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On discipline, it's said, is founded all that's good.<ref>Gethin, Fletcher, and Blankleder, ''Letter to a Friend'', 29.</ref> | On discipline, it's said, is founded all that's good.<ref>Gethin, Fletcher, and Blankleder, ''Letter to a Friend'', 29.</ref> | ||
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We may be inspired by the idea of orienting our lives more toward others and cultivating altruistic thoughts, but this process needs to be sustained. Discipline is one of the key factors for maintaining bodhicitta and preventing it from declining. This chapter deals with discipline in a broad sense, but Śāntideva also reminds us here that discipline is particularly important for those who have taken up the spirit of bodhicitta. | |||
With the holding of this ideal of an altruistic way of life there comes a commitment to the welfare of sentient beings. The root verses tell us that the worst of all downfalls is to allow our compassion for all beings to weaken and then to lose this mind of bodhicitta. How can we forsake helpless sentient beings when inspired by such noble intentions? We must make good on our promise to follow this altruistic path, otherwise we will fall into the terrible suffering of the lower states of existence. | |||
Along with impure practices to avoid, Gyaltsab Je Darma Rinchen (1364–1432), commonly known as Gyaltsab Je, one of the chief disciples of Tsongkhapa and a prolific author of the Geluk tradition, [LINK to text pdf p. 114] explains how to practice once we have taken up this mind wishing to attain enlightenment: | |||
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|quote-text=After the children of the conquerors, the bodhisattvas, took very firmly the two minds of enlightenment as explained earlier, they should unwaveringly protect them with conscientiousness, so as not to wander from them for even a second. They should also unwaveringly protect the trainings of the six perfections and the four ways of attracting disciples, so as not to waver from them and that they never decrease.<ref>Fedor Stracke, trans., ''The Entrance for the Children of the Conquerors - A Commentary on the Introduction to the Actions of Bodhisattvas. Chapter Four: Conscientiousness'', by Gyaltsab Je Darma Rinchen (N.p.: HappyMonksPublication, 2016), 1.</ref> | |||
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