Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen maps six types of recognition and consciousness across the Buddhist cosmology of realms. He begins with limited and extensive recognition—how beings in the desire realm and form realm perceive their worlds differently—then moves into the radically unfamiliar states of the formless realms: beings in unlimited space experiencing only mental consciousness, those where even awareness itself becomes boundless, and finally the realm of nothingness where neither form nor formless objects appear. Throughout, he emphasizes these are not merely philosophical concepts but direct experiences accessible through meditative realization. The closing discussion clarifies how the desire realm differs from higher realms. For students with some background in Buddhist philosophy.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 22 Lo Rig.mp3
UUID: 9599881c-2961-493b-af09-17f4c9f26b8e
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Nature of the Mind (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.0 minutes
Words: ~1,847
Mixed. In — mixed — appear to the person. So it’s not clear because it’s mixed.
So then the third one — the third type of recognition — is limited recognition. And that is the recognition of the ordinary beings — the recognition of the beings of the desire realm. Beings of the desire realm. So those who haven’t achieved the highest states of mind. So the word limited is used here because it is a recognition of beings of the desire realm. The reason that limited is used there is because if you compare the beings of the desire realm and the beings of the upper realms, then the beings of the desire realm have a shorter lifespan.
And if you compare with delusions, then the beings of the desire realm have more delusions. And if you compare with wealth, then also they have less wealth than the higher realms. And the place itself also is lower. So because of all this, the recognition of the beings of the desire realm is known as limited recognition.
So there are also the beings of the higher realms — they also have a recognition. So also the beings of the higher realms — those who observe the sense objects of the desire realm — their recognition is also limited. Oh, here. Yes. There was a recognition also regarded as limited recognition because it observes objects of the desire realm. So the recognition within beings of the desire realm is limited recognition.
And then coming to the fourth one: the extensive recognition. That is the recognition of the beings of the form realm. So the extensive recognition is the recognition of the beings of the form realm. And also the beings of the desire realm — when they observe the form realm — their recognition is also known as extensive recognition. So why is it known as extensive recognition? Because if you compare the desire realm and the form realm: beings in the form realm live longer than those in the desire realm. They have fewer delusions and they have more wealth — more possessions. And because of that, their recognitions are known as extensive recognition.
So the realms that we talk about — there are three different kinds: the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. So the form realm is the second one. And the third one is the formless realm. So the recognition of the beings of the desire realm is known as limited recognition. And the extensive recognition is the recognition of the beings of the form realm.
So then the formless realm — there are four kinds within that: unlimited space, unlimited consciousness. Then what you call nothingness. And then the peak of cyclic existence. So these are the four.
So among these four, the beings of the former two — unlimited space and unlimited consciousness — their recognition is known as unlimited recognition.
So in the state of unlimited space, there is no object of the five senses. Because there is no object of the five senses, there is also no five sense consciousness. And because there is no sense consciousness, there is also no accompanying recognition that accompanies those senses. So when there is no such recognition, there is no recognizing of “this is that, this is this, this is such and such.” You don’t have that. And what remains is only the mental consciousness.
So there is no appearing of external objects of the senses. And what is there — only the mental consciousness. And because of that it is known as unlimited space. So what kind of recognition do they have? They have unlimited recognition. There is no limit. It is unlimited recognition. Oh, I mean, this part is a little complicated. It’s not easy.
So because if one is not trained from the beginning with the philosophy part, then it is not easy to understand. So then unlimited consciousness is also like consciousness having the appearance of unlimited space. So that — the unlimited space and the recognition which is on that, the unlimited recognition — that itself again being unlimited is known as unlimited consciousness. So it is like: there is this recognition which can recognize being limitless space. And with that recognition there is the main mind — another main mind that arises — and that main mind consciousness also being limitless. That is the limitless consciousness.
So now the sixth one — the sixth recognition — is the recognition of nothingness. So among the four types of formless realm, the third one is nothingness. The recognition of the beings of the realm of nothingness — to them, beside the mental consciousness, they don’t see form and formless things beside mind. So except for mind, they don’t see form and formless things as existing. Because of that, they have the recognition that nothing exists — which means nothing exists that could be apprehended. So that’s the last type of recognition and that finishes the recognition part.
We do this much, and we’ll do some question and answer here. Unlimited and nothingness. Yeah. Formless. They’re two different things. Not the same. So the beings of the state of nothingness — what kind of recognition does a being have in the realm of nothingness? It is only the mind. So there is no like physical form that is the object. So because they don’t see the form and formless objects as existing, they have only the appearance of mind.
So the unlimited space and the state of nothingness — these both fall in the category of formless realms. So in unlimited space, the beings there are the same in that they are formless, but in terms of recognition they find space to be unlimited. Their recognition is known as unlimited recognition because unlimited — like space. Do you find the difference, or is it clear now? For even the beings of the limitless space — to them also there are no recognitions of objects like the five sense objects. So one thing: because the space is limitless, you cannot point and say “this is this.” So they have that type of recognition. So but then to the beings of the state of nothingness, even the consciousness — there is not even the consciousness — they can point at, like it becomes unlimited consciousness. So even the consciousness — they come to not see it. Form and formless both — they don’t see.
So this is what is experienced by those beings at these different levels. It’s probably not easy for us to understand that right away. So like the beings of the form realm are not like us — they don’t have form like us. Being of the formless realm — they don’t have the form aggregate. So it’s like those who study logic and philosophy come to understand it a little bit, but right away it is not easy to understand. Any other questions besides that?
So in the upper realms, they don’t have smell and taste. But for them, if they want to enjoy the objects of the senses, then they can manifest into a being — into beings like that. So which means they are able to manifest — not having a form — but they are able to manifest the senses of the desire beings. So it’s not easy to understand, but for example, when you meditate on calm abiding meditation, or special insight — like śamatha — when you come to achieve that understanding, that realization, when you come to gain that realization, then actually the mind which understands that realization is known as the mind of the higher beings, the beings of the higher realms. So even beings of the desire realm can achieve that realization. So in the same manner, they can — how the being of the desire realm develops their consciousness to understand how the operations — they can come to know the things of the lower realms. But doing and enjoying the senses — that takes a long time to explain all these things. Yeah.
So they are known as superior to the beings of the desire realm because they have a longer lifespan. They are known as more wealthy. And the food that they enjoy is not the gross food, but the food of concentration — samādhi food. And then also another thing that they don’t have: there is no non-virtue in the upper realms. So all they have — there’s no delusions like anger, hatred, and so on. And their afflictions or delusions are known as neither — not virtue, not non-virtue. Neither of these two. And in the upper realms, the beings don’t experience the delusions of the desire realm. So if it happens that they are experiencing delusions of the desire realm, then they die there and are reborn into the lower realms. Yeah.
So because, I want to say, if there’s no division set for the neutral one — if it falls on either side, then it falls into one category. Pleasure or pain. But if you actually have a neutral thought, it doesn’t fall into either, yeah.
So all the objects of the five senses are objects of the main mind — objects of the mind. Really? All of those objects. So for example, with the eye consciousness: the first moment of eye consciousness contact — having contact with a blue object. Right after that, in the second moment, it becomes the object of the mind. Without sign.
The first one I think is with sign and without sign. Oh, that’s true. Without sign. Yeah. One is with sign and one is without sign. So as an example: with the bell there — if the person sees that, if the child sees that — it has the appearance of the object. But because the person doesn’t know the term, so yeah — there’s something shaped like this. Doesn’t know the term. So it’s just the appearance of the object. Yeah. Only appearance. No knowledge of function. No. Yeah. All without knowledge of name. Just only the appearance of object. Yeah. And then for those who know the connection of name and meaning, if you ask what this is, they would say whatever the name is given. Says.
Sorry. If — Is it not a mistake for anybody?
To the beings of nothingness. Yeah. So with the beings of the formless realm: when they first take birth — the very beginning part of their birth in the formless realm — they have some short recognition of being born there. And then at the very end, when death appears, at that time there is something they recognize. So only in these two periods do they have recognition; at other times they have no recognition of anything. So this one is different. It doesn’t fall into those intonials because it is different, you say. So what you think the recognition there is — it is nothingness. But there are no other recognitions than that.