Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute teaching, Ven Jampa Ignyen introduces insight—the investigation into emptiness—following last week’s study of calm abiding. Working through Tsongkhapa’s Intermediate Lamrim and the Samdhinirmochana sūtra, he explains how both practices serve as the foundation for Buddhist realizations. The butter lamp analogy anchors the discussion: calm abiding provides the steadiness of an unmoving flame while insight provides the brightness to see clearly; each is insufficient alone. Drawing on Kamalaśīla’s commentaries, he demonstrates that insight without calm abiding leads to distraction, while calm abiding without insight cannot penetrate reality. He concludes by outlining three essentials for developing genuine insight: relying on a qualified teacher, hearing teachings, and maintaining proper motivation. For students already engaged in Lamrim study.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 2001 07 26 LR.mp3
UUID: 62630774-c404-4632-96f2-1e682a455847
Teacher: Ven Jampa Ignyen
Collection: y Lam Rim 2001 Month 07-09 (Ven Jampa Ignyen)
Date: 2001-07-26
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.0 minutes
Words: ~4,890
This term. So which is okay? We probably don’t need a week in which we revise. We can do that in the first week or the next time. But tonight we’re going to talk a little bit about insight.
Last week, we talked about calm abiding. So tonight, it’s really just a brief introduction to the topic of insight, which is really the profound topic of emptiness. So what we’ll use as a basis for tonight’s discussion is what’s called the intermediate Lamrim, the insight section in the intermediate Lamrim by Tsongkhapa. And in fact, this particular text is a shorter version of the great Lamrim, but it has the special quality of including all the main points of the great Lamrim, but being somewhat more condensed. It’s called the smaller Lamrim as well.
It’s known by two names, the smaller Lamrim or the intermediate Lamrim, which is maybe a bit confusing. But it’s called smaller because it’s smaller than the the great Lamrim And it’s the intermediate Lamrim because it comes between the abbreviated and the great. But its section on insight is very extensive and very good if we can study it at some point in the future. Because here it’s mainly dealing with the development of insight, and it also includes a section on how we develop calm abiding. So I thought just to read a little bit from the beginning and then skip a few pages and read about the method of developing insight itself.
So initially in the section on insight, Je Tsongkhapa first gives an outline of six things that he wants to discuss. The first one is the benefits and qualities of meditating on calm abiding and insight. So then that particular section in that section, Tsongkhapa mentions that there’s a particular sūtra called Samdhinirmochana, which means the elucidation of the intention of the Buddha. In which in that particular sūtra and the commentary to that, which is the commentary to the intention of the Buddha, it is stated that all mundane and transcendent qualities of the small and great vehicles are the result of calm abiding in insight. So in fact, all the qualities that really exist within any of those vehicles really comes about through having calm abiding, meaning single pointed concentration, and then insight supported by that or founded on that.
And then in the text then, a question arises. Are calm abiding and insight qualities of the continuum of one who has obtained wisdom derived from meditation? If so, how could all those qualities be the result of those two? See, the question is, okay. If we talk about all the qualities of these vehicles, and when we talk about the vehicle here, we really talk about the method, the path of this of one that one takes in order to gain liberation or the path which one takes to get to the state of omniscience are all of these qualities, all of the virtues, all of the marks of excellence and so forth that exist for beings who practice these paths, do every one of them come out of calm abiding and insight?
And then the answer is given by Tsongkhapa says that since actual calm abiding and insight are qualities of the continuum of one who has obtained wisdom derived from meditation as explained, all qualities of the great and small vehicle are not the result of those two. However, concentrations which are one pointed and above and focused on virtue are contained within calm abiding.
So in fact, here, the author makes a distinction. Tsongkhapa makes a distinction that not all of them are, in fact, a direct result. But certainly because some qualities of the paths do exist in the continuum of beings that don’t have those states. But in general, those that do generate calm, abiding, and insight, then they are the ground upon which all the qualities are established. So in fact, what’s being said here is that calm abiding and insight are necessary for us if we seek to generate the path.
And in fact, that sūtra also states that We’ll skip that section. Now, the next section here. Firstly, the point is made that all the qualities, most of the qualities are, in fact, founded on insight and calm abiding. In other words, in fact, ultimately all the qualities depend on calm abiding and insight. There is some debate about some qualities that exist for beings prior to the attainment of those are not actually generated because they don’t exist in that continuum of that person yet, so they are not actually supported by calm, abiding and insight.
But what we can say is that ultimately they all are. Now, then the question arises, what is really the nature of calm abiding and insight? So in that same sūtra, in fact, here in the text, Tsongkhapa is taking one particular sūtra and is explaining the meaning of this sūtra because this particular sūtra sets out the way for understanding emptiness and the stages in which one needs to go through. That is firstly attaining calm abiding, and then insight. And that in fact the qualities that we seek to attain, we seek to establish, are supported by calm abiding and insight.
But then, what are calm abiding and insight? So then it stated, when existing isolated and alone, one pays attention to just those dharmas which have been well contemplated through correct internal placement. Of those minds which are attentive, that mind which pays attention continuously to the internal is attention. Any mind engaged in that way which frequently abides in that, and for which physical pliancy and mental pliancy arise, is called calm abiding. Okay.
This sounds difficult. True. A lot of it is difficult. Let’s face it. A lot of these texts sound difficult, but then why are we bothered with them?
Why do we actually investigate these texts? Because it’s only by gaining a clear conception of what the path is that one can even begin to enter it. Therefore, we need to think about these issues. And in order to think about the issues, we need to have a little bit of material to think about. Even though it’s difficult, in a sense, need to sit back and put our feet up, but still continue.
Relax, but sort of push ahead at the same time. So what it said here is that when in order to attain or attain calm abiding, we need an isolated place, a cave, a meditation hut out in the forest, somewhere where there’s few distractions. And then one has had instruction on how to practice calm abiding, how to meditate. One has listened well and contemplated well that instruction so that one has eliminated most doubts about what to do. So as it says, when existing and isolated and alone better if one’s alone.
You don’t wanna be in a house full of other people, in other words. You know? And outside the corridor, there’s a continuous stream of people up and down, up and down all day. We’d probably spit the dummy at some point unless we’re really a practitioner. If we could gain single point of concentration under those circumstances, we would really be a practitioner.
So when we find a place that’s quiet but here, doesn’t mean to say that we don’t necessarily have friends about in fact, it’s good if there’s a few others that are also engaged in the same process, that are meditating to attain calm abiding together. So when one is existing isolated with few external distractions, one pays attention to those dharmas which have been well contemplated through correct internal placement. So in other words, we sit there on the meditation cushion and we know what we’re gonna do. We’ve contemplated the issue of how to gain single point of concentration, what the object is, And then we start to visualize the object, say, the image of a Buddha. And we know that firstly, are on the first of the nine stages of mental placement, which is mental placement itself.
And here, we’re just putting the mind on the object and hoping it stays there for for a few seconds at least. And we’ve got to hold that object. And one has read and contemplated this system of how one progresses through the nine stages so that one has some idea of what signs one’s looking for. Oh, at this point, once the mind is really beginning to dwell on the object, oh, I’m really then entering the second stage, and then, oh, now I’m entering the third stage and so forth. So one has understood those instructions well.
In fact, was talking with when Lama Chöpa came today. He’s setting up this monastery in Canberra. And I was asking him actually, in the Sakya, they have a traditional study which is very similar to the Gelugpa. And in the Gelugpa, people study for twenty five years and become Geshis. It’s a very good and trusted system of study.
And in the Sakya, they have a similar system where first you become a Khenpo, then you become a Lobpön, and then a Rabjampa. Rabjampa is similar to Geshe. And this is done in the Sakya College at Dehradun. And I was asking him, is he in fact if he sets up this monastery in Canberra, is he gonna have a a course of study there like the Sakya College? And he was laughing.
He said, no way. Westerners would never never come with so much study. In fact, it’s gonna be a hermitage, a place where people can come and meditate. And it’s true. Actually, we as Westerners, we’ve often done a lot of study, and the thought of doing a whole lot more study is not very attractive, which is very it’s true.
It’s understandable. And as he was saying, that actually Westerners already have acquired the habit of study and the method of how to think about things. So in one respect, Westerners don’t need, you know, a huge amount of study. Often what they need is more contemplation, more settling the mind rather than, say, stirring the mind up by thinking about new things. And we were debating this out a little bit.
Actually, it depends. Some Westerners like, you know, to do a bit of study. Others prefer to do some more quiet meditation. Probably it’s a mixture of both because without some instruction, we don’t know how to meditate. But if we just keep on getting instruction without meditating, then the instruction is not that useful to us.
It’s not giving us much practical benefit. So really they go hand inherently. So firstly, we probably need to study a little bit the method of how to meditate. And this is what’s suggested in this quote here. So firstly, we find an isolated place.
Having already contemplated the method of developing calm abiding. And then we develop correct internal placement. And therefore, we enter the first of the nine placements leading to single pointed concentration. And of those minds which are attentive, that mind which pays attention continuously to the internal is attention. So in that, we’re trying to hold the mind on an internal object steadily and without moving from it, settling the mind down on one object.
And then as a quote says, any mind engaged in that way which frequently abides in that or which is training to be to dwell single pointedly on the object without the mind moving to another object, being affected by distraction and so forth, is properly placing the mind. And then when physical and mental pliancy arise, that, in fact, is calm abiding. Physical and mental pliancy is physical and mental bliss, great ease and well-being, and so forth, that arises through being able to place the mind single pointedly on an object and just it naturally arises once we’re able to tame the mind in that way. Pliancy there, it means being pliant, physically and mentally. Pliancy there is not bliss.
It’s a mental factor. It’s a mental state itself. Where the mind has become very workable. At present, our mind is not very workable because it’s affected by the faults of the mind, like laziness and so on, sinking and agitation. So because of that, the mind is not really very pliant.
It’s not very workable or flexible. But by training the mind and overcoming faults of the mind, physical pliancy and mental pliancy arise. Then the author gives the nature of insight. Having attained that physical pliancy and mental pliancy, one abides in that concentration and abandons aspects of ignorance, or abandons ignorance, in other words. One individually investigates and resolves just those dharmas contemplated in that way as objects of internal concentration to be like reflection.
In other words, abiding in mental and physical pliancy. Then one takes those objects that one has been contemplating to develop single pointed concentration and then begins to view them like reflections. In that way, for those objects of concentration, which are like reflections, the meaning of being an object of awareness should be examined and precisely examined and thoroughly investigated and thoroughly analyzed with patience and aspiration and with examination in detail and viewed and investigated. This is called insight. Okay, here the author is emphasizing that once we have that physical pliancy, mental pliancy, we have calm abiding, then we can take an object and begin to analyze how it actually exists and investigate it, pull it apart, check to see how it exists, and so on.
This is what insight is, this analysis of the object. And in acting in that way, a bodhisattva masters insight. Examining that and then the author goes on to say, in explaining that quotation, examining that is examining diversity. And precisely examining that is examining reality. So here he’s saying that within the quote itself, what’s recommended is that first we examine the diverse elements of existence as they exist, as they are, as they appear to us, whatever they are, a book, anything.
And then we examine how they actually exist in reality. In other words, their emptiness. And so this process of investigating what is there, how it appears, and how it actually exists, this is analysis. This is insight, the development of insight. Because at present, actually, we have quite a lot of ignorance about these issues.
We have a feeling that we know how things exist. But really, we don’t comprehend. Our insight is weak. We don’t penetrate to the meaning of things. Conceptually, absolutely.
Yes, it’s all done conceptually in the beginning and for a long time. In a perfection vehicle, one remains on the path of accumulation and the path of preparation for one countless eon. One countless eon is sixty great eons. In each of the sixty great eons, there are eighty intermediate eons. So what’s that?
Sixty by eighty intermediate eon. It’s a very long time. No. One remains with a conceptual understanding of emptiness before one develops a perceptual understanding. So although we want to get beyond conception, we all want to get beyond conception, don’t we?
In fact, it’s often the case that we think that conception is an obstacle, something to be abandoned. This conceptual mind that we have, it’s always thinking about this, thinking about that. It’s not an object of abandonment. It’s not something that we need to eliminate. In fact, it’s the very means itself by which we gain understanding.
It’s just that it’s present, it’s not trained sufficiently. But that we need, we need this conceptual mind. Everything we do is done with our conception. It’s our great friend. We can’t do anything if we didn’t have conception.
We wouldn’t even be able to get up and walk around. We wouldn’t know anyone and so on. It’s true, isn’t it? If we got rid of it, we’d be where would we be? It’d be like a big blob in the middle of the carpet.
We’d not be able to progress very far. So to that extent, our conception is the means by which we progress. But the means by which we progress is the correct conceptions. The means by which we remain where we are is our incorrect conceptions. So our process at present is weeding out the correct from the incorrect.
Which of the mental factors does that? No? No? Well, mindfulness in a way does, but not quite. Actually, this is the work of wisdom.
Wisdom is the one that’s weeding out, separating the good conceptions, the correct conceptions from the incorrect. So then the author goes on to say that calm abiding is one pointed mind. Insight is individual investigation. So to the extent that we have one pointed mind, to that extent we have calm abiding, roughly speaking. And the function of investigation that we have, that’s like insight.
The function of our mind where it just holds an object steadily, that’s like calm abiding. These two states we already know about. Whenever we have to think about something, we need to be able to hold the object to be able to think about it. Then thinking about it is really like investigation. That’s like insight.
So these processes we already have. Maitreya has stated, For the mind dependent on correct abidance, because it is the mind of placement, it is called calm abiding. And because it precisely examines Dharma, it is insight. So again, there are many quotations like this that give the difference between calm abiding and insight. So another one is and this one comes from the Gomrim, the Bhāvanākrama, by Kamalaśīla, who said, Through pacifying distraction to external objects, abiding in that mind, possessing joy and pliant by itself, continuously engaging an internal focal object is called calm abiding.
So that really is a very clear description. When calm abiding abides in just that object, any analysis of emptiness is insight. So that’s a very clear quotation. So these states we need. We need calm abiding.
We need insight. They’re in fact, they’re going to be the method by which we progress in future. There are different mental factors. There’s what are called the five object ascertaining or object determining mental factors, which are aspiration, resolution, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom. So they’re separately regarded Mindfulness is really not forgetting the object.
Wisdom is the ability to differentiate One object for another. In general, it’s the ability to differentiate what is virtue from what is non virtue. Absolutely. That’s inside. That sounds good.
Yep. Vipassana. That’s right. In Tibetan, it’s lhak tong. Lhak means superior or exalted, and tong means to see.
It’s like superior seeing inside into something. Vipassana. Vi means in. Vipassana. Pash is this root verb to see in Sanskrit.
So really it means higher seeing, superior seeing, insight. Right. So the text Now, this particular text actually, it’s not so easy because this text goes into a lot of detail right from the very beginning and it’s not easy to come up to speed with its particular presentation straight away. But then skipping ahead a little bit, it says, what reason is the need to meditate on both? Why do we need both of these?
And then again, it’s coming back to this illustration of the butter lamp. For instance, it is as if one lights a butter lamp to view a wall painting at night. If the flame is both extremely bright and not moved by the wind, one sees the drawn figures extremely clearly. If the flame is not bright, or though bright if moved by the wind, one does not see the form clearly. So this is the example of calm abiding in insight.
And that particular example is then explained. In viewing the profound meaning, if one possesses both wisdom determining without wrong engagement the meaning of thatness or emptiness, and a mind not moving but abiding on the focal object in the way one desires, one sees thatness clearly. Though one has non investigating concentration abiding with that proliferating So in other words, we have an element there of brightness and an element of steadiness. And both of those two elements, both of them together are needed in order to see the picture. We’ve got a candle there.
If the candle is not very bright, then we’re not going to see it. Also, if it’s moving, the candle’s moving, we’re not going to see the image. So we need both an element of brightness, which is like insight, and steadiness, which is like calm abiding, in order to see the object. Internally, we need, therefore, like this flame, which is a union of brightness and steadiness. So in other words, need calm abiding and insight developed internally so that we can comprehend these issues, comprehend the profound meaning.
Does that example sound okay? And then the Gomrim, the Bhāvanākrama, states, by insight alone, without calm abiding, the mind of a yogi will be distracted to objects. Just having insight alone, like insight into the meaning of these things, really having some idea of what emptiness is based on the teachings of the profound masters in the past, even if we have quite a clear understanding, if we don’t have calm abiding, then the mind of a yogi or a yogini will be distracted to objects. In other words, even though we have an understanding of the meaning of emptiness, we can’t hold one object for a very long period. We’re distracted to other objects because we lack calm abiding.
It’s like a flame of a butter lamp in the wind. It is not stable. Therefore, the appearance to primordial awareness does not occur with extreme clarity. So if the mind is not very steady, then here it talks about primordial awareness. What primordial awareness is?
Yeshe, which is the meaning of Yeshe, like Lama Yeshe. Yeshe. Yeshe means primordial. Shes, awareness. And it refers to the path itself.
If the mind is distracted or it lacks calm abiding, it’s not qualified by calm abiding, then the objects that are presented to that mind are not going to appear clearly. So even for a yogi who understands emptiness, if they don’t have calm abiding, they’re not going be able to hold the object clearly. And also he stated in By the strength of calm abiding, like the flame of a butter lamp abiding without wind, the mind is unmoved by the winds of conception. So really that’s what’s happening to our own mind. Our mind is buffeted by conception this way and that way.
In other words, what that means is we jump from one object to another to another. And that’s because we haven’t overcome the faults of agitation or excitement and sinking and laziness and so forth. And so our mind is not tamed. So by overcoming those faults, then the mind is no longer moved by the winds of conception. Through insight, the entire net of bad views is abandoned and is not transformed by others.
In other words, at present, we’re enmeshed in the net, we’re caught in a net of wrong view. Without developing insight, we can’t get beyond the net of wrong views or can’t get beyond the limitations of wrong view and the wrong view that we currently have. We have the twenty types of wrong view at present or the sixty-two types of wrong view. All of these we have without exception. The only way we can overcome them is through developing insight.
But even before developing insight, have to develop this strong determination to overcome wrong view, that in fact we do have wrong view, that our current way of looking at the world is not necessarily perfect and correct. We need to develop an understanding of this. And then he goes on to say, By the strength of calm abiding, there is no movement of the mind. The mind is steady, holds to the object. By insight, it becomes like a mountain.
So, we need calm abiding. And in through calm abiding to develop insight, then the mind becomes as steady as a mountain. If wisdom possessing the equipoise of calm abiding, which is devoid of the unevenness of mind, which is brought about through sinking and excitement. If one gets rid of that sinking and excitement, develops calm abiding, and then investigates the correct meaning and investigates what is the actual meaning of things, what is the reality of things? What’s the issue here?
Then one doesn’t come to understand the meaning, does come to break through to the meaning. And therefore it’s stated that one should come to know reality when the mind is in equipoise. So which means that equipoise means when the mind is the last, the ninth stage of the nine mental placements. Does everyone remember the nine mental placements we did last week? That last one is really mental placement or mnyam bzhag, equipoise.
But there’s many different types of equipoise. In other words, it’s saying without equipoise, which means evenly or equally abiding, equal placement of the mind, even placement of the mind on the object, then one needs that first in order to generate insight into emptiness. And in the first Bhāvanākrama, the first stage of meditation also by Kamalaśīla states. Because the mind moves like water, it does not abide without a basis of calm abiding. In general, the mind moves like water, like a stream, and it does not abide without a basis of calm abiding.
If it has a basis of calm abiding, then it no longer just continues to move like a stream. Also, the mind without equipoise cannot know correct reality or the final mode of abidance of anything. Just as it is, one cannot know correct reality as it is because the Buddha has stated one knows correct reality just as it is through equipoise. So in fact, here many If one investigates the many different sutras of the Buddha and the many commentaries that have been written over the last two thousand, two thousand five hundred years on this topic, there is a vast amount of good advice given to us on why we should develop calm abiding and insight. And then in fact, if we seek to develop insight, then we need calm abiding.
And then as it said, when calm abiding is established, the error of the movement of the wisdom properly analyzing selflessness is stopped. So the mind is able to just abide on the object. And the wisdom, understanding reality, is able to also stop, or in other words, also able to comprehend its object. And also it said, by engaging its focal object without distraction to other objects, whatever virtue is enacted or undertaken has great strength. The more we’re able to concentrate the mind on its object, the greater the strength of virtue in whatever we do, which is understandable.
At present, we’re very distracted. We think about virtue for a few moments, but in the third moment, we’re back into something else. So it’s difficult for us to generate strong virtue because our mind is continuously moving from one object to another. As it’s said in Bodhicaryāvatāra, the mind of a human who is distracted abides between the fangs of the afflictions. So our situation is really like that.
It’s as if we’ve got our head in the mouth of the Lord of Death. Being distracted means that we’re not able to generate strong virtue. So really, we should overcome distraction and generate strong virtue. And again, it’s said that though we practise for a long time reciting texts and practicing austerities, etcetera, if the mind is distracted to other objects, they are stated to be meaningless. Meaningless.
So our normal way of reciting text and our commitments is to be completely distracted or to be partially distracted, if not fully distracted. So what we’re achieving is just fulfilling the commitment, but there’s not much meaning to our practice if we’re distracted. Right. I’ll just go a little bit further in the text. Right.
So in the first part of this text, it gives a lot of illustrations of why calm abiding and insight are necessary, why we need to think about these issues. For us, what’s important is to have some idea of what these are and an idea of how important they’re regarded so that we can reflect and contemplate on these issues and eventually enter the practice of calm abiding and insight. Now, in general, later in this text, it starts with the section on the actual method of developing insight. I thought we might just read a little bit from this. There are three.
Firstly, depending on a holy being. And two, seeking to hear dharma from that being. And then three, the third, is proper intention. Having those three are the means by which one comes to develop insight. Then further, it is stated, through depending on a master who comprehends correctly the points of the Buddha’s discourses and through the wisdom of hearing and contemplation,