Discourse on Nalanda Buddhism

Tibet House New Delhi

(9) NDC509/01/11/2024

The 9th Session

The Four Seals of Buddha's Teachings

Setting proper motivation before starting the practice is important. May I become Buddha for the benefit of all my dear mother sentient beings!

Buddha indicated that all our miseries are due to ignorance and ignorance has many layers. But Buddha indicated particularly four levels of ignorance which are very closely related to us as four misconceptions. Misconceiving impermanent phenomena as permanent; misconceiving misery as happiness; misconceiving impure things as pure; and misconceiving selflessness as selfhood. To eradicate these four misconceptions, Buddha taught the Four Seals.

The first seal "All composite things are impermanent" counteracts the first misconception. The second seal, "All contaminated things are of suffering nature" counteracts the second misconception. The third seal "Everything is empty and of selfless nature" counteracts the third and fourth misconceptions. Within that two wisdoms are indicated, emptiness and selfless nature. These two will counteract ignorance in the third and fourth misconceptions. The fourth one "Transcending sorrow is Nirvana" is the resultant state after eradicating ignorance.

In the Pali text, you will find three seals, Anicha, dukkha, and anatta. Transcending sorrow is not explicitly indicated. The difference is in the Pali system, it is presented without the result, while in the Sanskrit system, it is presented with the result.

Impermanence appears in gross and subtle forms. Death is certain, but there is uncertainty about when it will occur. Meditation on this impermanence along the first seal is gross level. Meditation on impermanence at the second seal is a subtle level. We see the transitory nature of all things, moving so fast driven by ignorance due to contaminated karma and self-grasping ignorance. Contaminated karma and self-grasping ignorance are misery and suffering. Sufferings are of three kinds: the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and pervasive conditioned suffering.

All evident sufferings are suffering of suffering. All mundane happiness is suffering of change, mundane happiness of having a cheesecake. The suffering of suffering is gross suffering, and the suffering of change is suffering at a subtle level. Pervasive conditioned suffering is at the subtlest level.

In suffering of suffering, you experience and you know that you are suffering. In the suffering of change, you feel good and pleasant; you don’t identify that experience as suffering. In pervasive conditioned suffering, you don’t feel or experience it. You are under the sway of self-grasping ignorance and not aware of it. It is so subtle to identify. Meditation has to be of two kinds: one on what binds us to samsara and another one on what liberates us from samsara.

Pervasive conditioned suffering is due to four factors: 1) Involuntary birth in samsara; 2) Being under the control of contaminated karma and afflictions; 3) Our mind is under the control of self-grasping ignorance; and 4) Mundane neutral feeling.

(How is disability to be treated? Disability is a part of the suffering of suffering; it is not a pleasant feeling. We shall discuss this more later.)

What is a mundane neutral feeling? Let us consider things in dreams and non-dreams. In dreams, we have no control over pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings. A neutral feeling is the ground on which pleasant and unpleasant feeling arises. No control means a lack of freedom. Lack of freedom is suffering and ignorance is the cause of suffering. What you believe in a dream is ignorance. As anything influenced by ignorance is contaminated, this neutral feeling in a dream is a contaminated neutral feeling. It serves as a ground for the other two sufferings, suffering of suffering and suffering of change. So, it is the mastermind for the suffering of suffering and suffering of change.

We talk about non-virtuous affliction, the cause of the suffering of suffering in the desire realm, simply to distinguish it from the neutral affliction which is the cause of pervasive contaminated suffering in the form and formless realms.

The suffering of suffering is triggered by non-virtues, and within non-virtues, we have non-virtuous karma and affliction. Affliction can be non-virtuous or neutral but never virtuous. Non-virtuous affliction is the cause of suffering of suffering. Neutral afflictions give rise to the experience of pervasive conditioned suffering in the formless realm.

The suffering of suffering exists only in the desire realm. The suffering of change exists in the desire realm and the first three levels of the four-form realm. The suffering of change doesn’t exist in the formless realm and the fourth level of the form realm. Pervasive conditioned suffering exists in all three realms, therefore, it is pervasive.

Where samsara is there, afflictions are there. So, the afflictions exist in a formless realm also. But the afflictions in the formless realm are neutral. As they don’t have the suffering of change, non-virtuous afflictions are not there. As non-virtuous afflictions should have the suffering of suffering, the latter is not in the formless realm. So, the afflictions in the form and formless realms are neutral afflictions.

The suffering of suffering is due to non-virtuous karma and non-virtuous afflictions. Afflictions in the form and formless realms are neutral afflictions; they are never non-virtuous afflictions. Self-grasping ignorance is affliction but not non-virtuous affliction but neutral affliction. This is so in the desire realm too.

Afflictions can be non-virtuous and neutral. Non-virtuous affliction gives rise to the suffering of suffering in the desire realm.  Neutral afflictions exist in the form and formless realm. Self-grasping ignorance of the desire realm is a neutral affliction. Pervasive conditioned suffering is more of a result and causal factor.

Full renunciation should mean the renunciation of all three sufferings: the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and pervasive conditioned suffering. The 7th century Acharya Dharmakriti in his text Parmanavertika chapter 2 said the when Buddha taught "This is the truth of suffering", he meant the pervasive conditioned suffering and not the other two. But we need to know the first two sufferings to understand the third properly.

Renunciation of suffering of suffering and suffering of change will not liberate us. It is the renunciation of the third pervasive conditioned suffering that will liberate us because it is the mastermind of all the sufferings. Thinking of Tantra without the knowledge of renunciation is deception. The Foundation of Tantra is Bodhicitta and wisdom of emptiness. Bodhicitta is the foundation of great compassion. The foundation of great compassion is renunciation.

When you try to escape from daily problems, family issues, etc., it is renunciation from the suffering of suffering. True renunciation is from the pervasive conditioned suffering. Without Bodhicitta, there is no Tantra. Step by step, we need to build a strong foundation by Renunciation, Bodhicitta, Wisdom of Emptiness, and then Tantra. This is the right approach.

(10) 5/12/2024 (Thu) / NDC5010/03/11/2024

The 10th Session

The third seal of the Buddha is: "Everything is of empty and selfless nature". Our mind keeps on moving and it never terminates or stops. It is impermanent and keeps on changing. External phenomena also change like the Big Bang and Big Crunch. Contaminated karma, afflictions, self-grasping ignorance, etc. will never stop unless we make an effort to stop it.

Buddha taught not to pray to him to relieve the suffering. He taught "Ye Dharma he tu prabhava, he tunte shan tathagatha hayavadath, te sham chayo nirodha, evan vadhi maha sharma naye suvha".

All phenomena arise from causes              ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་རྒྱུ་ལས་བྱུང་།               

The causes are taught by the Tathagata     དེ་རྒྱུ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པས་གསུངས།

The cessation of the causes, as well;          རྒྱུ་དེའི་འགོག་པ་གང་ཡིན་པ།

Is taught by the Great Seers.                       དྲང་སྲོང་ཆེན་པོས་དེ་སྐད་གསུངས།

All phenomena occur because of the causes. We need to identify and track the cause to eliminate it. The cause is our ignorance, and counterforce to ignorance is wisdom. What is wisdom? Wisdom is a discerning mind whose apprehension tallys with reality. The reality is that everything is in the nature of emptiness. If we fully understand and discover this, our ignorance will be curtailed. With the removal of ignorance, all will stop. This will take us to the last and the fourth seal, "Transcending sorrow is nirvana".

Emptiness in the third line of the seal, emptiness, and reality, it is very important. [More shall be discussed on this at the end of the course.]

In Pali tradition, the fourth, resultant line is not there. What is emptiness nature? Let us think about the dream and non-dream entity, ignorance, and wisdom. When you wake up from a bad dream you feel relieved and safe. A tiger is a fearful animal. If it comes in a dream or in a non-dream state, it is frightening.

Seeing a dream tiger as the real tiger is ignorance and fear arises. Seeing a dream tiger as a dream tiger is wisdom. Realizing that it is a dream tiger and not a real tiger, your fear dissolves. As it is the ignorance that had us to see the dream tiger as a real tiger, we must stop and overcome this ignorance. For this, we need wisdom to see the reality. The dream tiger is not a real tiger. It comes from our mind but the real tiger comes objectively. What comes from the mind is subjective and what comes from an object is objective.

Therefore, a dream tiger is subjective and a real tiger is objective. The dream tiger is empty of objective existence. This connects us to the third seal the Buddha, "Everything is of empty and selfless nature".

What is emptiness? Emptiness means being empty of the objective existence of phenomena. A dream tiger, being subjective, is empty of objective existence or objective reality. When you see that there is no objective or real existence of a dream tiger, all fear is gone. This freedom from the fear is nirvana. This connects us to the fourth seal of Buddha, "Transcending sorrow is peace".

We need to change our cognitive thinking that nothing exists objectively. With this, our involuntary push and pull will stop. Freedom from the fear of suffering is to wake up from the sleep of ignorance. Just as our fear goes away on waking up from a bad dream, understanding reality will dissolve our fear. Involuntary push of anger and ignorance, and involuntary pull of attachment will stop and our mind will find ultimate rest, this is known as transcending sorrow is peace, nirvana.

Finally, everything is in the nature of emptiness, which we need to realize. Buddha has said, "You are the master of yourself. Who else is your master? Tame your mind. The one who tames his/her mind is wise and will be liberated."

Buddha showed us the path of how to tame our minds. He said we need to you walk on that path. Nobody will walk for us. We need to walk ourselves to see the wisdom of emptiness and reality. Study, reflection, and meditation to see nothing exist objectively and everything exists subjectively. Everything is in the nature of emptiness and selflessness. Everything is dependent origination, and dependent origination and emptiness are two sides of the same coin.

With this, we are done with the four seals. Next, we shall do 5 aggregates, 12 sources, and 18 elements.

Note: This is a student’s personal note of the teachings given by Ven. Geshe Dorji Damdul of the Tibet House, New Delhi. Errors and omissions are bound to occur. Serious students are requested to refer to Geshe la’s teachings or join the Tibet House class and receive teaching directly from Geshe-la.

 

Nalanda Tibetan Buddhism

Nalanda Diploma Course 5

Session 7th and 8th Tibet House New Delhi

 (7)  NDC5/25/10/2024

Our Motivation for the practice or for any activity should be to achieve Buddhahood to benefit all sentient beings. Prayers, recitations, and meditation are important to strengthen this motivation.  

There are two causes of suffering, i.e. gross and subtle in the forms of two obscurations blocking us from realizing our Buddha nature. These two obscurations are: self-grasping ignorance and self-centered attitude, also known as afflictive obscuration and cognitive obscuration. Afflictive obscuration and self-grasping ignorance are gross obscurations. Cognitive obscuration and self centered attitude are subtle obscurations.

Afflictive obscurations are contaminated karma, afflictions, and the active seeds of the two. Acharya Nagarjuna said: "Ceasing of karmas and afflictions leads to nirvana. Karmas and afflictions arise from conceptual thought. These arise from (mental) elaboration (grasping at true existence). Elaboration ceases by (or into) emptiness." [The Blaze of Non-dual Bodhicittas p-5]

ལས་དང་ཉོན་མོངས་ཟད་པས་ཐར། ལས་དང་ཉོན་མོངས་རྣམ་རྟོག་ལས། དེ་དག་སྤྲོས་ལས་སྤྲོས་པ་ནི། སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་འགག་པར་འགྱུར།

Contaminated karmas arise from gross afflictions. Gross afflictions arise from inappropriate actions and inappropriate actions arise from self-grasping ignorance, the root of our misery. The root of our misery is ignorance. There are many kinds of ignorance, Buddha identified four:

1. Seeing impermanent as permanent

2. Seeing misery as happiness

3. Seeing impure as pure

4. Seeing selfness as selfhood

To counteract these four ignorance, Buddha taught the Four Seals. It is the four kinds of wisdom to eliminate the darkness of ignorance. Impermanent phenomena can be gross and subtle. Gross impermanent phenomena are those where its continuum ends or terminates i.e. year, youth, life, death, etc. Subtle impermanence coexists with gross impermanence. All phenomena should have momentary quality of time, movement, and change.

Meditation on gross impermanence and subtle impermanence is important. Current Bodhi tree is Bodhgaya is the 3rd generation. The 1st was destroyed, and the 2nd grew up in Sri Lanka. The seed terminated as a seed and became tree gradually as gross impermanence. Every year and every second it was changing, this is subtle impermanence at its neno second level that we don’t see.

If you are thrown out from a moving train, your fear will be more with the increased level of the speed of the train. Who is responsible for the speed of the train, it is the train driver. Our mind is like the train driver and this mind is under the control of self-grasping ignorance and self-centered attitude. All contaminated things are of suffering nature in the second line of the Four Seals means afflictions. Contaminated here means something either afflictions themselves or infested by afflictions. Afflictions are mental factors presence of which disturbs our minds.

 Causal state and resultant state, the former is contaminated karma and afflictions and the latter is misery and suffering. Sufferings are categorized under three kinds:

1. Suffering of suffering

2. Suffering of change

3. Pervasive and conditional suffering  

Suffering of suffering is what everybody dislikes and suffers like, headache, sickness, divorce, death, etc. Suffering of changes are all mundane happiness and satisfaction, joy of having cheese cake, fun, drinks, etc.

 (8) NDC5-8/27/10/2024

The second line of the Buddha's Four Seals has this "All contaminated things are of suffering nature". Contaminated things mean something affected or influenced by afflictions, or negative emotions. Therefore, if we want to shun suffering, we need to eliminate the negative emotions. Charles Darwin said these negative emotions are necessary for survival and cannot be eliminated. Darwin saw anger as a means to protect oneself and necessary. Buddha saw anger as a major source of suffering to be eliminated and controlled.

 If you want to achieve 100 % happiness and 0 % suffering, you need to practice the Four Seals. The first line "All composite phenomena are impermanent", says all composite, not non-composite, phenomena are impermanent. Impermanence can be gross impermanence and subtle impermanence. Gross impermanence is something we can see. All that gathers separates; all that is accumulated is exhausted; and all this is born dies. Subtle impermanence is the changes happening at a subtle level and very fast in the gross impermanence and our eye can see it.

When we say all contaminated things are of a suffering nature, we need to know what is meant by contamination. Contamination here refers to afflictions. Affliction is a mental factor presence of which disturbs our minds. Three major afflictions, also known as three poisons, are attachment, aversion, and ignorance. There are other categorizations like 6 root afflictions, 27 afflictions, etc. Anything influenced by afflictions is contaminated and anything contaminated is of a suffering nature. Therefore, all contaminated things are of a suffering nature.

Ignorance is the root and self-grasping ignorance is the worst ignorance. We need to study what this self-grasping ignorance is. We should not guess it at our level. It has a very technical meaning. We need to study Archarya Nagarjuna's verse:

ལས་དང་ཉོན་མོངས་ཟད་པས་ཐར། ལས་དང་ཉོན་མོངས་རྣམ་རྟོག་ལས། དེ་དག་སྤྲོས་ལས་སྤྲོས་པ་ནི། སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་འགག་པར་འགྱུར།

The ceasing of karmas and afflictions leads to nirvana

Karmas and afflictions arise from conceptual thought

These arise from (mental) elaborations (grasping at the existence)

Elaboration ceases by (or into) emptiness

Nagarjuna's four verses and Buddha's four seals talk of contaminated karma and affliction, inappropriate attention (elaboration), and self-grasping ignorance. These four constitute the cause of our misery and suffering. Contaminated karmas are produced by afflictions and afflictions are produced by inappropriate attention. Inappropriate attention or elaborations are produced by self-grasping ignorance. Contamination mentioned in the Four Seals refers to contaminated karma, afflictions, inappropriate attention, and self-grasping ignorance. As inappropriate attention and self-grasping ignorance are parts of ignorance under afflictions, broadly speaking contamination refers to contaminated karma and afflictions. Ignorance mentioned in the afflictions is gross ignorance and ignorance mentioned in inappropriate attention and self-grasping ignorance is subtle ignorance.

Sufferings are of three kinds: 1) Suffering of suffering; 2) Suffering of change; and 3) Pervasive and conditioned suffering. The first is evident suffering identifiable by anyone like hunger, sickness, death, etc. The second is all mundane happiness or joy, fulfillment, ease, and satisfaction. How mundane happiness is suffering and why the word "change" is added, this we should know.

 Mundane happiness is like bait, something which attracts and traps us. (Self: SoC is not finding continued joy and happiness in what you saw as joy and happiness before). Bait should be attractive and beautiful, but the end result of taking the bait is not good. Bait has the quality of being pleasing and the ability to hook us. Mundane happiness is bait to trap us in suffering.

 Tears represent the suffering of change. Here is an anecdote of two prisoners A and B to be executed after one year. A was treated so well as the prisoner and was very happy in the prison and was executed at the end. B was not treated well and suffered in prison and he escaped from the prison. A ultimately realized that all good treatment was bait to have him stay in prison for final execution. All mundane suffering has the connotation of bait to trap us in samsara.

The third, Pervasive and conditioned suffering is due to the following factors:

1. Our being under the control of contaminated karma and afflictions

2. Involuntary birth in samsara

3. Contaminated neutral feeling

4. Self-grasping ignorance

When you are under the control of someone and there is a lack of freedom. This lack of freedom results in suffering and misery. Involuntary birth is our birth without our consent. Contaminated neutral feeling, we shall do this later.

To understand the pervasive conditioned suffering, we need to know how it is pervasive, how it is conditioned, and how it is suffering.

Here is an anecdote of a CEO, a boss, and a staff. CEO is outwardly kind and inwardly harsh and influences the boss to treat the staff harshly. The boss is under pressure from the CEO to treat the staff harshly. The staff thinks that the CEO is good and the boss is bad. To his shock, the staff later came to know that the mastermind behind his suffering was the CEO.

 The Mumbai terrorist attack and the execution of a young boy Kasab some years ago is one example. The young boy was a mere tool but people rejoiced when he was executed. But the mastermind is still living and producing more Kasab. Elimination of the mastermind is important to get rid of the problems.

Suffering of suffering is the immediate pain and suffering that we encounter. The suffering of change has trapped us in a place where we are bound to face the suffering of suffering. What trapped us in Suffering of change is the pervasive conditioned suffering, so the mastermind of our suffering is the pervasive conditioned suffering. Involuntary birth is no. 1; being under the control of contaminated karma and affliction is no.2; and contaminated neutral feeling is no.3. They are the masterminds influencing us to get into the trap of suffering of change.

So, the pervasive conditioned suffering is the mastermind that throws suffering of change as bait and we encounter suffering of suffering. Acharya Dharmakirti in his Parmanavartika text chapter two has beautifully explained how all these works. When Buddha taught suffering of suffering, he was referring to pervasive conditioned suffering.

Why they are pervasive, we need to know that there are three realms in samsara. They are: 1) the Desire realm; 2) Form realm: and 3) Formless realm. In Sanskrit, they are Kamalok, Rupalok, and Arupalok. In Tibetan, they are: 'dod khams, gzugs khams, and gzugs med khams.

Desire realm is a place where beings take birth driven by a desire for sensual objects and sensual joy through the five sensual organs of eyes, ears, nose, taste, and touch. Seeing the limit and demerit of the desire realm, some beings get into meditative contemplation and practices and are detached from sensual pleasure. They are in the form realm. Those who go deeper and have achieved a profound level of meditative stability, are in the formless realm.

The suffering of suffering and suffering of change are not pervasive. Pervasive means which pervades across the three realms. The suffering of suffering is in the desire realm only. The suffering of change exists only in the desire realm and the first three of the four stages of concentration form realm. It is not in the 4th concentration stage and the formless realm.

Involuntary birth happens in all three realms. Contaminated neutral felling and self-grasping ignorance exist is all three realms. The word "conditioned" here has the connotation of being a mastermind.

"All contaminated things are of suffering nature". The first suffering, suffering of suffering, is the resultant state of the non-virtuous mind containing contaminated karma and non-virtue. The suffering of change is the result of the contaminated virtues. Pervasive conditioned suffering has the connotation of a causal state because it is the mastermind.

The suffering of suffering is an unpleasant feeling and suffering of change is the pleasant feeling at first, and the pervasive conditioned suffering is neutral. The first is due to a non-virtuous mind. The second pleasant feeling is samsara, contaminated pleasant feeling is due to non-virtuous mind. The third, pervasive conditioned suffering is predominantly a causal state of how we are driven by contaminated karma and afflictions.

Note: This is a student’s personal note of the teachings given by Ven. Geshe Dorji Damdul of the Tibet House, New Delhi. Errors and omissions are bound to occur. Serious students are requested to refer to Geshe la’s teachings or join the Tibet House class and receive teaching directly from Geshe-la.

Nalanda Buddhism Class

A Discourse on Nalanda Buddhism

Session 5th and 6th

 

(5) Nalanda Diploma Course NDC5-5/18/10/2024

Buddha's biographies are many. A full good biography is "The Play in Full" (Tib: rGya cher rol pa. Sans: Lalitavistara). A television series with 54 episodes on Buddha's life is also recommended.

You should be happy. For this it is important that your mind should be calm and at peace. Without peace within, you cannot share peace with other. Meditation and understanding the cause of sufferings help you calm your mind and become less negative.

It is said that Buddha taught 84,000 teachings and some say 80,000 teachings. Both are correct. Buddha attained his enlightenment at the age 35 and started teaching. Later, the Sangha suggested Buddha have one chief attendant to help him in his teachings and they proposed Ananda. The latter agreed on the condition that Buddha would give teaching only in his presence. Buddha agreed. Buddha has already given 4000 teachings before the appointment of Ananda. After the appointment of Ananda as the Chief attendant, Buddha gave 8000 teachings.

What are the subject matters of these teachings? These are properly categorized into three baskets of three higher trainings, known as Tripitaka in Sanskrit, and Tripitak in Pali. In Tibetan it is sDe snod gsum. What are these baskets and three higher trainings?

Compassion and wisdom are the two tools to achieve the two goals of fearlessness and infinite happiness. Sufferings are due to ignorance. This can be eliminated through the attainment of wisdom. Buddha's teachings are wisdom to eradicate the darkness of ignorance. This wisdom should be very bright and very steady. Our mind is pulled by distraction and pushed and suppressed by laxity. Untamed or the monkey needs to be tamed.

Our actions are physical, verbal, and mental. All these three are governed by our minds. Training of your mind which governs your physical, verbal, and mental actions is discipline, Shila. Training the gross mind is the first step to discipline your mind. Training of the mind in the practice of mindfulness and introspection of the mind which governs our physical, verbal, and mental actions is training in Shila, moral discipline. Metaphor is editing an article, first grosser mistakes and later subtle mistakes. Training of your mind which governs your mental actions is Samadhi. With this, your mind becomes very stable and steady.

Now, we need to concentrate on the brightness of the mind, wisdom or Prajna. We have 3 things: training in Shila, Samadhi, and Prajna. Shila is the moral discipline, Samadhi is the meditative concentration, and Prajna is understanding the wisdom of emptiness. These are known as the Tripitaka, the 3 higher trainings.

Buddha's teachings which focus on moral discipline, Shila, are categorized under Vinaya teaching. The teachings that focus on meditative concentration come under Sutra (Pali-Sutta), and the teachings that focus on wisdom come under Abhidharma. They are known as higher training because they are not meant for mundane purposes but for enlightenment, Nirvana, and Buddhahood.

(6) Nalanda Diploma Course NDC5-6/20/10/2024

The Four Seals of Buddha

H.H. the Dalai Lama categorizes Buddha's teaching into two: Pali-based Theravada and Sanskrit-based Mahayana and Vajrayana. The Four Seals of Buddha and the Four Noble Truths are the foundation of Buddha's teachings, but they are not the same or identical. Usually, people categorize Buddhism as Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. The Four Seals or the Four-line practice is something you cannot avoid as a Buddhist to reach Nirvana or Buddhahood.

Anyone who wants to get away from suffering and achieve happiness should practice these four lines. Wise people first learn without accepting it and without rejecting it. Only after understanding it, he will decide whether to accept it or reject it. We need to learn and practice the 4 seals and see if it is true or not, not believe in it just because Buddha said it. The Four Seals are:

1)       All composite things are impermanent                   འདུ་བྱེད་ཐམས་ཅད་མི་རྟག་པ།    

2)       All contaminated things are of suffering nature       ཟག་བཅས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བ།  

3)       Everything is nature of emptiness and selflessness ཆོས་རྣམས་སྟོང་ཞིང་བདག་མེད་པ།    

4)       Transcending sorrow is absolute peace                   མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ནི་ཞི་བའོ།    

 Buddha said another important verse:

1)       Commit no evils                                                      སྡིག་པ་སྤྱི་ཡང་མི་བྱ་ཞིང་།    

2)       Accumulate virtues as much as possible                  དགེ་བ་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པར་སྤྱད།    

3)       Tame your mind                                                      རང་གི་སེམས་ནི་ཡོངས་སུ་འདུལ།    

4)       This is the teaching of Buddha                                འདི་ནི་སངས་རྒྱས་བསྟན་པ་ཡིན།    

Don't commit evil or bad deeds if you don't want to suffer. Evil actions are the cause of your suffering. Happiness is the result of a virtuous deed, if you want happiness you need to do a virtuous deed.

Some say, I became vegetarian and my health suffered. The doctor advised me to continue with non-veg diets. But this is a short-term solution and not a good one. By harming other beings you cannot be happy and free of the consequences. Just as you will not eat a poisonous food, you should not eat non-veg. It is poisonous to your happiness and will bring suffering in the long run. You should go for supplements and food rich in minerals replacing non-veg food.

The first line "commit no evils" is renunciation of suffering, desire, and strong resolve to renounce suffering. The second line says, that if you want happiness, you need to accumulate a lot of causes for happiness to happen, i.e. accumulating virtue.

Virtue can be accumulated through the practice of six perfections (Tib: sbyin tshhul, zod, brtson, bsam, shes). If you want wealth, practice generosity; if you want a favorable state, practice morality; if you want to have a good appearance and attractive body, practice patience; if you want radiance and elegance, practice joyous effort; if you want total peace of mind, practice Samadhi; and if you want your mind to be free from samsara, practice wisdom.

If you want happiness, knowing that virtuous deeds are the causes of happiness, you should do virtuous deeds. This will result in happiness. The greatest of the virtues is the Bodhicitta mind, a mind striving for the benefit of all sentient beings. So, the second line recommends the teaching and practice of the Bodhicitta mind.

The third line, "Tame your mind" says that our mind has old tendencies and habitual imprints, they are very strong. We are not able to get our minds in the habit of practicing Renunciation and Bodhicitta so easily. Numerous habitual bad tendencies are there and these bad tendencies prevent us from practicing Renunciation and Bodhicitta properly. So, is there a master key to overcome and eliminate these bad tendencies? All these bad tendencies are due to ignorance.

This ignorance is Self-grasping ignorance (SGI). A master key to destroy this SGI is the wisdom of emptiness. Self-grasping ignorance is the foundation of our emotional and mental tendencies. We need to study the iceberg metaphor. So, the third line says that the practice of wisdom of emptiness is the key to eliminating ignorance.

These three lines teach us the practice of Renunciation, Bodhicitta, and Wisdom of Emptiness, the three principal aspects of the path (Tib: lam gtso rnam gsum).

We need to remove the iceberg like SGI which is the foundation of our misery. This iceberg is covered with so much ignorance, but Buddha identified four:

1)      Ignorance misconceiving impermanent phenomena as permanent

2)      Ignorance misconceiving misery as happiness    

3)      Ignorance misconceiving impurity as pure    

4)      Ignorance misconceiving selflessness as selfhood

Through the proper understanding of these four lines, we can get to know the self-grasping ignorance as the major cause of our suffering. We need to get rid of it. To counteract these four ignorance, Buddha taught the Four Seals. (Emptiness in the third line is a little different from the ultimate reality [sic]). Composite things and impermanence we need to know properly. Composite has a connotation that anything composed or made of directional parts and temporal parts (mental). Directional means a matter or an object having a defined direction and shape. Temporal means something mental that could be measured in terms of time only. 24-hour mind has 24 segments of mind.

All impermanent phenomena should necessarily have temporal parts but not necessarily directional parts. The mind does not have directional parts. It is not made of matters. Those made of matters have both directional and temporal parts. A person is made of matter and mind, so it is also a composite phenomenon and composite phenomena are to be seen as an impermanent nature.

Physicists say that the whole universe is governed by atoms, electrons, protons, neutrons, etc. with constant change. Our mind also moves and changes constantly. Impermanence is of two kinds: Gross impermanence and subtle impermanence. Gross impermanence is a phenomenon whose continuum terminates or comes to an end, the year, death, school days, youth, etc. Subtle impermanence is one that cannot be seen or obvious, like the hour hand of the wall clock.

Note: This is a student’s personal note of the teachings given by Ven. Geshe Dorji Damdul of the Tibet House, New Delhi. Errors and omissions are bound to occur. Serious students are requested to refer to Geshe la’s teachings or join the Tibet House class and receive teaching directly from Geshe-la.