Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen grounds this 44-minute session in the mind-training tradition of Langri Thangpa: the teaching that self-cherishing causes suffering while cherishing others opens the path to genuine benefit. After establishing this motivation, he reviews the First Noble Truth — the three forms of samsaric suffering — then moves into the Second: the dual causes of suffering, karma and delusions, with particular focus on the three poisons (attachment, anger, ignorance). Through vivid examples (oil soaking paper, hidden sickness awakened by contact with beloved objects), he shows how these mental patterns operate beneath conscious awareness. The session covers ethical restraint and the ten negative actions. This is part 5 of an ongoing teaching series.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 4NT.mp3
UUID: 2983b0c0-4059-4419-b31e-ea73e62acbcf
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: The Four Noble Truths (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1996 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.7 minutes
Words: ~1,985
So quoting the line from the teachings of Langri Thangpa — that is the mind training teachings. As Langri Thangpa advises the trainees or the followers that one should give up or avoid this self-cherishing mind and cherish others. So this mind training teaching — whether one just picks a line and practices it, or whether one engages in the practice from whichever part — whether it’s the top or bottom or in between — any practice that you involve yourself in from this mind training teaching has the full quality of training your mind. So whichever part of the mind training teaching that you practice or engage in, it carries the full quality of training your mind.
As an example, it is like a diamond — and the diamond, it’s like a diamond which, even if it breaks into pieces, each part still serves as a diamond. So it’s similar to that. And similarly, it is also like sunrays — whichever part the sunrays strike, it is the sunrays of the sun. And similar to that, whichever part of the mind training teaching that you practice, it carries the full essence of the teachings. So training yourself in the practice is that you can’t train in all the tasks completely at once, but you have to train in the practice gradually, one after another.
And also — sorry — this mind training teaching is also like a medicinal tree or medicinal plant, in which every part — the whole part of the tree or the plant — removes or cures disease. Similar to that, each part of the tree removes the sickness. So whichever way you practice the mind training teachings, there are many parts of the mind training teaching that you could practice — like meditation practice on bodhicitta, compassion, love, and so on. But in whichever way, or whichever subject you choose to practice, your practice should be directed towards removing the delusions. So your mind training practice — what the mind training teaching should be — is something that damages the self-cherishing mind or the ignorance of grasping.
So if your mind training practice doesn’t damage or harm the delusions that are within one, then your practice doesn’t become sufficient — if it just becomes mere words, or just to subdue your behaviours — just for that reason, if you do the practice, then the practice is not worth much. The practice isn’t worth much. So all the sufferings that we experience in the lower states or the upper realms — all the sufferings are caused. All the sufferings are caused, and the cause is that of the self-cherishing mind or the ignorance of grasping. Or like the three poisons: attachment, anger, and ignorance.
These are what causes all the sufferings. So because of that — that we cherished ourselves most, from past times up to now — and we experienced these sufferings; now we have to change this attitude. Instead of cherishing yourself, cherish others and train your mind. So we need to cherish others. And the reason why we need to cherish others is that just by looking at or taking the example of this life’s mother — how kind she has been to one from the time when one enters the mother’s womb until one completes one’s studies, once completely grown up. How much kindness she has given to one. And similar to that, the rest of the other sentient beings too are like our own mothers.
And they have given great kindness to us, and so we should — without any thought of near and far — cherish others too. So they have been very kind to us and we should not fail to repay their kindness. There is some saying: it is like giving food to those from whom you have received food. So if you ask someone a question and the other person gives no reply, it’s as if that person is somewhat — what do you say — crazy or mentally imbalanced. That’s some kind of saying.
So in order to benefit others, one first needs to know how one should benefit others. So one needs to know how to benefit others, and in order to perfectly benefit others, one needs to achieve the fully enlightened state. The enlightened being — the Buddha — is the one who — Buddhahood, or that state — is the only state which is perfected in benefiting others. And so to achieve that state, like — I will listen to this Dharma teaching. So with that type of motivation, the time you spend here listening to the teaching becomes beneficial and worthwhile, and with that type of motivation we do a short meditation.
The past week’s teachings: Geshe-la explained the first Noble Truth, that is the True Suffering — the sufferings of saṃsāra. So the sufferings of saṃsāra — the suffering that we go through — are of three types. That is: the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and the pervasive suffering. So recognising these different sufferings, and if one desires not to experience these sufferings in the future, then one needs to get rid of their causes. So one needs to recognise what causes them.
So recognising their causes — which are the delusions, which are the different delusions — recognising them as being the cause, and recognising these delusions, little by little — getting rid of these different delusions by applying different antidotes to get rid of them little by little. There is nowhere that one can get rid of all these delusions at once, but by applying antidotes one can gradually get rid of these delusions. So in order to apply the antidote towards delusions, one first needs to recognise or understand what delusions are. So the cause of all these sufferings is known as the True Origin. So the origin of suffering is karma and delusions.
And that — karma and delusion being the source of suffering — is something which is realised by the superior beings. So this cause of suffering is of two types: karma and delusions. So of these two, the more important one is the delusion. So what is known as delusion is the unsubdued part of our self, the unsubdued and unpeaceful side of our continuum — that is known as the delusion. So how the delusion is more important is: as an example, if you sow a seed in a dry land, then if that seed doesn’t meet with the other conditions like water and so on, it won’t — let’s say — that seed won’t give a sprout.
So, quoting from one text, it says that even if one has many karmas to get reborn as an animal in one’s future life — if that karma is not, in other words, if it is not ripened — it won’t give the result, which is one won’t get reborn into the lower realm, into the animal realm, sorry. So what do you say? Because it is not ripened — because for karma to ripen it has to meet with its cooperative conditions. Because it didn’t meet with that condition, the karma didn’t ripen. So one collects a karma, and then if the karma meets the conditions — which are the delusions — then that makes the karma ripen.
So of delusions, there are many different delusions which have been explained, but of those many, there are three which are the main ones, and Geshe-la will explain these three, which are known as the three poisons. So these different delusions — like attachment, anger, and so on — pollute our mind and make our mind dull. So that dull state of mind is what is recognised as the delusions. So when one is in a peaceful state, when one is in a calm state, if one is asked whether that person has anger or not, it is said that person has anger — but the anger is in a — what is it — it is in the aspect of a hidden manner; the anger resides in a hidden manner which is not in an obvious manner.
As one example: if oil drops onto paper, then slowly the oil will sort of take over the whole paper. So once the oil is absorbed into the paper, it’s very difficult for us to separate the oil from the paper. And similarly, the hidden delusions that we have are not easy for us to recognise. So as another example: a person might have some sickness within, but at present he or she is very healthy, and then a condition — whatever he or she eats — becomes a cause for that sickness to rise up. And then the person goes through great pain. So likewise, with the example of things that we love most — friends, boyfriend, girlfriend, or our own possessions, whatever it may be. When we have contact with that object, that beloved object, there arises a joy or happy mind. And that happy mind is what causes the hidden attachment or delusion inside us to awaken.
Feeling of joy awakens the hidden attachment within one. So then at that point, out of that, one wants to engage in these different actions — whether one wants to see the object, or one wants to touch the object, or one wants to enjoy the object. So this happens after that. These things happen. So if it is your own child, then the desire to touch or desire to see — which comes effortlessly, just arises — that is what is known as attachment.
So when that attachment arises, then the grosser level of the mind which somehow weakens — where, as an example, if someone, sort of — how to say — which shrinks down. So then, noting this as attachment — normally when one is doing practice, when one is engaging in different practices, if one sees this happening to oneself, then one recognises that as being the attachment or the delusions and should apply antidotes. So next is: if one were to meet a person who is unfriendly towards one, then the desire to harm that person arises — and that is anger. So as an example, like coal: when it catches fire, it sustains the fire. In the coal, there is fire without flame, but as soon as a breeze comes in, suddenly a flame comes out. And you could see all around — all the coal around is red.
Similar to that, when one contacts or faces a disliked person, then as soon as one meets this disliked person, one has this wish or this intention to harm that person in many ways — one wants to bring harm to that person. That is known as anger — and that is what makes you become red, or you see everything around as red. And that is what is known as anger. So then the next is ignorance — and that is like walking into a dark room where there’s no light. You cannot identify the objects inside.
So similar to that, the state of mind which doesn’t understand or doesn’t know the object of knowledge. So these three are known as the three poisons. So motivated by these three poisons, one commits actions or karma. Karma — there are many different kinds. But there are ten — the bigger ones, the grosser ones — which are explained in the Abhidharmakośa. Then restraining from these ten negative actions — restraining from these ten negative actions — is known as the ten positive actions, which are the ten principles or precepts of the gods. So in the text known as the Precious Garland, which was composed by Nāgārjuna, there are the sixteen principles or precepts which are known as the principles or precepts of the gods.