Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen offers detailed, step-by-step instruction in meditation foundations. He begins with the motivational groundwork—developing bodhicitta, the intention to practice for the benefit of others—as the essential basis for all practice. He then moves systematically through the physical setup: the seven-point Vairocana meditation posture, covering spine alignment, hand position, eye gaze, and tongue placement. The core of the teaching addresses two breathing meditation techniques for clearing mental obscurations and bringing the mind into a virtuous state: a 21-count method (exhaling delusions as black light, inhaling blessings) and the nine-round method using alternating nostrils. He concludes with instructions on establishing proper motivation and visualizing the refuge objects—Buddha Śākyamūni and his teachings. Suited to practitioners beginning systematic study.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 15 ALB.mp3
UUID: 6151694e-ad17-4678-a8ac-cb06381058ef
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: A Look at Buddhism (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.8 minutes
Words: ~2,919
Practice that you are doing or whether it’s a work that you are doing in your daily life. Whether whether it has positive result or not. It totally depends upon your mind or the motivation, the intention. Same thing on the other hand, with the motivations that the action that you do becomes also negative in a similar manner. So so having a good heart or which means which doesn’t mean that which doesn’t mean that means that when we are we are like we’re having a good time.
It doesn’t doesn’t mean to that having good heart. So what when the good heart here means that the mind that which is free from near and farness. It is attachment and hatred. And the wish to benefit others. That is known as the good heart.
So, if one have this good heart or the benefiting mind, that brings happiness to this life and similarly that brings life to our future lives. And not only that, but to to the future lives, all our future lives, it brings the happiness. So, work or practice you do, you shouldn’t do with this motivation that with the self centered mind which is being not to engage in the work with the selfish mind and to do this work with this good heart, the mind of benefiting others. And sentient, whoever the sentient being might be, you should have equal mind, which means, yeah, equal mind to whoever the sentient being is. So having an equal mind towards all to sentient beings, towards the sentient beings, which means not having the mind of near and far.
Having an equal mind towards all. If you see poor sentient beings then helping them, helping them bring this is something positive. So so if one is able to benefit the poor one, then that is what like a practical practice that one can do which is helping the poor one. And on the other hand, we do need to know the general news of the world, what’s happening, but then not letting those news or those informations what you get as a generation of your anger or attachment. Sometimes it might cause like hearing some information or news that that might cause or generate anger in you to the other side or because something good happened to your side, it might again generate the total attachment or desire towards that.
Being aware that not letting those information generate these different delusions. So as we are ordinary beings, we do face these different problems. Like a problem in the family, problem among the friends or couples. We do face these problems. So, one faces these problems, say the problems among the family or problems among friends or partners, like if something goes wrong or if the partners or someone does something wrong, not blaming totally on the person and thinking that the problem is caused by both one’s and the others.
And not completely, totally blaming the fault on others. That is like the way how you want to train one’s mind. And if possible, on the basis of this good heart or the good mind, then you you train like that or whatever practice you do, any any Dharma practice that you do. If you do on the basis of this mind or good heart, then its result is something special. So on the basis of this mind, this good heart that if you generate interest in the practice, in the Dharma practice, like if you have faith in the practice, strong faith and interest in the practice, then you engage in the practice totally to bring whatever you are doing, to bring happiness to others and to to remove other sufferings.
So on on the on this base on the on the basis of this mind, you you generate that type of motivation and you you do you engage in the practice. So so this is like the brief, I wanna say, motivations. So the main topic that Geshe-la will be speaking tonight is first of all, he will be speaking briefly on meditations and secondly that Geshe-la will explain the six migrations or six levels of beings. What causes them to take the birth in these six different realms? So so usually it’s good when like for the for the spirit of meditations, explanations.
It is good if we do leading meditations, For example, Geshe-la explains something and you you do the meditations. But because we don’t have much time, we have to cover these two subject within this this short time. So, like, we won’t be doing that. So, Geshe-la, will explain give the explanation of how how we do meditations. And if you are interested, you could note down.
And then when you have time other times other days, you can then do the meditations. So so that in the in the in the beginning of meditations as as if you if you wanted to quote a line, then it says first to to clear your mind and then on that basis go refuge and generate the mind. That is the mind known as the bodhicitta. So starting of meditations, first you you clear your mind and and then bring into the state bring into a virtuous state. And and then on that base, on on the basis of that, you you then take refuge.
So so then, like, clearing the mind first. Before before we speak of clearing the mind, we need to keep or speak about the bodily postures, the physical postures. And that is explained as the physical posture of Buddha Vairocana. They are counted as seven postures and also known as eight. So so sitting in the manner of Buddha Vairocana and, like, taking that posture has many reasons reasons.
So the meditation posture, the hand posture is like putting right on top of your left and touching two thumbs and then like putting beneath, like four finger beneath your navel on that level. Which means which is that the tip of these two thumb and the level of your navel. And then the full positions, the legs, like, lotus positions. There’s a if you can, then in a full positions, which is like full cross leg. And not then half half, which is known as the half positions.
Mhmm. And then your back should be straight. So so if one is to to keep our back straight, then the channels inside our body stays straight. So when it is stretched, it makes easier for our meditations. And then the two shoulders, you keep as usual, not like a bandage, one up and down, but in a in a as as normal how you keep.
Good. And neck bend it a little bit frontward. In front. So bending your neck a little bit in front has also reasons. Like if you wanted to keep straight up like this then like the head is straight up or the neck is straight up like this then there’s a more danger of the two distractions that is the excitement and the dullness.
So so then with the the eye shouldn’t be like completely closed. If one is to keep completely closed, then again, there’s a darkness feeling in your appears in your mind. So so then if it’s wide open, then again, it’s there’s a there’s a danger of these distractions like the excitement, like attachment or anger arising. So slightly open which is looking down towards the two nostrils. Like, that’s that’s it should be.
So so then if someone is planning to do long meditation, long session meditations, long sessions, then advise to, like, to put the tip of their tongue or touch the tip of their tongue to touch the, let’s say, the upper palate. So, like, the reason is that sometimes if one is doing long meditations, then, like, the saliva might just pull out from your mouth. And so not to happen that. It’s advised to keep it up and, like, touch the upper palate. So these are like the seven postures of the Vairocana.
And if one is to keep these postures, then one is collecting a cause in the future oneself to achieve the body or the enlightened state of Buddha Vairocana. So so the actual path of meditation is a it it is something to do with with the mind, with insight. But keeping this posture has its own benefits. And another, in one hand, if one is to keep that posture, the other people will have respect in your practice. And similarly, like, and also generate faith into you by keeping these postures.
So so generally, meditation can be done in many ways. Like, standing up, walking, or or sitting in many different ways. But then, like, if one is like, the meditations and sitting posture, like, keeping all the postures, then it has its own benefit. So then, so after giving up these seven postures, like the physical postures, then the eighth one, the eighth, that is the breathing meditations that which usually we do. That that breathing meditations is to clear our mind.
And the breathing meditations are explained of two kinds, two types. So known as the breathing meditations that is used to clear our mind and or the breathing and another breathing meditations known as the nine round meditations. So once one keeps this posture, the physical posture, one first analyzes one’s mind. Check one’s mind whether it is in a deluded state or is it a virtuous state, or is it in a neutral state? So one analyze that.
So if the mind is under under the influence or under the control of delusions or, like, attachment. So so if you if if our mind is in the state of attachment, then attachment or or any of the any of these delusions, then you you when you are exhaling, you exhale through your right nostril and all these all those delusions like the attachment and so on in the form of black light. So so then then next one, you inhale. You inhale through your left nostril, and and at the same time, you imagine that you’re inhaling the blessings and powers of the bodhisattvas. So so this as one circle, counting this like as a one circle, like inhaling and exhaling as one circle, you you you concentrate on that, like, it, like, twenty one times.
So so then, like I say, when one is doing it twenty one times, then how one should count it? Is one shouldn’t use one’s finger to count one, two, or three breath or some even one should like, one shouldn’t use other things besides one should use one’s mind to count the numbers too. And try to want you to try to concentrate on the on the breath going in and out. At the same time, also concentrating concentrating the numbers. And if one is doing this, like concentrating on the mind which removes those delusions in our mind, like, that that which purifies those delusions from our mind.
So, then if by analyzing or taking our mind, if our mind is in a virtuous state or if it happens to be in a neutral state, then like, as when you inhale from your left nostril, you start from inhaling through your left nostril and inhale the blessings and powers of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. And then when you exhale from your right nostril, you exhale out the sufferings, physical and mental sufferings and the sicknesses that one have that one is taking like in it exhaling out to like exhaling out into the space. And then in in that way, you you do like similarly same numbers like twenty one. Mhmm. Okay.
You got. So this is like one way of doing the breathing meditations. And the other kind is that the nine round meditation. And that is similarly, you exhale out from your right nostril. And similarly, like you you inhale through your left nostril.
Mhmm. And then then exhale again once from from your right nostril. And like this is like there’s like a three. First you start with right and then inhale and exhale. There’s like three, let’s say, three parts.
This one. So this this three three parts counting it as one and doing it three times. So so then the next is that from the left nostril, you start inhaling. And then from the right, you exhale. And then, again, you inhale through your left.
That again, three parts which are counting it as one. So then then then next is that you inhale like, you sorry. You exhale out from both of your nostrils and inhale again from both of your nostrils and exhale again out through both of your nostrils. So these three parts, again, counting it as as one. So then there’s like a each one has three parts and these are counted as one.
All are counted which makes total of nine. So that’s known as, like, nine round breathing. So so but then the visualizations while you’re doing this breathing is the same thing like the past breathing meditations. And and the only difference is the numbers as one is you do twenty one times one is nine. So when when one is concentrating on that, Both this breathing meditation works as to clear one’s mind.
So, like, When our mind is on these different states like when one of the state of delusions like anger or attachment, like when when you have strong anger then at that at that very time it’s not easy to do this breathing meditation. But but then when when when if it happens that you are thinking about something about somebody who have done something bad and feeling angry and then at that stage when when you to do the breathing meditations, then at that stage you can get rid of that anger through these breathing meditations, and similar with the attachment. Through these breathing techniques that when one is able to bring one’s mind into into a virtuous state, like bringing into a virtuous state or neutral state, then then there’s where you start the actual meditations. So then before one do the actual meditations, one set up motivations or one set of motivations. And thinking, just imagining that how up to now our our like our body is controlled by our mind.
How our body is controlled by our mind and how our mind is controlled by delusions and karma. And because of that we because our mind is under the control of delusion and karma that we come to do many different karmas or come to do many different actions. And as a result of those actions that we happen to circle in the Samsāra up to up to this stage. So this is like what one should think before one starts actual meditations. And like and just going through this how our mind is like on the like, our mind is under the power of delusions and karma.
So after thinking over these points then one should think now I I myself should control my mind and then let the mind control the delusions try to abandon or remove the delusions as much as possible. And whatever, and then there, as you set a mind or the intention that I do like meditations that which is beneficial to myself and others. So set up this intention or motivation there. So so in the beginning when we when we we explain a line few lines which says that first clearing the mind is clearing the mind is done through the breathing breathing meditations. So then so then next that line says that bring into a in a virtuous state.
Mind mind bringing it into a virtuous state is that now this stage like is where we we bring our mind in a virtuous state like having a virtuous mind. So then thirdly, that wants you to seek refuge or take refuge and generate the mind. That is bodhicitta. So so that so then so then you do the actual visualizations which in this space before one one visualize a big white cloud on top of that way eight lions holding a big throne. And then, so on top of this throne that you visualize Buddha Śākyamūni who who is the incorporation of all the all the Buddhists.
Like, you visualize Buddha Śākyamūni which is in the the posture that as you see there which right hand in the posture of pressing the earth and left hand in the mudra or in the posture of meditations. So so then next, you visualize on the left side of Buddha, on the left side of the Buddha you visualize all his teachings, all his teachings in the form of text. Like, there are like hundred and twelve different volumes of text. So you visualize that on this on the side, on the right side on the sorry, on the left side. So then beside that one can do many other visualizations of refuge objects but then just doing these two visualizations like serves as these two serves a complete refuge object.
So so so then after visualizing the refuge object there, then you generate strong faith into the refuge object which are going through the qualities of those refuge object.