The Seven Ways Things Shine Inside and Out

A Vajra Song of Realisation Sung by the Lord of Yogis Milarepa

explained by

Khenpo Tsltrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

Friday 20 October 2000
The tradition of singing the dharma goes all the way back to the Buddha himself. One of the
twelve branches of the Buddhas teachings is called the Teachings Given in Song, which the
Buddha actually sang to his students. In India as well, the great siddhas such as Tilopa,
Saraha and many others sang songs of realisation. This tradition carried on into the land of
Tibet where realised yogis and yoginis sang vajra songs. From among all of these, the lord of
yogis, the greatest siddha of all, was Milarepa, and he sang the most vajra songs.

The song called The Seven Ways Things Shine Inside and Out is a song Milarepa sang that is in
harmony with and follows the path of his own life story. In the first verse, Milarepa sings:
Outside my father and mother were shining
Inside my all-base consciousness shone
And in between, I got this human body complete
I wasnt born in the lower realms thats all Ive got!
In the Buddhist tradition it is explained that in between the end of one lifetime, when ones
five aggregates or skandhas have for that particular lifetime dissolved, and the beginning of
the next lifetime, there is what is called the bardo, the intermediate state. When the bardo
ends, one takes on a new existence, and the outer conditions that need to come together, if
one is to get a human body, are a human man and woman. This coming together of Milarepas
future father and mother is the condition that is happening here on the outside.

On the inside, Milarepa sings, my all-base consciousness shone. One way of explaining mind is
in terms of eight consciousnesses, and the most subtle of them all, the ground for them all, is
the alaya-vijnana, the all-base consciousness.i If one has accumulated the karma to be reborn
as a human being then it is stored in this all-base consciousness. So that inner condition to
obtain a human body is ripening here for Milarepa. And that is what he sings as a result in

between I got this human body complete. Complete means that not only is it a human body
but it is one that he is using to practice the dharma. He has faith, diligence and wisdom, and
these three are the main factors that make ones human existence a precious human
existence, the three conditions that allow one to practice the dharma.

I wasnt born in the lower realms thats all Ive got. Milarepa is saying, I have not got
much, but what I have got is that I was not born in one of the hell realms, or as a hungry
ghost or an animal I have this precious human body that I can use to practice the dharma.
In the first line, when Milarepa sings of his father and mother, he is remembering his father
and mothers kindness in providing him with the main condition needed to obtain a precious
human body. Our parents have been kind to us in numerous ways, but the best thing they
have done for us is to give us this precious human body that we can use to practice the
dharma. Remembering that, we can feel this wonderful sense of gratitude towards our own
fathers and mothers, just as Milarepa does as he begins his song.
In the second line, Milarepa is singing about the all-base consciousness and the role that it
plays in the event of being born as a human being. Milarepa is singing about the karma he has
accumulated that allows him to be reborn as a human being, that karma that has been stored
in the all-base consciousness. So implicitly he is giving a teaching about the existence of past
and future lives, because it was in past lives that he accumulated this karma that allows him to
be reborn as a human being in this life.
Singing I wasnt born in the lower realms thats all Ive got. Milarepa gives explicitly a
teaching about the suffering of being born in one of the three lower realms, and implicitly
about the suffering that exists in the higher realms as well. So in this verse he is singing about
the precious human existence, karmic cause and result, and finally the disadvantages of being
reborn in samsara.
Outside the scenes of birth and death are shining
Renunciation and faith shine inside
And in between, I remember true dharma so divine
Nobody close to me becomes my enemy thats all Ive got!
When Milarepa sings, Outside the scenes of birth and death are shining he is referring to the
death of his father, Sherab Gyaltsen, who died when Milarepa was very young. In his will, he
left all of his possessions to Milarepas uncle and aunt as trustees for Milarepa and his mother
and sister. The uncle and aunt, abused that trust, however, and Milarepa suffered a great deal
as a result.

Renunciation and faith shine inside. You may have read Milarepas life story. If you have, you
are familiar with how Milarepas uncle and aunt made Milarepas whole family become their
servants, and never gave them what Milarepas father had left for them to have. This caused
Milarepa to feel a great sense of renunciation of samsara and faith in the dharma.
And in between I remember true dharma so divine. As a result of seeing this death happen
on the outside and having renunciation and faith well up from within, Milarepa remembers the
true dharma and how important it is to practice it. As a result of that, Nobody close to me
becomes my enemy. Milarepa does not let any of his close relatives who may have done him
this harm or any other harm become an obstacle to his practice. For example, when Milarepa
was practicing in the mountains and was going through a great number of physical austerities,
his sister, whose name was Peta, and his former fiance whose name was Dzee-seh, would
come to see him. In particular, his sister would look at Milarepas condition and feel very sad
about seeing her brother wasting away up in the mountains. She begged him many times to
come down, to adopt a normal life, to live in a house and to accumulate wealth like everybody
else. But Milarepa did not let that get in between him and his dharma practice. He just
continued to practice in the same way as before.

In fact, enemies cannot really be obstacles to our dharma practice because the more harm
that anyone does to us just causes our renunciation and our feeling of renunciation of samsara
to grow, and it gives us an opportunity to practice more and more patience. So, no enemy can
be an obstacle to dharma practice. The ones who can be obstacles, however, are the people
close to us, who like to give us different kinds of advice about what we should do. Milarepa
sings that he is not letting anyone close to him be an obstacle to his practice, and that is all he
has. He does not have much, he sings, but at least he has that.

Sometimes the people close to us say that what we should be doing instead of practicing
dharma is accumulating wealth. We should be protecting and looking after our friends and
trying to tame our enemies. That kind of advice can be an obstacle to our dharma practice if
we follow it. Therefore, what we need to do when we are practicing the dharma is to see this
life to be like an illusion and a dream, and to have the compassion that encompasses both
friends and enemies in equal measure. Then we will be practicing dharma authentically.
Outside my father, the lama is shining
While my own knowledge cleans the stains up inside
And in between, confident understanding starts to gleam
Ive got no doubts about Dharma thats all Ive got!

In the first line of this verse, Milarepa sings about his meeting with his teacher, Marpa the
Translator. Milarepa had met a few other teachers before he met Marpa and not much
happened, but just from hearing Marpas name for the first time he was filled with
inexpressible joy, his skin broke out in goose bumps, and he cried tears of devotion. After that
he went in search of Marpa, and when he actually saw his guru for the first time, everything
just froze. He was stunned, overcome by an incredibly powerful feeling of having seen his
teacher. That is what is happening on the outside,
At the same time, one can meet a teacher as the outer condition, but one also needs the inner
condition, which Milarepa sings about in the second line: My own knowledge cleans up the
stains inside. The stains refer to the obscurations of the disturbing emotions and the cognitive
obscurations to omniscience. We could also describe the stains as the beliefs that the self truly
exists and that phenomena truly exist.
The way we clean up these stains is with our own knowledge, our own intelligence, which we
cultivate through listening to, reflecting on, and meditating on the teachings of the genuine
dharma. By listening, reflecting, and meditating again and again, our knowledge grows and
gradually we clear away these stains. The result of that, Milarepa sings, is that Confident
understanding starts to gleam. This understanding he sings about is imbued with confidence
in the dharma, is free of doubts, is sure about the meaning of the genuine dharma. Milarepa
sings: that is all I have got; I am not someone with a very high realization, I am not anyone
great, all I have got is that I do not have any doubts about the dharma.
Outside the six kinds of beings are shining
Inside compassion for everyone shines
And in between, I remember my meditation experiences
No self-clinging, only compassion thats all Ive got!
In this fourth verse, Milarepa sings about how he has given rise to compassion in an unbiased
way. Outside are the six kinds of beings. There are in fact limitless sentient beings, but if we
classify them into six general types, we would say that there are beings in the hell realms,
hungry ghost realms, animal realms, human realms, god realms and demi-god realms. These
provide the focus for Milarepas compassion, for they are what compassion needs on the
outside to arise.
On the inside what is needed is genuine compassion, which means compassion for everyone,
friends and enemies alike. If you have compassion for your friends, the people you like, but
not for your enemies, the people you do not like, that is not authentic compassion. Authentic
compassion includes friends and enemies in a completely equal way; it does not have any bias
in terms of having more affection for one person or being and less for someone else. So that is

the quality of what is called unbiased compassion.

In between Milarepa remembers his meditation experiences, he remembers, again and again,
his experience of giving rise to this compassion. That is how he cultivates it, and as a result he
has compassion that is noble compassion without any clinging to himself. It is compassion that
does not want anything for himself in the bargain this is a quality of authentic compassion.
So Milarepa sings: I do not have much, but that is what I do have.
This unbiased compassion is the very ground or foundation of Mahayana practice, because in
order to enter the Mahayana vehicle one must first give rise to relative bodhichitta: the wish to
attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. The way that we give rise to this
bodhichitta is to first develop compassion that encompasses all sentient beings. When we do, it
feels like all sentient beings are right here, right now, and we want to do everything we can to
free them from their suffering in an unbiased way that includes everyone. So, in this way,
because we need it in order to give rise to relative bodhichitta, this unbiased compassion is the
root of Mahayana practice.
We can find evidence of the power of Milarepas unbiased compassion in many places in his life
story. For example, once Milarepa was meditating in the forest and a frightened deer ran
across his path. Milarepa felt great compassion for this deer, so he sang the deer a song and
immediately the deers fear was eased and the deer sat down right at Milarepas feet. Then a
few moments later came a ferocious hunting dog in chase of the deer. Milarepa sang the
hunting dog a song out of his compassion, and the dog sat down right next to the deer as if
they were mother and child. Then finally came the hunter, who was an angry person to begin
with, and he became even more angry when he saw his dog sitting next to the deer. He looked
at Milarepa and he was sure that Milarepa was a black magician who had somehow cast a spell
on his dog. So he drew an arrow from his quiver and was about to shoot Milarepa, but Milarepa
said, There is plenty of time to shoot me later, but listen to a song first. So Milarepa sang
him a song after which the hunter Chirawa Gnpo Dorje dropped his arrow. Later, he became
one of Milarepas best students. This story illustrates the power of Milarepas unbiased
compassion.
How is it that even Milarepas enemies who intended to do him great harm became his
students? It was because of Milarepas tremendous compassion.
Outside the three realms are shining in freedom
Inside the wisdom, self-arisen, shines
And in between is the confidence of realising basic being
Ive got no fear of the true meaning thats all Ive got!

In this verse Milarepa sings about the development of precise knowledge, or prajna. The three
realms refer to what constitutes the universe and all of the sentient beings within it. Sentient
beings either live in the desire realm, the form realm, or the formless realm, so these three
realms include all the experiences that one could possibly have, and they are shining in
freedom. Their freedom refers to their quality of not being real, of their appearances being like
appearances in dreams.

They are the mere coming together of interdependent causes and

conditions; they have no essence of their own, they have no inherent nature. So they are free
right where they are; that is their basic reality.
On the inside is self-arisen, self-aware original wisdom. This wisdom is the basic nature of
reality. It is not something created; it does not come from causes and conditions; it does not
arise anew because it has been there since beginningless time as the basic nature of what we
are. We just have to realise it. For Milarepa this is shining, this is manifesting in his realization
of the nature of the three realms and of his own nature.
In the third line, Milarepa sings of his confidence of realizing the true nature of reality, the true
meaning. You could talk about expressions and words we use to describe things and then there
is the actuality that these words refer to, and Milarepa is singing about the latter here. That he
is certain about the basic nature of reality, he has no fear of it, he has no doubts about what it
is, he is also not afraid of the truth of emptiness, the reality of emptiness And thats all Ive
got, he sings. He means: I am not somebody great, I do not have a high realization, all I
have got is this much. This is Milarepas way of humbling himself.
Outside the five sense pleasures are shining
Inside the wisdom, free of clinging, shines
And in between is conduct where everything tastes the same
I am not thinking joy and pain are different things thats all I am!
Here Milarepa sings of the conduct of equal taste. What this refers to on the outside are the
five objects of sense experience: there are forms that appear to our eyes, that appear to be
pleasing or not; sounds which we consider to be pleasant or unpleasant; smells which we
enjoy or that we find revolting; tastes that we like or do not like, and finally there are bodily
sensations that feel soft and rough, and also all of the experiences that we feel inside our
bodies.
The conduct of equal taste sees all of these experiences to be the same in the sense that
neither good experiences nor bad experiences are truly existent. Milarepa sings that he is free
of clinging clinging to sense experiences as being real. If we think that good experiences are
real then we will be attached to them, and if we think bad experiences are real then we will be
adverse to them, we will not want to have them, and that is completely opposite to the

conduct of equal taste. On the other hand, if we can realise that none of these experiences are
really happening, then the conduct of equal taste naturally follows that.
As a result of performing the conduct of equal taste, Milarepa does not think joy and pain are
different things. He is not attached to being happy, nor afraid of pain. He knows in genuine
reality, joy and pain are equality. Milarepa does not differentiate between joy and pain like
ordinary people do, because he realizes their basic nature. There are many examples of this
and we can look at Milarepas life story to get more of a sense of how he really put that into
practice. At the end of the verse, Milarepa sings, as a way of preventing himself from being
arrogant, thats all Ive got.

Not only did Milarepa realize the equality of happiness and suffering but he also realized the
equality of friends and enemies. There is evidence of this in his life story in that both his
closest friends and relations, his sister and his former fiance, and his aunt, who was his worst
enemy, who did him the most harm out of anyone in his life, all became his students. This
shows that he did not differentiate between friends and enemies.

Outside creations are shining in ruins

Inside the freedom from hope and fear shines
And in between, Im not sick with striving or straining
I am not thinking right and wrong are two different things thats all I am!
In this last verse Milarepa sings of the experience of being free from all clinging and all fixation
that there could possibly be. How is this? First he sings about outer creations and their
impermanence. Whatever we try to construct, the nature of it is a composite of causes and
conditions. When those causes and conditions change, that thing will fall apart. People run into
all kinds of problems thinking that the things they do will last, that the situation they find
themselves in has a permanent quality, when in fact, neither what they are doing, nor the
situation, nor they themselves have any hope of remaining; they are subject to decay.
Realising that, on the inside Milarepa is free from hope and fear. He is not attached to things
on the outside as being permanent, so he has no hope that things will remain nor fear that
they will not, no hope that things will come out one way nor fear that they will not.
Then, Milarepa sings of how when meditating on the genuine nature of reality, trying to make
something happen is like sickness. Trying to change or improve it in some way, instead of just
relaxing into the basic nature, is a sickness. Milarepa himself, however, is free from that type
of striving and straining. He is able to rest in the basic nature of reality in an uncontrived,
natural way.

The meaning of the last line of this verse is not that Milarepa denies that there is virtue and
non-virtue. Rather he is singing that he is free of thinking that virtue and non-virtue truly
exist. He is free of attachment to right and wrong as having any inherent nature he knows
they are dependently arisen mere appearances.
The way that ordinary people relate to virtue and non-virtue, good deeds and bad ones, is to
believe that they are real. This is just how someone would relate to a dream of good and bad
actions when they did not know that they were dreaming. On the other hand, once the nature
of emptiness is realized, then one relates to virtue and non-virtue in a different way,
understanding it to be a mere appearance of something that is not truly existent, just as one
would during a dream when one knew that one was dreaming. So here Milarepa is singing
about the latter way of relating to virtue and non-virtue the way of relating to it when you
know its true nature is emptiness; the way one would relate to it if one were dreaming and
recognized that one was dreaming.
In the tradition of the Middle-way, it is explained that there are three levels of teachings about
virtue and non-virtue. The first stages purpose is to reverse the students tendency to do
things which are negative. At the second stage the purpose is to reverse the students belief in
a self. The third stages function is to reverse clinging to any view or reference point at all.
The way that these play out is that: In order to accomplish the purpose of the first stage,
beginners are taught about virtue and non-virtue as if they truly exist. By explaining the
benefits that come from doing good things that are helpful to others, and the suffering that
comes from doing things that are harmful to others, beginners reverse their tendency to do
things that are harmful. At this stage, in order to have a basis for the explanation that
someone performs actions and experiences their results, the self is described as if it truly
exists. The self is the one who performs actions, good or bad, and then experiences happiness
or suffering respectively as a result.
The point of the second stage is to realise that the self does not truly exist. One uses ones
intelligence to examine the self and determine that the self does not actually exist in genuine
reality, and that therefore, there cannot be any truly existent virtuous or non-virtuous actions
there is no one there to perform them. So at that stage virtue and non-virtue are taught to
be non-existent in genuine reality.
The final stage is the realization that reality transcends all of our fabrications about what it
might be, whether they be fabrications of existence or non-existence, empty or not empty. At
this point we are taught that even the more subtle understanding that we got at the second
stage, of things not truly existing, cannot accurately describe the true nature of reality, which

lies beyond all concepts. So we transcend even the idea of non-existence, even the idea of
emptiness.
This has been a brief explanation of the song sung by the Lord of Yogis Milarepa, the Seven
Ways Things Shine Inside and Out.
Questions
Question: It was mentioned that Milarepa remained in a state of equal taste and I was just
wondering how you ever get there, because sensations are so overwhelming. For example,
with taste, it is like you can conceptually tell yourself that Oh it is not so bad and I should
really think of the real nature of things. But yet you sort of cringe and it is a physical
response, it is just a concept that it is empty of inherent existence, it does not seem real. So
can Rinpoche please give some suggestions of what to actually do with unpleasant sense
experiences?
Rinpoche: First we need the view. The view is that all phenomena are equally empty of any
self of the individual, and also of the self of phenomena they are empty of there being any
actual identity to them. The Buddha taught ten different types of equality, and from these ten
different types, there are three that are the most important. The first is that in terms of
genuine reality, all things are equal in that the true nature of each one of them equally
transcends any concept about what it might be. Secondly, also with reference to their genuine
nature, all phenomena are equal because they are all originally and perfectly pure; since
beginningless time the nature of all phenomena is perfect purity. Finally, in terms of apparent
reality, the appearances of all phenomena are equal because they are all equally like dreams,
illusions and water-moons. Certainty in this view is the first thing you need in order to start
developing the conduct of equal taste.
Even though the term that is used is equal taste, it is not the usual use of the word taste
rather, it is a quality that applies not only to the sense experiences but to all experiences. It
means to know that friends and enemies are of the nature of equality and that happiness and
suffering are of the nature of equality. We can understand this more easily if we think of the
example of a dream. If you dream and you do not know that you are dreaming, and you eat
something that tastes good and then something else that tastes bad, then because you do not
know you are dreaming, you think that these experiences are real and that the experiences
are very different. Once you know that you are dreaming, however, then you know that both
the appearance of a good taste and the appearance of a bad taste are not real, that they are
just mere appearances. So you know there is actually no difference between them at all they
are equality. As for the ultimate reality of the dream, it transcends the concepts of existence
and non-existence both. The actual reality of the dream is beyond all concept of what it might
be.

First we need to gain certainty in this view. We need to analyse in order to understand it and
to be free of doubt that this is in fact how things are. Then in meditation we rest in that
certainty, we cultivate that certainty again and again. Then we can begin to experience equal
taste. That is how the process works.
For beginners, which means all ordinary sentient beings, those who are not noble
bodhisattvas, there is no direct realization of equal taste. Beginners can, however, make
preparations that lead to direct realization by listening to teachings about equal taste and
reflecting on it. Through these two activities we develop our knowledge of listening and
reflecting, and we can give rise to certainty that this is really the way it is. Then when we
meditate we can start to gain some experience of it. When this experience becomes direct
realization, one becomes a noble bodhisattva.
Think about the stages of the dream: when you do not know that you are dreaming, when you
know that you are dreaming, and the ultimate nature of the dream. Thinking of the dream
example will also help you to gain certainty.
In the Vajrayana there is what is called illusory body yoga, and when one does that, if one can
get good at it, one also engages in the conduct of equal taste. What is called impure illusory
body yoga is the same as what in the Mahayana is called the samadhi that sees everything
to be like an illusion. You practice this by remembering again and again that all appearances
are appearance-emptiness inseparable, and in that way they are just like appearances in
dreams and illusions.
Question: If what you are saying is true, then one might assume that nothing really matters.
Rinpoche: That view would deny even the appearance of virtue and non-virtue. It would hold
that not only do virtue and non-virtue not exist genuinely or ultimately, but they do not even
appear. The authentic view does not do that, however; the authentic view explains that virtue
and non-virtue are dependently arisen mere appearances that have no inherent nature. It is
not that there are no appearances of them, because they do appear. The example for these
appearances is the example of appearances in dreams. Virtue and non-virtue appear but they
do not truly exist, they are dependently arisen mere appearances, just like the virtue and nonvirtue that appear in dreams.
The genuine nature of reality transcends cause and result, transcends karma and transcends
good and bad. In apparent reality, however, there are the appearances of good and bad, and
positive actions leading to happiness, and negative actions producing suffering. That in
apparent reality, positive actions produce happiness and negative actions produce suffering is

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beyond doubt.
To say that something is a dependently arisen mere appearance is a very important part of the
view, so we should understand what that means. The example we can use to help us
understand that is, if you have a clear lake and a clear sky that is free of clouds and you have
the moon in the sky, then, on the surface of that lake you will have an appearance of the
moon. The water-moon does not inherently exist; it is a mere appearance that manifests due
to the coming together of causes and conditions. In the same way the appearances of this
lifetime, the causes that we accumulate for the appearances of our future lifetimes, and
everything that happened in past lifetimes, are all dependently arisen mere appearances,
manifesting due to the coming together of different causes and conditions. They are like the
appearance of a water-moon.
The way that we relate to virtue and non-virtue depends upon our belief in the self, what we
think about this I. In order to help beings get over the nihilistic view that actions have no
consequences, the Buddha taught that the self exists, and that the self will experience the
results of its own past actions, positive or negative. That is the first level of the teaching. At
the second level though, the disciples had this attachment to the existence of the self. They
believed that the self who performs actions and experiences results truly exists, when actually
it does not. In order to help them get over that clinging, the Buddha taught that the self does
not truly exist, and taught the ways they could analyse for themselves to gain certainty in
selflessness. Finally, to help his students abandon their clinging to selflessness, the Buddha
taught that reality transcends the ideas of self and selflessness both; existence and nonexistence both.

There are different types of practices that go with these three levels: beginners practice as if
the self existed, then at the middle stage one does the practices associated with selflessness,
and at the final stage the practices associated with the understanding that reality transcends
the concepts of self and selflessness both.

Question: What strikes me so much about what you told us is actually the story about the
deer and the hunter and so on. What I am really impressed by is the skill in teaching to each
of those, even more so than I am impressed by the wonderful level of realization of Milarepa.
So my question is how can we cultivate those skilful means in ourselves given that we are
struggling with our own level of realization. How can we cultivate our ability in formal and in
everyday life, how can we cultivate that ability to help others ripen and to realize the nature of
their own true existence.
Rinpoche: The best thing that you can do to help others realize their own nature, whether

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they are beginners or old students or anywhere in between, is the practices of the seven
points of mind training, or Lojong. The Lojong teachings begin with a brief but profound
explanation of ultimate bodhichitta the understanding of the genuine nature of reality. Then
they go into extensive detail about how to give rise to relative bodhichitta loving-kindness
and compassion. In order to develop the ability to help others to realize their own nature, this
is the best method.
The Mahayana is the practice of emptiness and compassion together. As a beginner, though,
one cannot give rise to the direct realization of emptiness right away, which is why in the
Lojong teachings, emptiness is taught at the outset in a concise way. What one can definitely
do, though, is give rise to compassion. That is why compassion is taught in a much more
extensive way. By combining the two together, the brief explanation of how to meditate on
emptiness and the extensive explanation of how to give rise to loving-kindness and
compassion, then one can learn how to practice on the Mahayana path of emptiness and
compassion together.
The Lojong teachings describe the practice of tonglen, sending and taking, and whether one is
experiencing happiness or suffering one should do this practice. Sending and taking should be
practiced alternately. The two should ride the breath, is what the teaching says. When you
exhale, you send out all of your happiness and virtue to others, and when you inhale you take
on yourself all of their suffering and negativities. In order to do that practice you have to first
have compassion. If you do not, then you will not have any reason to do tonglen practice.
The lojong teachings have been translated and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoches commentary is
published in a little book called Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness.ii You should
all read that book again and again. The reason why it is important to read it again and again,
particularly the root verses, is the more you read it the more your certainty in it will grow.
At the end of the Lojong, actually after the main body of the Lojong, there are some verses by
the Lord Serlingpa, called Smoothing Out the Bumps of Concepts, which are in another book
published by Shambhala called The Great Path of Awakening, Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thayes
commentary on Lojong. Serlingpa says:
Adverse conditions are the spiritual teacher,
Demons and ghosts are emanations of the victors,
Sickness is the broom that sweeps away past negative deeds and obscurations,
Suffering is the radiance of dharmata.
This is a verse that we should read hundreds and thousands of times. In particular, the line
that says, sickness is the broom that sweeps away past negative deeds and obscurations if

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we gain certainty in this, then whatever sickness we might experience, it will not get us down.
We will be happy about it because we will see the wonderful things that sickness does.
My parting aspiration for you all is that you will perfect the knowledge gained from listening,
reflecting and meditating on the genuine dharma, that you will realize the true nature of mind
that is permanent, steadfast, peace, unchanging and immutable, and through this you will be
of great benefit to all of the limitless number of sentient beings.

For further teachings visit:

http://www.greatliberation.org/shop

The all-basis consciousness (eighth), afflicted consciousness (seventh), mental consciousness (sixth),
and the five sense-consciousnesses of eye, ear, smell, taste and body consciousness.
ii
A detailed commentary along with the translation has also been recently published: The Benevolent
Mind: A Manual in Mind Training by Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche. Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Publications 2003.

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