The main Buddhist teaching is as the following verse states:

Do not commit any evil actions,

Engage in excellent virtue,

And tame your own mind―

This is the teaching of the Buddha.

The entire Buddhist dharma can be summarized by the instruction to give up harming others and to benefit them. The spiritual friends of the Kadampa tradition taught that the entirety of the three pitakas (1) as well as the lesser and greater yanas (2)  are included in these two. Being a “Buddhist“ involves three things―giving up harming others, benefiting them and taming one’s own mind. If you possess these three, you are a Buddhist. A Buddhist, or someone who practices the Buddhist teachings regardless of their particular practice, should never harm others; should benefit other beings either directly, implicitly, or indirectly through their actions; and should not mix their physical and verbal actions with thoughts that disturb the mind, such as nonvirtue and mental afflictions. If you can move on the perfect path of taming your mind, are always mindful of guarding your mind and possess the proper ethical discipline to do that, you have properly taken to heart what it means to be a Buddhist.

For human beings in general and, in particular, for followers of a spiritual tradition, the most important prerequisite for being a Buddhist is to give rise to altruistic motivation. Each spiritual tradition has its own distinct views, but merely holding a distinct view and studying this view will not make the power of the teachings merge with your own mind stream and, based on these teachings, enable you to benefit other beings. Indeed, some people can be very hard-headed about and attached to a view. So while it is important to uphold a spiritual tradition’s distinct view, if you cling to the view alone, the complete power of that teaching will not take hold in your mind stream nor will you be able to benefit other people on the basis of that teaching.

In conjunction with upholding the view and maintaining an altruistic attitude, a spiritual practitioner needs to have a peaceful and serene mind. If such a peaceful, serene mind and altruistic attitude are present in you, and if together with that you uphold the distinct view of a spiritual tradition, you will be able to benefit both yourself and many others.

Good view is important, but there is more. Physical, verbal and mental conduct should also be motivated by the desire to relinquish suffering and accomplish happiness—for the benefit of others or for ourselves as individual human beings. Based on this attitude of wishing to relieve suffering and achieve happiness, we should strive to practice altruistic thinking in our own mind stream. Doing so will surely benefit our minds, no matter which spiritual tradition and view we may follow. With this attitude of not harming other sentient beings, we can accomplish great benefit for others―and this, of course, is also true for Buddhists.

Among Buddhists, many views such as emptiness, Mahamudra and Dzogchen are explained, but the practice of the teachings does not reach its culmination merely through these views. If you do not blend the unsurpassable cause for attaining the fruition of buddhahood―unbiased bodhichitta―with these views, mere pompous statements, such as, “The view is emptiness,” will not help you progress to the ultimate state of buddhahood and attain the state of liberation and omniscience. We need to study and train in what is called “the view of the spiritual tradition” and make efforts so that this view will arise in our mind streams. Furthermore, if we blend excellent conduct together with this view, it can become very powerful and far-reaching. Whether we cultivate it within a spiritual tradition or amid society at large, with this combination we will create benefit and happiness for beings

(1) The  three pitakas, or baskets, refers to all of the teachings given by the Buddha. The first is the Vinaya, which is principally concerned with the rules and outlook of monastic life and social harmony. The second is the Sutras, or brief discourses, which contain the Buddha’s teachings on the stages and paths of spiritual growth of the bodhisattva and on the generation of and training in compassion. The third pitaka is called the Abidharma. It presents the training in prajna, or wisdom, and the view of selflessness.

(2) The lesser yana, or foundational vehicle also called the Hinayana, is the path that concentrates on renunciation and individual liberation. On this basis, the greater vehicle, the Mahayana, is the path that concentrates on the generation of compassion and the aspiration to bring all beings to full awakening.

“How to Practice the Heart of the Matter” was a public talk given by His Holiness Karmapa at the temple of Gyütö Ramoché near Dharamsala, India, on October 15, 2002. Translated by Karl Brunnhölzl, April 2007. © His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa.