Aspiring for Others’ Welfare

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Chenga Londrö Gyaltsen (1402–1472) was born in central Tibet, and after becoming a monk, he trained with early masters in the Geluk school, including its founder, Tsongkhapa. He was known for his scholarship and contemplative practice, especially in mind-training. A prolific writer and teacher who spent many years in solitary retreat, his legacy inspired generations of practitioners. In this verse text, composed at Sanglung Hermitage, Chenga makes a systematic case for cherishing all sentient beings as the foundation of bodhisattva practice and the surest path to buddhahood.

Mahayana Mind Training
Aspiring for Others’ Welfare

The streams of your great compassion
thoroughly cool sentient beings
tormented by the raging fires of suffering.
To you, O compassionate one, I pay homage.

Though there is no difference at all
between sentient beings and a wish-granting jewel,
the sentient beings we honor not,
while we do a wish-granting jewel.

If, unwavering, they are honored well,
both are equal in securing our aims.
If, unwavering, they are not honored well,
equally, they do not secure our aims.

The bodhisattvas, children of the buddhas,
because they honor sentient beings excellently,
realize whatever their minds aspire to.

If examined well, in fact, the benefit and happiness
obtained from honoring sentient beings
cannot be matched by a wish-granting jewel:
merit will gather, and all negative karma will be cleansed.

The afflictions, such as hatred
will be pacified, you will attain peace,
and qualities like lovingkindness and compassion
will increase like the waxing of the moon.

Swiftly, you will attain buddhahood.
Even without actively helping others,
the moment the thought to help arises,
incalculable benefits come about.

This also leads us to arrive at
states of immense good fortune.
Such benefits obtained from honoring
are found not in relation to a wish-granting jewel
but [only] in relation to sentient beings.

Longevity, absence of illness, prosperity,
attracting a circle of attendants, and so forth
are attainments shared by
honoring sentient beings and a wish-granting jewel.

If the thought occurs
“The instant one honors a wish-granting jewel,
food, drink, and their like will rain down;
such is not the case for honoring the sentient beings.”

[Response:] If the karma is there, even honoring
sentient beings can make such boons appear.
If the karma is absent, even honoring a wish-granting jewel
will not lead to the appearance of such things.
There is thus no difference between the two at all.

When there can be no doubt at all about this,
who would not honor sentient beings?
Yet some, instead of honoring the sentient beings,
honor gods, nāgas, and yakṣas.

Yet even when they honor gods and nāgas,
they doubt whether they’ll find protection and refuge.
That honoring sentient beings does grant
protection and refuge, we can see in a direct way.

It protects us against the threats of enemies, robbers,
and predatory animals, from fire, water, and so forth.
We can see that it benefits
both our body and our material resources.

Let alone that honoring sentient beings
in itself grants us protection and refuge,
when you honor the sentient beings,
this also pleases the buddhas and the bodhisattvas,
as well as the Dharma protectors, who have all pledged
to guard beings just as they would their own children.

Therefore, who would not strive to honor sentient beings?
Whatever protection and refuge are offered
by honoring gods, yakṣas, nāgas, and powerful people,
these can be found in honoring sentient beings.

. . .

So shun the gods, nagas, and powerful people
and strive to honor sentient beings.
And just like gods, nagas, and powerful people, give up
the [mundane] strivings even for your own child’s sake and honor
beings.

Helping sentient beings leads to the benefits
mentioned above and gives rise to all benefits and joy.
But of the help that parents give to their child,
not even a hundredth is repaid.

If you bring benefit to the best types of beings,
they repay the help you render a hundredfold.
Even among beings of medium and lesser types,
most repay the help you render in equal measure.

. . .

Just as when help is extended to a child,
feelings of happiness arises in their parents,
likewise, by helping one sentient being,
other sentient beings will sing your praises.

“This person strives to help others
with no expectation of thanks or reward—
such a person is amazing indeed!”
Such praise, honor, and acclaim will be uttered.

If, just as we helped our own child,
we had helped other beings as though they were our children,
ah! We would have attained buddhahood,
countless long eons ago.

This thought to help sentient beings
in all possible ways is indeed
the essence of all the sublime teachings;
it’s the very life force and heart of the great vehicle.

Those who, despite being able to,
do not help other sentient beings
and do not discard harm and intolerance
are shunning the essence of sublime dharma.

This thought of helping other beings
is indeed the indispensable preliminary;
it’s the main practice as well as the conclusion.
It’s what makes the vessel receptive and fills it;
it’s the ground, the root, the site, and the support.

This pith instruction, a swift path
to accomplish the two aims [of self and others’ welfare],
know this to be akin to fast legs, a diamond, an ocean,
a wish-granting tree, a jewel, an elixir, and the four great elements.

. . .

In the thought to help one’s own child,
is there such great virtue as this?
There are numerous accounts
of sons murdering their own fathers, beating them,
or berating them with insults.

If you treat other beings as if they were your children,
such things could never happen; how could they?
So now, if you help other beings,

no doubt, this can result in
far greater benefit than helping
your own kin, your friends, your servants,
and those who are part of your retinue.

Thus, if due to thoughts of attachment and aversion,
you fail to help other beings and instead
try to secure benefit for your own child [alone],
you will not attain the happiness [that you seek].

So without any biases based on nearness and distance,
keep kindness and love in your heart.
And to each and every being of the six realms,
look at them with lovingkindness and hold them dear in your heart.
With smiles of joy, beckon them with appealing words,
and help them realize whatever they wish.

O sentient beings, the source of benefit and happiness,
out of love, do come here, as I invite you all.
As I have no need for my body, resources, and roots of virtue,
please accept them well with an open and free mind.

In the past, while under the sway of ignorance,
I thought I did so much for you, and you were in my debt.
Today I have come to see that whatever I did for you,
I did as a means to achieve my own happiness.

So now, even if I do a hundred acts of kindness for others,
I will never think in terms of what is owed to me.
In fact, whatever material possessions I have,
I have already dedicated them to you.

So please do not feel any hesitation,
but feel free to take whatever is useful.
In fact, satisfying the beggar,
beyond being the means to bring happiness to the other,
is the best means to bring joy to the giver.
What intelligent person would not embrace such an act

If one in pursuit of sensual pleasure
is capable of enduring immeasurable pain,
how can I not endure hardship when helping others—
an act that is a source of incalculable benefit—
even if I suffer a temporary loss of resources?

Through whatever merits I have gathered
from this expression of eloquence,
may all beings enter the bodhisattva way
and attain unexcelled enlightenment.

♦