Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 41-minute teaching, Lama Lhundup explains the obstacles and antidotes central to developing calm abiding meditation, the fifth of the six perfections in the graduated path to enlightenment. He identifies five obstacles: laziness, forgetfulness of the meditation object, sinking and excitement of mind, failure to apply antidotes when they are needed, and unnecessary application of antidotes. For each obstacle he offers specific antidotes—for laziness, cultivating faith, aspiration, effort, and mental pliancy; for forgetfulness, stable mindfulness; for sinking and excitement, maintaining alert awareness and applying targeted techniques such as tightening focus or, for drowsiness, visualizing a bright Buddha at the nose tip. He covers how to build meditation duration gradually and touches on the sixth perfection, wisdom understanding emptiness. The final section addresses practical questions on managing afflictive emotions during practice, counteracting sleepiness, and rituals for purifying negative environments, with guidance on dedication of merit.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 GP.mp3
UUID: 833ffd39-e960-42aa-8599-d6175413c93c
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: The Graduated Path (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 41.1 minutes
Words: ~1,523
But, you know, at those times when we’re actually not practicing calm abiding, you we can take any object which we are able, any types of virtuous objects, such as our meditation deity, the body of the Buddha, etc. Any type of virtuous object we can take. We can vary the object at the times of not actually practicing calm abiding. In actually developing, cultivating calm abiding, there are five obstacles. There are five obstacles to be abandoned and there are eight antidotes in order to abandon them.
The first is laziness. The first obstacle is laziness. The second is forgetting the precept or the object. The third is distraction and excitement. The third one, sinking and excitement, sinking and excitement, sinking and excitement, or dullness and excitement.
Then the fourth obstacle is when sinking and excitement are present, non application of antidote. The fifth obstacle is that at those times when sinking and excitement are not present, applying an unnecessary antidote misapplying the antidote. So with respect to the first obstacle, there are four antidotes, that is, with respect to laziness. The first is having faith in the excellent qualities of meditative stabilization. Having developed this faith, then you develop the second antidote, which is making effort in actually developing.
Making effort. The effort of aspiration, Aspiring to attain it. Make an effort in your aspiration to attain it. The second is aspiration. The third is effort.
Having you develop aspiration. Having developed aspiration, then you make effort, actual effort. Then the fourth antidote, which is the fruit of effort, is that you develop pliancy. It’s this fourth, the pliancy, which is the actual antidote to laziness. So this pliancy is the serviceability to engage in virtue of the mind and body.
It’s the serviceability of the mind and body to engage in virtue. For example, when we meditate, easily go bored and tired. This is the fault of having no pliancy. If we have this pliancy, then we can meditate all day, we meditate seven, eight, we can meditate a month without any tiredness. These four are the antidotes to laziness.
The antidote to the second obstacle, which is forgetting the object, is mindfulness or memory. So we need stable mindfulness, which is the non forgetfulness of the object of meditation. So the antidote The third obstacle is sinking and excitement. When we talk about excitement, we mean at the time of meditation. At the time of meditation, due to attachment, due to being associated with attachment, then our mind takes to, we take to our mind such things as food, you know, a boyfriend or girlfriend or money.
We remember these things during our meditation. So this mind which remembers, thinks, which thinks. The mind which engages in these various objects of attachment is excitement, what we mean by excitement. The antidote for excitement is contemplating impermanence in death, the disadvantages of cyclic existence, the sufferings of bad migrations. So when we say sinking, we mean though the mind is single pointedly placed on the object, there is no clarity.
The object is unclear and the mind is lethargic. This is what we mean by sinking. So the antidote to eliminating sinking is to tighten or hold on the object, tighten the way we hold the object. This will eliminate the sinking. So then the actual antidote to this third obstacle of sinking and excitement is awareness.
So we have to be alert. The awareness is alert to whether or not sinking or excitement are present. Therefore, we must be aware of whether sinking or excitement are present, and if one of them is present, then apply the proper antidote. Yes. Yes.
So the sixth antidote is awareness, which is the antidote to the third obstacle, sinking and excitement. So then the seventh antidote is application, which is the antidote to the fourth obstacle, which is non application. The fifth obstacle is when there is no sinking or excitement present, applying an antidote. So that’s the obstacle. The antidote to that is the eighth antidote, which is equanimity.
So if we are thinking about trying to attain calm abiding, during the session we should have very short sessions. We should try to have single pointed placement and clarity, but we should have very short sessions. So, when we first begin, we cannot stay on one object single pointedly for a very long time in the beginning, but we have to make effort. If in the beginning, maybe we can stay on the object one minute, and we make effort, and then it becomes two minutes, and slowly three minutes, increasing. So some some some people with whoever depends upon individuals, some people with very stable mind.
Perhaps they can stay on the object. They can they remain on the object for two or three hours. So this is explaining the perfection of meditative concentration. The sixth perfection is the perfection of wisdom, and the perfection of wisdom is mainly the bodhisattva’s wisdom understanding emptiness. The two types of wisdom are the wisdom understanding conventionalities and the wisdom understanding conventionals and ultimates.
So these are the six surpassing perfections. Each of the perfections again has these six perfections. We can talk about the generosity of generosity, the generosity of effort, etc. So each one has six. So as as, you know, as much effort as we make in in the six perfections, such as generosity, etcetera, to that same degree we would develop Buddhahood that quickly.
Any questions? You said we should be free of superstitions when the development came about it. What is it? The the afflictive emotions, that is the those thoughts which are non Dharma thoughts, Dharma thoughts, afflictive emotions. Incorrect.
Preconception. Preconception. Preconception. Preconception. So it would be when we At the time we’re trying to practice at the time we’re trying to actually practice, if we think about making money, think about trying to develop a reputation or making effort in business activities, such thoughts as these.
So if we So if we can eliminate the various afflictive emotions, mainly attachment, but such things as pride and jealousy, then we all these various, what we’re calling superstitions, preconceptions, will be eliminated. Preconceptions. Lama was saying that to counteract sinking you hold the object more tightly. Are there any specific I’m thinking of a more gross form of sinking like sleepiness. Is there any specific techniques to counteract that sort of mind?
Sleepiness. The antidotes to sleepiness are meditation on impermanence and death, the sufferings of bad migrations, and the disadvantages of cyclic existence. If we remember these well, then we won’t Or if you don’t like If you don’t like to remember those things, then you can remember You can imagine the Buddha body at the tip of your a very small Buddha body at the tip of your nose. It’s extremely bright, very light like. Like you can look at the sun.
Imagine this at the tip of your nose. So you should remain single pointedly on the tip on that tip on that Buddha body there at the tip of your nose. And this will eliminate your sleepiness. That’s good? So, in general, sleep is that when the mind is taking it, becomes thick with darkness.
There’s a thick darkness in our mind. So the antidote is to take the mind to light. Lightness. Okay. You look at the light, and it should go away.
Okay? Mhmm. With regard to to environment, if you’re in a environment like a house, which is has a negative negative things that happened. Is there any method for purifying that so that can be a good good environment? Negative things.
Well, yeah. Negative things. Not so much that yourself have done, but you know that bad things happen. So there there are rituals rituals you can perform to bless the place. So if if a great if a great lama comes, you you can invite him you can invite him.
And then he can perform his fire offering. I did. Nature of heat. Heat. Just you can realize, then it just purifies you or the place all around.
You know, all negativity, everything, you know, burned. You know, like fire, you can make a fire, and all wood and whatever, everything burned like this. Uh-huh. All negativities, everything inside, outside, there, everything burned. Uh-huh.
While it is light. Mhmm. Please guide to us. Please keep blessing to us or purify all negativity. Pause.
Prostrate, make offerings to the Buddha. So then we make dedication. Our very, very kind. Also, we practice purely Dharma.
What good wishes. No hindrance. No. Also, we dedicate. We keep in the pure mind.
We need all the time pure good. We get from the pure good. Two things. We all the time have strong faith to the guru. Never unrise never rising unfit, undevoted mind to the guru.
So we could realize our thing or same same real Buddha. Also, we dedicate our merit. By our merit, may Buddha’s teaching stay. Also, may all who follow Buddha’s teaching, we dedicate.