A Commentary on “The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment)”

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Actual Practice

Refining the Bodhichitta Motivation with Shantideva's Verses

From the Conquerors’ Son Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life^[1]

For the sake of accomplishing the two purposes of all sentient beings,^[2]
Without any sense of loss or concern
I give away my body and likewise my enjoyments, such as food and clothing,
And even all my virtues accumulated over the three times.   (v. 11)

The two purposes are the works for self, the cessation of all obscurations, and the works for others, the completion of all realizations. You accomplish these two for the sake of all sentient beings.

In order to complete the works for sentient beings, you give them your body, all your belongings and enjoyments, and all your past, present, and future merits. This means that you give them every happiness of this life, the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara, and enlightenment.

When you recite this verse, it is very good to visualize your body as wish-granting jewels filling the whole sky, giving the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras and suras whatever they want, including enlightenment. In this way, your body becomes a cause for the success of all their wishes for every happiness, up to enlightenment. Then, with all your enjoyments – however many hats and clothes you have, however many shoes you have (winter shoes, spring shoes, autumn shoes, summer shoes, shoes for inside, shoes for outside, and party shoes) and however much money you have in the bank – make offerings to all sentient beings, causing them to receive all happiness up to enlightenment. Also offer them all your past merits collected from beginningless rebirths, as well as all your present and future merits, causing them to receive all present and future happinesses up to enlightenment. By your giving everything you have to all the hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras, and intermediate state beings, they all achieve enlightenment. That is the richest practice, the best meditation. Wow! You collect skies of merit so many times when you dedicate your hats and your shoes for all sentient beings. As there are numberless sentient beings of the seven types – hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras, and intermediate state beings – you create skies of merits seven times even with your shoes, even with your hats, and even with your gloves. Can you imagine? This is how to create the best cause of success for yourself.

By abandoning attachment and giving everything away, I will attain the state beyond sorrow. Since sentient beings are the supreme field of generosity, I will give everything to them.

By abandoning attachment and giving everything away, I will pass beyond sorrow,
 And my mind will achieve the non-abiding sorrowless state, the state of omniscience.
 Since I will have to give up everything all at once when I die,
It’s best for me to give it away to sentient beings, because buddhahood is attained in that way.   (v. 12)

No matter how much wealth you have and how many people you have around you, sooner or later you will have to die. Even if you are a king or a president, ruling a population of hundreds of millions, sooner or later you will have to die. Even if you own a jewel palace made of diamonds and gold, where not only the bathroom taps are made of gold, but even the toilet is made of gold, sooner or later you will have to die. And when you die, you will have to leave everything behind, even the body that you cherish more than all sentient beings, more than all precious things. No matter how many family members, soldiers, and bodyguards you have, no matter how much wealth and how many palaces, beautiful places, and even countries you own, you will have to leave everything behind. Only your bare consciousness will go to the next life, like when a hair is pulled from butter, no butter comes along with it.

Therefore, since you will have to separate from your body, possessions, and so forth when you die, it is best to give them away now to sentient beings, who are the supreme field of generosity. By making the decision to give away everything you are attached to, you will attain the non-abiding sorrowless state, which means full enlightenment.

Do you understand the benefits? Right now there is a recession in the world, and everybody is being careful not to waste or spend their money, but to keep it for the future. However, you might die tomorrow or even today and then your family will fight over your money. Therefore, my idea is that with devotion you should make offerings to guru, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and that with compassion for sentient beings you should spend your money to help others. If you do this sincerely, you will create the cause to receive. Giving is a safe way to increase both your inner and outer wealth. But worldly people think, “Oh, I better not spend my money,” because they don’t know karma, and then they become more and more poor. This is because miserliness, not being able to use your money even for yourself, is the cause of poverty. Therefore, my idea is that you should make as much charity as you can to sentient beings. Even if you offer a small thing to them with compassion, from that one good karma you will experience the result of receiving wealth for a hundred thousand lifetimes.

I’m telling you this from my own experience. However, worldly people think that they shouldn’t give as that will cause poverty for themselves. In reality, when you help others in a small or big way, you collect so much merit. Many years ago in Bodhgaya when I was doing the hundreds of initiations of Rinjung Gyatsa, I thought that giving to the beggars, to sentient beings, is the best offering to the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas, because the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas cherish them the most. No matter how much you cherish yourself, the buddhas and bodhisattvas cherish you a hundred thousand times more. They don’t have self-cherishing thought even for one second. They cherish all sentient beings, not leaving out even one, no matter how small it is, even if it’s microscopic. Therefore, when you make charity and offer something respectfully with your two hands to a beggar, you should think that it also becomes the best offering to numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas.

As I have already given this body, an impure aggregate,
To all beings^[3] to use for their pleasure,
Even if they always kill me, criticize me, beat me, and so forth,
I will let them do whatever they like.   (v. 13)

Since you have given your body to sentient beings, you allow them to use it for whatever makes them happy. This is totally different from the way worldly people think, which is to cherish themselves and renounce others. To protect yourself from being used by others and to use other sentient beings for your own happiness is normal in the world. But this verse is about using yourself for others’ happiness. Do you understand the difference? It is totally opposite. This is a totally new education in the West, where self-cherishing thought is advertised, and also advised by psychologists, as the main thing to be developed. Instead of putting yourself down, you put your self-cherishing thought up.

It is very important to remember that you have already given your body to others, especially when someone slaps you. For example, each time you’ve said this verse in Lama Chöpa (v. 101), you’ve given your body to them:

I seek your blessings to complete the perfection of generosity
Through the guideline teaching for increasing the mind that gives without attachment,
Namely, transforming my body, wealth, and collection of virtues of the three times
Into the objects desired by each and every sentient being.

Of course, it makes a difference whether you did the meditation or not. If you only recited the prayer, you haven’t given your body away, but if you did the meditation, you have given your body many times to sentient beings. Then, it doesn’t make sense to get upset when someone gets angry at you or scolds you. It would be a very good test if, while you are chanting the verse about giving everything to sentient beings, someone were to come along and slap you!

Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche told the following story to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. At Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Tibet, a person was sitting in meditation and someone said to him, “What are you doing?” The meditator replied, “I’m practicing patience.” Then the other person said to the person practicing patience, “Eat shit.” The meditator immediately answered back, “You eat shit!” Although he was meditating on patience, this was his immediate answer.

If you remember to do tong-len at these times, thinking of all the benefits you receive from sentient beings, including all your three-time happiness – all the happiness of all your past lives, then on top of that the happiness of this present life and the happiness of your future lives – and also liberation and enlightenment, there is no way to get angry back, no way to start a court case. You only think to respect them and to cause them happiness in return.

In reality it is like this: whatever they do to you, feel great happiness about it because you have given your body to be used by them for whatever makes them most happy. Therefore, when you see that they have found your body useful, it is the most unbelievably happiest thing to have happen in your life. In reality it is like this, but of course if you listen to worldly, mundane people or follow Western culture, it is different. Since they give advice with attachment and anger, it is totally opposite to Dharma, totally opposite to bodhichitta.

In short, you have to understand well the bodhichitta practices, or Mahayana thought transformation practices. Otherwise you won’t know that all your problems arise from self-cherishing thought, and so you will use others for your own happiness.

 

My root guru, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, said that when giving your body away according to the lamrim, you don’t make charity of your blood, bones, and things like that. You imagine your body becomes numberless wish-granting jewels filling the sky, and then you offer them to the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, suras, and intermediate state beings. They get whatever they want and need, such as Dharma, realizations, and a virtuous friend, and then they all become enlightened. If you are practicing a lower tantra or highest yoga tantra, you can think they all become whatever deity you are practicing. By doing this, you collect more than skies of merit. Even by giving your body as one wish-granting jewel to numberless sentient beings, you collect more than skies of merit. Can you imagine it? The merits are amazing.

Then you also give them your possessions. However many socks you have, however many hats you have, however many ties you have, however much money you have in the bank, you give them to the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless asuras, numberless suras, and numberless intermediate state beings. They get whatever they need and then they all become enlightened. After that, you give them your merits collected from beginningless rebirths, those you are collecting now, and those you will collect in the future, and the results of that merit – the happiness of this life, the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara, and full enlightenment. You completely offer your three-time merits and all your happiness up to enlightenment to the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, suras, and intermediate state beings, so they get whatever they want and whatever they need, and they all become enlightened.

If you want to do a meditation, you can do this one. Making a billion dollar profit every day is nothing compared to even thinking to benefit sentient beings, besides actually giving to them. It is said in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life that the merit of just giving rise to the thought to benefit somebody, a human being or insect, even though you don’t actually benefit them, is much greater than offering the universe filled with gold and jewels to the buddhas. That merit is small compared to the merit of just thinking to benefit somebody, so imagine if you actually attempt to help them.

I will allow them to do whatever makes them happy and give up being attached to my body and getting angry at others.

From now on, whether they play games with my body
Or make it an object of laughter by ridiculing and making fun of it to hurt me,
Since I have already given this body of mine to sentient beings,
Why would I resist by protecting it and so forth?   (v. 14)

As you have already given your body to others, why do you still protect it from sentient beings?

I will also use it to do any virtuous action
That doesn’t harm and benefits others.   (v. 15a)

Do whatever is not harmful but is of benefit to others.

Praying for virtues to become causes that do not go to waste includes: praying for yourself to become a cause of only benefit for others (v. 15b), praying for others’ attitudes to become causes that do not go to waste (v. 16), and praying for others’ actions to become causes that do not go to waste (v. 17).

Whenever any sentient being encounters me,
May it never be meaningless for them and always be meaningful.   (v. 15b)

When, no matter what they are doing, other sentient beings focus on you, think of you, or pay attention to you, may it never be meaningless for them. For insects, animals, people, and spirits, may encountering you never be meaningless for them, but only be highly meaningful. Even if only a few sentient beings focus on you, may there be benefit for them.

Whenever someone has an angry or devotional thought arise
Just by looking at me,
May that attitude alone become a cause that always
Accomplishes all the temporary and ultimate purposes of that being.   (v. 16)

When others, just by looking at you, have an angry or devotional thought arise toward you, may that thought become a cause of their success, both temporary as well as ultimate (liberation from samsara and full enlightenment). When you generate a good heart in this way, don’t wish them only temporary happiness, but also ultimate happiness.

This wish is very important. You should pray like this every day. Even if somebody is angry with you, pray for it to be meaningful for that person, animal, or whoever, and pray for it to be helpful to them in achieving enlightenment. And when someone is attached or devoted to you, also pray for that attitude to be useful to them in achieving enlightenment. This is the attitude of a bodhisattva.

Whenever others criticize me with their speech,
Harm me with their bodies,
Or likewise insult me behind my back,
May all of them have the fortune to achieve great enlightenment.   (v. 17)

Even when others criticize you, harm you with their body, or insult or complain about you behind your back, pray for it to be useful for them, causing them to have the fortune to achieve enlightenment. This is another very important prayer that makes your life most worthwhile and beneficial for sentient beings.

May I be a savior for those who lack a savior,
A guide for all those beings who enter a road,
A boat, a ship, and a bridge
For those who want to cross the water.   (v. 18)

No matter how others treat you, what you are going to do for them is to become a savior, a guide, and so forth.

In Madhyamakavatara, Chandrakirti mentions that not only buddhas, but even higher bodhisattvas, those of the eighth, ninth, and tenth levels, can manifest as bridges, roads, and so forth to benefit sentient beings. When we are in trouble and somebody comes along and helps us, I think that that person could be a manifestation of a bodhisattva or buddha in an ordinary form. That this happens is the result of our past good karma.

When you recite this verse and the following verses from Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, it is very good to visualize offering these things to sentient beings.

May I be an island for those who seek the safe shore of an island,
A light for those who want a light,^[4]
Bedding for those who wish for bedding,^[5]
And for all beings who desire a servant,
May I become a servant of them all.    (v. 19)

Usually you don’t want others to use you as their servant. You think of that as something bad, and instead want others to become your servants. But here the practice is to want to be a servant of others. As your goal is to bring happiness to others, this attitude becomes a cause of enlightenment.

May I be a wish-granting jewel and a wish-fulfilling vase giving rise to whatever is desired, such as food and clothing,
Powerful mantra accomplishing the actions of pacification, increase, and so forth, great medicine curing every sickness,
A wish-fulfilling tree satisfying every need,
And a wish-granting cow for all beings.   (v. 20)

If, after you find a wish-fulfilling jewel, you clean it in three ways, put it on top of a banner on a roof on the night of the full moon, and pray, whatever material things you wish for immediately get materialized. This happens mainly due to your merits, but it is also due to the wish-fulfilling jewel itself. Like this, whatever others wish for, may they immediately get it from you.

A wish-fulfilling vase, which is the same as a wealth vase, brings success, wealth, and so forth. By your becoming such a vase, all wishes are immediately fulfilled.

When you recite millions of mantras, you actualize mantra. It is then very easy to achieve success in the four actions of pacification, increase, control, and wrath. For example, you can pacify diseases, life obstacles, and spirit harm, as well as negative karma and defilements; increase life, fortune, wisdom, and wealth; control sentient beings and material needs to benefit others; and so on.

The great medicine is arura, the plant that Medicine Buddha holds. The arura normally used in Tibetan medicine is ordinary arura, but the best arura is the one that, even just by wearing it, prevents you from getting a disease or, if you already have a disease, causes it to go away. In Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Tibet this type of arura is a relic at the heart of a four-story Maitreya Buddha statue. It is said that sickness is healed by standing near the heart for a little while.

The wish-granting trees in a pure land grant whatever you pray for, fulfilling all your wishes.

The particular enjoyment of the people of the northern continent is a wish-granting cow. This cow not only continuously gives milk, but the different parts of its body are made of jewels, and its tail is a wish-granting tree.

Like the four great elements, the earth and so forth,
And like the sky, may I always be
A means of living in every way
For the innumerable sentient beings.   (v. 21)

Likewise, may I be a means of living,
At all times and in all ways, for the realms of
Sentient beings equaling the extent of space,
Until they all attain the sorrowless state.    (v. 22)

The earth is used in so many different ways for the happiness of sentient beings, such as fields for the crops that we use for our survival and to plant flowers for our enjoyment. The earth is also used as the base for airports, train stations, roads, vehicles, factories, shops, monasteries, houses, and gardens. Pray that you may be used in many ways, like earth, by sentient beings for their happiness.

Water is also used by sentient beings in so many different ways for their happiness, not only to quench their thirst, but to water crops, to swim in, to travel on by boat and ship, and so on. Pray for yourself to be used, like water, by sentient beings in all kinds of ways for their happiness.

Fire too is used in so many different ways. When it is cold, fire is used for heating, as well as for cooking. Pray for yourself to be used, like fire, by sentient beings in so many different ways for their happiness.

Wind is also used by sentient beings in so many different ways for their happiness, such as in air-conditioning and fans when they feel hot. Pray for yourself to be used, like wind, by sentient beings for their happiness.

The sky is also used in so many different ways for the happiness of sentient beings, such as for traveling. Pray for your life to be used, like the sky, by sentient beings for their happiness.

When you pray to be a means of living and happiness for other sentient beings, you pray to always be this. It is not that you do this just when you are in a good mood, but you don’t do it when you are in a bad mood or depressed, which may be most of the time. It’s not like that; it’s at all times and forever.

In short, because they have renounced themselves and cherish others, bodhisattvas pray to be used, like the four elements and the sky, by sentient beings in so many different ways for their happiness. They pray to be totally used by sentient beings for whatever happiness they want. This is what bodhisattvas pray for and what they actually do, once they have gained the power to do so. Therefore, don’t think that the bodhisattva attitude is something very simple.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama often recites these words of the Conquerors’ Son Shantideva after taking the bodhisattva vows.

As long as space remains,
As long as transmigratory beings remain,
Until then may I too remain
To dispel the suffering of transmigratory beings.   (v. 55)

The refuge savior, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, often asks people to recite these holy words of the bodhisattva Shantideva after he gives the bodhisattva vows.

Gampopa, Milarepa’s heart disciple, said: “After waking from sleep and before you get out of bed, think: ‘Today I am going to use my body, speech, and mind in virtue [for sentient beings].’ It is so important to generate this precious thought of bodhichitta, the ultimate good heart. Whatever you do that day is then done with bodhichitta, so everything then becomes virtue and the cause of enlightenment. If your motivation is wrong, everything then becomes negative karma and a cause of the evil-gone realms.

“When you then go to sleep at night, dedicate all your actions of body, speech, and mind for sentient beings. This is extremely important.

“It is said that, without difficulties, this becomes the path to the dharmakaya.

In short, the real practice is living your life for others, every day and every hour, in the most beneficial and meaningful way. Therefore, the first thing to do in the morning is to generate a bodhichitta motivation.