Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen outlines the essential conditions and ethical groundwork for calm abiding practice. In this 42-minute session, he covers external supports—a conducive place and friendships with practitioners of the same tradition—and internal foundations: developing morality by abandoning the ten non-virtuous actions (killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, harsh words, gossip, covetousness, ill will, and wrong view), reducing desires, and cultivating contentment. He explains how gross external distractions like attachment and anger must be removed before subtle internal concentration becomes possible, and emphasizes that morality is the root of all good qualities. He also addresses practical approaches to managing desire: avoiding objects of attachment, meditating on their ugliness, and purifying past karma. Pitched at practitioners ready to undertake serious retreat work.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 CAR.mp3
UUID: 80fc2a43-0b8a-4937-846c-72a8277e4b3d
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Calm Abiding Retreat (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 42.7 minutes
Words: ~2,382
So much also not. There is a new call. But then, like, a a like a body brain. If like water and so on, then even if even if one doesn’t wish for its sprout, it will it will give a sprout. In one of the another text, text known as the lamp upon the path explains that if if one loses one of those or one don’t have these necessary conditions for the practice of śamatha meditations, then even if one to work for thousands years, one won’t be able to achieve the state of śamatha.
So so I guess you know, you will explain the necessary conditions for the practice of calm abiding and we won’t be giving you the detail but more in a summarized form. So to do this practice of calm abiding, what what type of place one is a place known as conducive place? So, like conducive basis, like, one of the best place is known as a conducive place is known as, like, the place which are used by by past, so highly realized masters. If one needs to use that kind of place, then that is the most best place. So so so because of the places of those places that are used by those highly realized beings are known as holy places, which people go there for pilgrimage.
And and going there for pilgrimage, the the place itself has gives a blessing to the person who is going there to the pilgrimage. So, even if one don’t find that that type of place, then the next place would be like conducive place would be the place where one is living or where one is doing this practice. Good relations around where at the neighbors are whom one is living with. So, if one have good relations among the neighbors who are living around, then again it becomes obstacles for one’s purpose like obstacles which the other much don’t like or harm one. So so also and then in those places, if if there are some spirits living in those places, the place where you are doing your practice, then instead of controlling those spirits, you should use that as to control or to subdue your, to control your mind.
So, use the spirits to control your mind. So so then the next is that the the friends, the friends that wanna have is also very important. And the friends should be, what is it, with same belief and are those who are all doing same type of practice. So so if if they are not doing the same practice, then that might again bring a among. So, it’s good to have a friend who have same theory and same practice.
So if if if there is a if there’s friends with the with the same belief and same practice, then the more the better it is. So as a as a as a beginner of this practice, at least one needs three friends. And the friend should be should should be, I wanna say, one who who a friend should be not those friends that wanna have shouldn’t shouldn’t be one who is being careless. And and also a friend shouldn’t be someone who gives satisfaction to one? So so if you want to find this conducive place and a good friend, then then the next necessary thing is to to listen or or to hear the instructions how you do these practices.
Hearing the instructions and discussing among the friends and coming to our conclusions. And with that, we want to do this śamatha meditation practice, then it can be achieved, that state can be achieved. So, and next is to have to have less desires and being content. So, yeah, one should be having less desire to one’s like things like clothing, food, and shelter and so on. Having less desire towards that.
And if one have strong desire for that, then again obstructs one’s practice. And next is that one should, I wanna say, one should be less involved in different works. And next is should keep pure pure discipline. And and I should abandon these different delusions like like attachment, anger, pride, and so on. So so these these are what is needed for the practice of this calm abiding meditation.
So, or have less desire or to have few desire is that to get rid of our attachment towards these different things that we use, food, clothing, and shelter. And then next, like being contained is that whatever what should be contained with whatever one have, whatever clothing one have. So if one is not contained with one hat, then again, that becomes a problem or obstacle for one’s practice Cause one try to collect the object of desire realms or feeling attached to these things and try to collect these different object for one. And when one like try to protect one’s thing and getting attached to other things, this again disturbs one’s meditation. So so then next is, like, we need to have a pure morality or discipline, and that is morality or is explained morality is explained as, what do say, foundations of all good qualities.
And, also, it’s explained as a cause of all the good qualities. So the basis or the root of both these calm abiding meditations and the special, I would say, special insight is morality. Morality is the basis of both these. And and similarly, like, morality is explained as a as a as a cause of our our higher in our future, cause of higher in our future. So so training on on on morality is that, like, these moralities are, like, abandoning or, like, doing ten non virtuous actions are known as, like, keeping pure morality.
So we’ll give a brief explanation of these ten. So the ten non virtues act three from the body, that is killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct? So like the act of killing, if if for example, even if one if one is not to engage in this action and engaging these actions, one doesn’t accumulate something one doesn’t accumulate something good. So which is like a just not engaging the this action of not killing. Doesn’t mean that one is accumulating good good actions.
But then if one vow not to kill, if one take this vow not to kill, then then since then then since then all your time, like, you know, of not engaging in these actions come to create a. So so then there are four to the four non virtuous action to the speech. And that is lie, telling lie and which is dividing, divisive speech and the harsh word and and I don’t I don’t gossip. And then three nonconscious action through the mind. It is the covetousness and covetousness to covet.
Covered. Yeah. Covered. Ill will and then wrong view. So that to do this calm abiding meditations, one need to concentrate to one single object.
So, to do that single point is pointed concentration on the object, one need to like abandon the internal, I would say, internal obscurations. So, the internal observations or the internal distractions is if one is to get rid of the external distractions, then then to get rid of the internal distractions are much easier. So the external distractions are known as the gross one, and the internal ones are the subtle one. And to abandon the subtle instructions of the internal one, it completely depends on the abandoning of the external gross distractions. So which is the external the gross distractions distractions that of the attachment, I would say anger and so on, and this has to be abandoned.
So so if so if attachment arises arises, then that that distracts one’s mind. So, to the power of morality, to the power of morality that one removes the attachments. And then and through that, one can like concentrate on the objects. So, in between here, fifteen minutes for question and answer. So we do question and answer for fifteen minutes and then a break.
And then in the afternoon, we’ll be giving another talk. How how like, the afternoon talk will be how we do these meditations. Yeah, questions. So it’s less than it has the same benefits, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist. And one is that morality becomes a cause for our future high So so and then plus morality act as a base of all these different qualities, like love, compassion, and then rest rest.
It acts the morality act as a base for those different qualities. So morality act as basis of all good qualities, which is for example, all those qualities of clairvoyance of those upper realms, like the clairvoyance of first concentration, second concentration and so To gain those concentrations, to achieve those clairvoyance. One depends on the morality, and if one have a pure morality, then it becomes a base for those different qualities. So as in another region, for example, like, main aim is to achieve liberation. So to achieve liberation, one need to depend on the special insight.
To gain that special insight, one need to depend on the calm abiding meditations. So so then to achieve this calm abiding, beforehand one need to remove all the delusions and that is to remove these delusions, one need to practice morality. So the purification practice is very important too. Like as the practice of morality act as a cause of our act as a good, what’s that? Act as a cause of a good result in our future?
So so then the the purification practice is important too, which is we purify those karma that we have done in the past. To purify those those karma, yeah, that we have done in the past. So then, as everyday when we want, sometime we are happy, sometime we are unhappy, and sometime we are sick, sometime we are not. And all this happens because one have collected the cause in the past. Sickness that one goes through, that true.
One have collected the cause for it. And as it is explained before, that if when the conditions all come together, then one has to experience the result. So, yeah, when the condition, when like the seed, for example, like if it to meet with the conditions, like the necessary condition water and so on, then just gives rise to this product. So the purification practice is to do purification practices that those common that we have collected from the past. And if them and they are still there ready to give its result and not to experience the result one to the purification.
Yeah. Yeah. So, there are many others, but if summarized, it can be summarized into this ten, ten non virtuous So, like to completely abandon desire is is not easy. It’s not easy. That means like to completely abandon desire which means which means that also means to achieve liberation.
Which is which says complete abandonment of attachment and reaching a nirvana nirvana or liberation is same. So but then one need to, what is it, listen one side attachment. So one thing what is it? Whatever one is attached to or whatever one desire to, one shouldn’t see the good qualities of it. If one to see the good qualities of it, object, then it increases the desire of attachment.
And then second thing, the attachment or the desire to the object. Arises in dependence upon meeting the object. So one thing is to not to, you know, say, contact with the object. So, just going to a shop. If if there’s no reason for you to go to shop, even if you do go in, then you you have many desire for different things in the shop.
So so then if you don’t have to go to the shop, if you stay back in your room and then do meditation practice or something, you won’t have the desire attachment. So so so then, again, if one is attached to a a beautiful form, then shouldn’t shouldn’t just, like, continue let’s see the, what to say, the beauty beautiness of that form. And and the what one should meditate is, should meditate the the ugly nature of of that object. So if one needs to meditate the ugliness of the object, then the attachment towards it weakens or lessens. Okay.
Large term? And this was a it’s difficult for for him to tell who have reached the state of calm abiding or not. But then, like, using this holy going to this holy places and doing this practice is explained as the holy place probably blessed one, the practitioner. And because of that, right, because of that, it’s one meter this one meter one of these like conducive places. So so all those holy places are where the the high, what do call, village masters and the I hearts will reside.
What do say? And then the arhats and the highly realized beings have achieved this achieved this calm abiding meditation? Places those holy places of which are used by those highly realized beings or the masses and so on. Which which which is regarded as a holy place, the whole places which are used by the mahasiddhas, the arhats, and one’s own gurus. Yeah.
So that we’ll start back teaching on two thirty. So Geshe-la will explain like how to do the actual meditations. And he said we might all achieve this day of combined today. So shouldn’t like hope too much. Geshe-la was saying that like it takes to achieve this state if you continuously do this meditation or calm abiding for six months.
It’s said that in this period of time, six months that one can achieve this state. If like every time one is using, doing this meditation unless when you bring lunch break bring going to toilet and so on. The rest, like, if you continue meditating for six months, then one can achieve this thing. And then if one is able to, like, concentrate on the object of all all meditations for for ten to fifteen minutes, then that would be good enough. Yep.