Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute talk, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen provides a detailed account of the Hearer’s path of preparation—the intermediate stage between the path of accumulation and the path of seeing. He opens with Lama Tsongkhapa’s instruction on generating renunciation (disgust at saṃsāra) and bodhicitta, then systematically unfolds how practitioners achieve calm abiding and special insight together, cultivate physical and mental pliancy, and experience their corresponding blisses. He delineates the four levels—heat, peak, patient, and supreme Dharma—each marked by wisdom realizing the four noble truths. He elaborates the five features (faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom) and five powers, drawn from the thirty-seven limbs of enlightenment. The path subdivides into small, medium, and great, giving twelve distinct divisions. Pitched at practitioners already versed in Buddhist philosophical frameworks.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 13 P and G.mp3
UUID: c9328d0a-6f5b-4bbb-9145-6ddb47030541
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Paths and Grounds (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.8 minutes
Words: ~2,019
So quoting from the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa, where Lama Tsongkhapa advises us as followers that at present, this day, we have achieved the precious human body, which has all these eighteen qualities. So we should make this body meaningful, we should try to collect a cause for our future higher birth. So one reason that one should aim for a higher state is that as long as we take birth in saṃsāra, we go through sufferings. So in the coming time, in the future, if we don’t wish any — if we are not wishing any suffering in our future — then one should stop the cause which leads us into saṃsāra.
So for that, one first needs to dislike saṃsāra, or to feel the disgust of being in saṃsāra. And by having that feeling, one should generate the thought of renunciation, or the wish to leave saṃsāra and aim for liberation. So feeling disgust at saṃsāra and wishing for liberation — wishing for renunciation.
The thought to abandon saṃsāra for day and night, in all times, means that one has generated the thought of renunciation. That is what Lama Tsongkhapa explains. So it is very important for us to generate this thought of renunciation within oneself. So our main aim is to achieve the fully enlightened state, Buddhahood. So in order to achieve the fully enlightened state, what one needs to train in is bodhicitta, and one needs to train — before that — in compassion and love and so on.
So meditating on the nature of suffering of oneself is what makes one generate the thought of renunciation, and meditating on the suffering of others is what makes one generate compassion. So one should set up one’s motivation: that I listen to this teaching in order to achieve the fully enlightened state for the sake of all mother sentient beings. So with this motivation, we do a short meditation.
So today, the teaching that we give is about the Hearer’s path of preparation. I will give a short explanation on that. So on the path of accumulation, the Hearer’s path of accumulation — they do meditation practice on calm abiding and especially on insight, but they don’t achieve the union state of special insight and pliancy of body. So the person on the path of accumulation meditates on calm abiding, on the selflessness of the person, where through analysis, when they come — through analysis — they come to achieve the physical and mental pliancy.
So through the analysis, when they come to achieve this physical and mental pliancy, that is where they come to achieve the union of calm abiding and special insight. So as soon as when they reach that state, they also achieve at the same time the path of preparation. And also, they achieve the wisdom that is arisen out of meditation. And also, at the same time, they also achieve the higher consciousness. So the pliancy that they come to achieve is of two types.
And that is the pliancy of the body, the physical, and of the mind. So these two pliancies — first the person on the path achieves the mental pliancy, and then the person achieves the physical pliancy. So as there are two pliancies, they are also explained as two blisses, which is that of the physical and that of the mental. So among the two blisses, one first comes to achieve the physical bliss, and then after that, one achieves the mental bliss.
So the pliancy here means — whether it is physical or mental — that which is suitable for engaging in the act of virtue. That is the pliancy. So which is that, as example with the body: being able to keep the body in the virtuous state as long as one wishes. That is like the physical pliancy, or the body pliancy. So one comes to achieve the mental pliancy by removing the inflexibility, or the unwieldiness, of the mind. When that inflexibility or unwieldiness of the mind is removed, then one comes to generate — or one comes to achieve — the mental pliancy.
So then through the power of that mental pliancy, it induces the physical pliancy. So through that power, the body pliancy is achieved, and that is when, by removing the inflexibility or the unwieldiness of the body energy — which has been pervaded by a fine body energy — one is able to keep in a virtuous state as long as one wishes. That is what body pliancy is. So through the power of this body pliancy, or physical pliancy, one experiences a bliss. And through that bliss — through the bliss of the physical — one also gains the mental bliss.
So through the power of the bliss that they experience, the person on the path is almost unable to keep the mind on the object — unable to concentrate on the object. So when one achieves the union state of calm abiding and special insight, at the same time one achieves the path of preparation. So that path of preparation has different qualities. So the qualities on the path of preparation include all the qualities that one has achieved on the path of accumulation. All those qualities are there.
So besides that, on the path of preparation, there are four levels, which are the heat, the peak, the patient, and the supreme Dharma. There are four of these. Four different levels of qualities. So on these four levels of the path of preparation, on each level they come to achieve wisdom arisen out of meditation, which is observing the four noble truths.
So which is observing the four features of the four noble truths — like the nature of impermanence, the nature of suffering, the empty, and the selflessness. And besides that, there are other qualities which are the five features and the five powers, which are explained from the thirty-seven limbs of enlightenment. So then when the practitioner comes to have a direct realization of the four noble truths for the first time, they come to achieve the path of seeing, which is an antidote towards — the path of seeing is an antidote towards — a hundred and twelve delusions, a hundred and twelve different delusions.
So these hundred and twelve different delusions will be explained on the Mahāyāna path of seeing. So the path of preparation is classified into four. The first one is heat, and it is given this term or name of heat because it produces the wisdom fire, which is the path of seeing. So then the second classification is the peak — at the top — and it means, or it is, the peak of virtue, which at that stage, when one reaches that stage, anger cannot destroy one’s collections of virtue. So because of that, it is called the peak.
So then the third is called the patient. And though they take rebirth in saṃsāra under the control of karma and delusions, they don’t take rebirth in the lower realms under the control of coarse delusions. And because of that, they are called the patient. So then the fourth and last one, the supreme Dharma — it is given the name or term supreme Dharma because it is the supreme among the holy Dharmas. It is supreme among the holy Dharmas — which is the final, or the ultimate, state of the holy paths.
So also there are the five features — the first one, the feature of faith. The next one is effort. The third one is mindfulness. The fourth one is concentration. And the fifth one is wisdom. So the first one is faith — it is known as the feature of faith among the five. The first one is given this name because they have convinced faith in the four noble truths. So the feature of effort is the effort that one puts into listening, thinking, and meditating on the scriptures.
That is what continuously builds up merit or virtue. That is the feature of effort. So then the third one is mindfulness, and that is being mindful of the four noble truths. So the feature of concentration, which is the mind absorbed into a virtuous object — mind absorbed into a virtuous object — which is not distracted in an external object. So then the fifth one is the feature of wisdom, which is which clearly and unmistakenly presents the general and specific features of different phenomena. That is the wisdom.
So the phenomena here means the defiled phenomena and the purified phenomena, these two. The specific characteristic, or specific nature, of each individual phenomenon. So the general and the specific — the general here is the general nature of the phenomena, which is that they are productions that disintegrate and that they abide. And all phenomena have this nature. That is the general characteristic of phenomena. So the wisdom that clearly and unmistakenly distinguishes this — that is that wisdom.
Alright. So then the five powers — the next five powers are the same as the five features — the power of faith, power of effort, power of mindfulness, power of concentration, and power of wisdom. So the power of faith is the power of faith that one has towards the Triple Gem, the three refuge objects — which with this power of faith is not destroyed by its opposite factors, or its discordant factors.
So then next is the power of effort, which is the effort that cannot be destroyed by its discordant factor, that is the laziness. And then the third is the power of mindfulness, and mindfulness also which cannot be destroyed by its opposite or discordant factor, that is forgetfulness. So then the fourth is the power of concentration, which again is not destroyed or disturbed by the delusions that are known as sloth and excitement. So then the last is the power of wisdom, which again can be damaged — that wisdom can be damaged or destroyed by corrupt wisdom, which is its discordant factor. Which is known as corrupt wisdom.
So the Hearer’s path of preparation has all these different qualities. And the definition for the meaning of the path of preparation — the Hearer’s path of preparation — is a clear realization of meaning which comes before achieving the path of seeing. Before achieving the path of seeing. So this path of preparation, the Hearer’s path of preparation, is classified into four, that is the heat, the peak, the patient, and the supreme Dharma.
So it is also classified in different ways through the level of strength. They are like small, medium, and great. They are classified into three. So if you look at these three levels with a single person who is on the path of preparation, then the very first moment of achieving the path of preparation is known as the small — at that time, the person is known as the small. So then the medium — that person continues, and when they come to the middle, that person is known as the medium person, the medium person on the path of preparation.
And finally, the person comes to achieve the great path of preparation. So then if these three — the great, medium, and small — are also explained with different beings: those who are known as less intelligent beings on the path of preparation are known as the small. And then the medium intelligent ones — their path of preparation is the medium. And then the sharp intelligent ones on the path of preparation — their path of preparation is the great path of preparation.
So the full classification of the path of preparation — the heat, the peak, the patient, and the supreme Dharma — with each one classified into three: great, medium, and small — gives a total of twelve. So the path of preparation, the Hearer’s path of preparation — there are many terms which are used for the same thing, which is: firstly, the path of preparation.