Sun, 14 Jun 2009
Chekawa Yeshe
Lama Phurbu Tashi has started teaching on the Seven Points of Mind Training, a famous Tibetan text on developing bodhicitta. He's teaching from the commentary by Jamgon Kongtrul, which is not so surprising, since he's from the Karma Kagyu lineage. The text was written by Chekawa Yeshe. Here is his biography, as Lama told it. Chekawa Yeshe saw a brief saying written by a Kadampa master which said, "All gain and victory for others, all loss and defeat for myself." He was very impressed and thought this saying expressed the essence of bodhicitta. So he decided to travel to Central Tibet to study with the author of this saying. When he arrived at his monastery, he found the Kadampa master had died and his two chief students were arguing about who should take his position. But instead of arguing for themselves, each was arguing that the other should take the position. Still, Chekawa was not pleased and went looking for another of the late master's students. He found a third student lecturing on the dharma and sat in the back of the hall to listen. The lama saw the new student at the back of the lecture and afterwards asked him why he came. He told him of the saying he had read and the lama explained that he did not teach about this in public, because the teaching would not be understood. So Chekawa Yeshe asked to receive these teachings and studied with him for six years. After that, he wrote the Seven Points of Mind Training as a summary of the teaching.
