Stages of Meditation — 02 SoM no date

Stages of Meditation (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)

Stages of Meditation — 02 SoM no date

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Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. In this 42-minute talk, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen explores the first ground of the bodhisattva path — the Very Joyful — and how the perfection of giving is cultivated there. He explains the wisdom that arises at this stage, then walks through the path of seeing: its sixteen moments (forbearances and knowledges), which abandonments it eliminates, and the five fears practitioners become free from. He describes the 1,200 extraordinary qualities instantly attained on the first ground: the ability to see a hundred Buddhas simultaneously, emanate multiple bodies, teach different dharmas, and ripen countless beings. He illustrates the power of hearing teachings with the story of Vasubandhu’s parrot, which learned the master’s chants through repeated listening, showing that teachings plant karmic seeds even when incompletely understood. For those engaged with the bodhisattva path.

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Geshe-la explained the ten grounds. And now Geshe-la will explain the first ground, that is the Very Joyful ground. He will explain on that today. So the bodhisattva deeds — there are ten of those — one is the ten perfections. So on these ten grounds, the ten perfections are practiced.

So each perfection is trained on each ground. Among the ten perfections, the first one is the perfection of giving, and that is fully practiced on the first ground. That is the Joyful — So the wisdom, or the clear realization, of being on the first ground — one is fully trained in the perfection of giving, and that which supports its result. Like its result — the first ground supports its result. The results are all the rest of the grounds from second to tenth, and all those are supported by the first ground.

So on the first ground, they are classified into three: the meditative exalted wisdom, and the post-meditational exalted wisdom, and wisdom that is neither of these two. So it is divided into these three. So the meditative exalted wisdom is that which single-pointedly concentrates on emptiness. So concentrating single-pointedly on emptiness — that is of two types: the selflessness of the person and the selflessness of phenomena.

So then the post-meditational wisdom is that wisdom which apprehends all the conventional phenomena, and that is the wisdom which is gained through the power of the meditative exalted wisdom. So the meditative exalted wisdom only concentrates single-pointedly on emptiness. Beside emptiness, nothing else appears. And arising from that state of meditation and coming into the post-meditational wisdom — the post-meditational wisdom which observes all the conventional phenomena. So then the wisdom that is neither of these two is like the love within the person of the first ground, their compassion, their wish for liberation. These are known as wisdom which is neither of these two.

So as for the first ground — the wisdom absorbs its object, that is the selflessness. So the selflessness here on the first ground can refer to non-duality and the selflessness of a person. And whoever the person is that has to engage in this concentration practice — like actually engaging in this practice — the person has to actually engage in this practice on the practice of single-pointedly concentrating on selflessness.

So the meditative exalted wisdom on the first ground is again classified into three. That is the uninterrupted path of the first ground, and the liberated path of the first ground, and the path which is neither of these two of the first ground.

So the uninterrupted path of the first ground acts as an antidote towards the abandonment on the path of seeing. So the uninterrupted path acts as a direct antidote towards the abandonment on the path of seeing, and it destroys — or uproots — the abandonment on the path of seeing. So the uninterrupted path here is known as one who single-pointedly concentrates on emptiness. And that which acts as a direct antidote towards the conceptual true grasping. Grasping. And it is the exalted wisdom of the first ground. So it has to have these three conditions to be the uninterrupted path of the first ground.

So when we say uninterrupted path acts as a direct antidote towards the abandonment on that path — it is the uninterrupted path because to generate its successor wisdom, that is the liberated path, nothing obstructs along the way. So because of that it is explained as the uninterrupted path.

So the conceptual true grasping is — so the intellectually acquired delusions, and the conception of grasping at true existence, are the abandonment on the path of seeing. So the intellectually acquired delusions — like that is the conception of grasping at true existence or the conception of grasping towards inherent existence.

So this intellectually acquired delusion is only within beings who follow tenets. Not all beings have this type of delusion. So the conception of grasping at true existence — this is within all beings and it is also known as the innate delusion, which all beings have. So this innate delusion is very hard to abandon.

So this innate delusion is explained as more difficult to abandon. It is explained as being abandoned on the path of meditation — the next path. So the intellectually acquired delusions — how to say — come into existence dependent upon different tenets. And it is even easier to abandon than the innate delusions.

So the uninterrupted path is classified again into two: the uninterrupted path of seeing and the uninterrupted path of meditation. So the exalted wisdom on the first ground has these two — that is the wisdom related to the path of seeing and the wisdom related to the path of meditation.

So now the first — the path of seeing is known as the path which is the liberated path. The path of seeing is known as the liberated path. Yeah. And it has realized emptiness, or seen emptiness, which has never been realized before. So because they come to realize emptiness directly, which has never been realized before, they are known as ones who follow the ārya path.

So then similarly, they also come to realize the selflessness of the person directly. And similarly, they also come to realize all the conventional aspects of phenomena.

So through the meditations on the thirty-seven practices — that is the thirty-seven limbs of enlightenment — they come to uproot all the abandonment on the path of seeing. And that is free from the five types of fears, and have achieved hundreds of qualities — hundreds of different qualities — is known as the path of seeing.

So the liberated path — the first line — which means they have purified these two obscurations. Two observations. Yeah. They have specified the two. So because of that, they are known as the liberative path. And also next — if other lines say which is free from five fears. So these five types of fears arise during the path of accumulation and preparation. So these five fears are removed when one comes to achieve the path of seeing.

So these five fears are: the fear of not having livelihood; and the fear of not being praised by others; and the fear of — surroundings; and the fear of death; and the fear of — So when one reaches the path of seeing, one is free from these five fears.

So the abandonment on the path of seeing is known as that of the intellectually acquired delusions and the gross obscuration to omniscience.

So the path of seeing is classified into sixteen moments. So those sixteen are — the eight known as the eight forbearances, and then the eight known as the eight knowledges. So the first eight — that is the eight dharmic forbearances — and the uninterrupted path: these two are synonyms.

And then the next eight — that is the eight knowledges — and the liberated path are synonymous. So the liberated path is known as gaining the experience of cessation of all the abandonment on the path of seeing. When one reaches that, then that is known as the path, or liberated path. So there are eight types of knowledge that one reaches or attains. And when one reaches the cessation of all the delusions that are abandoned on the path of seeing —

So the cessation of all the abandonments on the path of seeing — that cessation is similar to the true cessation that comes from the explanation of the four noble truths. So achieving or reaching this cessation — the cessation of abandonment on the path of seeing — that which makes this possible is what is explained as the non-compositional factor. Yeah, non-compositional factor. And that is what makes it possible to achieve this cessation.

So the non-compositional factor is a type of knowledge, and that knowledge is explained as these eight knowledges. It’s good. Yeah. Yeah. That’s that.

I don’t — but someone of which — Lorig and Paramita. So I am trying to make it as simple as possible. So even if you don’t understand everything clearly, just hearing puts imprints in your mind and it’s very good. So the difference of hearing and not hearing has a big difference — it is like sowing a seed in a field. Hearing is like sowing a seed in the field.

And just in the future, when you meet with conditions, it will grow. The seed will grow. So if we keep the imprints of hearing in our mind, then later when those imprints meet with conditions, at that time, it is very easy — when you hear again, you’ll understand the meaning.

So like the master Vasubandhu, while he was living in India, he composed this text, the Abhidharma. So that’s the Abhidharmakośa, the text that is composed by this master. And after composing it, the master used to recite it outside his room. And there was a parrot which was living next to the door of that master. So the parrot used to hear the prayers which were chanted by that master — not only one time, but many times — and the parrot heard that and kept the imprints in the parrot’s mind. And later the parrot died and took rebirth as a human being. And as that human being, without any difficulty — even without memorizing the text — the person could chant those prayers. Yeah.

So the path of seeing, as I explained before, is free from the five fears and has hundreds of qualities. So on the first ground, or the path of seeing, one gains one thousand two hundred qualities on the first ground. Then on the second ground, one gains twelve thousand — how do I say — qualities.

So those one thousand two hundred qualities on the first ground are achieved in one moment. And those one thousand two hundred qualities on the first ground are: the first quality is that they are able to engage in hundreds of different concentration practices in one moment. Yes. Bless.

Yeah, no. And able also to see the face of one hundred Buddhas in one moment. And in one moment, able to understand that those one hundred Buddhas are bestowing blessings. And able to travel to one hundred universes in one moment. And able also to travel to one hundred — I want to say — one hundred Buddha-lands. No. And able to see like one hundred different — yeah, like one hundred universes. And able to ripen one hundred sentient beings in that one moment.

And able to remain for one hundred aeons. And able to know — seize — the very first moment and the very last moment of one hundred aeons. So able to preach one hundred different Dharmas. And able to manifest oneself into one hundred different bodies. So each of those one hundred bodies is able to ripen or preach like one hundred beings as a circle.

So these are the qualities which — being on the first ground — one is able to perform or have these qualities. I said then we’ll stop here, because it is auspicious, being able to achieve like twelve hundred qualities. So if you have any questions, you can ask — we still have some time — but because the subject matter is difficult to understand, those who are listening here might be tired already.

So all this abandonment on the path of seeing — the intellectually acquired delusions and the gross obscuration to omniscience — the the —