Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A verse from Lama Tsongkhapa — calm abiding “sits like a mountain, a king to rule the mind” — anchors this 44-minute commentary in which Geshe Pema Tsering works through the fifth and sixth perfections of the Lamrim. He distinguishes worldly from transmundane meditative concentration, explaining that calm abiding becomes a true perfection only when motivated by bodhicitta. He then covers calm abiding’s three functions: physical and mental joy experienced in this lifetime, development of higher qualities such as clairvoyance, and the power to direct the mind to any virtuous object at will. Mental wandering is named the hidden inner enemy — deceptively friendly, appearing as useful planning, yet the main obstacle blocking genuine practice. The session closes with the perfection of wisdom: the Prāsaṇgika philosophical school’s understanding of emptiness as ultimate truth, conventional truths such as the Four Noble Truths, and the wisdom that works actively for the benefit of all beings.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 36 2004 06 29 RG.mp3
UUID: a876aaf7-2d9e-42a0-a71a-9c4e9dd570f8
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Essence of Refined Gold (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-06-29
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 43.6 minutes
Words: ~3,765
Okay. We need to develop the right motivation for listening to the teaching from the graduated path. Today, going to be doing the perfection of meditation or perfection of meditative concentration. In order to listen to teachings on this, we need to have the right motivation. The right motivation for listening to teachings of this kind is that we are doing it in order to become Buddhas, in order to be of the utmost benefit to all other sentient beings, to each and every other sentient being. The reason that we need to become Buddhas and benefit all sentient beings is that just like us, all other sentient beings want to be happy and they don’t want to experience suffering.
At the moment, they don’t know how to create the causes for experiencing happiness, so in striving for happiness, instead they create the causes for suffering. Because they’re in this situation, they need someone to show them, to point out to them a better way of doing it. And the only way that we can really do that properly is with the skill of a Buddha. So we need to really become a Buddha in order to benefit all the other sentient beings. So we need to really start looking at doing everything with that kind of motivation.
Sorry, was just having to clarify something. Because Geshe-la started off by saying that all dharmas are either virtuous, non virtuous, neutral. I didn’t know which context he was using the word dharma because there’s actually twelve different definitions for the word dharma. This context is the definition of the word dharma that it’s the usage of the word dharma where its definition is something distinguished by its own characteristics or its own nature. So this means any phenomenon.
So dharma has all these different meanings. Sometimes you come across it means phenomena. So all phenomena, I just had to make sure which dharma it was, all phenomena can either be divided into virtuous, non virtuous, or neutral. Everything that we do, everything that we come across can be divided into those three sections. The reason it is divided into these three sections is not by its nature but by with the motivation with which a sentient being deals with it or does it.
Right? So this means that any action that we do becomes virtuous or unvirtuous, not by the action itself, but the motivation or intention with which it is done. So if we do anything for our own benefit, it may be a virtuous action. We may have this idea of doing something in order to get ourselves a good rebirth or to achieve liberation, but it’s never going to be as beneficial as if we do something with the motivation to benefit all sentient beings. If we do something with the motivation to benefit all sentient beings, the scope of our motivation becomes enormously vast as opposed to a very narrow view of trying to benefit ourselves.
Now, if we work towards our own benefit, we are getting things towards our own benefit. It can work in one of two ways. We can actually achieve something beneficial for working for our own benefit if it’s personal liberation. But the scope of our motivation means that the scope of our realizations, the scope of our understandings are going to be limited because they’re only focused on one being. If on the other hand we’re able to develop the idea of working towards the benefit of all sentient beings, then that means that because the scope of our motivation is so vast that the results of our actions will be very vast as well.
So Geshe said, so with these ideas in mind, and have the motivation that you’re listening to this teaching on the perfection of meditation in order to benefit all sentient beings. And then listen, he said, and then listen. That is it. Listen. Listen.
Mhmm. Right. So perfection that we’re dealing with today. We’re dealing with the perfection of meditative concentration. Now, meditative concentration and the perfection of meditative concentration are two different things.
Meditative concentration can have different parts to it. We can talk about worldly meditative concentration and trans mundane meditative concentration, but if it’s not conjoined with bodhicitta, it doesn’t become the perfection of meditative concentration. The worldly paths lead to higher states of consciousness or subtler states of consciousness, and the transmundane paths lead to nirvana. In general as well, when we talk about the last two of the perfections, the perfection of meditative concentration and the perfection of wisdom, the perfection of meditative concentration is usually referring to the development of calm abiding or śamatha meditation, and the last of the perfections, perfection of wisdom, deals with vipaśyanā or special insight meditations and so forth. So the difference between what’s called the mundane or worldly and the transmundane or non worldly types of meditative concentration is that the mundane or worldly meditative concentrations can be developed by anyone, not depending on what their motivation for doing is.
Many people who aren’t Buddhist or who aren’t working even towards a good rebirth somewhere can develop these levels of concentration, for example, abiding and so on. They can develop these even with the motivation of being able to do negative things. On the other hand, the transmundane powers or non worldly powers, these levels of meditative concentration which are developed with the motivation and are used in order to get rid of the things that need to be abandoned, that is attachment and so forth, and to develop the things that need to be developed. This is loving kind ness and so forth. So these are worldly paths, mundane versions of this concentration.
They can be developed by people who wish to achieve happiness or bliss of body and mind in this lifetime, or by those who wish to achieve happiness or bliss of body and mind in another lifetime or in another state. So, if this is the focus for it, just bliss and personal happiness, and then it’s said to be a mundane path. So, by developing calm abiding or shamata states, which is the ability to focus single pointedly on any object without letting any discursive thought come up in the mind for as long as you want. So this ability, it can be developed by anyone and is developed by many people in different traditions and different backgrounds. So if you’re able to single pointedly concentrate on any object and not be distracted by discursive thoughts of the future or the past or the present, then you are able to achieve great bliss of body and mind because you are not distracted by any negative emotional suffering.
But this isn’t something that true liberation. So, beings who are not striving for the nirvana or the true cessation of suffering can actually achieve these states of concentration and subdue their suffering for great periods of time and abide in a subtle state of mind. In certain traditions, this is actually considered to be liberation. Subduing of negative states of mind as opposed to the obliteration of states of mind is considered to be liberation. So, actually have this idea of working towards what they consider to be liberation.
But, from the Buddhist point of view, subduing negative minds isn’t liberation, and only in the Buddhist tradition do you have the concept of working towards Buddhahood, because only the Buddhist tradition has the concept of Buddhahood. So, in all different traditions, we have this idea of working towards personal liberation depending on what the concept of personal liberation is, but only in the Buddhist tradition is this idea of using these levels of meditative concentration in order to develop insight into reality and therefore work towards Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. Concentration with the motivation of bodhicitta, with the motivation of achieving enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, that they will use these levels of meditative concentration in order to develop insight and progress towards becoming a Buddha, then that is the perfection of meditative concentration. So, the motivation is bodhicitta, the practice becomes the perfection of meditative concentration. If the motivation isn’t bodhicitta, it’s not perfection.
In general, when these explanations of the last two perfections, in the way of concentration perfection and the perfection of wisdom are given, they’re usually talked about in three sections. The first is the development of calm abiding or śamatha, which is the perfection of concentration. The second is the development of vipaśyanā or special insight, which is the perfection of wisdom, perceiving things, the nature of reality. The third is the combination of these two, how to combine calm abiding and special insight. So the way that these two different things work together briefly is that calm abiding or Shimata meditation leads to, or calm abiding in śamatha actually is the end result of śamatha meditation which is the ability to single pointedly focus on any object for as long as you want without being distracted by anything, without having any other discursive thoughts arise in your mind.
So once you’ve developed this level of meditative stabilization, if you then apply an investigation to that state and examine the nature of that state, then that is special insight. So, you can’t have special insight if you don’t have that stabilized level of mind. So, you need to have your mind completely stable and able to concentrate on one single object. Then by investigating the nature of that object, which isn’t developing discursive thought, it’s looking at the nature of that object, then you develop special insight. Okay, so the combination of these two things happens when you have calm abiding which gives rise to happiness of body and mind.
You have a pleasant or happy state of body and mind that is single pointedly concentrated on the one object and then you can investigate that object at that same stage so you still have a single pointed mind but you’re looking at the nature of that object as opposed to the object itself. Then by focusing on the nature of that object, also develop a bliss or happiness from being able to single pointedly focus on the nature of reality with regards to this object. That means that two of those things are inseparable or they are joined together. The concept of investigation is there and the concept of single point of concentration is there and together they give generate this great bliss. So the combination of those two things is the goal of this practice, not just to develop one and then the other, but to combine them.
So by activities or from the point of view of function, when training in the concentrations, you are abiding in physical and mental joy and that is the first function of calm abiding is that you abide in physical and mental joy and that’s experienced in this very life, not something that you experience in future life. It’s something you’re able to experience in this life once you develop single point of concentration. Based on this level of concentration, you’re able to develop higher quality such as clairvoyance. Oh, this guy. Yes.
I know the guy that did this translation. He’s really mystical. So every time I keep coming across things like you develop magical powers, I’m like, oh. Anyway, Geshe-la said that in the Tibetan it says you develop actually higher qualities such as clairvoyance, etcetera. And Glenn Barry’s got clairvoyance and magical powers in his etcetera.
So I was just like, Geshe-la, what’s he up to with this? And he goes, Well magical powers is one amongst about three hundred different qualities that you can develop. Yeah, so it’s all the different types of higher qualities that you can use if you are able to single pointly concentrate on one object. That’s the second type. You have the first one is experiencing joy and bliss and body and mind in this lifetime, and then the second one is clairvoyance and magical powers, and the third one is accomplishing the needs of the world, which is developing bodhicitta.
From the point of view of function also, what developing calm abiding, or Shamatha meditation does is to get rid of two things from our It’s training in getting rid of two things from our mind. The first one is stupor or stodginess. Sinking, falling asleep is the most extreme version of it. Any kind of dullness in our mind is the first thing that you’re training to get rid of in the development of calm abiding. The second one is agitation or excitement in the mind.
This is basically when the mind runs off and thinks about all different kinds of things, about the future, the past, and making plans or regretting things or whatever. Actually, the development of meditative concentration, what you’re doing is working towards a state where you are able to single pointedly clearly focus on one object without any kind of sinking or without any kind of agitation at all. So that’s, like, the function of the development of calm abiding. Mhmm. That is.
So, to quote from Lama Tsongkhapa’s continuing poem, calm abiding or meditative concentration, when it’s developed, is said to be the king to rule the mind. When stabilized, it sits like a mountain. So, when you say the king to rule like a mind, rule the mind, what that means is that if we have an autocratic king, then his subjects do whatever he says. They do exactly what they’re told. So if you’re able to develop this level of concentration, it means that your mind will do exactly what you tell it to do.
Whatever you want to concentrate on, it will concentrate on that. There will be no distractions. There will be no discursive thoughts that come about without you wishing to engage in those. So in this way, it’s said to be like a king that rules the mind. And then also, when stabilized, sits like a mountain.
So, the with the same way a mountain is still and unshakable, then meditative concentration behaves like this as well. Then it’s it said then it is when directed it can enter into all virtuous meditations and so forth. So this means because this level of mind or this development of concentration means that you’re not distracted by anything. It means that you can focus on anything virtuous that you want for as long as you want. So if you want to meditate on, for example, bodhicitta, or you want to meditate on emptiness, you want to meditate on loving kindness, or whatever it is you want to meditate on, you just focus on that object and you can focus on that object for as long as you want and to develop a greater and greater understanding of that for as long as it takes.
So, this means that you have the ability to actually focus on something virtuous without having negative minds come into your head or negative thoughts come into your head. So this is why it’s said to be, when directed, it can enter into a virtuous meditation. It means that you have the ability to focus on something virtuous for as long as you want. And that? Without having non virtuous activity come up.
Yep. And it leads to every physical and mental joy. Another way you can translate this would be it leads to physical and mental pliancy. What this means is that not only is the mind able to be absolutely controlled as a king would control a kingdom and to sit still like a mountain but the actual meditator themselves experiences bliss or happiness of physical and mental bliss or happiness and by plant it means that whichever way they’re sitting, whatever they’re doing, whatever they’re concentrating with single point of concentration, they’re happy. They don’t have to be comfortable physically and mentally because they already are in themselves.
So the last bit says, knowing these great yogis always rely upon it. There’s a destroyer of the inner enemy, mental wandering. So when it says the destroyer of the inner enemy, mental wandering, mental wandering refers to what our mind tends to do all the time. Mental wandering is thinking about this lifetime planning. When we sit down to do something virtuous, your front mind goes, well, after this, I’m gonna do this and this and this and this, and then I’m gonna plan this and this and this.
And if I think about this, then that will happen after this. And all of these kind of discursive thoughts are chomped on, oh that’s Tibetan, are stomped on by this meditative concentration. So it has the ability to completely destroy this mental wondering about what we’re going to do when and where and about this lifetime. So, knowing this, it says great yogis, or just as yogis actually, great yogis use it all the time. So, this mental wandering is a This mental wandering is actually a pretty serious enemy.
If we wanted to find our real enemies, we need to really look at mental wandering because this mental wandering is what stops us from becoming enlightened in actuality, in our experience. If we watch our mind when we’re trying to concentrate on doing something virtuous, our head usually goes somewhere else and I keep giggling because this is like my experience. We’re trying to do something positive. We have this idea of doing something positive, but as soon as we start, our minds off on one. It’s like we’re going to figure out some way to make ourselves happy in this lifetime.
We re going to figure out how to get money, how to feel comfortable, how to make ourselves happy at the moment. And so this is like this discursive thought, ideas about doing this and this and that and all sorts of things which are propelled by self-cherishing, are what stops us becoming Buddhists. So they are a very serious enemy that we really, that we don’t know about. We actually, they appear to us as being our friends, as being the plans and the ideas and the actions that will make us happy, but in actual fact, they’re what stops us from being out of concentrate on what will actually make us happy. So the sixth of the perfections is the perfection of wisdom.
Because it’s a perfection of wisdom, this means that it needs to be conjoined with or it needs to be motivated by our bodhicitta. If something is an understanding of emptiness without the motivation of bodhicitta, it still isn’t the perfection of wisdom. So, when we talk about the perfection of wisdom, we’re talking about three different types of wisdom. The first is what’s called wisdom of ultimate reality. This is the wisdom that realizes thatness, which is another way of saying emptiness of inherent existence.
The wisdom that realizes thatness and is therefore able to extract the root of saṃsāra. The root of saṃsāra being grasping at true existence. So if you’re able to perceive that you and all other things do not exist inherently, then this wisdom obliterates the roots of saṃsāra, the cause for saṃsāra. So, it’s the first type of wisdom that’s included within the perfection of wisdom, the perfection of wisdom of ultimate truth. Then, there’s also the perfection of wisdom of relative truth or conventional truth.
This is the wisdom that realizes the four conventional realities, so for example, the Four Noble Truths. The third one, in dependence on these two, on realizing ultimate reality and relative reality or conventional reality, reality, then we are able to train in the wisdom of benefiting others. Now from the Okay. When it says thatness or the emptiness, what they’re referring to is prasangika’s presentation of the lack of inherent existence of all phenomena, that all phenomena are merely labeled and don’t have an ounce of inherent existence. This is the ultimate view of emptiness.
When they said the wisdom realizing ultimate reality, that’s what that is. When it says the wisdom realizing relative reality, then that includes such things as impermanence, it includes such things as selflessness, and also the truth of suffering, the truth of cessation of suffering, the truth of path, anything that isn’t the direct perception of the prasangika view of emptiness. Now, there’s all these different philosophical schools in Tibetan Buddhist thought and anything that is, they all have different definitions of emptiness which can also be realized. Any of those as well are considered to be a relative truth. Their description is of emptiness when they’re compared to prasangika are said to be relative truth.
The only that’s considered to be ultimate truth is the direct perception of the lack of inherent existence as defined by its characteristics. Once you realize that, then that’s ultimate truth and everything else, all the other realizations of emptiness are said to be a relative truth. So in dependence on these two realizations then develop what’s called the wisdom which accomplishes the needs of sentient beings. This is a practice of bodhisattvas in which they work for the benefits of sentient beings by training them in four ways.
So, this is what that refers to: the realization of ultimate and relative truths, ultimate and relative truth leads to the desire to work for the benefit of all sentient beings in certain ways, training in these certain ways. That’s the third wisdom. Okay. So, Tsongkhapa said, with regards to this, that wisdom is the eye to seeing thatness or seeing emptiness, the practice which pulls out saṃsāra’s roots, that is the perception of inherent existence. The treasure of excellence is praised in all scriptures.
The reason that this is praised in the scriptures is said to be because it is the cause or the foundation for developing all of these different types of positive qualities that we can develop once we realize emptiness. It’s the supreme lamp to dispel dark ignorance. If you have this, then ignorance can’t exist at the same time. If you have the wisdom perceiving emptiness, you can’t have ignorance of inherent existence at the same time. It’s the antidote to it.
Then, knowing this, the wise seeking freedom, dedicate every effort to generating it.