Entering the Middle Way, 14 February 1991, part 1

Motivation, the cultivation, and the awakening heart. In order to lead myself and all other sentient beings, freedom from their suffering and be complete happiness. I must eliminate all my various faults and bring to culmination my excellent qualities. Therefore, I must train my mind. If I am able to actually eliminate all my various faults and bring to culmination my excellent qualities, then there’s no limit to the ways in which I can benefit sentient beings.

So in order to actually facilitate that process, I must train my mind in the great vehicle. In order to do that, I must understand the various teachings of the great vehicle. And therefore, for the next few minutes, try to develop the motivation of seeking to benefit others through the understanding of the presentation. With the the text Entering into the Middle Way or can be also translated as supplement to the middle way in which the in the very first verse, Candrakīrti traces back the the source of the various realized beings that they hear, the middle way realizer, and the bodhisattva, and then ultimately the Buddha back to its root, that of compassion. So, therefore, it is pointed out that the that the the root of all three vehicles.

Within Buddhism, there are three vehicles, and the root of all the vehicles of all the excellent qualities is compassion. So it is said that compassion is is necessary throughout the the process of development of excellent qualities within the world in its totality, that initially that one as an individual, as the root of all excellent qualities, one self develops compassion. In the intermediate, by the force of one’s compassion, your excellent qualities are brought brought to consummation. And then in finally, having brought one’s own excellent qualities to consummation, one helps to bring others excellent qualities to consummation through the force of your own compassion. So we try to point out the greatness of compassion and its immense benefit that in fact is the foundation of all excellent qualities.

And if compassion is such an immense benefit, then the question should arise, then how can I develop great compassion? In general, we can have we can develop compassion both towards oneself, and we can develop towards others. Here, specifically, we’re generating compassion with observing others as our objects. So if we were to merely upon seeing groups of particular sentient beings undergoing grief, suffering, being killed, etcetera. And and upon seeing it, we think, oh, compassion.

Compassion. And we were to habituate ourselves to that sense of compassion for particular groups of people. Could that serve as that develop that way of developing compassion? Could that serve as the root for the development of great compassion? Well, in fact, this way would never bring about great compassion because great compassion is based upon an equality of viewing all sentient beings.

That is to say, if we were to carry on in this fashion, we think compassion only for particular groups, our compassion would be biased. It would be partial to particular interest groups. But great compassion views all sentient beings as completely equal. Great compassion is an awareness, a consciousness, and a consciousness always have an object which they are observing. What is the object of observation of great compassion?

It is sentient beings, and more specifically sentient beings other than oneself. And we don’t take as an object of observation such inanimate objects as earth, water, or a room for example, but we are observing sentient beings. And what we are observing is the suffering of the sentient beings, and we they developed a a a wish that maybe sentient beings be free of their suffering and the causes of suffering. The the root of suffering is unskillful action, which is the cause. So though a sentient being might not be suffering presently, they still have the causes within their continuum.

So developing the wish, may they be free of their suffering and their cause. But going further than that, if we are to develop great compassion, we have to extend this wish to be expressing the thought that I myself will take the responsibility to lead them, to free them from their suffering and their cause. So if we’re going to actually generate great compassion, we must make use of a meditative method, a technique whereby to cultivate it. And here, Candrakīrti sets up a very wonderful method whereby to generate compassion. So this he he sets forth his method in the manner of of six analogies.

Lived in what is now ancient India, and and obviously, his his analogies would would be would correspond to the living conditions as it were as they were in ancient India at that time. So they didn’t have plumbing systems back then. They in order to get water, they had to go fetch they had to fetch the water from and they they the water was in these great wells, which were extremely deep. So the way they would fetch the water would be to lower a bucket down to the water level and catch the water in the bucket and then back up. So the the the object which did the the actual carrying of the water would be the bucket, and it would lower down and it would it would it would catch the water, and and water would be contained in the bucket and then hold it up.

And the buckets at that time were were were bound together by rope. Rope were were rope. Ropes Rope were wound around it and to hold the bucket together. So the bucket being tightly bound is the first analogy just noted. And then, of course, in order to to fetch water, we need a person to do the fetching.

So there there necessarily has to be a person who does the Then the the the bucket is lowered down, catches water, is raised back up, is emptied, lowered down again, catches water, raised back up, emptied. This is continually revolving in this manner of going down, up, cycling down, up, down, up. That’s the fourth analogy. So then the the bucket is lowered down into the well and there it catches water.

And once it’s full of water, it’s it’s very difficult to haul back up. So it takes a great deal of force, a great deal of effort to haul it back up to the to the opening of the well. But but since going down, it’s you know, it goes down by itself. It just falls down without any effort whatsoever. But to to get it back up requires a great deal of effort and strength.

And then the bucket is continually moving from from the from the opening of the well down to the bottom there. It remains catching the water for a moment, and then it it moves back up. And there, for a moment, remains at the opening of the well. It’s empty, and then it moves back down to the bottom of the well and remains for a moment, then moves back up to the top of the well and remains for a moment. And it’s continuing continuing moving, never abiding, never remaining in one place for long.

And this is the it’s it’s indefinite position. It’s never never it’s never able to stay in one place for long. It’s the fifth analogy. And then further, the the bucket is is indefinite when it’s going to be made use of. It’s it’s day after day after day after day, you know, moment after moment.

Sometimes it’s it’s So the first analogy was that of the bucket being tightly bound by the rope. And this the rope is analogous the bucket is ourselves, sentient beings. The the rope is analogous to karma and afflictions that we as sentient beings are bound tightly by the rope rope of karma and affliction. And therefore, we are not free to we we are are in bondage to karma and affliction and are held back by the tight rope of karma and affliction from the attainment of liberation. So the first analogy is that we are the meaning of the first analogy is that we are bound tight by the ropes of karma and afflictions that we are we are are tied with restricted by these from the attainment of liberation and and therefore, we have we are continually undergo suffering.

Then second analogy was that the necessity for if the the bucket is to move up and down within the well, it’s necessary that there be someone turning the windlass. There has to be an agent which is which is controlling the bucket. The bucket is under the control of an agent. Here, the meaning of this analogy is that that we, the the we, the bucket, are under the control of an agent. And this agent is negative states of mind, various afflictive emotions, unskillful states of mind, and that we we are continually controlled by the force of negative states of mind.

So do you understand this analogy that just as the bucket is under the control of the agent who does the winding up and the lowering down? Likewise, our mind, ourselves, are continually cycling through cyclic existence. Sometimes we’re at the height of cyclic existence, then we move down and we end up in the hell realms and then we move back up in various human realms and celestial realms and we’re continuing cycling in this way and that’s the agent which is controlling this up and down movement are these various negative states of mind, afflictive emotions. So in the taking of rebirth, there are six types of rebirth which a being can take. You know, they are the rebirth on the bottom up are the the rebirth as a hell being, as a hungry ghost, as animal, as a human being, as a as a demi-god, and as a god.

And that we if we rise up into the realms of the of the humans and the celestial beings, and then when that the karma to remain there is exhausted, then we move back down to one of the the lower realms. Then having exhausted that karma to be reborn in that realm, we we move back up into the one of the higher realms. With this process process is is is repeated again and again. And this is a a cyclic quality. Again, it’s like a circling again and again, up and down, up and down.

Just like the bucket being under the control of of the windlass being moved up and down, up and down. So in in as a result of the mind creating positive karma, positive action, the the one experiences rebirth in upper realms. So the force of the mind of negative states of mind when one creates negative karma, and the results of that negative karma are rebirth in lower migrations. And then the analogy of the the bucket being as if by itself moving down to the bottom of the well. It requires no effort to lower the the bucket to the bottom.

But to once it’s full of water, it’s extremely it requires a great deal of effort to raise it back up to the top. And the bucket, as as as we mentioned, is ourselves. And and the rising to the top is rising up to the to the higher rebirth inside within cyclic existence. And in order to take a rebirth in a higher existence, this requires the creation of skillful action, and the creation of skillful action for us is quite difficult. It takes a great deal of effort.

But on the other hand, the cause for rebirth in the lower realms are unskillful action, and we create unskillful action effortlessly. It’s not difficult for us at all. Then then there is the analogy in which the the bucket moved down, remained, moved back up, moved back down, remained, moved back up. This continually the quality of never abiding in a different place. This this so this this this this is the meaning of this analogy is that we this is because We are involved in this process of creating karma, which induces the afflictive emotions, which causes us to take rebirth, which causes us to create more karma, which induces various afflictive emotions, which causes us to take rebirth, which causes more which causes to create karma, which induces more afflictive emotions due to which we take rebirth.

There’s no it’s a beginningless loop. There’s no this process there’s there’s not there’s no definite place where it begins. It’s it’s it’s a karma, afflictive emotions, rebirth. Karma, afflictive emotions, rebirth. There’s no there’s no beginning point to this process.

And then the last analogy was that the bucket, it was was indefinite when it would be made use of. It could be made use of continually for an extended period of time and then not be made use of for some time. It simply wasn’t any regularity. And likewise, this is this is an this the meaning of this analogy is that we can never we never know what types of suffering that we’re going to go we’re going to experience or how long a period of non suffering we’re we’re going to be able to experience. And in the various suffering states that we experience, what type of suffering.

There are three types of suffering. The suffering of dissatisfaction, the suffering of change, and pervasive compoundedness. And we’re continually, there’s no, it’s uncertain as to the length of time of the various types of suffering and our various states of happiness. If one were to reflect in terms of these six analogies, the bucket being sentient beings and the well being cyclic existence and see how sentient beings are continually experiencing problems that that they are not able to achieve liberation. Out of this comes a sense of compassion.

Experiencing suffering. Where how does this does their suffering arise, and how do they experience it? That all of us. We have this tremendous sense of I. I.

I. And the out and this great sense of I. And out of this comes mine. My I, my arm, my possession. These are contained within what is called the view of the transitory collection, the view of the transitory collection.

Once once we have generated I, a sense of I, then we generate a sense of other. That which is that which is mine, we develop attachment towards. That which is other, we develop aversion towards. Out of this, it develops out of a development of the afflictive emotions of attachment and aversion, we develop we are creating karma. Through the force of our karma, we take rebirth.

Having taken rebirth, again, various afflictive emotions forces to create karma. Out of this come again, rebirth. Again, developing out of afflictive emotions, again creating more karma which forces it to take rebirth again. And that there’s no end to this process. It’s like a spinning wheel.

So initially, we should cultivate compassion in terms of ourselves, in terms of our own experience, our own suffering, that in the fact of ourselves having to take rebirth, that we we having once having taken rebirth, we generate various afflictive emotions, attachment, aversion, that this grasping and development of these afflictive emotions is brought about through grasping at an I, and that once having generated afflictive emotion creating karma, having to take rebirth again in the process., you know, we’re continually creating karma through the force of our afflictive emotions, and this karma forces us this karma forces us to take various types of rebirth. And sometimes we we we have an absence of the afflictive emotions such as attachment and aversion. At those times, we’re able to create some types of skillful karma, which causes a new birth in a in a in a happy migration. But at those times when we are experiencing hatred or aversion aversion or attachment, then we create unskillful karma, unfortunately, that results in rebirth in a bad migration.

And, you know, we have appropriated aggregates and through the force of impermanence and with respect to death, we have to abandon our these aggregates we presently have, but through the force of karma, we will, again, appropriate aggregates. Having again, the process repeats itself having appropriated aggregates, we will then generate types of afflictive emotions specific to those aggregates, taking those aggregates as the basis. We would develop afflictive emotions creating more karma. When those aggregates are exhausted, we will then have to take, again, a new set of aggregates.

So, again, again, taking rebirth. Again, taking rebirth. Again, taking rebirth. Until we finally abandon ignorance, there’s going to be no end to this process. So in in all of these various that we’re going to continually be taking, we’re going to experience suffering just as we do in this life.

But in fact, in taking in bad migrations, we’re going to experience immeasurable greater suffering than we are now experiencing.