Transforming Adversity Into Joy and Courage: An Explanation of the Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas by Geshe Jampa Tegchok & Thubten Chodron

Author:Geshe Jampa Tegchok & Thubten Chodron
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Snow Lion
Published: 2005-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

If someone is hungry, it is definitely better to give him food rather than to simply wish he had some. It is good to help in a practical way whenever we can. Yet in the long run, is it more beneficial to give food, medicine, material goods, and so on to those who are in need or to develop bodhichitta and then be able to offer extensive help? When we help others with material things, their suffering is eliminated, but only temporarily. They will get hungry again, fall ill again, or experience various other problems. By the force of the altruistic intention, we will dedicate ourselves to help others remove the root cause of all their sufferings in cyclic existence, the self-grasping ignorance. By cultivating bodhichitta, we will make ourselves capable of helping others in a very vast way over a long period of time without getting discouraged.

Of course this does not mean we content ourselves with meditating on compassion and ignore the suffering going on around us. For example, if we are untrained in medicine, is it better for us to treat people now as best as we can, or to leave that aside to go to medical school, and later be able to treat others properly and more extensively? Similarly, we benefit others however we can now, but put most of our effort into Dharma practice so that we can continuously increase our ability to be of service. If we ignore developing our internal qualities and strengths, our ability to help will remain limited and we will be more likely to suffer from "compassion fatigue" later on and give up helping others.

There are two methods to generate and then stabilize the altruistic intention: the seven cause and effect instructions, and exchanging self and others. The former will be explained in connection with this verse, the latter with the next verse. The seven cause and effect instructions are:

1. Recognizing that all living beings have been our mother

2. Recollecting their kindness

3. Wishing to repay this kindness

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