Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen opens this 25-minute teaching with a troubling question: why does ignorance obscure even teachings we have heard and contemplated? His answer centers on the fourth preparatory practice in Lam Rim training—merit field visualization, paired with accumulating merit and purifying negativities. Through vivid metaphors (a ripening boil, fruit falling naturally when mature), he explains why the mental continuum must be ripened before realization can arise. He illustrates this with the story of Lama Tsongkhapa, who performed this practice at Olka Choling and received a vision of the master Buddhapālita that transformed his deepest understanding.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 LR 1995 05 07.mp3
UUID: 6578146c-a54d-4ca2-bcd6-cadcdd8f4ce5
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995-05-07
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 25.9 minutes
Words: ~1,508
So the first first sorry. The first quickly shows that quickly achieving the the state, like within one life. And then the second quickly shows that it’s more like quicker than that which is achieving the fully enlightened state within this very short, one degenerated life. So because the first part we said, like, achieving enlightened state within one life is that is is regarded one one is one one of the, you know, one of the quickly ones, one one of the quicker ones because in sūtra, in this according to sūtra explanations, the enlightenment is achieved only after accumulating the merit for three great aeons. So then within one life, according to the four classes of tantra, the three lower tantras explains that one can achieve the full enlightened state within one life, which is much quicker than the explanation according to sūtra.
But then which come to achieve the fully enlightened state with this very with one very degenerated life, with very one degenerated life is only with the the with the highest yoga tantra. So in the lower tantras, the two lower tantras explains within one life, one can achieve the full enlightened state. In the lower tantra, they can prolong their life through the practice. And through that, they come to achieve the they can achieve the fully enlightened state. So so so then generating this intention with that, like, with the special generation that I quickly quickly achieve the fully enlightened state for the sake of all sentient beings.
So this finishes the explanations of among the six preparatory practice, the third one. So so so then the fourth preparatory practice is the actual visualization of refuge field visualization of merit field and and the visualization of refuge field that we the visualization that we explained before was the refuge merit field. And now the fourth one is the the merit and the visualization of merit field which where you do the practice of accumulating merit and purify and then the purification practice. So, as explained in his teaching saying that because of our thick cover of ignorance even if we do hear if we do hear many teachings, one can one cannot come to understand the words. Mhmm.
Then secondly, thinking even like, thinking over the words or or contemplating the meaning, one find very difficult to understand the meanings of those words. So then so then by understanding the meaning of the word and then meditating on that meditating on on the on that, one still find very difficult to gain realizations. So when one have these difficulties, then at that time what one should do is one should do the practice of visualizing the merit field where you do the practice of accumulating the merits and purifying iniquities. So, Lama Tsongkhapa had a vision of Mañjuśrī and he asked that what is the quick way of generating the realizations. So so then, Mañjuśrī explained as an answer, should visualize one’s guru inseparable with the mmeditational deities and also do the practice of accumulating virtue and and then purifying negativities.
So for us, we are even through our practice of accumulating merits and purifying negativities, our mind is not still ripened. So so in order to our mind or the mental continue to get ripened, one should, like, make a strong request. So without doing without doing these that like, just doing the visualization alone doesn’t doesn’t brings the realizations. So in order to receive or gain the realizations, the first thing one needs to, continuum, the mental continuum should be ripened. So it’s like, an example, it’s like the boil when it’s ready when all, let’s say, ripened, then it’s easier to take out what we call the pus.
So if the boil is still it’s still not it’s raw, not boil rotten, then if you do like a squeeze it, then you only have more pain, a lot of pain. But then if it’s like well, what do say, well ripened, say that. Then if you do squeeze it, then it’s easier. I mean, with less pain, you can take it out. So same thing with the fruits.
Like if the fruits is fully ripened, then it happens that even it just falls down and you can enjoy. But if it’s not ripened, it’s not easy to pick it up. It’s up high on the tree. So similar to that, if once mental continues well ripened, then then the realizations are much quicker. So, for Lama Tsongkhapa did this practice, like, often, like, a mandala on the stone base in in in a place called Olka, Olka Choling.
And he did actually, he himself has already committed enough merit and that that has done the purification practice, but to show the his disciples that he did he did all this practice. So through this practice and like the purification and accumulation practice, accumulating and purifying negativities. Through his practice he had vision of many masters many masters here. And also has had the appearance of Buddhapālita like, putting a text or commentary known as Buddhapālita on like, putting on his head. So this Buddhapālita had composed a text which is known as the text on wisdom or known as Mulamadhyamaka.
That’s that’s text. And then that text was named the author’s name, with the author’s name. So did read read that text beforehand, but when he had this appearance of some Buddhapālita putting the text on his head, he again reread the text and through reading that text that after he came to realize the the view of the view of the ultimate view of. Oh. So that also is showing showing showing us that that that’s that’s how we should do.
So, and similarly, like many other masters the past have explained that not having enough the accumulation of merit and purification practice, it’s like a seed which is left out without moisture. So if you keep a dry seed in a pot, no way it would never give a sprout. So to for that seed to bring about sprout, it has to meet with the with the conditions like water, moist. So so the now related to this practice of purification and accumulation of merit. There are other like stories, but this one, we will explain next time.
And Geshe-la is saying that it will be very nice if you if you can like, you all can keep up, like, coming to Sunday’s lectures, like, because it’s going, like sequence one after the next explanation, like, according to the text. So it’s good if you get the the full under like, full explanations. So if you like If you just come somewhere in the middle and then it’s like when you come just in the middle, you don’t hear the first part, then it’s like a like a you see something like a person without a head just seeing a body. So even if one if even if one doesn’t want to do the practice, just hearing all the explanation from top to bottom completely, just knowing what things are explained from bottom to the end. So it’s good to understand what’s explained and it’s difficult, but if you can, it’s good to come already.
So stop here with questions. Yeah. Question. Question. So with the throne, it’s a thing, visualize as big as possible.
And then the gurus, the five gurus, sitting on the throne, these are the five of the thrones sitting on those thrones. And you can visualize the life size, like the size of body, life size of the person. Yeah. Happy to hear me. There’s some more questions, so I’ll stop here.
So, like, for example, is is it what do you say? To do the practice of immeasurable compassion? To do that, one first needs the aspiration for practice. So the second is the is the prayer. Which is you make the prayers that may all be free from sufferings.
So so first one is aspiration. Second is the prayers that you make. So so third part is that not only making the prayers, but I myself will, I wanna say, free all sentient from the state of suffering. So then the fourth one is that as you make this commitment that I will do as a lead often to the state of suffering, you are making this request to the refuge objects to give the placing to be able to do that. So, are the four.
Yeah. Probably just responding someone there. They have some questions, but this only came today, so maybe no more questions. Yeah. Tony?
Yeah. So so the next teaching will be Geshe-la will explain in next teachings in the visualization of merit field and then the practice of purification and then the practice of accumulating merit. And we deal with some stories on on, yeah, on these two factors. Yeah. I do.
I won’t comment. Yeah. So we’re doing the dedication. Page number five.