Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute evening session, Ven Margaret McAndrew teaches how the six root afflictions—the mental delusions that drive samsaric rebirth—function within consciousness using the framework of mind and mental factors (Lorig). After establishing spiritual motivation and discussing renunciation, she introduces the Abhidharmasamuccaya presentation: the six main minds, five ever-present mental factors (feeling, discrimination, intention, contact, engagement), and the eleven virtuous mental factors that oppose afflictions. She explains that consciousness itself is neutral; it becomes virtuous or non-virtuous only through the mental factors present within it. She teaches three kinds of faith (admiring, believing, aspiring), moral shame, consideration, and non-attachment, establishing these virtuous qualities as the foundation for understanding why afflictions cause suffering. For intermediate practitioners studying the Lorig philosophical framework.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 C o S 1999 09 09.mp3
UUID: bf647308-9251-4488-8722-4950c785fb49
Teacher: Ven Margaret McAndrew
Collection: Evening with V M McAndrew (Ven Margaret McAndrew)
Date: 1999-09-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.6 minutes
Words: ~5,106
How does it sound? Is it right? Okay. Good. Very just a fraction down.
Cat’s whisker or something. Thanks. Okay. So I think it’s probably still a bit near it might be where I’m wearing it too. Lower down.
Chest might be better. I think that, yeah, that seems best, doesn’t it? Yeah. Thanks a lot. Okay.
So start by setting our motivation anyway. So we want to gain the most benefit from this session tonight. And so it all depends on our motivation, how much benefit we get out of it. So if we come to any sort of activity with a worldly motivation, then it’s just a worldly activity. No matter whether the activity is actually meditating or studying the Dharma or whatever.
So we have to make sure that we have a motivation that’s spiritual, that’s, in other words, concerned with things beyond this life, first of all, concerned with our future lives and then secondly, concerned with getting right beyond our state of bondage in Samsāra, but looking towards the attainment of the ultimate goal of liberation. And in addition to that, the immensely greater goal is to not just look at our own liberation, but to look at the suffering of all living beings and see how many of them there are, how they need help, and to make it our responsibility to help them. And thinking that way also, then coming to the understanding that if we are to be able to effectively help these beings, at the moment we don’t have any means whatsoever to help them in any really effective way, even if we are able to relieve some sort of small suffering such as sickness or pain or poverty or something for one being, we can’t do that for very many beings. And even those beings that we are able to help will very soon run into another problem and then another one. And so there is no way that we can help relieve their sufferings in any sort of lasting way by temporal methods.
So the only way that we can really help them is by in the getting rid of the cause of suffering, in other words, ending our bondage to saṃsāra and helping them with this, guiding them on the way. In order to attain this, we have to achieve the higher levels of the path. And in particular, by examining, we can see that the one who has the most ability to help others, that the perfect qualities for helping others is only the fully enlightened being or the Buddha. So, in other words, if we want to really effectively help as many others as possible, as much as possible, then we have to achieve enlightenment. We have to become Buddhas, because there are no other beings that have the same qualities of Buddhahood, to be able to continue everlastingly helping others with the tremendous means that an enlightened being has.
And so this is the motivation that we have to set at the beginning of the practice if we want to achieve enlightenment. And even if at the moment this seems a long way off, it’s by starting to cultivate this thought from this moment on that we’ll eventually be able to achieve that great state. So can I do a time check with my clock? I’m not sure that it’s right. It’s oh, well, I think you’ve got a good one.
Yes. Oh, well, my my mine was only a couple of minutes fast. Okay. Good. So now we’re going on to the topic for tonight, which is supposed to be the root afflictions.
I’m not quite sure what I called it. But, anyway, the six root afflictions are the main topic that we’re concerned with. And this is what keeps us caught up in suffering. So essentially, we’ve been looking over the last couple of weeks or more at the topics of the medium scope. And these have to do with looking at the fact that while we’re in saṃsāra, while we’re caught up in samsaric existence, then we are always going to be encountering suffering and that cyclic existence includes both what are considered to be the heavy realms of rebirth and also the suffering realms.
And so we are not just looking at the unfortunate states of rebirth, but we’re looking at the sort of problems that are experienced in all the realms of Samsāra. And last week, we were actually looking at and meditating on the specific sufferings that afflict the upper realms of Samsāra. And the idea of this is to renounce attachment to Samsāra to develop the state of mind of renunciation. And this state of mind of renunciation isn’t just giving up everything that we have. It doesn’t mean that at all.
What it means is cutting our attachment to saṃsāra. In other words, cutting off the thoughts that we’re going to find or real happiness in saṃsāra. So there are a lot of samsaric pleasures that we encounter along the way. From the ordinary point of view, we can call these happiness, but from the higher viewpoint, these things are not real happiness because they don’t last and they don’t bring real satisfaction. And so if you want to have real satisfaction and if we want to have happiness which is lasting and uncontaminated, then we have to achieve the state that goes beyond all of these things.
And so in order to achieve that, we have to cut off our attachment to worldly things because that is just the the distraction to going on to the the actual happiness that we can attain through following the path. So as long as we think that we can find happiness in saṃsāra, then we’re going to be chasing after worldly things, and that’s going to distract us from our Dharma practice. And it comes naturally to us to think that way because we’ve been doing it for countless lifetimes. So it’s it’s not an easy thing to do to actually overcome this conviction that if we just do a little bit more of this or that in terms of worldly effort, then we’re going to achieve happiness that way. And we somehow always feel that there’s lasting happiness there for us somewhere.
And this kind of effort is directed towards external things. So it isn’t Dharma practice because Dharma practice is always concerned with the mind, with what’s going on within ourselves. And so these kinds of efforts, even though they might seem to be harmless, they they become a real distraction and a waste of time for us if we put all of our energy into these external things. So it’s not the activities themselves. It doesn’t mean as I already said, it doesn’t mean that we should stop worrying about earning a living and taking care of ourselves and having the ordinary good things of life and so on, but we have to make sure that we bring Dharma practice into our lives.
And particularly, if we’re skillful, we can transform our everyday activities from being worldly actions into being Dharma actions. And particularly with this motivation of bodhicitta, if we engage our life with this motivation of bodhicitta, then we’re looking after ourselves, taking care of our bodies and so on, taking care of our mental state. All of these things that we do are done with the thought that we’re on the path to enlightenment for the benefit of others. So if it’s done with this thought, it’s taking care of ourselves so that we can practice Dharma and it becomes Dharma practice. Even ordinary things like earning our living, driving our car to work in the mornings or whatever it is that we’re doing, cooking food for ourselves, all of these things become Dharma practice.
Also other things such as taking care of our families and so depends on how we look at them, whether they are worldly activities or Dharma practice. So it’s important to understand that Dharma practice depends on our mental state, on our motivation and on our understanding of what’s Dharma and what isn’t. If we’re skillful, then we can transform all of these things from being mundane activities into dharma activities. Does anybody want to ask any questions about that? Yes.
That’s right. Does anybody have any suggestions? Yes. Has anybody managed to overcome the the difficulty? Yes.
Yes. Yes. Okay. So it is difficult, of course. And one thing that we need to do is to set ourselves a particular time to do this so that we remember to do it.
Every morning, we should start our day. Maybe the first thing you do in the morning as soon as you wake up is to just check the mind and set your motivation. Somehow that motivation, even though you may not remember it all day long, your activities are still caught up with it. So it becomes something that becomes an ongoing thing throughout the day. Of course, if you can manage to maintain this mindfulness throughout the day, that’s even better.
But if you don’t think about it first thing in the morning, then you won’t remember it at all during the day. If you can form the habit of doing that first thing in the morning, then you’ve got some chance of continuing to think about it. So it’s really a question of forming new mental habits. Don’t know what I’ve done with some of my notes, but it doesn’t matter anyway because oh, here they are. Yes.
Probably be looking at the book a bit anyway while I do this. So the anyway, we’re looking at this necessity for escaping from saṃsāra. And when we’re talking about saṃsāra, saṃsāra isn’t out there. It’s it’s inside. And wherever we go, we take our own saṃsāra with us.
Each of us has our own individual saṃsāra. So sometimes you hear Dharma students talking about saṃsāra as if, for instance, if they’re at at Copan monastery. They talk as if Copan monastery isn’t saṃsāra, but saṃsāra’s down in Kathmandu in the pie shops or something like that. You know? If you’ve been to Kathmandu, that’s really where Samsāra is.
But, anyway, the point is that that isn’t Samsāra that if you’ve gone beyond Samsāra, then you can go to the pie shops and you won’t find saṃsāra there. And if you haven’t cut off the root of suffering, then even at Kabban monastery, you’re going to find saṃsāra. So we’re going to have to look at how we work on this. And the six root afflictions are the things that keep us in this situation. So or sometimes they’re called the six main delusions or root delusions or kleśas.
So sometimes we talk about the three poisonous minds, and you’ll find that the six root afflictions include those. So, essentially, when we’re talking about renunciation, what it means is seeing Samsāra, wanting to be finished with Samsāra, really wanting from the heart to be finished with Samsāra, seeing that it’s really suffering from top to bottom and it has no essence or meaning because these pleasures or happinesses of saṃsāra that look so promising always turn out to be deceptive. They never bring us the happiness that they promise. They only bring us some sort of fleeting happiness that then leads on to the next problem. So to develop this state of mind of renunciation, this is the prerequisite for getting free of saṃsāra and it doesn’t mean that this person has overcome attachment.
What it means is that they see very thoroughly the need to work on overcoming attachment so they’re not taken in anymore by attachment. Essentially they still have attachment but whenever they see attachment arising they understand how dangerous it is. They understand the damage which attachment does and they see through it so that they understand it doesn’t lead to happiness. So they don’t have any inclination to be distracted from their Dharma practice by this state of attachment and instead they concentrate on their Dharma practice in order to reach the goal. And In actual fact, the realization of renunciation, when renunciation is achieved effortlessly so that there’s no more need to put effort into producing this state of mind of renunciation, then that person actually enters the first path.
Does anybody remember what the name of the first path is? So that’s an yes. That’s another term, stream enterer. I’m not sure that that’s equivalent. Yes.
So, anyway, generally, the five the first of the five paths is called the the path of accumulation. So, anyway, yes, that’s just beside the point. But, anyway, you enter that first path, and then there are two there’s actually three divisions but in general terms you can say there’s two ways that you can go which is either the Hīnayāna way, the attainment of individual liberation or the Mahāyāna way, which is to full Buddhahood. And so the the Hīnayāna path is actually divided into two. There’s the path of the hearers or the Pratyekabuddhas.
But either way, it leads to liberation from saṃsāra for oneself, but it doesn’t lead to the state of full enlightenment. The person who’s practicing the Mahāyāna path from the beginning enters the first Mahāyāna path when they develop renunciation and bodhicitta together. So we have to work on the two of them. We’re looking the medium scope practice at the moment. We’re focusing on this thought of developing renunciation and the intention of attaining liberation from saṃsāra.
But we have to also keep in mind that we’re also, along with that, developing the thought of bodhicitta, the thought of attaining enlightenment. We’re focusing now on the motivation and practices of the medium scope. So this is essentially the Hīnayāna motivation and practice. But it’s also a practice that we have to do in the Mahāyāna but we also add to that the Mahāyāna motivation and practices as well. Is that clear?
Well, that’s just explaining it in brief. Know, you could go into a lot of detail about that but anyway, that would come another time. So anyway, essentially, the small scope practitioner, when we were looking at the small scope, the small scope practitioner was satisfied with the basic practices of understanding how to avoid suffering rebirth. And this is the most elementary level that at which you can follow Buddha’s teachings. And, of course, this doesn’t lead to liberation from saṃsāra.
So Buddha taught that the even the small scope practitioner has to have in mind the eventual thought of of gaining liberation. But for the person who’s just on the small scope without having gained the medium scope level of motivation, that’s still something that they think of as being sometime in the future and for the present they’re satisfied with working for a fortunate rebirth. Whereas the person who’s practicing the medium scope is very much involved with this wish of wanting to attain liberation from saṃsāra. So by meditating on the general sufferings of saṃsāra, which we were looking at last week, the practitioner comes to see it as being like a house that’s on fire. We’re like somebody who’s caught in say for instance if we’re in some sort of big building like a hotel or something that’s on fire and we wouldn’t just say oh you know the other end of the building’s on fire but we’re alright because it’s not hot here we can’t feel any heat from the fire so I’m okay you realize that the building’s on fire and you immediately start looking for the exit because you realize that even though your part of the building isn’t hot yet that it’s not a good place to stay around in and that the heat’s going to get turned on sooner or later wherever you are.
So in other words, as long as we’re being caught up in the cycling in Samsāra, going from rebirth to rebirth, there’s no surety that we’re not going to fall back into the worst states of suffering. And also, if we look at it also, even the upper realms are are not free of suffering. They’re not satisfactory. So we we had a look at that last week. So this practitioner, through studying and meditation, gains a clear understanding also of how they’re under bondage to Samsāra and what’s bringing it about.
So this is the topic of the Four Noble Truths. This practitioner studies the Four Noble Truths and comes to understand the noble truths of suffering and the cause of suffering. And so the explanation of the six root delusions or the six main or root afflictions belongs to which of those noble truths would you think would belong to? You’re right, Oh. Yes.
Yes. Good. So it belongs to the cause or the origin of suffering. So we have these six. So in order to understand how to escape from we have to understand how we’re cycling in saṃsāra under the influence of delusion and karma and or affliction and karma or disturbing emotions and karma and how these things create our bondage to saṃsāra.
So it’s important to understand these six root afflictions because it’s under the influence of these root afflictions that we create our saṃsāra. We’re continually creating saṃsāra from moment to moment. So in actual fact there are six root afflictions and twenty secondary afflictions that we could look at. And those are only the main divisions because there are eighty four thousand altogether. Maybe next week.
Yes. This topic comes under the second of the four noble truths, but it also comes into the topic of of mind and awareness. So this is one of the advanced philosophical topics based on the this particular presentation is based on the Abhidharmasamuccaya, which is the text that some of these presentations are taken from. According to Lorig or to the Abhidharmasamuccaya, we have to look at how our mind is working and how these afflictions work in our mind by looking at the different factors that are happening in our mind or the different aspects of our mind. It starts by dividing the functions of the mind into six main divisions and fifty one secondary divisions.
So we’ve got the in other words, we’ve got the the five main minds and the fifty one mental factors. So the these six root afflictions belong to the mental factors. So just to look at the main minds first, because if we’re going to understand the mental factors then we have to understand the main minds a little bit. So there are six of these main minds and there are a couple of definitions that I’ll go through. So in Uttaratantra, which is one of Maitreya’s texts, the definition says, a mind which is main mind meant here, a main mind is that which knows the mere entity of its object.
And and the Abhidharmakośa, it says a mind here, again, meaning main mind. Main is in brackets. A is simply responsible for cognizing the mere entity. And here it’s got aspect of its object. Sorry.
The so the main mind is looking at the the broad aspect of its object. It it’s looking at the at the entity. In other words, the the the whole aspect of the object. And it says, objects have so a main mind okay. I’ll read it out to you.
A main mind is a cognizer that has mental factors within its retinue. So the main mind is the broad division. In other words, it’s the consciousness that is the broad consciousness and the mental factors are aspects of that broad consciousness. So it’ll come a bit clearer when you start to see what the what the mental factors can involve. And now there was a perception perception.
The perception is a kind of a perception can be a kind of consciousness. Yes. So a main mind is a cognizer. In other words, it’s an awareness. And it has mental factors within its retinue.
So defined as a primary aspect cogniser that apprehends only the entity of its object. So it’s it’s a sort of broad consciousness, but it has different aspects which are simultaneous with it. So for instance, you could have a sense perception of the room, of this room, for instance, would be the main mind. And then within that you’d have various different subdivisions which I’ll look at. Going from the general to the specific.
So you have a number of these different mental factors involved with that main consciousness. There are some mental factors that are always present. Anyway, objects have a general entity and specific qualities. Main minds apprehend the general entity. So whatever the object is of the general mind.
So essentially, the six kinds of main minds are the five sense consciousnesses, in other words of sight, of hearing, of smell, of taste, and so on, of body consciousness. And and there is mental consciousness, which makes the sixth. So there are six six divisions of main mind. So and and then in in in addition to this, you have the the mental factors, which are simultaneous with the the main mind and which are sort of aspects within the main mind. So the the the these are different functions.
So there are five different groups of those. So just to give you an idea of the sorry. There are six different groups. Out of the fifty one secondary mental factors, there are six different groups. Now the the first five, I might go through those briefly because it’s it’s interesting.
These ones give you a these ones are always present. They’re called the five omnipresent mental factors, and these are present in every primary consciousness or every main mind. And these are feeling, discrimination, intention, contact, and engagement. So, feeling refers to the experience of the object as being either, pleasant or unpleasant or neutral. So with every consciousness that we have, we have a feeling associated with it, and that includes neutral feelings.
So if if it isn’t either pleasant or unpleasant, then it has a a neutral feeling along with it. So that feeling goes along with it. It’s not subsequent to the to the consciousness, but it goes along with it. So there’s a lot of detail that we can go into with that. And then there’s discrimination, which is the mental factor that apprehends distinguishing feature of the object.
So that’s just discriminating or discriminating with regard to the object. It’s a function that’s going on in the mind at this time. And I won’t go into the others because in order to understand that it’ll go into a lot of explanation that doesn’t really go into into what we’re talking about tonight. And, also, I haven’t studied it lately, so I haven’t I can’t even remember all the the details. I’d I’d be probably lost in no time, so I won’t tackle that.
But anyway, that gives you an idea. So these feeling discrimination, intention, contact, and engagement are the ever present mental factors. And then there are five object determining mental factors, which could be present, or some of them could be present at any particular time. And then there are eleven virtuous mental factors. And there are six primary afflictions.
So although these six primary afflictions are called primary afflictions, they’re secondary mental factors. So not to get primary and secondary mixed up there. And then there are twenty secondary afflictions, which are also secondary mental factors. And then there are four variable mental factors. So we’re particularly concerned with the virtuous and the non virtuous mental factors.
And although the virtuous mental factors are not involved with the cause of suffering or keeps us cycling in Samsāra, they are very important here because when we have the in any particular primary mind, you can have either non virtuous or virtuous mental factors present, but not both at the same time. The virtuous and the non virtuous are contradictory to each other. And so if we have virtuous mental factors present, then that excludes the nonvirtuous ones. And so the more we cultivate the virtuous mental factors, then that’s not only beneficial in itself, but it’s also keeping away these nonvirtuous mental states. So the primary minds in themselves, by themselves, are not virtuous or non virtuous, but they’re colored by the mental factors, by the presence of either virtuous or non virtuous mental factors so that the whole primary mind or main mind takes on a coloration from the the virtuous or mental or or non virtuous mental factors if they’re present so that the mind then becomes either virtuous or non virtuous by reason of the of those mental factors being present.
Is this clear? Okay. So, anyway, there’s a quotation from here, which is page forty seven, which want to read to you. So Geshe Tegchok anyway says, through deep meditation on future lives, we will understand that the various rebirths are caused by karmas, which are determined by the afflictions in existence. By understanding the mental factors, which include the afflictions, we will know that in the end, it is the mind which creates our personal environment.
Whether it’s a hell realm or a place of great enjoyment. That’s one quotation. Then later on he says, by understanding the mind’s and mental factors, we will know how to create virtue through virtuous mental factors and how to avoid non-virtue caused by non-virtuous mental factors. So this is something that’s very important for us to do. So the virtuous mental factors are listed first, and so I’ll I’ll mention them first because they come first in the presentation of Lorig.
So, Anyway, essentially, the listing these, there are eleven of them. And these eleven virtuous mental factors are virtuous from their own side. And they are, first of all, faith, moral shame, consideration, non attachment, non hatred, non confusion, effort, suppleness, conscientiousness, equanimity, and nonharmfulness. Now some of those might sound a bit strange, but some of them are qualities associated with with Samatha meditation. So they’re not something that you that you find in everyday consciousness.
So but others are. So we’ll be explaining that as we go along. So, essentially, faith is the first one. And we’re often told in Buddhism that we in Buddhism we’re not encouraged to have unthinking faith. So you might think, why is faith being listed first of the eleven virtuous mental factors?
So we have to understand here that faith is something that comes through knowledge, and it doesn’t mean believing without having good cause, but it means having trust and confidence that comes through gradually and through putting in effort into developing understanding. So there’s three different kinds of faiths that are listed here. And the first one is admiring faith, and then there is believing faith, and then there is aspiring faith. So the first one is admiring faith. And this is the faith that sees the good qualities of the objects.
Seeing the good qualities of the Three Jewels of refuge, for example, then it gives you an interest in doing the practice. And in that way, you gradually overcome the non virtuous attitudes and make the mind positive. And so in this way, we gradually develop ourselves along the path and develop more understanding. And when we have more understanding, then we can have believing faith, which is faith arising through gaining convictions in the teachings of a valid being such as Buddha. So if we didn’t have admiring faith, then we wouldn’t have any practice, and then we wouldn’t be able to study and meditate and gain the believing faith.
So through having this believing faith, then we’ll carry on the practice without having doubts, without having the hindrances to our practice, due to doubts, which are a hindrance to strong practice. And so it’s very strong state of mind which is very effective in its practice. Any questions about that? And then there’s aspiring faith, which is to attain a particular virtuous goal. And this is seeing, for instance, that you can attain a state of liberation by four noble truths and see that there is a true cessation, the fourth the the third noble truth, the the truth of true cessation.
And because we see that, we study it, and learn about its existence, then we have this aspiring faith to attain that. And And because of having that aspiring faith, then we can work towards that that attainment. So Geshe Tegchok goes on to talk about there are some kinds of faith that are not virtuous, such as having faith in having a good time with your friends and drinking alcohol and that sort of thing. I’m not looking at anybody. Okay.
Then I beg your pardon? Okay. So then we go on to the next one. So all of these different mental factors, if you want to study them according to Lorig, there’s a lot of detail, but I’m just going through it in fairly short order. So the second one is moral shame.
And moral shame is a mental factor. So these definitions are very precise, so it helps you to really understand clearly what it’s all about. It’s a mental factor that, through self restraint, avoids committing a non virtuous action. So this is, in other words, a state of inner self respect that because of your inner restraint or inner sense of what’s morally right will not engage in these non virtuous actions, because you would be ashamed before yourself, essentially. You would be ashamed of yourself to do these things.
Then, similar to that, but looking outwards, is consideration, so through consideration of others. It’s all so consideration is also a mental factor that leads to restraint from committing a non virtuous action, but it is a restraint brought about by consideration for the feelings of others. And so we’re looking upwards here, but the there’s a similar sort of result, which is that we’re restrained from committing these nonvirtuous actions. Okay. Those are clear.
Then non attachment. And this is actually a virtuous mental factor. It’s not just neutral. So non is to be not attached to the pleasures of cyclic existence. And this is very important because attachment is one of the major factors that’s causing harm to our mind.