Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The main Buddhist goal is calm abiding, not mastery of all four samadhi levels — that clarification anchors this 27-minute session from Geshe Pema Tsering. He maps the structure of the third and fourth meditative concentrations in the form realm: each stage abandons the qualities of the one before, joy giving way to equanimity, pleasant feeling dissolving into pure neutral experience, then links each level to its corresponding god-realm rebirth. The practical point lands clearly: practitioners need the first level to develop uncontrived, spontaneous bodhicitta; the higher levels arise naturally as wisdom deepens. A lively Q&A closes with a direct question about bardo suffering, a survey of the four or six bardo framework, and a brisk dismissal of clairvoyants who claim to know where the dead have gone.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 16 LF 2004 11 09.mp3
UUID: 6404aaf3-8464-4fe2-a328-991789fe445f
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Letter to a Friend (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-11-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 27.3 minutes
Words: ~2,292
So the five different members or the five different aspects to the second level of meditative concentration. So, they’re getting rid of the investigation that brought about the first level, and the two, ease and joy, and then there’s also the concentration aspect of it, which brings about the ease and joy, and then the holding of these things together is the fifth aspect. In general, when we talk about the second meditative concentration, actually, you can talk about the aspects of it. But the way that it is described here. But usually, when we talk about these four levels of meditative concentration in the form realm, they are either said to have three different aspects or three different levels, so that makes a twelve all up, or they’re said to be eighteen different aspects to it, with the first meditation level having five different aspects, the second having four, the third having five, and the fourth having four.
So these are very subtle differentiations between different levels of meditative concentration that are still included within these four different levels of samadhi or these four different levels of meditative absorption. So the third dhyana or the third level of meditative absorption or concentration in the form realm is characterized by first of all abandoning the joy that came about with the dhyana, the second level of concentration. So this subtle connection with that joy is abandoned as the first aspect of the third level of concentration. Now the aspects or the things that are linked to the third level of concentration itself are said to be mindfulness or memory, mindfulness. The second thing is introspection.
The third thing is what’s called equanimous happiness or equanimous ease. Now, what that means is that in the previous state, a sense of bliss or joy came about in the meditator through the power of the meditation itself. Now, in this state, that joy is balanced in that being isn’t enjoying it or isn’t averse to it. They have an equanimous attitude to that state. And then there is still the happiness that comes through the meditative concentration.
So these are the elements of the five elements. So we have the mindfulness, the introspection, the equanimity, the meditation, the the bliss of meditation, and the meditation itself as the five elements of the third level of dhyana or the third concentration level. Okay. The fourth meditation level in the form realm. Sorry.. On the in the form realm.
In this state, the bliss that was developed on the third level is abandoned, and the meditation becomes even subtler. Now characteristics the fourth level itself. In this one, we said that there was a happiness or a bliss that came about through the meditative equipoise of the previous state. The fourth level is again abandoned and the characteristics of the fourth level of the form realm are said to be again mindfulness, then there’s also equanimity, then there’s what’s called equanimity of feeling so that means that in the aggregate of feeling that we experience we have either we experience either suffering feeling or happy feeling or equanimous feeling So, in this stage, the fourth level of the form realm, the experience of happy pleasant feelings and the experience of negative feelings are completely abandoned, and all that’s left is a feeling of equanimity. This links in with this idea that the bliss or the happiness of the previous level has been abandoned.
Then, also, there is the concentration aspect of fourth level of concentration that is another characteristic or another element of the fourth level of concentration. So this is what goes on in the as the fourth level of the form realm, this meditative concentration is developed. Okay. So The the meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings on these different levels of concentration actually cause or one causes for one to be reborn in different god realms. The first one, as the text mentioned, with meditating on the first level of concentration, you are creating the causes for being reborn in the realm of Brahma, on the second in the realm of Abhasvara, and the third in the realm of Shubhakrishna, and then the third in the realm of Brhatphala.
No. Sorry. Fourth in the realm of Brhatphala. So in a text that outlines all of these things called the Abhidharmakośa of Vasubandhu. Vasubandhu says there are four which are divided into two groups of two.
Four are divided into two groups of two, and they are all Samādhi or concentration. What it’s referring to here is that the first and third levels of concentration on the form realm have five different aspects to them. Then the second and fourth have four. Alright. So that’s two two twos.
And it says, having developed them, you will understand you will be able to concentrate single pointedly in an equanimous way on virtue. And it says, from this, you will develop five aggregates. Now, what this is referring to is the fact that in the form realm, while your mind is still is is subtle but subtle enough to concentrate single pointedly on objects, but not so subtle that can’t concentrate on objects, you still have five aggregates, and you still have an aggregate of form hence the name form realm and you have the aggregates of feeling. Though that feeling may consist of a continuous experience of equanimity, it’s still an aggregate of feeling, and you have an aggregate of discrimination, an aggregate of compounded factors, and an aggregate of consciousness. Once you work your way into the formless realm, you only have four aggregates.
So it’s saying that you’re able, if you follow in this way, then you’ll still be able to practice development of wisdom, perceiving emptiness, that it will be on the basis of this very, very fine state of meditative concentration. Geshe-la said, did that make sense I think that would have been very confusing. And he said, yeah. Probably really confusing. Probably no one understood it.
Did anyone understand any of it? He said. He said if you get if you can get a chance to look into these different levels of concentration, they’re really interesting. Oh, this is I was just telling you so that in because I’m doing, like, history of Buddhism at uni, and this comes up heaps because these levels of concentration were what the Buddha’s expertise was in. He that that like, they had these different levels of concentration in previous Hindu meditation techniques, but he was able to, like, master them and extrapolate on them to Of course not.
That’s why he was very impressed. Everyone was very impressed by his skill in meditation and that his ability to use the different levels of meditative concentration in order to develop wisdom. That’s what he Yeah. You mean the study of it the meditation of it? What are you talking about?
The meditation or the study? Meditation or study? Actually doing Actually doing it. He said. Said that almost all the monks in the monastery study this very thoroughly.
Said in order for in order to be able to meditate on it, you need to know it as very, like, incorporated in an incorporated way. So if they’re able to understand it very clearly, then they go off and meditate on it in their in their own time or or in retreat. But all of them get exposure to it. So whether they have developed the ability to be able to meditate on it or not depends on the individual monks. Until they become geshes, then they have to keep studying this kind of thing.
The big overview.. The main outlines of the cosmology and the meditative techniques are actually contained within the collection of works called the Abhidharma. But also in Prajñāpāramitā literature, the Abhisamayālamkāra, it goes through the development of these levels of meditation according to the sutras. And, also, in tantra, if you don’t have if you haven’t developed at least the at least the first level of meditative concentration I’m talking about here, then you can’t actually practice tantra. You’re just putting down imprint.
It isn’t actually essential to develop all four levels of these meditative concentrations. What we are mainly aiming for is the development of the first, which is calm abiding, another way of saying calm abiding. The actual experience of the first level of the form realm is the experience of calm abiding. On the basis of that, being is able to develop bodhicitta. They go through the paths of the Bodhisattva, develop a perception of emptiness, and so on.
The other levels are learned because they develop along with the development of wisdom. As one develops a perception of emptiness, a perception of selflessness, then these levels of concentration come about. In order to be able to recognize them and use them, that’s why they study it. But the main focus for Buddhists isn’t to develop these levels it’s to focus on the first level of calm abiding and work with that. So, in order for us so the main thing that we are that as Mahāyāna Buddhist, we focus on, it comes down to the bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment.
Now, need to develop the uncontrived mind of enlightenment. Now, in order for us to develop that uncontrived mind of enlightenment, we actually need the first level of Samādhi because it needs to be uncontrived. It needs to be unprocessed in terms of intellect. Yeah. But it needs to so we need to be developing it based on that very subtle mind in order for it to happen spontaneously in a in that single pointed, concentrated way because at the moment, our minds are so rough.
So yeah. Unsubtle. Unsubtle. Then we find it very difficult to concentrate on one thing. And so in order for us to develop an uncontrived experience of bodhicitta, we need this first level of concentration or a first level of the form realm mind.
It’s a gross mind at the moment as well. Yeah. Yeah. As in not subtle.
Sorry. It’s just to explain. Did I use too many of those? Uh-huh. Yes.
Yes. So without equanimity, can’t develop the other three because you’re focused on some people. Yeah. Yep. So when people die and they haven’t developed that Sorry.
They go chilling with said they’re not trained in any form of meditation whatsoever. Yeah. Yeah. I understand. I understood that bit.
But In that intermediate state before rebirth, do they have any form of mental suffering? Okay. This is what this is my problem. Right? If I say that to Geshe-la, right?
He’s just gonna laugh his head off at me. Okay. Any moment in Samsāra is defined as suffering. Okay. So you have to tell me what kind of suffering.
Do you mean all pervasive suffering? Do you mean suffering of change? Or do you mean manifest experience of either physical or mental anguish? Because honestly, if I say, do they have suffering in the bardo? Or it’s gonna be like, ah.
And then that there’s another thing that I had to say. Which? If as as they’re sentient beings, if they have created the causes for for manifest suffering, they’ll experience manifest suffering. And if they have created the causes for happiness, they will create experience happiness. And this is exactly the same for everybody else.
And then I said and he said, Depending on what level of concentration I have, and I said, Ordinary beings, and he said, Oh no, ordinary beings who haven’t developed any particular stage of realization, he goes, Well, beings that are practicing Dharma? I said, Oh, maybe, maybe not. And he said, Well, if they’re not practicing Dharma, of course, they’re not going to experience any suffering. Which it was a joke. He was taking Yes.
Okay. So I said, you know, there’s there’s either four or six different bardos, and depending on which way you’re looking at it, there’s a bardo of birth, bardo of death, bardo of becoming, bardo of one, two, three. Bardo of death, bardo of birth, bardo of becoming. I’ve missed one. Pardon?
Did you follow-up? Oh, yeah. And it’s Chukuki. Oh, yeah. Right.
Open up another can of worms. Okay. So if all of life is an in between birth and death, in between death and birth, in between the disintegrating of the mind and the arising of the mind. There’s always intermediate states, so we’re always experiencing suffering until we become arhats, until we get rid of the obstructions to liberation. You can’t say they’re not going to experience suffering here or there.
If they have created the causes for happiness, they’ll experience happiness. If they’ve created causes for suffering, they’ll experience suffering. Doing things then they die and they go to heaven. You know? Uh-huh.
They die and there’s no suffering. And a lot of psychics out there who do all these readings to people or tell them, like, whatever. They tell the relative, oh, your relative’s fine. You know? There’s no suffering, they’re happy, whatever.
So a lot of people, they believe that when they die, that that they’re not going to be suffering, so that’s why I’m Okay. So it was just that when I have to ask Geshe-la a question, it has to very specific. Otherwise, it’s like you can go off on a tangent that you don’t need. That’s why it’s and then, again, said that this happens in Tibetan culture as well, that there’s people that say they’ve got clairvoyance, and they can see where everyone goes after their family says, basically, it’s all rubbish. No.
Okay.