The Sixth Mind Generation: The Approach The perfect bodhisattvas whose minds rest in the equipoise of the approach Approach the qualities of buddhahood They see the suchness of dependent arising And, from abiding in wisdom, they will attain cessation (1) Just as a person with eyes Can easily lead a whole group of blind people wherever they wish to go, So here, the mind endowed with wisdom Guides the blind qualities to the Victor’s ground (2) The way the bodhisattvas realize the incredibly profound dharma Was explained [by Nagarjuna] with scripture and reasoning Therefore, just as the noble Nagarjuna did in his texts, So will I explain things here (3) Those who even as ordinary beings, upon hearing of emptiness Again and again experience great happiness within, Have their eyes fill with the tears of joy, And the hairs on their body stand on end (4) Those are people with the seed of the perfect Buddha’s mind They are vessels for the teachings on suchness They should be taught the truth of genuine reality And all the good qualities coming from that will arise within them (5) Their discipline is always perfect They give generously, rely on compassion, Cultivate patience, and the resulting virtue They thoroughly dedicate to enlightenment in order to liberate beings (6) 126 SHENPEN ÖSEL They respect the perfect bodhisattvas The individual who is skilled in the profound and vast natures Will gradually progress to the ground of Perfect Joy Therefore, those who wish to the same should listen [to the teachings about] this path (7) It does not arise from itself; how could it arise from something else? It does not arise from self and other together; how could it arise without a cause? (8ab) There are two ways of seeing everything: the perfect way and the false way Therefore, every thing found holds two natures within The Buddha taught that perfect seeing sees suchness And false seeing sees the relative truth (23) Because bewilderment obscures their true nature, they are relative Whatever worldly beings fabricate appears to them to be true This the Mighty One called the “relative truth.” The noble ones know these fabricated entities to be relative (28) If worldly beings perceptions were valid, Since worldly beings would see suchness, what need for the noble ones? What would the noble ones’ path accomplish? The perception of fools is not valid cognition (30) Arising from both self and other is also untenable Because the faults already explained apply here as well (98ab) If things arose without any cause at all, Then everything would always exist and anything could arise from anything else Furthermore, no one would perform all the hundreds of tasks, like planting seeds and so forth, That people ordinarily to get results to arise (99) Therefore, on the eighth ground, those stains together with their roots are completely pacified Their kleshas are exhausted and in the three realms they become superior, and yet (2) With his broad white wings of the relative and suchness, The king of swans soars ahead to lead the flock By the power of virtue’s wind He crosses to the far shore of the ocean of the Victor’s supreme qualities (226) They cannot attain all the buddhas’ endowments, which are limitless as the sky Although samsara has stopped, they gain the ten powers, And demonstrate many emanations to the Under the guidance of Acharya Sherab Gyaltsen Negi, translated by Ari Goldfield October 29, 1999 The Ninth Mind Generation: Excellent Mind The Seventh Mind Generation: Gone Far Beyond Here on the ground Gone Far Beyond, Instant by instant, they can enter cessation, And the transcendent perfection of method excellently blazes What need to mention the strengths they gain on the ninth ground They all become perfectly pure Similarly, their own qualities, the dharmas of perfect awareness, become completely pure The Tenth Mind Generation: Cloud of Dharma The Eighth Mind Generation: Unshakable In order again and again to attain virtue even greater than before Here the bodhisattvas become irreversible The great beings enter the Unshakable ground And their aspiration prayers become incredibly pure (1) On the tenth ground they receive the genuine empowerment from all the buddhas And their primordial wisdom becomes supreme Just as rain falls from clouds, from the bodhisattvas falls a spontaneous rain of dharma So that the harvest of beings’ virtue may flourish The Victors cause them to rise from cessation The various flaws not remain in the mind free of attachment; SHENPEN ÖSEL 127 Gyalwa Götsangpa’s Eight Cases of Basic Goodness Not to Be Shunned Namo Ratna Guru I bow to the lord who grants the bliss that is utterly supreme, Which takes away the suffering of illness For every being that is everywhere throughout the reaches of space By administering the medicine of the three kayas In the pure space of the sky that’s the sky of essential mind itself The clouds of negative actions thickly gather But the mighty force of the powerful wind of the wisdom prana Does not blow them away, but clears them up like this: The illness and its painfulness have neither base nor root Relax into it, fresh and uncontrived, Revealing dharmakaya way beyond all speech and thought Don’t shun them, pain and illness are basically good What confusion takes to be taking place is negative forces’ work But it is all your own mind, simple, unborn, unceasing Without anxiety or even worrying at all, Don’t shun them; demons and gods are basically good When the agony of illness strikes your four-fold elements, Don’t grasp at its stopping; don’t get angry when it won’t improve Such adversities have the flavor of bliss that’s free of contagion’s blight The kleshas are not to be shunned; they’re basically good All of the joy and the pain we go through, all our highs and lows, When realized, have no ground; they are our friends Don’t try to stop pain; don’t try to be happy; be free of all hope and fear Samsara is not to be shunned; it is basically good 128 SHENPEN ÖSEL And though this whole life is plagued by the torments of falling ill, Don’t think that’s bad; don’t plan to get around it Then it will be your badge, your proof of conduct of equal taste Your suffering’s not to be shunned; it’s basically good The mind that’s sunk in dullness and torpor, when realized for what it is, Is pure being, pure of every imperfection So, free of thinking you should be wishing to clear this all away, Don’t shun your dense state of mind; it’s basically good Habitual patterns’ imprints, printed throughout beginningless time, Are the myriad doors illusion comes marching through If you not take them as true, don’t meditate on them as empty Don’t shun your thoughts; they’re basically good in themselves The state of coemergence has no birth and knows no death, Knows nothing of arising or ceasing or staying somewhere It’s infinity; it’s the vast expanse of the unconditioned state Don’t shun your death; it’s basically good in itself All eight of these things that are not to be shunned, since they’re basically good in themselves, Need a meditation which turns them into equal taste They are the thought that comes from the heart of the uncle and nephew lord They are the hammer that hammers down the host of maras They are the practice that’s put into practice by beggars like you and me These are the tools that keep us in natural retreat They are the bliss supreme that performs the two forms of benefit You’ve mastered this from the beginning, old friend, but you better put it into practice SHENPEN ÖSEL 129 Commentary on Götsangpa’s Eight Cases of Basic Goodness Not to Be Shunned On May 25, 2001, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche gave a teaching that was co-sponsored by Nalandabodhi and Kagyu Shenpen Ösel Chöling and given at the Nalandabodhi Center in Seattle It was orally translated by Ari Goldfield The following is an edited transcript B efore listen-ing to the teachings, please give rise to the supreme motivation of bodhichitta, which means that for the benefit of all sentient beings, who are as limitless in number as the sky is vast in extent, we aspire to attain the state of complete and perfect buddhahood We know that in order to this we must listen to, reflect upon, and meditate on the teachings of the genuine dharma with all of the enthusiasm we can muster in our hearts This is the supreme motivation of bodhichitta; 130 SHENPEN ÖSEL please give rise to it and listen Tonight we will offer a brief explanation of the song sung by Götsangpa Gönpo Dorje called The Eight Cases of Basic Goodness Not to be Shunned Gyalwa Götsangpa was born in southern Tibet, went to central Tibet to meet his root teacher, Drogon Tsanpa Gyare, and then went to practice At first he practiced in northern Tibet, specifically on a rock island in the middle of a lake called Jang Namtso From there he went ... turns them into equal taste They are the thought that comes from the heart of the uncle and nephew lord They are the hammer that hammers down the host of maras They are the practice that’s put into... of swans soars ahead to lead the flock By the power of virtue’s wind He crosses to the far shore of the ocean of the Victor’s supreme qualities (226) They cannot attain all the buddhas’ endowments,... administering the medicine of the three kayas In the pure space of the sky that’s the sky of essential mind itself The clouds of negative actions thickly gather But the mighty force of the powerful