Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 93-minute teaching, Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen offers a detailed commentary on verses from the Eight Verses of Mind Training, a classical Tibetan Buddhist text on transforming difficult emotions. Working through the text with his students, he explains sleep and mental consciousness from an Abhidharma perspective, then explores the nature of pride as an affliction rooted in the false sense of a solid self. He walks through practical antidotes: meditation on skeletons for desire, love for anger, and contemplation of the twelve links of dependent origination or four noble truths for pride. The teaching emphasizes the fourth verse, which instructs practitioners to view difficult and suffering beings as precious opportunities to develop genuine compassion and love. Geshe-la repeatedly draws on Śāntideva’s Bodhisattva’s Way of Entering into Deeds, anchoring abstract teachings in concrete advice about managing anger and cultivating patience. The session closes with extended question and answer, addressing how teachers maintain humility while guiding students, the relationship between abandoning pride and maintaining virtue, and why contemplating complex topics serves as an antidote to spiritual arrogance. Suited for practitioners already familiar with Buddhist philosophy and Kadampa training methods.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 8 Verses D1S2111001 003 – KR.mp3
UUID: 8138c1db-3853-4c93-be5e-930c03de4a29
Teacher: Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen
Collection: Mind Training
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,536
Did you nap? At Sera the tradition is that one grabs a nap between twelve and one. Then when one sleeps from a Buddhist standpoint, the sense consciousness is shut down, what remains is the mental consciousness. And there is great benefit in the short naps, and in sleep in general, as is said in the 37 practices of a Bodhisattva, retiring yourself into isolation, into a hermitage, practice virtue, and with a pure mind, apply yourself to the teachings. When we rise after sleeping, whether it is early in the morning, or in the afternoon after a short nap, the mind is very clear, and it can be applied very readily to both study and meditation.
For this reason, sleep is very beneficial. And generally speaking, in as much as it is a mental factor, it has a component of clarity. However, there are two types of sleep. There is light sleep and deep sleep. Deep sleep lacks this factor of clarity, and probably in keeping with Asaṇga’s Abhidharma Samuccaya, can be said to be a state in which there is neither conception nor memory.
And it is in that very profound sleep that even if sounds are present in the room, they do not impact the mind in the slightest. If when there are sounds outside, at times we can hear them and at times we can’t, then probably it’s not fully qualified sleep. So the mind of sleep from a Buddhist standpoint remains a mind which is qualified as being clear and cognitive. And here we have to understand clearly what are the five sense consciousnesses, which are in abeyance during sleep. They are the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and bodily sense consciousness, which depend on their respective organs.
Generally speaking, when one subdivides minds, they are subdivided into two broad categories, main minds and mental Sleep is a mental factor. Likewise, this morning we spoke about pride, from within the twofold subdivision of main minds and mental factors, pride is also a mental factor. Pride arises in dependence on both sense consciousnesses and bodily consciousness. So my mistake, it is consciousness is based either on the five sense consciousnesses, or the mental consciousness, not the bodily consciousness. As Vasubandhu says in his auto-commentary on the Abhidharmakośa of Vasubandhu, when we are engaged in activities such as study, thinking, meditation, and so forth, that sense of I which is associated with the activity, is often slightly affected by pride.
Therefore, Geshe-la feels that such a pride is not necessarily totally separate from virtue. And the Tibetan word pride, in the sense of an affliction, is ngyal, is king. So the I, which is referred to here, is the designated I, of which Geshe-la spoke this morning. Ngyal, or king, refers to the fact that when pride arises in the mind, then when we observe another person, even if that other person has qualities, we think my qualities, the qualities within my mind stream are superior to those in this person’s mind, they are the king of that, the qualities in that person’s mind. And therefore, even though this pride which is mixed with the ignorance apprehending a self, is at the root of the dawning of pride within our mind stream, when we think that we have qualities which others do not have, this is something which is to be abandoned.
And generally speaking, we refer to pride, or ngyal in the broadest sense of the term, there are nine components, or nine subdivisions to pride, one of which is that mindset which views something which is not a quality in the slightest, which is a defect, as a quality. Such a mindset will not accept being corrected by another who says, this is not a quality, this is a fault. So this is not the pride of which it is taught in the context of the practice of a being, of the small scope, who is trying to avoid rebirth in the lower realms, and to attain a higher rebirth, and is intensely focusing upon this, nor is it the pride which is referred to in the context of the practice of the being of the middling scope, who is trying to gain liberation from the totality of cyclic existence. And in the case of the practice of being of middling scope, it is necessary to abandon all of the delusions, all of the afflictions, since the attainment which one is striving for is a state of liberation from cyclic existence. So this entails abandoning not just desire and ignorance, but pride as well, which therefore must be abandoned at this level.
There is a relationship between pride on the one hand, and the innate sense of the inherent existence of a self on the other hand, and the innate sense of existence of a self is actually what gives rise, rise to all delusions including pride. Therefore, when the innate sense of the inherent existence of a self is abandoned, pride as a result will also be destroyed. And in this life for that matter, when pride is present, it affects greatly one’s relationship with others. For instance, if one is proud of the fact that one is a Geshe, then as a result of this, one’s relations with others can become very fraught with disharmony. And the two first verses of the third stanza on page one thirty five.
In all my deeds, may I probe into my mind, and as soon as mental and emotional afflictions arise. So here, deeds in Tibet is actually behavior. The behavior which refer is referred to here is afflicted behavior. The presence, in other words, of desire, hatred, or ignorance, as soon as these arise. Here, one must use vigilance to identify these as soon as they arise.
For instance, if we recite commitments, as soon as our mind starts wandering away from the commitments, we must bring it back to the commitments which we are reciting. And when the mental and emotional afflictions, in other words, strictly in Tibetan when the conceptions and the afflictions arise, what antidote should one apply? This depends on the affliction which has arisen, for instance. If desire arises, then one should apply meditation on the skeleton. If, on the other hand, anger has arisen, one should meditate on love.
And if pride, of which we talked previously, has arisen, then one should meditate on the twelve links or the four noble truths, which are topics one does not understand well, and as a result, pride will abate. And as the 37 practices of the Bodhisattva says in a very simple and easily understood stanza, it is the practice of Bodhisattvas instead of focusing on the thoughts of others to focus on their own thoughts. Now since Geshe-la thinks in this room, probably none of us has subdued the 10 non virtues, controls in other words, body, speech, and mind, then we are in no position to criticize the thoughts of others, and we should instead focus on our own mind and try to subdue our own mind. And therefore, since if we allow the afflictions to arise in our mind, they become uncontrollable, it is taught in these 37 practices of the Bodhisattva, and this is in accordance with this stanza in the eight verses, that it is the practice of Bodhisattvas as soon as the afflictions have arisen within their minds to apply the antidotes. And generally speaking, since the afflictions arise first and foremost in dependence on wrong or evil objects, these are what is to be avoided.
Most probably, the afflictions would never arise with respect to the Buddha, the Dharma, or the Sangha. And as I said in Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra, therefore, do not allow anger to arise towards others since it is from within yourself that the afflictions arise. So it is our nature that we turn our minds outside and we hold others responsible for the events in our life, but we should understand that it is actually from within ourselves that the anger arises. As Śāntideva adds in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, even if all of the gods and the demigods should rise against my enemies apart from killing me, they lack the power to cast me into the lower realms. Even if all the gods and the demigods were to slaughter the people of Australia, they would be in no way able to cast them into the lower rebirths.
Generally speaking, there are two means to abandon the afflictions. The first is to abandon the afflictions motivated by fear, and the second is to abandon them motivated by uncontaminated wisdom. To abandon the afflictions through the motivation or to abandon the afflictions motivated by fear would be, for instance, to abandon the non virtuous deeds of the body, such as killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, or the non virtuous deeds of speech, such as lying, harsh words, divisive speech, and idle talk motivated by fear. And the following stanza, the fourth stanza on the back of your page. When I see beings of unpleasant character oppressed by strong its sdig in Tibetan of negativity and suffering, may I hold them dear for they are rare to find as if I had discovered a jewel treasure. So here, beings of unpleasant character are the main basis on which we practice mind training, difficult persons in other words.
When we say that they are oppressed by strong negativity and suffering, negativity or sin here refers to the contaminated deeds of body, speech, and mind, and suffering is compared to leprosy, which is a difficult, which disease, which is very difficult to bear. May I hold them dear, for they are rare to find, as if I had discovered a jewel treasure. Jewels are valued and never cast away. Somebody who has gold and silver to his name will never cast it away. In the same same way, these are beings we should cherish.
And now, moving on with to a detailed commentary of this verse, when I see beings of unpleasant character, literally in Tibetan, sentient beings of an evil nature, and the language is much stronger. Then one should initially use the four means to tame these beings, which include giving them presents or gifts, talking to them kindly, helping them with one’s practice, and so forth. And then if this is of no benefit, then as Śāntideva says, when one encounters such difficult beings, praise them and cherish them. And when such beings, as in the second verse, are oppressed by negativity or by sin and suffering, as Geshe-la said, such beings are akin to someone who has leprosy. Generally, when we meet someone who has a highly contagious disease, we are afraid.
We don’t want to socialize with them or be close to them. This is exactly the wrong attitude here. Here, instead, we should see these beings as the most cherished treasures on whose basis we can practice compassion and love. And therefore, of the extraordinary development our practice of love and compassion will have through these beings, then we should take them as the object of our practice of love and compassion. And while in general it is difficult to generate love and compassion, while relying on such difficult beings we will be able to do so.
And the reason for this is that while it is easier for us to generate love and compassion for contemplating the sufferings of another person, it is extraordinarily difficult for us who are beginners to generate love and compassion for contemplating an enemy, let alone a bodhisattva. So we have covered two stanzas and Geshe-la thinks we will stop here and at present he would like to ask you what your doubts are on these two stanzas. Your questions, your doubts, your doubts, your questions. In those cases, what one does is initially one speaks kindly to the person and tries to assuage them to calm them, and if that doesn’t help, then one tries to make friends with them by giving them present or something. And if that is still not helpful, then we have no power left.
Then we concentrate on calming our own minds as Śāntideva said. In truth, if we are really practicing and keeping with the Sūtrayāna, with the Pāramitāyāna, then whatever another person’s person does to us is alright. It is the opportunity for us to increase our perfection of forbearance. And if we reflect, we can see in keeping with Śāntideva’s advice or instruction that if someone harms us in affairs related to this life, when all is said and done, it only affects this life. And if that person tries to kill us, tries in other words to destroy our body, when all is said and done, it does not affect future lives.
Therefore, as long as we avoid the enemy of the afflictions, which themselves can cast us in lower rebirth, we risk nothing. His Holiness the Dalai Lama says that if one is in situations in which anger or great desire arises and one is not able to control them, then one can move to another country or leave the area. So such a misunderstanding can arise when we are unable to separate or to see the difference between the mind and the afflictions. Now the afflictions indeed are minds. They do share they they are minds in terms of their nature.
But there is a difference between the nor the virtuous minds and the afflictions in terms of the object which appears, and therefore, one can separate the mind from the afflictions. Therefore, from a Buddhist standpoint, even though the mind is bound by the afflictions, is held by afflictions, nonetheless, we believe that it is possible to develop the mind on the basis of the Buddhist teachings and to free it from these afflictions. And therefore, since the mind and the afflictions can be separated, the afflictions can be seen as parts of the mind which can be discarded. Then our goal is to find a way to discard these parts of the mind and to lead the pure component of the mind upwards, upwards and upwards to liberation and full enlightenment. This can be done through eliminating the cause or the root of the afflictions, which is that innate sense of inherent self existence.
So Geshe-la would like to suggest that we think about that. So take the examples of we should take the examples of our own minds. If we look at that in our own minds, at a mind of anger and a virtuous mind, we should ask ourselves, can I see a difference between these two minds or not? Can I see a difference in my own mind between when I’m angry and when I’m in a virtuous state of mind? And then if we can see a difference, our goal is to increase these virtuous minds and to cause minds such as a mind of anger to disappear.
Many many reasons for this given in the Buddhist text. One famous case is that of our relation with the spiritual teacher. The teacher in general, the spiritual teacher for Buddhists. The question might be asked, do you give rise to anger towards your spiritual teacher? Well, the answer obviously is no.
Our spiritual teacher is someone we see with happiness. Then if we see him with happiness, that mind of happiness and the mind of anger cannot coexist. They’re contradictory. Are there other questions? So the second stanza, when I interact with someone, may I view myself as the lowest amongst all, and from the very depths of my heart respectfully hold others as superior, which is a complete condemnation of pride, is formulated from the standpoint of the practice of the being of great scope.
For a being of great scope whose main focus is to equalize and interchange self and others, it is critical to understand the faults of cherishing oneself and the qualities of cherishing others. And in this context, pride is a huge obstacle. And to engage in these practices of equalizing and interchanging self and others, one must initially build on the practices of the being of middling scope. To engage in these practices of the being of middling scope, one must build on the practice of the being of low scope. So at present we are not able to practice these practices of the being of great scope, but it is very beneficial for us to hear about them.
Please ask more questions. Yes. So indeed, excuse me, there is a ninefold subdivision of pride, and the this ninefold subdivision of pride is formulated in terms of the object towards which pride is generated. The characteristic of pride is that the mind becomes inflated or full of itself. So when that happens, there is pride.
So there are various objects with respect to which is generated. Yes. Therefore, bad objects or wrong objects are objects which give rise easily to the afflictions. And the a bad object would be an object which very swiftly gives rise to coarse afflictions within the mind. Annie?
Yes, Saffo? Geshe does not remember the time of or the year of his death. If we look at the chronology, Atisha came to Tibet around 1050, 1060, then Atisha’s student was Dromtonpa in turn was a teacher of Geshe Potowa, Sharawa and Chekawa, and Geshe Sharawa was a student of Langri Tangpa. So that sets Langri Tangpa basically in the eleventh century. And these three Geshe, Geshe Potowa, Sharawa, and Chekawa, were the lineage heads of the Kadampa scripture tradition, the Kadampa great treatise tradition, and the Kadampa oral transmission tradition.
The Kadampa scripture tradition of Geshe Potowa was a tradition which relied on the five great treatises, which were the treatises on Paramita, on Madhyamaka, on Vinaya, on Abhidharma, and on Pramāna, in other words, Buddhist logic, as the basis for their practice. Yes, Let me summarize your question. Please. Please. You are asking if one practices viewing oneself as a lowest among all, should one abandon pride?
Then, it depends of the object one is focusing upon, whether one is training in love or in compassion. But fundamentally, there are a multiplicity of ways of seeing the spiritual teacher. Your question in a nutshell, as I summarized it for Geshe-la, is how can the teacher correct us if he from his side is training in being the lowest of all. That seems to be the thrust of your question. Then there are many ways of understanding the spiritual teacher from the standpoint of Vinaya, from the standpoint of Abhidharma, from the standpoint of Madhyamaka, from the standpoint of the Paramita, and from the standpoint of the Pramāna.
Each presents a slightly different way of understanding the teacher. However, in every single case, the student sees his teacher as superior to him and therefore qualified to correct him. For instance, if you take Atisha and Guru Serlingpa, from the standpoint of the view, Guru Serlingpa was inferior to Atisha. He was a Chittamatrin. Atisha was a Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka.
Then Atisha had attained the path of preparation. In other words, he had generated within his mental continuum wisdom which is arisen from meditation. Guru Serlingpa on the other hand had not attained the path of preparation. He had only attained the path of accumulation, the first of the five paths. Yet, Atisha deferred to him and took his corrections on board.
Does that answer your question? I’m sure of one thing, Richard. Sharon would never say that. So Sharon from her own side reflecting on Richard’s qualities and his virtues would reduce the pride within her mind stream and then would very gently correct Richard. You’re asking for an antidote to the suffering within your mind stream.
Throw him out. Let him drop. As you saw in the Dalai Lama says, you can’t do everything. Yes. So pride, we have to understand its nature to counter.
Pride arises foremost on the basis of what we know or think we know. Therefore, when we meditate on something like the 12 links or the four noble truths, which are complicated, which we don’t know and don’t understand, then it punctures our pride immediately. It is something we can’t meditate upon well. Exactly. Forget meditation, just thinking about it makes one dizzy.
You start with the first link of ignorance, then you must reflect on the cause of ignorance which is in the ignorance which is innate. Then you must identify innate ignorance of what? You must identify the object of negation. Then there are so many topics to think about it, one’s mind is brought down. So before even meditating on the twelve links of dependent origination, we must meditate on the first of these links, which is ignorance.
And once we have covered all the topic of ignorance, we can pass to the second link. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. As an example, anything which is really difficult to understand works as an antidote to pride.
It’s just an example. So the qualities you don’t understand work very well as well.