The Purpose of Our Life

The word for buddha in Tibetan is sang gye. Sang means “cessation” and gye means “developed” [all the good qualities]. [When we have that we are enlightened.] Many people translate “enlightenment” as “awakening.” A simple example is waking from sleep. When we are asleep, we are totally in the dark, never knowing what is happening around us. But from there we wake up and become aware of what is happening around us, of the dangers or whatever. We wake up.

That is a simple example, but of course here “waking up” means becoming free from not only the gross obscurations, which arhats do to achieve nirvana, but also the subtle obscurations, the leftover delusions. When we cease even the subtle obscurations, we can complete the realizations and achieve the awakened state. “Awakening” or “enlightenment” are synonyms. Both words have the same meaning. Many people translate enlightenment as the awakened state.

So, the purpose of our life is to bring sentient beings to that state. For that reason, in order to do that without the slightest mistake, we ourselves need to achieve the state of omniscience. Even though there are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas working for sentient beings, that is our duty, our responsibility. Our responsibility is to free all sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment by ourselves alone. 

That is our job, our duty. It is the way to repay the kindness of sentient beings. Therefore, we need to actualize the whole path to enlightenment. Therefore, we need to do the three actions of listening, reflecting and meditating on the lamrim, the essence of all the Buddhadharma. Therefore, we need to do the listening.

I mentioned this yesterday, but I want to say it again today. What we are doing is [for everybody]; it’s for these tiny ants going around looking for food. It’s for that. What we are doing right now is for them, to free them not only from the lower realms but from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment. Even the tiniest insects we see going around, even the birds outside, the dogs, the people, whoever we see, it’s for everybody. It’s for everyone we see—everyone making noise, making a noise expressing their suffering, making an angry noise, making a noise of attachment. It’s for everyone, for every sentient being, and not only in this world. There are numberless universes with numberless sentient beings, so it’s for everyone.

If possible, whenever we do any practice, such as reciting a mala of OM MANI PADME HUM or whatever mantra, whatever we are doing—meditation or anything—at the beginning we must remember that “I’m doing this for everyone.” Otherwise, “sentient beings” becomes just on the lips. Then, even though there are skies of sentient beings, when those around us are angry, because of our obscured, proud mind, we don’t practice patience, we don’t practice loving kindness and compassion. When we actually meet them, they must be something else [other than the sentient beings we are trying to save]. Maybe they are not even sentient beings! Because all the people we have problems with are not sentient beings, they have to be killed. The sentient beings are in the sky. Actually, we’re not sure what sentient beings are! 

 It becomes like that if we don’t do the practice well. Then, when the sound of people living at the center or at home or wherever [annoy us], making us angry, they are to be killed. In the meditation texts, it says “sentient beings” but maybe they are just something in the sky, something like that. That is totally wrong. We have to start the practice with the sentient beings we can see around us. From there [we extend] to the infinite sentient beings. Our meditation, our prostrations, everything we do is intended for them. We have to do that. That is the Mahayana practice. We have to bring that awareness, that compassion and loving kindness, into whatever our practice is, like the seven techniques of Mahayana cause and effect on the basis of equilibrium meditation.

Maybe I’ll mention two or three words, then move on.

The Three Capable Beings

Nagarjuna said in Precious Garland,

[80] A person is not earth, not water,
Not fire, not wind, not space,
Not consciousness, and not all of them.
What person is there other than these?

Kye bu (person) actually means “capable person.” There are three types of capable being. The lower capable being [seeks freedom from lower rebirths] by gaining realizations on the perfect human rebirth—how it is highly useful in three ways and difficult to receive again—on the nine-round meditation on impermanence and death and on the lower realm sufferings.

Then, seeing the qualities of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, we rely on them to be free from our suffering. Not only that. We rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to become free from lower nirvana, to not fall down into the lower nirvana but to achieve great nirvana, enlightenment. Then, by protecting our karma, we have the realizations of the graduated path of a lower capable being.

Then, with the graduated path of a middle capable being, we realize how samsara is in the nature of suffering and we develop the renunciation to be free from samsara, and to achieve nirvana, everlasting happiness. That is the middle capable being.

And as a higher capable being we let go of the selfish mind and attain bodhicitta. That is the motivation. Then, we practice the six perfections, the bodhisattva’s conduct to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. The higher capable being [works] to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings: the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts and beings of each realm, to free them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment. That is a higher capable being.