Universal Compassion

[florin.oltean75]

THE LINEAGE

Every living being has the same basic wish - to be happy and to avoid suffering.

Even newborn babies, animals, and insects have this wish.

It has been our main wish since beginningless time and it is with us all the time, even during our sleep.

We spend our whole life working hard to fulfil this wish.

Since this world evolved, human beings have spent much time and energy improving external conditions in their search for happiness and a solution to their many problems.

What has been the result?

Instead of their wishes being fulfilled, human suffering has continued to increase while the experience of happiness and peace is decreasing.

This clearly shows that we need to find a true method for gaining pure happiness and freedom from misery.

All our problems and all our unhappiness are created by our uncontrolled mind and our non-virtuous actions.

By engaging in the practice of Dharma, we can learn
• to pacify and control our mind,
• abandon non-virtuous actions and their root cause,
and thereby attain permanent peace, the true cessation of all our suffering.

The supreme Dharma of training the mind (Tib.Lojong) is an unsurpassed method for controlling our mind, and reveals the principal path to enlightenment.

There are many different sets of Lojong instructions, such as those contained in the One Hundred Practices of Training the Mind.

The present text, Universal Compassion, explains how to put into practice the Lojong instructions given by Bodhisattva Geshe Chekhawa in his root text Training the Mind in Seven Points.

The seven points are:
1 The preliminary practices of training the mind
2 The main practice: training in the two bodhichittas
3 Transforming adverse conditions into the path to enlightenment
4 How to integrate all our daily practices
5 The measurement of success in training the mind
6 The commitments of training the mind
7 The precepts of training the mind

The first point, the preliminary practices, is the preparation for engaging in the principal path to enlightenment, and the second point is the principal path itself.

The five remaining points are the methods for completing the principal path.

To have the opportunity to practise this precious and profound teaching is infinitely more meaningful than being given all the precious jewels in the world.

If we understand how extremely worthwhile it is to read, listen to, study, contemplate, and engage in the practice of this very special Dharma, we will do so with great faith and a happy mind.


Geshe Kelsang Gyatso,
Tharpaland,
November 1987.