Emptiness — 2013-06-05

Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. In this 113-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche walks through the six root afflictions—desire, anger, pride, ignorance, doubt, and afflicted view—and their meditation antidotes. He illustrates desire through the example of craving a car, showing how reflecting on emptiness and selflessness dissolves attraction. Anger yields when we recognize all beings’ infinite kindness over countless lives. Pride crumbles through reflecting on those superior to us—Arhats, Bodhisattvas, Buddhas. Afflicted ignorance and doubt are countered through wisdom realizing emptiness and reasoning on liberation and rebirth. A major section explores why enemies are the kindest teachers: without difficult persons, forbearance and compassion lack a real object. He teaches Tonglen (giving and taking) from the Eight Verses of Mind Training, then addresses student questions about whether the practice feels fraudulent and how afflicted doubt blocks engagement. For serious practitioners.

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File: 2013-06-05 – KR.mp3

UUID: 740e9143-4651-427a-9953-a4703b468135

Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche

Collection: Emptiness

Date: 2013-06-05

Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide

Words: ~5,301

I explained last time the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering which has two components: origins of suffering which are karma and origins of suffering which are afflictions. Afflictions, noble truths of the origin of suffering which are afflictions, are none other than afflictions. Afflictions are subdivided into two, the root afflictions and the branch afflictions. Both karma and afflictions are present within our mind streams.

The root afflictions are subdivided into six. These are desire, anger, pride, afflicted ignorance, afflicted view, and afflicted doubt. The secondary afflictions are called secondary because they are derivative from the root afflictions. For instance, spite is derivative of anger. All of us have desire within our mind stream and we’ve had desire since our earliest age.

Desire is simply the wish to experience happiness and not to experience suffering. Desire and anger are in a constant interrelation with each other. While it is easy to present desire, it is difficult to abandon desire or for that matter any of the other six root afflictions. Perhaps if we were bereft of these six root afflictions, we would no longer be worldly beings of the desire realm. We can see how we have become habituated to an ignorance which is the root of the afflictions when we reflect on the case of people who are accustomed to drink and who say I simply can’t stay in this room for any longer if I don’t have a beer.

Then all one has to do is prevent them from having a beer minute by minute, hour by hour, and eventually one full day will pass without their having a drink. Likewise, it is possible to separate oneself from the afflictions. There are numerous great beings such as the Arhats, Bodhisattvas, and fully enlightened Buddhas who have traveled this path. They have taught how to do it. Therefore, let alone being able to abandon the afflictions, we must abandon the afflictions.

It is up to ourselves to take responsibility for our lives in these matters. Just as the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the past eliminated their afflictions, we ourselves can eliminate our own afflictions. Nobody else but ourselves can do this. This is something which we can do because the mind is transient, the mind is transitory. This is something which we must do for ourselves as Buddha Śākyamūni said, I am my own protector. We are our own protectors.

To be able to eliminate the afflictions, however, first we must be able to identify what they are. We must be able to identify what is anger, what is pride, what is desire, and then apply the antidotes, and these minds will dwindle over time. It is therefore up to us to do this, and it is wrong to think that it is impossible to totally eradicate the afflictions and that they can only dwindle ever more over time. Since if one gains direct realization of emptiness as the Arhats, the Ārya Bodhisattvas, and the fully enlightened beings have done, at this point, one will have severed afflictions from the root. One who has abandoned the afflictions is an Arhat, one Ārya being, and one who has abandoned not only the afflictions but their karmic imprints and their seeds is a fully enlightened being. This is something which we can do but which the Triple Gem cannot do for us.

It is something which we must do entirely alone. The Triple Gem merely teaches the means to abandon the afflictions and their karmic imprints. Unlike other religious traditions which may use terms such as liberation or even full enlightenment but in which the attainment of these is contingent on the work of the triple gem, this is not the case in the Buddhist tradition. The first of the root afflictions which we must be able to identify is desire.

Desire is that mind which is attracted to things which we see as valuable or good. It does not refer to the object itself. It may be a mind attracted to beautiful shapes or forms, a mind attracted to beautiful meals, and so forth. It is not necessarily sexual desire but includes it. Let us take the case of desire or craving for a car.

When we see the car, we are extraordinarily attracted to it and our mind superimposes qualities on it. At this point, we should reflect: this car is actually the noble truth of suffering. As was explained, the noble truth of suffering has four features of which the last two are selflessness and emptiness. In other words, this car is both selfless and empty. It is not worthy to be an object of attraction.

At this point, through reflecting on the selflessness and emptiness of the car, we counteract the desirous mind which is attracted to this car, and the qualities which we superimposed artificially on the car dwindle progressively. This is the application of the antidote. If we analyze the mechanism of desire or craving for a car, we can see that at first we see a car which we like, desire arises in our mind, and then trying to find the means to get the car, we accumulate more and more karma. All along, the craving for the car increases. We accumulate even more karma, and this is how the wheel of cyclic existence revolves. Therefore, the way to counter desire or craving is instead of seeing qualities in the object desired to see its faults and its defects, and through thinking again and again on its faults and its defects, the craving will abate.

If on the other hand we do not do this, the craving will increase and we will be more and more fascinated by the qualities, the purported qualities of the object desired. And then if looking at this car we can think let alone this car being useful to me, this car is an obstruction to my happiness, let alone in this life, in future lives, as in dependence on this car I will accrue much negative karma. This is excellent. On the other hand, if we do not do this and remain fascinated by the car, the car will become the occasion of falling in the pit of fire of desire. And this is what we see with those who are unable to restrain their mind and think constantly of the qualities of objects of desire.

This is therefore the antidote to desire and it is something which we must meditate and think about. Otherwise, it will not be of benefit. This should not only be applied to the example of a car, but to whatever object we crave and lust after. In every single case, we should think: this object is the noble truth of suffering. This object has the four characteristics of suffering, impermanence, emptiness, and selflessness.

It is something to be discarded. And thinking in this way on its faults and its defects, all attraction to the object will disappear. The second root affliction is anger or wrath, and this occurs when we believe someone has harmed us and as a result of this we start thinking this is a bad person, this is an evil person, this is someone who is of no good whatsoever. This feeling is wrath. And when anger starts to dawn in our mind towards somebody, we should think to ourselves, this is not a harmful person.

This is actually a sentient being. This is someone with consciousness who has his own goals and purposes in life. This person did not actually intend to harm me. They harmed me incidentally, accidentally. As a sentient being, this is someone, as well as all other sentient beings, who has been infinitely helpful to me over countless lives.

In thinking in this way, anger will dwindle. All sentient beings without exception have been extraordinarily kind to us and kind to us since beginningless time. Thinking of this kindness, it is impossible for us to generate anger towards them. And we should then ask ourselves: what is the source of this hostility within myself? The source of this hostility is not the harm which others inflict on us.

It is our own sense of I, our own egoism. And therefore understanding that anger is meaningless, whenever anger arises, we should counter it, and through meditation, eventually anger will disappear. The third root affliction is pride, in Tibetan nga rgyal. Pride is that sense: there is really nobody like me. I am the best.

I am the best because of my physique, because of my wealth, because of the food I eat, because of the drink I drink, and nobody is as good as me. Nobody even comes close. For that matter, I am completely faultless. Everyone else is heavily faulty. And when one thinks I am the best because of my qualities, one just has to analyze these so-called qualities and one will find that nothing really comes from oneself.

In addition, when one has an elevated view of oneself, one should reflect on the twelve links of dependent origination which one does not understand. To take my own example, says Geshe-la, when I say I am a Geshe, and if I were to look at the assembled crowd and think I am the only Geshe, then this will become a source of great pride. But the moment I start reflecting on the fact that there are many beings who are superior to me, Ārya Bodhisattvas, Arhats, for that matter fully enlightened beings, how could the statement I am a Geshe lead to pride? Each one of us has his own or her own profession.

Each one of us has his or her own wealth. And each one of us, dependent on his or her profession and his or her wealth, can find there a source for pride and for arrogance. This pride and this arrogance shuts our ears and shuts our hearts to others whom we dismiss without even listening to them. However, when we reflect on their own qualities, then our own pride and our own arrogance dwindles and in turn we become open to them. The fourth root affliction is afflicted ignorance.

Generally speaking, afflicted ignorance can be subdivided into two: an ignorance of cause and effect or causality and an ignorance of emptiness. In our cases, we can say that ignorance is akin to misunderstanding and it pervades our being. There is really no phenomenon towards which we are not ignorant. In our cases, we are completely ignorant of the subtle aspects of causality. The coarse aspects of causality, the fact that for instance two parents beget a child or that a tree gives rise to fruits, we can see, but causality becomes ever more subtle.

And it is said that the subtlest aspects of causality can only be understood by a fully enlightened being. In our own cases, we have never understood karma and causality. And powerlessly we have accumulated virtue, powerlessly we have accumulated non-virtue, and just as powerlessly we have accumulated indifferent or neutral deeds. As a result we have powerlessly experienced happiness, unhappiness, and neutral or equanimous events. So one can truly say that we are ignorant with respect to karma and causality.

So this ignorance, in Tibetan ma rig pa, which means to not know, is a non-knowledge of karma and causality, and in its second aspect an ignorance, a non-knowledge of emptiness. Emptiness is critical because it is the wisdom realizing selflessness, specifically the wisdom realizing the selflessnesses of persons and of phenomena which is indispensable to sever the roots of ignorance. Then if one knows emptiness, one will indeed be wise. One will be learned and not ignorant. It is very difficult to eliminate, to sever ignorance.

To do this, we must understand what the ignorance is an ignorance of. It is an ignorance which believes in the inherent existence of phenomena by their own characteristic, and it can only be eliminated by a wisdom which counters this, is its antidote. The fifth affliction, root affliction, is afflicted doubt. Doubt is defined as the mental factor which hesitates between two alternatives. Afflicted doubt here is the doubt which wonders: does the Triple Gem exist or not?

Does karma and causality exist or not? Does the true view exist or not? Why is afflicted doubt a root affliction? Because once afflicted doubt has arisen in our mind with respect to a topic, we do not engage in that topic. We think, is it so or not?

Is it true that the triple gem exists or not? Is it true that karma and causality exist or not? And we dither and procrastinate without engaging. For instance, once the doubt which thinks does liberation exist or not has arisen, we will not engage in the path to liberation and will not strive for liberation because we doubt whether a liberation actually exists or not. Once we are convinced that liberation exists, on the other hand, we can engage in the path leading to liberation.

Liberation does exist because it is possible to envision a liberation from every single thought. Every single thought can dwindle and be eliminated if the counteracting, the countervailing quality is cultivated. If this is true for every single thought, it can also be said to be true for all thoughts. Likewise, the doubt which disbelieves in the existence of past and future lives can be countered by thinking: past lives definitely exist, and as a result future lives must exist, since after all I can project myself back in time to when I was small, when I was in my mother’s womb, and at every single point there must have been a moment previous to this. Likewise, on this basis, we can infer the existence of future lives through thinking: I, the I imputed on the basis of my aggregates, will exist tomorrow.

It will exist after tomorrow. It will exist in a month and a year. Then at the time of my death, that I would not cease to exist since after all it is not material. Where would such an I go apart from a future life? Likewise, if we reflect on the fact that after all today we are acting for our welfare tomorrow, for our welfare after tomorrow, for our welfare in a year and years from now, then why on earth shouldn’t we act today for our welfare in a future life?

There is absolutely no reason not to do so. And then through training one’s mind in this way over and again, one’s mind will become clearer and clearer over time. Then following these lines of reasoning, one might think, well, yes, indeed, there may be something after this life, but that person after this life is nothing to me. There is no relation between him or her and myself. That may be true, but it is our responsibility to ensure that the circumstances for this other person in a future life are good.

Because after all, if we ourselves enjoy good circumstances in this life, to whom precisely do we owe them? If not to somebody else in a previous life who worked very hard to provide these good circumstances for us, accumulating merit and making strong prayers. Then if we ourselves in this life do not do the same for that person who will follow us in future lives, then this life will have been empty indeed. And finally, afflicted view, the sixth of the root afflictions, is this idea that I or my possessions are inherently established or established by their own characteristics. Here, oneself being established by one’s own characteristic or inherently established is the idea that the I we talked about is established by its own characteristics or inherently established.

And one’s own possessions refers to one’s hands, one’s house, one’s car being seen as being established by their own characteristics and inherently established. Then they are subsumed within the I. At present, let us generate correctly the motivation. I will attain the state of full enlightenment for the sake of all mother sentient beings without exception. Let us meditate on this for one minute’s time.

So returning to His Holiness’s commentary, page 180 of the Tibetan text. It is said in a Tibetan tale that once upon a time somebody was circumambulating a stupa and he saw a meditator. He asked the meditator, what are you meditating upon? And the meditator responded, I am meditating on forbearance. Then this man used some harsh language towards the meditator and instantaneously tremendous anger arose in the mind of the meditator and he countered him forcefully.

Pretty surely a sign he wasn’t meditating well on forbearance. Another version of this story: the circumambulating man was rather stupid. And the first time he saw the meditator, he asked the meditator, what are you up to? And the meditator said, I am meditating stainlessly on forbearance. Then he did another circumambulation and he saw the meditator again and said, so what are you doing now?

And the meditator said, I’m meditating on forbearance. But there was no stainless mentioned. The third time he came back, he said to the meditator, and now what are you doing? And the meditator said, I’m meditating on forbearance. So what, returning to his commentary precisely, is this situation?

It is a situation of someone who is meditating fundamentally on forbearance. However, through not encountering a harmful being or through not encountering disturbing speech has yet to have met with the conditions for actual meditation on forbearance. And therefore in reliance on this, the best possible condition for the practice of forbearance is one’s own enemy. For this reason, the Bodhisattvas in their practice give great respect to their enemies. Without forbearance it is not possible to give rise to fully characterized compassion because generally speaking compassion is blended with desire and it is therefore very difficult to give rise to compassion for one’s enemies.

Why is this the case? Because if one meditates well on forbearance, it acts as an antidote to anger. And when anger is eliminated, in turn it is easier to give rise to the compassion which wishes that another be free of suffering and the causes of suffering and the love which wishes that another have happiness and the causes of happiness. Why does His Holiness say in his commentary that generally speaking compassion is blended with desire? If we analyze desire, we can see that desire is the wish that oneself be free of suffering and by extension that those who are close to one be free of suffering.

Compassion, on the other hand, is the impartial wish that all be free of suffering. We can therefore see that compassion and desire are not unrelated. For this reason, His Holiness says they are often blended. Hence, it is said to be difficult to give rise to compassion for one’s foes. And therefore, his commentary reads, we must put great effort in giving rise to an uncontrived compassion and empathy for enemies who try to harm us, precisely because if we do not do so, Geshe-la says, the anger which will arise will prevent any compassion from arising.

For this reason, we must gain experience in connection with our own enemies. This is not easy. The most difficult periods in our life are generally speaking the periods in which one’s inner strength increases the most and in which one’s experience increases as well. It is during these periods that we face obstructions from enemies or difficult persons and that anger would easily arise in our mind. It is during these periods that we must practice the antidotes which enable us to train in forbearance.

If on the other hand, our human existence is spent in ease, then we ourselves run the risk of becoming weak. On the other hand, when we experience situations of great difficulty, this is the period where in dependence on the unpleasant sensations which we experience, we can give rise to great mental strength and courage. Then these difficult experiences which His Holiness’s text refers to are the difficult experiences of ordinary beings as a result of karma and affliction. And in this life there are never situations in which we live exclusively in comfort. Therefore the difficulties we face must be used as means for us to progress towards liberation and towards enlightenment.

Then who precisely can teach this to us? Our foes and our foes alone can teach this to us. Our friends cannot teach this to us nor can our spiritual teachers. For this reason, our enemies are said to be very kind. In dependence on our enemies, we can gain the qualities of forbearance and compassion through practicing through them.

Obviously, without understanding how to do this, our enemies are exclusively a source of suffering for us. And therefore, among all sentient beings, our enemies are most kind to us. The following stanza of the Eight Verses of Mind Training reads: in brief, directly or indirectly, may I give all help and happiness to my mothers and may I take all their harm and suffering secretly upon myself. Here we must give all happiness to sentient beings and take all their sufferings upon ourselves, and in so doing we will be fortunate.

How shall we be fortunate? Because we shall progress towards full enlightenment. In Langri Thangpa’s text, it is said that one should engage in this practice in secrecy or secretly. Why should one do so secretly? Because it will be of no benefit to mention this to non-Buddhists or to so-called Buddhists who lack faith in the teaching.

And as a result of such behavior, one’s own practice will degenerate. This is the case for all the conduct of the Bodhisattvas which when it is publicized with others tends no longer to dwell within the Bodhisattva. For this reason it must be practiced in secret. His Holiness’s commentary reads, this shloka, this stanza indicates that within love and empathy, one should give one’s happiness and the causes of one’s happiness to others. And through the force of compassion, one should take the suffering of others and the suffering of sentient beings in general upon oneself.

So his commentary reads onwards. The compassion which wishes to free others from suffering and the love which wishes to give one’s own happiness to others are both the foundations for the generation of bodhicitta. Here, compassion is that wish to free others, not just one person but all beings from suffering, whereas love is a wish to endow all beings without exception with happiness. In reality, such a love and such compassion are only present in the Buddha. However, we train in them to attain that state.

When training in such practices, should one encounter another person who is actually suffering of a great anguish, one should generate the powerful wish within oneself to take his suffering upon oneself and practice in this way. In this manner, upon encountering someone who is suffering intensively, one should reflect: it is appropriate for such a person to wish for happiness and to wish to be free from suffering. Through misunderstanding the virtue which is to be engaged in and the sin which is to be abstained from, he has abandoned happiness. May I take upon myself the sufferings of this being and may I give to this being all of my happiness without exception. This is how one should meditate.

And therefore upon encountering such a person, one should think to oneself, may all of the terrible suffering he is experiencing through not knowing how to live in accordance with karma and causality and not having abandoned sin and practiced virtue, mature entirely upon myself, and may all of the happiness which I at present experience through my practice of virtue mature entirely upon him. Some special beings are able to actually practice Tonglen, giving and taking, in this way. There are such special beings who can donate while they are alive their organs to others, who can give their eye, who can give their kidney to others. We ourselves at present unable to do so should at least meditate on this. We ourselves can only practice this in imagination.

Nonetheless, through in this manner taking upon our minds the suffering of others to dispel it and giving whatever happiness we have to others, we will experience great mental benefit. This practice should be practiced in conjunction with imagining that all we inhale, we take upon ourselves all of the sufferings of others, and all we exhale, we give to others all of our own happiness. The last verse, stanza of the Eight Verses of Mind Training: may none of this ever be sullied by conceptions of the eight worldly concerns. May I see all things as illusions and without being bound by attachment gain freedom. So your English translation is mistaken.

It doesn’t translate to plural. It’s may none of these. These at the beginning of verse eight refers to both love and compassion which were talked about in the previous stanza. The eight worldly dharmas are the famed eight worldly dharmas: wishing for praise and not wishing for blame, wishing for gain and not wishing for deprivation, wishing for happiness and not wishing for suffering, and so forth. It is very difficult to eliminate these.

If these are eliminated then one’s Dharma practice becomes a pure Dharma practice, otherwise it is not pure. Then in our case, obviously, we try to practice Dharma but in reality our Dharma is infected with the eight worldly dharmas even though we deny it. We wish to be praised when we practice Dharma. We do not wish to be blamed. We practice Dharma to be happy.

We claim to wish to be free from suffering but what we really wish to be free of is pain, the suffering of suffering. As to all-pervasive suffering and the suffering of change, we don’t really think about it. The reverse of the eighth stanza which says, your English translation, may I see all things as illusion, refers to the fact that when we see all phenomena as illusions then there is no basis for attachment to phenomena since they are all illusory. Then Geshe-la will stop here for today and take your questions at present.

Yes. Well, I make an attempt to practice Tonglen practice every day, but I feel completely inadequate every time I sit down to do it. And I feel like I’m just faking it completely. And I’m just really, it just feels like very fraudulent practice, really. And I actually find it quite distressing that I feel like that and that I can’t practice it in a way that feels really truthful.

Has Geshe-la got any advice about that? So your practice is not spurious. What it is is a practice of training the mind. It is because we at present are not able to do this that we must train the mind. Now if we actually said that we would give all our happiness to others and in actuality take all their suffering on us now, since we are unable to do so, then that would be spurious, that would be deceitful.

But at present, we are unable to do this. We train our minds to reach that state. Our goal is mental training. Then we should increase the power of this mind of giving. And as we increase the power of this mind of giving, it will become more powerful.

If we reflect on the practice of giving, to be perfectly honest, what precisely do we have as virtue to give to anybody? However, we train our mind in giving. It is not spurious. Do you understand? Yeah.

And then I would think that having a doubt is an impetus to study further rather than prevent it from engaging. It is exactly the opposite. Afflicted doubt acts as a powerful obstacle to study and investigation because once afflicted doubt arises, for instance regarding the existence or not of liberation, one just stops dead in one’s tracks and one doesn’t study at all. So afflictive doubt is a very powerful obstacle to both study and practice. One has to make a distinction between doubt and afflicted doubt.

Doubt is not an affliction. For instance, if you have started a job and you’re not quite sure whether you’ll receive $100 or not at the end of the job, that is doubt. That is not an affliction. Then when you see other people getting paid, that doubt is resolved. But you can see for yourself that when the doubt which asks itself does this exist or not is present, there is no striving.

Is that okay? Oh yeah. Just on afflictive doubt, recently I spoke with someone who was heartbroken and said, I can’t practice the Buddhadharma because I just hate my parents too much. Hate them far too much. And she asked, what can I do?

And I said I didn’t know. But that I thought she showed great courage because she was heartbroken by her hatred, not proud of it. And that this was a very important moment for her because she knew it was afflictive doubt and that she had the courage to share that. So I understand and take Geshe-la’s clear instruction not to practice with afflicted doubt. But I wonder what he would make of this and could he dispel my ignorance about how to proceed.

So what you’re referring to is, no, this is not a case of afflictive doubt at all. In this person’s case, it is a case of not understanding the kindness of one’s parents. And this comes from not reflecting on the kindness of one’s parents and is probably the sign of an extremely weak person. Moreover, it is also the sign of somebody who does not think well about things. Such a person should ask for and then should reflect on the fact that if it were not for his or her parents, this person would not be in existence to start with.

Then this person has grown up and been educated thanks to the kindness of his or her parents. How can you say that your mothers are not kind? If it weren’t for your parents, you wouldn’t have anything to eat, would you? Not to do with tonight’s teaching, for a busy westerner, pardon me, what’s a good amount to meditate a day for someone working full time? And how do you get a song out of your head when you meditate?

How do you get a song out of your head? So regarding your first question, there is no definite amount of time in which one must meditate, as much as you can. It can be one hour, it can be half an hour, it can be five minutes. In every single case, you will have meditated. Regarding your second question about the song, think about the fact that songs are of no benefit whatsoever for future lives and of no benefit whatsoever for this life as well.

And really fall in the category of distraction within afflictions. And because they are distractions, they will interfere with all your other work. You will waste your time, whether it be five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes. Just go onto the website and enjoy some chai. If you haven’t got a copy of the current newsletter, please help yourself.

Key terms in this teaching

dependent origination pratityasamutpada (Skt); ten drel (Tib)

Also called dependent arising. The way that the self and phenomena exist conventionally as relative and interdependent. LYWA

desire realm kamadhatu (Skt); do kham (Tib)

One of the three realms of samsara, comprising the hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, asuras (demi-gods) and the six lower classes of suras (gods); beings in this realm are preoccupied with desire for objects of the six senses. LYWA

suffering of change viparinama-duhkhata (Skt); gyurwäi dug ngäl (Tib)

What is normally regarded as pleasure, which because of its transitory nature sooner or later turns into suffering. LYWA

suffering of suffering duhkha-duhkhata (Skt); dug ngäl gyi dug ngäl (Tib)

Aka the suffering of pain; the commonly recognized suffering experiences of pain, discomfort and unhappiness. LYWA

taking and giving tonglen (Tib)

The meditation practice of generating bodhicitta by taking on the suffering of others and giving them happiness. LYWA

thought transformation lojong (Tib)

Also known as “mind training” or “mind transformation”. A powerful approach to the development of bodhicitta, in which the mind is trained to use all situations, both happy and unhappy, as a means to destroy self-cherishing and self-grasping. LYWA

Three Jewels triratna (Skt); kon chog sum (Tib)

Also called the Triple Gem or the Three Rare Sublime Ones. The objects of Buddhist refuge: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Lama Zopa Rinpoche prefers “Three Rare Sublime Ones” as a more direct translation of kon chog sum. LYWA

twelve links of dependent origination pratitya samutpada (Skt); ten drel yen lag chu nyi (Tib)

Also called the twelve dependent-related limbs or branches; the twelve steps in the evolution of cyclic existence: 1) ignorance; 2) karmic formation; 3) consciousness; 4) name and form; 5) sensory fields; 6) contact; 7) feelings; 8) craving; 9) grasping... LYWA

Definitions adapted from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive glossary, as taught in the Gelug tradition.

Questions answered in this teaching

Isn't having a doubt a spur to study further rather than something that stops us from engaging with the teachings?

It is the opposite when the doubt is afflicted. Afflicted doubt is a powerful obstacle to study, investigation and practice. For example, once it arises about whether liberation exists, one stops dead in one's tracks and does not study at all. A distinction has to be made between doubt and afflicted doubt. Doubt in itself is not an affliction. If you have started a job and are unsure whether you will receive $100 at the end, that is doubt but not an affliction, and it is resolved when you see other people getting paid. But when the doubt asking whether something exists or not is present, there is no striving.

How much should someone working full time meditate each day, and how can you get a song out of your head during meditation?

There is no definite amount of time one must meditate; the advice is to meditate as much as you can. It can be one hour, half an hour, or five minutes, and in every case you will have meditated. For a song stuck in the head, reflect that songs are of no benefit for future lives and no benefit for this life either. They fall into the category of distraction within afflictions. Because they are distractions, they interfere with all your other work and you waste your time.