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 explains the 51 mental factors—core material in Tibetan Buddhist epistemology. He opens with refuge and karma: how the three refuges protect us from lower rebirths, and how virtuous and non-virtuous actions shape future rebirth. He then guides practitioners through the small and medium scopes, meditating on suffering to generate compassion, before explaining the five determining factors—aspiration, belief, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. For each, he clarifies its meaning, divisions, and psychological function. The talk concludes with the eleven virtuous mental factors and how they restrain negative action and cultivate wholesome states. For practitioners engaged in classical Buddhist philosophy study.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 23 Lo Rig.mp3
UUID: bd4a01bf-d65a-47cc-a0e1-8cfd1af0d7be
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: ~1,925
So quoting from the lines of what is taught in his teachings, a few lines just get recorded. So probably, you know, he will explain this. So what he explains in his teachings, or in the lines of his teachings, he says that we don’t — we are not sure where we will be reborn in our future. So one can be reborn into the lower realms, so there is nothing definite. So that which saves or protects us from the fear of the lower realms is the three refuge objects.
And to the three refuge objects, one has to pay homage or take that refuge. So to these three refuge objects, we take refuge and keep up the advices of the refuge objects. So keeping up the advice of refuge, which is practicing the law of karma — or what he said, accumulating the white karma and abandoning the black karma or the negative karma. And that is what one should do. And as Lama Tsongkhapa himself in his lines said, I myself have done like that.
And those who wish for liberation, they should do like this. So to protect us from the lower realms, why do we need the three refuge objects? So we need the three refuge objects to protect us from the lower realms, and one of that refuge object is the Buddha who is free from all the faults and possessing all the qualities. So then one takes refuge in Dharma. That is the second refuge object.
And there are the scriptural part of the Dharma and then the realization or insight part of the Dharma — these are two. So we want to take refuge in the Dharma that which is taught by the Buddha. So one goes for refuge in the Dharma, that is the scriptural teachings that are taught by the Buddha, and then like the actual realization of the teachings, that is the one which actually liberates one from saṃsāra. So and then thirdly, take refuge in Sangha. Sangha, Ārya Sangha, who helps one to achieve the fully enlightened state.
So by doing a virtuous action, one experiences a virtuous result. That is like being born in the upper realms. And by doing negative actions, one experiences negative results — that will lead one to the lower realms. So the virtues which act as a cause for future happiness are of three types. The virtue that you accumulate in the small scope, and the virtue that you accumulate in the medium scope, and then the virtue that you accumulate conjoining with the thought of bodhicitta, or the highest scope.
So then the bodhicitta — that is also a cause of future good rebirth — and that bodhicitta, in order to have that bodhicitta within oneself, as a preparation to generate that bodhicitta within one, one has to go through the practice of the small and medium scope. On top of that, the practice of love, the practice of compassion — these are what one needs for generating this bodhicitta. So when we think about the small scope, there, we meditate on the sufferings of the lower realms. And then when we talk about the medium scope, there, we meditate on the sufferings of saṃsāra. And by meditating on these true sufferings, we make it easier to generate total compassion and love within oneself.
So in short, I am going to achieve the fully enlightened state for the sake of all other sentient beings. And for that purpose, I will listen to this teaching, this logic teaching, the awareness teaching. So with that kind of motivation set up, we do meditation for a few minutes. So among the fifty-one mental factors, we finished explaining the first five — that is the five omnipresent mental factors. And now today, we shall explain the five determining factors.
Determining factor — a factor that determines its object. Determine. Yeah. Or ascertain.
Yeah. Determined. It ascertains. So there are five of those, the determining factors. And the first one is aspiration.
And then the second one is belief. Then the third one is mindfulness. And then the fourth one is concentration. And then the fifth one is wisdom.
So these five are known as the five determining mental factors. So what is the first one, aspiration? Like seeking as its meaning — seeking its object. And wishing to have that object is what is done as aspiration. And also it acts as a foundation for the effort.
So that is what the aspiration is. So the object that one is seeking can be any object — can be virtue or non-virtue, any object. And seeking that — that is what the aspiration is, and that acts as a base for generating the effort. So the divisions — what do you say?
Aspiration of wishing to meet. And then aspiration, the second type, is aspiration of not wishing to separate. And aspiration of seeking or wanting — seeking for. Seeking for a view. So there are these different kinds.
So the first one, the aspiration of wishing to meet, is like the wish to meet one’s friend. So then the second one, aspiration not to separate, is that once you meet with your friends, the aspiration not to separate from your friend. So then aspiration, the third one, which is aspiration that seeks, is seeking for virtuous qualities — or it can be others too. There are others also.
So then, seeking a view — which is like seeking the view of selflessness or seeking the view of emptiness in order to gain the realization of it. So this aspiration functions as a foundation for the effort, and makes the effort — the aspiration brings about the effort towards its sought object. So then the second one — that is belief — or there is another translation, conviction too. So again it has its meaning and its function. So belief is a mental factor that — what do you say — being definite about the object that has been ascertained. And not changed by other objects. So that mental factor is known as the belief or the conviction. So whatever object that one has ascertained, for example a vase. So that vase that one has grasped — one knows that it is, what to say, a broad flat-faced thing which holds water, and one knows that. So it has been made definite that one knows that it is a vase. So even if others tell you that it is not a vase, you won’t change. So another example: if one has a definite understanding of Buddhist explanations, whatever is in the teachings, then even if someone else gives a different explanation, one doesn’t change one’s belief in the explanations. So that is another example.
So as a belief or conviction it functions such that whatever the object is — maybe a Dharma, a religion, or any object that one has — the belief holds it as being very precious such that nothing can change the mind. Nothing can change the mind. So then the third mental factor is that of mindfulness, and it also has its meaning and function explained. So the meaning of mindfulness is observing an object that you have familiarized yourself with in the past. And then that familiarization — keeping the memory of that, keeping it in the mind.
So that which keeps that memory in the mind is the mental factor which is mindfulness. So in short, without forgetting — like the memory that you have of your past — that is what is known as mindfulness. Yeah. So its function is — I would say — it functions to keep you away from wandering. And that is how it functions. It keeps you away from getting distracted. So which means that when your mind wanders, then you forget the former object that you are holding, which is that you are being mindful of. So the next mental factor is concentration.
So concentration is observing an object. And continuously, single-pointedly setting your mind onto that object. So then the function of concentration is that it gives rise to the wisdom that understands the ultimate and the conventional phenomena. So by relying on the concentration, the wisdom arises — the wisdom that realizes emptiness or that realizes all.
And then the next, the fifth one, is wisdom. So that wisdom also is similar to the concentration which observes an object and checks the quality — the positive side of the thing and the negative side of the thing. The negative side of the object. And discriminates its own different aspects. That mental factor is known as the wisdom. So then its function is that it makes one certain with regard to objects, and it helps to remove laziness. And it removes the doubt. So this finishes the explanation of the five determining factors.
So after this, there are the eleven virtuous mental factors. Oh, yeah. So the eleven are explained or summarized into six. So the eleven virtues are: the first one is faith. And then the second one is shame.
And the third one is consideration. So the fourth one is non-attachment. And then the fifth one is non-hatred.
And then non-ignorance. And then effort. And then pliancy. And then probably conscientiousness. And then equanimity. And then harmlessness.
So the first one, faith, is explained as knowing the reality of the thing — the reality of whatever the thing is — and one’s mind rejoicing in it or having faith in it. And then shame — shame is restraining from negative actions, non-virtuous actions. So shame is that which restrains one from negative actions taking oneself as a reference.
And the consideration also is restraining from negative actions using others as the reference. So then non-attachment means not getting attached to this body, to the contaminated body. Or another is that out of non-attachment, not engaging in non-virtuous action. So that is one of the mental factors — non-attachment. So then non-hatred is like avoiding harm towards sentient beings.
And not engaging in actions like harming. And that is non-hatred. So then non-ignorance is that one analyzes the object. And analyzing the object without ignorance — and that mental factor is the non-ignorant one. So then next is effort, and the effort is the joy towards performing virtuous action.
Joy towards performing virtuous action.
And then the next is that of pliancy. So pliancy is that which easily leads your body and mind towards virtuous action. So that mental factor — that flexibility of the mind and the body — is the pliancy. So then the next is conscientiousness. So conscientiousness is being careful with what is to be adopted and what is to be abandoned.
And it is the action which leads to peace. And then the next is equanimity — the equanimity that is being in the middle, where your body and mind are experiencing no suffering and also no happiness from getting contact with something. And then the eleventh one is harmlessness. Yeah. So harmlessness is not harming sentient beings.
Like, it is a part of non-hatred. So these are the eleven virtues and their meanings. So these eleven are summarized into six. And these are explained under six as follows: when one comes to trust, then the faith arises there.
So that faith, when one comes to trust, is virtue. So generally, not all faith means all are virtue. So the faith here has the meaning of liking. Right? Liking.