The New Eight Steps to Happiness. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

in similar situations. Langri Tangpa heard him and thought it was so funny that he started laughing.

      On another occasion, after Langri Tangpa had been offered a large piece of turquoise he saw a mouse trying to steal it from his meditation table. Unable to move the stone, the mouse went away and returned with four other mice. The first mouse, which was the smallest, lay on its back, and the other mice pushed the turquoise onto its stomach. They each took one of its legs, and, pushing and pulling, managed to drag the turquoise to their mouse hole. However, when they got there they found that the stone was too large to fit through the hole, and so they had to leave it behind. Langri Tangpa found this so amusing that he laughed out loud.

      Despite his stern appearance, through his actions people gradually came to understand that Bodhisattva Langri Tangpa’s real nature was very special. Recognizing him to be a holy being, they made many offerings to him, but as soon as anyone gave him anything he would immediately offer it to his Spiritual Guide, Geshe Potowa, and to the community of Geshe Potowa’s disciples. Just before Geshe Potowa passed away, Langri Tangpa made two promises in front of him: to give away all his own possessions, and not to remain in any one place for long. From then on, whenever he traveled to a new place he would give away any possessions he had accumulated and move on empty-handed. By happily accepting poverty and continuously practicing generosity, Langri Tangpa accumulated a vast amount of merit. As a result of all this merit, later in his life he received so many offerings that he was able to establish a large monastery, support two thousand monks and help many poor people. Without engaging in any business activities or making any effort to acquire wealth, he nevertheless became rich simply through accumulating merit. Every month he would give away all he owned, but the next month he would be given even more! Although Langri Tangpa’s generosity initially made him poor, the merit he accumulated through his practice of giving later made him very wealthy.

      Langri Tangpa was also a great scholar and practitioner. His main practices were exchanging self with others, accepting defeat and offering the victory and bodhichitta—all of which are explained in this book. By teaching these practices to others he led many thousands of disciples to enlightenment. Even the area of Lang Tang in which he lived was blessed by his presence, such that the local people became peaceful and friendly, and the animals and birds lived in harmony. He also had a special power to cure sickness and pacify obstacles, and on one occasion was able to protect the lives of many people by causing dangerous floods to recede.

      Langri Tangpa practiced accepting defeat and offering the victory to others all the time, both in meditation and in daily life. Once a young woman living nearby had a child who became seriously ill. She had already lost her first child, and fearing that this child might die too, she consulted a Lama who told her that the way to save her daughter was to give her to Geshe Langri Tangpa. “But how can a monk look after a baby?” she asked. The Lama replied, “Geshe Langri Tangpa is a Bodhisattva. His nature is to accept all hardship and give all good conditions to others, and so he will definitely agree to look after your child.”

      The woman went to Langri Tangpa with her baby but found him sitting on a throne teaching a large audience. Still not really believing that he would accept the baby, yet convinced that if she did not give her to him the baby would surely die, she strode up to him and placed the baby in his lap, saying, “Here is your baby. I cannot feed her. You look after her.” To the surprise of his disciples, Langri Tangpa accepted the child. Although some people assumed that he really was the father and began to develop doubts about him, Langri Tangpa was unconcerned. Tenderly wrapping the child in his yellow robe, he carried on with the discourse. When he had finished he took the child home, fed her and blessed her. He cared for her for two years, and through his blessings she was completely cured. After two years the mother returned to see if her daughter was well. When she saw how healthy the child was, she asked Langri Tangpa if she could have her daughter back, and the kind Geshe immediately complied. From this and many other examples of his selfless behavior, everyone came to understand that Langri Tangpa was a very special, holy person.

      It was not only in that life that Langri Tangpa worked extensively to benefit living beings and spread Buddhadharma in Tibet; he had done the same in many previous incarnations and continued to do so in subsequent lives. In a previous life, as the translator Gowa Pagtse, he had traveled to India, learned Sanskrit and translated many Buddhist texts into Tibetan. Later he reincarnated as Je Tsongkhapa’s principal disciple Khedrubje, as Gyalwa Ensapa, and as the first and second Panchen Lamas.

      When I was in Lhasa I met my Spiritual Father, Vajradhara Trijang Rinpoche, for the first time, and just seeing him reminded me of Bodhisattva Langri Tangpa. I felt great devotion toward him and often thought that he must be an emanation of Langri Tangpa. A senior monk later gave me a small book that listed the names of Trijang Rinpoche’s previous incarnations, and among these was the name “Geshe Langri Tangpa.” I was so happy to find my previous belief confirmed!

      Because Langri Tangpa is Buddha Amitabha, and a Buddha’s compassion is unlimited, there are definitely emanations of Langri Tangpa throughout the world even though we do not recognize them. We can be certain that his emanations are working in the West to benefit living beings and to spread Buddhadharma. The only reason we do not recognize them is that our minds are clouded by ignorance.

      Through sincerely practicing the instructions on training the mind, Bodhisattva Langri Tangpa found ultimate happiness and helped many others to do the same. He then explained the essence of his experience of Dharma in Eight Verses of Training the Mind. Based on this text, later Kadampa Lamas such as Geshe Chekhawa spread the study and practice of Kadam Lojong, or training the mind, throughout Tibet. We should consider ourself very fortunate to have met such precious teachings.

Asanga

      The Pre-Eminent Qualities of

      These Instructions

      Since Eight Verses of Training the Mind comes from the wisdom of a fully enlightened being, it is a blessed instruction and very precious. To develop deep appreciation of its value I will explain some of its benefits. In general, by putting this instruction into practice we will experience both temporary and ultimate happiness. This is because through this practice we can eliminate the ignorant mind of self-cherishing and self-grasping, the root of all suffering and problems.

      Especially, this teaching shows us how to transform adverse conditions into the spiritual path, through which we will experience pure and everlasting happiness. From the point of view of spiritual development this present time is extremely degenerate, with many conditions hindering spiritual progress. However, by putting these instructions into practice we can make use of all these adversities and transform them into opportunities for spiritual growth.

      The minds of human beings today are less pure than they were in the past, and delusions and wrong views are more prevalent. Because human beings in the past had purer minds it was relatively easy for them to see pure beings such as Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, but nowadays it is difficult for people even to believe in the existence of holy beings. In the past people were less prone to distracting thoughts, and so it was easier for them to attain tranquil abiding and other advanced levels of meditative concentration. With the mind of tranquil abiding they could achieve various types of clairvoyance, such as the ability to see forms beyond the scope of ordinary vision or to hear subtle and distant sounds. Many gained the power to know the minds of others, or to look into past and future lives; and miracle powers, such as the ability to fly in the sky or emanate various forms, were quite common. In addition to these mundane attainments, countless people achieved liberation and full enlightenment.

      Gradually these attainments became less and less common. These days very few people can see Buddhas directly, and it has become extremely difficult to attain tranquil abiding, clairvoyance and other spiritual realizations. This is a clear indication that we are living in spiritually degenerate times. Not only is it more difficult to gain spiritual realizations but we also experience many difficulties and dangers that did not exist before. The political situation in the world is now very unstable, and with the proliferation of increasingly destructive weapons human life is more precarious than ever.