Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using the analogy of remembering a boat’s black hull without the boat in front of you, Geshe Pema Tsering explains what it means to find the meditation object in calm abiding practice — getting a rough but stable generalized image that can be held steady for a few seconds. In this 36-minute retreat session, he works through two key pitfalls: forgetting the meditation object (the antidote is memory, covering its three functions — recognising the object’s features, holding the image without losing it, and resisting distraction); and the trio of dullness, fogginess, and excitement, described as enemies that destroy concentration if left unrecognised. The session closes with a transmission of the hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantra, prefaced by the practical clarification that benza and vajra are the same word, and a brief account of Vajrasattva’s role in purifying accumulated negativities. Pitched at practitioners already on a calm abiding retreat.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 CAR 2002 10 05.mp3
UUID: f8b4329b-d836-4471-aaef-b137e85454c2
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Calm Abiding Retreat (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-10-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 35.7 minutes
Words: ~1,954
So once we have found our object to focus on, then we shouldn’t break our concentration on that unless we are eating, sleeping, or going to the bathroom. And once we have this concentration, even if it if it if it takes six months, if it takes years, then we shouldn’t we shouldn’t break our our continuation. Our how would you say it? We shouldn’t break the continuation of our mind focusing on this object. Oh, it’s terrible.
Even for a second because apart from, as you said, to go to the bathroom or sleep until we actually achieve calm abiding. And if we’re the sort of person that says, I’m bored with this or moves on to something else or Geshe-la says he’s like him and wants to have a rest for a few days, then you’re not gonna be achieve calm abiding. So once we found this object, we the process is that you look at an object, a holy object, and you try and get the distinctive features of that object, get them stuck in your mind. And so that whenever you want, you can bring the image of this object into your mind. It can arise in your mind, so you become very, very familiar with it.
But at the start at the start then, we don’t get this. We only get, like, a an outline. If we only just get an outline of the object, then this is actually called a a rough a rough finding of the object. But it is it’s it’s called yeah. We get a rough idea of the general outline of the object, and this is actually called finding the object at the beginning.
So we have to get a generalized image, a rough generalized image of even half of the detail of the image and actually have it abide and not waver for a few seconds before we can say we’ve found the object. And Geshe-la says, like if we sit here now and think, yesterday, we came across on a boat, and that boat was big, and it had a black pattern on it in some way. And So so we can say, okay. We came on a big boat, and it had a pattern on the side that had black in it, and it had chairs inside, and we can remember these things. And this is a generalized image of the boat.
It’s not actually the boat itself, but it’s how we remember the boat. It’s an image of the boat in our mind. And so when we’re talking about here getting an image in our mind of the object that we’ve seen, it’s that kind of thing we’re talking about, remembering the specific characteristics. In the same way, if we think, oh, my mother, and get an image in our mind of our mother or our father or our house, this is a generalized image of the of our mother or our father or our house. It’s not them themselves, but we get an idea of who they are.
In the same way, we should be able to generate a generalized image of the an image of the image a generalized image of the thing that we’re meditating on. So so in the same way, if we stare really carefully carefully at the image of a Buddha or another holy being, and we figure out what their eyes look like, what their face looks like, and all the details of things, and we try and remember this, and we get to we can fix that image in our mind just for and hold it for a wee while, then that is what we talk about finding the object. So after we’ve gone through all this effort, we’re probably just gonna lose the image straight away because we’re beginners. Then this losing the image is what we talk about in the second this second what we’re calling? pitfall?
Second shortcoming. Yes. Which is losing the forgetting the instructions. I forgot what it’s called. The pitfall pitfall.
Now that’s an easy word to remember. So we instantly lose our concentration on this object, and this is what we mean when we say forgetting the instruction. And this is what we’re talking about when we come up when we’re up to the second pitfall that we can come into when we’re meditating. So the antidote to this forgetting the instruction is the fifth out of the eight adjustments that we mentioned earlier and it’s memory. And what we mean by memory is that once we’ve fixed in our head what the actual image looks like, as soon as we wander from it, we can remind ourselves of that and put our focus back on that image.
So what we’re talking about here when we’re talking about memory is gripping onto that image in the same way that we would hold onto our malas, not letting them fall out of our hands. And so it takes a fair bit of effort and concentration. So the actual development of calm abiding actually relies in some part on the individual’s power of memory. So people who have a very stable memory are actually going to find it easier to develop calm abiding. And those with somewhat shaky memories are going to find it a little bit more difficult.
So if we ask what memory is, memory is the thing that once it has got an image or grasp of an object, once it has an idea about this object, it can recognize the features of that object. And Geshe-la said like he was looking at the glass, if he looks at the glass and commits it to his mind, then if he doesn’t look at the glass, he can still remember what the glass looks like and its features. And this is a function of memory. Memory also is the thing that makes him stop forgetting the thing that he was concentrating on. So memory actually has three properties.
It is is it can distinguish the object. It knows its features, and it can distinguish the object. It also has the property of being able to hold on to a concept of the object and to not forget the this object in the same way as if we’re hungry, we instantly remember what food’s like, and we get a very clear, vivid image. This isn’t too cruel, but if if you’re you’re really hungry and and then you get a really vivid, clear you’ve experiencing it. Yeah.
A vivid, clear image of what food is like, and and in this same this is like a function of memory. It holds on to this very clear image. And the third function of memory is that it actually performs a function. Yeah. But I don’t think we got what the function was.
Third function of memory is it performs the function of not getting caught up in other other objects, of concentrating on one object, so not getting distracted and having your mind go over to other objects. Is the third function of memory. So if we actually have this antidote of memory, if we have memory performing all of its three functions, then we’ve abandoned the second pitfall of forgetting the instruction. It ceases to be a problem for us because our memory has become so strong. So therefore it’s a direct antidote to that.
But once we are in that situation where we’re not forgetting the instruction, then we have these two things. The third pitfall comes along, which is dullness and excitement. So this the third the third pitfall is a coming about of Yeah. But is the coming about of is is is when excitement or dullness, and they say there’s actually three or just a fogginess comes about. When any of these three come about, then then that’s the third pitfall.
So if you can’t distinguish out what is dullness, what is fogginess and what is excitement from your meditation practice, then you can’t actually meditate because these are the things that destroy your meditation practice. So you need to know you need to be able to identify these so that you can put a stop to them and continue to meditate properly. Recognizing these three is the same sort of thing as recognizing enemies that want to kill you or people who want to steal from you. If you can recognize them, then then you can stop them. So in this way, these three are the enemies of concentrated meditation.
So you have to be able to recognize them in order to stop them from killing your meditation. So when we talk about this dullness, what are we talking about? This dullness is like a heaviness that pushes down your mind into a sleepy state. And this is the kind of process that’s going on there. This process can either be non virtuous or neutral in terms of its energy, but it’s never virtuous.
And it’s always a cause for dullness in your meditation. So if we can leave it there, because Geshe-la has been asked to give a transmission of the hundred syllable mantra of Vajrasattva so you can have permission to say the mantra. Elaine has the transmission, please. Probably just so I heard about Elaine missing out. So before we he gives the transmission for the the mantra, Geshe-la would like to explain something about some people sometimes get a bit confused about whether you should say benza in the mantras or vajra.
And he’d just like to explain that they’re actually exactly the same thing. It’s just that in the writing of the Tibetan, it actually Yeah. It actually they should be saying in Tibetan something like because they have no in Tibetan, so they can’t say. You hear them talking, they say. How you’ve got a.
So that’s why it changed, first of all, to. And then if you try and say trah it’s really difficult. So then it changed to benza, that’s the easiest way for them to say it. But they’re actually the same thing so people shouldn’t worry if they get this transmission from Gesula and he says benza and they want to say vajra because that is something they’re more comfortable with. It’s exactly the same thing, so it shouldn’t be a problem for them.
It’s just the Tibetans can’t spell. So this hundred syllable mantra that he’s about to give the transmission of is actually the mantra of Vajrasattva. Vajrasattva’s purpose was to try and help people get rid of all their negativities, to cleanse the stain of their negativities. That’s why you recite the mantra and that’s why Vajrasattva exists. So if we try to wipe off all our negative deeds from beginning this time by ourselves, we’ve really got no hope.
Vajrasattva exists as an emanation of enlightenment to help us to get rid of all these negative deeds that we’ve got. If we first of all go for refuge and then recite this mantra, it is a really powerful way of purifying our negative deeds. Geshe-la said to him said when he’s doing this, do you do you want him to say it once, twice, or three times? And I have no idea. But Elaine maybe does.
So if if you listen to it well, if you listen to it and you wanna hear vajra, then that’s fine. And if you wanna hear Benza, then that’s fine because they’re the same thing. Yeah. No. It’s fine.
I’ll join these guys. He said, now you’re not going to eat. And I’m not eating either today. Oh, so just be happy.