《中英對照》你可以更慈悲
頂果欽哲法王說明《菩薩37種修行之道》
The Heart Of Compassion
THE THIRTY-SEVEN VERSES ON THE PRACTICE OF A BODHISATTVA
Root text: Gyalse Ngulchu Thogme
Teaching by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
《Introduction》
THE BUDDHA'S TEACHINGS describe a number of paths and vehicles. In different ways, all of them lead to liberation from samsara's sufferings and culminate in enlightment. But it is the teachings of the Mahayana, or Great Vechicle, that are the most profound of all. And of sential meaning can be found in the pith instructions of the great spiritual teachers, in a condensed form that is easy to put into practice. The particular pith instructions I will be explaining here deal with the bodhichitta -- the determination to attain enlightenment for the benefit of others.
As on any occasion when teachings are to be given, we -- both the teacher and his audience -- should begin by saying prayers to all the buddhas of the past, present, and future and by receiving their blessings. We should then pray for the blessings of all the great teachers of the Eight Great Chariots (28), the principal Buddhist traditions brought from India to Tibet. You as reader, should make sure you have the proper ,motivation, which is to receive the teachings in order to be able to attain enlightenment for the sake of others. To generate such an attitude in everything you do is the basis of the bodhichitta.
Living beings are as limitless as space itself. But the lives we have all lived are limitless too - so over all those countless lives, we much rurely have had all sorts of connections to every other living being. Indeed, every single being must have been your mother at least once. Down to the tinest insect, what every living being wants and tries to do is to enjoy real happiness and freedom, and to avoid suffering. But the vast majority of them are completely unaware that happiness is the result of positive actions and that suffering is the result of negative ones. In their efforts to be happy, they spend all their time in negatice actions, which therefore only brings them more suffering, the very opposite of what they intend. When you think about this state to affairs, a feeling of great compassion naturally arises in you.
On a practical level, however, the mere fact that you feel compassion for them is of no use whatsoever to all thise beings. So, what can you do to actually help them? You now have a human existence with all its freedoms and advantages, and especially the immense fortune of having encountered and started to practice the supreme Dharma. You have met an authentic spiritual teacher and are in the process of receiving teachings that will enable you to reach buddhahood in a single lifetime. To make full use of this precious opportunity, you must not only listen to the teachings but also put them into practice. That way your feelings of compassion can be put to work, to the point that you will eventually be able to bring all living beings to enlightenment. As things are at present, however strongly you may want to help others, you are a beginner and lack the capacity to do anything much for them. The first step you need to take toward being really useful to others, therefore, is to perfect yourself, by training and transforming your mind.
The way you are now, your mind is powerfully influenced by the clinging attachment you have to friends, relatives and anyone who brings you satisfaction, and by your hostile feelings toward whoever seems to go against your wishes and toward all those who prevent you from acquiring wealth, comfort, and pleasure and whom you therefore regard with aversion as enemies. In your delusion, you do whatever you can to benefit yourself and those you like, and try to overcome and eliminate all those you consider enemies with such aversion that you can hardly bear even to hear their names. Over countless lifetimes you have been dragged into samsara, this vicious ocean of existence, and carried away by these strong currents of attachment and aversion. Attachment and aversion are the very cause of samsara, the very reason for our endless wandering in the circle of existence.
Consider carefully what you mean by friends and enemies. When you look into it, it is obvious that there are no such things as permanent enduring friends or enemies. Those you think of as friends have not always been so. Indeed, they may well have been your enemies in the past, or they could become your enemies in the future. There is nothing certain about it. Why should you be so compulsively attached to particular people? Are not all your relationships temporary? In the end, what ever may happen during your life, the time will come for you to die. Then you will have no choice but to part from everyone, regardless of whether you feel attachment of aversion for them. But everything you have done in your lifetime, all those actions motivated by attachment and aversion, will have created within you a force that will then propel you to the next life, in which you will experience their result.
So, if they want to travel the path to buddhahood, give up attachment to friends and relatives and hatred for enemies. Regard all beings with impartial equanimity. If people now seem to be either or enemies, it is just the result of past connetiones and actions. To ascribe any solid reality to those feelings of attachment and aversion, arising as they do from mistaken and confused perceptions, is just delusion. It is like mistaking a rope, lying in your path in the twilight, for a snake -- you might feel afraid, but that does not mean your fear has any real basis. The rope never was a snake.
Why do you feel attachment and aversion, and where do they come from? Fundamentally, their origin lies in the idea you have of being a truly existing individual. Once that idea is present, you develop all kinds of concepts, such as "my body," "my mind," "my name." You identify with these three things, and whatever seems agreeable to them, you cling to it. Whatever is unpleasant or repugnant to them, you want to be rid of it. The slighest suffering, such as being pricked by a thorn or being hit by a spark from the fire, upsets you. If someone wrongs you, you retaliate by doing them as much harm as possible. The minutest good action you might do for others fills you with pride. As long as this self-cherishing attitude remains deeply anchored in your being, there is no way you will be able to reach enlightenment. The idea of being a truly existing individual is ignorance at its most basic level, from which all the other negative emotions arise.
Even when you find yourself in the best of situations, you never feel it is enough. You always want more. You give little thought to others' wishes and desires, and only want favourable circumstances for yourself. If you do the slightest favor for someone, you feel you have done something quite extraordinary. That you are so preoccupied with your own happiness and welfare, and neglect the welfare and happiness of others, is the reason you are wandering in samsara. As Shantideva (29) says:
All the joy the world contains
Has come through wishing happiness for others.
All the misery the world contains
Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.
Should you be fortunate enough to have recognized that the only lasting, true happiness is that of Buddhahood, and that actions with samsaric motives just result in suffering, you must apply yourself to help everyone recognize this. If you train and tame your mind, all clinging to notions of "friend" and "enemy" will vanish, and you will perceive everyone as your parents, brothers and sisters.
The view of the bodhisattvas -- those engaged in practicing the Mahayana path -- is to let go of the whole idea of a truly existing self. Once that preoccupation with one's self is no longer present, there can be no hatred, selfish attachment, pride, jealousy or ignorance.
The different teachings of the Buddha can be divided into two major approaches at different levels: the Basic Vehicles or Hinayana, and the Great Vehicle or Mahayana. The two do not contradict each other. However, when practiced correctly, the Mahayana naturally includes the teachings of the Hinayana. Within the Mahayana are countless profound instructions, but the essence of them all is that you need to train your mind -- to rid it of attachment and hatred, to dispel everything that obscures it from perceiving clearly, and to dedicate the results of all your positive actions to the benefit of all beings.
The mind set on enlightenment, the bodhichitta, is to consider that whatever you do -- whether you do a single prostration, recite just one rosary of mantras, or give rise to a single good though -- is for the sake of all living beings. This is the most precious wish, to attain buddhahood solely for the benefit of others.
Of all the vast and profound teachings on bodhichitta, the essence is to be found in this text, the instructions known as The Thirty-Seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva by Gyalse Ngulchu Thogme, who was Avalokiteshvara himself appearing in the form of a spiritual teacher in fourteenth-century Tibet. There is no doubt that if, while studying and reflecting on the precepts explained here, you manage to give rise to genuinely altruistic thoughts, the bodhichitta will effortlessly form within you. And once the bodhichitta is properly established in your mind, you will posses the very root of all teachings of the Sutrayana, Mahayana, Mantrayana, Mahamudra, and Great Perfection.
Constanly check you actions and intensions against each verse of this text, one by one, and any practice your engage in will progress and bear fruit with the greatest of ease. Permeate your mind with these teachings day by day, month by month, and without difficulty you will naturally awaken and develop within you all the qualities of a bodhisattva, just as a bee flying from flower to flower sips nectar from each, and from that nectar produces honey.