Nalanda Buddhism Certificate Course 1

Tibet House New Delhi Nalanda Certificate Course NCC1

6th Session Notes /22/06/2022) Wed

 Composite phenomena, compounded phenomena, and impermanent are synonymous. Non-composite phenomena, uncompounded, and permanent are same.

 I have a book in my hand, a book is there. If it is removed, we may say nothing is there. But we may say absence of book is there. Absence of a book has no substance. Whereas as a presence of book has substance. This is how our conventional looks at the things.

 What does not have substance there is nothing to undergo change. So it is not changing. If it is not changing, then it is permanent. A phenomena which is absence of change is a permanent phenomena.

 Absence of book does not have substance, it exist from conceptual mind. Book is object and mind is subject. Compounded phenomena are those which have substance. Uncompounded phenomena are those which do not have substance. This is what is meant by composite and non-composite phenomena.

 All composite substance changes, a diamond, which is very solid is made of many atom. Inside it keeps on changing. It does not remain same and permanent. Heat is there, so movement is there.

 Composite - substance - momentary changes - impermanent

 Uncompounded phenomena, an absence of book does exist, but is does not exist substantially. It is not compounded, there is no change. What does not change is not impermanent, it is permanent.

 Suatantrika Madhyamika discusses substantial existence and conceptual existence.

 The first two seals are done with this. Contaminated composite phenomena, contamination refers to affliction and self grasping ignorance.

 The root cause of our suffering is self grasping ignorance, which has to be removed. Arya Nagarjuna has rightly said in Mulamadhyamikakarika:

Through ceasing of karma and affliction, Nirvana is achieved

          Karma and affliction arise from (distorted) conceptual thought

These arise from elaboration (of self grasping at true existence)

Elaborations cease by (or into) through emptiness

 Ceasing of karma and affliction is Nirvana. Karma and affliction arise from conceptualized inattentive attention, which in turn arises from elaboration of the self grasping ignorance. This ignorance cease through realization of the wisdom of emptiness.

 So the root cause of our suffering is self grasping ignorance. We need to address this. For this darkness of ignorance, a light of wisdom has to be introduced. Wisdom is a discerning mind whose apprehension of the object tallies with reality. What is reality? Reality is what Buddha indicated in the 3rd seal, everything is in the nature of emptiness and suffering.

 A dream of going to picnic and enjoying, later a typhoon comes and you suffer, and later you wake up and relieved, happiness, suffering, and enlightenment. The first is suffering of change, second is suffering of suffering, and third when you wake up the fear is gone, its enlightenment.

 Common thing is the first two is you have no control, lack of control, lack of freedom. This is misery. Therefore, even a pleasant dream has an element of misery. When you wake up, you have control; this is freedom from the contents of the dream, total fearlessness. The moment you wake up, fear is gone. This is transcending sorrow, Nirvana, the fourth seal.

 Involuntary push and pull is sorrow, to stop this push and pull, you need to wake up, so that you are beyond sorrow. Transcending sorrow is absolute peace of mind, not affected by the contents of the dream.

 Everything comes from subject; it's not from the object. Everything coming from the object is empty nature. The third seal, all phenomena are empty of self, has to be understood from the Pransangika school's concept.

 Let us put the Four Noble Truths and Four Seals, in the context of Dependent origination mantra, Om he ye dharma (Tib: rten 'brel snying po):

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

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

རྒྱུ་ལ་འགོག་པ་གང་ཡིན་པ།  Cessation of the cause as well

དྲང་སྲོང་ཆེན་པོས་འདི་སྐད་གསུངས། Is taught by the great seers

 Om, meaning the dirty body, dirty speech, and dirty mind be transformed to Buddha's body, speech, and mind, i.e. Buddha body free of disease, Buddha's divine speech, and Buddha's mind of perfect knowledge, perfect power, and perfect love.

  The Four Noble Truths, the Four Seals, and Dependent origination mantra are linked.

 According to the Sautantrika school's understanding of objectivity and subjectivity, they talk about substantiality as opposed to conceptuality imputation. Substantial existence v/s existence by conceptual imputation, substantial existence is objectively and conceptual existence is subjectively. They existed by the imputation of conceptual mind, not in mind.

 Through our practice it would be good to have a glimpse of emptiness and Bodhicitta. The practice of Bodhicitta through 2 methods of equalization and exchanging self for others and 7 fold cause and effect method. We need to study and gather wisdom. It's like gathering ingredients and cooking. If you don't cook, you have nothing to eat. If your ingredients are not good, food will not be good. So it is important that your knowledge and understanding of Dharma should be good. When you are hungry and when there is nobody to cook for you, then you have to cook. Here you need good ingredients, like wise in your difficult time Dharma knowledge will definitely come useful.

 Note: This is a student's note. Error and omissions are bound to be there. A serious student should study the actual teachings of the teacher, Geshe Dorjee Damdul la, from www.tibethouse.in website. I write these notes to help my understanding and recollections. (Tib:Rang gi yid la nges phyir ngas dhi brtsams).

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Nalanda Certificate Course 1 Session 5

Tibet House News Delhi Nalanda Certificate Course NCC1

5th Session Notes /19/06/2022)

 ལྟ་བ་བཀའ་བཏགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་བཞི།

འདུ་བྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་མི་རྟག་པ། ཟག་བཅས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བ།

ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྟོང་བཞིན་བདག་མེད་པ། མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཞི་བའོ།

 THE FOUR SEALS

 All composite things are impermanent. All contaminated things are suffering nature

All phenomena are empty of nature. Transcending sorrow is peace, Nirvana.

 This is the four seals of Buddhist teachings. In Sanskrit it is Mudra, in Tibetan, it is called phyag-rgya, pronounced as Chaggya.

 To be free from misery and suffering, you need to know this seal properly. Study these four lines. You will need to get conviction to realize the true meaning of this seal through learning, reflection, and meditation. Buddha did not say everything is impermanent, he said all composite things are impermanent. What are composite and non-composite phenomena?

 We are body and mind. Body is a material part and mind is a mental and temporal part. Temporal means parts in time. Anything which is composed of particles, materials, and temporal parts is composite phenomena. A table is composed of so many materials composites, this is how our the material world are. Mind is a mental world where attention, fear, joy are experienced. It doesn’t have material parts. They have temporal parts. Book by Stephen Hawkin "A brief history of time" is good. Mind is made of temporal segments of mind.

 All phenomena composed of physical parts and temporal parts are impermanent in nature. Impermanence is of two kinds: gross impermanence and subtle impermanence. Gross impermanence is a phenomena whose continuum can come to an end. Subtle impermanence is momentariness involved in any phenomena.

 Impermanence can also be of three kinds:

1.      Impermanence whose continuum can invariably come to an end no matter what you do. The dates and years, 2021 end its own.

2.      Impermanent phenomena whose continuum never ends like time and mind, whose continuum can never be stopped.

3.      Impermanent phenomena which if you make effort, you can stop otherwise it will continue and perpetuate, never stops on its own.

  Our mind belongs to the second category. Our mind never ends no matter what we do. Within the mind we have the self grasping ignorance and self centered attitude, afflictive obscuration and cognitive obscuration. But we can stop these feelings and afflictions if we make effort.

 All composite phenomena of gross impermanence also has elements of subtle impermanence. A seed of peepal tree growing into a big tree, change is visible but subtle changes it under goes are not visible to our eyes.

 Mediation on gross impermanence and subtle impermanence is very important. Transformation comes through meditation. All contaminated things are of the nature of suffering. Contamination here means afflictions. What is influenced by afflictions is contamination. Driver's of our mind is under the dictates of self grasping ignorance and self centered attitude.

 Arya Nagarjuna explains:

When ceasing of karma (action) and affliction leads to nirvana

Action and affliction arise from conceptual thought

This arises from (mental) elaboration

Elaboration ceases through emptiness

 The ceasing of contaminated karmas and afflictions is Nirvana. Contaminated karmas and afflictions arise from conceptual thought. Conceptualization of inappropriate attention, which in turn arises from the elaboration of self grasping ignorance and elaboration ceases through the wisdom of emptiness. Five points are mentioned here, suffering, karma, affliction, inappropriate attention, and self grasping ignorance.

 So the root cause of our suffering is the self grasping ignorance. Just as we don't see anything darkness, with ignorance we don't see the reality. How get rid of this darkness of ignorance? Just as you need a light to remove darkness, you need a light wisdom to remove the darkness of ignorance. What is this wisdom?

 Wisdom is a discerning mind whose apprehension of the object tallies with reality. What is reality? Reality is what is indicated in the third seal, everything is of nature of emptiness and selflessness. What is emptiness and selflessness? We shall study in the next class.

 Note: This is a student's note. Error and omissions are bound to be there. A serious student should study the actual teachings of the teacher, Geshe Dorjee Damdul la, from www.tibethouse.in website. I write these notes to help my understanding and recollections. རང་གི་ཡིད་ལ་ངེས་ཕྱིར་ངས་འདི་བྲིས། (Tib:Rang gi yid la nges phyir ngas dhi bris).

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Nalanda Certificate Course 1 Session 4

Tibet House New Delhi Nalanda Certificate Course / NCC1

4th Session (15/06/2022) Wed

 Review: This is the truth of sufferings that we have studied. Buddha was referring to the pervasive suffering as truth of suffering. The third pervasive exist in all the realms. It is said to be conditioned because Afflictions and Contaminated Karma condition the beings existence in the Samsara. Mundane happiness is bait; good and attractive, which leads to loss of freedom and the loss of freedom mean misery. Affliction and contaminated karma are the root causes our suffering. We are the sway of affliction and contaminated karma.

  Three things determine our being under the third pervasive sufferings:

1.      Being under the sway of Contaminated Karma and Afflictions

2.      Involuntary birth in Samsara

3.      All the contaminated neutral feeling that we feel in Samsara.

 These 3 things are example of pervasive conditioned sufferings. Total fearlessness and infinite happiness is our two aspirations.

 Suffering of suffering exits only in desire realm. Suffering of change exist in desire realm and the first three of the form realm. Pervasive suffering exist in all the three realms.

 Arya Nagarjuna in Mulamadhyamikakarika, Fundamental of Middle Way, (Chapt.18) has said:

When ceasing of action and affliction leads to nirvana

Action and affliction arise from conceptual thought.

This arises from (mental) elaboration.

Elaboration ceases through emptiness. 

 Ceasing of karma and affliction is Nirvana. Karma and affliction arise from inappropriate conceptualization which in turn arises from elaboration of self grasping ignorance. Elaboration ceases through wisdom of emptiness.

 Opposite of Nirvana is Samsara. Samsara is an existence where you lack freedom, a system where there is no freedom. There is no external Samsara. It is your mind which makes the lack of freedom. Because of ignorance, Samsara is nothing but printing of your mind, prison of ignorance.

 1.      Samsara: Samsara is the result of contaminated karma

2.      Contaminated Karma: It arises from mental afflictions

3.      Mental afflictions: It arises from inappropriate attention

4.      Inappropriate attention: It is arises from ignorance

5.      Ignorance: It arises from the elaboration of self grasping ignorance

 We are discussing this in relation to what Buddha said "This is the truth of the cause of suffering".

 Let's say you dream of an Iphone 13 mobile, you crave for it and someone too wants it. There is a fight, police comes, and put you in prison. Fighting activates karma, affliction, elaboration of the mobile, and ignorance. Not to see the dream mobile could have saved all the fight and leading into the prison. You wake from the dream, all the problems are gone.

 Of the 5 points, Samsara is the resultant state, other four are causal state. This is what Buddha meant by the truth of the cause of suffering.

 Afflictions that we discussed here is the gross afflictions, not the subtle afflictions. The afflictions are of three kinds:

1.      Gross afflictions

2.      Inappropriate attention

3.      Self grasping ignorance

 Contaminated karma and afflictions are what Buddha meant by the truth of the cause of suffering. Within the afflictions there are three category as above.

 Now, the truth of the cessation of suffering, remember the sound of suffering due to the clapping of two hands metaphor. If on hand is removed, there is no sound, suffering stops. This is the truth of the cessation of the cause of suffering.

 Cessation of suffering, what needs to be ceased and what needs to be stopped. We need to stop our mental defilement and remove afflictive obscuration and cognitive obscuration. When you remove afflictive obscuration, you attain Nirvana. When you remove afflictive obscuration as well as cognitive obscuration, you attain perfect enlightenment, the Buddhahood.

 Cessation of afflictive obscuration and cessation of cognitive obscuration is the truth of cessation of suffering. Within the cessation of afflictive obscuration, there are two, one of Shravakas and other of Preteyakabuddha. In total there are three cessations:

 1.      Cessation of Shravakas

2.      Cessation of Preteyakabuddhas

3.      Cessation of Buddhas (Mahayaha practioners)

 This is the truth of the cessation of sufferings.

 The path leading to the cessation of the causes of suffering is the five paths: Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, boddhisaha. They are:

1.      Path of accumulation (Tib:tshogs lam)gate

2.      Path of preparation (Tib:sbyor lam) gate

3.      Path of seeing (Tib:mthong lam) para gate

4.      Path of meditation (Tib:sgom lam)para sam gate

5.      Path of no more learning (Tib:mi-lob lam) boddhisaha

 The path 3rd, 4th, and 5th are what Buddha meant by the truth of the path leading to cessation of the cause of sufferings. The path in general are five, first two are conducive path and the last three are the paths leading to the cessation of sufferings.

 The path Arya beings are those above the 3rd path, the path of superior beings, seeing ultimate reality, emptiness. We can say there are 15 paths, 5 each of Shravakas, Prateyakabuddhas, and Mahyanists. There are qualitative difference in the 3 groups' path.

 After the identification, what are the practices associated with the four Noble Truths.

1.      Truth of the suffering is to be identified (3 sufferings)

2.      Truth of the cause of suffering is to be abandoned. (Contaminated karma and afflictions)

3.      Truth of the cessation of suffering is to be actualized or experienced. (3 cessations of afflictive obscuration, and cognitive obscuration)

4.      Truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering is to be meditated upon. (Last 3 of the 5 paths: gate, gate paragate, parasamgate, bodhisaha)

 The first four paths are learner's path. When you are at the first four stages, you are at the conventional stage. You need to identify, abandon, actualize, and meditate. But at the fifth stage, the ultimate level, there is nothing to identify, nothing to abandon, nothing to actualize, and nothing to meditate upon. Therefore, third the set associated with the Four Noble Truths:

 1.      Although the truth of suffering is to be identified at conventional level, there is nothing to identity at the ultimate level

2.      Although the truth of the cause of suffering is to abandoned at conventional level, there is nothing to abandon at the ultimate level

3.      Although the truth of the cessation of suffering is to actualized at conventional level, there is nothing to actualize at the ultimate level

4.      Although the truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering is to be meditated upon at conventional level, there is nothing to meditate upon at the ultimate level.

 When a projection is created, it is samsara. When the projection stops, it is Nirvana. You projected a dream, you projected as dream samsara. You wake up and stop projecting the dream, it is Nirvana.

 Example, Mount Kailash is pure and beautiful. Seeing through two goggles, one clean and one dirty, you see different Mount Kailash. One seen through a clean goggle is Nirvana and one seen through dirty goggle is samsara. Same object is seen through two difference lenses or glasses of goggles, wisdom. Dirty Mount Kailash seen through dirty goggle is our mental projection, Mount Kailash is not dirty.

 Note: This is a student's note. Error and omissions are bound to be there. A serious student should study the actual teachings of the teacher, Geshe Dorjee Damdul la, from www.tibethouse.in website. I write these notes to help my understanding and recollections. (Tib:Rang gi yid la nges phyir ngas dhi brtsams).

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