As Ornament of the Sutras says, That which removes poverty, That which obtains coolness, that which bears anger, That which connects one to what is supreme, that which keeps the mind focused, And that which knows the ultimate—thus they are explained. Getting rid of poverty is what we call generosity. Cooling the heat of the afflictive emotions and providing protection from it is discipline. Bearing anger is patience. Preparing oneself for Buddhahood is diligence. Holding the mind on a single point is concentration. Recognizing the nature of the ultimate truth is wisdom. When we put the six transcendent perfections into practice, it has to be with six supreme elements: • The supreme support is to have bodhichitta. • The supreme substancer is to engage in the six transcendent perfections wholly, not partially. • The supreme purpose is to apply them to the welfare of all sentient beings. • The supreme means is to permeate them with wisdom, free from the three concepts. • The supreme dedication is to dedicate them to unsurpassable enlightenment. • The supreme purity is to use them as the direct antidote for the two obscurations. ii. Maturing others: training in the four ways of attracting disciples Once we have fully matured our own mindstreams by training in the precepts of bodhichitta in action, as we have just seen, we need to bring others to maturity, and the principal method or practice for achieving thiscomprises the four ways of attracting disciples. Ornament of the Sutras lists them in order as follows: Generosity is held to be the same. Teaching them, practicing them oneself, And inducing others to practice them are termed Speaking pleasantly, acting accordingly, and giving appropriate advice. It goes on to explain their purpose and significance: Since they are the methods for bringing them benefit, For making them comprehend, for making them engage, And similarly for making them continue the practice, The ways of attracting disciples are to be known as four. How these are practiced is shown in the Heaped Lotuses: Gracefully summoning with the beckoning hand of generosity, And receiving with pleasant conversation, Reassure by acting according to the teaching, And give good advice according to need. First of all, gracefully summon those who would be suitable as disciples and who are not yet included among your disciples by giving them appropriate material gifts. Once you have brought them into your circle, draw them onto the perfect path with pleasant, virtuous conversation that suits their way of thinking and appeals to them. In order that they do not then turn away again but set out on the path and develop a real interest, reassure them by acting in accord with the teachings you have given. And by introducing your disciples to the teachings of the different vehicles that suit their particular natures and capacities, give them advice for the long term, encouraging them on the path. These four include both material gifts and the gift of Dharma, and by means of these two we can bring beings temporary benefit and connect them to the glorious state of ultimate bliss. iii. Incorporating the essential practice of the above two precepts: training the mind The entire practice of a Bodhisattva can be summarized as three essential points: • the causal mind training, which is to meditate deeply on love and compassion; • the main training, which is to take the vow of bodhichitta in each of the six periods of the day and night; and • training in conduct, which is to dedicate one’s positive actions to the welfare of other beings, and to exert oneself in the practice of sending happiness and receiving suffering, for as Shantideva says: Those desiring speedily to be A refuge for themselves and others Should make the interchange of “I” and “Other,” And thus embrace a sacred mystery. Accordingly, it is most important to follow the profound mind training of exchanging oneself and others. The reason for this he indicates by stating the following truth: 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. and its contrary: If I do not interchange My happiness for others’ pain, Enlightenment will never be attained, And even in samsara, I shall have no joy. As to how one should exchange oneself and others, Give the others victory and gain, Take upon yourself defeat and loss. This means imagining yourself gladly, willingly, unhesitatingly taking on the whole burden of beings’ misery—its cause (all the actions and afflictive emotions that the entirety of parent-beings filling space have accumulated since time without beginning), and the experiences of suffering that result — and completely giving all those beings, one by one, the whole of the merit you have accumulated in your series of lives and the resulting experiences of physical well-being and mental happiness. As we read in the Seven-Point Mind Training, Train to give and take alternately; Mount them both upon your breath. This will be described below in the section on the points of the training. Whatever happens to you—whether you are in good or poor health, happy or miserable, at the top of the social ladder or at the bottom—don the great armor that renders you impervious to circumstances. Making compassion the basis of your practice, hit the essential point of relative bodhichitta; and by arousing it, making it stable, and increasing it more and more, train in realizing the sublime actual condition of things that is absolute bodhichitta. - Dudjom Rinpoche - A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom (fb)

How difficult it is to find this human body with the freedoms and advantages is shown by the following simile, stated by the Protector Nagarjuna: Harder, harder still than that a turtle chance upon The opening in a yoke adrift upon the great wide sea Is rebirth as a human after rebirth as a beast; So heed the sacred Dharma, King, and make your life bear fruit. and in The Way of the Bodhisattva: This is why Lord Buddha has declared That like a turtle that perchance can place Its head within a yoke adrift upon the mighty sea, This human birth is difficult to find! The scriptural source for these is the Flower Chapter: “It is difficult to find Bhagavan Buddhas appearing in the world. It is difficult too to find someone becoming human and accomplishing the perfect freedoms. Let me give you an example of this. Shariputra, say this great earth were to become a single ocean, and in it there was a yoke with a single opening, and also a blind turtle. On that huge ocean a wind called ‘up-draughts and down-draughts’ starts to blow. Now the blind turtle comes to the surface once in a hundred years, and one could say that the blind turtle rising to the surface once in a hundred years might put its neck through the single opening in the rapidly moving yoke. But to become a human being again after falling into the lower realms is not like that: for those who have fallen into the lower realms it is exceptionally difficult to become a human being.” So if it is hard to obtain just a human body, what is there to say about enjoying the freedoms and advantages and the sublime Dharma? As we read in The Way of the Bodhisattva, The appearance of the Buddhas in the world, True faith and the attainment of the human form, An aptitude for good: all these are rare. When will they come to me again? And in the Sutra Requested by Ratnacuda: To see a Guide is very hard indeed To hear him speak the peaceful Dharma is also very hard, To be reborn a human, free and well endowed, is very difficult, To keep on finding discipline and faith is very hard as well. - Dudjom Rinpoche - A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom (fb)