- Buddha-Nature
- Compassion
- Defining Bodhicitta
- Emptiness
- Equalizing & Exchanging Self and Others
- Equanimity
- History of Bodhicitta Teachings
- How to Develop Bodhicitta
- Interdependent Origination
- Lineage of the Profound View
- Lineage of the Vast Conduct
- Mahāyāna
- Mind Training
- Non-Self
- Seven-Point Instructions of Cause and Effect
- The Bodhisattva Ideal
- The Bodhisattva Path
- The Bodhisattva Vow
- The Bodhisattva's Goal
- The Four Immeasurables
- The Six Perfections
- The Three Higher Trainings
- The Two Accumulations
- The Two Truths
- Tonglen: The Practice of Sending and Receiving
- Types of Bodhicitta
The seven-point instructions of cause and effect are a systematic meditation practice for cultivating bodhicitta through a logical progression of contemplations. The practice begins with recognizing all beings as having been one's mother in past lives, and then moves sequentially through five other contemplations until the seventh instruction is reached—that is, the arousing of bodhicitta, the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the sake of all. This stepwise method builds bodhicitta by transforming one's relationship with others from indifference to a strong sense of connection, unconditional love, and responsibility.
The Lineage
The sevenfold cause-and-effect instructions for developing bodhicitta belong to the Vast Conduct lineage, also known as the lineage of Extensive Deeds. The practice derives from an unbroken transmission originating with Śākyamuni Buddha, who passed the lineage to Maitreya, who then transmitted it to Asaṅga. This lineage was then passed onto Asaṅga's brother Vasubandhu, and subsequently through to Candragomin and to Atiśa. Atiśa brought this lineage to Tibet, where it was subsequently adopted by the Kadampa masters.[1]
The Instructions
The seven-point instructions of cause and effect are so named because six of the points are causes leading to bodhicitta, while the seventh is bodhicitta itself as the resultant state of mind. It is named "cause and effect" because the mind cultivated through each instruction acts as a cause for the next, with each subsequent state of mind arising as the effect of the one preceding it.
The six causes are:
- 1. recognizing all beings as having been our mothers (མར་ཤེས་)
- 2. remembering the kindness of all those mothers (དྲིན་དྲན་)
- 3. wishing to repay these mother beings' kindness (དྲིན་གསོ་)
- 4. affectionate love for all these mother beings (ཡིད་དུ་འོང་བའི་བྱམས་པ་)
- 5. great compassion wishing that all beings be free from all forms of suffering (སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་)
- 6. superior altruistic intent that takes responsibility for doing something about the plight of beings trapped in samsara (ལྷག་བསམ་རྣམ་དག་)
The seventh instruction is the result itself that we are aiming for:
- 7. the mind of enlightenment—that is, bodhicitta (བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་)
By contemplating each of these instructions and developing the realizations associated with them, step by step we put each cause in place so that, eventually, we can give rise to our goal, the resultant mind of enlightenment.
Extensive Explanation
Equanimity and Compassion as a Foundation
Prior to these six causes, most traditions also emphasize the importance of cultivating equanimity toward all beings, whether we perceive them to be a friend, a stranger, or even an enemy. Without this unbiased foundation, the subsequent instructions will always be colored by partiality toward some beings over others. Once equanimity is established, we can correctly engage with all the succeeding stages, such as love and compassion. For further details on the topic of equanimity, see this article:
In his masterwork The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (ལམ་རིམ་ཆེན་མོ།), the Gelukpa master Lama Tsongkhapa reminds us that before we begin to engage in this practice of the seven instructions, it is important to gain certainty about their sequence. He first explains the importance of compassion as the root of the Mahāyāna. He then explains how, within the seven points, all the other instructions apart from great compassion are either causes of compassion or effects of compassion.[2]
He points out how the first four instructions—from recognizing all beings as having been our mothers up until the fourth instruction on affectionate love—all act as causes of compassion. The last two instructions, superior altruistic intent and the mind of enlightenment, he explains to be the effects of compassion.
The important point here is to recognize how all seven instructions are related to compassion, and how compassion therefore forms the basis not only for the practice of generating bodhicitta but for the entire path of the Mahāyāna practitioner.
For further information on compassion see this article…
https://bodhicitta.tsadra.org/index.php/Explore/Compassion
For further information on the Mahāyāna tradition see this article… https://bodhicitta.tsadra.org/index.php/Explore/Mah%C4%81y%C4%81na
Notes
- ↑ Elio Guarisco and Ingrid McLeod (Kalu Rinpoché Translation Group), trans. and ed., The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Five: Buddhist Ethics, by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé (Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications, 2003), 172.
- ↑ Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee, trans., The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, by Tsongkhapa, ed. Joshua W. C. Cutler and Guy Newland (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2000), 2:36.
