How to Generate Bodhicitta

By Ribur Rinpoche at Singapore 1997 (Last Updated Dec 9, 2010)

Preface and Short Biography
The Seven-Point Cause and Effect Instruction
Exchanging Oneself and Others
The essence of Buddha's 84,000 teachings is bodhicitta: the awakening mind that aspires towards
enlightenment so as to have the perfect ability to free all beings from suffering and lead them to peerless
happiness. On his two visits to Singapore in 1997, Venerable Lama Ribur Rinpoche taught extensively on
how to generate that precious bodhimind. Using scriptural understanding and his personal experience,
Rinpoche also gave insightful teachings on lo-jong (thought transformation), the practice of which enables
one to transform the inevitable problems of life into the causes for enlightenment.
Preface and Short Biography Preface
In 1997 the students of Amitabha Buddhist Centre were blessed to receive teachings from the great master
Ribur Rinpoche. Rinpoche visited us twice and stayed for a total of three and a half months, during which
time he taught lam-rim and lo-jong (thought transformation). This small booklet is extracted from Rinpoche's
teachings.
A Brief Biography
Ribur Rinpoche was born in Kham, Eastern Tibet, in 1923. He was recognized at the age of five as the sixth
incarnation of Lama Kunga Osel, a great scholar and teacher who spent the last twelve years of his life in
strict solitary retreat. All five of the previous incarnations were principal teachers at Ribur Monastery in Kham.
When Ribur Rinpoche was fourteen he entered Sera monastery, one of the great Gelug monastic-universities
in Lhasa, to begin intensive studies in Buddhist philosophy, which culminated in his receiving the Geshe
degree at the age of 25. During his stay at Sera Monastery Rinpoche also attended many teachings and
initiations given by his root guru, Pabonka Rinpoche, the greatest Gelug lama of the time. After receiving his
geshe degree, Rinpoche returned to Kham where he spent many years doing retreat in a small hut he had
built in the forest. But after the Chinese Communist invasion in 1950, the situation in Kham became
increasingly dangerous, and in 1955 he was advised by one of his gurus, Trijang Rinpoche, to return to
Lhasa, where he continued to take teachings and do retreats.
But Lhasa itself soon became unsafe. From 1959 (the year of the Tibetan people's uprising) to 1976,
Rinpoche experienced numerous hardships and difficulties such as imprisonment and physical abuse, and
being a helpless observer of the terrible destruction of the Cultural Revolution. However, during this time he
was able to keep his mind peaceful and even happy by practising the teachings he had learned. As Rinpoche
described his experiences, "I didn't really experience the slightest difficulty during those adverse conditions.
This was due to the kindness of Lama Dorje Chang [Pabongka Rinpoche]. From him I had somehow learned
some mental training, and in those difficult times, my mind was immediately able to recognise the nature of
cyclic existence, the nature of afflictive emotions, and the nature of karma and so forth. So my mind was
really at ease."
1/3
Following the Cultural Revolution Rinpoche worked with the Panchen Lama to restore many of the lost
spiritual treasures of Tibet as they could. His main accomplishment was recovering the two most precious
statues of Shakyamuni Buddha: the Jowo Chenpo and the Ramo Chenpo. These two statues, originally
brought to Tibet by the Chinese and Nepalese wives of King Songsten Gampo (ca 617-698), were taken to
Beijing during the Cultural Revolution and kept in various warehouses along with thousands of other statues
for 17 years, until Rinpoche found them and returned them to their respective temples in Lhasa.
In 1987 Rinpoche left Tibet and travelled to Dharamsala, India, to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since
then he has lived at Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, where, at the request of His Holiness, he wrote a
number of biographies of great lamas and an extensive religious history of Tibet. Rinpoche has also visted
and taught in several foreign countries - Australia, New Zealand. America, and around Europe. His warmth,
humour, profound wisdom and practical, down-to-earth teachings have endeared him to many students
around the world.
Background of the Teachings
More that 2,500 years ago, Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment and then proceeded to teach the
path to enlightenment so that others could follow. His teachings have been kept alive to the present day
through the great kindness and efforts of an unbroken lineage of practitioners who learned them from their
masters, put them into practice, then passed them onto followers. In Tibet, the essential points of Buddha's
teachings were formulated into a system known as the lam-rim, or stages on the path to enlightenment, which
explaiins all the steps or practices one needs to follow in order to attain enlightenment.
The lam-rim consists of three main stages or levels, according to three different reasons or motivations for
practising Dharma. The first level, known as the "small scope," starts from taking an interest in one's future
lives. This comes about when we realise that this present life could end at any time, and that after death, we
will be reborn in an unfortunate state (as an animal, hungry ghost or hell being), and to achieve a fortunate
state (as a deva, titan or human being), by taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and by living
our lives in accordance with karma, the law of evolutionary actions and their results.
The second or "intermediate scope" involves developing the aspiration to become free once and for all from
the cycle of death and rebirth. Within this scope, one focuses on the Four Noble Truths: the sufferings of
cyclic existence, the causes of suffering (delusions and karma), the state of freedom from all suffering
(nirvana), and the means to achieve it by practising the three higher trainings of ethics, concentration and
wisdom.
The third level, the "great scope," involves opening one's heart to consider the situation of all beings.
Realising that all beings experience suffering that they don't want and they fail to find the peace and
happiness that they wish for, one develops the aspiration to attain full enlightenment in order to help
everyone reach that perfect state as well. That altruistic aspiration is bodhicitta.
This booklet contains extracts of ribur Rinpoche's precious teachings on how to develop bodhicitta, and how
to practise thought transformation through which we become less self-centred and more concerned for
others.
Numerous people contributed to this work. Rinpoche's teachings were beautifully translated into English by
Fabrizio Pallotti. Several ABC students kindly transcribed the tapes, and I edited the transcript with
assistance from Doris Low and Rise Koben.
Any errors in the text are entirely the fault of the editor.
Sangye Khadro
Oct. 1998
2/3
Continue to The Seven Point Cause-and-Effect Instruction
3/3