Teaching on Arydeva S Four Hundred Stanzas Chapter 5 Verses 116 Ff

Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe Teaching on Arydeva’s Four Hundred Stanzas Chapter 5Verses 116 ff. November 3rd, 2013

We will start here with a verse from Shantideva’s Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds, chapter 1, verse six, where Shantideva says:

Thus virtue is perpetually while the power of vice is great and extremely dreadful. If there were no spirit of enlightenment What other virtue would overcome it?

If we look at our mental habits, what kind of attitudes we have, we can say the for the most part there are non-virtuous thoughts going on. But every once in a while, we have these virtuous thoughts, some virtuous attitude comes, and this is from a latency that ripens and we get that. An example is in the previous verse, where Shantideva says that the minds of sentient beings are like a dark night. For the most part things are black, but every once in a while there is a flash of lightning.

So, when we have this idea that non-virtuous thoughts and mental states are always so strong and ever so present, what it is talking about is that we are always under the influence of different things like jealousy, pride, anger and so on. These are very strong in our minds. How do they arise? They arise in relationship to others—it is always in our social relationships that these arise. What is it that can counter these? Shantideva was saying that if there were no spirit of awakening then what other virtue would overcome it. It is the spirit of enlightenment that changes our attitude from always thinking of others to putting others first. We have this wish then to become enlightened for their sake. That is the spirit of enlightenment. We are seeking to become a person who has eliminated all faults and attained all good qualities—has become perfect—so it is this we are seeking that can overcome all non-virtue.

The lords of sages, who have been contemplating for many aeons Have seen this alone as a blessing by which Supreme bliss may be attained By immeasurable multitudes of beings

The Buddhas have contemplated what overcomes this problem of all beings and they have seen that instead of cherishing oneself and putting oneself first and neglecting others then there is this idea of cherishing others first and oneself second. And they saw that it was this that could overcome our natural inclination.

So this comes about because with non-virtuous attitudes, we are seeing others as lesser than ourselves. Then we get involved in doing things that are harmful to them and so forth. But if we have the spirit of enlightenment, we are switching 2 around—we are seeing them as more important than ourselves. What that does is to completely overcome the orientation of non-virtuous thoughts and so forth.

At the time of the Buddha, there were different views about how to purify oneself of sins and misdeeds and so forth. The Buddha and his teaching were very much opposed to these ideas. One was the idea that the Vedas were self-arisen and therefore pure and valid and everything else was incorrect. This is the only true religion in the Vedas. Then, the Buddha’s teaching completely rejected that. Then, there was the idea of bathing in the river Ganges and the Buddha’s teaching rejected that as being foolish. Then, there was the idea of sitting in the middle of a fire. There would be fire in all four directions around you and you would sweat and sweat—and the ideas was you would lose your sins from this. Obviously, you were lighter from having [sweat so much and the idea is that this removed your sins.] Buddhists rejected as being very stupid—completely unintelligent. Then, there was this other idea of the caste system, where some were pure and others were impure. And that whole idea was completely rejected. What the Buddha put forth in his teaching was that through attitudes such as love, compassion, and impartiality—an attitude that all beings are equal—through that approach, you completely get rid of defilements of sins, misdeeds, and so forth.

In contradistinction to those [other ideas about how to remove sin, it is said]:

Buddha’s do not wash away sins with water They do not lay on hands to alleviate suffering They do not transfer their knowledge from one person to the other (we aren’t talking about teaching but somehow it goes from one person The way they help beings be free of suffering is to teach the truth of reality.

Buddha’s teach exactly how things are and then, based on that, you engage in practices to eliminate faults and adopt good qualities and that is how you eliminate suffering.

I have shown you the way to liberation. Liberation, then, depends upon you.

This means you have to make your own effort. No one can place you in a state free of suffering; it depends upon you.

There is also a verse in here where it talks about ...well, in the Buddha’s view, then, what one has to do is to change this attitude of putting yourself first. Because [we are the opposite.] We feel that others can be neglected, or we take advantage of them and use them for our own happiness, or we neglect them and don’t give them any helpful advice. These come out of a sense of feeling that one’s self is more important than others. We all want happiness and don not want 3 suffering. We are all equal in that. The problem is we don’t know how to go about it, how to provide ourselves with happiness and get rid of suffering. The problem is in our minds. We cannot figure out what is to be done. There is a verse in Shantideva’s text that states:

Although we want to be free of suffering, we run towards suffering (we create the causes that bring us suffering). Although we want happiness, we create the causes that destroy our happiness.

What is the origin of all faults? It is the concept that we have some kind of an independent self that is controlling, that is very fixed, that is a fixed entity in control of our body and mind. Once we have that, accompanying it is the feeling this self is very precious and dear. And we have this idea of cherishing it and making it the most important thing. Then, out of that attitude, we feel it is okay to harm others out of our own purpose, because we are the most important. The most important thing to take care of is ME. So, if someone opposes us, out of this strong sense of self, we have this strong sense of hostility. Then, anything that we find helpful, we get attached to it and have a strong sense of attachment. It is through these two that we then ...they drive us and all the faulty actions we get into—the faulty attitudes and emotions, and so forth. At the base of those is the misconception of our selves as being some kind of independent...that the “I” or “me” is somehow independent.

This is not something hidden to us; it is obvious. When you have a feeling of your self as so important, it is easy to feel, out of that, that “my family” or “the group I associate with” is more important.

And then we have an attitude of anyone who opposes me, my family, my country —you strike out at them or have a hostile attitude. You can see very easily nowadays, everyone is feeling—Oh the Muslims are going to do something. There is a we/them attitude that easily comes out of this strong feeling of attachment to oneself. Then, it just proliferates from there. It is easy for us to see that if we had an attitude of impartiality, where we didn’t have this partiality to our own group, etc. If we didn’t have this bias, the world would be in a better place.

So, in the Buddha’s teachings there is kind of a three step process that is laid out for spiritual development and it starts with saying “Well, it’s okay if you start with having an attitude of [being attached to yourself] and others you associate with , but you should do your best to be helpful to them, but not to do any harm to others. They are just like our selves in wanting happiness and not wanting suffering.” We have to understand that, just as we wouldn’t want others to harm us, how can we harm others? We have to have an attitude of non-violence and 4 restrain ourselves from harming others by feeling they are like us in wanting happiness. This is the initial level of spiritual practice.

If you proceed in this way, you avoid engaging in any of the 10 non-virtuous deeds and cultivate the 10 virtuous deeds and do what you can to help others and not harm them. As a result of that, one is reborn in a positive rebirth. This is the practice for those on the initial level.

In connection with this, the teaching for the practitioner on the initial level is abstaining from the 10 non-virtues and cultivating the 10 virtuous deeds. So, instead of lying one abstains from lying and cultivates telling the truth. And instead of saying divisive things one says things that mediate and brings people together. Instead of saying hurtful things, one says helpful things. Then instead of saying things out of bias, one says things that are meaningful. Instead of taking life, one helps to protect life. Instead of stealing, one tries to be generous and give things to others. In place of sexual impropriety, then you accord with the norms of your culture in terms of sexual propriety. Instead of coveting others’ wealth, you practice non-attachment. Instead of having harmful attitudes, you have helpful thoughts and attitudes. Instead of having wrong views, such as that it doesn’t matter what you do because there will be no consequences—or that there are no former and future lifetimes—you replace that with thinking that it does matter what you do, due to the cause and effect of karma. You cultivate the belief that there were former lives and that there will be future lives.

So for the person on this initial level, they are contemplating the cause and effect of karma, understanding the cause and effect of karma.

Then for a person on the intermediate level, the practice there is to develop an attitude of impartiality, where there is no bias between those who you associate with yourself and then, being attached to them, and being hostile towards those you associate with other. Instead of having an attitude that Muslims are so different from us, you have an equality attitude—they were born with a mother and father who followed that tradition. We are equal in being human beings. You cultivate an equality of beings and, in this way, you are controlling your attachment

You are trying to overcome the misconception of ourselves as independently existent, as an independent entity. You are cultivating selflessness, meaning that there is no self that is an independent entity.

When you reach the highest level of spiritual development, you look at all the problems that have come about come from having put myself first. And [you realize,] “Even though I have done that, I haven’t gotten there!” and you see that the real problem is putting ourselves first. That is the cause of all of our problems. And then you see that cherishing others and being centered on them is the cause of all our happiness and goodness. So what you do is to generate the altruistic 5 spirit of enlightenment. It is a reorientation—an exchange of self and others. So, instead of ...... you are neglecting yourself/not being so attached to yourself—you are not preoccupied with yourself, but with others. This is the altruistic spirit of enlightenment.

Where we are in the text has to do with this altruistic spirit. What it is talking about is this attitude of the spirit of enlightenment. So, when we listen to these teachings from Aryadeva’s text, we think we will practice there teachings gradually...at the highest level of spiritual development. We are on a section that talks about this highest level of spiritual development.

So, when you have this attitude of the altruistic spirit of enlightenment, you are seeking to bring your own...to be perfectly able to help others. It is bringing yourself to perfection. So then the deeds that are mentioned in here, of ethical discipline, generosity and so forth, these are all where you are seeking to become a person who is completely ...who has perfected themself such that they are able to be of maximum benefit to others. So, it is talking about what we need to do to bring ourselves to perfection.

What it is talking about there is cultivating an attitude that is completely free of any anger, belligerence ...and cultivating a loving attitude completely free of any feelings of aggression towards others. So, when you are listening to this, this is the feeling being generated here...what you are aspiring to.

So, we are on 116. Here we are talking about, if you look at the outline (back of the book on page 313): “4. Faults of not appreciating Bodhisattvas and suitability of cultivating appreciation. a. Faults of not appreciating Bodhisattvas.” This word “appreciating”...sometimes it is translated as not having faith.

On page 141, the text says: What are the faults of hating a Bodhisattva who is governed by compassion?

And the Bodhisattva, then, is full of love and compassion. So what are the faults of being angry toward such a bodhisattva? We are under the influence of our attachment and hostility. We are preoccupied with ourselves. Then, as a bodhisattva is completely driven by their love and compassion, they are only thinking of others.

We have a certain love our care for ourselves, but unfortunately, we don’t know how to really care for ourselves and provide for ourselves. So we have to think of the bodhisattva as having a care for us that exceeds our care for ourselves.

You have to bear in mind that a bodhisattva—if you have a relationship with someone who is a bodhisattva, then if you do something helpful to them then of course it will help you. But a bodhisattva is such a being that when someone 6 harms them, they say, “Oh this person has such hostility! May I do something to help them overcome it and in the future [may I be able to help them more.] They are setting up a relationship with them such that even if you harm them it helps you. A Bodhisattva is such a person.

116. When those [beings] suffer loss Who are indifferent toward One who stays in the world to help transmigrators, What doubt about those who are hostile?

We are talking about a bodhisattva. So...if we are talking about someone who stays in the world to help beings.... [If it is a loss when we are just] indifferent to such a being, what [need is there to mention that it is a] great loss if we are hostile to such a being.

In order to understand this explanation, we have to understand this one phrase, “final state of nirvana in which the aggregates do not remain.”

This is talking about an arhat, someone who has completely overcome his or her hostility, attachment, anger and so forth. These are completely overcome. If they are born and have a body like ourselves.... What that means is that our body and mind have been created by the afflictive emotions, such as jealousy and so forth.

So, if you achieve this state of having completely eliminated your afflictions....you were born into this body and mind, but you completely eliminate your afflictions,... at that point you still have your body you were born with, so that is a state of nirvana in which the aggregates remain. But then after dying, in the final state of nirvana, you don’t have the mind that is created by afflictions, but you don’t have a body that is created by karma and afflictions either. What you have instead is a mental body. With this body, you are able to create yourselves in many different forms at will. It’s a very different kind of body.

What they are saying is that... we don’t have to even mention that of course there is a great loss from not having related to a bodhisattva that has reached that stage. But if we are then hostile to them, there is no doubt that it is a great fault for us. They then give this example:

So, one example is of a person who wanted to go out of town and he knew someone who kept a lot of elephants. And so then he thought, “Well, I can just leave my sheep and goats and cattle with this man.” When he came back to town, he asked the man how things were going, and he said, “wind, rain, my elephants were carried away, it was terrible.” He heard this news from this man, but he didn’t need to hear that his animals had been lost, since this was the case.

Of course, it is obviously a loss if you are indifferent about such a great bodhisattva, well we don’t even have to go there. Of course it is a great loss. 7

Another one is this example of the spider wisp plant, which is normally thought of as inedible. So there is no need to mention that if they get offered some sweets and so forth, of course they will want it.

The third example is of a man who leaves a walking stick in a bag with things he needed. He left it with a man and when he came back...rats and mice ate up everything I had. It was just awful! They even ate your walking stick.” So the man understood that if they even ate his walking stick, there was no need to mention about the bag. Of course they ate that.

So, the next verse, according to the outline, is about the “b. Suitability of cultivating appreciation. (1) Suitability of appreciating deeds difficult to perform.” We are still talking about the bodhisattvas.

The text says: It is proper to rid oneself of animosity toward Bodhisattvas and develop strong appreciation for them, since they do what is most difficult.

117. One who in all lives has the five Super-knowledges [appears] as inferior With a nature like the inferior— This is extremely hard to do.

A Bodhisattva who has attained forbearance as well as the find kinds of super-knowledge which will not decline throughout all future lives, may, in order to help sentient beings in the form of an inferior transmigrator in a bad rebirth, completely assume a body whose nature is like that of inferior beings such as worms, butterflies, buffalo and dogs with their appearance and voice. The feat of thus maturing sentient beings is extremely hard to perform. It is like the Bodhisattva who saw that many dogs would be harmed in the future and took rebirth as a dog to prevent it.

There is a story here about a bodhisattva: What happened was that a king had a favorite seat and the dog ate it. So, the king had the workers round up all the dogs into one place and destroy them all. Then, this bodhisattva dog hid himself under the king’s seat, his throne. The king saw him and said, “There is the guilty one! I lost my seat now it’s your turn to lose.” But then the dog spoke up for himself, “Why should I be punished and lose? We are dogs...we don’t know what should be eaten and what shouldn’t be eaten? What is it with killing all the dogs for what one dog ate? Do you do that with human beings? If one human being is punished and you execute him then do you execute all the human beings?” And so the king realized the dog had a point (and was amazed that he could talk and debate with him!!) and so he rescinded his order. 8

So, this has a point about the human inclination. Say someone from some group— say, the Muslims, nowadays—does something wrong, we have this tendency to blame the whole group. Really the law should be enforced for that one person, not for everyone. If a Buddhist does something wrong, how can every Buddhist be blamed for it? But we have a natural inclination to act in that way.

What is the point being made by the dog saying “We don’t know what should be eaten?”? The problem comes about because of ignorance—that they cannot distinguish. This is an analogy for how we cannot make a distinction between a single Muslim who did something bad and all Muslims. This bad action comes about [not because they are a Muslim] but because they have a wrong way of thinking, they are ignorant. They had a mistaken way of thinking. So there is no way you can wipe out all Muslims. So, what would be better with terrorists would be to try to understand their way of thinking, and eliminate that. There is no way of doing it by eliminating all the people themselves.

So then there is another story here that illustrates this same point. [Paraphrased from 142-143]: It is of a mother who was a serving woman who the king slept with. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son that the king never acknowledged. The son was discriminated against terribly by other children for having no father/being a bastard. He went to the mother and was very sad and asked her, “Who is my father?” And she told him that it was the king.

He said, “Why don’t you tell the king I’m his son?” And she replied, “No way! We will both be punished.” He was young enough to be sitting in the mother’s lap. He started crying and fussing, so the mother thought he will be like this the rest of his life, so he decided to go to the king while he was holding court. She would point at her son and the king would look in another direction. The boy said, why do you have to gesture in secret, why can’t you just speak up. So, she decided to speak up. The king said, “She’s lying throw her in prison!” And the servants were coming to grab her, but the boy levitated up from her lap and into the air and said, “Are you not pleased that I am your son?” So the king was amazed and said, “Please come down, holy being. If you take care of Indra, king of the gods, my son, surely you must take care of such as me” and made offerings to him, as was befitting.

There is another example of a bodhisattva bird that comes from a commentary by Chandrakirti. He was born in this whole flock of insectivores. As he or she was a bodhisattva-bird, he/she wouldn’t eat any bugs. They were living in a forest and there was a forest fire, so all the birds took off, but this one bodhisattva bird hadn’t been eating any bugs and the muscles weren’t formed enough to fly. So, the flock flew away and he made an oath of truth, “Well, if I’m a bodhisattva and have not eaten any bugs out of not wanting to harm then may this forest fire die out.” Just through the power of the truth of his actions, the fire died out. 9

Question and answers:

Sally: Is an arhat is a bodhisattva that doesn’t have to come back in a human form? These stories that you told, are they of arhats that came back to be helpful? Or bodhisattvas?

Geshe-la: When you talk about the arhat who has no remainder, it is talking about a different kind of spiritual development using the Hinayana path. The Mahayana path is what the bodhisattvas use, so they are attaining a mental body without remainder and being called an arhat at that point. A bodhisattva arhat is actually a buddha. But still, what the story is talking about/these stories are illustrating that bodhisattvas do not have a body and mind created like ourselves from karma and the afflictions. They have this through making a prayer, out of love and compassion. They have this super knowledge that sees things and then they take these forms. There is a certain stage when they have this mental body. But they don’t need that to take birth out of this. What causes them to be born in those lifetimes is their aspiration to be of help.

Someone else: If I might make a comment: the message is important but so is the messenger. In both stories, the dog and bird had their message...their message is so important that they had to become a lower being in order to be heard. The messenger is just as important. [NOTE: Not sure if I heard this statement/question properly.] [The import: Why do they have to be these special beings??]

Geshe-la: It has to be that...well, for the dog it really was that the dog had to have seen before hand that there was a lot of harm that would come to dogs and the dogs needed some kind of representative, for their own rights. They had to be represented from amongst the dogs and that is why the bodhisattva had to take that birth. For the young boy, I’m not sure. But with the dog he saw in the future and understood he had to be born as a dog.

Kathy: Is it saying that it takes something extraordinary to make a point to a really stupid person?

Geshe-la: It comes from the bodhisattva. They are thinking “If I take this low form of life” (whichever it might be)...they are able to see into the future, if I do this, it will be of benefit to all these inferior beings. It seems to be incidental that they have these unusual abilities. Their intent is to be of maximum benefit to all these beings.

There are plenty of other stories illustrating what a bodhisattva or buddha can do. They can take a form that is of maximum benefit to a large number of beings. So, there are even examples of Buddhas taking there is so much destruction that they even... there is so much vice going on that they come as a destroyer and destroy the religion, for instance, that is causing all 10 of this discord. They are able to see people’s dispositions and to see what is of maximum benefit to them in their situations.

Dedication