Four Great Wishes and Happiness
March 8, 2003

Teaching by Venerable Domo Geshe Rinpoche

 

Today is March 8th, 2003, and I am on tour in Kalimpong (laughs). And this is my traditional seat. I'm not yet sitting on my traditional throne, but for auspiciousness purposes, I'm telling you that I am in Kalimpong and things are going very, very well. I have three monks and one yogini here with me, and this is part of the group that has been now 4 months in India and Nepal. I am doing this for the purpose of greeting you my students in California and Wisconsin, and letting you know that I'm quite ok. I am totally ready to go home, and I am in need of remaining here for a time yet. So, I'm sending this teaching. We are in the middle of the sadhana. Yesterday we left off the teaching, which unfortunately wasn't recorded, regarding "Spontaneously arising energy…" I think I'm going to teach more on that, perhaps not today. We have so many different subjects. Let's talk about the four great wishes.

May all sentient beings have happiness and the cause of happiness May they be free from suffering and the causes of suffering May they never be separated from the bliss that is sorrowless May they abide in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion

We just celebrated Losar here, and you could hear the Tibetans saying, "Losar Tashi Delek! Losar Tashi Delek! Losar Tashi Delek! [Happy New Year!]" In fact, if "Losar Tashi Delek" could have the correct effect, they will all be in receipt of the profound four great wishes. There's a heartfelt quality and when someone says, "Losar Tashi Delek! Happy New Year!" rather than "Oh, good morning, good to see you," or "Tashi delek, tashi delek" passing someone in the street, there is a fresh strength of purpose behind it. You heard me saying it the first day, and it comes as an energetic equivalent that actually could be incrementally increased into the power of the four great wishes. If one had spiritual purpose and power, one could say, "Tashi delek" and the accomplishment of the great wish could be experienced continuously. This also comes very important - that you are able to bring this teaching into your everyday life. So, strength of purpose and powerful motivation that goes along with this are the actual great wish. Another we say this is the four immeasurables. Why are they immeasurable?

Student: They are limitless.

Rinpoche: They have no limit. There is no outside limit. Why else are they called immeasurables?

Student: They benefit innumerable sentient beings.

Rinpoche: And?

Student: They're infinitely fine.

Rinpoche: Infinitely fine. That's very poetic. Infinitely fine, meaning? Ok, infinitely fine meaning that they have a jewel-like quality to them. Very good, very good.

Student: Their benefit is limitless.

Exactly what I was thinking, very good. Wherever you are at in your practice, you allow an open-ended quality even you cannot gauge how magnificent is this wish. It is as though there was a huge ship, you see a rope lying on the wharf, and by pulling on the rope you are able to pull on the ship, but you can't see it - you can only see the rope. In that way, you know that the rope is attached to an enormous ship, and when you pull on it something is happening. I don't care how much effort you make or how little effort you make; when you pull on that rope, you have by your own efforts thrown a certain amount of energy by pulling on that rope. In that way, even though you may not be able to perceive the ship move, there has been some energy transferred through the power of physics, we're going to say, on an energetic equivalent. Through your power, an energy has gone to actual movement. Are you with me?

One of the classic Buddhist stories is - a husband and wife approached Lord Buddha Shakyamuni, and the wife offered Lord Buddha Shakyamuni a handful of sweets. Lord Buddha Shakyamuni looked at this woman, and from traditional Guru side, in his understanding of the deeper processes, he was able to look at her and ascertain her qualities and the action that she was performing, and even further, he was able to make a very educated conjecture of the consequences. He said to this woman, "This is good, this is good. As a consequence of this action, you will become Buddha Susvasti in the future." Now, that's a pretty big statement, isn't it? And her husband stepped in and said, "Now now now now now. Hey Buddha," (laughs) I'm sure he didn't say, "Hey, Buddha" but I'm going to say that. "Hey, Buddha, it was just a handful of sweets. Isn't what you're saying a little extreme?" And the story goes on to say that the Buddha said to this man, "You cannot even begin to describe which actions will produce which results. Do not think that small actions will not bring grand results in the future." 

Now, this doesn't mean that every time one offers a handful of sweets that it is definately going to produce Buddhahood in the future - no, that wasn't even the point. That particular woman, at that moment precipitated the ripening and the consequences of certain actions. It came together into a kind of a nexus, a cluster, where the activities that she performed of her own free will produced an opening of another kind of consequence. And that consequence would lead to that consequence, which would lead to that consequence. And in the future, she would have the opportunity of becoming Buddha Susvasti of the future. Do not think that small actions will not produce great results. Are you with me? 

We're talking about sadhana time and meditation time. You have now vowed to attain enlightenment for the benefit of sentient beings. The very next thing you do in the Blue Healing of Wisdom sadhana, your Heruka sadhana for those of you who are practicing on more advanced levels, is to turn away from the close-ended…you have a glass ceiling that you have placed in your own mind, and when you did that, you said, "This is what I am capable of, and no more." Now, here is where you crash through, you look through, you think it away - I don't know how to tell you this - this artificial barrier is part of your birth process, truly. I see looks of consternation here. Ok, let's digress here. Before you come into your human body, you have a time when you are not in possession of a human body, isn't that so? Let's call it a bardo being, you're a bardo being. And bardo beings have different ways of knowing. In one way, they also have a glass ceiling. However, they have other kinds of possibilities and a clairvoyance which is inherent in that kind of existence. I'm going to say 'they,' I'm going to say 'you.' 

Rinpoche: Were you a bardo being?

Student: Yes.

Ok, and so in that way, in that time you had certain strictures on you and other possibilities were open, because that was how you existed then. However, as soon as you took human birth, that ability coalesced into a kind of a ceiling, and according to your own nature, how high is that ceiling placed.

When you are doing sadhana, there must be an opening to the vast. I am telling you that you have here a method to exchange energy of your mental process, spiritual determination, and tugging on this rope attached to this huge ship, the actual accomplishment of the great wish; when you transfer the energy, indeed something is happening. You are at the shore, the fog has rolled in, you're on the wharf and you know this huge ship is there but you can't see it because it's completely shrouded in fog. So,like that you don't understand the accomplishment of the great wish. Have you ever been to see one of these huge, huge ships, like the Queen Mary? You look straight up many, many feet if it's a clear day, and you can look down but you can't see the end of the ship. 

You can't see the entire ship. This activates the reliance and the trust that you have in the process and in the sadhana, you are looking at the vast and understanding that it is there, but all you can see is the rope in front of you. 

Rinpoche: And that rope would be?

Student: The wish.

Student: The lifeline to the vast.

Rinpoche: Oh, no. That's different. What could possibly motivate you to go over there and pick up the rope?

Student: The desire to benefit.

Rinpoche: Your desire to benefit. Ok, this is the four great wishes, this is the four immeasurable immeasurables.

Student responds with a statement about pulling which was not easy to hear.

No, no, and I want you to be really clear on this. You are not pulling them. What you are doing is pulling out of your own potential the capacity to actually accomplish the wish. Do you see the difference? The accomplishment of the wish is when the rope is placed onboard the ship and you take your place as the captain of that great ship. That is the enlightened state. And you turn on your motors, which requires another tremendous amount of effort, merit and wisdom, and when you pull away from the wharf, where you have been tied since beginningless time, when you have not even found the wharf, much less the rope, much less the ability to get on the actual ship; when you take that ship and pull out onto the actual sea, that is where Guru work is done in actuality. That is the place where the work is done. All of the rest of this is preparation. Is there something that happens when you go over and pick up the rope and pull as hard as you can? Yes. And in that way, your connection to the vast wish is far more sophisticated than you thought before, isn't that so? This kind of motivation is the power of the great wish. Within your mind, within your own capacity, this is the power of the great wish. This kind of motivation allows you to say, "May all sentient beings have happiness and the cause of happiness."

Rinpoche: We all here agree that the cause of happiness is?

Student: Enlightenment.

Rinpoche: Yes. "May all sentient beings have happiness and the cause of happiness." The cause of happiness is enlightenment. What is happiness? What is the cause of happiness? If you don't know what you're wishing for then it's a little hard to get a handle on something.

Student: It's the state that is separated from suffering.

Rinpoche: No, that's the next great wish.

Student: It's the state without any ignorance.

Rinpoche: No. Thank you for saying that. You're saying that the cause of suffering is ignorance, and that the happiness and the suffering are connected somehow. (Student pauses) I'm making you think. Go ahead and think, think think think think think.

Student responds again

Rinpoche: What is happiness, though? How can you wish for something when you don't know what you're wishing for? Ok, you've got your hand on the rope and you know you're going to transfer energy to something that is really vast. Now let's talk about it. What are you wishing for?

Student: Lasting happiness.

Rinpoche: Lasting happiness. Ok, what is lasting happiness?

Student: Freedom.

Rinpoche: Yes, that's very good. That's one that I would answer right away. Do you want all sentient beings to be happy? You want their happiness to resemble the happiness that you have already experienced?

Student: No.

Rinpoche: You want their happiness to resemble your happiness. Is that what I heard you say?

Student responds again, mentioning success, etc.

Rinpoche: Ok, this is an ordinary wish. It's ok to wish it, but it's not the immeasurable wish. Happiness of this kind is contaminated happiness because it is mixed with desire and attachment. For example, you might know someone who is so taken with Britney Spears, some fellow who listens to her music all the time and would really like to have Britney Spears as his girlfriend. Now, is that what he really wants? Yes, he really wants it, truly. Now, how would you arrange for your friend and Britney Spears to get together? Would that make him happy? Yes. Is that really what you want? To him, it's the fulfillment of every possibility. That's not what we're talking about here. There is an ordinary level we've talked about before, being pleasant, helping others; allowing them to participate in something that they enjoy. 

Rinpoche: Is that the happiness that we're talking about here in the great wish? No, that's not what we're talking about. Do you know what happiness is? Have you experienced great happiness? Have you experienced immeasurable happiness yet?

Student: I've had tastes of it.

Rinpoche: Now, this taste that you have had of this immeasurable, open-ended happiness, that is the happiness that you are wishing for others. Why would you languish in happiness and not wish it for others? You wish that they could have it. My goodness, this is so fantastic.

Student: I think the nature of this happiness is to want others to share in it.

That is the very feeling that I want you to be feeling. "May every, may every sentient being," and do it without going out and touching them individually and personally. You're doing the spiritual equivalent. I have to tell you this because it comes very funny. On TV I saw this locker room and these football players are about to start an important football game. They get themselves all worked up, and at the end they're punching their lockers "Uhn! Uhn! Uhn!" like this, so that they can go out and play football, because that's their job, that's what they're supposed to be doing. That's the kind of intensity…they're doing it for money and fame, you're doing this for the benefit of all living beings, but you can't do it unless you feel it yourself. 

Since I am teaching you transformation of energy, we now understand there is something that you're pulling. While you're pulling on that rope, you feel some kind of transference of energy between you and the vast. And to the extent that you can, think this happiness that I have experienced - why don't they begin the process to experience it also? I know how much this has benefited me. This sense of happiness has changed me profoundly. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they could all experience this happiness?" In the long sadhana it comes like that. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if all sentient beings could experience this same happiness that I have experienced? Even though I know there's more, even this little bit that I have experienced, wouldn't it be wonderful if they could also experience just what I have experienced, and even more because I know there's more. Give me the power to accomplish this. I will make sure that sentient beings achieve this same kind of happiness. Precious Inner Guru, precious Guru, give me the power to make it happen." That is in the long version of the four immeasurables. "Give me the strength, give me the power to make this wish happen for all sentient beings. Give me the power to create in all sentient beings this very kind of happiness." Now we're talking about something that becomes authentic. This is authentic. 

This is uncontaminated, authentic ultimate happiness you are wishing strongly- this is the transformation of your own energy from ordinary valuations to higher processes. "I'm going to work for you if you give me a lot of money." This is ordinary.

Rinpoche: "I'm going to work for all sentient beings, and what do I want in return?"

Student: Their happiness.

Rinpoche: That's right. You want their ultimate happiness, and you want them to be free. Is that the most marvelous salary that you could obtain? Yes. You know that in order to accomplish the great wish, you must be present fully. What does that mean? In a way, I'm going to say that in order to really look at this great wish, you must draw away the contaminated wish that you have. The contaminated wish would be like, "If you make me happy, I'll make you happy" - this kind of buying and selling motivation. The uncontaminated happiness is more related to marvelous experiences that you have had with Inner Guru. You are acknowledging your own peak happiness and wishing it for others. Strongly request Inner Guru to give you the power to be able to accomplish this wish. 

Rinpoche: What is the cause of happiness?

Student: Success.

Rinpoche: Yes, that's exactly right. The cause of happiness is actually succeeding. The actual success component is the enlightened state. The cause of actual happiness, of uncontaminated happiness, is the enlightened state. In that way, there is a single cause for happiness. You are no longer wishing them to be better businessmen, you're not wishing for them to be A-students. You're not wishing them ordinary human happiness here in the sadhana, we do that as part of being a useful ordinary human being already. The four great wishes are spiritual, enlightenment wishes. 

If you're having a very ordinary day, you just say, "Why can't you be happy? Your life is going well. Be happy." Then the next day that problem has been solved, but now there's a fresh problem. Ok, so you solve that problem. And the next day you come and there's another problem, and so you go on and on and on. In that way, it's like having to give a continuous IV of attention. By encouraging them in self-sustaining freedom, the liberated state, they will come into focus in reality, the uncontaminated state of happiness. The cause of that happiness is enlightenment. 

Even before you begin the sadhana, you need to take control of your mind and adjust your motivation so that from the very beginning of the sadhana you seat yourself as a powerhouse of potential. You could easily pass through all of the doorways and be able to pass through to the enlightened state in that very meditation session. Practitioners get glimpses of this kind of powerful motivation, and feel totally charged up about nine tenths of the way through the sadhana, and get a feeling like, "Oh my gosh, something wonderful is happening here." The earlier you do this in your sadhana, the earlier you self-induce the state of mind that turns away from ordinary, and powerful energy begins to arise. Even before you sit down for meditation, you're about to sit down, and you could have a spiritual experience that others could only hope to after they sit and do mantra for 48 hours straight. They go like this (grunts lightly). They might get a little bit of a jolt, "Oh, that feels good, something happened. Oh, I feel like Guru is blessing me, I feel like the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have arrived and are blessing me." 

You can have that earlier and earlier and earlier in your sadhana until, even before you sit down, your sadhana says, "Now adjust your motivation," and you could move into a state of mind where you give such a pull on that great wish that you have created a permanent transformation of your own energy. You turn those energies, you transform those energies by requesting strongly to be given the power to be able to accomplish the great wish. 

How are you going to do that? Once you request Inner Guru to give you the power to accomplish that great wish, your motivation is stainless and shining - you're like a knight in shining armor, and going off on your white charger and you're going to save everyone. Don't think that that is something strange. In the privacy of your own meditation space, this extraordinary idealism is the place you want to be. You have no idea how beautiful it is for me to see this kind of purity of motivation. There you are with your lance, your armor is shining and highly polished like a mirror, and internally you are perfect and stainless, and you are sitting on your powerful white horse, which is your trained mind. You are holding your weapon - you are not without resources. You go to the king and you say, "Give me the power to accomplish this great wish. I am going off on the Crusades, I'm going to save all living beings." Forget any dysfunctional ideas you have about the Crusades, I'm not talking about that. I am saying that with this kind of idealism, this kind of purity that you have in the privacy of your own meditation space, you can accomplish powerful things. This is the energy of this great wish. You could request the power to do it, and by the second or third line of your sadhana, you yourself could attain the enlightened state. Wouldn't that be marvelous? 

Go inside and be joyful. You don't have to hide it, you don't need to be cynical, you don't have to be anything except the one who is really going to accomplish the goal. You're going to find the Holy Grail - this is very powerful thinking You're going in search of the Holy Grail, that being the accomplishment of your own practice; you must be the fully accomplished one in order to be able to do this perfectly. 

You yourself are the vehicle for the accomplishment of the great wish. You yourself are taking upon yourself the function of being the one who, with the guidance and care of Inner Guru, who is right there with you, will eventually save all sentient beings. Or are you going to say, "Maybe I can save 47 sentient beings." If you say, "Maybe I can go out and do a little bit," without this powerful, open-ended immeasurable wish to save all sentient beings, you will not accomplish even the saving of one sentient being. Do not lower your expectations by saying, "I can't even do that much, but I think I'll save one sentient being." In the depths of your own idealism, your own bodhicitta, your own Bodhisattva promise that you have made, must be that understanding that your wish is not to save a few sentient beings, but in fact, every sentient being will be saved. In your sadhana you have promised to do this. In the depths of your own being, that promise is fixed so deeply to your life force that again and again and again, you come back to the method that will help you actually accomplish that goal, which is why you're sitting here now. And when you are born in this world-system, something in you begins to move. "I must accomplish the vow." Some can hear it at a very early age. Others never get the opportunity to demonstrate their Bodhisattva vow in their own interior. You are in the process. To whatever extent you are able, rise up within this idealism so that you can actually do the saving of living beings. 

This kind of extraordinary idealism is the way it used to be in Tibet, and I see that it is still possible in this world-system. Look at your practice and allow yourself to dig deep. In that way, this ordinary glass ceiling, for you, is not there. How marvelous it would be if that glass ceiling were not there for any living being. In the future, we will make sure of that…I'm not going to go in and crack their glass, because depending on their level, sometimes we have to say, "Maybe you a little bit later," for people who are truly dysfunctional. We don't abandon them, but we see that they in their own evolution need to accomplish other things before they can come. We don't place limitations, but internally, in the vast process, the ships who are out at sea, the Guru-Buddhas who are out at sea in the vast wish and who are accomplishing that vast wish for the sea of sentient beings, pulling them in, pulling them in, pulling them in and delivering them with many different methods. 

The most marvelous method, I'm going to say, is for one who is doing the practice, hearing about the marvels of the Bodhisattva state, their idealism and their courage that they can actually accomplish this goal is like this. They are energizing themselves, and they say, "I don't just want to be liberated. I want to be a liberator!" Everyone wants to be liberated, everyone wants to be free - how marvelous to be a liberator. And I am training you my students to be liberators. Some days are better than others for liberators. I'm talking more about a Bodhisattva hero. How marvelous for those who are in the process of learning how to become enlightened with the motivation that they want to be a liberator. There is no possibility of becoming a Bodhisattva liberator unless you have this in abundance. 

According to their own personality and their development, a Bodhisattva liberator may have a specialty they are so interested in that it eventually becomes the nature of that activity. For example, for some, the idea of purification, again and again and again this idea of purifying becomes their major note. And eventually, when they attain their highest level, they will become like a Vajrasattva, the Buddha of purification. They will become known far and wide, if they should decide to remain in human form, for their ability to instill this love of purification practice in others. Others will have other kinds of primary work. And others will have been here for so long that they are so tuned in to the individual that, not according to what their interest is, but in fact, they do exactly what is needed for the individual who is going to be accomplished. Personally, I find this the more skillful method. Like I'm always saying, just because you're holding a hammer in your hand doesn't mean that every problem is a nail, isn't that so? In that way, when I am looking at the individual who is going to be accomplished, I will look at them according to their nature, and that is how they will be transformed. I give these general teachings, but within that you must understand that each one of you, and you my students in America or wherever you are, in the time it takes, even you who thinks that your mind is so stubborn and recalcitrant will have an opportunity to train others when you are capable of doing so without harming them unintentionally. Perhaps your life's work when you attain enlightenment will be working with others who are very stubborn and difficult to train. I hope not, but like that. 

Some of you have potentials in many different ways. In that way, you will develop your potential according to your own nature. We're not playing a game here. In one way, you could say ok, we're playing a game because we're enjoying, we're experiencing happiness and the cause of happiness, for some of us. You're experiencing happiness and acknowledging that you have gained something, and it's something you wish for others. This is a most marvelous feeling. And you are freeing your energy from dysfunctional states such as worry and attachment and anger, and you're placing it into appropriate channels. Let's say that you 1 kilo of gyakpa, which is poop in Tibetan language. Somehow you have to hide this gyakpa, ok? Let's say that the only thing that would really hide it well was gold coins. So you have this great big pile of gyakpa to deal with it, and you have to completely cover it in gold. Otherwise you couldn't tolerate looking at it - you don't want to look at your own shit! So you cover it with gold to make it tolerable. You take this and hide it away in your own mind - you didn't get rid of it, you're still carrying your gyakpa around with you, but it's all nice and covered up with gold now so that you can tolerate it. This gold is your energy so as soon as you get rid of that gyakpa, your gold, which is your precious energy, is free to do real work. So the process goes on and on and on of freeing this energy. 

This wish is the primary cause of the enlightened state.