Mingyur Rinpoche Loving kindness talk
These teaching comes from http://Mingyur.org
Everything is interdependently arisen. Everything comes into being by depending on something else. For us as humans to experience goodness or benefit, we have to depend upon others to experience that goodness, benefit or happiness. Without depending on others, it is very difficult for anything good to happen to us.
Since we all live in a human society on one single planet, we have to depend upon each other. The best way to depend upon and communicate with each other is through having loving kindness and compassion. If we have these qualities, we will be able to relate with each other, we will have connections with each other, and we can depend upon each other.
But if we don't have any loving kindness and compassion, the entire path of depending upon, communicating with and having connections with each other will become destroyed. If we have loving kindness and compassion with an attitude that we are contributing to this interdependence of humans, things will come along well for ourselves, things will come along well for others and the whole world will benefit. When that happens we will not need armies or a lot of laws or police.
What is the essence of bodhichitta? The essence of bodhichitta is the heart that thinks, "I alone, personally, will establish all sentient beings in the state of complete enlightenment." This is quite a great heart, isn't it? Whether we are or are not able to establish sentient beings in enlightenment in that way does not matter. It is first important to think that we are going to do it.
By giving rise to this heart we reflect on the essence of sentient beings. If you give this an attractive name, you could call it "buddha nature." But you could also call it "sentient beings nature." It is the same thing. Sentient beings nature is buddha nature.
It is free from confusion and impurities from the beginning. Buddha taught this as being primordially free from all suffering and endowed with all happiness. Isn't it true that we all want happiness and want to be free from suffering? And, according to the Buddha, this desire that we have is itself a sign that our true nature is free from suffering and completely endowed with undefiled happiness, undefiled bliss.
The Buddha taught that this desire that is present in all beings is a sign of what our true nature is. What we are doing when we have that desire to be happy and free from suffering is trying to rise to meet our true nature, to be one with our true nature.
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