Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 81-minute session, Venerable Thubten Dondrub continues a course on the wisdom of emptiness, opening with housekeeping remarks about homework submission folders and discussion groups, then delivers a sustained teaching on why this wisdom is essential and how to cultivate it. He explains that ignorance—a false perception of things as truly or inherently existing—is the root cause of all suffering, and that understanding dependent arising (the Buddhist teaching that all phenomena arise in dependence on causes, conditions, and mind) is the antidote. The talk emphasizes the three higher trainings: ethical conduct, concentration, and wisdom. Dondrub stresses that genuine ethical living protects the mind from reinforcing ignorance and creates the calm necessary for meditation; that single-pointed concentration allows conceptual understanding to ripen into direct perception; and that wisdom develops through three stages—hearing the teachings, analytical contemplation, and meditative realization. He addresses common misunderstandings (that emptiness means nothing exists, or that non-inherent existence is nihilism), uses accessible examples (flowers, mirrors), and stresses the need for reliance on a qualified teacher. The session closes with detailed meditation instructions for the week ahead and a short break before discussion groups.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2015 01 20 DB Wisdom of Emptiness Week 2 20012015.mp3
UUID: 381ead87-5b94-4a7c-bb5c-87066caebb8e
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: DB Wisdom of Emptiness (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2015-01-20
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 81.5 minutes
Words: ~9,638
So so welcome everyone to our second class on the wisdom of emptiness. Just before we start, just for the because there’s quite a few new people. So at the beginning of every session from now on, I put out this blue folder, which is where people can put their homework. Then there’s a red folder where they collect the homework from that’s been marked or looked at. So they collect that from the red folder.
Then there’s the the next set of homework, and sometimes there’s some other handouts or something like like tonight. There’s just a few questions that people can discuss in the discussion group because from now on, as long as I each for each class, there’ll be a short discussion discussion groups where people get together. Sometimes I blab too much and the discussion group doesn’t happen, but I’m trying to behave myself and not talk too much. Okay. So in the in the Tibetan tradition, it’s it’s emphasized a great deal how important when whatever we do depends on whatever result we get from whatever we do depends because of the the nature of karma, the law of cause and effect.
It very much depends on how we do things, the motivation we do things, the strength of which we do them, the clarity with which we do them. So our motivation is incredibly important. So when we listen to the for that to have the greatest effect on our mind, it’s really important that we try to listen with a good motivation, with a clear mind, a concentrated mind, and and to make our motivation as best as possible. And, of course, in the Mahāyāna tradition, the best motivation we can have is the bodhicitta motivation, which is wishing to realize the full potential of our mind, our our Buddha nature in order to achieve enlightenment. So a basic reason to do that, of course, is that when we achieve enlightenment, we will become free of all causes of suffering.
We will awaken all potentials for happiness, and so we will achieve what we’ve always wanted to achieve. But the main reason to achieve enlightenment is not for our own sake as such, but for the benefit of others to repay their kindness. And and we can only repay that kindness perfectly by freeing ourselves from all faults because while we have any kind of fault, we will we won’t be able to benefit others perfectly, completely. We will actually whether we intended or not, end up harming them in some way because of our uncontrolled mind. So we need to get rid of all our faults and fully awake in all our potentials in a way that so that they will never decline because we need all those to be of perfect benefit to others.
And the reason to be of perfect benefit to others comes from recognizing, as I said last week, how we are totally dependent on them. We always have been. We always will be for our mere existence, for all the good things that happen to us, for all our good qualities and skills to be awakened. And that’s one reason, and the other reason is that all these people who have been so kind to us in so many ways, who we rely on are suffering in Samsāra like ourselves. But unlike ourselves, they have, right now, far more suffering than ourselves with far ourselves with far less ability to do anything about it.
And so right now, although we’re still in Samsāra, we are in a very unique fortunate situation where we can not only free ourselves from suffering, but we have this incredible opportunity to awaken our Buddha potential so that we can free others and lead them to enlightenment. So we have to do it because it’s the best thing to do and the most meaningful thing. Yes. It’s our responsibility because everyone’s been kind to us. Now we’re in a position to begin to really repay that kindness.
So to achieve enlightenment, we have to get out of Samsāra, so we have to develop the wisdom of emptiness because only that will get us out. And also to achieve complete enlightenment, we have to remove the subtle obscurations from our mind. The only thing that will do that is, again, the wisdom of emptiness. So for our own sake, for the sake of others, we have to develop this mind. So please try and generate that thought.
I want to understand this what with the wisdom of emptiness is in order to apply it in my life to be able to realize it, not only for my own sake, but for the sake of all sentient beings. So if you’d like to join in the traditional prayer, this is on page eleven. As we do it, it’s helpful, makes it more powerful if we think of Śākyamūni Buddha, the historical Buddha, directly in front of us, someone who has realized their put Buddha potential. If one can think the Buddha appears in front of us to remind us remind us of our Buddha potential, to inspire us to realize it. At the same time, we try and think of all sentient beings around us to motivate us to achieve our Buddha potential.
So at at the very least, we try and think of our mother of this life on our left, our father on our right, then the rest of our family, our friends, helpers behind us, harmers in front, at least we try and think of them. But as much as we can, we try and open our hearts and minds to an awareness of all other sentient beings, all the different beings of cyclic existence. At least at least if we can think of the the the rest of all the the human beings of this world and with the understanding that these beings are only kind but only suffering. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme assembly by the merits I create through teaching the Dharma. May I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings?
So then imagine that the Buddha’s pleased with our motivation and shows this by now coming towards the crown of our head. And when directly above our crown, we can imagine the Buddha then dissolves into blissful golden light. And then that light pours down into us through the crown of our head, blessing our mind to be able to understand the wisdom of emptiness, blessing our mind to be able to put it the teach the that understanding into practice, blessing our understanding into practice, blessing our mind to be able to eventually gain a complete realization of the wisdom that directly perceives the true nature of our self and all phenomena. So then we can enhance that positive state of mind by just briefly doing the nine round breathing exercise that’s been explained in the student material. And you can combine that to make it more effective with each in breath in the cycle.
Imagine breathing in white light from the Buddha, and this brings great calmness and clarity and peace to the mind. And with each out breath in the cycle, imagine that one breathes out all one’s disturbing thoughts, suffering, confusion, negative karmic imprints, all obstacles to understanding and realizing the wisdom of emptiness in the form of thick black smoke so that eventually one feels one’s whole being is pervaded by this blissful white light. K. Thank you. So before I start, part of the homework was to read that section section on the what is called the eight point Vairochana posture and the nine round breathing exercise.
So does anyone have any questions on that? Was was it clear enough what to do, or was it a bit confusing? Anything I can clarify on that? No. It’s all good?
Okay. Right. But please don’t be shy in asking questions on on anything that’s mentioned because that’s the whole purpose of the not much be point me talking if people don’t understand what I’m saying. So please ask questions. Okay.
So just very briefly reviewing very quickly reviewing what I tried to say last week. Why why do we need to study the wisdom of emptiness? And the answer is the reason is that we all want to be free of suffering. We all want to experience happiness. And what the Buddha discovered is that although our the nature of our mind is pure, perfect, blissful, although perfect, blissful, possesses every good quality, all of that is is obscured right now, and it always has been.
The the mind is beginningless, and it has been beginninglessly obscured. And and what obscures it is is what is called ignorance, which is a mental factor that prevents the mind perceiving things correctly and actually forces the mind to experience oneself and all phenomena in a false way. That false way in Buddhist philosophy or jargon is referred to as the appearance of true inherent existence. And and what the Buddha discovered, perceived was that because we perceive our because we experience ourself and things in a false way, it’s because of that and only because of that do we have this whole range of disturbing thoughts, which in themselves are painful and suffering. And and by following those disturbing thoughts, we create the causes of more suffering.
So if we want to be free of suffering and awaken and experience genuine happiness, then the only way to do so is to eliminate the cause, which is this ignorance. Yeah. There’s there’s no other way according to the Buddha. No other way. While we have these disturbing thoughts, we will suffer.
We’ll create the causes of suffering for ourselves. We will act as a condition for others to suffer. Yeah. Like that. So to get rid of those disturbing thoughts, we have to get rid of the underlying cause, which is ignorance, and the way to do that is is to is to awaken this potential within us, which has the ability to perceive things as they are.
So as we perceive things as we are as they as they are, that destroys that destroys that that that wrong view that we are grasping at, that wrong false experience that we’re grasping at right now. Okay. Well, just a little bit more. There are we have two levels of obscurations. Our mind has two levels of obscurations.
So the gross level is called the the the obscurations to liberation. So if we get rid of those, then that means we get rid of negative karma, disturbing thoughts, and ignorance. And because of that, we won’t have any suffering. And if we do that with the motivation just for our own benefit, then we can experience the state of nirvana. Right?
But if along the way of practicing, on the process of practicing, we meet the Mahāyāna teachings that emphasize achieving enlightenment for the sake of others. Then as well as developing wisdom, cultivating wisdom on the spiritual path, we can also cultivate bodhicitta, the wish to achieve enlightenment. And if we do that, then we will be able to remove the very subtle obscurations from our mind because even someone who is an arhat, who has achieved nirvana, has has not removed the subtle obscurations from their mind. They’ve only removed the gross level, the obscurations to a liberation. But if we want to achieve enlightenment to be able to benefit others, then we have to get rid of these subtle obscurations.
So what gets rid of those is the same wisdom of emptiness that gets rid of the obstacles to obstacles to liberation, but you have to make that wisdom much more powerful in order to get rid of these very subtle obscurations. And what makes though that wisdom so much more powerful is bodhicitta. Right? So the all all the different schools of Tibetan Buddhism follow the Mahāyāna path, which emphasizes not achieving just liberation for the sake of nirvana, but to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. So to do both things to achieve whether we want to achieve nirvana for our own sake or enlightenment for the sake of others, what we have to do is cultivate this wisdom of emptiness.
So it is incredibly, incredibly, incredibly, incredibly important. It is vital for our well-being. So, basically, what is this wisdom? It is a wisdom. It is a mental factor.
It’s an aspect of our mental consciousness which is able to directly, unmistakenly, continuously, vividly perceive things, self, ourself, phenomena exactly as they are. Yeah. It’s a matter of, like sometimes we think of wisdom as knowing lots of stuff, you know, having lots of experience, wise old ladies and men because they’ve lived along and had lots of experience and know lots of things. So that’s what wisdom doesn’t mean that in a Buddhist context. It means this this this this penetrative insight into the true nature of things, true nature of of ourself, the true nature of all phenomena.
So right now, what according using Buddhist terminology, which is the only way we can do this, what we experience we experience ourself and everything as truly existing or inherently existing or existing from its own side or under its own power. So all of these terms are basically synonymous. Especially from the highest view viewpoint, they are all synonymous. So my teacher says Lama Zopa Rinpoche says this is Lama Zopa Rinpoche over there or picture of him who who is the yeah. Anyway, so Rinpoche says, if if this appearance of true existence or inherent existence or existing from its own side or substantially existing under its own power was actually the way things did exist, it would mean mean that they existed independently, that they did not depend on anything.
That’s what that’s what true in existence or inherent existence or existing from its own side or under its own power implies even if the person who’s grasping that view doesn’t understand that, but that’s what is implied. That’s the logical consequence of believing in inherent existence is that one is believing that things are actually existing completely independently. And what the Buddha discovered is that things do not exist independently. And more than that, there is nothing that can exist independently. Right?
So even though we don’t actually see things and believe things are completely independent, the way we do experience things would imply they were. Therefore, the the simplest way it’s it’s not that simple, but the simplest way to develop the wisdom that destroys this ignorance because it’s the complete opposite is to understand, not not and not just intellectually. Firstly, we have to intellectually understand, but eventually directly perceive that that things do not exist independently. They actually exist dependently. That everything that validly exists exists dependently.
The the the Buddhist term for this is called I can’t I can’t pronounce it in Sanskrit. What is it? I can’t remember. I can’t pronounce it. Anyway, in English, it is dependent arising.
Everything arises dependently. And so not only do things arise dependently, this is the if if one starts to investigate if we start to use our intelligence properly and we really start to investigate our experience, we can start to understand and realize that this is the only way that things can exist. The only way things can exist is arising dependently. So this is what this course is about is to try there are other ways to realize realize emptiness, but the founder of the tradition that we follow here, who is Lama Tsongkhapa, which we don’t have a very prominent image of, except a tiny statue way over there of the founder of our tradition. Lama Tsongkhapa said that the, you know, the the the most profound, easiest way to understand emptiness, the king of reasoning to destroy ignorance is understanding dependent arising.
Some years ago or quite a few years ago, his holiness, the Dalai Lama, slightly jokingly said, if the Buddha had a slogan, it would be dependent arising. That that is the key teaching of the Buddha, that everything arises dependently. This is the this is everything exists by arising dependently. This is the only way things can exist. So if one understands things arise dependently, one understands that they don’t truly exist.
They don’t inherently exist. Yeah? So because of this view that things don’t truly exist, they don’t inherently inherently exist, this teaching of the Buddha since the time of the Buddha has been misunderstood. And even up as I said last week, up to the present time, people interpret this view of things not truly existing, not inherently existing as meaning they don’t exist at all. So this is what is called one of the extreme wrong views that things don’t exist at all.
As I said last week, there are two versions of that extreme view. One is that, you know, things don’t exist at all. You know? The other aspect of it is that they exist during this life, and then that’s it. There’s nothing beyond this life.
We die and nothing. Absolutely nothing. So the Buddha is saying this is one wrong view, which is an extreme wrong view. And the other extreme view so not many people well, many people believe, especially more and more in this in these degenerate times, particularly due to the influence of scientific materialism, that there’s nothing beyond this life. Yeah.
There’s no god, no things, but also there’s well, Buddhists don’t believe in god, but we believe in the mind. The scientific materials say, well, the mind is just the brain, and the brain is just a physical thing. So when we die, it rots, and that’s it. Finito. Finished.
So that extreme view brings a lot of suffering, that that that view. Because of that wrong view, all sorts of other wrong views arise in our mind, which cause us to suffer and create the causes of suffering. And the other extreme view, which is the is is the view that things really, really do exist the way they appear, that they do inherently exist, that they do truly exist. So according to Buddhism, this is an extreme view because it brings great suffering. So the Buddha says my teaching, the the correct view of reality is free of these two extremes.
It is a middle way between these two extremes. We have to avoid these two extremes of thinking, believing, grasping that things don’t exist at all, but also the view that they inherent they really exist the way they appear solidly and concretely, almost independently. So this middle way doesn’t mean that the Buddha’s view is somehow, like, in the middle of that. It’s kind of a, like, a compromise between those wrong views. What the middle way view means is that the the actual view that will that that if we cultivate it and develop it and realize it, which will free us from ignorance and therefore all suffering, that view is completely free of the extreme view of nihilism that things don’t exist, and it’s completely free of the wrong view of inherent existence.
It is a completely different view altogether. It has nothing to do with that one and nothing to do with that one. It is a middle way. Yeah. So this is the view we need to develop.
So all okay. It gets more complicated than that, of course. Yeah. One thing that’s emphasized in the teachings is that remember that this whole course is just a very basic introduction to a very, very complex, a very, If one has some terrible disease like a a life threatening disease such as cancer, and one can have cancer and not know it at all. One can feel and look perfectly healthy and have a a a disease within us that is killing is going to kill us.
Yeah? But then the doctor says, oh, you know, you have cancer. You need to have an operation. So if the doesn’t fully identify the cancer in the body and therefore is not able to get rid of all of it, then some remains and will grow and kill us. So in a similar way, what the Buddha is saying, all of our suffering originates with a wrong view about ourself and the world.
It all comes down to that. The way we in in in not intellectually believe, but we instinctively grasp that I am like this. The whole world is like this. So the Buddha says that’s the disease we all have. Every sentient being has this disease.
It is the worst disease. I think this is the bad news, folks. You know? We’ve got something far worse than cancer or AIDS or Ebola, Ebola, all of us in this room. Something far, far worse.
Because, you know, Ebola and all these other diseases, they will just kill us, and we die, and then we get reborn. Yeah. But the this other disease we’ve got is going to cause us suffering life after life after life after life after life if we don’t get rid of it. And that disease is ignorance. So to get rid of it, one has to identify what it actually is exactly because if we don’t, it will perpetuate itself.
And, you know, if we if we identify a little bit of it, we’ll only get in a in a sense reduce it. But because it’s there, the delusions will still be there. Because the delusions will be there, we will create karma and karmic imprints, and suffering will arise over and over again. So we have to identify exactly what the wrong view is that we have. This is the big thing, the the most subtle thing.
Because although all Buddhists following the Buddha accept and believe that the cause of of suffering is ignorance, and what ignorance does is create a wrong view of the world, world, a false experience of the world. What that false experience is is interpreted differently by different schools within Buddhism. So then the question arises, which school is the right one? Are they all right? Are they all wrong?
Or is one of the schools of Buddhism got the right view? Am I making some sense? Yes. Sorry? Yes.
It’s something you can realize. Yes. That’s the whole point. Wouldn’t be point any point doing giving these talks if it wasn’t. Is it cop out from her point of view?
Yes. Well, that’s what it is due to, my friend. What but do you want then do you want a complete explanation of what ignorance is for the answer? Well, you know, maybe in over six weeks, if you give me a chance, I might try you know, it might become but this is something you have to work on to you know? I am trying to introduce this subject.
But the I mean, in brief, that is the answer. Why do think things do appear see that vase of flowers over there? Anyone can say that. That vase of flowers over there isn’t a vase of flowers, actually. They’re not flowers.
They just look like flowers, but they look very convincing like flowers if you don’t check. Yeah. Right? This is a very simple thing. You know, they look very convincingly like flowers, but they’re not at all flowers.
Yeah. So things for us look concrete and solid and truly existing. But just because they look a particular way doesn’t mean they are. This is the whole point. So to to understand this, one has to also be a little humble.
You know? And, also, one has has to have some faith in the Buddha that the this the Buddha wasn’t just some dingaling who’s talking blah blah and says, I’ve got the answer to everything. One has to try develop some faith based on various things that the Buddha really perceived the truth. Otherwise, there’s no point studying his teachings. And there are some reasons to believe that the Buddha did get it right.
Reasons to believe that the Buddha did get it right. Yeah. But, you know, that’s that’s our own choice. So, anyway, just let me keep going. Okay?
But this is the whole point. Things do ex if the appearance of inherent existence you know, there are there are fake flowers that look obviously fake. You know? So you’re never fooled. Oh, that’s a flower.
You look and think that is a a fake, a bad attempt to look like a flower. But ignorance creates an incredibly convincing experience. That’s the whole problem, and we have believed this appearance a lot for lifetimes. It’s not something you think about. It is instinctive.
Even a bug has it. So it is very, very powerful and very, very, very convincing, and we never even think about that our view is wrong. In ninety nine even when we like I said last week, you weren’t here, but we make mistakes about many things all the time, but we we think they’re just minor but, you know, minor things, which in in a general way they underlying is this fundamental mistake we are making all the time, which we are not even slightly conscious of. Yeah? But and that’s why the Buddha came came to say, you’re making a major a major but very subtle mistake about everything all the time.
But you can understand that mistake. I did, and I will show you how you can understand the mistake you are making in your experience so that you will stop doing that and become free. No. No. That’s fine.
That’s fine. You Yes. Yes. I wouldn’t say it’s necessary, but to put it this way, to practice practice the Dharma to get rid of the wrong view of self, one does need a strong sense of self. Even though it’s the wrong one, one does have to have a strong sense of self.
I just said that. But to get rid of the wrong view of self, you do have to have a strong view of self. Or to put it in a very unsubtle way, someone who is seriously mentally disturbed cannot practice the Dharma and get develop the right view of emptiness. From the point of view of a Buddha, we’re all mentally disturbed because we’ve got ignorance. But from a conventional, very worldly point of view, one needs a a good sense of one’s own ego self to be able to get rid of the wrong view.
Yeah. I want to become a Buddha. I want to practice the Dharma. That I that wants to practice Dharma is a wrong view of I, but it’s very important to have it. Now that’s getting too complicated, maybe.
Anyway, I’m not I haven’t even started tonight. We’ve almost finished. Okay. I I haven’t got this was just a review. We haven’t got okay.
So let’s leave that bit. I never said they not not the nature, the view of what the obscurations yeah. Interpretation, not the actual obscurations don’t come from a lineage. The the Buddhist lineage didn’t make up the obscurations. There’s an interpretation of what the wrong view is.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. That’s another thing as well. I don’t know. Yeah.
Let let’s leave that whole topic for a little bit, and I just wanna move on a bit. Okay? To to tonight’s yeah. What we need to do to cultivate wisdom. Okay?
Okay. So what we need to do, if we have some belief in the Buddhist teachings, if we accept the the the four noble truths that we are suffering, that there is a true cause of our suffering, that we can actually eliminate it, and there’s a way to eliminate it. And, therefore, we want, you know, we want to do this. We want to use our life to begin to really free our ourselves from suffering, then so that also we can we can be of benefit to others as well, then what we need to do is cultivate what are called the three higher trainings. So to develop wisdom, we can’t do it without you know, if if we take this out, which I always use as as a symbol of the mind.
So, potentially, our mind well, our our mind has the potential to be like this, some that like that water, which is very pure pure and clear and actually, I’m shaking it a bit, but very still. And when water is very pure and clear and still, it has the like a mirror, the ability to reflect things exactly as they are. So that’s something like the potential of our mind. But our mind is like this much of the time. It is agitated by all sorts of disturbing thoughts.
Yeah. Yeah. That goes on all the time even when we’re asleep. We have all these disturbing thoughts to prevent our mind, our mental consciousness knowing things as they actually are. So that kind of mind, which is really and, you know, that can vary you know, some people’s minds are like that all the time, and some people’s minds are just a little bit agitated, but we all have agitated minds, disturbed minds, confused minds.
So that mind that mind, no matter how intelligent, educated it is, that mind has no ability to be able to penetrate the deep meaning of the wisdom teachings of the Buddha about the nature of reality. That mind just simply can’t do it because the mistake we are making of of we are perceiving things as truly existing when they they are non truly existing, non inherently existing. That mistake is something very, very subtle, especially when we get down to the actual very root cause of suffering, the very root ignorance because there’s many levels of ignorance. Yeah? So getting rid of the gross levels of ignorance is not gonna stop our suffering.
We have to get down to the very most subtle level of of ignorance, wrong view. So to be able to perceive that wrong view and understand even understand the correct view of the way things exist, we need to have a very calm, clear mind. So in other words, in order to really to eventually penetrate, not not just to be able to understand that these teachings, but to realize them, to have a a direct, transformative, spontaneous, authentic, ongoing experience of the nature of our self and phenomena, we have to develop concentration, single point of concentration, which in in Sanskrit is called Samādhi. And there’s a state a little bit beyond it, is called calm abiding or Samatha. So we have to develop this state of Samatha or let let’s just keep it simple and call it Samādhi con single pointed concentration, which is the ability to place the mental consciousness on any object at once and to keep it there effortlessly.
So that takes a lot of training in meditation to be able to do that. Although we have the potential to do that, no one is born comes into the world able to single pointedly well, I mean, some if they’ve been following the spiritual path strongly in previous lives. But ordinary beings, we don’t have the ability to do. And it’s in itself is quite an accomplishment to develop single pointed concentration. And, unfortunately, in this crazy world we live in, it’s becoming more difficult because the conditions for it there are fewer and fewer conditions in in the physical world because you have to find a very quiet isolated place to to train in Samādhi.
And most of us live very berserk, stressful, very, very busy, busy, busy busy lives. And, of course, the more one engages in that, the more the mind is like that. Yeah. But, anyway, to develop wisdom, we have to first, well, not first, but we have to develop especially to realize this wisdom, we have to develop single pointed concentration. Yeah.
But to develop that, that, firstly, we have to train in the higher training of morality. Observe and the way to do that is basically to observe in our daily life the law of cause and effect, which is the fundamental teaching of the Buddha and which all to which all the teachings are connected to. And why we need to observe the law of cause and effect in our daily life, especially well, there’s many, many reasons, but in in relation to developing wisdom is we need to develop concentration. So why we don’t have concentration is because our mind is distracted by all sorts of disturbing thoughts due to our negative disturbing minds. And they arise because those thoughts arise and often we’re not aware of them, and we follow them and act on them and engage in negative actions.
And partly because because we we’re only thinking about this life and only grasping at the pleasures and problems of this life. So to calm our mind down, we have to stop engaging in negative actions because every time we engage in an action negative action, it’s because we we’ve allowed our mind to become under the control of the disturbing thoughts of particularly afflicted desire, attachment, and anger. And and and if if we don’t do anything about those disturbing thoughts, they will continue. It is the nature of ignorance and all our disturbing thoughts that if we don’t do anything about them, they’re self perpetuating. Every time we follow a disturbing thought, every time we act on afflicted desire, attachment, anger, pride, and jealousy.
One thing it definitely does is it puts another imprint of that same delusion in our mind. So it will guarantee if we follow desire, by following desire, it guarantees we we will have desire again in the future. And then we will follow that, which will guarantee we’ll have another desire. Every time we get angry, that guarantees we’ll get angry again. Every time we follow pride, it guarantees that we’ll have more pride in the future.
And that means our mind will continue to be like that, which means we’ll never develop concentration because we were constantly creating the obstacles to it. Because to develop develop concentration, you know, one has to have this object, an object of meditation, which has to be either a neutral object or a virtuous object. You don’t develop Samādhi taking a negative object as the object of meditation. So you try and place your mind on that object and keep it there. But it if you if I mean, I think most of us here try to meditate, and our mind stays on the object of a short time and gone, it’s gone.
Either we fall asleep or, you know, kind of half asleep, asleep or we get distracted by something. And why are we distract? What what is underlying that distraction? It’s the disturbing thoughts. Habituated to following those disturbing thoughts.
And what is the main one? It’s not jealousy. It’s not pride. It’s not anger. The main problem to developing concentration is attachment.
It’s the sneakiest one. So, anyway, just to develop concentration so that we can develop wisdom, we have to observe the law of cause and effect in our daily life, give up negative behavior as much as possible, engage in virtuous actions as much as possible. Vital. Yeah? Another more profound reason, subtle reason why is every time we follow a disturbing thought, which means we’re following, like, attachment or anger or so on, all of those disturbing thoughts are byproducts of ignorance.
So ignorance if we go back to flowers again, I can’t talk about emptiness without flowers. Oh, ignorance creates a wrong view of these flowers as an inherently existing. Because of that ignorance, on top of that, we perceive these conventionally pleasant looking flowers as beautiful. And so there’s the possibility for attachment to and desire and attachment to arise to this object. And what and and that desire attachment is saying that this object is inherently beautiful.
It is truly beautiful from its own side. And so every time we follow our our disturbing thoughts of attachment or anger or whatever, it’s reinforcing the wrong view of inherent existence, which is the very thing that we need to get rid of. So every time we with with withhold following our disturbing thoughts, it means at the very least, are not reinforcing our grasping at inherent existence, which is the source of our suffering. But, also, we’re not creating negative imprints, which are obscuring our mind and making it difficult to develop wisdom. So we need to develop we need to base our life on the law of cause and effect.
And the fifth Dalai Lama, one of the the greatest of the one of the greatest of the Dalai Lama’s once said something like, in order to and also Nāgārjuna, the great Nāgārjuna who was responsible for reintroducing the wisdom teachings of the Buddha back into this world, said something along the lines that it until we develop the actual realization of the true nature of our self and phenomena, the wise the the wise person observes the law of cause and effect. It is it is being wise that it that is wisdom to live according to the law of cause and effect because that will eventually lead us to the highest wisdom. Because the law, of course you know, many, many reasons I don’t have time to explain now, but one thing I can say is that the wrong view creates the illusion that things are more or independently existing. What we need to just we need to destroy that by understanding more and more that things arise dependently. So one aspect of that understanding is the law of cause and effect, that things, effects, exist depending on a cause.
You do something and and depending on that arises depending on that arises an effect. If one doesn’t understand that, if one doesn’t believe that, there’s no way to develop the wisdom of emptiness because it’s an integral part of the law of understanding emptiness. Because, also, the understanding of emptiness, the true nature of things is, you know, intimately related to understanding that everything arises depending on our mind. And the law of cause and effect is fundamentally an explanation of how the mind works. So if we don’t develop faith in that, we don’t have to.
You know, it’s our choice. But if we don’t really understand what the mind is and the the law of cause and effect, we cannot really develop that wisdom to perceive things as they are. So So we have to train in the higher training of morality. This will lead to eventually being able to develop concentration, single point of concentration, if we put effort into the specific So we We have have have do We hearing, you know, oral explanations, reading the texts, meditating on them. There are it is said, you know, there’s many ways of of talking about wisdom, and one way is they talk about what are called the three wisdoms.
There is the wisdom that arises from hearing the teachings. That that is with faith. If you don’t have any faith in them and you dismiss them, then no wisdom is going to arise. Or some people would say it would be very wise to dismiss the Buddhist teachings as rubbish. But from a Buddhist point of view, by listening to the teachings with faith and believing them, then a certain wisdom arises in one’s mind.
Mind. Yeah. One hasn’t really understood the teachings, but one now knows and accepts this as true so that that that there is a certain wisdom that is counteracting our inborn ignorance, wrong views. Yeah. So then the second level of wisdom, a much deeper level of wisdom is the wisdom of contemplation, which arises from thinking about the teachings, analyzing them more deeply, doing what is called analytical meditation.
So by doing that, a deeper you know, some real understanding of the teachings, not just a blind belief in the teachings will arise. And this is something His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, talks about a lot, encourages people. He says, you know, you shouldn’t just have blind belief in the teachings. Yeah. I mean, this is one of the things the Buddha himself said.
Don’t believe what I say just because I said it. Investigate yourself. Because if you check yourself yourself and come to that that that conclusion, then your your belief will be very, very strong. Yeah. So then the the highest level of wisdom is the highest level of wisdom is the wisdom that arises in the mind comes not just from analytical investigation, but through developing single pointed concentration, the ability to single pointedly concentrate on one’s correct understanding of the teachings.
Because once one is able to do that, that is able that develops the power within the mind to transform what is a conceptual understanding, a correct conceptual understanding of reality into a direct perception of reality. So right now, most of us, when we experience the world, experience the world as permanent, unchanging. We experience ourself, everything around us as basically static and permanent. Yeah? That’s how we live our life, generally speaking, roughly speaking.
When we study the teachings, we start to discover that, actually, everything is impermanent. Everything depending on causes and conditions is impermanent. By thinking about that and investigating it, we can come to a logical understanding that things depending on causes and conditions are impermanent. So the more we’ve thought about that, that can really change our experience of ourself and the world very drastically. This is a very powerful topic, that one.
But by developing Samādhi and being able to single pointedly meditate on that, that everything depending on causes and conditions is impermanent. One doesn’t just have a a correct concept conceptual understanding of impermanence. Impermanence, one is then able to directly, with one’s mental consciousness, perceive everything as changing moment by moment. Right now, our five sense consciousnesses, which I talked about last week, I think, our eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose, tongue, and body consciousness, those consciousnesses directly perceive their object. The eye consciousness directly perceives shapes and colors.
But our mental consciousness, which is the most important part of our mind right now for us as ordinary beings, operates at a level of concepts. We have concepts about things. We have concepts about ourself. We have concepts about other people. Concepts about ourself.
We have concepts about other people, about the world, about this, about that, and we think our concepts are reality. We think our concepts we think our conceptions are perceptions, but they’re just conceptions. I mean, a very simple example is how we all read about famous people, movie stars, rock and roll. Oh, Jill you know, what’s what’s her name? Brad Pitt and Jill what?
Angelina. Oh, she’s so beautiful and lovely. Oh, she’s a, you know, she’s a bitch. You know? All these all these people write about these people.
They’ve never ever met them. Never even act not even met them. Most of the people who say this haven’t even seen actually seen their bodies. They’ve seen pictures in magazines which are colored dots, magazines which are colored dots, arranged colored dots on a piece of paper, and they know all about this person. And all they’ve got is a pathetic concept in their mind based on some colored dots and words written by other people about this person who probably has never seen this person either.
And but they know this person, and they’re convinced. They know this person, and that’s how we live our life. But our mental consciousness actually has the the potential to directly perceive things. But right now, it’s just mostly conceiving stuff, and we believe that those concepts are percepts, the thing itself. That’s the problem.
That’s one of the problems. Whereas wisdom is a direct perception, an unmistaken direct perception of what’s there. That’s what we’re trying to do, develop that. It would be be very helpful. It would yeah.
Very helpful. So very quickly, that’s what we need to do, develop you know, base our life on living a moral life. Sounds very boring, you know, being a goody goody, but it’s not. It’s also really living a moral life is about developing love and compassion for oneself as well. Really, that’s what it living a moral life is really about.
Because when we live a moral life, we avoid causing we we we stop engaging in negative actions, which bring suffering. So if we had compassion for ourselves, that’s what we do. And by engaging in virtuous actions, these actually are the cause for happiness, which is what is love. Love is wanting happiness, genuine happiness. So if we really loved ourselves, we would behave in a moral way.
We would engage in virtuous actions because they bring they are the actual cause of happiness. And we would stop we would stop creating the actual causes of suffering if we had genuine compassion for ourselves. So being moral is quite good. It can be fun. It’s fun.
Should be fun. And it leads to us making it easier to develop concentration. Once we’ve developed concentration, that makes it easier to develop wisdom, all the different kinds of wisdom. But just very quickly, is someone gonna ring a bell? Oh, no.
Yeah. Oh, did someone ring? I didn’t hear it. Oh, I don’t think I heard that one. Oh, there’s still anyway, just I just quickly.
So these are the basic things, but as well, what we need to do before I go on, you may think, oh, this is too much. There’s too many things to do. Forget, you know, this is a completely wrong way of thinking. Just in your ordinary life, we have too many things to do. There’s too many things to do in ordinary life, and all these too many things that we do in our ordinary life are leading us nowhere.
They’re just delusions. They’re just suffering. We do them because we think we’re going to be happy or we’re going to avoid suffering. But at the very best, we avoid suffering for a little while, and we get a little bit of pleasure that lasts for a little while. This stuff has a lot to do, yet, but it comes to an end.
And how does it end? Enlightenment. There’s no choice. There’s no choice. We’ve gotta do all this stuff if we if we want happiness and don’t want suffering.
And it’s all good to do. It’s all meaningful. I’m sorry. I can’t control myself. I’m gonna say this.
One of the my my my teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, comes out with some wonderful one liners, very simple, profound things. One thing Rinpoche once said was, as a Buddhist practitioner, what we are we we are not trying to be happy. It’s not about trying to achieve happiness. What and what my teacher meant by that was we’re not trying to achieve worldly happiness, happiness that is impermanent, illusory, unsatisfactory, not going to last. My teacher said, as a Buddhist practitioner, what we are trying to do is have a meaningful life.
That’s what we want is a meaningful life. It is much better to have a meaningful life than to have a happy life. Much, much better. Because meaningful life is also a satisfying life. And if one has satisfaction, that means one is not actually suffering.
Yeah. So doing this stuff, all these things, so many things, so many Buddhist things to do, Dharma things to do, brings a meaningful life. It it is the most meaningful thing to do. It brings the greatest satisfaction. So in in trying to develop these three higher trainings of morality, concentration, wisdom, what we also have to do along the way is purify our mind.
You know, mind is a big obstacle to everything. So the more we can purify our mind, get rid of the negative imprints we’ve already put in our mind, pacify as much as we can our disturbing thoughts, then our mind will become relatively calm and clear. The more relatively calm and clear it is, the more we will be able to understand the teachings, the more it it’ll be easier to practice them, the easier it will become to actually realize them, to gain the direct experience of them. Yeah. And along with that so there are many practices one can learn to purify the mind.
Also, we need to accumulate merit, put positive imprints in the mind because those those positive imprints or merit strengthen the mind in a good way, empower the mind. Yeah. So we need need to do that. And yeah. And we also need to well, incredibly put so we also have to study the teachings.
I think I’ve mentioned that we have to study the teachings by hearing authentic authentic commentaries from pick you know, teachers and so on. And and so along that so associated with that is it’s really important, especially to develop the highest wisdom that will free us from suffering, we have to rely on a qualified teacher. Connect with a teacher who is really very qualified, experienced, and devote oneself to that teacher or teachers because they will be able to lead us to these these profound experiences. Not not any teacher. It’s has to be someone who really not only has an intellectual understanding of these things, but a a really deep authentic experience of them.
Is your are your main minds about to pop? Yes. They’re about to pop. Too much overload. Oh, okay.
Yep. Maybe we better take a break. Tea break. Beginning of the discussion groups that those questions are just a guideline in the groups that, you know, you can discuss other things related to the topic, anything that comes up, and express your opinions opinions and doubts and whatever. You don’t have to tow the party line.
Okay. Just quickly before we finish, since I didn’t get on to the actual topic tonight that usually happens, although it only affects one part of the homework. Just another thing about the homework with the reading, I I would encourage people this may sound a little bit strange, but just to confine themselves to reading the homework themselves to reading the homework as set and rather well, you can read ahead and whatever, but in some ways, that’s good because it’s then you start to get familiar with what’s gonna be talked about the next week. But it’s really good to focus just on the homework that’s been set to read that and maybe not be content just to read it one time, but read it over and over a few times if you’ve got if you’ve got the time, especially in this course because some of the the the the the articles are quite complex, and there’s all sorts of different, you know, like terminology that you may not be familiar with and so on. So so, basically, stick to to what the set reading is rather than reading ahead.
But I I mean, it’s your choice if you wanna read all the homework in one go. That that’s your choice. So for for the meditation, the idea is to just to sort of do the sort of sit in the correct posture as much as possible, do the nine round breathing exercise. Then if you feel comfortable to use the traditional prayer to help generate a good motivation for doing the meditation. And then each day, I’ve set a little topic to think about to do some analytical meditation where you just think about the topic.
You know, many people think, especially maybe some of the new people, that meditation is where you stop all thought. But, actually, in the Tibetan tradition, especially the school that we follow, analytical meditation is considered extremely important where you think about a particular topic, but you do it in a disciplined way. And that’s why you start with preparing your mind by doing breathing meditation, cultivating the right motivation, making the determination to be concentrated just on that topic, and then you try and think about that topic as clearly and as logically and from as many directions as you can analyzing it to see, you know, you know, the the pros and cons and whatever. Yeah. That’s why I I hope everyone’s read the introductory talk about the this, you know, the DB program in general where it encourages you to come along and take notes because, occasionally, I do say something intelligent, which you which you won’t.
Have there was a disagreement there where where and I say things that aren’t necessarily in the the student material and and so on. So it’s good to write that down. So because it’s can be the basis of the homework. But, anyway so for for this week, the idea was to think about the three higher trainings on Wednesday, then the need for morality or not. Thursday, Friday is about how concentration is related to developing wisdom.
Then Saturday is the need for merit, purification, study, study, and a teacher. I only talked about these things briefly, but you can use that to, you know, investigate from your own point of view. Of course, you can also, apart from the reading material here, investigate this topic online and in other books and so on. And then on Sunday, it says to talk about to think about the differences between the four schools, but that’s what I was going to talk about tonight and didn’t get to. So you can leave that meditation and replace it with either just going over one of the previous ones or just doing some breathing meditation instead.
Yeah. And then Monday is just to think about how things appear to one to myself. Just to try to analyze, you know, when you look at things or hear a sound or smell something, how especially when you think, oh, this is nice or this is bad. This is good, bad, beautiful, ugly, to try and and try and catch the way you you are believing that thing to exist. Yeah?
It’s not as though you have to come up with an absolute definite answer and opinion, but just to try and see beyond, you know, just looking at something. But how do you think that thing, you know, which you see as beautiful? Why is it beautiful? How where is the beauty? How how how is the beauty or ugliness or goodness or badness for this or thatness of it there?
Why am I believing that? What is what is there that is telling how you know? Something like that. And then finally, on Tuesday, how to try and think about investigate how you think you exist, not who you are. You know, I’m this, that, the other, but how you actually exist.
I mean, maybe one way you could try to do it is like looking in the mirror. And when you look in the mirror, there’s this image there, and you look and you think we all think when we look in the mirror. Oh, that’s me. That’s me. But is that you when you look in the mirror?
What what what do you see in the mirror that is you? No. I I I I don’t I don’t want you right there. I’m not interested in your opinions. That’s right.
Joking. No. Just to you know? Because we all doubt we all can think, oh, you know, I look horrible today. Oh, you know, I’m looking okay today.
I mean, I, you look and think that’s me. But, actually, you’re looking at your body, and you’re not even looking at your body or your face. You’re looking at a reflection of your face. But so is your face you, or is your whole body you? Is a part of your body you, or are you something separate from your body?
And if you’re, you know, if you’re something separate from your body, what is it that’s you? And and not yeah. And try and do it not from a an abstract point of view of what you could be, but what what you think you are. And certainly for the Buddhists here, not what you’re supposed to think you are according to Buddhism, but what one is really believing, grasping oneself to be. Okay.
Okay. That’s it for tonight. Unless if if does anyone have any questions they’d like to ask on any bit so far said or not said that I could try and clarify? Okay. So, we can if you’d like to join in, we finish, with, the dedication.
So this is, again, on page eleven. Due to the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of a guru Buddha and lead all living beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the precious bodhicitta mind, not yet born, arise and grow. May that born have no decline, but increase forevermore.