The commitments of the bodhisattva vow are divided into three categories: 1) the commitments of bodhichitta in general, and 2) the commitments particular to aspiration and 3) those particular to implementation bodhichitta.

The commitments of bodhichitta in general are: to respect teachers of the mahayana; to avoid the four negativities; and to never mentally abandon any sentient being. The four negativities are: to deceive the venerable or those worthy of veneration (it does not mean elderly); to cause another to regret an action that is not regrettable, so to cause someone unnecessary or inappropriate regret or guilt; to revile or denigrate the holy; and to deceive all beings. Deceiving all beings means to give up bodhichitta, because since you have promised to bring about the awakening of all beings, if you give it up, that is called deceiving all beings. Among the three commitments—respecting teachers of the mahayana, avoiding the four negativities, and never mentally abandoning any sentient being—the most important one is never mentally abandoning any sentient being.

The commitment particular to aspiration bodhichitta is to maintain the intention to achieve buddhahood for the benefit of others.

And the commitments particular to implementation bodhichitta are: to dedicate any virtuous deed you perform to perfect awakening for the benefit of others; and to avoid avoidable wrongdoing.

In addition to this summary of the commitments, it would be good if you would study the extensive treatises on the training of bodhichitta such as the Bodhicharyavatara, its commentaries, and other books.

There are two things that are most important for us to keep in mind regarding the generation and cultivation of bodhichitta. The first is what was mentioned as the most significant commitment of bodhichita in general, which is not mentally abandoning sentient beings. Not mentally abandoning sentient beings does not simply mean not generating the intention to never ever help any being whatsoever. No one generates that. It means not mentally abandoning any one sentient being. And we are in some danger of doing that especially when we become angry. Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye in discussing the training of bodhichitta said that the greatest danger for practitioners is to become so resentful of someone else in a situation of conflict that they think, “Even if in the future I have a chance to help you, I will not do so.”

Simply getting angry does not constitute mentally abandoning beings, but when we form the resolution to never help them in the future, that is mentally abandoning them. When we experience conflict with others, we need to remember that there is a great deal of difference between dharma and practitioners of dharma. Dharma itself is pure and unafflicted. Whether we are thinking of dharma as tradition (the buddhas teachings) or dharma of realization, they are both free of affliction. So when someone acts inappropriately and we become outraged, or we think they are acting inappropriately and we become outraged, we first of all have to remember that they are acting in contravention of dharma, not in accordance with it. And if they are fellow practitioners, then this should inspire our compassion rather than our resentment, because they are acting against the course of what they have chosen to do with their life. If you can view it that way, then instead of feeling so much resentment towards the person, you will make the compassionate aspiration that you will be able to help them in the future. In that way a situation of potential conflict can become a source of great compassion that will fuel your bodhichitta.

So the first thing to keep in mind regarding bodhichitta is mentally to never abandon any sentient being even under circumstances of conflict. The second is to understand how a projection of faults works. We are all human beings. Maybe if we were buddhas, we would be different. I am saying that because if we look at the Buddha Shakyamuni’s life, there were plenty of people who did not like the Buddha, who thought that the Buddha was full of defects.

When we see a fault in someone else, whether that fault is there or not, we tend to obsess upon it. When we see a tiny fault in someone else, we fixate on it and give it the importance of a much greater fault. On the other hand we remain largely ignorant of our own faults because we are so clever at hiding our faults from ourselves and sometimes from others. About this Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye wrote in his Calling to the Gurus From Afar, “I conceal a mountain of faults within myself and yet obsess upon a sesame seed’s worth of fault in another.”

There is a connection between our ignorance of our own faults and our awareness of the faults of others. The more we conceal our own faults, and therefore allow them to remain undisturbed, the more aware of and the more irritated by others’ faults we will be. If we can reverse this, if we can start to pay attention to our own faults including our own kleshas [afflictive emotions] and not those of others, and if we can insure that we never mentally abandon any sentient being—although we are still going to have outbursts of mental affliction—we will be in far less danger of ever losing bodhichitta.

To become authentic practitioners we need to be fearless about samsara. In samsara, we are going to experience dissatisfaction and we need to be prepared for that. As is taught in all commentaries on the preliminary practices, it is simply the attribute of samsara that we are going to encounter enemies, be separated from friends, sometimes fail to get what we want, and sometimes lose what we have. An authentic practitioner in such a situation needs not to feel that they have somehow been singled out for persecution or victimization by the world; needs not to think, “Why is this happening to me?” We need to remember that this is simply the way it is, and in such situations, when we find ourselves dissatisfied, we should consider how much worse many others have it. And if in thinking of their plight, we can sincerely wish to remove their suffering and to prevent other beings from suffering, then we will succeed in transforming a situation of potential misery into one of great joy. It is the characteristic of samsara that the way people relate to one another is utterly uncertain. Someone who is your friend today might be your bitterest enemy tomorrow. Someone who is your enemy today might be your friend tomorrow. Really, the dealings between persons are like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, then going back behind another cloud, then coming out from behind the clouds, and so on. It is just not stable. We need to maintain the type of fearlessness that comes from the perspective of seeing beyond our temporary identification of people as friends and enemies. For example, the arhat Madgalyayana once saw a woman nursing her baby while eating some fish and trying to keep a dog away that was trying to get the fish. Seeing this, Madgalyayana laughed. He realized that the woman’s parents, whom she loved very much, had died. An enemy of her parents had also died. The enemy of her parents, whom she had hated during that enemy’s life, was reborn as her child whom she was now nursing and holding in her lap with great affection. Her father, whom she had loved very much, now became the fish that she was eating; and her mother was reborn as the dog that she was kicking trying to keep it from stealing the fish. And so he said, “She is eating her father’s flesh and driving her mother away, holding her worst enemy with great affection in her lap. Samsara makes me laugh.”

If we can develop this kind of perspective, then we will be able to develop stable bodhichitta. One instant of that kind of stable bodhichitta accumulates so much merit that, if it had physical form, it would be larger than all space in the universe. Furthermore this merit continues to accumulate even when we are not thinking about it, even when we are asleep, because the commitment to bodhichitta remains. For this to work, we have to actually take responsibility for the development of our bodhichitta and to train our minds. It is not enough simply to hear lamas talk about aspiration bodhichitta and implementation bodhichitta, and how great they are. Even if you hear hundreds of lamas extol the benefits of bodhichitta, even if you take the bodhisattva vow hundreds of times, if you do not take responsibility for training your own mind and training bodhichitta then you will have generated it, but it is not really going to develop. So I hope that you will train your minds and cultivate bodhichitta, and I offer you my best wishes.

The text concludes with a colophon, which is in two parts: First, is the treasure colophon written by the person who wrote down the text, which was the wisdom dakini Yeshe Tsogyal. Second, there is a colophon written by the treasure revealer, Terchen Barway Dorje.

Yeshe Tsogyal wrote: “This Combined Essence of the Four Profound Gurusadhanas concisely contains all points and is easy to practice. It was taught by Guru Rinpoche out of compassion and kindness for those of the future. I, Yeshe Tsogyal, have concealed it for their benefit. May it benefit beings forever.”

This combined practice is a convenient and easily performed combination of the outer, inner, secret, and very secret gurusadhanas. And it was taught for the benefit of beings of the future by Guru Rinpoche to his disciple, Yeshe Tsogyal. At his instruction, she wrote down this liturgy that he taught. She did not write it in conventional Tibetan; she wrote it in symbol script. And you will see some of that symbol script at that point in the Tibetan text. Then she concealed this for the benefit of future beings.

When we think about this, we often think that this was sort of a random process; that she found a convenient cave somewhere, that she contained the text in some kind of impermeable container, and hoped that eventually someone would find it. it is not like that at all. There is nothing random about any of this. When Guru Rinpoche taught this to Yeshe Tsogyal, he did so with the omniscient knowledge of who would have contact with it in the future. When she wrote this down, she wrote it down in consideration of the actual needs of future disciples. It is very personal. It is very intimate. It is very much based upon their omniscient understanding of who would practice these liturgies, when in the future they practice them, what their needs and ability would be.

That means that practices like this are—to use English colloquialism—they are not off the rack. They are tailor made for you as an individual. You, as an individual, were known by Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal when they composed these texts. Your needs and abilities were taken into consideration. That is why Yeshe Tsogyal said, “All beings in the future who are interested in these treasures will all be those who have established a karmic connection with them in the past. Therefore, have joy and confidence. These words of mine are more precious than gold.” We find these words in the autobiography of Terchen Barway Dorje and in the great biography of Yeshe Tsogyal discovered by Taksham Nuden Dorje as well. They are often quoted.

What did Yeshe Tsogyal mean? She meant that nobody bumps into this stuff by accident. Nobody who finds these teachings is unworthy of them. Everyone who has the good fortune to encounter teachings such as this practice, teachings which are still warm with Guru Rinpoche’s and Yeshe Tsogyal’s breath, every person who comes into contact with these teachings does so because of their own previous aspirations, and their own previous karmic connection. It is actually impossible that a being could bump into this by accident. Therefore never think, “These teachings are wonderful, but I am unworthy of them.” If you were unworthy of them, you would not even know about them. The fact that you have come into contact with these things is an absolute guarantee that you are one of the people for whom these specific teachings were designed; designed in their omniscient wisdom by Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal.

You, my disciple with genuine good intentions,
Don’t crave the busy distractions of this life.
Continuously recollect impermanence and death.
Spur yourself, from your heart, on the authentic path.

If your guru’s blessing doesn’t enter your heart,
It is hard for dharmic qualities to arise in your being.
Pray, therefore, to your root guru.

Rest freely in the freshness of your mind recognizing itself
Without the ignorant alterations of the intellect.
Whether there is stillness or movement,
Just cultivate mere no-distraction.

Never pollute it with “I’m doing this,” “I will do that,”
Desire for clarity, hope for the good,
Dislike of obscurity and movement, and other fears.
By cultivating this you will accomplish your great goal of liberation.

This was written in a moment by Barway Dorje
For the disciple Tenpa Dargyay
At the request of Dechen Gyalpo.