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ers, each one becomes 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras.
If each mantra you recite is done just for yourself to achieve the ever-
lasting happiness of liberation from samsara or to have better future
lives, happiness in future lives for yourself alone, it does not bring skies
of merit. You lose out on that. Because you fail to generate bodhicitta
motivation, you miss out on each mantra s becoming 100,000. Even
though your recitation becomes a Dharma action because your motiva-
tion is virtuous thinking of yourself not suffering in the lower realms,
working for the happiness of your future lives no matter how many
Vajrasattva or om mani padme hum mantras you recite, when you
compare their benefits to those you would have gained had you recited
the mantras with bodhicitta, they are still kind of meaningless, wasted.
The purpose of emphasizing bodhicitta motivation at the beginning
of every retreat session, repeating it again and again, is to remind you to
generate bodhicitta so that you don t waste the Vajrasattva mantras you
recite. It s extremely important. Constant repetition helps you under-
stand how important bodhicitta motivation is and to remember to gen-
erate it every session.
Of course, at this point my mind has degenerated completely, but in
the past, if I found that I had recited one mala of mantras without bodhi-
. . . . . . 79
the purpose of being human
citta, I would feel that I had wasted that whole mala and would repeat
it with the proper motivation.
When you have a compassionate attitude, you have peace and hap-
piness in your life right now. No matter with whom you find yourself,
you are happy and comfortable. When you have compassion for oth-
ers, you are happy to be with any sentient being. Even if you live alone,
you are happy. There is happiness and comfort now, and this attitude
has the best future. Not only that, but you also die in the best way. If
you die with compassion, your mind will be happy and peaceful and
you ll die with no regret or guilt. The best way to die is with compas-
sion for others.
Also, if you want to be reborn in a pure land, dying with compassion
is the best way of making it happen. If you die with compassion, not
only will your death be peaceful and happy but you will also receive
good rebirths in all your coming future lives, liberation from samsara
and full enlightenment all the infinite good qualities of the buddha s
holy body, speech and mind will be yours, and you will be able to
enlighten numberless sentient beings.
With compassion, both your present and your future lives are happy.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this teaching 6 March 1999.
. . . . . .
4
The Benefits of Bodhicitta
he sutra Do-de phal-po che,9 which contains teachings on bodhi-
Tcitta, says, The holy, altruistic mind of enlightenment, that
purest of attitudes, is a treasury of merits.
The Guide to the Bodhisattva s Way of Life says, How can one measure
the merits one collects by generating the precious thought that is the
cause of all happiness of all transmigratory beings and the medicine
that cures the suffering of all sentient beings? 10
From where does every single happiness, both temporary and ulti-
mate, of every single sentient being come? From bodhicitta. What is the
one medicine for every suffering that sentient beings experience? That,
too, is bodhicitta. Therefore, there s no limit to the benefits of bodhi-
citta; there s no way to realize how much merit you can collect with it.
You can t say it s this much; it s immeasurable. The merits you can col-
lect with bodhicitta are numberless. That is the straight translation
How can the merits collected by generating the precious thought that
is the cause of the happiness of all transmigratory beings and the med-
icine for the suffering of all sentient beings be measured?
With the mind of bodhicitta, each breath in and each breath out
9
Buddhavatamsaka Sutra
10
Chapter 1, verse 26
82 . . . . . .
the joy of compassion
become a cause for the happiness of all sentient beings. With this purest
of attitudes, bodhicitta, every breath you take benefits each sentient
being and with each breath, with every action, you create skies of merit.
Therefore, if you want to accumulate the conditions necessary for
attaining realizations on the path to enlightenment, you should put all
your effort into developing your own precious mind of bodhicitta.
When you think of fulfilling your wishes, it s not suffering you want.
Normally, you don t wish for suffering. What you wish for is happiness.
Of course, the happiness that most of us wish for is actually suffering;
what we usually think of as happiness is not pure happiness. However,
as far as what we wish for is concerned, from the side of the wish, what
we are looking for is happiness, not suffering.
That said, every single happiness from that of full enlightenment,
through liberation from samsara and the happiness of future lives,
down to even the happiness of this life depends on merit, good karma.
Without good karma, nothing works. Without good karma, the cause
of happiness, you can t enjoy even the slightest happiness. Without
merit, there s no comfort; everything depends on merit. Realizations
of the path, temporary happiness, even the work of this life, such as suc-
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