Commentary 1

Generally self means person. Self, person, and being mean the same thing. In this context self means ourself - the practitioner. When we generate ourself as the deity and our world as the pure land, we are practising self-generation. How can we do such things? I will now explain this.

Self-generation is the quick method to attain enlightenment quickly - it’s Buddha’s special method. It is the uncommon path that is not shared with other traditions. It is the quick method to transform ourself into an enlightened being which only humans in this impure world have the opportunity to practice. There are 2 main conditions:

1. Humans in this impure world find it easy to develop renunciation and compassion because we see and experience suffering. Generally developing renunciation and compassion is easier for humans than it is for beings in other realms such as god realm beings who don’t have gross suffering - they don’t have anger, no attachment problems, no jealousy problems.
2. The other point is that they have the necessary conditions to accomplish completion stage meditation. For this reason manifestations of Buddha are everywhere.

From 1 point of view too much problems and suffering. From another point of view…

We can accomplish the supreme happiness of enlightenment in a few years or 1 short human life, even with Je Tsongkhapa’s method it can be done in 3 years, but previously it took aeons and aeons.

The enlightened beings improved the scientific methods to attain enlightenment to become quicker and quicker. Therefore training in self-generation is the quick method to transform ourself into an enlightened being - this is a scientific method, or spiritual technology. For the effectiveness of this training we need to understand that the person we normally see does not exist. If our self we normally exist actually existed (which is an inherently existent self) it would be impossible to generate ourself as an enlightened being, because inherently existent things cannot be changed by other conditions. Believing our self that normally exists is the main obstacle to generating ourself of Buddha Maitreya. But when we clearly understand that our self that we normally see does not exist, it is very easy to generate ourself as Maitreya or any other enlightened deity. Therefore we should first know clearly that our self that we normally see does not exist. How can we know this? Actually I taught this many times. But you need to listen to this many times. For example we need every day breakfast. We don’t say, today I don’t need because yesterday I already took. We need to listen to these teachings every day if possible, because it is like our food. Because if we don’t it becomes unmanifest. We easily forget. It looks empty - inside our mind is empty, so to fill we need to listen to these teachings again and again, contemplating and meditating again and again, until we realise emptiness directly. Remember Atisha’s advice:

Until you realise ultimate truth directly, listening is indispensable, therefore listen to the instructions of the Spiritual Guide.

So I will repeat - the things we normally see do not exist. We point at our body and say “this is me”. This is wrong. Our body cannot be our self because it is our body, indicating it is our possession, not our self. Also, our mind cannot be our self, because it is our possession, not possessor. However there is no our self other than our body and mind. Through searching in this way with wisdom we will see that the self we normally see does not exist. Then mediate on this emptiness single-pointedly for as long as possible. We should meditate on this every day.

We should apply this to all other phenomena. We normally point to any part of our body and say “my body”. For example, pointing to our chest and saying “my body”. This is wrong. The parts of the body cannot be the body itself because they are the parts. However there is no body other than its parts. If we search for our body in this way, our body will disappear. This shows that the body we normally see does not exist. We can apply this to all other phenomena. Through searching for all phenomena with wisdom we will realise that all phenomena we normally see or perceive do not exist. We should practice this meditation continually. Having experience and deep familiarity with this meditation, we will make progress in self-generation.

Since our self that we normally see as an ordinary person does not exist, there is no problem generating ourself as an enlightened being, and our world as a pure land of an enlightened Buddha. No problem.