Bodhisattvacharyavatara

by Andreas Kretschmar | 246,740 words

The English translation of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara (“entering the conduct of the bodhisattvas”), a Sanskrit text with Tibetan commentary. This book explains the bodhisattva concept and gives guidance to the Buddhist practitioner following the Mahāyāna path towards the attainment of enlightenment. The text was written in Sanskrit by Shantideva ...

Text Sections 107-112

Khenpo Kunpal now turns to the proper conduct for listening to the dharma. The Buddhist teachers often discuss ‘the three defects of a listener’. Certain faults students may have when listening to the teachings are described through the metaphor of a pot. The student is compared to a pot; the dharma is compared to nectar poured into the pot; the teacher is the one who pours the nectar.

The first two of the three defects [skyon gsum] are those of the upside-down pot and the pot with a hole in it. These are relatively easy to avoid. If the student concentrates he can focus on what is being said, and he can remember the teachings. The third defect is exemplified by a pot containing poison. Ordinary beings find it very difficult to listen to the teachings without any ‘poison’, in other words without any afflictions.

Our minds are generally engrossed in afflictions. One can, however, at least attempt to avoid the more obvious and gross afflictions such as listening to the teachings with the desire for greatness [che ’dod], the desire for fame [grags ’dod], or the desire for gain and recognition [rnyed bkur ’dod pa].

If you study the dharma because you want to become a famous scholar, this very motivation turns your dharma practice into something no longer dharmic [chos min].

Listening to the dharma accumulates merit, but if your motivation to study the dharma is rooted in desire, aversion, or ignorance, your practice is actually nondharmic. Therefore, consciously generating the proper motivation every time you are about to receive teachings, every time you are about to study, and every time you are about to engage in practice is extremely important. When a qualified teacher expounds the dharma in a quiet place, free from any distractions, the afflictions present in the minds of the audience will naturally be reduced.

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