Take a few moments to make sure your mind is really settled down in the present,
The here and now.
Put aside any other thoughts that aren't related to what we are doing here.
You can always pick them up again later,
But really decide to keep your mind focused.
Also make sure your motivation is that of bodhicitta,
Altruism,
Really caring about others,
All living beings without exception.
As we've been meditating the last few weeks,
All living beings are equal in wanting happiness and wanting to not suffer.
Everyone is exactly the same in that way.
And so it doesn't make sense to discriminate among other beings and wish happiness for some,
But wish others to not have happiness,
Or even worse,
Wishing them to suffer.
So any such thoughts that may be in our mind are there because of past experiences,
Past conditioning,
But we can change those thoughts.
We don't have to continue feeding them,
Perpetuating them.
Let go of any such thoughts and really open your hearts to all other people,
All other beings.
The Buddha himself sees all beings as equally deserving of his love,
Compassion,
And his total dedication.
It's like a mother dedicating herself to her children,
Totally taking care of them.
The Buddha is like that towards every living being.
So since the Buddha cares equally for all living beings,
It's important for us to try to have that attitude as well,
And then make that your reason,
Your motivation for being here.
So we did meditation on the first point of the method of equalizing and exchanging self and others.
This is one of the main methods for developing bodhicitta.
So the first point is equalizing self with others,
Which involves contemplating how we're all equal,
All living beings are equal,
And wanting happiness and not wanting to suffer.
So we went through quite a few different points related to that to really try to see that that is the most appropriate,
Most reasonable,
Most positive way of thinking.
So we really need to work on that.
We'll meditate on the next point in this process for developing bodhicitta,
Which is looking at the disadvantages or faults of self-centeredness.
This state of mind is often called self-cherishing,
But that term can be somewhat misleading.
So self-centeredness probably sounds more appropriate as a better term for this state of mind.
There's actually different levels of self-centeredness,
Coarse and subtle.
So the coarse form of this is thinking of oneself as the center of the universe,
Thinking,
I am the center of everything,
Everything revolves around me,
I am more important than anybody else,
That kind of attitude.
And this attitude also mainly is concerned with just being happy,
Getting what we want in this very lifetime,
Doesn't think beyond this life.
So this state of mind,
This coarse level of self-centeredness often leads us to act unethically and even harmfully,
Doing harmful things to others.
And so this coarse level of self-centeredness is the main one we need to start working on.
And it's the cause of suffering,
But we don't always recognize that.
So we need to realize that it is a cause of suffering,
Not happiness,
So that we can overcome it.
And later I'll explain other levels of self-centeredness that are more subtle,
But we'll focus on this coarse one for now.
So start by thinking about some of the misfortunes that are happening in our world today.
So there's the war in Ukraine,
Which is extremely tragic,
Creating a huge amount of suffering and problems,
Not just for the people in that part of the world,
But people all over the world.
It's leading to shortages of food and other resources.
And there's other wars and conflicts as well going on.
And the climate crisis,
Which many people are very worried about.
Some people are not,
Unfortunately.
And then there's also crime,
Violent crime,
And corruption,
And injustice,
And so on.
So every day there's lots of really tragic things happening in the world.
And these are the result of human behavior driven by afflictive states of mind,
Such as greed,
Arrogance,
Hatred,
Ignorance,
And self-centeredness.
So just contemplate.
You can just take one problem,
If you want,
And just try to recognize how self-centeredness,
The self-centered attitude,
Is one of the main factors that leads to this problem and all the suffering arising from it.
Bring to mind some experience from your own life.
You just focus on one or you could think of a few in which you acted selfishly,
Which the self-centered attitude came up strongly in your own mind and motivated you to act in ways that were possibly unethical,
Even harmful to others.
So bring to mind one or more such incidents and investigate.
Did those experiences bring happiness,
Bring benefit to you or to anybody else?
And looking back from now on those experiences,
How do you feel?
Do you feel good about the way you behaved or do you feel that you acted unwisely,
Unskillfully?
And we can also recognize the problems caused by self-centeredness by thinking in terms of karma.
So when bad things happen to us in our life,
Our usual tendency is to point the finger at somebody else,
Other people or the government,
Things outside of ourselves.
And it may be the case that some of those people are acting in a negative way,
But Buddhism says the main cause for the problems,
The bad things that happen to us is our own karma from the past,
Usually past lives,
Which we mostly can't remember,
But we can guess what kind of things we did in past lives based on what kind of experiences we're having now.
So just some examples of that.
When we have sickness or other kinds of health problems,
These are the result of having killed and harmed others in past lives.
If we have financial problems and lack of success in the things we try to do,
These are the result of stealing,
Depriving others of their resources,
And also the attitude of miserliness,
Not wanting to give,
To share what we have.
If we have fears and phobias,
These are the result of having harmful intent,
Malicious thoughts,
Thoughts of wanting to harm others.
So these are just a few examples of karma having created those kinds of actions in a previous life.
Then in a later life,
Like this life,
We have these unpleasant results.
And try to recognize that it's the self-centered attitude,
The selfish attitude that lies behind those negative actions like killing,
Stealing,
Being miserly,
Having harmful intent,
Lying,
Gossip,
And so on.
So self-cherishing,
Self-centeredness is what comes up in our mind and then motivates us to do those actions together with afflictive states of mind.
And then in a later life,
Even later in that life,
We experience suffering and problems as a result.
So as a conclusion to this contemplation,
If you're able to recognize that the self-centered attitude is the cause of suffering and problems for yourself,
But also for others,
And it stands in the way of our spiritual development,
Developing the positive qualities that we wish to develop and need to develop in order to follow the path,
Then make the determination to do the best you can to not let your mind follow this kind of attitude.
It isn't something fixed and permanent that will always be there in our mind.
It is something we can decrease and eventually overcome,
But we do need to make effort to do so.
And that effort,
That energy comes from recognizing that this is bad for us.
This state of mind is not good for us.
It's actually bad for us.
It's counterproductive.
And see if you can make that resolution.
