Chapter 2. Lojong is to Cherish Even an Enemy

It is mentioned in Lama Chöpa, or Guru Puja, (v. 91) by Panchen Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen:

Contemplating the Faults of Self-Cherishing

RANG NYI CHE PAR DZIN PÄI CHONG NÄ DI
   This chronic disease of cherishing myself
MI DÖ DUG NGÄL KYE PÄI GYUR THONG NÄ
   Is the cause giving rise to my unsought suffering.
LE LÄN DÄ LA KHÖN DU ZUNG JÄ TE
   Perceiving this, I seek your blessings to blame, begrudge,
DAG DZIN DÖN CHHEN JOM PAR JIN GYI LOB
   And destroy the monstrous demon of selfishness.

“Seeing the chronic disease of cherishing I is the cause for the arising of undesirable suffering…” The chronic disease is the selfish mind, which has existed from beginningless rebirths, not just in this life. Seeing this chronic disease [of cherishing I] as the cause of the arising of all undesirable suffering, whenever any undesirable thing, problem, or misery arises, put the blame on it immediately, without the delay of a second. Otherwise, if you delay, you will blame something outside yourself. So without the delay of a second put the blame on that, and also “harbor it” [or begrudge it]. “Please grant me blessings to destroy the self-cherishing thought.”

Instead of cherishing even one sentient being, a person or an insect, such as a mosquito or an ant, you cherish your I. Instead of cherishing someone who abuses you, who doesn’t like you, who doesn’t love you, who underestimates you, you cherish I. You renounce that other person and generate self-cherishing thought, the cause of all the sufferings of samsara and the obstacles to achieving enlightenment. The thought cherishing I is an obstacle to achieving enlightenment for the numberless sentient beings. Of course, cherishing the I is an obstacle to achieving liberation from samsara even for yourself and it is also an obstacle to all your happiness of future lives. That selfish mind is even an obstacle to achieving success in all your works for this life. In short, cherishing I is the cause of all sufferings and all obstacles to practicing Dharma.

For example, regarding the shortcomings of cherishing I, in the meditation on the eight shortcomings of making a mistake in correctly following the guru, those eight shortcomings are also dependent on self-cherishing thought and are therefore shortcomings of self-cherishing thought. That is one way to meditate.

Then the complete ten nonvirtues have four suffering results. There is the ripened aspect result, which is rebirth in the lower realms. Then, in the human realm, there is the possessed result, which is to do with the place, such as being in a place where there is a lot of suffering or a lot of danger to your life.

Then, there is experiencing the result similar to the cause (nyongwa gyu thün gyi dräbu^[1]). That means that however you treated other sentient beings in a past life, you killed them, told lies to them, committed sexual misconduct, or stole from them, whatever you did to them, that is how you are treated by others in this life. The sentient being who you treated like that before now treats you like that in this life. That is the result of your bad karma from a past life that is experienced in a human life.

Then, there is creating the result similar to the cause (jepa gyu thün gyi dräbu^[2]). Whatever you did before, killing others, telling lies, cheating others, stealing from others, or sexual misconduct, you do it again in this life when you are born as a human being because this is the result of habituation with past negative karma.

Like that, there are also four complete virtuous karmas, which have four happy results. However, here you meditate on the details of the four suffering results of a complete negative karma as the shortcoming of self-cherishing thought.

Then, those people who have less education or those who have less wealth or no wealth, while you have more education or more wealth, you put them down. Then toward those who have the same as you, you feel competition, wanting to be better than them. Then toward those who are higher than you, you feel jealous. In this way, the self-cherishing thought doesn’t give any peace to your mind.

Like this, there are many ways to meditate on the shortcomings of self-cherishing thought. I’ve just given you some examples of how to meditate on the shortcomings using these different groups.^[3]