Introduction

Introduction

In this module of Living in the Path, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the essence of lojong,^[1] a Tibetan term often translated as “thought transformation” or “mind training.” In particular, lojong refers to a large body of texts that teach how to transform our minds, as well as to specific practices to transform our minds, from a nonvirtuous or neutral state into a virtuous one, from selfishness into bodhichitta (the altruistic wish to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings), and from the ignorance grasping at true existence into the wisdom realizing the ultimate nature of the I and all phenomena. Just like we need to train our body in order to increase its strength, flexibility, and endurance, so to do we need to train our minds so that it becomes easier and easier and more and more automatic to generate positive states rather than negative ones.

As Rinpoche points out, all the teachings of the Buddha contained in the presentation of the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment, can be considered lojong teachings because all of them are methods to transform or train our minds. However, as Rinpoche also says, “there is a particular lojong found in the lamrim that utilizes obstacles and misfortunes in the path to enlightenment”; this is the particular type of lojong practice that Rinpoche explains here. As Rinpoche says:

Like transforming poison into medicine or transforming kaka into gold, by transforming obstacles, they become the utmost need in your life. 

This type of lojong practice entails training to see every seeming obstacle—the problems, sufferings, and difficulties that we experience—as something that we both want and need for our Dharma practice. By recognizing that without problems we will be distracted by pleasure and waste the rare opportunity we currently have to practice Dharma, we come to understand that problems give us the necessary “push” we need to train our minds in virtue.

But how is it possible to come to accept, like, and even embrace suffering? This, of course, requires a dramatic change in our current way of thinking, which is to thoroughly dislike and reject any problem or suffering, no matter how small it is. It also requires a total change in our usual habit of pointing outside ourselves and blaming other people and external situations for all our unhappiness. Instead, with lojong, we learn to point inside ourselves, in particular at our self-cherishing thought, or selfish mind, and the delusions that our selfishness gives rise to. Thus, the practice of lojong involves taking one hundred percent responsibility for every single suffering we experience and at the same time it gives us courage and inspiration to stop cultivating nonvirtue and instead cultivate virtuous thoughts and actions. In this way the practice of lojong brings us closer and closer to enlightenment.

Rinpoche gave this teaching while preparing to give the oral transmission, or lung, of Mind Training Like the Rays of the Sun by Namkha Pal. This text is a commentary to one of the two most common lojong texts, Seven Points of Thought Transformation, composed by Geshe Chekawa (1101–75), the other one being Eight Verses of Thought Transformation by Langri Thangpa (1054–1153). Seven Points of Thought Transformation is widely taught in all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and many commentaries to it were written by Tibetan masters of the past and have also been written by contemporary Tibetan and Western scholar-practitioners.

Rinpoche begins his teaching by quoting two very famous lines from Seven Points of Thought Transformation:

LE LÄN THAM CHÄ CHIG LA DA
   Put all the blame on one.
KÜN LA KA DRIN CHHE WAR GOM
   Meditate on everyone as kind.

These two lines that exhort us to blame all our problems on our self-cherishing thought and to cultivate an awareness of the kindness of all sentient beings encapsulate the lojong teachings. Rather than continuing to blame others for all our problems while cherishing ourselves as the most important among all sentient beings, an attitude that the Buddha said is responsible for all our past, present, and future suffering, we train in blaming our selfishness, and in this way distance ourselves from it, and in cultivating an attitude of seeing everyone else as kind and the source of all our past, present, and future happiness. The result of changing our minds in this way, as Rinpoche says, is peace, happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment.

Rinpoche concludes the teaching with a presentation of tonglen, a Tibetan term literally translated as “giving-taking,” but better rendered as “taking and giving.” This is a meditation in which we visualize taking upon ourselves the suffering of another sentient being motivated by compassion and giving them our body, enjoyments, and merits motivated by love. Whenever we have a problem, even one as serious as cancer and impending death, instead of wallowing in self-pity we can make the experience beneficial for ourselves and others by doing tonglen. As Rinpoche says, tonglen is the most powerful practice for developing bodhichitta and the best puja we can do in our lives.