1. Lojong Makes Your Mind So Happy

Lojong Brings Happiness

There was a monk from Nalanda Monastery in France who had studied from learned geshes, such as Geshe Kelsang, Geshe Jampa Gyatso, and Geshe Jampa Tegchok. He started the Masters Program in Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Italy after discussing it with Lama Yeshe. He studied much philosophy for a long time, such as Madhyamaka, Abhisamayalamkara, and even Drang Nge Legshe Nyingpo, Heart of the Good Explanations of Interpretative and Definitive Meanings, written by Lama Tsongkhapa. But after studying all those texts, he told me, “Tibetan Buddhism doesn’t bring me happiness.” He said that, even though he had studied so much. He didn’t understand [these teachings] because he didn’t practice their meaning. He didn’t practice their essence—lojong. He didn’t practice that example, the root [of lojong]: “Put all the blame on one. Meditate on others as kind.” The benefits of cherishing others and the shortcomings of cherishing I didn’t get done. Changing the mind from a selfish mind into benefiting and cherishing others didn’t get done. Because of that, happiness didn’t come. Real peace and happiness in the heart, as well as satisfaction and fulfillment, didn’t come. So then he said, “I studied Tibetan Buddhism, but Tibetan Buddhism didn’t bring me happiness.” Waaaah! That happened. You understand? He didn’t realize it was due to thinking [that studying philosophy is] only about intellectual understanding. He didn’t recognize that and didn’t practice [lojong]. You have to know that.

As Shantideva says, “A person who carries a whole load of medicine but never eats it will never recover from their sickness.”[1] You have to understand that, otherwise, there is the danger that you learn so much intellectually, but don’t practice it, like carrying medicine or like storing it in your house, like in a museum, and not eating it even though you have a sickness. You understand? Although you have all the understanding of Buddhism intellectually but, like feeding a computer with so many things, you just feed your brain with it but don’t practice it.

There is a precious teaching from the sutra Dongpo Kopai Do,[2] [cited by Namkha Pal in his Mind Training Like the Rays of the Sun], in which the Buddha begins by saying rig kyi bu,[3] which I translate as “son of the race.” It means someone who will become a buddha and work for sentient beings, that is, someone of the Mahayana race. The word “son” doesn’t have anything to do with the sex; it means someone who has bodhichitta, who will become enlightened, and who will work for sentient beings, like the Buddha.

Dongpo Kopai Do says:

Son of the race, bodhichitta is like the seed of all the Buddha’s qualities.

Bodhichitta is like the seed of all the Buddha’s dharmas, all the dharmas, or all the Buddha’s qualities.

Bodhichitta is like a field for increasing the white Dharma of all transmigratory beings.

Bodhichitta is like a field in which to develop our crop of virtue.

Bodhichitta is like the earth on which all the world depends.

All the world—all enjoyments and all beings—depend on, or come from, bodhichitta, so bodhichitta is like the earth.

 Bodhichitta is like Son of Namtho, cutting off all poverty.

Son of Namtho[4] is a guardian of wealth who relieves sentient beings’ poverty by giving them wealth. Bodhichitta, like Son of Namtho, cuts off all the poverty of sentient beings.

Bodhichitta is like a father, protecting completely all bodhisattvas.

Bodhichitta is like the king of wish-granting jewels, bringing all success.

Bodhichitta is like a wish-fulfilling vase, making all wishes succeed.

Bodhichitta is like a short spear, defeating the enemy that is delusion.

Bodhichitta is like armor, ceasing the remembering of all unrighteous things.

Bodhichitta is like sword, cutting the heads of all delusions.

Bodhichitta is like an axe, cutting the tree of delusion.

Bodhichitta is like a weapon, protecting from all harm.

Bodhichitta is like a hook, making one stay above the water of samsara.

Bodhichitta is like chilpa[5], a hook, which makes you abide above the water of samsara and not sink. When something makes you sink in the water of samsara, bodhichitta is like a hook that makes you stay above it.

Bodhichitta is like a wind mandala, making the root of obscuration and covering blow away.

Bodhichitta is like the abbreviated content,[6] containing all the bodhisattvas’ prayers and conduct.

Bodhichitta is like a stupa since the world of suras, human beings, and asuras make offerings to it.

Son of the race, like that, bodhichitta has all those qualities and other limitless particular qualities.

As mentioned above, bodhichitta is the particular door to enter the Mahayana path to achieve buddhahood (the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations). When bodhichitta is generated in one’s continuum, it burns the obscurations of all the negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths. Bodhichitta guards one from all sufferings and fears. Bodhichitta unceasingly[7] gives one all results, temporary and ultimate.[8]

Like the essence of the butter that comes from churning the oceans of Buddha’s teachings, by seeing the benefits of bodhichitta, which is like the real seed that is the particular cause of achieving enlightenment, from the depths of your heart be happy.

Generally, after having received a perfect human rebirth, one has the opportunity to practice the holy Dharma, especially the [two] bodhichittas of the Mahayana path. What I have found is well found. To generate a strong wish is very important.

When your mind is trained in lojong, the lamrim lojong, whenever you face a problem your mind is so happy. Why is your mind is so happy? It is totally opposite to how people think in the West—your mind is so happy because you are experiencing the suffering of the six-realm sentient beings. Because your mind is trained in bodhichitta, your mind is so happy when you meet a problem, any problem. If somebody is angry with you or somebody accuses you, your mind is happy. If somebody talks about your mistakes or a doctor says that you have cancer, your mind is happy.

In short, when your mind is trained in lojong, you don’t think, “Oh, poor me, I have cancer, ooooh.” Instead, whenever you face a problem, your mind is so happy. Why? Because you think that you have received the problems of all sentient beings upon yourself as a result of praying for that to happen. It is like when, during summer time, Geshe Lama Konchog fell down the steps very heavily in front of the Tara statue at Kopan and,[9] because he thought that he had received my life obstacles on himself, he was so happy. His mind was very happy.


[1] The editor was unable to find this quotation in Engaging in the Deeds of a Bodhisattva, but perhaps it is comes from Compendium of Trainings. The King of Meditative Stabilization Sutra says something similar:
        I have explained this very good teaching.
       Yet if you, having heard it, do not practice correctly,
       Then just like a sick person holding on to a bag of medicine,
       Your illness cannot be cured.
[2] Tib. sdong po bkod pa'i mdo. Eng. Array of Stalks Sutra.
[3] Tib. rigs kyi bu.
[4] Tib. rnam thos kyi bu. Skt. Vaishravana. Also known as rnam thos sras.
[5] Lama Zopa Rinpoche initially thought that ‘chil pa, translated here as “hook,” might refer to some kind of animal skin or a certain kind of fish, but Geshe Ngawang Rabga, resident teacher at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, suggested to Rinpoche that it means “hook,” so Rinpoche used that translation.
[6] Tib. mdor bstan. This can also be translated as “synthesis” or “summary.”
[7] Tib. mi shes pa.
[8] Tib. mngon mtho dang nges legs. Literally, higher state and definite goodness.
[9] Geshe Lama Konchog was a good friend of Lama Yeshe and a teacher of the monks at Kopan Monastery in Nepal for many years.

Colophon
These teachings were given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, February 5th, 2017. Transcribed from the audio recording by Ven. Ailsa Cameron, June 2017. Lightly edited by Ven. Joan Nicell, FPMT Education Services, August 2017.