Seven Points of Mind Training

Point 7 : Guidelines of Mind Training

45: Take on the three principal causes.

Point Seven : Take on the three principal causes.

Commentary :

"Cause" refers to that which causes you to be a good dharmic person or bodhisattva. The first cause is having a good teacher. The second cause is applying your mind and basic demeanor to the dharma. The third cause is having food and housing so that it is possible for you to practice the dharma. You should try to maintain those three situations and take delight that you have such opportunities.

To take on the first principal cause is to realize the necessity of the teacher, who actually allows you to get into situations.

To take on the second principal cause is to realize that one's mind should be tamed. For instance, your mind might be into a business deal, or a teaching deal, or a book-writing deal, or into making a funny kind of monumental experience for yourself. You might have all kinds of ambitions about your life. This attitude was not all that prominent in the days when Jamgon Kongtrul wrote his commentary on the slogans, but today we have a lot more choices. You might think you can hunt animals by becoming a great Buddhist or a great bodhisattva or be a great author, a great prostitute, or a great salesman. But that state of mind, that type of ambition, is not all that good. Instead, you have to come to the point at which your state of mind would say, "I would like to devote myself to the dharma completely and fully."

To take on the third principal cause is to realize that it is possible for you to practice the dharma because of having the right circumstances, because you have been taking an open attitude toward your life and have already worked out some kind of livelihood. Your food and clothes and shelter are taken care of, and economically you can afford to practice.

So you should take on and practice these three causes: 1) working with a teacher, 2) training your mind, 3) establishing an economic base for practice.