The Very Venerable Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

The Seven Points Of Mind Training

Birmingham Karma Ling, December 2002

VI. The Commitments of the Mind Training

A. Three General Principles

1. Always abide by the three basic principles.

The first one is not to break the promises one has made in the mind training. The second one is not to behave in an outrageous way, and the third one is to avoid being one-sided

The first one related to breaking promises made in the mind training. An example of this is if we see a person who we don't like and we think even if in the future I can help you I will not do so. If we have that attitude it is said that we have broken our promise. If we have an enemy who hurts us and we become angry with them. If we think in spite of this present harm I will one day bring you to the level of Buddhahood, then that is good.

Now I am going to hit you all! Later I will take you all to enlightenment, but now I'm going to hit you. If you all hit me that's ok, (just joking). When I said that you could all hit me that was a joke, but when I said I was going to hit you that was real. Is that ok?

One may think that now I am practising the mind training and I'm a Bodhisattva. Now other people will praise me and respect me. Now I'm a Bodhisattva and I can do anything I want, thinking this one may do things that upset people. But one is only really able to do things on the level one is at. For example, with generosity if one can only give £1 then one does it. If you are unable to give £100 then one can't. If you have a very high experience and realisation of emptiness and have an illusory body then one can give away one's flesh to whoever needs it. If one doesn't have such a realisation then one cannot give away one's flesh.Some people think they have a very great understanding and that their view is higher than anyone else. This is said to be an obstacle on one's Dharma path.

When we see our family and friends we treat them very nicely and say pleasant things to them. If we see our enemies we are not so pleasant. If we see demons we say wrathful mantras like Hung! Hung! Peh! Peh! If we have an attitude of compassion it is permissible to manifest as a wrathful deity. Such as Mahakala when one draws in the consciousness of the harm doers, these beings who can only be tamed by wrathful means. It is all right to do this. If there is a person who harms a lot of beings it is permissible to argue with him and fight him. The reason being that out of compassion I prevent him from harming others and himself by making him stop his harmful activity. This person doesn't create any more bad karma and so if one's actions are based in compassion it is ok to argue and fight with him.

One manifests anger towards this person not out of fear but compassion. If one has a lot of compassion then one does not experience hope and fear. One is never fearful.

I will leave the text for today and tell you a story. A very nice story.

In India a long time after the Buddha had passed away and his teachings had declined somewhat. There was a lady lay practitioner who thought now the Buddhas teaching are in decline I must do something to help the teachings. Now the lady wasn't very learned or experienced so she thought what can I do? If I have to sons then they can study and learn the Dharma and be of benefit to beings and spread the teachings. Some time later she gave birth to two sons.

Now she thought nowadays in India there is both the Hinayana and Mahayana teachings so she sent the younger son to study the Hinayana and the elder son to study the Mahayana. The elder son studied the Mahayana but he wasn't too clever so he didn't understand much. He thought if I pray to Lord Maitreya and I meet him face to face I would ask him to teach me the Dharma.

He went off to the jungle and meditated in a cave onLord Maitreya. He wanted to have a vision of Lord Maitreya. He practised for six years without any good signs or dreams. So one day he thought I can't do this I may as well leave the jungle. On his way he came across a man who was at the bottom of a mountain rubbing a big rock with a soft cloth. "What are you trying to do with this rock what are you trying to achieve?" The man said "well my house is at the bottom of this mountain and the mountain is in the way of the sunlight and I don’t get any sunlight so I want to get rid of the mountain". He wanted to destroy the mountain and take it away.

So then the older son says to this man "you are just one person how can you expect to take it away" and he replied " well if you have got diligence then you can accomplish anything". Then the older boy thought this man must have great diligence, but its all for a meaningless thing he is just going to take away the mountain. I've been practising hard for six years maybe I just don’t have as much diligence but I've been trying to practise this very good thing and I don’t have as much diligence as this old man has.

So then he went back to his cave in the mountains and meditated for a further three years. Again nothing happened, no signs, he didn’t have any positive dreams so then again he thought I am not going to be able to realise this practise of the lord Maitreya so he abandoned his cave again and went off walking. He went walking for many months then he came to a village and there was a man sitting there with a big iron bar and he was wiping the bar with a soft cloth. This man was working from early morning to late at night and was polishing this iron bar with the cloth. The boy said to him "what are you doing?" He said "in this area we never get any needles so I'm making a sewing needle". So he was working very strongly wiping this big iron bar with a soft cloth. The boy said to him "do you think from that big metal pole you will make a small needle?" The man said "of course I can if I have diligence I can accomplish anything people have done this before they just keep rubbing like this and they get a needle".

Then the boy became really embarrassed so then he thought well I really do not have diligence. So he took himself back to his cave and meditated for a further three years. Again he didn’t get any result any good signs, no good dreams then he got mala and threw it away got his text and threw it away and left the cave. Then he went off walking aimlessly but was quite happy though.

Then he saw a big rock with a stream running in front of the rock then next to that was a very small path and below the path was a lot of water. Lying down on the path was a dog .The stomach of the dog was ripped open and full of sores and there were many maggots eating in the sores. When the boy approached the dog the dog wanted to bite him. Then the dog was lying across the path and was completely blocking the way, his legs were hanging over and his stomach was moving around with all of the maggots.

The boy generated great compassion for the dog then he thought that dog is experiencing so much pain and suffering and although he is experiencing all of this pain and suffering because of his anger or negative mind he is trying to bite me. He doesn’t know anything else he is under the power of these emotions and the pain so he thought I must try to help this poor dog.

Then he thought if I was very gentle and quite slow maybe I could remove some of the maggots from the wounds of the dog. But he thought if I grab the maggots with my fingers maybe they will die too. So he was thinking how he could help this dog. He couldn’t think of anything to do so he thought maybe he would go away but he could not just leave the dog there because of this great compassion he had so he started to cry. Then he thought I have an idea I will bend down close to the dog and I will get my tongue to lick the maggots away from the wound so he went down towards the dog with his tongue to lick the maggots away and the wounds had a very terrible smell then when he got close to the wounds and smelt them he was unable to put his tongue out so he was thinking what to do. I will close my eyes and hold my nose and just lick the maggots out so he went closer and closer with his tongue out until his tongue touched the ground. When he opened his eyes there was no dog there, instead in front of him in the sky was the lord Maitreya.

He was really surprised and happy. Then he said to lord Maitreya "I have been practising you for twelve years now wanting to see you face to face and you have never shown your face to me before I don’t think you have any compassion! I think you are really bad" so then he said this and then the Buddha Maitreya smiled back very nicely to him. (If Maitreya hadn't smiled at him maybe the boy would have hit the Buddha -Just joking)

Then the Buddha Maitreya replied to the boy "when you first began your retreat I was there with you I was never separate from you but you were unable to see me because your mind was obscured by the defilements so you were unable to see me. Then after your twelve years of practising your defilements were somewhat purified so you were able to see me in the form of the dog. But when you generated great compassion for the suffering of the dog it purified all the remaining obscurations you had in your mind and then you were able to see me and that is because of the power of your compassion".

Then the Buddha Maitreya said to him "maybe you don’t have trust in what I say, maybe you don’t believe me but I want to sit on your right shoulder, we will go to town and you ask everybody you see what's on my right shoulder".

So then the boy went to town and asked everybody "what have I got on my right shoulder?" Then the people in the village thought he was a crazy monk they couldn’t see anything on his right shoulder.

Then he went from one side of town to the other and was almost outside of the town limits and there was a very old lady there who covered up her mouth with a shawl and said "oh you have got a stinking corpse of a dog on your shoulder and if you keep it close to you you'll catch maggots in your face you should throw it away immediately!"

The reason the old woman could see the dog is because a lot of her obscurations had been purified before and she could see this form of the dog. So in the boys mind great faith and devotion arose for the lord Maitreya. So then the lord Maitreya taught him five great teachings and then later on the young man toured around India teaching these five great teachings. So in the end it all worked out fine.

Then at the time when he was practising he didn’t have limitless compassion but he had compassion for what he perceived as the sick dog and it was this that purified his defilements. So then if one has this Bodhicitta mind and the generation of the limitless compassion then that is the most beneficial thing one can have. What is the most beneficial thing one can have to purify our negative mind states and defilements it is this limitless compassion.