Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute session from a three-day retreat, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen focuses on the two main obstacles to calm abiding: dullness and excitement, each with gross and subtle forms. The teaching’s critical point is a distinction most practitioners miss—subtle dullness (where you have stability and clarity but lack intensity) can feel nearly identical to actual calm abiding, including long sitting and apparent success. Geshe-la warns that past Tibetan masters themselves mistook this state for achievement. He uses concrete examples—meditating with a pen, generating faith toward a teacher—to show how to recognize and adjust the intensity of concentration. Practical antidotes include breathing meditation, visualizing black light moving up and out through the crown, and ritual fire offerings. For practitioners mid-retreat encountering these obstacles firsthand.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 CAR.mp3
UUID: d2c4db49-09d1-4c55-8191-5d7860a73093
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Calm Abiding Retreat (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.8 minutes
Words: ~2,355
The single point concentration like like Shamata. So so on this stage, that that mind that mind is known as the mind of the desire realm and which mind of a desire realm single pointedly concentrating on the object. So when then when you achieve the actual calm abiding state, then then at that stage, at the at the simultaneously, you achieve the consciousness or the mind of the upper realms. So, a brief explanation is how how one reach these nine states of mind to applying the six powers. So so during this stage, during this nine stage of mental development, there are these obstacles which are almost the gross and subtle dullness and excitement.
So here, Geshe-la will explain on those. So the dullness is which is which has the nature of not clear and which is like a sinking. And these, what is it, dullness can arise in any which is like whether one is visualizing a object, non virtuous object, or neutral object. And And it has the this this, what do say, dullness has is a a is a consciousness which which which doesn’t have clarity. So it doesn’t have the dullness doesn’t have the clarity of the object to clarity of the object to the mind.
So so that stage is known as the the dullness. And then it’s also similar to that of, what is it, foggy mind. And this foggy mind and this dullness have similar, sort of same causes. So this foggy mind that is a type of delusions. And delusions, they are known as the root delusions and then, what do call, secondary delusions.
And is known as the secondary delusions. And it also has a similar nature, which is not clear. And and then which which makes the body and mind So the dullness and the what I call the in the the mental mental fog or mental fogginess is two. It’s the same. And then the next, the excitement too among is the delusions.
And among the two that are root and the secondary delusions, it’s secondary one. It’s a part of a form of attachment. So which which which is out of attachment or having attachment towards an object, the mind get distracted from towards towards the external object. And and that that getting distracted to the external object itself is the excitement. So with this, the dullness and the excitement, with the dullness, there’s gross one and the and the subtle one.
And same with the excitement, there’s a subtle and the the gross ones. So so, like, up to the fourth mental stage, there are these subtle dull I’m sorry. The gross dullness arises. And the gross dullness is that though there is stability of the object to our mind, having the clarity. Not having the clarity.
That is known as the gross darkness. So, can Through the power of mindfulness, one retains the objects of our meditations, but not having it clear not having its clarity. So so then not having the clarity of the object which is having very, I would say, very vague, not not not clearly apparent to the object, not clearly apparent to the mind. That part is known as the gross, I wanna say, dullness here. So then the subtle dullness is that you have both, I wanna say, stability and clarity of the object.
But then when the force or the force of when you lose, sorry, when you lose the intensity of retaining the object, when it loses, then that time it is known as, that is there’s no intensity on the object object, then that is known as the the, what do call, the subtle dullness. So though they are both stability and clarity, not having the intensity in in the clarity of the object. That is what what is the subtle dullness and it is one of the biggest obstacle for that concentration. So, not having the intensity there is that of the clarity is one have the clear concentrations but just not like just sitting on that level, not having the intensity on on the clarity. So when you have both the stability and clarity and when you lose the intensity on the clarity, it becomes the subtle dullness.
And at the same time, when you remain on that stability, that state of stability, when you remain on that stability, then sometime become that stability might become a subtle dullness also. So so the the intensity here, whether one have as example of intensity, like when we’re meeting a Lama or guru and that stage where one generates a fade. So at the beginning stage, though, one have faith, but not that strong faith. So but then but then sometime in between, you generate a stronger faith to the Lama. And that’s the difference.
In the beginning there’s a faith but not strong but sometimes more stronger faith generation between that type of, what I say, that is the intensity, example of intensity. So as another example with holding the pen, like a this As an example with the pen is when you’re holding, there is both stability and clarity. But then when you write something, then at that time you have clarity. You hold tight and you have the clarity. You intensify the clarity.
You tighten tighter. And same thing with So with the excitement too, as I explained before, it is a form of attachment and getting distracted towards the external objects. So the the gross excitement is that when you when you start meditation or when you start doing meditation, then losing the object of your meditation is that is, I wanna say, known as the the gross excitement. So so as an example to subtle excitement, like in the wintertime in the lake, like in the river or lake, they are thick ice layer of ice. And underneath the water water runs, but we don’t notice that.
So so similar to that example that when one is meditating, a part of mind, part of mind, their attachment arises in the part of our mind. And that is the subtle, what is it, excitement. So we’re one one easily notice that from coming on the side of your mind while you are meditating. But then as it becomes stronger, it might it make one lose one’s object. So when when there’s this sign of losing almost losing the object, that means it shows there’s the subtle dullness sorry, subtle excitement.
So without noticing if if a part of the mind, attachment arises on the part of the mind and if you lose the object. So losing the object of your meditation is to start the the gross one and like almost losing the object of your object. That is the subtle subtle So as when one do meditations that one is concentrating on the object but suddenly attachment arises but one doesn’t notice. And later when one gets aware of that, then one sees one’s mind like thinking about the object that we feel attached to instead of the meditation object. So, yeah, this this happens to to us.
Oh, And this that that that is what is known as the the gross excitement. So the subtle excitement is doesn’t loses the object of meditation, But it almost loses the object. It almost loses the object, but not completely. So so when for this for this single pointed concentration, one need the clarity and stability on the object. On this one and the subtle dullness, at the stage of subtle dullness, there is also that point, there also the clarity and stability.
And there’s, what do say, there’s a danger of mixing these two. So so when one achieves this complete state of calm abiding, one can stay single point concentrating on the object for very long durations. Even like even the breathing stops, the external breathing stops. But still then, one can continually concentrate on the object. And similarly, also, on this stage when the subtle dullness, on that stage, even when the subtle dullness is rising in meditation, and even at that stage, one can still, one can also like concentrate on the object single pointedly and stay for quite long, long, long time, which is like for day or night.
So so that some misunderstands that subtle dullness as as when when it’s still when there’s a subtle dullness, at that stage, some of the past masters in Tibet thought that they achieved the state of calm abiding on that state. By getting, what to say? By not understanding being the subtle dullness. What? In the subtle dullness.
So one should be able to recognize this, identify this, the difference between these two because when one reach to that stage, then one should know that. So, this is our third day of this meditation, so maybe we might be reaching on that state. So even if one doesn’t reach to that stage, it’s important to, I wanna say, know the difference. So so then this is the clarification of the subtle and the gross dullness and the subtle and the gross excitement. And now when these arise, one should apply the antidotes.
So the subtle dullness arises when at when the stage when one have both clarity and a stability. But what do you say? The intensity and clarity. When there’s no intensity and clarity, at that stage where the subtle dullness arises. So at that stage, one doesn’t lose the object of one’s meditations, but one get that one one one get distracted.
So so this this subtle dullness arises at that stage because once, let’s say, what is it, retaining, the force of retaining the objects, it’s too strong, too tight. And because of that, the subtle dullness arises. So so then so then by by by losing bit of your of the retention or the tightness of the object. Still, there is dullness arising, then that means that dullness is gross level of dullness. So in short, it’s too tight, your object, if it’s too tight then that means there’s a danger of rising the dullness, the subtle dullness.
And if it’s too loose, then there’s a danger of having gross dullness. So should have this right amount of intensity. So when you loosen up a little bit, what do you say? You see you see the clarity of of the object. Then at that stage, you might feel the happiness or the joy of making it loose.
And then again when that arises, this happiness or the joy arises, then that is what is known as the dullness. What’s that? The gross dullness is when this joy arises there. It’s a gross So so then when this the the gross dullness arises at that stage, that when you have experienced joy, then at this stage you shouldn’t stop the session but just take a short break, change the meditation subject which you meditate more on the, what is it? So, and then change the subject and meditate on the suffering of saṃsāra, the general suffering of saṃsāra or or the meditation on renunciations.
So so so then so by doing changing meditations and still these subtle dullness still arises there, once you try to destroy. So which one should try to destroy that, like if it’s a if it’s, like, say, a strong attachment arise there, then then how I want you to destroy that is like bring breathing meditations where one can where then one can get rid of attachment. So so still then still if there is the the gross dullness Mhmm. Still there, then you you you, how to say, stop the session? So so then taking a break of your and going out like drinking tea or walking in the garden or splashing water to your face?
So so then, again, when the the subtle dullness is removed, then, again, go back to the session and continue? So so like a generally, like these, the subtle dullness and the gross dullness plus the sorry. The subtle and the gross excitements can be removed through breathing meditations. So another option, another way of visualizing or removing this dullness and excitement. For example, visualize these dullness and excitement in the form of black light.
So imagining that the the the black light of those dullness and excitements moves up from your your central channel and then gets out from the crown and disappears in in the space? So then again, another way or you could visualize that this black light coming which is dullness and excitement coming up and coming out from between the eyebrows and coming out and sinking into the black sesame seed. And then there are practice of which you do purifying, like burning the sesame seed? Like, imagine the black sesame seed as as the negativities. So the black light which comes from comes from inside because coming from between the eyebrows and sinks or absorbs into the the black sesame seeds.
And and then that black sesame seed, you you do a fire ritual, which is the Para Puja Para Puja performance. So that’s a short brief explanations. And if you have any questions, question and answer. So so the reason that these explanations of how the subtle and gross dullness and excitement arises, the explanation is given today here is because I’ve been meditating for this past two days and probably you will notice which stage he settled down as an examiner. Because excitement arises.
Yeah? So, let’s see, when there’s clarity and stability and when the strength of the clarity is not very strong, it’s intensity to have clarity. And then when So when it’s when the when there’s like a strong intensity on the object, then there is the subtle dullness. So it’s a subtle dullness and you have to loosen that. So when you loosen it, then you experience joy and that is the gross dullness.
So that gross dullness, when that joy arises, that is gross dullness.