The Four Wholesome deeds
1. Proclaiming the qualities of the lama and the doctrine.
2. Generally establishing all sentient beings in virtue.
3. Seeing bodhisattvas who have cultivated bodhicitta as Buddhas.
4. Sincerely maintaining the altruistic attitude toward all sentient beings.
The Four Unwholesome Deeds
1. Deceiving the lama and those worthy of worship.
2. Causing remorse in others when remorse is not appropriate
3. Through aversion, saying improper words about a bodhisattva who has cultivated bodhicitta.
4. Behaving deceitfully toward sentient beings.
སེམས་བསྐྱེད་མི་ཉམས་པར་བྱེད་པ་དཀརཔོའི་ཆོས་བཞི་ནི། ༡།དམ་པ་བསྟེན་ཞིང་ཡོན་ཏན་ལ་བསྔགས་པ་བརྗོད་པ། ༢།སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡང་དག་དགེ་བ་ལ་བསྐུལ་བ། ༣།རྒྱལ་སྲས་རྣམས་ལ་སྟོན་པའི་འདུ་ཤེས་བསྐྱེད་པ། ༤།ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པས་འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་བདེ་བྱེད་པ་རྣམས་སོ། སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཉམས་པར་བྱེད་པ་ནག་པོའི་ཆོས་བཞི་ནི། ༡ ་།མཁན་སློབ་སོགས་རྫུན་གྱིས་བསླུབ། ༢ །དགེ་བ་བྱེད་པ་ལ་འགྱོད་པར་བསྐྱེད་པ། ༣ །སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པའི་གང་ཟག་ལ་མི་སྙན་པ་བརྗོད་པ། ༤ །འགྲོ་བ་གང་རུང་ལ་གཡོ་སྒྱུ་སྤྱོད་པའོ།
As we enter into the study of the ninth chapter on wisdom, Geshe Jinpa Sonam reminded us that It is through maintaining altruistic mind of bodhicitta that we come to purify negativity, establish happiness in this very life, and ultimately reach the level of full enlightenment. Even if we gain the wisdom of realization, without bodhicitta, there is not a chance to progress along the path and attain perfect, compete enlightenment. Bodhicitta is like a key that will keep the door of the path open in all lifetimes until we are enlightened, However, this bodhicitta must be protected and supported or it can degrade and be lost. The four wholesome deeds serve to support and protect one's bodhicitta, while the four unwholesome deeds will cause it to decline, and degrade. He sent along these quotes this week. Join us next week as Geshela resumes teaching.
Also, for those who would like to read more I would recommend reading more in karma chapter in the Jewel Ornament of Liberation -pg. 170 / 175 or so in the Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen version. Very interesting and clear.
Comment from Marc Preston Moss:
The source for this is the Arya-Ratnakuta. "Kasyapa, if the Bodhisattva possesses four factors, he will come to forget the thought of awakening. What are the four? (1) breaking a promise to the abbot, the master, the lama, or other appropriate object; (2) inducing regret in those who should have no regret; (3) emitting words of disparagement, dishonor, or defamation in regard to living beings who are progressing in the Greater Vehicle; and (4) having an attitude of behaving toward others with delusion and pretense." "Kasyapa, if the Bodhisattva possesses four factors, the thought of awakening is evident in all rebirths from the moment of birth, and he will not forget it until he reaches the site of awakening. What are the four? (1) not for the sake of his life, nor even for a joke, does he speak a false word; (2) he stands before living beings with good intent, without delusion or pretence; (3) he forms the notion that all Bodhisattvas are his teachers, and speaks proper praise of them in the four directions; (4) whatever living beings he matures are caused to undertake supreme, right and full awakening, with no desire for the limited vehicle. Kasyapa, these are the four."