alt=""/>For this second part, reflect on the causes that are the origin of suffering. The painful states of samsara do not happen all by themselves, without causes and circumstances. Rather, they occur as the result of accumulated karmic actions. Karmic actions are the result of emotional intentions, and these emotions are of the six primary types, the nine fetters, and so on. There are various ways of classifying them, but all of them can be included in the three root poisons, which are rooted in the ignorance of failing to realize the natural state. That is the basic obscuration that causes sentient beings to cling to the aggregates, leading to the concept of self. Cherishing that sense of self as dear and important becomes the root, or the main cause, of samsaric existence. This ego-clinging gives rise to all of the wrong, unwholesome views. When there is grasping to one’s own body, mind, and so forth; to one’s enjoyments; and to sentient beings that are loved ones, it results in attachment or clinging. This gives rise to conceit, jealousy, and stinginess. When there is harm or insult towards oneself or one’s allies, it results in aggression and hatred. Outwardly, this gets expressed as hostility, fury, spite, and so forth. All of these emotions create unmeritorious karma, which results in the lower realms of samsara. Meritorious actions result in the higher realms. Non-transferring actions, which derive from conditioned meditative states, propel one to the form and formless realms. Due to these causes, the emotions that are the origin of samsara, oneself and all other sentient beings are constantly tossed about within the samsaric states. Therefore, think, “Now I must by all means abandon the emotions.” Thinking that, train in examining your own mind to see whether these emotional states that create samsara are present.
Reflecting on the causal relationship of liberation
When wishing to abandon samsara, one seeks liberation. This is the abandonment of the afflictive obscurations, by means of unconditioned insight and true realization of the natural state, which is free of ego-clinging. The cause of that is one-pointed samadhi, and the cause of that is the discipline of renunciation.
Therefore, think, “Now, in order to free myself from samsara, I will uphold discipline, train in samadhi, and generate true insight, thereby coming to realize the meaning of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and egolessness.”
These were the practices for the person of medium capacity, which are the preliminaries.
THE EXCELLENCE OF THE MIDDLE
This is the practice of the pure, noble intention that is connected to the Mahayana. It is the path of the superior type of person.
This has two aspects: Training in the entrance door, which is the intent, and expanding upon that.
Training in the Entrance Door, Which Is the Intent
Having understood the faults of samsara, one must abandon them and attain liberation, nirvana. Nirvana, the state that is to be attained, is of three types: the enlightenment of shravakas, the enlightenment of pratyekabuddhas, and perfect enlightenment. From among these three, we must attain the state of complete buddhahood, the most supreme enlightenment and liberation, wherein one perfects abandonment and realization for one’s own benefit and accomplishes unconditioned activity for the benefit of others. Thus, think again and again, “How can I attain this enlightenment?”
Expanding on That
This has two aspects: reflecting on the relationship between cause and effect and reflecting on the meaning.
Reflecting on the Relationship between Cause and Effect
Think, “I want to attain enlightenment, so I need its cause, which is bodhichitta, and the cause of bodhichitta, which is compassion. The cause of compassion is loving-kindness. The cause of that is acknowledging past kindnesses and wishing to repay the kindness of others. The cause of that is understanding that every single sentient being in samsara has been my own parents. All sentient beings permeating space have all been my parents. Every one of them has been kind to me. If only they could all be free of suffering and have happiness. In order to establish all of them in a state of happiness, I will attain enlightenment. Having attained enlightenment, I will also bring all sentient beings to buddhahood as well.” You must train in that intention.
Reflecting on the Meaning of That
This has three parts: training in loving-kindness, compassion, and bodhichitta.
TRAINING IN LOVING-KINDNESS
To begin with, imagine your own mother from this lifetime being right in front of you and think, “First, she produced this body I now have. Having undergone a lot of hardship and trouble for me, she gave me my cherished life and taught me all the ways of the world. In this way, she loved me more than she loved herself. She benefited me in immeasurable ways and protected me from immeasurable harms, which is a great kindness. How wonderful it would be if my mother were happy and truly at ease.
“Not just in this lifetime, but also in countless other lives, she has been my mother. Each time she has bestowed upon me exactly the same help and love. Whether as a parent, friend, lover, or companion, she has given me all kinds of help.” In this way, think of your own mother, who is so dear to you, until you develop and manifest a really acute feeling of loving-kindness, with wishes to help her and for her to be at ease.
Then, expand that loving-kindness to include other people. Begin with a small number of close family and friends, for whom you can easily feel loving-kindness. Then, slowly expand it even further to include people in our own area. Gradually, increase the scope more and more, until you feel the same loving-kindness for all beings in the three-thousandfold universe—the six classes of sentient beings, who are as limitless in number as the expanse of space—as you do for your own mother.
Then, engender again and again the following intention: “May all mother beings be happy and at ease. And may I be able to bring them happiness and ease in a perfect way.” It says in The Jewel Garland, The Ratnavali, that one obtains eight great benefits from training in loving-kindness. The following verse explains these in brief:
Providing three meals a day, every day, to three hundred merchants creates a fraction of the merit of one moment of loving-kindness.
TRAINING IN COMPASSION
All sentient beings, your kind old mothers, are all the same, wishing to have physical and mental happiness and well-being, yet experiencing nothing but misery and suffering. In the three lower realms and so on, they experience the resultant suffering. In the higher realms, they indulge in the causal suffering. Some of them create such severe negative karma that the moment their breath ceases and they die, they immediately take rebirth in hell. Thinking of this, train in intense compassion towards them.
Moreover, to begin with, you should train in relation to your mother in the present life, imagining she has taken rebirth in hell. Imagine that she is being consumed by blazing flames or frozen until totally petrified. Imagine her being chopped into pieces and tortured. Thus, arouse intense compassion. Then in the same way, train in compassion towards all the other beings in hell, who are none other than your own kind mothers.
Similarly, picturing your mother ravished by hunger and thirst and tormented by disease, train in compassion towards hungry ghosts. Imagining your mother rendered incapable—being beaten, enslaved, and forced to do all sorts of arduous labor—train in compassion towards animals. Imagine that she is blind, standing at the edge of an abyss. Since she doesn’t know where to turn, she falls with no
