Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The rope of mindfulness subduing the elephant of the mind anchors Khensur Rinpoche’s 48-minute seventh session from his 1990 Calm Abiding Retreat. He recaps the first four mental abidings and the powers that underpin them, then works through abidings five to eight. The session centers on a careful analysis of the two main obstacles: coarse and subtle excitement (ranging from the object being lost entirely to part of the mind drifting toward desire) and coarse and subtle laxity (the object held but dark and unclear). He explains why the fifth and sixth abidings require introspective awareness — not mindfulness — to detect and correct these faults, and how by the eighth the mind rests in something very close to actual calm abiding. Suited to practitioners actively working through the nine mental abidings.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 Calm A 1990 06 11.mp3
UUID: e9140c1f-beeb-448d-8fbb-9e24128d35d0
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Calm Abiding Retreat (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1990-06-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 48.4 minutes
Words: ~2,141
So, among the nine mental abidings, we have completed the first four setting the mind, continuous setting, resetting, and close setting. So, amongst the six powers, the first mental abiding is attained by means of the first power that is of hearing. And this is due to the fact that in dependence upon listening to the teachings of the teacher, of the spiritual teacher in accordance to what object is to be taken as a basis for development and how to set the mind on it by means of that hearing, one sets the mind. And therefore, the setting of the mind is attained by the power of hearing. With respect to the object upon which we’re going to develop calm abiding.
Once we have identified that object, we can take whatever object that we so desire. It’s our individual choice. But, once that object has been decided upon, then it should remain the object the basis of our development throughout our training in calm abiding until we actually achieve calm abiding. If we are continually switching the object the basis of development, first we use a letter and then, we use a Buddha and then, we switch to some type of light. Then, we will never, in this way, develop calm abiding.
So, once we’ve decided upon a particular object as a basis for development, throughout the entire training in the practice of development of calm abiding, we should keep that same object until the actual attainment. So, it’s just the same as in any type of work. You know, we should consider what type of goals that we want to achieve and considering for oneself what is good, what you like to do, what is best for you as an individual. And then having decided that to pursue that type of work which is going to achieve that end. If you begin some type of work and then you set that aside and you start something else and then you give that up and you start something else then you end up achieving nothing.
So, whatever object that we have decided upon as a basis, having set the mind upon that object, we then consider that object again and again. First considering the object and then it’s lost. And again taking the object to mind right through thinking and again it’s lost and again considering the object and it’s lost and continuing this process. And finally the mind is able to abide on the object for a short time without it being lost. And this represents the achievement of the second mental abiding, the continuous setting and it is achieved by the power of thinking.
At, during the attainment of these first two mental abidings, setting the mind and continuous setting, the mind is rather unflexible. It’s not serviceable. And so, in order we have to as if force the mind to engage in the object and therefore the type of engagement that we use is termed forcible engagement. And what do we mean by forcible engagement? In what way are we forcing?
We are forcing the mind to hold on to the object, to stabilize the object, to stabilize upon the object by means of mindfulness. So we are forcing the mind to hold to the object and this is the way in which we develop our mindfulness. Forcing the mind to stay with the object and to hold the object and this is the development of mindfulness. So, it is the function of mindfulness to hold the mind to the object. So when the object is lost we return to the object again and again and hold onto it and able to remain on it by the force of mindfulness.
So there’s this continual process of losing the object, returning and holding by mindfulness. Losing the object, returning again and holding the mind to the object by means of mindfulness. And when the mind is able to return quickly to the object we have attained the third mental abiding which is resetting. So at the third mental abiding we are again and again losing the object and returning back to the object, resetting the mind again and again. At the fourth mental abiding we no longer lose the object.
The mindfulness is strengthened to such an extent that the mind abides on the object without ever losing the object. This mental abiding is called close setting. So, at the third mental abiding, the mind is brought back again and again and reset upon the object, losing it, again returning, and that which is holding the mind to the object is mindfulness. Then the mindfulness is strengthened through this process until it is completely developed to the extent that we no longer lose the object. The mind is able to, the mindfulness is able to hold the object — hold the mind to the object continually without it being lost.
Therefore these two levels resetting and close setting are attained by means of the power of mindfulness. So, as it’s shown in the drawing at the beginning at the third, the rope of mindfulness is subduing the elephant of the mind and then at the fourth, it’s being controlled. So, there is a difference between the third and fourth mental abiding from the point of view. At the third, the mindfulness has taken hold of the mind. Still from time to time the object is lost.
At time from time to time the mind is abiding on the object from time to time the object is lost. But at the fourth mental abiding, due to the full development of mindfulness, the mind is held tight and the object is never lost. Throughout these, the first three mental abidings, the first, second, and third, there is a variety of excitement. Excitement has two types, coarse and subtle. And through these first three there is coarse excitement.
What we mean by coarse excitement is that the mind does not abide upon its object, but strays to an external object due to the influence of attachment or desire. This is coarse excitement. But at the fourth mental abiding, so at the there is coarse — first, throughout these first three mental abidings there is the presence of coarse excitement. But this is eliminated upon the attainment of the fourth mental abiding. But there is present through the fourth, fifth, and sixth mental abidings — there is subtle excitement.
Now there is some question as to whether there is subtle excitement on the seventh mental abiding. It’s undecided if there is at the seventh level. But from the fourth, fifth, and through the fourth, fifth and sixth mental abidings there is the possibility of developing subtle excitement. With the presence of subtle excitement, the object is not lost, but part of the mind has strayed to an external object. At the third mental abiding, laxity and excitement were very forceful.
At the third mental abiding, there is coarse excitement. At the fourth mental abiding, there is coarse laxity. So now we’ve arrived at the fifth mental abiding. So at the fourth mental level, we’ve developed a very powerful mindfulness which does not allow the mind to go outside to an external object. And due to the force of this mindfulness the mind begins to close in on itself.
Because of the forcefulness of the mindfulness and not allowing the mind to go out to an external object but holding it in, the mind becomes closed in on itself and the object becomes unclear and it’s as if they’re about to fall asleep. There is this force of closing the mind — closing in on itself through the force of mindfulness and at this point there is the danger of coarse laxity. It is at the fifth mental level that awareness begins to examine as to whether there is the presence of laxity or not. So, due to the mind being depressed inward then there is the danger of the development of laxity. And therefore, in order to eliminate that laxity, the mind must be uplifted.
So the fifth mental abiding is disciplining. Previously, due to the mind having been depressed inward, we had to uplift it and in the uplifting process there is the danger that it will become overly uplifted. And that is to say there is a danger of subtle excitement occurring. Again, awareness must examine as to whether the subtle excitement has developed as a result of seeking to uplift the mind. And this is at the sixth mental abiding that of pacifying.
So at the fifth mental abiding, due to the force of the previous mindfulness the mind had been held tightly and there was due to the mind closing in on itself, was the danger of laxity arising. And it was awareness which examined as to whether this coarse laxity had appeared or had arisen or not. In the case of coarse laxity arising then the mind had to be uplifted. And this takes place at the sixth mental abiding. The uplifting of the mind but due to the uplifting of the mind there now exists the danger of subtle excitement occurring.
So it is again the introspection or awareness which examines as to whether subtle excitement has arisen. So therefore, the fifth and sixth mental abidings are attained through the power of awareness or introspection. That is to say that it is awareness which is examining as to whether the faults of coarse laxity or subtle excitement have occurred. Due to this, if they have, then we are able to eliminate those faults. It is by means of this examination by awareness — by the power of this awareness that we achieve the fifth and sixth mental abidings. The seventh mental abiding is thorough pacifying.
Didn’t you say six was pacifying? Yes. This is thorough pacifying, completely pacified. Thorough. Thorough.
Sixth is pacifying. Thorough. This is on this sheet that was handed out. So through the third and fourth mental abidings, the mindfulness becomes — the powerful mindfulness is brought to completion. And through the fifth and sixth mental abidings, the power of awareness is brought to completion.
What we mean by the power having brought to completion is that the capacity of this particular factor has been brought to completion. That is, there is no greater ability with respect to this factor than what we have achieved at this time. It is at full strength. Due to the at the seventh mental abiding due to the fact that the factors of mindfulness and awareness have been brought to full power, it is extremely difficult for there to arise excitement or laxity at this time. Though these two factors of mindfulness and awareness have been brought to full completion and it is difficult for there to arise at the seventh mental abiding, the excitement and laxity.
If upon investigation these faults were seen to be arising, then one would simply have to — one could eliminate them simply by making more effort in your meditation with respect to the object. Simply an increasing effort in your meditation would eliminate that fault. Then at the eighth mental abiding, that of making one pointed. This is quite similar to actual calm abiding. There are no faults arising at this time.
One has brought the ability to completion. One has brought the ability to remain single pointed on the object to completion. One has that ability at this time. It’s quite — it’s very similar to calm abiding. So we’ve explained the difference between coarse and subtle excitement.
In coarse excitement the actual basis of meditation is lost. Whereas in the case of subtle excitement, the mind is abiding on the object of meditation, but even while it’s still remaining on that object, part of the mind is drawn to an external object due to the force of desire. With respect to coarse and subtle laxity: in coarse laxity the mind is abiding on the object. It’s fixed on the object but the object does not appear clear.
There is — the mind is very dark. It’s like black. We do not see the object clearly. There’s obscuration. It’s not clear.
But we are fixed on the object. So, it is at the third and fourth mental abidings that coarse laxity is predominant. So make that rather than coarse excitement, coarse laxity at the third and fourth level. What I just translated should say that at the third and fourth mental abiding there is coarse laxity. At the fifth mental abiding there is no longer any coarse laxity, but there is subtle laxity.
So during the coarse laxity the mind is abiding on its object, but the object does not appear clearly. It’s dark, it’s black. Dark. It’s black.