Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 41-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen unpacks how each of the ten delusions misconceives the four noble truths. He distinguishes those that directly distort the truths—ignorance, doubt, transitory view, extreme view, wrong view—from those that work indirectly through attachment, pride, and anger. Concrete examples include the practitioner who recalls being a dog in a past life and now imitates a dog to secure human rebirth. A Q&A clarifies the distinctions between views and their extremes. In the second half, Geshe turns to bodhisattva practice, contrasting analytical meditation—examining what generosity or bodhicitta truly is—with stabilizing meditation, stressing that the genuine perfection of giving is intention to give, not the physical act. For practitioners with Buddhist background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 24 P and G.mp3
UUID: 9999d543-e142-4eea-83ca-90652228e16c
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Paths and Grounds (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 41.3 minutes
Words: ~1,740
Not knowing the nature of the four noble truths, and not knowing all objects of knowledge. And then the next delusion is doubt — doubt is having doubt whether the four noble truths exist or not, or having doubt whether past and future lives exist or not, also whether the refuge objects exist or not. These are the doubts here. So the doubt hinders — how do you say? The doubt hinders one greatly from accumulating virtue.
So then the next is the transitory view. So that view — the transitory view — is that we observe our aggregates and view them as existing inherently, or view them as I or mine. So then the next is the extreme view, and that is like — so the transitory view holds the I to be truly existing, and that I exists eternally, or that I does not exist, taking the view of nihilism. And another example is the view that holds that when one dies, it ends there. The view that when we die it stops there, and it does not continue.
So then the next is the wrong view, and that is the wrong view that the four noble truths don’t exist, the refuge doesn’t exist, and karma doesn’t exist. These are the wrong views. So then next is view holding one’s view to be superior. And that is like holding the transitory view and the extreme view — holding these different views to be superior. So then next is viewing ethics and conduct as supreme.
That is like engaging in different conducts — such as standing on one foot, observing moralities which one believes leads to liberation, or jumping from a cliff, or burning the five fingers. By doing these one believes one gains liberation. So engaging in these ethics and conduct and holding them to be supreme. So some, out of their clairvoyance, see their past life — they see their past life as being a dog. And because of that, knowing that they had been a dog in their past life and this life they are human, they think that if you are a dog, then you will take your next rebirth as a human. Taking that as a reason — and in this life as a human — they act like a dog or imitate a dog, and doing that practice in order to be again reborn as human in one’s next life.
So there can be a lot of explanations given on these different delusions. So briefly, these are the ten delusions that need to be abandoned.
So how do these ten delusions misconceive the four noble truths? So if one has the delusion known as the transitory view, then that delusion acts as a direct misconception of true suffering. So how does it misconceive the true suffering? Because the transitory view holds the aggregates as truly existing or inherently existing. So second, the wrong view is also known as that which directly misconceives the four noble truths. And that is because the wrong view holds that the four noble truths don’t exist.
And then next is the extreme view — that too directly misconceives the four noble truths. So the extreme view too observes the same object that is held by the transitory view, and views it as existing forever, or as not existing. And then next is ignorance, and that also directly misconceives the four noble truths because of not knowing the four noble truths. And then next is doubt. That too directly misconceives the four noble truths.
So in the scriptures where the ultimate meaning of the four noble truths is explained, still having doubt in it whether it is true or not — in that way, it directly misconceives the four noble truths. So then — that which indirectly misconceives the four noble truths — holding one’s view to be supreme: that misconceives the four noble truths indirectly. So it indirectly misconceives because it observes the object that is observed by the transitory view and the wrong views.
Mhmm. So because of that, it indirectly misconceives. And next is the holding of ethics and conduct as supreme. So that too indirectly misconceives the four noble truths, because, as explained before, out of these different conducts and ethics, one misconceives again the four noble truths.
So then next, attachment is known as that which misconceives the four noble truths indirectly — having attachment towards those views, that is the view of transitory collections and the wrong views. Out of that, generating this attachment — that which misconceives the four noble truths indirectly. And next is pride. So pride too indirectly misconceives the four noble truths, because holding those wrong views like the transitory view and the wrong views, one feels that they are the superior views, supreme views, and that which can misconceive the four noble truths indirectly.
So then the last one is anger. And anger is neither of these two — direct or indirect — in the sense of misconceiving the four noble truths through understanding. It is by force that anger misconceives the four noble truths. So how anger misconceives the four noble truths is that seeing others holding different views than oneself, and out of that generating anger — that which then misconceives the four noble truths.
So there are these ten delusions which are explained in relation to the four noble truths. So if you classify that in more detail, then each of the four noble truths has ten delusions which misconceive directly or indirectly — and similarly with the rest of the noble truths. So then we stop here.
Do you have any questions? Mhmm. So wrong view is that the four noble truths don’t exist, karma doesn’t exist, and the refuge objects don’t exist. So the wrong views are the views that hold things which are existing as nonexistent. Yeah.
Uh-huh. So the extreme view — in the transitory view, they hold the aggregates as truly existing or inherently existing. So then the object held by the transitory view — for example, the self, or the I, inherently exists. That view — holding that same I, which is viewed by the transitory view, to be truly existing, to exist like forever — holding that same I that is viewed by the transitory view to be truly existing, if one holds to that then it falls into nihilism. So observing this I and thinking it to be truly existent doesn’t directly show that it is nihilism, but once we have that view, it falls into nihilism. So then on the other hand, viewing the same I as truly existing now, and holding that it exists forever or eternally — that is also another extreme.
And then, on the other hand, it holds that I to be truly existing, and because of that, it falls into nihilism — another extreme, yeah. So the transitory view is observing the aggregates and the I to be truly existing. That is the transitory view. No. Sorry. So the extreme view holds the same I that is viewed by the transitory view. And on one hand, it holds it goes to the extreme of existing forever, and another hand it holds — which is that it exists truly or inherently — which falls into the other extreme, which is nihilism.
So in the transitory view, it just holds that it truly exists. Yeah. And it doesn’t view it as existing forever. So in the extreme view, it holds that same I — that which truly exists — and it goes to both extremes, which is — either it holds that it truly exists eternally, or on the other hand, when it dies, it ceases there.
Any more questions?
Practicing the six perfections. Mhmm. So in meditation, meditation itself is explained by two types — the analytical and the stabilizing meditation. So when we explain these two — like motivation and practice — motivation is setting up the bodhicitta motivation. And then the actual practice is engaging in the six perfections.
After generating the bodhicitta mind, then one engages in the deeds of a bodhisattva. So then the perfection of giving — when one actually sees something like actually giving as a perfection, like generosity or the perfection of giving, it’s like what we see is something physical when we give. Then that’s a giving. But that is not actually it. The actual giving is the wish to give.
It is, yeah, generating these different minds — the wish to give — and like even with morality, the wish not to engage or the wish to protect the vows. Yeah. So one can also analyze the three circles when one acts in giving. In the act of giving, like the giver, the object, the receiver — analyzing these three as analytical meditation. And as for?
We Gelugpas regard the analytical meditations as more important or regard them as the most supreme meditation. So one analyzes what giving is, or what generosity is, and then analyzes and analyzes. And when you come to a point where you can identify — this is called generosity or giving — then single-pointedly concentrating on that is the stabilizing meditation. And some people who don’t understand the analytical meditation or analyzing meditation — like those who are debating — they say it is not a meditation. It just disturbs meditation.
So it actually doesn’t disturb the meditation. It is actually — let’s say — it is actually the best meditation, in which one actually concentrates on the points of the different teachings. And one analyzes those points, and both the one who asks questions and the one who answers — both concentrate on this point. So the same thing: like when we meditate on bodhicitta, if we just sit and concentrate on bodhicitta itself, then it is not easy for one to understand what actually bodhicitta is.
So, analyzing from the beginning what bodhicitta is and what type of conditions or causes are needed to generate that mind — if one thinks over and contemplates all these things, can the mind get distracted to those things? So, direct the mind towards those things, and then finally when you come to a point where you can identify — this is bodhicitta — then concentrating on that point. So we stop here on bodhicitta.
It’s a good sign. Indeed.