Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Christele offers a foundational Q&A session on meditation practice, anchored by a key distinction: the two main types are analytical meditation, which investigates and deepens understanding of an object, and placement meditation, which stabilizes the mind single-pointedly on that object. Beginners must start with analytical meditation—studying impermanence, emptiness, or another topic through reasoning and contemplation—to develop certainty about what they are meditating on before attempting stable focus. Once you have clearly ascertained the object through analysis, you can practice placement meditation to gain uninterrupted concentration and eventually calm abiding. Christele illustrates this process with impermanence: examining how the body changes moment by moment, investigating the causes and conditions that drive change, and recognizing that disintegration is built into the moment something arises. The teaching stresses that without solid analytical groundwork, placement meditation lacks a clear object and yields limited benefit. The session also touches on the path from conceptual understanding—the meaning generality or inferential cognition—to direct realization, using the example of emptiness and the conceptual head to show how profound meditation leads to wisdom that transcends concepts. Pitched at newer practitioners learning the structure of Buddhist meditation practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Christele – DB day s2.mp3
UUID: 13eb06c7-77ab-46db-ae1a-91075579de80
Teacher: Christele
Collection: How to Meditate (Christele)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~8,847
So Geshe la is then saying, he was, first of all, asking you all to give rise to a good motivation before we start listening to these teachings. Then Geshe was asked to talk about meditation, but he thinks that it will be best if you maybe you started with your questions. He says, if you have any questions, ask them, and he will do the best that he can to answer the questions to the best of his knowledge. And if he knows the answer to the question, if he doesn’t know the answer to the question, he would just say, I’m sorry. I don’t know the answer to that question.
So do you have any questions? So, Geshe-la was saying, the the the order of the hands is not important. Generally speaking, it it’s just it’s just one way to represent to oneself method and wisdom together. And if he wasn’t saying, you know, some people do it like this. Some people do it like this.
It doesn’t it’s not really important in which order you put them. Is that okay? Yes. Yes. Any more questions?
Okay. So the general it’s a very broad question. So the the the the very broad answer to that question is the goal of meditation, the need that we have to meditate is in order to stop our minds to scatter outwardly so that our minds remain protected from the afflictions. The the idea is to avoid the emergence or or of the afflictive emotion and conceptions. Now, again, in the general generally speaking, when we’re speaking about meditation, we have two main types of meditation.
Now the meditation that I guess I just refer to right now is what we refer to as placement meditation or single pointed meditation, which is a meditation that is intent on not allowing one’s mind to scatter outwardly and then, and protect it from the afflictions. Now we have another type of meditation which is called analytical meditation also. So, again, this placement meditation or single point meditation is, again, is the mind that, whilst not, scattering scattering to an outer object then remains abiding with one’s meditation object single pointedly and uninterruptedly. And this then is what we call single pointed meditation or, generally speaking, placement meditation. A mind that is placed with single pointed with the meditation object.
And then now and then on the other hand, we have analytical meditation. Again, what is analytical meditation? Analytical meditation is is a mind that, again, it is abiding with its meditation object, but it is engaged in analyzing that object in in in understanding its aspects, characteristics, qualities, and so forth. So whatever the object may be in the case, for example, of, emptiness, one, stays, again, without allowing one’s mind to distract to another to other objects. One stays with the subject of emptiness and analyzes that subject in many for many different reasonings in order to understand what emptiness is.
So then so that then is analytical meditation. Beginners of the two types of meditation, analytical meditation and placement meditation, the most important is analytical meditation. This is the one that we should be engaging in. And it is important because through analytical meditation, our wisdom grows grows and develops, grows stronger and develops, and we we get to develop an understanding about the object of meditation, whatever the object of meditation may be. If you are not clear about what the object of meditation is and its characteristics and aspects and you try to engage in placement meditation with that object, then there is a danger that your placement meditation, your single pointed meditation will turn out wrong or will turn out badly.
And then, and, again, we’re speaking about meditation, again, the word in Tibetan is gom. So when we’re speaking about gom, the idea is to mix our minds with the object of meditation. The idea is that through continual familiarization with the object of meditation be it emptiness or the mind of enlightenment or impermanence or whatever other object of meditation you may be meditating on. Through familiarization with the object of meditation your understanding about it becomes clearer. You have the object of meditation sort of coming closer and closer to you.
You approach the object of meditation, it becomes very clear, very distinct, very well discerned and so on. So the more you familiarize with it, the more discernment you get, the more clear it gets, the better you can perceive it and see it and understand it and so on. And that’s the the idea. That’s what we are trying to do. So again in the case of for example in the case of impermanence again we start looking at it and seeing the reasons.
The reason is that explaining impermanence. We start to see try to develop an understanding of what impermanence is, what impermanence is not. If one is is if their understanding, if their vision of what impermanence is is getting clear or not. For example, in the case of impermanence, one is investigating impermanence with regards to one’s aggregates, to one’s physical and So in investigating, for example, investigating impermanence, again, one can do that in relation to the physical aggregate. So when investigates if one’s body, for example, is impermanent or if it is not impermanent, if it is permanent on the other hand.
Again, if it was permanent, then then it wouldn’t change. But since that is not the case, we can see that it it does change, and we can through through various, more subtle reasons, we can establish that this change happens, every moment from moment to moment. And and in this way, we develop a familiar familiarity with a with impermanence. Is that right? So, again, if if at at the beginning of our lives, there was a point where our bodies would fit in the BAM of our hands.
And so, again, if it was permanent, it wasn’t supposed to change again, but it changed. It changed and it grew to be as big as it is. And and there is no point in time where you can say, okay. This is the point where it became big. It it stopped from being small.
It ceased to be small, and it became big. There is no one point in time where you can say that. And if you if you look into that carefully, then you start to understand the momentarily momentarity of impermanence. And again the reason why it changes we have to look into that too we have to do so what are the reasons why the body is changing from moment to moment and the reasons why it changes again if one investigates carefully for the appropriate reasonings and one will come to understand that it is changing because it arose in dependence on many different causes and conditions. So because those causes that gave rise to it, that gave that produced the birth of the body have changed, have disintegrated, and so forth.
Those causes contain themselves the very disintegration of the body. The reason it disintegrates is because depends for its existence, for its arrival and its birth, its existence and its death. It depends entirely on cause and conditions. Not up to the body itself. It is up to the cause and conditions that brought the body about, maintain the body and so forth.
And, again, we we can we can start to understand all the very many causes and conditions when we think that again some of the causes and conditions that make the body change, make it grow and so forth. The food that we eat, what we drink, how we treat our bodies, how well we care for our bodies, exercises and so forth, the medicines that we take and so forth, all these things they are causing conditions that help the body to grow, they make the body change and so on. At first when the body is growing it is mostly a pleasant experience and we enjoy it. Later on when the body keeps on growing again it is a more unpleasant and painful experience and we don’t like it so much. We can see that it keeps on changing and it is not up to us and it’s not up to the body that change is not up to the body to decide if it’s happening or not it’s not up to us to decide if it’s happening or not it’s up to the very many causing conditions that make it up in Geshe-la’s words, we can see then how, that that that growing up of the body is inevitable.
We can see then how the very birth of the body has in it its very disintegration. And so this is more the sort of the coarse version of impermanence. Now every every with every the idea also goes goes gets a bit more subtle is that with every arrival of the body, every moment that the body comes into existence, in the very next moment after that, it goes out of existence. So it’s this integration is sort of in built in in the causes that brought it about. So there’s not because I was gonna say, so if the body is arising at one moment, it’s coming to exist in one moment, there is no in the next moment, it’s not a there’s not a moment where it abides, where it just stays.
Next moment that follows immediately after the moment it came into existence is a moment of disintegration or of destruction where it goes out of existence. So and that’s and that’s what we call subtle impermanence. And that’s what we refer then to the momentarily this moment momentary change. Is that what we’re that what we’re referring to? And then so all these very many reasonings and all this thinking that we have been giving to the topic of impermanence right now without thinking about anything else.
So all of this that we are doing in order to understand impermanence is what we we call analytical meditation. That’s what we have been just doing right now. That’s analytical meditation. So and then so having engaged in analytical meditation about on impermanence for long enough, and one when one eventually ascertains the actuality of impermanence when things when it comes to understand, okay, that phenomena are impermanent in in this way and that way and so on, when has gained when one has gained that solid understanding, then one places one’s mind single pointedly on that understanding, on that conclusion of impermanence. Phenomena are impermanent.
One places one’s mind single pointedly there, and when one one exercises exercises then one’s placement meditation on that object, and develops, you know, calm abiding single pointed meditation. And the same applies to every other meditation object. So, again, the order is first we engage in analytical meditation with regards to that object. Because if we do not engage in analytical meditation long enough and well enough, when we when we try to practice placement meditation, single point of meditation on that object, we won’t be able to find that object. We won’t really have a solid a good object to meditate on.
So we need, first of all, to engage in analytical meditation. And then having developed that well, then we can engage in placement meditation on that object. And then so so, again, if so the again, the order is, again, we we engage in analytical meditation on the object that we want to meditate on. So we analyze that object, having ascertained what the object and its aspect and so forth, then we start and we have to analyze that object without strain to another object. So we remain with the object.
As having having ascertained the object, then we start practicing placement meditation, single point of meditation on that object. And, again, when when we have to guard again, we have to place our minds abiding with that object, single point guard guard it against any other distraction, any other influence. If if one does not do that, if one does not engage in the proper analytical meditation, if one does not properly accomplish accomplish the analytical meditation. If one, when one is and when one goes on to engage in placement meditation and one does not protect one’s mind, properly, and again, that will not be a very good meditation because, the obvious of meditation itself won’t be very clear from the beginning. Sir.
So again, without doing those those things, without engaging on analytical meditation and so on, then our understanding, our knowledge, or our wisdom, our intelligence will not improve, will not grow. Again, the idea of meditation is that we gain knowledge, you know, correct knowledge, intelligence and wisdom and so on. So we we engage in analytical meditation on a certain object so that we can find the object so that we can know what the object is. And we engage in placement meditation so that so that we can gain very great clarity about the object and and insight into the object and so on. So, if if you don’t engage in this process as as is explained here then you won’t be able to achieve these results and develop ones of developing ones wisdom ones understanding intelligence clarity and so on And so if if one just engages in in the meditation without having gone through this due process, without having studied and contemplated the object or meditation, analyze the object or meditation, so on.
And one just sits in order to, sort of, how can I say that in English? If one just sits there with one’s mind empty, so to speak, then again, it’s not to say that there is no benefit at all to be derived from that. One can still succeed in averting the manifestation of the afflictions. Nonetheless, that’s a very temporary and unstable benefit. Yes.
All I was saying is not is not a is not that is not what we refer to as the fully characterized meditation. And the benefits, even though it is beneficial, it is not a great deal of benefit that one come that we won’t get from it. English, I was just saying, so just sitting there with one’s mind empty, okay, there is this this small benefit of being able to stop the afflictions from, assailing oneself or from, manifesting. But this sort of meditation, you know, it doesn’t it doesn’t take any effort. It doesn’t take as as much effort and hard work from ourself from from ourselves than the analytical meditation and the placement meditation that we have been talking about.
Those two types of meditation, they take a lot of effort. And, again, the benefit that you derive is proportionate to the effort that you put in. So, again, such types of meditation where you just sit there and empty your mind of of you know, without making any efforts to understand the object and and and without guarding the mind and so on, you don’t get much benefit because you haven’t put much effort in it. So so there is benefit, but it’s really not a big deal. So, again, whatever it is that we want to meditate on, we we ought to engage in this due process.
We need to, again, engage in analytical meditation of that object and then having ascertained the object, having found the object and ascertained the object, then we can engage in placement or single point of meditation on the object. And just I was saying, what is the one of the main So and and the very great necessity that we have to meditate, to engage in analytical meditation is that by by analyzing the object, by having by finding the object and ascertaining the object, eventually, that that type of mind, that type of analytical mind will lead one to a direct realization of the object, which is then the attainment of special insight. So that analytical meditation is what helps us develop special insight, which leads into the direct realization of the object. So in the case of impermanence, for example, again, one engages in analytical meditation. When eventually one comes to direct realize impermanence, then one has then achieved the combination, the very combination of special insight one has attained special insight with regards to impermanence.
So so, again, the the perfection of analytical meditation leads to special insight. And, again and and and the need, again, to practice placement meditation is so that we can develop the ability to abide with whatever object of meditation we want for as long as we want. We can choose to abide for one hour, two hours, four hours, one day, two days, five days, however long we we wish to abide at our own will. So when we can develop this ability, then when we have developed this ability, that then is how’s it? The the completion or the the perfection of our placement meditation.
That’s that’s why we engage in placement meditation so we can develop this ability. So we can bringing placement meditation to perfection is is this ability to abide with the object for whatever object we want for as long as we want. Yes? Have you found the object? Yes.
Yes. Of of placement meditation. So so, yeah, so first, we are engaging in so first, we are engaging in analytical meditation in order to find the object. In order to find the object. So having found the object by by means of analytical meditation, then we have something that we can practice placement meditation on.
So then having found the object, then we can engage in the cultivation of placement meditation. We can engage in the cultivation of calm abiding. Eventually, we attain calm abiding. We have we attain we develop what Geshe-la said is the the the bliss of pliancy, the pliancy of body and mind, which is a sign combination of the having having perfected calm abiding meditation, having really accomplished calm abiding meditation, which is having perfected placement meditation. And then and then having attained calm abiding well, we don’t just stop there.
Having attained calm abiding, then again, one goes back to analyzing that object. So one uses again those skills that one has already developed before, and one goes on to analyze again the object again whilst whilst a single point and they abiding with it. And that then leads to the to the development, the arise of of special insight, and one and and which will lead to the to the arise of the wisdom, what we refer to the the wisdom that arises out of meditation. We have three types of wisdom. The one that arise out of study, the one that arise out of contemplation, and the wisdom that arise out of meditation, which is So Geshe la is saying, so what might be occurring to you is that you might be thinking, okay.
Geshe la said, you have to engage in an analysis before you engage in placement meditation, single point meditation. And later on, he said, oh, you have to engage in analysis after you have developed single point of meditation. And you might think, so which one is right? Both are right. You have to engage in both.
But the reason you engage in analysis, what you’re trying to accomplish for that analysis is different at at these different stages. So at the first at the beginning, we engage in analysis in order to find the object of meditation, in order to ascertain what the object of meditation is, its qualities, aspects, and so forth. Then we have something that we can engage in single point meditation on. And then having developed single point meditate meditation, the calm abiding, having attained that, and, again, we go back to analyze that object so that and the goal here is to develop the that arises out of meditation, special insight. Is is that okay?
Did you understand? Yeah. On the same object. Sorry? Only breath?
Analytical meditation impermanence? So I was like, yeah. It it’s okay to do that way. And and then first, said, it’s okay. And then he said, well, if you have time to do both, yes.
Of course, it’s okay. Is that okay? Any more questions? Realizing something just means that you have, how to say, developed a certainty about what something is or or its aspects and so on that you have increased developed your knowledge and your wisdom about something. Now if it is a thought or if it is not a thought, it’s a complicated thing to translate.
It is it is mind. Okay? And and and realizing something, it it that is realized realization of a meditation object is realized by the mind. It is that realization is a wisdom mind, which is which is it is a mind. I’m not sure how much that helps.
What’s what happens in in when we explain this in in in the Tibetan tradition, for example, I was going back to the illustration of impermanence. Okay? So if if you are meditate meditating on impermanence, in order to have a and and this I’m I’m giving very specific words here. In order to develop a direct realization of something, in this case, a direct realization of impermanence, you have to firstly develop a conceptual realization of that, what we refer to as an inferential cognition. It’s it’s a realization by means of or through a what we what is literally translated as a meaning generality or, you know, another way to explain is a general conceptual image of the object.
So you need first, again, to ascertain what the object is. Ascertaining what the object is, again, is to develop this a clear concept, a clear understanding of what the object is. When you once you have ascertained the object, you’re free of doubts about the object. You have ascertained the object. You have a clear conceptual understanding.
You have an inferential cognition of that object. Then on that basis, you you you continue to familiarize yourself with that until eventually you can let go of the meaning generality of the conceptual image, and you have a direct realization of the object. So this is the sort of distinction that we make in the process. This is how the process must go, Geshe-la says. You know?
At first, you must develop a meaning generality, which is a a general conceptual image of the object, which is free of doubt. You have really ascertained what the object is, what the object is not, and so on. And on that basis, then you keep on developing a meditation until you develop a direct realization. So when talking about realization we’re talking about actually different things at different points in our practice in our development does that help? So we start again, I was just going through the the the whole process.
So at first, for example, in the case of impermanence, first, we start being completely ignorant about it. We do not know exactly what it is, what it is not. Then we start studying about it, listen to the teachings, reading books, or just even by ourselves contemplating, again, the permanence of the body. I mean, the body changes, has grown old and big and so forth. And and you do all that, and you have doubts about it.
You’re not certain about it yet. And you are doing all that with your thoughts, with concepts. Then eventually, you develop an inferential cognition, which is which is an a conceptual understanding, which is free of any doubt. You have total certainty about what impermanence is and that the body is impermanent, for example, in this case. And you continue to do the meditate on that until you eventually can, do without the the concept, and you have a direct realization.
Okay. Okay. So well, sorry. If if one has really rid oneself of all doubts, then, yeah, there is no questions more to be asked. Now I’m not sure exactly what you mean.
It’s not it’s not to say that, you know, depending on the object, you you still think about it. I mean, you’re still utilizing your mind, your thoughts, your concepts. You might not have any doubts about it. You’re not trying to figure out what it is, what it is not. And yet you still have to engage in it.
You have proceed with your single pointed meditation on it. So there are different objects. For example, if one is, Geshe-la was pointing out, to the flower. Flower. And something like a flower is something that you can, something that we all directly realize very easily.
You know? And all these objects, many of the objects that we see, we don’t realize through our senses. And and so we we contemplate on on their impermanence, for example, impermanence of the flower, for example, by utilizing a meaning generality, and it’s very easy than a general conceptual image. And it’s very it’s not too difficult than, to go on to develop a direct realization. With other topics, with other subject matter, like impermanence, emptiness, and selflessness, and so on, and the process is more is more maybe complicated, you can say.
So you you are analyzing the the subject. You through a a meaning in generality, you develop the meaning generality to a point where you develop an inferential cognition, which is a a an intellectual certainty about it, and then you have a a an an with as an inferential an intellectual realization, I guess. So, again, you have realized the objects. So, again, meaning, you have rid yourself of every doubt about the objects. You know, asking questions about what it is, what it is not, and so on.
Nonetheless, there’s a sure concept, it’s a certain concept and then on top of that, top of that, inferential cognition you proceed to go on to meditate until you reach a point where you can let go of that concept of the inferential cognition and you have a direct realization of say impermanence or emptiness or selflessness and so on. Is that all making sense? So, again, Geshe la wasn’t saying the the word the word that is translated as realization, to realize something, you know, has a much broad broader sense in Tibetan. The word is. So to realize something, it can be as simple as realizing the flower or realizing what’s on one’s body.
When you look at your hand right now, you are realizing it. You’re having a direct realization of it through one of your consciousness, the visual sense consciousness in this case. Now one thing is to realize, for example, one’s hand or the flower, and another thing is to realize the impermanence of the hand or the emptiness of the hand. So we can really look at our hands and have a direct realization of it right now, but we cannot have a direct realization of its impermanence or of its emptiness right now. We need to engage in all these process, all these stages that we have been going through now and develop a meaning generality, conceptual image, ascertain that conceptual image to the point where we develop this inferential cognition and then go on to meditate on that single point until you can let go of the conceptual image and have a direct realization of its emptiness or of its impermanence and so on and so on.
Does that help? You know about something? So this is a pretty difficult question. But for starters, it is is like this every emptiness every emptiness is an ultimate truth now the mind that is realizing emptiness which is what we call the wisdom that realizes emptiness that is a mind and so that which is realizing emptiness is a conventional or a relative truth And then so then and then then it gets really difficult, really complicated. Now now it is it is already a very complicated topic and a very difficult difficult topic.
Vageshala was saying that, I mean, when we’re talking about the direct realization of emptiness, the wisdom, that mind, which is the wisdom that directly realizes emptiness. That is something that only Ārya beings or very noble beings, you know, very, very, very, very advanced practitioners have attained. So, you know, in the case of of emptiness or the selflessness of what we refer to when we talk about emptiness, we we divide it into we talk about the the lack of self or phenomenon, the lack of self of the person, also translated as a selflessness of phenomenon, selflessness of the person. So you can you one has to engage in the studies or or sort of the study or the analysis of either one of the two, the selflessness of the person and selflessness of phenomena, one starts developing an idea of what emptiness is. And, again, and that’s and that is already a lot of study, a lot of investigation, a lot of analysis.
And and at the very beginning stages where we are at, we still have doubts about it. And we are thinking, oh, is that really so? Is that really the case? How is what about this? What about that?
Eventually, we we continue with our efforts. Those doubts change from against emptiness to pro emptiness doubts, and then we develop a certainty about it, which is the inferential cognition. And, eventually, we we continue again, and we continue for a very long period of time. And with a lot of effort, we continue our meditation until we finally realize it. Now by that stage, one is already in the paths what we refer to as the paths the five paths path of accumulation, preparation, seeing, meditation, no more learning.
So it’s very, yes, way, way ahead. And and again, Geshe-la wasn’t saying, no. And now that it’s very good that you are thinking about it. That goes for all of us. That’s very good that we think about it.
Geshe-la quoting a very known verse from Āryadeva. You know, it’s this verse goes on like this. The first half of the verse is telling us that those with little merit don’t even have doubts about it. And then the second half of the verse is explaining to merely have doubts about it, emptiness, is enough to start shaking the foundations of cyclic existence of saṃsāra. And Geshe la was saying, is a very difficult topic.
It does take a lot of time and effort. Nonetheless, you shouldn’t give up on it. You should keep on engaging it, because even even having doubts about it is just that beneficial. And I guess I wasn’t saying that this is something which is emptiness is something which is very hard to understand, you know, to get across. In a very small nutshell, what it is is is coming to the understanding that things, phenomena do not exist in the way that they appear to exist, that they do not have inherent existence as they seem to have, that they do not have independent true existence as they do seem to have.
So they do not exist in the way that they appear to us to exist, the way that we think that exist. Alright? Now, again, this is something that we hear that said and we don’t understand. We think if it it doesn’t exist, then it doesn’t then it is completely in existence. So and then how can that be?
So, you know, really it gets really difficult. Yes. So, again, Geshe la going a little bit into emptiness and again saying it is realizing it is realizing that phenomena do not exist the way that they they appear to exist. When we when we hear that said, we usually tend to think that, okay. If they don’t exist the way they appear to exist, then it means that it doesn’t exist at all.
And that’s, again, that’s not the case. So it is it is difficult. It it remains a difficult subject. So but Geshe la goes on to give us a little illustration. For example, if you take you know, if you start with one’s own body, if you think of Geshe la was using the word head.
If you think of your own head and you think, so where is where is the head? What is the head? Where is the head? And one goes seeking for the head. And one says, the head anywhere in my body?
So it’s not anywhere anywhere else in my body. It it is not my body. So any when your phone looks up here and one thing is so what is the head? Is the head the nose? Is the is it the eye?
Is it the mouth, the tongue, the ears? And and none of these things are the head also. So if one goes on with one’s analysis seeking the head in within the aggregate, within the physical aggregate, then, again, one does doesn’t find anything which is head So, again, if you if if we look in the parts of the head, the nose, the ears, and so forth, we don’t we don’t find the head. We we we have learned that the head is not the parts its parts. It’s not the nose, not the ear, and so forth.
And now you might say, okay. So the the head is then the collection of the parts. Again, we can see that, again, it is not. Because if you if you take, you know, a pile of parts of head and put it together, that doesn’t make up a head. So, again, if you carefully think about it, you come to this understanding again that you don’t find anything which is head.
And and yet, it is not the case that there is it doesn’t exist because it is there. So and even though you cannot find it, it still exists. And and Geshe-la goes on to tell us, So again, we we haven’t found it. Right? And and again and and still it is there.
So what the conclusion that we come to is that, again, it doesn’t exist in the way that we thought it existed. It doesn’t exist in the way that it is it is appearing to us to exist so having understood that having come to this realization real realization okay then one one comes to understand that there is really no reason why one should be so attached to the head. Why one should, you know, be so careful with it, so precious about it, why one should, you know, do all sorts of things to, you know, make it look nice or and whatnot. And then so so, again, we haven’t found it. When we looked for it, when we look for the head that that we thought existed the way that it existed, we didn’t find anything.
And, again, it’s not the case that it doesn’t exist at all. It does exist. It just doesn’t exist in the way that we see it, that we perceive it. So how is it that it exists? It exists as a mere merely labeled or merely imputed, merely labeled by name, by word sound, or merely labeled by thought, conception.
So so what you see, hear, he’s and saying go or. So go is head. Is my head. And so this this is the label. This is the imputation.
So this is all there is. And even if you look at the word itself, go, that sound. Again, if you look, is that the head? No. That’s not the head.
Even that is not the head. So this that’s why we say the mere the merely comes in to play this part. The mere imputation. So when when you come to develop this this profound understandings and realizations, again, that it it again, it it cannot be found, and yet it exists. And and you realize also how is it that it exists.
So, again, it’s a very difficult thing to to come across, to to get across. So how is it that is this the way that it exists is something which is very hard to to understand. When eventually you realize these two facets, these two aspects of phenomena, of a particular phenomena, then that is the full realization of emptiness. And that’s very and that’s very difficult to realize. Nonetheless, it is exceedingly beneficial to continually contemplate it and keep on, striving to understand it.
Is that okay? Any more questions? What what’s sinking in means? I understand everything that you said. You’re trying to figure out you’re doing something wrong, is that it?
No. I would just you know what? I would just put what you just said, and he would just tell us everything about it. So yes, that’s that’s the way it goes. It goes with everybody.
And yet, again, if if we if if we by by going this way, we don’t we don’t really develop our amount of enlightenment, and, again, we can’t really fully realize the emptiness. So we don’t attain enlightenment. So, Geshe-la was saying, look. Yes. It is it is difficult for everyone.
No exceptions. Yet, one should not give in to such thinking. Instead, you know, turns one’s mind away from that thinking. Instead, contemplate, for example, the the immeasurable benefits that can be derived by training one’s mind in it. So one one one is training one’s mind.
One hasn’t accomplished yet. One is training one’s mind to be able to have that thought, to be able to it is contrived now. And that’s we are training so that we can develop a genuine authentic uncontrived version version of it. That’s what we are doing. It’s all about training now.
We are all trainees. We haven’t got our degrees or anything like that. We’re far from that. So, Geshe-la, I say, we we have to keep on contemplating the very great benefits that are to be derived to that that are to be gained by everyone by everyone by cultivating this attitude. And in order to be able to properly develop the mind of enlightenment we need to realize all the causes that lead to the mind of enlightenment so we need to realize you know to develop equanimity we need to develop that understanding that all beings have been one’s mother we have to understand how all sentient beings are have been, and will always be immeasurably kind to us.
We have to have the wish to repay that kindness. So there are all these we have been going on Thursdays, think it was. Some other Thursdays and Tuesdays, have been going for this teaching on all the causes that lead to to bodhicitta. In order to be able to fully develop that, we have to realize all these different stages. And then, Geshe la was just saying now, and there’s a quote.
When when we cultivate when when what we have in mind is the welfare of others only, accomplish our own welfare. Geshe la was gonna say more more clearly. When when you are cultivating, you’re not really thinking about that. Even though you understand that, you’re you’re not thinking about that. But when you are by the cultivation of this concern for the well-being of others, at this stage, at this present stage where we are at, it doesn’t really accomplish them any benefit.
It accomplish a ben an immeasurable benefit to ourselves, which will then lead to enlightenment, will then lead to the actual benefit of everybody else. And, Geshe this, you know, briefly illustrates the the Geshe la briefly illustrates this this idea if you dislike someone if you are avert to someone and eventually out of that aversion you end up doing something harmful in any level that affects the person, the person will then develop a disliking towards you and eventually that will lead again to the person harming you. So again you can see how the disliking or the aversion or the lack of care for their well-being and so forth can lead to suffering, to harm for oneself. On the other hand, if you are concerned with the welfare, well-being, the happiness of someone and you’re caring for the person and you are helping to the best of one’s ability and you want just cultivating that intention, then that person will it’s it’s easy to see in a general way how the person will develop a liking towards you and a willingness, you know, a a a goodwill towards you and and, you know, will be readily will be ready to help you and so forth.
So we can easily see how this type of attitude can can bring us benefit, even even temporal benefits. So so we can see the distinction between the the mind that is intent on benefiting others, which is good, and the mind that is intent on harming others, which is harmful, which is bad. And so if so we can see. So if you have this if you cultivate this benevolent attitude or intention towards one sentient being, then you attain just you know, you gain the benefit from one sentient being if you cultivate that benevolent beneficial attitude that intention to that care the concern for for the well-being of say a hundred beings then you get the benefit you know a hundred times the benefit if you cultivate that with relation to a thousand beings you get a thousand times the benefit if you cultivate the intention intention with relation to countless sentient beings that fill up all the space of all the universe, sentient beings, all beings, you gain that much benefit. Yet we haven’t really relieved anyone suffering by doing so we haven’t accomplished any of that By cultivating this benevolent attitude with regards to all sentient beings which are innumerable and not only that but we are more specifically developing this intention of freeing all these innumerable beings each and every one of them from all the innumerable sufferings they experience so relieving each one of them from each one of their sufferings is already lot of benefit and from the innumerable sufferings that they have another lot of innumerable benefits and not only that we also wish to endow every single of them with every single happiness there is and again they are innumerable also so that mind that intention that you know is being given rise and produced in this way it is truly immeasurable.
It’s gonna bring truly inexhaustible benefit. And if with that intention, then you develop the second half of the mind of enlightenment, the other the other facet of the mind of enlightenment is then, okay. May I then, in order to accomplish all this, may I then enlightenment myself? And and and that’s what you get. And so you can see the benefit is And so, and get now and Geshe la was was saying, and we all tend to to think, you know, this is a very big job.
It’s a huge task. How can I possibly do that? I’m not gonna do it. I’m gonna just gonna work my own well, my own liberation. And that that’s gonna be easier.
It’s gonna be quicker. And and and the fact is it it doesn’t. It’s not quicker. And that’s that’s a huge mistake because by aiming at one’s own benefit, a long one is aiming at the benefit of one sentient being only. And one accomplish instead of an immeasurable benefit, one accomplishes only one benefit so it is it is not it’s not it is neither easier nor quicker So so what what do you do about them?
So is, again, through various means, various reasonings, one has to come to understand that one does doesn’t really when we’re talking about somebody who is harming us, we just the title that they have is enemies so they are enemies so one has to come to realize that we don’t actually have enemies, that the person in question is not actually out of his or her own free will causing us harm. That person is sick with the afflictions. That person is sick with anger or attachment or ignorance or what have you and it is because of that sickness that the person is overpowered by the sickness that person does performs the actions that harm us or hurt us in any way. So it is not the person’s fault. It is the affliction’s fault.
Furthermore, what triggered those afflictions, again, amongst the very many causes and conditions that triggered those afflictions and they gave rise to those afflictions and the person mental continuum, we also play a part in it and we have to figure out what our part is and we have to figure out that we are also responsible for what is happening. We have to think carefully and engage this approach carefully, for the various means. There are many different reasons that we use to establish all of these and and come to develop this sort of understanding. So they come to develop the understanding that we don’t really have enemies and all benefit all sentient beings, all beings are equally beneficial and kind. We say equally kind to us.
And if I wasn’t saying again, the our real enemy is, you know, the first and foremost, our own distorted minds. You know, we we tend to pick up on, you know, one occasion. I say that person harmed me that time that day, and we we tend to forget all the other times that a person has directly or indirectly been beneficial to us or that being. We tend to we we completely ignore the fact that in previous lives, the person has been our father, our mother has has given us, you know, a priceless kindness that we are forever unable to repay. You know, that even the present life, in this present lifetime, the person has in one way or another if one thinks about it, one sees the person has in one way or another benefited us but we we have a very selective mind we put all that aside and we pick up the one time or the two three times only that the person harmed us and we decide then very arbitrarily that person then is our enemy so you know so you see you’re always saying nga nga nga which is I and that’s our real enemy that’s that’s the real bad guy in the picture I guess I was saying that that I, me, that self centeredness is very it always wants everything that is good and pleasurable and and happy for itself, for himself or herself alone.
He wants all money, all power, all fame. If has a hundred dollars, wants five hundred dollars. When he gets five hundred dollars, he wants a thousand. When he gets a thousand, he wants ten thousand. There’s not never a point when it says, oh, I don’t need it anymore.
I don’t want anymore or it’s enough. So, that I, that’s, self centered attitude, that’s the real that’s the real bad guy. And so it wants every pleasure, everything that happens to be good for itself, and it doesn’t want any little suffering. So however tiny the discomfort or the suffering may be, it doesn’t want for itself at all. It’s always avoiding and averting it at any cost.
It’s pushing it to others or it’s blaming others complaining and all that I wasn’t saying no. The fault is with with the that self, with that eye, that self-cherishing I. And guess I was, again, giving a simple illustration just to illustrate the point. If, for example, you are you you were given some food and you wait. You wait maybe too much of it or it wasn’t good and you kept on eating then you fall sick and you have to take, some medicine to get well and, yeah, at all at all during the whole process you you never come to take responsibility for your actions and you’re always blaming.
You blame the person who gave you the food or you blame the food, and whatnot but you’re actually taking responsibility after all you were the one who ate the food you were the one who kept on eating the food when it wasn’t good or ate too much of the food when you already had enough but we don’t see that we just blame someone else If you so if so if we if if we think about it, if you think if we think carefully about it, then we will see how how, how bad the eye is, the self centered eye is, how is is just it doesn’t want anything bad happening to it. Is only concerned with itself. It doesn’t see its faults, the faults that that it doesn’t own its faults. It doesn’t take responsibility. It’s always blame others and so on.
So it is really bad. And we say, again, in Buddhism in in Tibetan Buddhism, we say that every happiness and every good that we have ever experienced since time immemorial came from all the sentient beings, from all other sentient beings. And every suffering on the other hand, every suffering that we have ever experienced came from the eye, from the from this self centered eye. But we we don’t understand that. Asking us, you know, to to take this is this a homework that you have?
It’s asking us to think about it. If if you were to be dropped in a in a place where there were no other beings, humans and nonhumans alike, you think what what would happen to that eye if it would be able to remain alive or or what. You think about it. See for yourselves. Paint that picture in your mind.
So if you were to board on a plane and be left on a land somewhere in the universe where there was no other being, were you alone? You think about it. You think you think about it. If you were to be dropped, you know, an airplane were to fly to this completely isolated place where there was no other life forms, no other living beings living there. You were all alone.
You think about it. What what would you do? How would you do? How would you survive? Could you survive?
So we can see then we will be able then to see then eventually how how all other beings are are have been and will always be exceedingly kind, precious, important to us, how very important it is, and how how we haven’t so far because of the attitude that we have, how we haven’t so far been able to free ourselves from suffering, and and have how we haven’t been been able to experience real happiness. So as ordinary, we are still caught up in this ocean of suffering because we haven’t been able to understand that. And enlightened beings, beings, the, you know, the the the Buddha Bhagavans, they are Buddha Bhagavans because they have realized that their sole concern is the welfare and the well-being of others because they understand how kind and precious they are. How they understand how every happiness comes from all other sentient beings. And and that’s what they get.
They get all every happiness. They they as by caring for all this by appreciating the importance, the benefit, and the kindness of all other beings. They have attained every they have attained the happiness of a Buddha Bhagavan. They have perfectly fulfilled and accomplished the happiness of not only all other sentient beings, but also of themselves also. So we have to understand.
We can understand. We can start see then to see then how all other beings are exceedingly precious and important. How every happiness every happiness comes in dependence on all sentient beings. We don’t we don’t even need to to to mention the the happiness of enlightenment and liberation, which does come from them. Even thinking of the happiness happinesses that we experience in this present life alone, we can see how it all comes from all the sentient beings, in dependence on all the sentient beings.
So, Geshe la, I that we we we have reached the time already, I think. So maybe we should stop now.