Nalanda Certificate Course 1, Session 3

Tibet House New Delhi Nalanda Certificate Course / NCC1

3rd Session (12/06/2022)

 Regular recitation of the prayers and dedications is important. It help us familiarize our mind and thinking toward the greater course of finding happiness for oneself and for others. We need to practice regularly and see if you resonate with these three mind sets, the Three Principal Path.

1.  Renunciation of all bad habits and negative thoughts (Tib:nges 'byung bsam pa)
2. Bodhicitta, unconditional love towards all sentient beings (Tib:byang chub sems)
3. Wisdom of emptiness to see everything as dream (Tib:stong nyid rtogs pa'i shes rab)

 Usually our mind behaves in contrast to the above three. Mediation is an active state of mind to revolutionize our thinking from ignorance to wisdom.

 Renunciation is to renounce your misery not your happiness or what you own. It is not self denial. Happiness is of two types: Mundane contaminated happiness and uncontaminated happiness.

 Causes of our misery are our ignorance. We need to study the Four Noble Truths and the Four Seals.  

 The Four Noble Truths is taught on the basis of 12 recitations, 3 sets of 4 recitations each.

1.     Teaching of the Four Noble Truth pertaining to identification of the truths    
2.     Teaching of the Four Noble Truths associated with the Practices of the truths
3.     Teaching of the Four Noble Truth pertaining to the result one attains through the practice of the Four Noble Truths

 The first set is:

1.       This is the truth of suffering
2.       This is the truth of the cause of suffering
3.       This is the truth of the cessation of suffering
4.       This is the truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering

The second set is:

1.      The truth of the suffering is to be identified

2.      The truth of the cause of suffering is to be abandoned

3.      The truth of the cessation of suffering is to be cultivated

4.      The truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering is to be meditated upon

The third set is:

1.      Identify the suffering although there is nothing to identify

2.      Abandon the cause of suffering although there is nothing to abandon

3.      Cultivate the cessation of suffering although there is nothing to cultivate

4.      Meditate on the path leading to the cessation of suffering although there is nothing to meditate upon.

 This is the truth of suffering, identification. Sufferings that the beings in the three realms (Desire, forms and formless) undergo can be categorized under three groups:

1.      Sufferings of sufferings, Manifest suffering (Desire realm)

2.      Sufferings of changes (Desire realm, and the 1st three stage of form realms)

3.      Pervasive, conditioned sufferings (exist in all realms)

 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.

 Metaphor of two prisoners to be hanged serving terms in a prison with good facility and kinds of luxurious amenities, one escapes and one gets lured by the amenities and the result. Contaminated happiness is a bait to keep beings tied to the samsara. Birds or animals when given a good are very careful to see if it as bait or not.

 A picture of demon holding the wheel of life represents impermanence of death. Buddha is out of samsara. We need to cleanse ourselves slowly and gradually. If you are in the middle of a dirty pool, move slowly toward the edge where it is clean. Just giving up everything all of sudden saying it is bait is not a good practice. Extreme or acute indulgence should be avoided.

 A sick teacher with TB and diabetes problem should first have a strong body to take proper medication. Forcing diet restriction will only make him further sick. He should be given proper food to make him strong enough to take proper medication. As we grow and develop, we will know that conducive factors at earlier stages were non-conducive actually. What is conducive at one point may not be conducive at another point.  

 All mundane happiness are suffering, a trap with a bait. If you are not affected then it is not a bait. Attachment is weakeness and we get trapped. Problem is from the subjective mind and not the objective bait. To curb this attachment and desire, we need to train our mind to see reality, to see the bait behind what we crave for. Problem arises when you get attached. Just like a prisoner get executed because of his attachment to the good amenities and nice life in the prison (the metaphor).

 Object - subject duality is crucial. When you are so attached to the cheese cake in your dream, you wake up and realize that duality is gone or stops. As long as we don't wake up from our sleep of ignorance, we are bound to be in the push and pull with the object. Involuntary push and pull is a loss of freedom. Loss of freedom is misery, and misery is samsara.

 It is not samsara, it is our mind which is in the sleep of ignorance, making us vulnerable to involuntary push and pull. Samsara is not outside, it is in our own mind, which has lost its freedom to the sleep of ignorance.

 Mundane suffering is suffering of change. Study the metaphor of the first mono , second momo and the last momo. Whereas the first two were delicious and good, the last one will make you throw up. So the first momo is suffering because it is a bait. Suffering of change will become suffering of suffering.

 The third pervasive conditioned suffering we need to study through illustration and why it is pervasive, conditioned and suffering. When Buddha said this is suffering he meant this pervasive suffering.

  We are under the control of afflictions and contaminated karma. Three things determine our being under the third pervasive sufferings:

1.      Involuntary birth in samsara

2.      We being under the sway of contaminated karma and afflictions

3.      Contaminated neutral feeling

  Sufferings are because of afflictions and contaminated karma. They are the master mind. Therefore, we are not happy. To know the sufferings properly, we need to know the three realms of samsara, they are:

1.      Desire realm (Karmalok)

2.      Form realm

3.      Formless realm

 Desire realm is a part of samsara where the beings are primarily dictated by the desire for sensual object through five sensual organs.

 Form and formless realms is where an individual has already transcended (temporarily or fully) from desire realm and are driven inwardly with meditative concentration, Samadhi. One needs to have an advanced strong meditative concentration to take rebirth in these two realms. Without this you are bound in the desire realm. They can also be divided into two. One less advanced is from realm and highly advanced is the formless realm. They are the gods of form and formless realms. They are not the gods in a creator's sense. They are devas and devis, celestial beings. Not the god from the theistic point of view, the creator.

 Desire realm has 5 or 6 divisions: 3 lower realms and 3 higher realms. They are:

1.      Hell

2.      Hungry ghost

3.      Animals

4.      Human

5.      Asuras

6.      Gods

 Gods are in all three realms, desire, form and formless realms. We are studying these realms to explain the meaning of pervasive conditioned sufferings. We need to understand that suffering of suffering exist only in desire realm and not in the form and formless realms. The suffering of change exists in desire and form realms, not in the formless realm. Form and formless realms are also divided into four each.

Form realm:

1.      1st concentration form realm

2.      2nd concentration form realm

3.      3rd concentration form realm

4.      4th concentration form realm

Formless realm:

1.      Infinite space

2.      Infinite consciousness

3.      Vacuity

4.      Peak of existence

 Suffering of suffering exists only in desire realm. Suffering of change exits in the first three realms of the form realm, not in the 4th concentration form realm. Suffering of suffering and suffering change does not exist in the formless realm. The third suffering, pervasive suffering exits in all the realms. Therefore, the first two suffering are not referred to as pervasive, these two do not pervade the whole samsara.

 The third suffering, pervasive conditioned suffering exists in all the three realms across the samsara. It is conditioned because affliction and contaminated karma condition our existence in samsara.

 This is the truth of suffering that we have studied today.

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 2

Tibet House New Delhi Nalanda Certificate Course / NCC1

2nd Session (8/06/2022)

 Buddha Nature, two goals, two obstacles, two kinds of practitioners

 Buddha Nature is a nature of mind with a potential to achieve Buddhahood. It talks about existence of a seed of perfection within all of us.  Just as seeds of sunflower have intrinsic quality to produce oil, our mind also has an intrinsic quality to awaken Buddhahood within us. Buddha Nature has two kinds, Proliferating Buddha Nature and Natural Buddha Nature.

 Proliferating Buddha Nature is a growing mind with a good capacity to grow. Natural Buddha Nature is a Proliferating Buddha Nature with the realization of emptiness of all phenomena, the ultimate reality.

 Two goals: What we generally seek in our life can be categorized under two heads, Fearlessness and Infinite Happiness. We need freedom from the fear of sufferings and complete joy and happiness, Nirvana and Buddhahood.

 But we are not able realize our Buddha mind because of mental defilements, which obstruct or obscure us from seeing the reality and achieving fearlessness and infinite happiness. The obscurations are of two types. They are: Afflictive obscuration (AO)[Tib:Nyon sgrib] and Cognitive obscuration (CO) [Tib: Shes sgrib].

 Our mind has potential to clean and remove all the defilements due to Afflictive obscurations and Cognitive obscurations.

 Afflictive obscurations: Mental defilements due to attachment, anger, ignorance etc. are the causes of the Afflictive obscurations. We are living in constant fear of sufferings and miseries because of the obscurations. By removing or overcoming Afflictive obscurations we achieve fearlessness, freedom from fear. This is a stage where you have attained Nirvana. In vernacular language it is fearlessness and in technical term it is Nirvana or Moksh.

 Cognitive obscurations: Mental defilements due to ignorance and its off shoots and strong Karmic stains are the causes of the Cognitive obscurations. Complete control or removal of this obscuration leads us to the fully awakened state of mind and achieve infinite joy, Buddhahood.

 There can be two seekers, Personal liberation seekers and Mahayana practitioners. The former targets Nirvana and the later targets Buddhahood.

 The cause of suffering and our circling in the Samsara is said to be two factors. They are: Self Grasping Ignorance (SGI) and Self Centered Attitude (SCA).

 Nature of mental defilements are ignorance, it's off shoots and the stains. Ignorance is like darkness. In order to remove darkness, a light should be applied. So, in order to remove the darkness of ignorance, a light of wisdom should be applied. This light of wisdom is realization of wisdom of emptiness through study, reflection, and meditation.

 Ignorance is like a poisonous tree. We need a sharp axe and a strong motivation to cut this poisonous tree of ignorance. A sharp axe is a metaphor for sharp wisdom, and a strong motivation for Nirvana or Buddhahood.

 It is more difficult to get rid of Cognitive obscurations than Afflictive obscurations. Motivation required to cut Afflictive obscurations is Renunciation and motivation required to cut both Afflictive and Cognitive obscuration is Bodhicitta, altruism.    

 It is here the importance of the teaching of the three Principle Paths [Tib: lam gtso rnam gsum] is emphasized. They are: Renunciation, Bodhicitta, and Emptiness. These three should be practiced to achieve fearlessness and infinite happiness. If these three points are missing, we are missing the path.

 How to cultivate the three: Renunciation and Bodhicitta are motivations to achieve fearlessness and infinite happiness. Emptiness is a light of wisdom to remove the two obscurations.

 Teachings of the Buddha are all compiled in Tripitaka or Baskets, the three Shiksha, also known as three higher learning. They are: Vinaya, discipline; Sutra, meditation; and Abhi Dharma, wisdom. All the teachings of Buddha come under one of these categories.

 Mind has three doors to project itself. These are through physical, mental, and verbal. Physical and verbal are easier to control than the mental. Buddha spoke on rules on physical and verbal. All our actions come from mind. Training of mind is important.

 Training of mind is achieved through the proper study of the contents of these baskets.

 Wisdom acquired through the trainings should have two qualities: the light of the wisdom should be very bright to dispel the darkness of the ignorance; and the light should be steady enough to show the path clearly.

Mind should acquire sharp wisdom to see the subtlest of the truth. It should be steady enough to fathom deep into the truth. Therefore, it should have the quality of sharpness and steadiness.

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་བརྩམས། (Tib:Rang gi yid la nges phyir ngas dhi brtsams).

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Nalanda Certificate Course 1, First session

Tibet House New Delhi, Nalanda Certificate Course / NCC1 / 1st Session (5/06/2022) Geshe Dorjee Damdul la's teaching

 The life story of Buddha and the Three Turning of the Wheel of Dharma

 ཟབ་ཞི་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་འོད་གསལ་འདུས་མ་བྱས།  བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་ལ་བརྙེས།

སུ་ལ་བསྟན་ཀྱང་གོ་བར་མི་འགྱུར་བས།  མི་སྨྲ་ནགས་འདབ་ཉིད་དུ་གནས་པར་བྱ།

 Profound, peaceful, elaboration-free, clear light, and non-composite;

Such is the nectar-like Dharma I discovered.

Finding no one who can fathom this teaching,

In silence I retire into the woods.

The god Indra, Brahmas and others requested Buddha to teach. Buddha means fully awakened one.

Buddhism is more about compassion and wisdom. Here the motivation to become Buddha, a fully awakened one, to benefit all sentient beings. The teachings should spread compassion and wisdom.

When we are born, most of us cried the moment when we came to this world. It is our impulsive reaction to the discomfort and fear. So the suffering is reality from the very start of our life.

Is it possible to achieve zero percent suffering and 100 percent happiness? Buddha said this is possible. Buddha said that everyone has a Buddha seed and potential to get rid of sufferings and achieve happiness.

Acharya Dignaga, the 6th century logician, composed a text Paramanasamuchaya, a commentary on valid cognition. The salutation has the following two lines:

The one who has transformed into the Reliable Guide, motivated by altruism to benefit sentient beings, the Teacher, Sugata, and Protector, to You, I make prostrations. 

After 100 years Acharya Dharmakriti, a 7th century scholar, saw this two line salutation and wrote commentary in 280 verses. Such is the depth and profundity of the salutation written by Acharya Dignaga.

We are all seeking fearlessness and happiness. We don’t know how to achieve it. We need a good guide or a teacher to lead us. We need an experienced guide.

Prince Siddhartha became an experienced guide. His teachings were the solution to our problem. He was Sugata, one who has overcome the self grasping ignorance and self centered attitude. He became our protector.

Buddha saw the seed of perfection, Buddha nature, within everyone. So he treated everyone equally. Male, female, caste system, etc. were not relevant to him.

Intrinsic nature of water is clear and pure. Dirt are of adventitious nature. Our mind how defile it may be, its nature is pure and clean. When the impurity and dirt are removed from the mind, fearlessness and infinite happiness come out.

Arya Maitreya, the future Buddha, in his text Uttratantra, has written that seed of perfection is within all of us. It is like a treasure box under the floor of a beggar's hut.

We need to know the nature of defilement or dirt in our mind to clean it properly. The defilements or the afflictions may be gross or subtle. Gross afflictions lead to Afflictive obscuration and stop you from attaining fearlessness or Nirvna. Subtle afflictions lead to Cognitive affliction and stop you from attaining infinite happiness or Buddhahood.

The cause of our suffering could be of external and internal factors. Sound of clap from two hands is metaphor of our misery. Two hands are metaphor for external and internal factors. Coming together of the two hands, the external and internal factors, causes misery. We usually identify our misery with the external factor and rarely blame ourselves. We may not be have control over the external factor, but we can control the internal factor.

Self grasping ignorance and self centered attitude are internal factors that we need to overcome to stop suffering and misery. Overcoming self grasping ignorance removes fears, and overcoming self centered attitude brings happiness. To get rid of these two self grasping ignorance and self centered attitude, Buddha conducted three classes of teaching. This is called the Three Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.  

In the first turning of the wheel of Dharma at Sarnath, Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths. He said everything exist objectively. The target audiences were the followers of the Vaibhashika and Sautrantika schools.

In the second turning of the wheel of Dharma at Rajgirh, Buddha taught Emptiness. Here he said there is no objective existence, everything exist subjectively. The target audiences here were the followers of the Madhyamika school.

In the third turning of the wheel of Dharma at Vaishali, Buddha taught the mind only school, where the contradiction in the first and the second turning of the wheel of Dharma was dispelled. The target audiences here were the follower of the Chittamatra school.

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་བརྩམས། Tib:Rang gi yid la nges phyir ngas dhi brtsams).

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