19/06/2020
Bodhicitta and cherishing others
The greatest hindrance to enlightenment is the self-cherishing mind, which puts our own happiness ahead of everybody else’s and causes us to act accordingly.
Every personnal problem we have ever experienced has come from this ; so too has every interpersonal problem, from the smallest argument among children to wars between nations.
The more we think about it the more we shall see that the self-cherishing mind is the most dangerous thing in existence.
Yet it can be destroyed and replaced by the mind that cherishes others, putting ourselves last of all. This is the greatest mind we can generate, it gives rise to the state of enlightenment.
We must cultivate the mind that cherishes others more than ourselves.
From seeing that no sentient beings, ourselves included, wants or deserves happiness and freedom from suffering more than any other, a feeling of equality arises. As the desire for these ends is the same, why should we act as if our happiness were more important than anybody else’s ? There can be no logical justification for such an attitude.
Moreover, if all suffering, from the smallest to the greatest, arises from the self-cherishing mind, surely we should wait not a moment longer to destroy it completely. Thinking like this, we engage in the practice of exchanging self for others.
Exchanging self for others is not a physical practice.
It means that so far, since beginningless time, we have been going around harboring the thought deep in our heart,
« My happiness is the most important thing there is. »
It may not be conscious, but its presence is reflected in our actions.
So now, instead of putting ourselves first we put ourselves last :
« My happiness is the least important of all. »
In this way we can destroy the self-cherishing mind.
To improve and practice our commitment, we can also practice the meditation called ‘ Practice of taking and giving’.
We practice this meditation of taking the suffering of others upon ourselves and giving them all happiness.
Visualizing all sentient beings in all the realms undergoing their respective suffering ;
We inhale all those suffering in the form of a black smoke, which smashes the self-cherishing conception at our hearts.
When we exhale we send out pure white light, which reaches all sentient beings, bringing them everything they want and need, temporally and spiritually, all the realisations on the path, from devotion to the spiritual master to enlightenment.
At the end, we visualize all sentient beings in the aspect of buddhas.
Arising from this meditation we may feel that it was of no use, all the sentient beings are still suffering, just as they were when we started our meditation.
But each time we do this meditation we damage our self-cherishing mind and take a giant step towards enligthenment.
LYC
Lama Choephel
