A Gift of Dharma for 2.19.10
Today’s quote comes from His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991), whom I previously quoted and wrote a short biography for in the very first “A Gift of Dharma” post. This is it–from his book Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven-Point Mind Training, pg. 19-20:
Bodhichitta is the unfailing method for attaining enlightenment. It has two aspects, relative and absolute. Relative Bodhichitta is practised using ordinary mental processes and is comparatively easy to develop. Nevertheless, the benefits that flow from it are immeasurable, for a mind in which the precious Bodhichitta has been born will never again fall into the lower realms of samsara. Finally, all the qualities of the Mahayana Path, as teeming and vast as the ocean, are distilled and essentialized in Bodhichitta, the mind of enlightenment.
We must prepare ourselves for this practice by following the instructions in the sadhana of Chenrezig, ‘Take refuge in the Three Jewels and meditate on Bodhichitta. Consider that all your virtuous acts of body, speech and mind are for the whole multitude of beings, numerous as the sky is vast.’
It is said in the teachings that, ‘Since beings are countless, the benefit of wishing them well is unlimited.’ And how many beings there are! Just imagine, in this very lawn there might be millions and millions of them! If we wish to establish them all in the enlightened state of Buddhahood, it is said that the benefit of such an aspiration is as vast as the number of beings is great. Therefore we should not restrict our Bodhichitta to a limited number of beings. Wherever there is space, beings exist, and all of them live in suffering. Why make distinctions between them, welcoming some as loving friends and excluding others as hostile enemies?
Throughout the stream of our lives, from time without beginning until the present, we have all been wandering in samsara, accumulating evil. When we die, where else is there for us to go to but the lower realms? But if the wish and thought occur to us that we must bring all beings to the enlightened state of Buddhahood, we have generated what is known as Bodhichitta in intention. We should then pray to the teacher and the yidam deities that the practice of the precious Bodhichitta might take root in our hearts. We should recite the seven branch prayer from the Prayer of Perfect Action, and, sitting upright, count our breaths twenty-one times without getting mixed up or missing any, and without being distracted by anything. If we are able to count our breaths concentratedly for a whole mala, discursive thoughts will diminish and the practice of relative Bodhichitta will be much easier. This is how to become a suitable vessel for meditation.
