Mind of Enlightenment (Sangpo 1996)
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Description
The mind of enlightenment is the generation of an altruistic aspiration to highest enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It means that you have decided to strive for Buddhahood because you understand that only as a Buddha will you be able to care for and help all other sentient beings to escape the sufferings of cyclic existence and become Buddhas themselves. This practice has three elements: training in the attitudes of the four immeasurables, generating an altruistic aspiration to highest enlightenment and the precepts for so doing.
In the great books, the order of the four immeasurables is usually given as love, compassion, joy and equanimity. Here, however, the four are explained from the point of view of practice so that equanimity comes first. Why begin with this rather than love? It is a quintessential instruction passed down from the many previous lamas of this lineage that without the even-mindedness of equanimity it is impossible to generate love and compassion.
