Entering the Middle Way, 21 February 1991, part 1

I must free all sentient beings, including myself, from suffering and lead them to happiness. In order to achieve that I must eliminate all my various faults and bring to consummation all my excellent qualities. That is, I must become like a Buddha. Having achieved that end, then I will be able to teach well with the altruistic motivation to all sentient beings exactly what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected. So develop this holy attitude of the awakening heart as a motivation for listening to the present teaching in order to ultimately achieve this end.

So The translation which most of you have. The the third verse. So here, in Entering the Middle Way, the homage is paid to the three types of compassion. The verse, the third verse: homage to the compassion for migrators who are powerless like a bucket traveling in a well, to initially adhering to a self and an I, and generating attachment for things as mine. This is the homage to the first type of compassion. And further, homage to that compassion for a migrator seen as effervescent and empty of inherent existence and existing like a moon in rippling water.

This is the homage to the second and third types of compassion. So with respect to this third verse which in which is explained the first type of compassion, compassion observing sentient beings, and this we have already explained in terms of an aperture analogy. And first, out of the grasping at the I, there’s a conception of I, I, I. Out of this arises the conception of mine. My eye, my ear, my friend, my parents, and a very powerful grasping at mine arises.

Out of this arises the various afflictive emotions. Due to the force of afflictive emotions, we create various karmas or actions, and it is by the force of actions, the karma, we continually revolve within cyclic existence. Now reflecting upon this, we see that it is thoroughly involved in suffering, that sentient beings through the creation of karma are routinely experiencing suffering, and out of this comes a sense of compassion directed toward sentient beings. So we’d ask, well, how do we cultivate this first type of compassion?

So the the mode of cultivating this first type which observes sentient beings is presented in three parts. First, we are observing all sentient beings. And by all sentient beings, means just that, that there is not one being which is not included in this object of observation. All sentient beings, every sentient being. If we were just to have our relatives, for example, those we care about, this would be partial compassion.

It would not be fully qualified compassion. It would be a type of biased compassion. We mean animals, humans, all types of life forms are included as an object of observation. Taking these as an object of observation, we then develop the wish that may all these sentient beings be free from suffering and the cause of their suffering. Not just suffering, but also the causes of their suffering.

Suffering is a result. It has a cause. So we wish that they not only be free of suffering, but also its cause, that is to say, various unskillful actions. So we all have some understanding of what we mean by suffering. There are three types of suffering.

There is the suffering of pain, the suffering of change, and the suffering of universal conditionality, or all-pervasive conditioned suffering. And the first of these is the suffering of pain, and this is just the various illnesses, various pains that we all experience from time to time. For example, we get headaches, toothaches, things like this. So the second type of suffering is the suffering of change. Various examples such as if, you know, it’s extremely hot out and we turn on the air conditioner, and it’s very cooling.

And so initially there is we experience a pleasure. This pleasure is the suffering of change. Or another case, we’re hungry, and we eat some food, and and we experience a pleasure. This pleasure is an example of the suffering of change. So another example of the suffering of change is that after having after sitting for a long length of time, then we become restless, it becomes uncomfortable, so we decide to get up and go for a walk.

And initially that’s quite pleasurable. We’re going for a walk, but after some time if we continue the walk it becomes rather tiresome and we find it difficult. And so it changes into a dissatisfactory experience. And then we sit again, we have to sit down, and this is the quality of the suffering of change. So these examples are all examples of the suffering of change.

And why is that? In the first case where we were very hot, and we turned on the air conditioner, and it was nice and cool. And we derived a certain pleasure from that. But if we continue to sit in front of the air conditioner, we’re going to become cold. That pleasure is going to change into a dissatisfactory experience.

And therefore that we cannot that that pleasure that we experience that pleasure, that pleasure is unstable. It’s going to change into something else that cannot remain. Likewise with eat with when we were hungry. We were hungry, we ate, we experienced a certain pleasure. And but at a certain point as we continue to eat, we become full.

And if we continue to eat, then it’s going to become painful. That pleasure could only remain for a short duration. It wasn’t stable. It wasn’t lasting. It definitely had to change.

And likewise with the staying. We were sitting. We became restless, uncomfortable. We began to take a walk. It was pleasant.

But if we continue to walk, it’s going to change into an unpleasant experience. These are all that none of these types of pleasures, the reason they’re called the suffering of change is because none of them are stable. None of them are stable. We are not able to maintain them. They cannot remain. Therefore, the term suffering of change.

So these are all these are the pleasures of cyclic existence. These are the pleasures of of the beings of cyclic existence. And though they are pleasures of cyclic existence, in actual fact, they have a nature of suffering. Or that is to say they have a dissatisfactory nature because they are not stable. So then the third type of suffering is that of universal conditionality.

And this refers to the aggregates, but specifically to the aggregates which are appropriated or assumed taken under the force of a karma and afflictive emotions. Therefore, taking the various aggregates of animals, humans, celestial beings, that these are all examples of the suffering of of universal conditionality. So the reason it’s called universal is that it applies to all aggregates within cyclic existence. And that the aggregates which are which are appropriated under the influence of karma and afflictive emotions. This is because they have as the the root of their appropriation is afflicted ignorance, and therefore, they are dissatisfactory.

So because the root of the motivation which is ignorance, and out of this ignorance karma is created, and out of this karma we forced to appropriate these aggregates, forced to take aggregates, take rebirth. Then since the cause is deficient, then that which is result of that is said to be deficient or unsatisfactory. This is the aggregates are seen as dissatisfactory from the point of view of their cause in terms of conditionality, but also by their very nature. The aggregates are dissatisfactory because the aggregates serve as a basis of all suffering. They are the foundation of our suffering, and upon which suffering actually is experienced, takes place.

If if, for example, it becomes hot, then we we our aggregates become hot, and we we experience the suffering of heat. If it becomes cold, our aggregate becomes cold, and we experience the suffering of cold. If there’s no food, then because of our aggregates we become hungry and we experience suffering. If there’s no drink, because of our aggregates we become thirsty and we experience suffering. So, if our aggregate is cut, then we experience hurt because of the aggregate.

So the aggregate our aggregates serve as the basis for all of our suffering, the foundation of suffering. So, the fact of the possession of aggregates disposes us to undergo suffering because the aggregates are the basis foundation upon which we experience all suffering. If we have the aggregates of a human, then we experience the suffering appropriate to humans, that we experience human types of suffering. So all of the various types of aggregates experience their their particular type of suffering, and in general, the very possession of aggregates predisposes us to experience suffering. Because we are forced to take on the body of a cat, out of that, the being experiences the suffering of a cat.

Forced to forced to take on the body of a horse, that being is forced to undergo the suffering of a horse. Forced to take on appropriate the body of a dog, that being is forced to experience the suffering of dogs. Forced to take on the body of an animal, that being is forced to undergo the experience of animal suffering. This applies to all the various types of beings. Forced to take on the embodiment of a hell being, that being is forced to undergo the experience of suffering of hell.

This applies to humans. That therefore all the various types of aggregates predisposes to a particular appropriate type of suffering of that being. So, you know, take my bird for example, my budgie. All day long it has to pick out all the fleas that it has. All day long it’s working on different areas of its body to get rid of the fleas which are biting it.

And this is because it was forced to take on the embodiment of of a bird. So the experience of suffering is appropriate to the type of embodiment which is taken. And this is a type of embodiment which is taken under the influence of karma and afflictive emotion. And such a type of body embodiment which is taken under the influence of karma and afflictive emotions serves as a basis for all our suffering is dependent upon such a type of embodiment that we undergo the appropriate suffering, the suffering appropriate to that particular type of embodiment, whether it’s the type of embodiment, an animal type of embodiment. So this is what we mean by universal, that it is universal, that it extends or pervades to all beings whose embodiment was appropriated under the influence of karma and afflictive emotion.

It is said to be conditioned because it is out of such a cause that such a type of embodiment generates suffering. It is conditioned by that. So this first quality of compassion expressed in the wish, may all sentient beings be free of suffering. And we said here suffering specifically refers to the three types of suffering and the causes of their suffering, which the causes of suffering be the afflictive emotions and karma. That whatsoever types of suffering and whatsoever types of the causes may they be free of these causes and their suffering.

So this extends to all sentient beings. And this is said to be immeasurable, the immeasurable wish. Immeasurable wish. It’s like, you know, we today say I’m going to go to work and I wish to get lots of money — that is an aspiration. So this is referred to as an immeasurable aspiration.

So I think I have to to to retranslate that the the first quality of compassion. It’s the thought, wouldn’t it be nice if all sentient beings were free of suffering and the causes of their suffering. And this is the immeasurable aspiration. And the second is the immeasurable wish in the sense or immeasurable prayer or wish. So the first one, wouldn’t it be nice if sentient beings were free of suffering and the causes of suffering?

May the second quality, may they be free of suffering. May all sentient beings be free of suffering and the causes of their suffering. And then the third quality of compassion, the third level of compassion is that I myself will free them from free all sentient beings from the suffering or the cause of their suffering. That one takes the responsibility, and this is immeasurable resolve. It to take actual responsibility, I myself will free them.

So with immeasurable resolve, expressed in the thought, expressed in the thought that I myself will free all sentient beings from the suffering, the cause of their suffering. And then we see that in fact that we don’t have this ability, and therefore this leads us to the next level of compassion in which which is immeasurable request, making requests to the special objects such as one’s Lama, a spiritual master, the Three Jewels: please empower me to be able to free all sentient beings from their suffering and the causes of their suffering. An immeasurable request.

So if we cultivate these four levels of immeasurables, then we will develop a very forceful compassion. And the first of these I’ll call immeasurable aspiration. The second was immeasurable wish. The third, immeasurable resolve, and the fourth, immeasurable request. These are the four immeasurables developed in in the development of compassion.

So in order to facilitate the development of the potent, a very powerful type of compassion, we should first generate this thought to free from suffering and the cause of the suffering with respect to oneself. That we first develop compassion in terms of one’s own experience of suffering, understanding that through the taking embodiment under the influence of karma and afflictive emotion that we are forced to experience the three types of suffering of cyclic existence, and developing the various levels of immeasurables with respect to one’s own experience of suffering in terms of oneself, and then taking that and then extending that to others’ experiences, suffering in terms of others’ embodiments. So, Śāntideva says, unless we cultivate compassion in terms of our own suffering, we will never develop a forceful compassion in terms of others’ suffering. So we can understand quite readily that if we were to understand if we were to undergo an extreme experience of pain, then there would quite naturally arise in our mind the wish that we would be free of that pain. So, you know, having experienced some particularly great pain for oneself, if a loved one such as your mother or a brother or a friend were to undergo a similar type of pain, then one would naturally think, I know just how that feels, how terrible that is.

I don’t see how they can stand it. And out of this come a caring which would think, how can I relieve them of that suffering, of that difficulty? Out of understanding through one’s own experience the quality of that pain and understanding what they must be going through, one would naturally be led to think, how can I relieve them of that pain? On the other hand, if you were not to have undergone a particular type of pain, which this other person, whether it’s your brother or your mother, is at present experiencing, then you might since you you might question what, you know, you would go up, does it really hurt so bad as all that? You know, are you really all that sick?

Oh, it doesn’t matter. You’ll be okay. Not having had that same experience when would even though this was a loved one, you would take on that attitude. But on the other hand if we would have experienced a similar type of pain then we could extrapolate from that and understand the pain that they must be undergoing at present. And we would we would naturally have a more forceful type of compassion and wish that they be free of that that pain.

Likewise, all sentient beings are just like ourselves in that they are undergoing the same ills that we are due to the force of karma and afflictive emotions.