This excerpt comes from the transcription of a teaching given by Rinpoche during the Winter Retreat in Brussels in December 2004. The subject was the sixth chapter of the 'Bodhicharyavattara', a text that Rinpoche teaches extensively in all his Centers throughout the world.
After an introduction were Rinpoche stressed again and again how precious and rare bodhicitta is, he started with the first verse of the chapter.
All gathered during a thousand kalpas –
Acts of generosity, offerings to the Buddhas
And other good deeds, whatever they are,
Are destroyed in one moment of anger.
Now what does this mean?
Here thousand kalpas refer to many aeons. There are four types of kalpas: the first one refers to the many years needed to form the world. Second, there is a long time when the world just abides, is. Third, there is a time, many years, when the world is getting destroyed. Fourth, there are again many years during which there is emptiness, nothing. Then this whole process begins again. So these are the four different periods: forming, abiding, destruction, emptiness, nothing at all. We can speak of all of these together as one. And then, multiplied by a thousand, and all that we have accumulated during all of that time, we are talking here about accumulation of virtue.
Virtue is the cause of everything that is good and everything that is happy. And all of that, all the generosity that we have practiced, all the discipline that we have maintained all of that is destroyed against one moment of anger. For example, here, if we light thousands of butter lamps, and if a very big wind comes, all the butter lamps will go out. Like that. That is how anger can destroy. So it is said that whatever way you look at it, anger is bad. We have to be forbearing, we have to practice patience. In general, one is doubtful about this. What is this doubt? Of course one gets angry; there is no time when one isn’t angry. Sometimes, we will be angry. And once we are angry, if all our virtue is destroyed at that time, then how could we be happy? Because there is always a time when anger comes up. So then how can we find liberation? But it is not really like that.
There are three different accumulations of virtue. What is the first one?
The first one is the kind of virtue that is accumulated by ordinary individuals. In Tibet, we will find many Tibetans who are always reciting the Mani mantra, who are always reciting the prayer of precious Bodhicitta. But they do not understand how to really start the Mani mantra, they don’t know how to go through the recitation and at the end of the recitation they do not know what to do. So they do not understand the meaning and benefit of the Mani mantra. How then can they engender compassion, how can they enhance their practice with emptiness? So not understanding all of that really, they are just parrots. If one is like that, there is virtue in it, but it is not practice that is enhanced with means. Let’s take the example of the butter lamp. If we light this butter lamp and put it in the wind, the wind will put it out. If we put a glass around it, the wind can come and go but it doesn’t do anything to the butter lamp, does it? What the ordinary individual is doing is not using these means to protect practice; there is no wisdom within the practice. There is no means and there is no wisdom within this practice. If one's practice is not endowed with these two, with means and wisdom, then when the wind of anger arises, virtue will be destroyed.
So do we understand that first one? It is the virtue of the ordinary individual. We have to understand that the virtue of that practice will be destroyed once the wind of anger comes.
What is the second one? It is a little better than the one of an ordinary sentient being. There will first be the question: how do we engender Bodhicitta? What to focus on? How to dedicate? There is an understanding about all of this. This gives a very limited protection to the butter lamp of virtue. But this is done for selfish reasons: I want to be happy, I want to attain Buddhahood quickly, and this is why I accumulate this virtue. Because of that, sometimes the merit that occurs because of this will be destroyed by the wind of hatred.
The third one is the one that protects Bodhicitta. There is protection through the view of emptiness; there is protection through sealing practice with dedication. And once there are these three, the butter lamp of merit is protected by means with the glass against the wind of anger.
Let us look again at this butter lamp of virtue: it is protected by the glass of compassion, emptiness and dedication, which is not at all selfish. And then once the wind of anger arises, there will be no problem at all for the butter lamp of merit. We understand that, don’t we? So virtue, once it is protected in this way, it cannot be destroyed.
... (to be continued)
