09. Week 1 - Teaching 7
2025.07.29
You will have to depart leaving everything behind, so do not be attached to anything.
VGKG did not give commentary to this advice. From chapter on the Path of a Person of Middling Scope in Modern Buddhism:
When our consciousness departs from our body at death, all the potentialities we have accumulated in our mind by performing virtuous and non-virtuous actions will go with it. Other than these we cannot take anything out of this world. All other things deceive us. Death ends all our activities – our conversation, our eating, our meeting with friends, our sleep. Everything draws to a close on the day of our death and we must leave all things behind, even the rings on our fingers. In Tibet beggars carry a stick to defend themselves against dogs. To understand the complete deprivation of death we should remember that at the time of death beggars have to leave even this old stick, the most meagre of human possessions. All over the world we can see that names carved on stone are the only possessions of the dead.
We only take our very subtle mind and our karmic potentialities of our virtuous and non-virtuous actions. If we want to take a fortunate rebirth in our next life so we can continue with our spiritual practices, we definitely need to be able to keep a peaceful mind at the time of death to stimulate a virtuous seed to ripen at the time of death. Therefore we need refuge in our mind. Not attachment to the things of this life.
Generate compassion for lowly beings, and especially avoid despising or humiliating them.
Remember for Kadampas our main practice is compassion and wisdom. What is compassion? It is a virtuous mind that wishes others to be free from suffering. According to Sutra teachings, our compassion is our Buddha nature or seed. Because every living being has this seed of compassion, eventually all living beings will become Buddhas. For us as fortunate modern Kadampas, we have the opportunity in this life to develop our compassion and awaken our Buddha nature. How do we do that? Through sincerely relying on our SG and putting his Lamrim instructions into practice, both in the meditation session and outside of meditation. We will definitely extend and deepen our compassion until finally it transforms into Universal Compassion, which is the sincere heartfelt wish to permanently liberate all living beings from suffering. Then eventually it will transform into the compassion of a Buddha which has the actual power to liberate all living beings. When we become a Buddha we become an object of refuge and a source of happiness for all living beings.
Compassion is the root of the 3 Jewels - Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. It is the root of Buddha because all Buddhas are born of compassion. It is the root of Dharma because Buddhas teach Dharma out of compassion. It is the root of Sangha because it is by listening to and practising Dharma teachings given out of compassion that we will become superior beings and become and actual Sangha Jewel.
Compassion is the very essence of our Kadampa spiritual life.
1994:
Geshe-la’s commentary to Guide to the Middle Way is Ocean of Nectar.
The 2nd instruction is mentioned in Lamrim instructions by Atisha. And the 3rd explanation of training in compassion for all living beings for practitioners who are less able is given in this advice from Atisha’s heart. So we can choose any of these 3 possibilities according to our own ability.
Guide to the Middle Way explains how to train in compassion for all living beings in the following way:
The practitioner first tries to understand that their I or self is impermanent. Or we can say that our I is absent of a permanent I. That there is an emptiness of a permanent I. In reality this is the ultimate view of the Vaibashika. Buddha taught this for his Vaibashika followers. It is a very powerful view and it is very suitable for us. It is very suitable for the beginner. Through this the practitioner tries to understand clearly how their I or self is impermanent, changing moment by moment. The I itself is momentary, not remaining in the 2nd moment.
This is Buddha’s teaching on subtle impermanence. Geshe-la says that when we realise subtle impermanence it’s almost the same as realising emptiness.
Through understanding and contemplating this view the Lamrim practitioner thinks: “I may die right now.” When this thought develops and is maintained day and night he immediately realises that if he dies right now, in the next moment he will have to take cyclic rebirth again. Then he will think, “I will therefore have to experience new sufferings, problems, and fears”. The practitioner will find this very difficult to accept, and will feel very uncomfortable.
We should feel uncomfortable about remaining in an endless cycle of suffering, death, and uncontrolled rebirth. That will move us to attain liberation.
In OIOM, Geshe-la says usually there is no reason to develop fear. But the fear we are developing now - this fear is extremely meaningful. This fear is an essential cause of the pure practice of refuge. This fear and faith in the 3 Jewels are the actual causes of refuge. This is wisdom fear.
Something so special is happening in our mental continuum when we generate this wish, even for a moment. The only things stopping us know are our distractions and our forgetfulness. We have the instructions. We can pray to remember Dharma. Try to develop these kinds of thoughts more and more every day.
“How wonderful it would be if all living beings were free from cyclic rebirth.”
As you know in Lamrim teachings the way of presenting how to develop compassion is different. First the practitioner tries to understand or develop the special recognition that all sentient beings have been their mother, and then develop affectionate love for them. Then by contemplating and meditating how these living beings are experiencing suffering, they develop compassion equally for all living beings. Chandrakirti’s explanation is a little bit technical, but it is powerful. The 2nd instruction according to Lamrim is more simple but also powerful.
The 3rd instruction explained here, the instruction for practitioners of lower faculties, is very simple. Atisha says, “Generate compassion for lowly beings.” How do we develop compassion equally for all living beings through this instruction? First we should train in compassion for all lowly beings. This means beings who are experiencing very poor conditions. Contemplate how they are poor, how they experience difficult things. Then gradually our capacity will improve, and we can shift our compassion towards higher beings - people who are experiencing good conditions, samsaric higher beings such as gods and humans, who are experiencing good conditions. Although right now they are experiencing good conditions, in reality they are experiencing many different kinds of suffering, from attachment, anger, and ignorance. Finally the practitioner will develop compassion for all living beings without exception. Here, Atisha is leading us gradually step by step to attain this compassion. First, we generate compassion for a small group who are experiencing poor conditions. Then gradually we extend our compassion until it becomes larger and larger. Finally all sentient beings become the object of our compassion. And the practitioner develops compassion for all living beings without exception. This is the most simple process for the beginner. It is a very good method.
Reading from the chapter on Compassion in HTTYL:
To begin with, we can think about those who are suffering intense manifest pain right now. There are so many people experiencing terrible mental and physical suffering from illnesses such as cancer, AIDS and Parkinson’s disease. How many people have lost a beloved child or friend through the scourge of cancer, watching him become weaker and weaker, knowing that it is difficult to cure? Every day, thousands of people experience the agony of dying from illnesses or in accidents. Without choice they are separated forever from everyone they love, and those they leave behind often experience inconsolable grief and loneliness. Imagine an old woman losing her husband and lifelong partner, sadly returning home after the funeral to an empty house to live out the rest of her days alone.
Throughout the world we can see how millions of people are suffering through the horrors of war and ethnic cleansing, from bombing, landmines and massacres. Suppose it was your child who went out to play in the fields and lost a limb, or even his very life, by stepping on a landmine?
Others’ wish to be free from suffering is no different from our wish for ourselves to be free from suffering. There is no difference. We can try to empathise with them, and feel their pain as keenly as it was our own. “What if that were me? What if that were my own family?” Then our mind moves, so we can start to develop a wish for them to be free from their suffering as if we were wishing it for ourself.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees throughout the world live in squalid camps, hoping someday to return to their ruined homes, many of them waiting to be reunited with their loved ones, every day not knowing if they are alive or dead.
Every year natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and hurricanes devastate whole communities and leave people homeless and hungry. A few short seconds of an earthquake can kill thousands of people, destroy their homes and bury everything under tons of rubble. Think how we would feel if this were to happen to us. Famine and drought are endemic in many countries throughout the world. So many people live on a subsistence diet, barely scraping together one meagre meal a day, while others who are less fortunate succumb and die of starvation. Imagine the torment of watching your loved ones slowly waste away, knowing that there is nothing you can do. Whenever we read, listen to or watch the news, we see living beings who are in terrible pain, and we all personally know people who are experiencing immense mental or physical suffering.
We can contemplate like this, and generate compassion for people experiencing poor conditions and horrible sufferings right now, and then gradually extend that compassion to finally include all living beings. Because while we remain in samsara it’s just a matter of time before we experience these horrible sufferings.
“I must liberate all living beings permanently from the cycle of suffering.”
At this point we have received the commentary to the first half of Atisha’s Advice. And in the 2nd week we have the opportunity to receive the commentary to the second half, with Gen-la Dekyong. How wonderful. Starting tomorrow we have the great opportunity to engage in meditation retreat. Some of VGKG’s advice on engaging in retreat on Atisha’s Advice. It’s very simple - we should use the Preliminary Prayers for Meditation. And then we should engage in the meditation after receiving blessings. We should first contemplate Atisha’s Advice, and then contemplate VGKG’s commentary to that advice. Then through that contemplation we come to a conclusion which is the final object of meditation. We then hold it with mindfulness and remain on it in single-pointed concentration for as long as possible. And become more and more familiar with it.