Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 34-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen explores the generation of bodhicitta—the mind set on achieving enlightenment for the sake of all beings. He identifies three obstacles that block this mind: clinging to this present life, clinging to future wealth, and self-cherishing thought. Their antidotes are meditations on impermanence, renunciation, and compassion. He then examines the three features of great compassion that roots bodhicitta: recognizing all sentient beings as one’s mother, being unable to bear a single being’s suffering, and compassion yielding clear insight. In the final section, Geshe-la begins a technical exposition of the path of meditation, explaining which of the sixteen delusions are abandoned at each stage and how they are progressively refined across the ten grounds. Pitched at students familiar with Buddhist philosophical terminology.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 SoM no date.mp3
UUID: 0c2c08a8-89bb-4a1e-80d5-2b6b40188de5
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Stages of Meditation (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1983 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 34.1 minutes
Words: ~2,017
That says there is no other practice that can please the Buddhas besides pleasing the sentient beings. So sorry. So looking into our minds, we should at least remember those sentient beings. And work for those sentient beings. And instead of that, if we only work for ourself and forget the other sentient beings, or don’t care about other sentient beings, then it is similar to showing our back to Buddha Śākyamūni.
So similarly, because of this reason, Lama Tsongkhapa advises that we should generate this mind, that is bodhicitta — I practice this mind in order to achieve the fully enlightened state. So that is the wish to achieve the fully enlightened state for the sake of other beings. So if one is able to generate this wish, even if one sees only a single being, then that type of generation of mind is explained as a generation of the mind that is bodhicitta, which is explained by — So if we can’t do the rest of the practice, we at least should have this mind, which is — So if we have generated this mind, then that means we collect a great amount of virtue, or we collect a great amount of merit. So to say that someone is very fortunate, or telling someone that they are very fortunate, shows that the person has collected a great amount of virtue.
So sorry. As Buddha explained in the saying that those with enough merit, their wishes get fulfilled. So even in the world, in normal day-to-day life, when we say that person is very fortunate or lucky, whatever he or she does they all become successful — this shows that that person has enough merit, or enough collections of merit. So some people, even from their past life, have collected good karma to be reborn as a human being in this life with all the qualities of this precious human body. And they have this precious human body but are unable to engage in Dharma practice because of facing some illness or something goes wrong, and they are unable to practice the Dharma — and that too shows that that person has not enough collection of merit or devotion.
So it should not be like this, that one is only thinking for oneself. But whatever practice one engages in, one should think — or should do it for the sake of other sentient beings — and it should not be like doing it only for the sake of oneself. Like as an additional example: if one of your clothes catches fire, then the only thought you have is how to stop the flame.
So not having only that kind of wish which only works for itself. So this bodhicitta — this mind that is bodhicitta — to generate this mind within one, there are three types of obstacles that which prevent us from generating this mind. So those three obstacles that prevent us from generating this mind are: first one is clinging to this life; and second is clinging to the wealth of our future lives; and thirdly, that is the self-cherishing thought.
So clinging to this very life is that which is only working for this very life and working only for one’s friends. So then next is clinging to or being attached to our possessions or wealth that we will receive in the future. And for that purpose, whatever practice you do, that only leads to the highest state that is the state of hearers or Pratyekabuddha. And it will never become a cause for the generation of this mind, bodhicitta. So generally we should seek the prosperities of our future life.
Generally we should seek them, but should not make that as our main priority. So if we seek the prosperities of our future — wealth and so on — one thing we should seek for our future is to have a perfect human rebirth. And on that basis, it is possible again to generate this mind, bodhicitta, and achieve the fully enlightened state.
So then the third is the self-cherishing thought, or working only for oneself. If one has that mind, then that prevents one from becoming a Mahāyānist. And that does not become the cause, I would say, of the fully enlightened state. So for these three, one should apply an antidote to each. That is — to the first one, that is clinging to this very life — as an antidote, one should meditate on impermanence. So then to the second one, as an antidote, we meditate on renunciation. That is, contemplating over the nature of saṃsāra, and how self-grasping always causes one to circle in saṃsāra, and generating the thought of emancipation. So then the third one, that is the self-cherishing thought — to that, as an antidote, we should meditate on compassion. And compassion acts as an antidote towards this.
So by meditating on impermanence, renunciation, and compassion — when we have broadened our compassion, it means that we have planted the root of bodhicitta. So there are some explanations which say also that hearers and Pratyekabuddha have great compassions, but they don’t have the great compassion which has these three features.
So the three features of this great compassion — that is the root of bodhicitta — should be generated from meditating on love and the rest of the practice: that one has recognized all sentient beings as having been one’s mother, and so on. So the second feature is that of the nature of compassion — how it should be. It should be such that one is unable to bear even the suffering of a single sentient being. Like in the same manner that one is unable to bear one’s own headache — if one finds it impossible to bear the headache of another sentient being, even a single sentient being — then that is the nature of compassion. So as a result, the last feature is the result — which is that compassion should be able to give as its result the special insight.
So because of this reason, the Buddha, as the skillful one, has advised and given this advice that one should generate this mind — explaining it in the sutras. So if one is able to contemplate this compassion that has these three features, then one will be able to remove those three obscurations that prevent us from generating —
So contemplating all this compassion and generating the bodhicitta — and we do a short meditation here. So tonight is the last teaching on the Paths and Grounds. So Geshe-la will abbreviate the teachings on the Paths and Grounds here. And if we explained everything in detail, it gets again complicated.
So abbreviate this teaching tonight. And then for next year, I can request him to give talks on mind training. So yeah, that is what he will be teaching next —
So last time I just gave the explanation on the path of seeing. So the abandonment on the path of seeing — which is known as the misconception of those — the abandonments on the path of seeing are known as the misconceptions of the four noble truths. So now, on the path of meditation, the abandonment on the path of meditation — those abandonments are abandoned by following different grounds or paths.
So by following these different grounds, one comes to abandon the abandonments on the path of meditation. And there are sixteen delusions that are abandoned on the path of meditation. So then the next type of abandonment on the path of seeing is the obscuration to omniscience. And that too is divided — and is explained as one hundred and eight — which is similar to that of the path of seeing. So those sixteen delusions that are abandoned on the path of meditation — of which six are related to the desire realm — and then five each in the upper realms. The form realm has five delusions related to the form realm, and five delusions related to the formless realm, which are abandoned on the path of meditation. So total of ten.
So the six delusions which are related to the desire realm are: attachment, anger, pride, ignorance, transitory view, and extreme view. So these are the six delusions related to the desire realm. The attachment, anger, and so on — those are the delusions. The terms which I use in both path of seeing and meditation are the same. The terms are the same. But the difference in meaning is that the attachment explained on the path of seeing is generated under the influence of wrong tenets or under the influence of different philosophical schools.
So the attachment that is explained on the path of meditation is known as the innate attachment — that which one has had from beginningless time — and which is explained as more subtle than that of the path of seeing. So the next is anger, or hatred. In the upper realms, they don’t have anger or hatred. They do have delusions but not anger or hatred. So those five of the upper realms — like taking out anger — the remaining five are: attachment, pride, ignorance, transitory view, and extreme view — five of the upper realms.
So the first ground is classified into two: the path of seeing and the path of meditation. So the first ground as classified into two would be: the path of seeing and the path of meditation. And the path of seeing is that stage of the first ground where the being comes to abandon the abandonment of the path of seeing. And the second stage — the path of meditation on the first ground — the being comes to abandon these sixteen delusions. Like from the first to the sixteenth, they come to abandon —
So from the path of meditation, that of the first ground starts abandoning the sixteen delusions and goes gradually all the way up to the tenth ground. So on the first ground, the path of meditation comes to abandon — I want to say — sixteen delusions, and all the one hundred and eight obstructions to omniscience, all at once. So how do they come to abandon these delusions — the first sixteen delusions? One divides or classifies them into great, medium, and small. And then each of those great, medium, and small — again classified into great-great, great-medium, great-small — and in total each one is explained as nine.
And similarly, the one hundred and eight of the obscuration to omniscience — also classified into nine each. So the uninterrupted path of the first ground comes to abandon all the gross delusions at once. That is the great-great ones. The great-great, or the big-big, of the sixteen — all the big ones are abandoned at once.
And similarly, of the obstruction to omniscience — that too is divided into two, which is the gross and the subtle. And the gross ones are also abandoned at once. Only the one hundred and eight gross ones are abandoned at once. So of the sixteen delusions, the gross ones of the sixteen are abandoned on the first ground. And then the subtle of the sixteen delusions — those are also sixteen — which are abandoned on the second ground.
So then the great-mediums are abandoned on the third ground. So the uninterrupted path of the tenth ground comes to abandon the smallest of the smallest. So that applies to the delusions, and it is the same with the obstructions to omniscience. It applies the same way to the obstructions to omniscience.
So the one hundred and eight obstructions to omniscience — it is spread — the same numbers in the path of seeing and also in the path of meditation. So that one hundred and eight obstruction to omniscience — if it is rooted, then it is rooted to four. So the four are known as: the first one, that is the conception of grasping at deluded phenomena —