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To begin with we develop the bodhimind. That is a term that comes out of Buddhism. There are two ways how to develop it: either through the 7 stage development or the exchange stage development. You have to learn what these methods are. I can’t give that to you in two days. That’s why we have the courses running. Not only for the 7 stages and the exchange stage, but also the prerequisites. The way we present these classes is by opening with a course called “Creating Space”. Then we present a course on my book Good Life – Good Death [course title: Art of Living], the basis of life and death.

Recently somebody told me they went to a big book event, where she saw a huge sign Good Life Good Death – she thought that was something about my book and went in to look, but it had nothing to do with my book. People are picking up this title. Good Life – Good Death deals with the fundamental basis of the spiritual path: why one needs it, what one should do, what one hopes to do. I introduce the basic goals of the spiritual path and what makes something a spiritual path. That way, after Creating Space you see with Good Life – Good Death the basic foundation on which to practice. Then comes the Three Principle Aspects of the Path. That tells you what the three most important things are: help yourself, help others, get wisdom. That is a very brief introduction. Then in some more detail we have the Odyssey to Freedom course. These are the basic points how to come up with a structure. Along with that is the guru practice that is covered in the Ganden Lhagyema practice. Then there is White Tara for longevity, health and healing. When you are in the courses you will see how that works with you. It builds up your spiritual foundation and with that you can make yourself independent in the spiritual field. That’s the goal: to function independently and manage by yourself in the spiritual field. That’s how we try to serve people.

If you want to do better than that, you can try to help others and guide them through. You can do that as dharma facilitator and later as dharma instructor. That is the structure we are working through. Ultimately, of course there is the vajrayana practice which really delivers the goods. But vajrayana without a good foundation of the Mahayana is very good as well as very dangerous. The example is this: if a blind crippled person happens to be on a tree branch and that happens to fall off the tree and lands on a tiger and the tiger is running with you. So that is your once chance. You are sitting on the back of the tiger. So make best use of it and run with it. Try not to fall. That is the example of the vajrayana.

Within the foundational prerequisite courses I mentioned the Three Principles and the first principle is: how to help yourself. Why do you need to help yourself? If you don’t help yourself, who else is going to help you? Every external source, Buddha or any other enlightened beings, teachers, spiritual masters, great beings, all can only assist you. They cannot be you. There is no instant enlightenment, no instant development. There is instant coffee, but as I said yesterday, it’s not that great. I also learnt, if you have your own coffee beans and roast them yourself you get very good coffee. It’s organic and roasted to just the right level – so the coffee tastes great.

Like that, you have to do everything by yourself. Spiritual development is organic. There is no miracle grow for it. Actually, vajrayana is like miracle grow. It really pushes all the plants to bloom quickly and be there longer and so on. So the first principle: how to help yourself – shows you what to do. Remember, lots of people say “I am interested, I like it, I have joined, so now what do I do?” So the first principle tells you what to do. If you want bus stop business, that’s what it is: help yourself, help others, get wisdom. And you may like to get some miracle grow too.

Out of these three, the “helping others” is a great thing, no doubt about it. But just helping others is very different from helping them with the great precious bodhimind. That is the mind that confirms you to become a Buddha. Don’t think of Buddha just as the Buddhist Buddha alone. Every enlightened being to me – all the great beings – are Buddha. “Buddha” happens to be a technical name used by Buddhists to refer to the ultimate achievement. There may be some technical differences, but it is basically the same thing. It is the same difference as between Apple and Windows. They have different systems, but both work. The ultimate purpose is to get your work done with speed and capability. Ultimately it is the same thing. Whether you use Apple or Microsoft – it is the same thing in the end. So likewise on the spiritual path. You may come through the Judeo-Christian or the Hindu-Buddhist tradition. The ultimate goal and level will be the same thing. There is no way that any reasonable person could say that Jesus is not a Buddha. “Buddha” is just a technical name, referring to an enlightened being. So from the Buddhist point of view the mind that earmarks you to become a Buddha is called bodhimind.

Why are you earmarked? Until you have generated this bodhimind every positive virtue will not necessarily confirm you to become a Buddha. It can give you the result of a good life, or good future life. Lots of virtuous karmas can give you the joys of samsaric picnic spots. Those virtues are not necessarily earmarked for you to become a Buddha. Many go out of samsara, but even then they only give you nirvana. That’s great. Buddha said: samsara is suffering – nirvana is peace. One of the four Buddhist logos or mission statement says: Nirvana is peace.

The four Buddhist logos are:

All created things are impermanent

All contaminated things are suffering

All phenomena are the nature of emptiness

Nirvana is Peace

Nirvana is Peace, no doubt about it. But from the Mahayana point of view, nirvana is considered a source of fear. There are two fears; samsaric and nirvanic fear. We want to be free of the fears of samsara and nirvana. In the Mahayana there is only one ultimate yana, from whatever level, wherever you come from, it doesn’t matter. Ultimately everybody should be totally enlightened.

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That is the total achievement. Yana means vehicle. So whatever vehicle you take will ultimately get to the right place. When you desire to become a Buddha, then all the positive virtues you accumulate are ear marked for that purpose – that’s why I said they confirm you to become a Buddha. So you will be a bodhisattva, because you have the bodhimind. That is extremely precious and important.

Shantideva says in the bodhisattvacharyavatara (Tib: chö jung)

If you develop the bodhimind, then whatever you may be – a badly suffering person in samsara – you will be revered as a child of the Buddha. You will be the object of worship by all samsaric gods and human beings.

In other words, if you develop bodhimind you will be like a Prince of Wales, who is going to become King of England – if the Queen ever steps down! Nowadays the Prince of Wales is not necessarily becoming King of England. It depends on how long the queen stays.

But there are many thrones of enlightenment and they can all be occupied simultaneously – it is not in one person’s control at all. So you have been earmarked to become a fully enlightened one. This is 2600 old wisdom. They say that no matter how immature a prince you may be, you are more superior to the seasoned, most learned, capable ministers. It is true. In kingdoms, the members of the royal family are earmarked for the throne. No matter how learned the ministers may be they are going to be superseded by the royal family. We just saw in the last two weeks what happened in Saudi Arabia. That’s how it works in the system of the old kingdoms. Buddha came in that period and that’s why they gave that example.

If you look into the bodhisattvacharyavatara, the first chapter is all about the benefits of the bodhimind. For example, normally for purification we are told to say Vajrasattva purification or do prostrations, circumambulations or mandala offerings. They are great, no doubt about it, but according to the bodhisattvacharyavatara,

Such powerful negativities cannot be purified by anything else other than this great mind.

If you develop bodhimind, even if you don’t do anything but become a couch potato, the bodhimind itself is active for purification, and as accumulation of merit. It is like a great investment. When you are done, you can lie down and sleep or do whatever, but your money is working for you. It is exactly the same thing here. Once you have developed the bodhimind, it is a great investment. You may do nothing and be a couch potato, but your virtues are working for you, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They don’t take a day off. These are the benefits of the bodhimind. So as I told you yesterday, there are two types of bodhimind: relative and absolute bodhimind. You are going to hear this terminology quite often. What is true bodhimind? The relative bodhimind. Absolute bodhimind means when that relative bodhimind joins with wisdom then it become absolute bodhimind. Let’s not have a misunderstanding here. You will say, “Truth is truth”, but it’s not. In this particular case, the relative bodhimind is the true bodhimind. Combined with wisdom, it becomes absolute bodhimind. Bodhimind, the great unlimited, unconditional, ultimate love and compassion combined with wisdom becomes absolute bodhimind.

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There is another division of the bodhimind: prayer form and action form. We begin with the prayer form, wishing. Then we act according to those wishes. So there is wishing and action bodhimind. Whether prayer – or action form has to come through either the 7 stages or the exchange stages. The seven stages are to recognize all sentient beings as the closest and dearest mother like beings. Then remember their kindness and repay their kindness. Then develop love, then great compassion, then the special mind and then the bodhimind. First is seeing everyone as close and connected and not only close, but very close. Because of reincarnation no one can say that anybody has not been their mother in one life time or another. Then, every time they were the closest, they have saved our life and helped a tremendous amount. When you know you are indebted to their kindness, you like to repay them in whatever way you can. You can’t just take everything and give nothing back. That doesn’t work. Then develop great love for all beings and great compassion for all beings. It is ‘great’ because the object you focus on, with either love or compassion, is not just one or two people, but all beings. That’s great compassion. The special mind is thinking, “Whether I can do it or not, I don’t care, but I am going to do it and help them, serve them, because they need it badly. They are like a blind mother who is about to fall into the fire pit. I am over here, watching and I just can’t stand here and watch and do nothing. I have to run and grab her and pull her out of that danger. I am going to do it, whatever it may take.” That’s the good old American attitude, “I am going to do it.”

When you want to really do it and you don’t know what to do, then you realize there is so much suffering for so many people and you are just one single person and what can you do? Therefore you need the best tools possible and that is ultimate enlightenment. You have total knowledge. Then you don’t have to ask, “What can do for you?” You know exactly what to do. That’s what total knowledge is all about. The moment you wish to develop total enlightenment, that is the wishing bodhimind – wishing to become a fully enlightened Buddha. Very briefly, that is the 7 stage system. I will talk about the exchange state system later. But whether it is the 7 stages or the exchange stages, the basis on which you work is equanimity.

Equanimity is a funny word. But all the lojongs come out of Buddha’s short sutra called bad ö pa. In that sutra Buddha says:

You should have equal feelings to all living beings and take all of them are your nearest and dearest, like your own parents or children. Always have love for all. With the attitude of love and helping, develop your mind.

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That equanimity is known in Tibetan as tang nyong. What does that mean? In the Four Immeasurables (tib: tse me zhi) we say for the immeasurable of equanimity (Tib: tse me tang nyom):

May all beings be free from attachment and hatred.

That equanimity and the equanimity before developing bodhimind has the same name, but they are two different things. They are both called equanimity, but they are different.

Within the Four Immeasurables you look at all living beings and see why they are suffering. They are suffering, because their minds have been influenced by hatred or obsession. Therefore, I would like them to be balanced and free of that hatred and obsession. I am simply wishing and praying that they will be free of obsession and hatred. You are looking at all sentient beings, seeing their suffering caused by hatred and obsession and wishing them to be balanced between these and free from these.

At the preliminary stage to the 7 stages of bodhimind you go one more step. In my, the practitioner’s mind I would like to block my hatred to my enemy and my obsession to my so-called friends. My mind should be free of obsession and hatred. I want to block these and be free of these. I want equanimity within me, so that I won’t be fooled by hatred and obsession. I don’t want that pull and push within me. You see the difference? The first is looking at them, the second is looking at my own mind.

When you look at the exchange stage then the equanimity goes even beyond that level. Here it is not only blocking my hatred and obsession in my mind. I take one more step: to serve and help and bring joy to the people and to remove their suffering. In other words, my love and compassion to all living beings has to be equally weighted. You see even within equanimity you see three different levels. Let’s call the first one superficial – though it’s not. The second one is deeper than that and the third one is much deeper than that. Before we talk about any steps leading to bodhimind we have to see that equanimity already has three different levels.

You be the judge of which one of them you would like to become. Normally, you get accustomed with the first level of the Four Immeasurables, then you go a little deeper and finally, on the third you go down as deep as possible. That’s normally recommended. But it’s entirely your choice. How do you do it? That is a meditation for training your mind.

In the usual meditation we look at someone who is labeled ‘enemy’. Maybe it is Saddam or Bush or whoever. Somebody called friend is there too. Now that could also be Bush or Saddam or Clinton or whoever it is for you. Those labels are impermanent anyway. Friends become enemies, enemies become friends. That can change between morning and evening. It can change between the beginning of your life and the end of your life. You can see big changes. It that didn’t happen, there would be no divorces and no court cases and company break ups. It does happen. That’s obvious. It happens all the time.

So take someone you like very much at the moment – your best partner, who you have good feelings towards. Then think of someone who at this moment you hate. Observe your own mental behavior towards these different people. What do you do? Then see why you do it. Then see, whether your reasons are valid or invalid. You don’t do such a thing without reason. If you follow Buddhism and especially Tibetan Buddhism, you don’t do things randomly. For every step you take you have to have solid, valid reasons. Then you take the step. You don’t do something just because “I felt good this morning and thought I might do this today.” You don’t just do that. Most importantly, don’t do your spiritual practice like that. The gurus and yidams that you take, you take with good reasons. If your reasoning is solid then it is fine. If you don’t have reasons and you do things just because you “feel like it”, then that is what Trungpa Rimpoche called “Love and Light”.

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It is wonderful terminology. Trungpa Rimpoche said a lot of beautiful things. When I got in this country what he said didn’t make any sense to me, neither “love and light”, nor “spiritual materialism”. So when you begin to work with the fellow citizens of the United States and the Western Europeans then everything he talks about begins to make sense. So every step I took I discovered that he already did it and we came to the same conclusions in the end. Trungpa wrote a book called Cutting through Spiritual Materialism. It is fantastic – when you know what that really is. Now I have to write an article on spiritual materialism, because the Shambala people keep on asking me. If Trungpa Rinpoche were still alive I would talk to him, but anyway it is great. I found three different layers of spiritual materialism and wrote a short article on it in the Shambala magazine. That is Trungpa’s magazine.

So everything you do has to have a valid reason. What not to do is this: don’t do anything if you don’t know what you are doing. You are better off not doing it. Look for reasons. Find good reasons and follow them. What are good reasons? Valid reasons. A number of spiritual people would like to ask their guru what they should do. Some gurus like to entertain that and tell everybody to do this and that – just like the European ambulance – di too – di too – di too…

I don’t entertain that at all. You have a beautiful mind, so use it. If you want suggestions, maybe we can offer one or two here and there. Guidance we offer during the teaching. The teaching is well established and authentic. It comes from 2600 years old wisdom, followed by a continuing line of people who were successful with it.

That cannot be wrong, unless you are giving a teaching that you just cook up by picking up things from here and there. I am not criticizing New Age, but that is how it is done and that’s not right. I have been saying to my editor, “Sounds like picking up the head of a lion and the tail of a dog and trying to join them. It doesn’t work.” You have to have the body in between that matches. So use your own wonderful mind of intuition and reasoning and don’t rely too much on your intuition, because that can be wrong. Valid reasoning is solid. That will be right. Even today, a lot of scientists are now picking up Tibetan Buddhism and try to see how the mind works and what it is. They are finding it extremely helpful. You can read lots of articles that show the Dalai Lama participating here and there. That’s all because of using valid reasons for confirmation of the work you are doing. This is not Tibetan thought – this is Buddha’s teaching. Buddha himself said:

Just don’t buy it because I said so. Investigate just like when you are buying gold. You cut the gold, burn it, rub it, and make sure it is gold, before you pay a lot of money for it.

So Buddha says we should do the same thing with his teachings. So don’t ever underestimate your own intelligence and your own mind and use reasons. Don’t do something because “he said so” or “she said so.”

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That is never right and can mislead your life. All these incidents we had with Jim Jones, Heaven’s Gate and so on have come because of “he said so”, “she said so.”

So here we are talking about something almost impossible: equally having love for all and not having hatred for anyone, including Saddam Hussein or whoever. The enemy changes from time to time. The first that we remember is Hitler, then all kinds of different dictators came, like Chairman Mao, Stalin and others. Here it says: hate no one, love all. It is impossible to do. You have to ask yourself and whoever tells you that: why? Then you will begin to see the reasons.

In my book Good Life Good Death I mentioned that if you have the panoramic view of life you will see differently than through the usual limited window. We look through the limited window between birth and death of this life. We think we begin here and end here. Then it opens up. It is a panoramic view of life that you see. When you see that then whatever tiny little reasons you had you will see that they are no longer valid. When you have a child of yours, let’s say a teenage boy of 16 or 17. When they say, “I don’t like that person, I love that person”, etc, they think they have very valid reasons. But as a parent you see more than that, right? You know the reason he likes some guy is “because we are buddies”. And the reason he hates that girl is “because she stood me up last night.” These are not really valid reasons to hate someone or be obsessed with someone. As a grown up person we see differently.

Likewise, when you have the panoramic view of life after life, the reasons you give that apply to only this life are not really valid. You hate a person so much today because he insulted you yesterday in public. Your hot temper is boiling today. But that is not reason enough to hate him. He can become a very useful good friend tomorrow. Don’t forget. Don’t be so obsessed with a person today, because he or she will know all your secrets and can turn against you tomorrow.

The most important point is impermanence – for every perspective on friend, enemy or stranger. Secondly, they are all arising interdependently. Therefore, terms and conditions make a difference. Our view of so much black and white, enemies and friends, hatred and obsession are truly not that valid. Similarly, red states, blue states are most impermanent and unreliable. People change – and so they should. Someone told me yesterday that if Ohio can become blue then Michigan can become red. Sure, why not? You might see it in the next election. You never know. It is possible, not impossible. No one can be taken for granted, not anyone and not anything.

So therefore, the mind of obsession and hatred, the reasons we have for them are not really valid. You may say, “It’s because I like him or her”. That’s wonderful, but sometimes pigs fall in love with the person who looks after the pigs. That’s really true!

That’s how you establish the equanimity between the so-called enemy and friend and the one you couldn’t care less about. The reasons coming from our mind are really not that valid. I can’t tell you so much, because we have a time limit. We do have a transcript on lojong. I did that quite well. Still, there is going to be more additions and clarifications, and it will come out some day, but still even now it gives you quite good reasons. Do read it and you will know more. There are nine different reasons: because of you, because of them, etc. With all these reasons, finally you have to have conclusions.

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