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enlightenment for the benefit of all beings." This reaffirms our dedication to our own
enlightenment and to that of all others.
The third is the force of eliminating all at once, which means to give up completely, all at
once, what we have set our minds on giving up: our selfishness, our disturbing attitudes, our
self-preoccupation, our grasping for a truly established self, and so forth. Deciding that we are
not going to let ourselves come under the influence of these attitudes, we say, "I am not going
to let myself become proud, arrogant, or selfish; and if the situation arises in which I find
myself acting that way, I'm immediately going to apply the opponent forces."
The fourth is the force of prayer. We pray, "May I always be able to develop a bodhichitta aim
and, if I have already developed it, may I expand it ever further." We know there is a
difference between an aspirational prayer and a dedication prayer. An aspirational prayer is
when we simply wish for something, which is what is involved here; and a dedication prayer
is when we use some material object as the basis and dedicate the positive force from offering
that toward achieving the goal.
The fifth is the force of habituation. We need to build up, as much as possible, the habit of
always thinking in these positive ways. It is extremely important when we approach any type
of spiritual training that we try to build it up as a beneficial habit. Things don't happen just at
once; it is a matter of building up increasing familiarity, so that gradually we find our minds
and hearts going in a positive direction. It is important to sustain our effort over extremely
long periods of time, not to think in terms of just weeks or months of intensive practice; it
doesn't work like that. Instead, we must think of lifetime after lifetime, to build up these
Condensation of the Practice in One Lifetime: The Five Forces 62
A Commentary on Attitude-Training Like the Rays of the Sun - His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
positive habits over a significant period of time and, in this way, gradually improve. Because,
since beginningless time, we've acted under the influence of disturbing attitudes, and we've
acted in an unruly manner without any self-control, it is not going to be easy to eliminate these
negative habits. It will require long, sustained effort to gradually reverse the tide of how our
minds and hearts work and to get them to go in a positive direction. And so it is necessary to
be patient, to think in the long term in order to habituate our hearts and minds to positive
habits.
If we concentrate our efforts over only one week or one month of intensive practice, when we
don't make progress we'll get very discouraged. This will be very damaging in the long run to
our development from lifetime to lifetime. On the other hand, if we think in a more practical
manner of improving from lifetime to lifetime, we won't get discouraged or have unreasonable
expectations, and thus we'll develop in a more sustainable manner.
As Geshe Chaykawa said, "This mind that is full of faults has one great good quality: however
it is trained, it becomes like that." In other words, it is possible to train our mind so that we
can change our habits and become a better person. This is the great quality of the mind.
Applying the Five Forces at the Time of Death
The next point explains how we apply the five forces at the time of death.
[This is in commentary to the lines, "The quintessence teaching for the Mahayana transference
of mind is the five forces themselves, while giving importance to my path of deportment."]
Here the order is slightly different. With the important note that we must relinquish
attachment to our body, first is the force of the white seed. This refers to thinking at the time
of death, "Now at the time of my death, I purify myself of all the negative things that I've done
during my lifetime; I admit to all the mistakes and wrong things I have done; and I give away
all my possessions."
The text has a quote from Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior about the horrors of facing death
if we must die with a great deal of remorse and regret that we haven't taken care of our affairs.
Since it is possible that we will experience a great deal of fear at the time of death, the first
point is the white seed: to try to have mindfulness at the time of death and to apply all the
opponent forces to purify the negative potentials we have built up. If we were involved in the
practice of tantra, we take self-initiation and renew our vows. We take care of all of our
possessions by giving them away, with generosity, and we do this without attachment, in a
very clean manner. That is the force of the white seed.
The next force is the force of our intention. As we are dying, we think, "No matter how many
moments I might have left, I'm going to make full use of them and prepare myself fully for
death, so that it may go better in the future."
The next is the force of eliminating all at once, which is to give up building up in future lives
any more negative karmic force and to resolve that in all future lives we'll follow only positive
ways.
The next force, the force of prayer, is to pray that in the future we'll be able to continue with
this practice of attitude-training.
Applying the Five Forces at the Time of Death 63
A Commentary on Attitude-Training Like the Rays of the Sun - His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
The force of habituation is to reinforce, as we're passing away, our habitual thinking with a
bodhichitta aim. In addition, concerning how we deport ourselves at the time of our deaths, we
need to try to die in the manner of the Buddha. When Buddha passed away in Kushinagar, he
did so while lying on his right side, in the posture of the lion. We generate firm conviction and
great admiration for bodhichitta as we die, and we think, "In all my lives, may I always
develop a bodhichitta aim to reach enlightenment for the benefit of all" and always throw this
intention ahead for all our future lives as we die.
Visualizing taking on others' sufferings and giving away all our happiness in conjunction with
our breathing is the best way to pass away. Referring to powa or transference of
consciousness, Geshe Chaykawa said, "There are many greatly glorified quintessence
teachings for transference of consciousness, but out of all of them, there are none more greatly
wondrous than this (practice of taking and giving)."
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