FromwhatIread (5)

The book’s name: The Many Ways to Nirvana
Writer / Editor: His Holiness Dalai Lama / Renuka Singh
Publisher: First published in Great Britain in 2004 by Hodder and Stroughton Ltd; a division of Hodder Headline PLC
Content:
1. The Four Seals in Buddhism
2. Overcoming Negative Emotions
3. Self-development through the Six Perfections
4. Cultivating Equanimity
5. The Four Noble Truths and the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation

(The followings are my short notes I took while I read the book; it might be useful for anyone who has no time to read the whole book or it might tempt you to read the book; anyway, the points I got here might not be the same if your read it by yourself…)

The Fifth Chapter: the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Verse of thought Transformation (cont')

The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation by Langri Tangpa explains the Paramitayana practice of method and wisdom: the first seven verses deal with method – loving kindness – and the eighth deals with wisdom.


(1) Determined to accomplish all success, I shall always practice holding dear all sentient beings, who are more precious than wish-fulfilling gems.

(2) Wherever I go and whomever I accompany, I shall practice seeing myself as the lowest of all and sincerely hold others dear and supreme.

(3) In all actions, I shall examine my mind, and the moment an unsubdued thought arises, endangering myself and others, I shall face and avert it.

(4) Whenever I see a being of wicked nature, who is overwhelmed by non-virtue and suffering, I shall hold him dear, as if I have discovered a precious treasure, difficult to find.

(5) When out of jealousy, others treat me badly with abuse, insult and the like, I shall practice accepting defeat and offering the victory to others.

(6) When someone I have benefited, and in whom I have great hopes, harms me immensely, I shall practice regarding him or her as my holy guru.

(7) In short, both directly and indirectly, I offer every benefit and happiness to all my mothers. Secretly, I shall practice taking upon myself all their harmful actions and sufferings.

(8) With all these (practices) undefiled by stains of the superstitions of the eight (worldly) dharmas, by perceiving all dharmas as illusory, I shall practice, without grasping, to release (all sentient beings) from bondage.

The 8th verse explains that the practices should be done without their being stained by the wrong conception of clinging to true existence – the superstition of the eight dharmas. How does one avoid staining one’s practice in this way? By recognizing all existence as illusory and not clinging to true exiatence. Thus one is liberated from the bondage of clinging.