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

Questions

Are there are any questions?

Q. What happened to the other boy?

A. The younger boy who followed the Hinayana path became a great scholar and a great debater and was very learned. He studied the Abhidharma text which is the study of logic. One day he heard somebody teaching the Mahayana teachings but because he was a follower of the Hinayana path he didn’t have must positive feeling for the Mahayana so his brother was teaching the Mahayana but he didn’t have much faith for it. Then the younger brother said to the older brother (whose name was Togme) "Togme spent twelve years in the jungle and said he was meditating but I don’t think he really meditated I think he spent the time writing books! There is a really big pile of books he has written; there is no meaning to that!"

Then one day the elder brother Togme was with a student he was training to memorise two sutras. There were two students memorising the two sutras. Then Togme said to one of the students "in the morning go very early to the home of my younger brother, go behind the hut and recite aloud the sutra". Then he said to the second student "you go the back of the hut and you recite and memorise out loud your sutra there".

So then students did what was asked and one went in the morning and one went in the evening. Then the younger brother heard the sutra being recited and he thought to himself there is a lot of meaning in that sutra it is very nice. Then he thought maybe not only did my brother write books but maybe he did do some meditation. So then bit by bit slowly the younger brother went to the older brother's place and they debated the sutras and became quite friendly. These two brothers Togme and Yiknyi they became quite famous in India, so that’s what happened.

Q. When Buddha gained enlightenment he was approached by Indra and Brahma to turn the wheel of Dharma, can you tell me why? Because as a child I was told that it was because the gods were jealous.

A. Vishnu didn’t have jealousy for the Buddha they offered him the wheel as a symbolic request to turn the wheel of Dharma which meant to teach the Dharma. Brahma blew the conch and Vishnu gave the golden wheel.

Q. Rinpoche, Last night we talked about beings who do not have causes for happiness and that we should have feel compassion for them if there are people who are very difficult in life and you can have the generation in the mind that you can see that they have no causes for happiness, despite the fact that they are very difficult, does that have a beneficial effect on that person in as much as even though they have no causes for happiness your positivity can actually help them.

A. If they haven't got causes for happiness of course you can have compassion and loving kindness towards them, have this positive mind of helping them and at that moment you can be of some help but not ultimately because they don’t have these causes. But at that particular moment it is very beneficial. There are not any beings that never have any causes it doesn’t happen like that. There is always some cause some causes are very strong and some are weaker but there are always causes. The main cause is that they have the Buddha nature other causes may be that they are wishing for happiness and are trying to avoid suffering, that is also a cause.

For the benefit of understanding the Dharma and practising and for causing one to have the power to benefit sentient beings today we are studying the seven points of mind training. Of the seven points of mind training we have completed six of them, those are the teachings on the preliminary, the main practise of Bodhicitta training, transforming bad circumstances on the path, practising in this lifetime, evaluation of mind training and commitments of mind training. Then regarding what was taught yesterday evening if anyone has any questions maybe we can talk about that first.

Q. The unborn awareness and Alaya essence and when I looked in the book it said that the Alaya essence is like the eighth consciousness, there are eight consciousness' and the Alaya is the eighth one of them. So my question is if you meditate on the sense organs from the sense organs you go to the sense consciousness do you then go the mind consciousness then the seventh consciousness then the eighth consciousness, then is it like a progressive meditation from one consciousness to the next?

A. Within the practise of the shinay meditation there is a practise in regard to the five senses and also the sensations and so on so there is a kind of progression or supports one can use for the shinay. Then when it refers in the text to the Alaya it is not referring to the ground consciousness, which is the eighth consciousness what it is referring to in this text, is the mind's natural clarity. So then what does this mean the natural arising clarity of the mind? What it means is that from that clarity one can know everything there is a knowingness there. So because of that knowingness or awareness one can know all of the different mind states so then all of the different mind states arise from that naturally arising clarity. So then because of that natural arising clarity all of the objects which one perceives outwardly, such as form, taste, smell and so on arise from that, one can perceive them because of that. That is what we call the Alaya or the "all ground consciousness" in regard to the text.

Q. So the eighth consciousness is something else?

A. We are not talking about the eighth consciousness in this it doesn’t mean that. In this system there are eight consciousness' then it is number eight but we are not referring to that we are talking about the minds natural arising clarity that is what we are referring to in this text.

Q. So what is the difference between that and the Alaya?

A. In the eighth consciousness is the ground consciousness. In the classification of the eight consciousness then the difference is that the it’s the absence of the other consciousness' which is connected with the other six sense perceptions it is absent of that so there are also two different things that are different about it so there is the afflicted mind, because of having the afflicted consciousness then all of the mind poisons arise from that. Then there is the Alaya or the all ground consciousness. In the ground consciousness is also the not knowing, there is ignorance there so then one doesn’t recognise the object clearly, we are not referring to that consciousness at the moment that is in a different category. What we are referring to in the text is the natural arising clarity of the mind

If you don’t understand this in a gradual way later you will know, don’t worry it's not a problem now.

Q. Rinpoche last night when you were talking about ego clinging you said that the word should not be recognition it should be more like repudiation. I got a bit confused because then in Jamgon Kongtruls' text the translation mentions surrender rather than rejection I was just wondering if you could clarify that for me.

A. The example Rinpoche gives is the same as yesterday in that there is an old man who is surrounded by lots of children and they are constantly teasing him and saying bad things about him. Slowly he getting more and more unhappy and you'll go away so he is not peaceful at all he is quite frightened and tight and he can't relax. So that is what the word "sun" is. I have one book, which says recognition in another book it says to recognise the fault and reject it you have surrender; Rinpoche thinks reject is ok.

Q. What if, for example someone is saying" that’s no good you shouldn’t be doing that!" that would be an aspect of compassion how would you distinguish between that and just anger how do you draw the line?

The difference is that the mind of the person who appears to be angry but they have a heart of compassion in their mind they are wishing to benefit the other. So if that is really the case if they really have the mind based on loving kindness then they can manifest this wrathful aspect for the benefit of the person if the person is just angry they have the wish to harming the other person, the difference is whether they have the wish to harm the other person or not.

Q. So its motivation?

A. Yes, motivation.

Q. I read in the song on Milarepa that he says devotion and compassion are the same thing so obviously devotion is the higher?

A. They are the same from the view of emptiness they are the same that you have a virtuous mind because of them but in the way you practise with them that is different. They are the same in that they give you a virtuous mind and they are the same in the way in which your experiences can arise, you need to look at how the words are in the text. Before and after, don’t look at only one line look at its context.