1

© B. Alan Wallace. All rights reserved.

Transforming Felicity and Adversity into the Spiritual Path1

by
Jikmé Tenpé Nyima, the Third Dodrupchen Rinpoché (1865-1926)

Translated by B. Alan Wallace

[351]
Ārya Avalokiteśvara
Is one who always rejoices at the happiness of others,
Who is deeply distressed by others’ suffering,
Who has perfectly realized the qualities of great compassion,
And who has abandoned his own joys and sorrows.

Recalling your virtues as so described, I bow to you. I shall partially discuss the pith
instructions on transforming felicity and adversity into the spiritual path, which is an
indispensable tool of spiritually realized beings and is priceless in the world. This has two
parts: (I) how to transform adversity into the spiritual path and (II) how to transform
felicity into the spiritual path.

I. How to Transform Adversity into the Spiritual Path

This section has two parts: (A) in dependence upon relative truth and (B) in dependence
upon ultimate truth.

A. How to Transform Adversity into the Spiritual Path in Dependence

upon Relative Truth

Whenever we are afflicted by sentient beings or anything else, if we habituate our minds
to dwelling on suffering only, even the most insignificant circumstance will bring forth
great distress. This is because whatever attitude we cultivate towards felicity and
adversity will naturally grow stronger. Thus, as the power of gradual habituation
increases, eventually virtually everything that appears will lead to misery, and there will
never be any occasion for happiness.
Not recognizing that this is due to our own mental habits, we blame this on external
circumstances, and eventually the flames of negative actions and suffering, including
hatred, [352] spread endlessly. Thus, appearances arise as enemies. The reason why
sentient beings of this degenerate era are afflicted by suffering stems from our inferior
powers of discrimination, so this must be known precisely.
Therefore, the meaning of not being afflicted by the hindrances of enemies, sickness,
malevolent spirits, and so on is not that one averts the arising of illness and so forth, or
prevents their occurrence in the future. Rather, it means that they are not able to arise as
obstacles to following the spiritual path.
1
skyid sdug lam ‘khyer. Collected Works of ‘jigs med bstan pa’i nyi ma. (Gangtok:
Dodrub chen Rinpoche, 2000?) Vol. V, 351 – 365.
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In order for this to happen, we must (1) dispense with the attitude of utter aversion to
adversity and (2) develop the attitude of good cheer in the face of adversity.

1. Dispensing with the Attitude of Utter Aversion to Adversity

Recognize again and again the pointlessness and great detriment of all the miserable
anxiety you experience through regarding adversity as being purely unfavorable. And
accustom yourself many times to making the powerful resolve, “From now on, whatever
kind of adversity arises, I shall not quail,” and cultivate great courage.
The pointlessness of aversion to adversity: If something can be done about the
adversity, there is no point in becoming dismayed; and if nothing can be done, getting
upset about it won’t help either.
The great detriment of such aversion: [353] If you do not react with anxiety, due to
the strength of your mind, it will be easy to experience and handle even great adversity, as
if it were as light and flimsy as cotton wool. But by reacting with anxiety, you will
become unbearably oppressed with overwhelming misery in the face of even minor
adversity.
For example, while thinking about a gorgeous woman, even if you try to stop lusting
after her, you just wear yourself out. Likewise, by fixating on the miserable aspects of
some adverse situation, you will be unable to develop any sense of fortitude. So in
accordance with the pith instructions on guarding the doors of the senses, rather than
reifying adversity, you should accustom yourself to resting your mind in its natural state
and remain there.

2. Developing a Sense of Good Cheer in the Face of Adversity

Cultivate a sense of good cheer by regarding adversity as an aid on the spiritual path.
Moreover, for whatever kind of adversity arises, if you do not have individual practices to
apply to each one in accordance with your own mental abilities, you may simply think
many times, “In general, if one is skillful, it’s possible to get such and such benefits in
response to adversity.” But this will be like the saying: “Great is the distance between the
sky and the earth,” and it will be difficult to succeed that way.
First of all, cultivating a spirit of emergence in response to adversity: Consider that
as long as [354] you wander helplessly in saṃsāra, the occurrence of such adversity is not
something unfair, but is rather the very nature of saṃsāra. Further, if it is difficult to bear
even such minor adversity as this that is encountered occasionally in this fortunate realm
of existence, what need to mention the adversities of the miserable realms! Develop a
sense of disillusionment, thinking, “Alas! Saṃsāra is a fathomless, boundless ocean of
adversity!” and turn your mind to liberation.
Practicing going for refuge: Meditate on going for refuge by contemplating with
conviction, “For the repeated affliction by such fear as this throughout the sequence of my
lives, the sole, unfailing refuge is the Three Jewels. So, whatever happens, I shall entrust
myself to them alone, and never abandon them under any circumstances.”
Dispelling arrogance: In response to the way in which you have no control, as
explained previously, and the way in which you never escape the domination of adversity,
snuff out the enemy of pride, which destroys your well-being, and the negative attitude of
holding others in contempt.
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Purifying sins: Consider, “Such adversity as this, as well as immeasurably greater

adversities, arise only as a result of sins,” and carefully ponder the four points that (a)
actions invariably give rise to corresponding effects, (b) the effects of actions increase, (c)
the effects of actions that were not committed are never experienced, and (d) deeds
committed never fail to produce results. [355] Thus, bear in mind, “If I don’t want
adversity, I must avoid its cause, which is nonvirtue,” and by means of the Four Powers2
disclose such actions that you have already amassed, and strive to restrain yourself in the
future.
Rejoicing in virtue: Ponder at length, “If I take delight in felicity, which is the
opposite of adversity, I must strive for its cause, which is virtue,” and in numerous ways
do all you can to develop a wide range of virtues.
Cultivating compassion: Reflect on the ways in which other sentient beings, like you,
are afflicted with such adversity and even far greater; and train yourself by thinking,
“Might they, too, be free of all suffering!” By this you may also know how to cultivate
loving-kindness for those who are destitute.
Cultivating the attitude of cherishing others more than yourself: Cultivate the
attitude: “The reason that I am not free of such adversity is that I have always been self-
centered, so now I shall dwell solely in the attitude of cherishing others, which is the
source of happiness and goodness.”
It is very difficult when misfortunes strike, so before they occur, it is crucial to
acquaint yourself with the relevant practices to apply to them, and to emphasize those
with which you are most clearly familiar.
It is not enough for adversity to become an aid to your spiritual practice. Rather, it is
vital [356] that you cultivate a strong and continuous sense of gladness as a result of
clearly recognizing that this is happening. So, on occasions such as those explained here,
think thoughts like this: “Such adversity as this is a great help to me in experiencing the
many wonderful joys of the fortunate realms and of liberation, which are extremely
difficult to find. By continuing to behave in this way, even a rough situation will become
a fine treat, like a ladu pastry made of cardamom, hot spice and brown sugar.” Consider
this point repeatedly and with care, and accustom yourself to a sense of good cheer.
By doing so, a special, or powerful, joyful attitude will make sensory pain seem
imperceptible. Its inability to afflict the mind is the measure of inner fortitude being able
to overcome illness, and it is also the criterion for overcoming enemies, malevolent
spirits, and so on.
As explained above, reversing the attitude of aversion to adversity is the basis for
adversity rising up as the spiritual path. For as long as anxiety kills your joy and disturbs
your mindstream, adversity will not be able to rise up as the path.
Moreover, by training in actually transforming adversity into the path, you will
encounter unprecedented benefits, for you will see for yourself how adversity can enhance
your spiritual practice, and your sense of well-being [357] will continue to increase.
In accordance with the saying, “If you practice with minor adversities, it will
gradually become easier,” it is said that eventually you will be able to practice even in the
face of great adversity. This is what is needed, for it is difficult to reach experiences that
do not correspond to the level of your mindstream.

2
Tib. g.nyen po stobs bzhi. These are the powers of remorse, reliance, resolve, and
purification.
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In between meditation sessions pray to your guru and the Three Jewels that adversity
will arise as the spiritual path; and when the power of your mind has increased somewhat,
make offerings to the Three Jewels and elemental spirits, and commission them: “For the
sake of empowering my spiritual practice, bring on unfavorable circumstances!” And at
all times sustain the level of confidence of good cheer.
When you first begin to practice it is helpful to meditate far removed from
distractions. For in the midst of distractions you are liable to be diverted by many
negative friends who will ask you, “How can you put up with such adversity, contempt,
abuse, and so on?” Worrying about enemies, relatives and possessions will cloud and
uncontrollably disturb your consciousness, you will slip into bad habits, and you will be
carried away by all kinds of distracting circumstances.
In solitude your awareness will be very clear due to the absence of those things, so it
is easy to set your mind to the task at hand. It is said that this is the very reason that when
those who engage in Severence3 train in the attitude of remaining unaffected by adversity,
at first [358] they put off applying the training in the midst of distractions to harm caused
by humans. Instead, they emphasize applying this training to illusory apparitions of gods
and demons in solitary cemeteries and wild habitats.
To sum up, in order not only to prevent all unfavorable circumstances and adversities
from afflicting your mind, but for them to be able to elicit a sense of good cheer, you
should put to stop to experiences of aversion toward inner illnesses and toward outer
enemies, spirits, vicious gossip, and so on; and practice seeing everything in solely an
agreeable way. For that to happen, you should stop seeing those harmful situations as
something wrong, but make every effort to practice seeing them as valuable. For it is the
way you mentally apprehend situations that makes them agreeable or disagreeable. For
example, for those who reflect at length on the disadvantages of worldly amusements, the
more they are surrounded by admirers, enjoyments, and so on, the more vexed they
become. On the other hand, those who regard worldly amusements as beneficial aspire to
increase their power and status.
By training your mind in this way, your mindstream will become gentle, easy-going,
congenial, and courageous; there will be no obstacles to your spiritual practice; all
unfavorable circumstances will arise as splendid and auspicious; and your mindstream
will always be content with the joy of serenity. To follow [359] a spiritual path in a
degenerate era, such armor is indispensable.
Then, since you are free of the suffering of anxiety, other types of misery also vanish,
like weapons falling from the hands of soldiers, and even illnesses and so forth tend to
disappear of their own accord. We can learn from the sublime beings of the past who say:
“By not becoming displeased or unhappy with anything, your mind will not become
troubled. Since it is untroubled, your nervous system will not be disrupted. Consequently,
the other elements of your body will not be disrupted. As a result, your mind will not
become troubled and so on, and the wheel of well-being spins on.”

3
Tib. gcod. A meditative practice of imaginatively offering up one’s entire being as a
means to realizing the empty nature of all phenomena, severing all clinging to the
appearances of the three realms, and realizing that all gods and demons are none other
than one’s own appearances.
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They also say: “Just as birds find horses and donkeys with sores on their backs easy
prey, so do malevolent spirits find an easy target in people with fearful dispositions, but it
is hard for them to overcome people of steady character.”
Therefore, the wise see that all adversity and felicity depends on the mind, and they
seek happiness within the mind. Since they have all the causes of happiness within them,
they do not rely on anything outside. They are not oppressed by the harms of sentient
beings or anything else, and this remains true even at the time of death. They are always
free.
In this way the bodhisattvas accomplish the samādhi that suffuses all phenomena with
joy. However, the foolish run after external objects in their hope to find happiness. But
whatever happiness they achieve, great or small, turns out like the saying, “It’s not you
who is in charge; your hair is caught up in a tree!” There is just one failure after another,
due to things not working out, not coming together, occurring in disproportionate ways,
and so forth. Enemies, thieves and so on have ample opportunities to harm them, and
even the slightest criticism deprives them of happiness. However much a crow looks after
a baby cuckoo, it can’t possibly become its own offspring. Just so, since their minds can
never become steady, there is nothing but fatigue for the gods, affliction for the spirits,
and misery for themselves. This is quintessential advice that synthesizes a hundred crucial
points in one.
There are other types of austerities for following the spiritual path by willingly
accepting adversity, and many other types of pith instructions, such as those on
Pacification,4 for transforming illnesses and malevolent spirits into the path. But this is
just an easily understandable, general discussion of accepting adversity based on treatises
by Ārya Śāntideva and his learned followers.

B. How to Transform Adversity into the Spiritual Path in Dependence

upon Ultimate Truth

With the implications of reasoning such as the refutation of four extremes concerning the
arising of phenomena,5 the mind is brought to the supreme peace of emptiness and abides
there, in the nature of existence in which unfavorable circumstances and adversity, or
even their names, are not to be found. Even when one rises from that state, [361]
adversity does not appear to the mind as it did previously, when it would be experienced
with fear, despair, and so on. Rather, adversity is overcome by regarding it as an
assemblage of mere words. I shall not elaborate.

II. How to Transform Felicity into the Spiritual Path

In this section there are two parts: (A) in dependence upon relative truth and (B) in
dependence upon ultimate truth.

4
Tib. zhi byed. The Indian Buddhist contemplative Pha Dampa Sangyé (d. 1117)
introduced this system of practice into Tibet, which is an element of the practice of
Severance of Māras (bdud gcod), which was established in Tibet and Bhutan by main
disciple Machik Labdrön (1055-1149).
5
Tib. mtha’ bzhi’i skye ‘gog. The four extremes are the inherently existent arising of
phenomena from themselves, for other phenomena, from both, and from neither.
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A. How to Transform Felicity into the Spiritual Path in Dependence

upon Relative Truth

When happiness and the objective conditions for happiness occur, if you fall under their
control, arrogance, conceit, spiritual sloth, and so on will grow and obstruct your spiritual
path. It is difficult not to succumb to their influence, for as Pha Dampa Sangyé said:
“People can handle only a little felicity, but they can handle a lot of adversity.”
Therefore, from numerous perspectives regard those things as impermanent and
unsatisfying, and cultivate a strong sense of disillusionment. Try to direct your mind away
from carelessness and think, “Thus, all mundane pleasures and wealth are trifling and are
bound up with many problems. Nevertheless, some of them have advantages. The
Teacher6 said that for people who are deprived of freedom as a result of suffering it is
very difficult to attain enlightenment, but one who dwells in happiness attains
enlightenment with great ease. The fact that I have the opportunity to practice Dharma in
such a state of felicity is very meritorious. So at this time I shall by all means convert my
wellbeing into Dharma; and since Dharma also gradually gives rise to felicity, [362] I
shall practice so that Dharma and happiness mutually support each other. Otherwise, like
boiling a drink in a wooden vessel, I will end up just where I started.” You should grasp
the essence by earnestly integrating whatever happiness you experience with Dharma.
This is the message of [Nāgārjuna’s] Jewel Garland.7
Even when you are happy, by failing to recognize it you will not be able to use it for
your Dharma practice. So, as a remedy against devoting your whole life to a myriad of
concerns and activities in the pursuit of just a bit more pleasure, recognize the agreeable
as being agreeable; and devote yourself to the nectar of contentment.
There are other practices for transforming felicity into the spiritual path and so on by
recollecting the kindness of the Three Jewels and the teachings on cultivating bodhicitta,
but just this will do for now.
Resorting to solitude, you should alternately train in practices of accumulating
[knowledge and merit] and purifying [sins and obscurations], as you do for transforming
adversity into the path.

B. How to Transform Felicity into the Spiritual Path

in Dependence upon Ultimate Truth

The practice in dependence upon ultimate truth is to be understood from the previous
explanation.

* * *

If you cannot practice Dharma in times of adversity, due to what this does to your mind,
and you cannot practice Dharma in times of felicity, because you are attached to that, then
there will be no time at all when you can practice Dharma. So, if you are to practice
Dharma, there is nothing more useful than this. If you do have this practice, wherever you

6
Tib. ston pa. This refers to Buddha Śākyamuni.
7
Tib. rin chen phreng ba, Skt. Ratnāvalī.
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dwell, in solitude or in a city, whether you accompany good or bad friends, whether you
are rich or poor, happy or sad, whether you hear praise or ridicule, [363] or pleasant or
unpleasant speech—since you are free from fear that any of this can bring you down, you
respond as a lion-like yogi. Whatever you do, your mind will be cheerful and carefree,
and your character will be pure and benevolent. Even if your body dwells in an impure
realm, your mind will frolic in the splendor of unimaginable joy, like a jinaputra of a pure
realm. This corresponds to the saying of the precious Kadampa tradition:

With happiness subdued

And sadness brought to an end,
When you are alone, loneliness will befriend you,
When you are in poor health, illness will serve you.

For example, a goldsmith purifies gold by melting it in fire, and makes it malleable by
rinsing it again and again in water. Likewise, by transforming felicity into the path your
mind will be subdued, and by transforming adversity into the path it will become pristine.
When this happens, you will easily achieve extraordinary states of samādhi in which your
body and mind will be perfectly fit for the tasks you set them. Understand this to be a
profound pith instruction for perfecting moral discipline, which is the root of happiness.
For, by not being attached to felicity, you establish the basis for the special ethical
discipline of a renunciate; and by not being afraid of adversity, you fully purify ethical
discipline. This is implied by the saying that generosity is the basis of ethical discipline,
and forbearance is the [364] purifier of ethical discipline.
By practicing in this way right now, when you ascend high upon the path, your
experience will be like the verse:

One realizes (with wisdom) that all phenomena are like illusions,
And (with compassion) realizes that birth is like a stroll in a park.
In times of prosperity and even in poverty,
One has no fear due to mental afflictions or adversity.

To relate this to the life of the Teacher: Before he attained enlightenment, he

renounced the kingdom of a cakravartin8 as if it was straw, and he lived by the
Nairañjana River9, unconcernedly applying himself to harsh austerities. This
demonstrates that to experience the ambrosia of your own welfare, you must regard
adversity and felicity as being of one taste.
Following his attainment of enlightenment, the lords of humans and gods up to
Akaniṣṭa placed his feet upon their heads and worshiped him with all good things. The
Brahmin Bharadhvāja abused him a hundred times; a haughty Brahmin’s daughter
accused him of sexual misconduct; and in the land of King Agnidatta he lived for three
months on rotten horse fodder. On all such occasions he remained with an unfluctuating
mind, like Mount Meru remaining unmoved by the wind. This demonstrates that to serve
the needs of sentient beings, you must regard adversity and felicity as being of one taste.

8
An ideal universal ruler, who rules ethically and benevolently over the entire world.
9
This is the present-day Lilaja River, which flows northward towards the Ganges,
passing near Bodhgaya in the state of Bihar, India.
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* * *

This teaching should be given by those with the lifestyle of the Kadampa masters, which
is characterized by the saying: “When distressed, they do not complain. When happy, they
are disillusioned.” [365] When it is taught by someone like myself, I feel as if my own
tongue is embarrassed. Nevertheless, in order to get used to regarding the eight mundane
concerns10 as being of one taste, I, the old beggar Tenpé Nyima, have composed this in
the Forest of Many Birds.11

At the crest of the magical tree of publication

May the many flowers and fruits of this good counsel
Adorn the grove of the teachings of the Omniscient One,
And may it bring delight to flocks of fortunate beings.

May all the world be well!12

10
These are adversity and felicity, gain and loss, praise and blame, and good and bad
reputation.
11
Also known as Gephel Ritrö, or Hermitage of Fostering Virtues, this was the hermitage
where Jikmé Tenpé Nyima spent the latter part of his life.
12
The Tibetan text reads, “Śubhaṃ astu sarvajagataṃ,” but the correct Sanskrit is
“Sarvajagat śubhaṃ astu.”