Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A verse from Śāntideva — that believing “I can’t become enlightened” is a form of laziness — opens this 45-minute talk by Geshe Pema Tsering. He builds from there: all beings share the same Buddha nature as the historical Buddhas, the Mahāyāna path runs through renunciation, great compassion, and the understanding of emptiness, and desire can ultimately be eliminated precisely because it lacks a valid base. The second half turns practical, covering placement meditation and its three main obstacles: laxity (mental slackness, countered by tightening the mind), agitation (the mind chasing desired objects, countered by relaxing), and scatteredness (the mind drifting toward positive objects — less harmful but still disruptive). Geshe Pema Tsering closes with the “self-watcher,” a metacognitive awareness that monitors the meditation and adjusts accordingly — then points out that even mastering this does not yet constitute calm abiding.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 HtM 2003 06 24.mp3
UUID: 67252fcc-eb72-4603-a435-f40a783d9688
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: z DB How to meditate (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-06-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~3,875
Yeah. I said, Geshe, if you put it on if you put it on first and then turn it on, it won’t go. He said, I like it when it goes. It wakes people up. Oh, yeah.
Okay, so Śāntideva in the Bodhicaryāvatāra said that thinking we can’t become enlightened is a type of laziness that we shouldn’t indulge in so what this means is what he’s talking about is this idea that I can’t do it for some reason I can’t become enlightened is not something is not a positive way to look at things we need to make our mind incredibly broad instead of closing our mind down we need to think at all times I can achieve enlightenment I am capable of doing it and so but if we don’t have that idea if we think that we’re not capable we don’t have the ability we close our mind down and this is is type of laziness or being attached to negative things that we just can’t afford to indulge in. So the Buddha was exactly all Buddhas were exactly the same as us before they abandoned what needed to be abandoned, practiced what needed to be practiced and achieved Buddhahood but they’re exactly the same as us before they did that and because we have Buddha nature we have the same Buddha nature as them we have the same ability and to become Buddhas as they had then there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t become a Buddha So, Śākyamūni Buddha and Milarepa and other people that we know of that achieved complete enlightenment did so from similar conditions to us.
They had, they had negativities in their mind, things they needed to get abandoned, and they had, they were trying to develop their qualities and they had Buddha nature and they achieved Buddhahood. So if we practice in the same way they did and we get rid of our negativities and we practice and try and increase our qualities then we’ll become Buddha’s exactly the same way that they did. There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t become a Buddha. The way that the Buddhas achieved Buddhahood from starting off like us, the way that they achieved Buddhahood was that they developed renunciation. They practiced bodhicitta.
They developed their understanding of emptiness until they realized it directly and then they developed on top of that and achieved Buddhahood. That was the path that they followed. By developing bodhicitta they followed what’s called the Mahāyāna path or the greater vehicle towards Buddhahood. That is that they did it for the benefit of all beings not just seeking liberation for themselves. So in a like manner all of us have the cause to develop the nature of the Mahāyāna within us we we have the ability to develop great compassion which acts as the nature of the Mahāyāna and through that we have the ability to achieve Buddhahood so even if we think I can achieve bodhicitta then we don’t need to necessarily focus on bodhicitta if we just focus on great compassion or this idea that we want all sentient beings to be free from suffering then bodhicitta naturally arises after that so we just have to try and focus on the idea that we don’t want any single being to suffer and that should be the focus of our attention because by achieving that mind by developing that mind or that way of thinking then we have put into place the nature of the Mahāyāna in their mind streams and that’s one of the main causes for us to achieve complete enlightenment.
What we need to try and focus on is then developing this great compassion. The definition of great compassion is to have the idea as a main mind an unfabricated main mind that all that we want all beings to be free from suffering and that’s the idea that we need to focus on that acts as the cause for the rest of the path In order for us to develop this great compassion, first of all, we have to understand what the sufferings of all beings is because we can’t wish for people to be free from something that we don’t understand what it is. In order for us to understand the sufferings of all beings, we need to understand our own suffering we don’t understand our own suffering then we can’t understand the sufferings of others understanding completely our own suffering gives rise to the thought of renunciation because if we understand if we understand our own suffering properly then we add our mind turns away from Samsāra it turns away from wanting to engage in more activities that will cause more suffering so with reference to our self understanding suffering is called renunciation when we turn that outwards and think about all others thinking that we know we don’t want any other beings to suffer is called great compassion so that means necessarily that renunciation has to come before great compassion.
So, Geshe-la says, First of all, we have to develop a sense of our own suffering, something that we don’t think about. Most of the time we think, Yeah, well, I’m alright. I’m happy. I’m healthy. My body’s great.
I’m enjoying life, so I’m not suffering. We have this idea in our head all the time. So that is the thing we think most of the time it just doesn’t happen to be true So that’s the way we imagine it to be if we don’t think about it. If we don’t think about it, then we think we’re fine. If we start thinking about it, we understand that we’re not fine.
We understand that our very existence is made up of suffering. We kind of understand the suffering of suffering a little bit. We don’t have a clue about usually about the suffering of change in the way that our mind works in a day to day manner and absolutely no idea about all pervasive suffering in the way that we usually think understanding the suffering of suffering isn’t that big a deal either because, even cats understand when they’re suffering cats know when they’re suffering and know when they’re not suffering the suffering of suffering they know when they’re sick they know when they’re not sick they know that they don’t feel comfortable when they’re sick and they feel better when they’re well so for us to understand that we’re sick when we’re sick and think that we’re not sick when we aren’t sick isn’t that big an accomplishment All we have to understand is that even when we’re not sick, we’re still suffering. So what we need to understand is that just by being born we suffered and by being born that means that we’re going to die by the actual process of being born that certifies that we’re going to die or make certain that we’re going to die so that means that we by the actual act of being born we’ve started suffering and it isn’t anything else but suffering if we don’t think about it there’s no way we can know this but if we keep thinking about it and we keep analyzing it there’s no way that we can’t know that So, because in our continuum, because in our mind stream, we have what’s called self grasping and self-cherishing, that means that also have that are caused by ignorance.
That means that we also have suffering because through self grasping and self-cherishing we create negative karma that leads us to experience the results of that negative karma which is suffering so that self grasping that that self-cherishing causes us nothing but suffering and therefore in itself is like an illness or is an illness. So this means that we have no real independence. We have no sway over what happens to us because it comes about because of our karma that we did in the past which came about because of our negative thought patterns so this means that we’re like a slave to our desires were a slave to our hatred were a slave to our pride We do things as a reaction to these emotions or ways of thinking. So, since beginningless time until now, we’ve been under this way of of, ignorance desire and, ignorance attachment and hatred. Everything we’ve done has been because of those and because of those we’ve created samsaric existence they’ve come about because we’ve done things under the influence of these negative ways of thinking the way that we get rid of those the way that we see through those and therefore sever our bondage or their hold on us is through meditating on compassion and emptiness and renunciation by doing these practices then we can actually get out of saṃsāra if we don’t do those practices we’re going to keep in saṃsāra the way that we’ve been in saṃsāra since beginningless time so we need to focus on these in these things in order to get out of saṃsāra now the way that they keep us in saṃsāra the way that these negative emotions affect us is that they that we think that they’re our friends we think that our deserve getting what we desire will help us and we think that getting angry will help us get what we desire and we think that considering ourselves to be important grasping at ourselves at a sense of self and holding on to that tightly will help us.
So the way that we’ve come under this way is thinking that these three negative ways of thinking are actually our friends, that they’re going to be a benefit to us. So what we have to do is we have to start recognizing these negative emotions and we have to start thinking okay anger okay and desire okay ignorance you keep pretending that you’re helping me but I know what you’re up to I know what you’re doing and you’re not really helping me by you you say that you’re gonna help me, but in actual fact, you’re just creating more circumstances that will make me suffer. So I know what you’re up to, and I’m gonna stop you. This is the way that we have to think. So so this is the way that we need to train our minds if we keep thinking like this if we keep thinking these emotions or these feelings or these ways of thinking aren’t helping me they’re only causing me more suffering and we keep meditating on that then we won’t experience then we will get that into our into our heads and we won’t experience and we won’t do any more negativities and therefore we won’t experience any more suffering and that’s where that happens out of these especially desire is really bad desire is one of the things that can cause us a lot more suffering the main reason that desire is really bad is because desire doesn’t have an end no matter how much we desire no matter how much we grasp towards things we can’t find any end to that grasping we never feel satisfied from our grasping that’s why desire is considered incredibly negative the thing with desire though is that it doesn’t have what’s called a valid base the base for our desires is our grasping at a sense of self which isn’t a valid thought because it’s not there so that means that desire can be obliterated it can be wiped out because it doesn’t have a logical reason for existing on the other hand thoughts such as compassion and the mind realizing emptiness these sort of things they do have a valid base so they just get greater and greater in their scope and once they’re developed there is no end to those because they do have a valid base so even though desire is a very negative mind it’s also it’s flawed in the way that it doesn’t have a base, so therefore it can be obliterated.
So the thought process that we need to go through is okay I’m suffering and I’m suffering because of these negative ways of thinking that I have which caused me to do negative actions which caused me to experience the results of those negative actions and therefore I suffer and in just the same way as I suffer then all beings suffer and because they have shown me great kindness in past lives or perhaps in this life then I don’t want them to suffer because they’re experiencing the same thing as me so in order for me not only to make myself stop suffering but try and help all sentient beings stop suffering then I need to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible so should we should have this thought as quickly as possible and by the merits of whatever it is that I’m going to do in combination with all the good things that all the beings over the five different classes of beings have done, may I quickly attain enlightenment so I can be of benefit to these beings. So we should think, whatever it is that I’m going to do, I need to do that in order to create merit, in order to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings and I need to do that as quickly as possible.
With this thought in mind we should try and meditate on that thought for a few minutes So, we’ve been talking about meditation. We talked a lot about meditation in the last three weeks. So, in the previous weeks, were talking about different types of meditation. We were talking about how there’s analytical meditation, placement meditation, there’s meditations where we visualize something, there’s meditations where we try and get our mind to assume the same aspects as the thing we’re focusing on. What we’re going to talk tonight about is placement meditation or more specifically the things that can act as obstructions to placement meditation.
So, when we’re talking about placement meditation, we just talked about last week doing analytical meditation or perhaps placement meditation on things like emptiness or impermanence, things like that. Now because we can’t really do because we haven’t realized impermanence or realized emptiness it’s very difficult to be impossible for us to do placement meditations on these objects at the moment so if we wanted to practice placement meditation then the object we should take for a meditation would be a thing like a statue or an image of the Buddha, Buddha Śākyamūni or Tārā or Chenrezig or some other holy object like that or some other sacred objects like that and once we start focusing on this object what placement meditation is is having mind single pointedly paying attention to that object that we are visualizing right so now this single pointed concentration should have two different characteristics to it on the one hand it should be clear so the image should be clear in our mind and on the other hand it should be steadfast it shouldn’t flicker in and out or become wavy so it has these two aspects to the thing that we’re focusing on. So when we first start doing placement meditation, we don’t have either clarity or stability.
If we do manage to get an image, visualize an image in our mind, it’s usually like we’re watching something blowing in the wind, it comes and goes. Or, either that or as soon as we visualize an image in our mind, we forget it straight away. We have these things happening when we first start trying to do placement meditation. The two things that make us not be able to focus on the object that we’re trying to focus on is what’s called laxity or lethargy and the other one is agitation kind of scattering agitation or excitement. So the way that laxity manifests itself is that the aspect of clarity in the thing that we’re focusing on isn’t there.
The aspect of clarity either diminishes or is completely wiped out by this thing called laxity. At the beginning, it’s even very difficult for us to understand what subtle laxity is unless we’ve done a lot of meditation then we won’t recognize it. We can recognize it in its gross form though because that’s just like falling asleep so that’s the grosser form of this laxity but the more subtle form of the laxity is something that’s difficult for us to recognize at the beginning Now the thing that stops us from being able to abide single pointedly on an object is what’s called excitement. Excitement is a type of desire or attachment so our mind what happens is our mind gets distracted by things that we want or the things that we keep thinking about so this is this is what’s called excitement and stops us from being able to focus on an object properly. If we can control our desires, we can focus better in our meditations.
Laxity manifests when we’re meditating is by this incredible slackness of our mind our mind becomes slack there’s no tautness to it at all it’s a it becomes almost weak as well as a weakness or a relaxedness to our mind so that we can’t focus properly on the thing that we’re trying to focus on because there’s no clarity there because the mind has become so relaxed. So the cause for this is once again laziness or the thing that’s usually translated as laziness but it could also mean being attached to things that are is not good for us to be attached to so that’s what causes it what is what is the cause of this laxity the way that laxity feels to us when we’re meditating is as if we’ve got a really heavy hat on and we’ve got this pressing down on our mind. The antidote for this laxity is to tighten our mind to pull our mind in to not let it relax as much but at the same time as we do this as we tighten our mind up there’s also the danger then that we could go into what’s called excitement because we’ve made our minds so tight that it becomes agitated and chases after things that we desire.
Okay, so our mind can then get agitated and start chasing after things and different things but depending on what the things are that it’s chasing after, it’s either this agitation that we were talking about before or it’s something else that’s called scattering. So, if the thing that our minds started to focus on and it’s moved away from its objective meditation focusing on something positive that’s called having a scattered mind but it’s not this excitement or agitation. If the thing that our mind has focused on to is a negative thing like something that we desire or something that we’re willing to chase after then that’s what’s called excitement or agitation so for example if we had a mind if we were trying to concentrate on a meditation but instead of meditating on Buddha but then we started thinking about the qualities of the Buddha instead that would be scattering. Our mind would be scattered away from our object of meditation, but it wouldn’t be this agitation or excitement because the thing that we’re focusing on isn’t a negative thing for us to focus on. This scatteredness and agitation or excitement both have the same effect on our meditation.
They both take us away from the object that we’re meditating on so that means that they are when we’re trying to do calm abiding meditation or placement meditation both excitement and scatteredness harm our meditative practice practice the difference between them is though that this scatteredness isn’t a negativity isn’t a negative action isn’t something that creates negative karma but the excitement or agitation the chasing the mind chasing after desires is a negative action, is something that creates negative karmas So the antidote to this agitation is to let the mind relax a little bit to relax the mind a little bit but when we do this relaxing we have to remember not to relax the mind too much because if you relax the mind too much then we’ll fall back into the laxity that we were talking before and then we’ll have to tighten the mind again and that tightening the by tightening the mind again we could also have the danger again of becoming agitated. These three things that we’re talking about, the scatteredness, the excitement, and the laxity are the main things that are obstacles to our meditation however because only two of them are negativities and they’re the two that are usually referred to.
Now the way that we establish whether we have agitation or excitement sorry or laxity in our meditative practice is by watching ourselves being aware of our self or mindful of what it is that we are meditating on so we have to be have like a little self watcher is a little translation that watches what it is that we’re meditating on and sees if there’s agitation there or sees if there’s excitement, sees if there’s scatteredness, and sees if there’s laxity. So while we’re meditating if we have this awareness or self awareness happening then we can note that we have a we may have there’s a danger that we may generate excitement and we can let our mind relax a little bit so that we don’t generate excitement and then another time we may realize that there’s a danger that we may we may have laxity in our meditation and so therefore by watching with our self awareness we can tighten our mind up a little bit to focus back on the object so by using this this self awareness we can stay concentrated on our meditative object and have both clarity and stability and have a good meditation and that comes about because of our self awareness while we’re meditating.
Okay, so we’ve got this little part of our mind that’s watching our meditation and then we can see okay now I have to bring the mind down a little bit it’s getting a bit excited or another time we can say okay I have to push the mind up a little bit to make it tighter because it’s getting lax and we can keep watching this and by with our experience of meditating then we can be able to concentrate better on the object that we’re focusing on and by using this self watcher or this self awareness we can focus properly on the object now in Tibetan Geshe-la said now that’s meditation right but in Tibetan that is meditation that’s when they say meditation they mean single pointedly focusing on an object so when we can do that that’s meditation according to these guys or placement meditation. He said, that’s not calm abiding even if we can do this and notice these little tendencies in our mind, it’s still not calm abiding meditation.