The Practice of Loving-Kindness and the Greatest of All Offerings

　　byDzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

　　Instead of self-importance, put others in the center. Do this at the aspirational level first. It”s not that you need to commit yourself to do anything outside of your mind. But, first get the priorities right.

　　A lot of people feel threatened by this, as if by aspiring they suddenly have to be engaged outwardly as well. That”s not true. Bodhisattvas are not allowed to do things like giving up their limbs for others until they arrive at the first bhumi, because they don”t yet have that strength. In the collection of advice to the bodhisattvas, the texts say to "act according to your capacity". We shouldn”t always feel pressured to do something outwardly. First it”s important that we get it straight in the mind.

　　Once it is straight in the mind, then test it. Mind needs something to cling to, other than self-importance. Unless you are meditating in the view of emptiness all the time, your mind needs something to cling to, something to occupy it.

　　So here cling to all others as your “self”. Don”t cling to your own body, speech and mind as the self, but instead to all the others who actually desire happiness and freedom from suffering—just as you do. Then pour all this affection that you are used to pouring on yourself toward others instead—the love, the care, the kindness, and the compassion. Think kindly, feel kindly, think and feel compassionately, then see what kind of mental feeling is produced by doing this.

　　From the thoughts and feelings that you generate, what kind of mental feelings arise in your mind

　　Notice that in this situation you will find your mind getting very calm, very settled down, with a deep sense of purity dawning in your heart; your heart becoming more and more like the crystal clear pond of a very soothing spring. Here again you will see that when there is self-importance present, it ruins this feeling.

　　Somebody asked me recently, when you do this practice how do you know you”re not deluding yourself and really just caring for you

　　 When you”re really practicing the method explained here, this method of loving-kindess, or maitri in Sanskrit, to whatever extent you are free of discomfort is identical to the degree of your freedom from self-importance. The degree to which you feel deeply free, is the measure of your lack of self-importance. The presence of self-importance will affect your degree of satisfaction, the degree of your purity, the degree of your calmness, and the degree of your clarity.

　　So this way you can determine what to let go. You don”t make the practice pure by not letting go. You can only make it pure by letting go and thereby making the thoughts and feelings more genuine and more sincere.

　　When you make your thoughts and feelings more genuine and sincere, you must aim to let go of the self-importance involved, the clinging-to-self which is present there. Then in, let”s say, five minutes, if you”re able to do this maitri practice—regardless of whether you felt prior to that like you had a dagger in your heart, so volatile and confused that you were almost in a delusional state—see how your state changes through this method during just five minutes of your mind contacting your well-being.

　　In the beginning, people may have to practice longer than five minutes to get this effect, but as you do more of this, it will take less time to create that effect. People who are really good at doing this can just recall one line of thought and immediately feel a sense of deep peace and calmness, of deep sanity and clarity. This is just by reciting that one line: “May all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness.” You don”t have to do hours of meditation because there”s no obstacle present.

　　In a class…

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