taking and giving.

My wish for the happiness of all beings has been granted.

By thinking like this,

You generate happiness.

One great teacher advised that when your disease gets worse and worse,

You should think,

My illness indicates I have succeeded in my practice of giving and taking.

By using my problems to practice taking and giving,

I have developed great virtue,

Become the cause of happiness,

And done much purification.

If I were to recover instantly,

I would lose this opportunity to practice Dharma.

I wouldn't have any chance to practice the skillful means of taking and giving,

Which enables me to purify my obscurations and attain ultimate happiness.

How fortunate I am that my problem has not stopped.

If I didn't have this problem,

I would become lazy.

I would lose this precious opportunity to purify my past negative actions and develop great virtue.

As I mentioned before,

You must not think that only this particular suffering of others has ripened upon you.

Whether it be cancer or losing a job,

But rather think that all the sufferings of other beings have ripened upon you as well.

Think,

I have received the present sufferings of all other beings and all the future sufferings they will have to experience until samsara ends.

I am experiencing these on their behalf so that they may be completely free from suffering.

One of my teachers taught that we should also think how fantastic it is that I am actually able to take upon myself the sufferings of living beings at this time.

Rejoice and feel happy.

Practicing taking and giving in this way is an opportunity to completely renounce yourself for others.

When you are doing an intensive meditation retreat on thought transformation,

In the breaks between meditation sessions,

You should pray to be able to use your suffering in the Mahayana path.

Then,

When your mental capacity is more advanced,

You may actually choose to pray that you receive even more of the sufferings and problems of other beings.

You may wish that all harms,

All undesirable things,

Disease,

Failure,

Everything,

Come to you rather than to others.

You seek to experience all these bad conditions on behalf of other living beings.

Even if disturbing thoughts have arisen uncontrollably,

You have created negative karma through lapses in ethical conduct.

Use Mahayana thought transformation.

Think,

While practicing taking and giving,

I have been praying to receive upon myself all the undesirable experiences of other beings.

Now my prayer has been answered.

I am receiving all the undesirable experiences of others and experiencing them on their behalf.

Then pray.

May this negative karma represent the karma of all those who have transgressed their ethical commitments and have thereby cut off the root of liberation.

May this negative karma substitute for every undesirable experience of every being.

May I alone experience all the causes and all the suffering.

May all other beings be free from all this negative karma and its results.

If you don't do your daily Dharma practice,

For example,

Apply thought transformation in a similar way.

May this negative karma be a substitute for all the problems of all other beings.

May I experience this karma on their behalf.

Thus you can experience every single undesirable thing on behalf of all other living beings.

Chapter 7 The Heart Advice The Power of the Good Heart Applying even one technique of Mahayana thought transformation is the best protection against suffering.

For example,

You can apply the teachings of this verse in the Guru Puja,

A well-known practice text.

Please grant me blessings to be able to take all the karmic debts,

Obstacles,

And sufferings of other beings,

Without exception,

Upon myself,

And to dedicate my own body and merit to them.

Thus may I lead all beings to bliss.

If you are able to genuinely utilize this one verse in any situation,

You will be constantly generating bodhicitta,

Renouncing yourself and cherishing others.

The practice of bodhicitta is your best protection.

Practicing bodhicitta gives better protection than spending life after life,

For hundreds of eons,

Learning to protect yourself with karate.

The power of bodhicitta is incomparable.

The power of atomic bombs is completely insignificant when compared to the power of one good heart.

Unless you change the way you use your mind,

There will always be an enemy to harm you,

There will always be unfortunate circumstances to befall you.

But if all the people in the world truly possessed bodhicitta,

We would have no need for guns,

Bombs,

Armies,

And police.

Lama Yeshe,

My own precious teacher,

Used to say,

An apple a day keeps the doctor away,

A good heart a day keeps the enemy away.

Imagine if instead of putting all its efforts into military development,

A country were to put all its effort into the development of the mind of the good heart.

You might think that the country could be in danger from foreign powers,

But truly,

If the entire energy of everyone in a country were put into developing the good heart,

There would be no danger from foreign powers.

The power of the good heart is that great.

No matter how well developed a military power is,

A country can never be certain of defeating all its enemies all the time.

It does not follow logically that having vast amounts of military personnel and equipment means that a country will attain even temporal success,

Temporal happiness.

It is only when the entire emphasis of a country is on development of the mind and the good heart,

With everyone accepting responsibility for their own heart and their own actions,

That success comes.

When that emphasis is lost,

Innumerable problems follow.

Take,

For example,

The Chinese in Tibet.

I've not been to China,

However,

I have been twice to Tibet.

Whenever you go to Tibet,

Or wherever you go in Tibet,

It seems that the Chinese have put all their effort into military development.

It reminds me of the way a dedicated meditator puts every single effort into striving to gain realizations of enlightenment.

They eat,

Drink,

And dress in order to train in the Dharma.

They do everything to develop their mind to achieve enlightenment for the sake of living beings.

Similarly,

Everywhere you go in Tibet,

Apart from some luxury hotels built for tourists,

There is total concentration on developing military power.

Everything is focused on this.

The essence of Tibet,

Its mountains,

Its beauty,

Has been destroyed in order to develop military power.

The main aim of having this power is to take over others,

But in some ways,

The happiness of even the Chinese people has been sacrificed.

The lives of the Chinese in Tibet are completely concentrated on defeating others,

And the services that would bring them comfort and happiness have been neglected.

When I visited eastern Tibet years ago,

I stayed near the monastery of Kumbum in Amdo,

Where Lama Tsongkhapa was born.

During my entire stay,

I did not see any happiness at all in the people of that city.

All the Chinese I met were unhappy.

While traveling there,

I looked at people,

And I reached the conclusion that there was not even one happy Chinese person to be found there.

The Benefits of Mahayana Thought Transformation When you are completely determined to practice Mahayana thought transformation,

To use suffering and happiness in the Mahayana path,

You cherish others and are able to completely sacrifice yourself.

You are able to experience the suffering of all beings by yourself alone.

This is when real happiness starts.

When you live your life opposing the self-cherishing thought,

You are happy all the time,

No matter what happens,

No matter how the conditions of your life change.

You are always able to be happy.

Training in Mahayana thought transformation makes your mind very flexible and light,

And you develop a big heart.

You are not easily disturbed.

Other people feel comfortable in your company.

There is happiness and courage in your heart.

In every moment,

Day and night,

Wherever you go,

Your mind is fully confident,

And you live in constant happiness.

There are no obstacles to your Dharma practice,

And all the conditions that once appeared miserable now appear auspicious.

Everything appears as a good sign,

As fortunate,

And your mind is always content,

Happy,

And peaceful.

In these difficult and dangerous times,

There is no better armor,

No better protection,

Than the practice of thought transformation.

By doing these practices and not allowing yourself to be irritated by problems,

You are suddenly released from all your problems,

Like an army dropping its weapons.

You can even recover unexpectedly from serious illnesses.

When you practice Mahayana thought transformation,

No living being,

No circumstance or event can harm you,

Not even death.

Even when you are dying,

You are able to apply thought transformation and to practice giving and receiving.

A person who is able to die with the thought of cherishing others is a compassionate person,

A self-supporting person.

If you die practicing taking and giving with the thought of bodhicitta in your heart,

You cannot have a lower rebirth.

It is impossible.

Without any difficulty,

And with complete joy in your heart,

You will naturally be able to experience death for the benefit of all living beings.

Practicing in this way,

You give yourself freedom all the time.

This is what is meant by the meditative state of the bodhisattvas,

Known as all dharmas being pervaded by bliss.

The Heart Advice The wise person,

Seeing that all happiness and suffering depend upon the mind,

Seeks happiness from the mind,

Not from anything external.

The mind possesses all the causes of happiness,

Just as it possesses all the causes of suffering.

You can see this in the practice of thought transformation,

Particularly when you use your sufferings in the path to enlightenment.

If you do not think of the benefits of problems,

Of mixing problems with Mahayana thought transformation,

And using them on the path to enlightenment for the benefit of all beings,

But think only of the shortcomings of problems,

You label difficulties as problems,

And thus they appear to you as problems,

Is totally undesirable.

In this way,

Your mind creates your problems.

The cause of problems is your own mind.

All problems come from your own mind.

When you stop the thought of disliking problems,

And establish the thought of liking them,

Your problems appear as beneficial,

Wonderful things.

Any happiness you feel comes from your own mind.

Every pleasure you experience,

From the pleasantness of a cool breeze on a hot day,

All the way to the ultimate happiness of enlightenment,

All this comes from your own mind.

It is all manufactured by your own inner factory.

All causes are there within your own mind.

Since the thoughts within your mind are the causes of your happiness,

Seek happiness from your own mind.

This is the most essential point of all the Buddha's teachings.

Practicing thought transformation is the clearest,

Most skillful way to seek happiness from your own mind.

Your happiness does not depend on anything external.

Even when someone is angry with you,

Or acting maliciously toward you,

By looking at them with compassion and loving kindness from your heart,

You can feel very warmly toward them,

Seeing them in the aspect of beauty.

Using thought transformation,

You can see that person as unbelievably precious and kind,

As the most precious person in your life.

Among all living beings,

This angry,

Malicious person before you is the most precious,

The most kind.

No matter what harm someone does to you with their body,

Speech,

Or mind,

Intentionally or unintentionally,

By using thought transformation,

You see what they're doing as only beneficial for developing your mind,

And this makes you very happy.

You can see very clearly that this happiness comes from your own mind.

It does not depend on how others behave toward you,

Or what they think of you.

What you think is a problem comes from your own mind.

What you think is joyful comes from your own mind.

Your happiness does not depend on anything external.

The foolish person seeks happiness outside,

Running around and keeping busy with that expectation.

If you seek happiness outside yourself,

You have no freedom.

You always have problems,

And you are never completely satisfied.

You are unable to truly accomplish anything,

Unable to see reality clearly,

And unable to judge correctly.

If you seek outside yourself,

There are always dangers,

Always enemies,

Always thieves.

If you seek happiness from outside yourself,

It is impossible to have complete satisfaction,

Complete success.

By seeking happiness outside yourself,

You will only become exhausted with suffering,

Which is without satisfaction and without end.

Within the many hundreds of different teachings on how to practice the Dharma,

This is the heart advice.

You may have heard nothing new in this teaching.

However,

If you put this advice into practice,

You will see definite and immediate benefits.

If you do not try to practice this advice,

Even though you may have a library of Dharma teachings in your mind,

Your problems will continue and will continue to cause you suffering.

Mahayana thought transformation is the most powerful way to transform the problems of life into happiness.

Try to put this teaching into practice as much as possible.

This is the main thing.

Hey,

That is the end of the text.

And a big ending,

A huge ending.

Rinpoche really talks about some key points that I just want to draw our minds back to.

And the first one is maybe a new concept,

But it's about the self-cherishing journey.

The self-cherishing thought is its own practice,

Recognizing it and recognizing it as the root of all problems.

And one way that we can really explore this in our own lives is by asking how often we're thinking about ourselves or how often we're acting only for our own benefit,

And then stopping that,

Literally cutting that off at the root.

For instance,

When we're thinking about ourselves,

We're thinking about how often we're thinking about ourselves.

Literally cutting that off at the root.

For instance,

In my own practice,

In my morning sit,

It depends on how busy my mind is.

My morning practice is pretty involved,

But there's often times where if my mind is very busy,

I find myself thinking about myself.

This is not a problem.

It's not like I need to stop thinking about myself.

The problem would be not recognizing what's happening.

And so I recognize it.

I see that I'm having the self-cherishing thought,

And then I practice again and again dropping the self-cherishing thought and coming back to the thought of benefiting others.

And this is one way that we develop the concept that we discussed earlier before the reading,

Bodhicitta.

We have to come back to it again and again and again.

It's not just that we hear something once and then we get it and it transforms our lives.

We have to practice it.

In many different ways so that we begin to have direct experience.

Well,

What is the direct experience we're looking to have?

We're looking to have a direct experience with how self-cherishing and selfishness cause us problems and how benefiting others brings us joy.

And one way that we take this practice into our lives is through what was referred to in the text as tonglen or giving and taking.

And this concept deals with learning how to give and take as a method to develop compassion.

And it's really the core of today's homework.

And I'm going to guide us in a short practice in just a moment with this.

So a few other key points.

Rinpoche reiterates the importance of consistent and dedicated mind training.

He just goes over this again and again.

It's great.

You hear it.

You read a lot of Dharma books.

You listen to a lot of Dharma talks.

But that's never going to change you.

The change happens from actually engaged action,

From bringing those thoughts and ideas into your life.

And so Rinpoche reiterates this again and again.

And then he discusses now the idea of dedicating anything that happens to us for the benefit of others.

So dedicating illness to the benefit of others or dedicating any benefits we receive for the benefit of others.

This can be an intimidating thought.

Like if I get sick,

I'm going to say that this is for the benefit of others.

Or that I may even ask to have suffering so that I can alleviate the pain of others.

That can feel intimidating.

So I just want to assuage any fears here.

Because I think that intimidation can create some resistance to deepening your practice of Dharma.

That's not the first step.

You have to deal with you first.

And so I've said this already in this session.

And I'm saying it again.

You have to deal with you first.

And that's really the most important thing to do.

And once you deal with you,

Then you start to deal with others.

And that's why if you go back to session one and I talk about the three vehicles.

The Hinayana,

The Mahayana and the Vajrayana.

And they're successively expanding our capacity to work with the teachings of the Buddha.

So the Hinayana is all about saving ourselves.

And the Mahayana is all about benefiting others.

And the Vajrayana is about merging emptiness and wisdom and merit.

So as I've mentioned,

Tonglen is the food for today's practice.

I know we're getting deeper into time.

We're going to go just a little bit over.

I want to guide you in a Tonglen practice.

And then I want to invite you to use Tonglen in an engaged way.

For the time between sessions.

So now we have a pretty big gap between our now and our next session.

And so I'm going to invite you to use Tonglen in an engaged way.

Not as a seated practice,

But rather as a practice that you can do anytime and anywhere.

So just a little background Tonglen,

As I said,

Means giving and taking.

And it's a breath practice.

And in this practice,

We visualize taking in the suffering of others on our inhale.

And then sending out love and happiness on our exhale.

So it's a practice that helps us cultivate this idea of compassion in our hearts.

And it allows us to reduce this self-cherishing thought,

Which we talked about.

And in that way,

It really transforms our mind.

By developing a healthy amount of empathy and altruism.

It can be practiced in formal meditation.

Or integrated into daily life situations.

And we're going to do both here.

We're going to have a formal practice.

And then after the formal practice,

I'm going to invite you to bring it to your life in an engaged way.

So I want to give a caveat.

I want to just make sure that you know that this practice can feel intimidating at first.

Perhaps you label yourself as an empath.

And maybe because of this,

You worry that taking in the suffering of others is going to harm you in some way.

Here I'm going to bring us back to the idea of emptiness.

When we really understand emptiness,

We can see that we're free to take.

And that nothing is our enemy.

And so today,

Maybe you do or you don't have a deep understanding of emptiness.

We're just playing.

We're just practicing.

If at any point you find that this practice brings you harm,

Causes you any distress,

Drop it.

Drop it.

Get up.

Move around.

Just take your attention to your breath in general.

The other instruction I want to give before we begin is that you can use yourself as the giver and the receiver.

This is a way that if you are in a place in your life where you're feeling suffering,

It's not quite time to take in the suffering of others.

You have your own that needs to be dealed with and cleaned up.

So you can just imagine here that you are maybe a loving friend or family member of yourself.

And that you're practicing taking your suffering away and replacing it with joy and happiness.

So I won't particularly guide that instruction.

You'll have to make that change on your own.

But I do want to give you the freedom to do that.

So if that's something that you need,

Remember you are a part of all sentient beings.

Okay.

Let's practice.

You can find a meditative posture,

One that works for you.

Be as comfortable as possible with your spine straight.

Let your body relax,

But not just your body,

Also your mind,

Your defensiveness.

So when I say rest,

I don't mean fall asleep or get in a comfy bed.

I mean drop your defensive nature and just simply allow everything to be okay.

And then settle in here,

Focusing on your breath,

Perhaps taking a few deep breaths,

Extending the exhalation,

And coming into the practice fully.

And bring your attention now to the space around your heart.

And try to connect to a feeling of kindness and love if this is possible for you.

Perhaps thinking of someone that you know who is suffering.

And just feeling what it's like to wish for them to be free from this pain.

Remember this person can also be you.

Try to visualize their or your pain and difficulties as dark,

Heavy smoke.

As you inhale,

You can imagine breathing in this smoke,

Taking in their suffering with this compassionate heart.

And then visualize this smoke dissolving into your heart and transforming into light,

Love,

And compassion.

And as you exhale,

Send out this light,

This love to the person or yourself as you wish them peace,

Happiness,

And relief.

And so this is a visualization,

But you may not see it like you see with the eyes.

You may feel it.

You may even think it in words.

Every way that you experience it is okay.

You're simply bringing yourself or another person to mind.

And as you inhale,

Imagining that you're breathing in their suffering like smoke.

And as you inhale,

Imagining that you're breathing in their suffering like smoke.

Transforming it in your heart into love and light.

And in whatever way it feels right to you,

Sending it back out to them to relieve their or your suffering.

And just spend a few moments in silence doing this.

If you lose your thought,

Just come back to it when you notice you were last.

If it feels overwhelming,

Remember you can stop anytime.

And perhaps there's another way that the visualization makes sense to you,

And this is also okay.

Just inhaling and taking in the suffering of yourself or someone you love,

Transforming it into light and relief from suffering and sending it back out.

And then let go of the visualization.

Just drop it here.

Noticing any thoughts,

Emotions,

Or sensations that have arisen as a result of the practice.

Nothing is off limits.

Everything is allowed.

And take a few deep breaths.

If your eyes were closed,

Letting them open and coming back into our shared space.

Okay,

This was just a taste,

Just a little taste.

In Tonglen practice,

We start maybe with someone we love or ourselves,

And then we gradually begin to expand our capacity to take in the suffering of others from people we only know casually,

Or perhaps enemies,

And then to all sentient beings.

You can practice this formally,

As we've just done,

And again,

Make it your own.

You can practice this formally,

As we've just done,

And again,

Making sure that if you're feeling any adverse effects,

That you are pausing your practice.

I think often in the meditation and mindfulness space,

It's not touched on enough how important it is to be able to drop the practice,

Refreshing again and again.

So that's something that my teachers have taught and that they also do.

You drop the practice every two minutes,

Every five minutes,

And then you come back to it,

You shake it out,

And you refresh it.

Because we don't want it to get stale.

This isn't just like rote compassion.

We're really trying to experience it and feel it.

And so it's important to be able to,

As soon as it gets stale or the experience becomes really negative for us,

Or the mind starts wandering,

To feel free to let it go.

We don't want to freeze in a space.

We want to find more looseness and openness,

And that's really what we're looking for.

And this is the homework for this next space between sessions.

I'm inviting you to bring tonglen into your daily life,

Focusing on real-life situations where you encounter suffering.

And honestly,

You don't even need to have encountered suffering to practice this.

So at any point throughout the day when you see anyone,

Whether it's someone you know or don't know,

If you feel like they could use some relief from suffering without changing anything,

Maybe it's the woman grocery store checker at the grocery store line,

And she seems particularly tired or something to you,

Or stressed,

Or maybe it's a homeless person on the side of the road that you see.

You just simply,

Exactly as you are,

Take a few breaths,

Taking in their suffering,

Transforming it into the relief that they need,

And sending it back out.

It doesn't have to be a formal practice.

You can do it once a day.

You can do it many times a day,

Over and over and over again.

And that is what I am inviting you to do.

And then I'm inviting you to just simply observe and acknowledge how that affects you in the rest of your life.

So it's really important to observe.

It's not just practice and then walk away.

It's practice and see how it is affecting you,

And how it's transforming you,

And then remembering that.

You know,

In the idea of mindfulness,

I think something that's often missed is the remembering part.

It's not just presence,

But it's a present remembering.

I'm mindfully remembering that I'm using this practice in my life.

By staying mindful,

You can remember to use this practice throughout the day.

Again,

Don't go all in in a hard way if you are dealing with some suffering in your own life.

Stay with yourself for a while and practice with yourself.

Anytime a pain comes up during the day,

Practice with yourself.

Anytime a suffering event,

A conflict with someone you love comes up,

Practice with yourself.

There's no rush in our practice.

We have to stay where we are until we're somewhere else.

That happens magically.

That's not something that we can force.

And in fact,

Forcing it likely brings us backwards instead of forwards.

Okay.

So that is the session for today.

I want to close with a short dedication because as we've been learning,

We want to dedicate our practice for the benefit of others,

And I think we can do that here.

So let's just take a moment to settle.

Maybe acknowledging all of the many things we covered today and how they may benefit your life.

Just simply listening to my words.

May the benefits of this practice be dedicated to the happiness and well-being of all sentient beings.

May our efforts contribute to the reduction of suffering and the cultivation of wisdom and compassion in the world.

May all beings find peace,

Joy,

And enlightenment.

Thank you for joining this session.

I'm Sarah Sati,

And this is Book Club.

Just remember there's no pressure here.

We're just simply practicing and learning and growing together.

So until next time,

I will see you soon.

Reviews

Your book club sessions are so helpful. I know they are a lot of work for you, but know they are a life line to me in my work. Thank you so very much