Integrating Bodhicitta with Skilful Means #1
by Venerable Shangpa Rinpoche

Introduction
'Integrating Bodhicitta with Skilful Means' is a commonly used phrase in Tibetan Buddhism. 'Bodhicitta' is the path that leads us towards Enlightenment; and 'Skilful Means' are the methods that will make the path towards Enlightenment faster and more effective.

The Motivation for Practice
Why do we want to practise the Buddha's teachings? We do so because we know that in this world, there are many sufferings and miseries. For this reason, we want to seek salvation or liberation from these sufferings. We take refuge in the Triple Gems, that is, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha because we know that the Buddha and His teachings are beyond sufferings.
After taking refuge in the Triple Gem, a person enters the path towards Enlightenment. Those who are on this path can be classified into the following three groups depending on their motivation for practising:
- the person of lesser mentality;
- the person of medium mentality; and
- the person of greater mentality.

Person of Lesser Mentality
The person of lesser mentality takes refuge in the Triple Gem because he is not happy in his life. He wants to be in a happier and more conducive situation, which means that he wants to be born as a god, or in a wealthier family etc. In short, he is seeking a better life. In order to attain these goals, he takes refuge in the Triple Gem.

Person of Medium Mentality
The second category is the person who knows that this universe is full of sufferings. No matter how happy we are, we are still subject to sufferings. Broadly, there are three different types of the sufferings; namely the suffering of change, the suffering of pain, and the pervasive suffering.

1- Suffering of Changes
The nature of what we always regarded as pleasure and enjoyment itself is suffering. This is because they do not last and they are subject to change, and therefore end up causing misery. Once there was a king who gave punishment to someone. The punishment seemed easy as the King allowed the person to decide on the type of punishment he would receive. However, there was a condition that whatever he had chosen to do, he had to do it continuously. He was not allowed to stop. This meant that if he wanted to eat, he had to eat continuously. If he wanted to sleep, he had to sleep continuously. The victim thought that the punishment was very simple. He preferred to eat and the King let him eat. But when he could not eat anymore, it became a torture. He appealed to the King many times to change his punishment. At last, the King relented and allowed him to change to a different type of punishment. The King allowed him to sleep but did not allow him to get up. He also became very miserable. This shows that what we consider as happiness is often not real happiness. It is suffering, but we do not experience its real nature in a short moment.

2 - Suffering of Pain
This is very obvious, such as falling sick or the experiencing of misfortunes. In such situations, we feel desperate and we suffer.

3 - Pervasive Suffering
As long as we have the physical body, we are bound to suffer. This is because the physical body is the condition for the sufferings. Such as when there is birth, there must be the death. This condition is inevitable.

By knowing all these sufferings, one does not want to be in Samsara, which is the cycle of birth and death. Instead, one wants to break through this cycle of existence and be liberated. For that reason, the person who takes refuge with the wish to liberate oneself from the Samsaric sufferings is of the medium mentality. He is considered to be wiser than the first category.

Person of Greater Mentality
The third category is the person of greater mentality. He wants to include the liberation of others as his own responsibility and has the courage to do this task. By knowing his own suffering and seeing the suffering of others as even more intense than his own suffering, he cannot bear to see others suffer. With this understanding, he feels that it is not right for him to liberate only himself. He decides that it is his duty to liberate all of them. This practice is commonly known as the 'Mahayana'. 'Maha' means 'great'; while 'yana' means 'vehicle'.