The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion
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Four Aspects of Great Compassion (mahakaruna)
1. Mahakaruna itself / big vision
2. Luminosity / öselwa
3. Skillfulness / thapla khepa
4. Peace / shiwa
PART FIVE: EMPTINESS AND COMPASSION
Chapter 18. Emptiness
Three Types of Emptiness
1. External
2. Internal
3. Absolute
Chapter 19. Discovering a World beyond Ego
Chapter 20. Emptiness and the Middle Way
Two Extreme Views
1. Eternalism
2. Nihilism
Chapter 21. Realizing the Emptiness of Ordinary Reality
Three Levels of Madhyamaka
1. Ground / understanding the two truths
2. Path / taking leaps of pragmatic action
3. Fruition / the ten bodhisattva bhumis
Two Levels of Perceiving Shunyata
1. Superficial prajna perception / relative truth
2. Transcendental prajna perception / ultimate truth.
Two Types of Relative Truth / Kündzop
1. False kündzop
2. True kündzop
Chapter 22. Experiencing Reality in Its Fullest Sense
Two Types of Absolute Truth / Töndam
1. Countable
2. Uncountable
Fourfold Definition of Ultimate Truth
1. Joy
2. Purity
3. Permanence / lakshana
4. Being
Chapter 23. Contemplating Emptiness
Four Ways of Overcoming Random Labeling / Küntak
1. Examining the cause
2. Examining the effect
3. Examining both the cause and effect
4. Examining the nature of the whole thing
Chapter 24. Awakening Unfabricated Perception
The Seven Riches of Supreme Beings
1. Not being distracted by the sense experiences
2. Diligent practice
3. Joy, or faith
4. Generosity
5. Composure, or modesty
6. Reasonableness
7. Knowledge / prajna
PART SIX: BODHISATTVA ACTIVITY
Chapter 25. Paramitas: Techniques of Nongrasping
The Six Paramitas
1. Generosity / dana
2. Discipline / tsültrim
3. Patience / söpa
4. Exertion / tsöndrü
5. Meditation / samten
6. Prajna / knowledge
Paramitas Seven through Ten
7. Skillful means / thap
8. Aspiration / mönlam
9. Power / bala
10. Wisdom / yeshe
Characteristics of Paramita Practice
1. Overcomes neurotic hang-ups and defilements
2. Develops an understanding of threefold purity
3. Actions are completed
4. Actions have benefited others
Chapter 26. Applying Emptiness to Everyday Life
Three Supreme Disciplines and Six Paramitas
1. Shila / discipline
a. Generosity
b. Discipline
c. Patience
2. Samadhi / meditation
a. Meditation
3. Prajna / knowledge or discriminating awareness
a. Prajna
[Paramita of discipline applies throughout]
Chapter 27. Generosity
Three Levels of Generosity
1. Material generosity
2. Fearlessness
3. Dharma
Chapter 28. Discipline
Three Types of Discipline
1. Binding yourself
2. Gathering virtuous dharmas
3. Benefiting sentient beings
Chapter 29. Patience
Four Types of Maras
1. Devaputra-mara / mara of seduction
2. Klesha-mara / mara of kleshas
3. Skandha-mara / mara of skandhas
4. Yama-mara / mara of the god of death
Three Categories of Patience
1. Overcoming other people’s destructiveness
2. Realizing the nature of other people’s aggression
3. Individually examining
Chapter 30. Exertion
Three Categories of Laziness, the Main Obstacle to Exertion
1. Casualness / slothfulness
2. Losing heart
3. Degraded laziness
Three Qualities of Exertion
1. Suit of armor
2. Action
a. Overcoming the kleshas
b. Developing virtue
i. Perseverance
ii. Joy
iii. Immovability
iv. Not changing your mid
v. Nonarrogance
c. Working with others
3. Never being satisfied
Chapter 31. Meditation
Two Categories of Samten
1. Common samten / shamatha
2. Special samten / vipashyana
Three Levels of Samten
1. Dwelling in the dharma of seeing
2. Accumulating goodness
3. Enthusiasm in working for others
Eight Main Obstacles to Samten
1. Not controlling the body
2. Not controlling the speech
3. Not controlling the mind
4. Indulging in the kleshas
5. Engaging in mindless chatter and gossip
6. Being overly or wrongly relaxed
7. Being heedless
8. Regressing in your shamatha-vipashyana practice
Four Ways of Implementing Samten
1. Loving-kindness / maitri
2. Compassion / karuna
3. Sympathetic joy / mudita
4. Equanimity / upeksha
Chapter 32. Prajna
Two Aspects of Mahayana Practice
1. Skillful means / the first five paramitas
2. Wisdom / the sixth paramita (prajna)
Three Prajnas
1. Mundane prajna
2. Prajna that transcends worldliness
3. Prajna that transcends dharmas
PART SEVEN. MIND TRAINING AND SLOGAN PRACTICE
Chapter 33. Introduction to Mind Training
A Way of Working with Individual Slogans
1. Examining the cause
2. Examining the effect
3. Examining the essence
Chapter 34. Undermining Aggression
Three Types of Aggression
1. Deep-rooted aggression
2. Analytical aggression
3. Sudden wind of aggression
Developing Compassion
1. Deliberate compassion
2. Nondeliberate compassion
Chapter 35. Point One: The Preliminaries, Which Are a Basis for Dharma Practice
The Four Reminders
1. The preciousness of human life
2. The reality of death
3. The entrapment of karma
4. The intensity and inevitability of suffering
Chapter 36. Point Two: Resting in Ultimate Bodhichitta
The Eight Consciousnesses
1. Eye consciousness
2. Ear consciousness
3. Nose consciousness
4. Tongue consciousness
5. Body consciousness
6. Yi / mind consciousness
7. Nyön-yi / the seventh consciousness / instigator of the kleshas
8. Alayavijnana (Tib.: künshi namshe) / the eighth consciousness / storehouse
Chapter 37: Point Two: Training in Relative Bodhichitta
The Practice of Tonglen (Slogan 7)
1. Riding the breath
2. Starting with your mother
3. Extending your practice
4. Applying tonglen in ordinary life
Three Objects (Slogan 8)
1. Love
2. Hate
3. Indifference
Three Poisons (Slogan 8)
1. Passion
2. Aggression
3. Ignorance
Three Virtuous Seeds (Slogan 8)
1. Absence of passion
2. Absence of aggression
3. Absence of ignorance
Chapter 38: Point Three: Transformation of Bad Circumstances into the Path of Enlightenment
The Four Kayas (Slogan 14)
1. Dharmakaya (truth body) / basic openness
2. Nirmanakaya (form body) / clarity
3. Sambhogakaya (bliss body) / the bridge between dharmakaya and nirmanakaya
4. Svabhavikakaya / the totality, total panoramic experience
Four Practices (Slogan 15)
1. Accumulating merit
Three Lines of Encouragement
a. Grant your blessing so if it is better for me to be sick, let me be sick
b. Grant your blessing so if it is better for me to survive, let me survive
c. Grant your blessing so if it is better for me to be dead, let me die
2. Laying down evil deeds
Fourfold Confession
a. Regret
b. Refraining from evil actions
c. Taking refuge in the Buddha, dharma, and sangha
d. Letting go of hope and fear
3. Offering to the döns
4. Offering to the dharmapalas
Chapter 39: Point Four: Showing the Utilization of Practice in One’s Whole Life
The Five Strengths (Slogans 17 and 18)
1. Strong determination
2. Familiarization
3. Seed of virtue
4. Reproach
5. Aspiration
Chapter 40: Point Five: Evaluation of Mind Training
Two Witnesses (Slogan 20)
1. Yourself
2. Other
Chapter 41: Point Six: Disciplines of Mind Training
Three Basic Principles (Slogan 23)
1. Keeping the refuge and bodhisattva vows
2. Refraining from outrageous actions
3. Developing patience
Chapter 42: Point Seven: Guidelines of Mind Training
Two Activities (Slogan 41)
1. Beginning the day by remembering bodhichitta
2. Ending the day by examining what you have done
Two Forms of Patience (Slogan 42)
1. Patience with extreme suffering
2. Patience with extreme happiness
Two Vows to Observe (Slogan 43)
1. Refuge vow
2. Bodhisattva vow
Three Difficulties (Slogan 44)
1. Difficulty of recognizing your kleshas
2. Difficulty of overcoming your kleshas
3. Difficulty of cutting through your kleshas
Three Things to Do about the Three Difficulties (Slogan 44)
1. Recognize your kleshas
2. Overcome the kleshas
3. Take a vow never to re-create the kleshas
Three Principal Causes (Slogan 45)
1. Having a good teacher
2. Cultivating a mind and demeanor applicable to the dharma
3. Having the right practical circumstances for practicing the dharma
Three That Should Not Wane (Slogan 46)
1. Devotion to the spiritual friend
2. Delight in practice
3. Keeping the hinayana and mahayana disciplines
Three Inseparable Things (Slogan 47)
1. Body inseparable from lojong
2. Speech inseparable from lojong
3. Mind inseparable from lojong
Six Primary Things We Misinterpret (Slogan 52)
1. Patience
2. Yearning
3. Excitement
4. Compassion
5. Priorities
6. Joy
Two Ways to Liberate Yourself (Slogan 55)
1. Examining
2. Analyzing
Chapter 43: Additional Mind-Training Instructions
Four Summary Instructions
1. Create a counterweight for happiness
2. Create a great terminator of suffering
3. Understand that everything is just a dream
4. Invite bad omens as wealth
PART EIGHT. THE BODHISATTVA’S JOURNEY
Chapter 44. The Paths and Bhumis
The Ten Bhumis
1. Very joyful
2. Spotlessness
3. Illuminating
4. Radiating light
5. Difficult to accomplish
6. Becoming manifest
7. Far gone
8. Immovable
9. Good intellect
10. Cloud of dharma
The Five Paths
1. The path of accumulation
Three Qualities of the Path of Accumulation
a. Lesser path of accumulation / attitude like the earth
b. Medium path of accumulation / intention like gold
c. Greater path of accumulation / wholesomeness like the full moon
2. The path of unification
Three Qualities of the Path of Unification
a. Willingness like a burning fire
b. Completely nonconceptual meditation
c. Increasing discrimination
Four Stages of Discrimination
i. Heat / a hint of mahayana
ii. Crest / terrifying sharpness and conviction
Five Perceptions Developed by Heat and Crest
a. Faith in your discovery
b. Energy
c. Mindfulness
d. Samadhi / meditative absorption