LPA22: Secondary Bodhisattva Vows for Mental Stability

He introduces the topic by saying that we have found an excellent working basis of a precious human body with all the opportunities and freedoms to study the Dharma, and we’ve met with the teachings of the Buddha, and we are cared for by great teachers, and what is most important is that we have the power of mind to discern what is beneficial and what’s harmful, what practices to adopt and what things to reject. To take advantage of all this, we need to fully engage ourselves in the Buddha’s teachings. 

In order to do that, Tsongkhapa emphasizes, we need to rely on guidance from a fully qualified teacher. Although, elsewhere, there are many, many lists of qualifications that a teacher must have, what Tsongkhapa points out here is what is very, very practical, and that is the teacher needs to know what the pathway minds are (in other words, the ways of thinking) that we need to develop and which are the ones that we don’t. The teacher has to know this, not teach us something that we don’t need or aren’t supposed to develop or would be detrimental. Also, the teacher needs to know the definite count of these points (in other words, not add anything extra, not leave anything out). And the teacher needs to be learned and skilled in the stages (what are the proper order of the stages for developing our minds) and be able to evaluate each of the students to know just exactly what level they are at and how to proceed with them. This is something very important. The teacher himself or herself needs to have gained certainty about all that by having relied on his or her own teacher. In this way, Tsongkhapa emphasizes the importance of lineage. 

Also, he says that, in being trained, what’s very important is that the training is based on the scriptural texts of the Buddha and the great classics of India. It’s very important to realize that the great texts are all intended for our practice; it’s not something which is extraneous to our practice. This is something that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been emphasizing more and more in recent years, the emphasis on what is known as the Nalanda tradition. Nalanda was the greatest Buddhist monastery and center of learning (like a Buddhist monastic university) in India for almost a thousand years, and almost all of the great Indian masters studied and taught there, starting from Nagarjuna, and going on, including Shantideva, and this is the basis for the tradition of Buddhism in Tibet. More and more His Holiness emphasizes teaching the texts of the great Indian Buddhist masters. This is something that Tsongkhapa recognizes as well. 

As for how we actually begin our practice, Tsongkhapa says we need to tame our minds. To tame our minds with the various practices, we need to, first of all, have the proper motivating framework. When we speak about motivating framework, what we’re referring to is: What is our aim? (What are we aiming for in following the Buddha’s teachings?) Then what is the emotional basis for that, what is moving us in that direction (in terms of compassion or whatever)? When we speak about motivation in Buddhism, we are always speaking about these two aspects — what is the aim (what’s the purpose of our study?) and why. Then also, of course, what we’re going to do with that once we’ve achieved that aim. For this, Tsongkhapa says that the most useful way of organizing and leading students in a progressive way in terms of the motivating framework are the three stages of motivation which have been outlined by Atisha, the great Indian master who brought Buddhism in the second wave (the New Translation Period) again. 

For this — without going into too much detail — we’re speaking about the initial level, in which the aim is to improve our future lives. The motivation for that is not wanting and dreading things getting worse and not having the opportunity to continue to work and help others. What we want to do with these future lives, the precious human lives, is to have precious human ones so that we can continue our practice all the way to liberation and enlightenment. 

On the intermediate level, we are thinking in terms of how no matter what type of rebirth we might have, even a precious human one, it still is filled with the various sufferings of samsara. Being moved by what’s called renunciation, we have a determination to be free from this. Motivated by an emotional state of disgust and being fed up with uncontrollably recurring rebirth, then we aim for liberation. That’s the intermediate level. This is based on understanding that not only is the mental continuum beginningless and endless — which would be a necessary understanding for working to improve future lives — but also that the nature of the mental continuum… that the mind is free from the stains of the disturbing emotions and karmic imprints that cause our uncontrollably recurring samsara to continue. 

Then, on the advanced level, we realize that everybody is in the same situation, that everybody’s mental continuum is basically by nature free of these stains. Moved by compassion and love, then we aim to reach enlightenment. In other words, to remove what’s known as the cognitive obscurations or stains which are preventing us from seeing the interconnectedness of everything simultaneously with an absence of our projections of impossible ways of existing (that we exist individually, separate from everybody else). On this advanced level of motivation, we are aiming for the enlightenment of a Buddha in order to benefit everyone. 

Tsongkhapa says it’s very important to have these mental frameworks in an uncontrived manner (in other words, it’s something which needs to be sincerely felt, that comes up automatically), and it is not sufficient just to have kind, nice thoughts, but these motivating mental frameworks need to be very deeply grounded in us. Then, in order to actually have these motivating frameworks be deep within us and come up naturally, it’s important to meditate on them. 

Then Tsongkhapa gives very clear advice on how to meditate in general. This means that we need to know, for a certain state of mind that we are aiming to develop — the state of mind or heart — what it is that we would be focusing on when we are trying to develop that. For instance, our own future enlightenments that we haven’t achieved yet — when we’re talking about bodhichitta — or all other beings (limited beings or sentient beings) who are suffering. We need to know what we are focusing on. 

Then we need to know what is the way in which the mind takes that object as its focus. In other words, with the wish to attain enlightenment or with a wish that others be free from their suffering. These are different ways in which the mind focuses or takes these focal aims as its object. 

We need to also know what the causes for building up to this state of mind are. We have to know the various aspects. So what are all the aspects of enlightenment that we’re aiming for? What are all the aspects of the suffering of others that we want them to be free of? We need to know what is helpful for developing this state of mind, what is detrimental for developing this state of mind. And we need to build up a tremendous amount of positive force and work to eliminate various mental blocks and obstacles so that we can actually develop this state of mind. 

This is very, very helpful, practical advice on how we meditate to develop a certain beneficial state of mind.

Then Tsongkhapa also says that we need to maintain these motivations steadily and continuously throughout the meditation sessions, whatever it is, in the main part of the session that we’re aiming to develop it, whether it’s concentration or whatever, and not just have it at the very beginning; and then at the end of the session, dedicate the positive force or merit for achieving that goal. In this way, we would integrate, he says, our motivation with our mental continuum. 

Then Tsongkhapa goes into his discussion of tantra. For the development of the two stages of tantra — here he’s referring to the highest class of tantra, anuttarayoga tantra, with its two stages — he says we need to have a basis, and the basis for this is ethical discipline. He puts a great deal of emphasis on ethical discipline. Ethical discipline means keeping various sets of vows. He says that in general, the most fundamental basis is what is known as the pratimoksha vows, or the vows for individual liberation. These, in their fullest forms, are the vows of a full monk or a nun, but also, they include lay vows. We discussed the lay vows: not to kill, not to steal, not to lie, not to indulge in — I’ve forgotten the term again that I coined for it, but inappropriate sexual behavior, and also not to take intoxicants. Then for entering the Mahayana vehicle in general, it’s very important to keep the bodhisattva vows. For the tantra vehicles, specifically the two higher classes of tantra out of the four-class division scheme, the tantric vows as well. 

We are in our discussion of the bodhisattva vows. We have covered the 18 root vows, and we’re in the presentation of the 46 secondary vows. The vows are all formulated in terms of, in this case, what’s called faulty actions or things that we need to avoid in order to be of best help to others to follow the bodhisattva path. These are divided into various groups according to the six far-reaching attitudes or perfections (the paramitas), and then a last group in terms of actions that we want to avoid in terms of helping others in general. We’ve covered the faulty actions regarding the development of generosity (or giving), and the development of ethical self-discipline, the development of patience, and the development of far-reaching joyful perseverance (enthusiasm). 

Now we’re up to the discussion of faulty actions that would hinder our cultivation of far-reaching mental stability. Remember, mental stability — although it’s sometimes translated as “concentration” — is more than just concentration. It’s having a stable mind that is not disturbed, not only by flightiness of mind going off to some object of desire, or by dullness, but also which is emotionally stable. 

In our discussion of these vows, these faulty actions, what we wanted to emphasize is to try to understand how keeping these vows, each of them, would help us in our development of the bodhisattva path. In other words, to understand that if we were to commit the faulty action that is mentioned here, that it would be a big obstacle, a big hindrance. If we understand that, then we would logically want to avoid that action. Understanding the vows is very important. And although we’ve not taken time to reflect on each of these vows in terms of our own behavior and how we would need perhaps to modify our behavior in order to avoid these faulty actions, nevertheless that’s an important thing to do on our own. Perhaps in our discussion of them, it gives us an opportunity to think in terms of ourselves and examine our own behavior. 

In terms of what would hinder the development of far-reaching mental stability… Far-reaching means that, in this case, the motivation behind it is bodhichitta, the wish to reach enlightenment to benefit everyone, and so having that attitude behind the development of mental stability makes its development very far reaching as an aid to bring us to enlightenment. 

[1] Not seeking the means for gaining absorbed concentration

The first of these three faulty actions here is not seeking the means for gaining absorbed concentration (ting-nge-’dzin). Absorbed concentration is total perfect concentration, what’s known as samadhi in Sanskrit. Here, as in most of these vows, the reason for the emotional state that would cause us to commit this faulty action is mentioned quite specifically. The faulty action is not attending teachings on how to settle our mind in absorbed concentration when a master is giving them. And the reason for not going would be out of pride (that I feel “I’m better than this and I don’t need this”), or spite (we’re annoyed with one of the other students, and so to spite them we’re not going to go together with them to the teaching), or laziness, or indifference. It’s important to go to teachings when they are available and learn how to develop concentration, because without that, how are we ever going to really be able to do it? 

There are always exceptions which are mentioned in the details of the vows. If we’re sick, or we suspect that the instructions are incorrect, or we’ve already achieved perfect concentration, there’s no need to go. 

What would this actually cover?

Participant: It’s difficult. What about if I’ve listened to too many teachings lately and I need to digest them? 

Dr. Berzin: That’s a very common problem that he brings up, is “I’ve listened to too many teachings lately and I do not have the time or space to be able to digest them.” I don’t know in terms of that from a Tibetan traditional point of view. They’re always talking about building up imprints for the future — they’re always thinking in terms of future lives — and so they would always say that it is important to continue going to teachings more and more. 

When we say that we’ve not been able to digest them, I think it’s important to analyze two things. One is: what does it mean to digest them? And the second thing is: what’s the reason that I haven’t digested them? Let’s look at the second one first. If the reason that I haven’t digested them is because there are too many teachings, that’s one thing. Or the other aspect is “I haven’t taken the time and haven’t put in the effort to digest them in between the teachings.”

Participant: We’ve probably divorced Dharma class from the rest of...

Dr. Berzin: Right. This comes from, exactly as you say, divorcing the Dharma teachings and lessons from actual life. Again, this comes down to prioritization. If we’re going to follow the path very sincerely, it has to be of top priority to us. First, we have to examine, as I say, “Have I been too lazy to actually take the time to digest them, and am I just making excuses for not going?” 

But then I think it’s important to understand what it means to digest them. Are we talking about something like a school exercise, that I have to have really studied and learned them so that I can recite them and pass an exam? What does digest mean? What’s your model for digest? 

There are a lot of teachings that, for instance, are filled with a lot of lists, and we might get a tremendous amount of information very quickly, but it’s also important to store that information so that we can reflect on it. If it’s coming too quickly, then there are several faults here that could be responsible for our problems with that. One could be that the teacher is not really one who is molding the teachings to fit the disciples (in other words, they are speaking over our heads). Another thing could be that there is a very large audience for the teachings and the teacher can’t really personalize the teachings for each individual student. 

Now I’m thinking in terms of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the way that he teaches. I just came back from Nottingham, where he was teaching a text by Nagarjuna and then one by Tsongkhapa. Tsongkhapa’s one is In Praise of Dependent Arising. A forerunner of that is Nagarjuna’s Praise to the Transcendent One, which also praises Buddha for teaching voidness and dependent arising. Those teachings were very advanced, very complex, and probably the vast majority — I don’t know if I’m exaggerating, but let’s say 95% of the audience — could not really follow those teachings. Of course, His Holiness gave two days of teachings before that so everybody could follow that were more general teachings. 

So, one asks oneself — or one could ask oneself — what’s the purpose of teaching like that? It could be lay imprints and instincts for future lives. That’s one answer. But it could also be to inspire people, that “Look how deep and profound these teachings are. There are people who do understand them. I’m inspired to work hard to be able to reach the point where I can understand them.” Of course, there’s the danger here of a typical Western syndrome, which is “I’m not good enough to be able to understand it. I’ll never be able to understand it,” and we get discouraged. But then, as His Holiness answered a question regarding that, one needs to reaffirm Buddha-nature and the ability of the mind to understand anything. We need self-confidence in terms of “I am capable eventually to understand this. It will require a great deal of hard work.” This is very, very important. 

I’ll give you an example of myself, which is when I first went to India… I had studied Tibetan at university, but it was only the written language, not the spoken language, and I had to learn the spoken language in India. When I went to teachings by His Holiness in those early days, there was no translation, and so it was purely an exercise — not really an exercise, but an activity of gaining inspiration from it. But the inspiration that I got was that “I really want to work hard to be able to understand what His Holiness is saying.” When teachings started to be translated, I wasn’t satisfied with the way they were translated. Again, I was moved very strongly by the wish to be able to understand it by myself — especially once I could understand a few words here and there — so that I really knew what was going on. Then the Mahayana motivation was there, particularly with my own teacher, Serkong Rinpoche, that these are such fantastic teachings and such an incredibly wonderful teacher that I want to be able to get my language skill to a point where I could translate it for others and make it available for others. So being given and exposed to a great deal of material doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to comprehend it fully and integrate it fully into our personalities in order to be able to continue to get more. 

This is why I ask the question: what does it mean to digest the teachings? Does it mean to understand them fully? Does it mean to integrate them fully into our personalities? Or does it just mean to take time to think about it and read over our notes? 

So many people don’t even take notes at the teachings, and then afterwards they remember hardly anything of the teachings. This, I think, is a big mistake. Then they complain that they can’t digest the teachings, that it’s too much, but they don’t even remember the teachings. Most of us don’t have these incredible… it’s not photographic memory; there’s another word for that, but I don’t remember what that word is — that we’re able to remember every word that somebody says just from hearing it. Obviously, most of us don’t have that. I think taking notes is very important and then read the notes. 

If one follows the teaching manner of… I forget which monastery it was, Nalanda or Vikramashila, one of these, in India. The teaching method was always to review the previous day’s teachings at the beginning (so I try to do that), and then you give today’s teachings, and then at the end summarize (I’ve been negligent in doing that). But you give the teachings three times each time that you teach, and that helps for being able to remember and digest. Again, it depends on the circumstance. When His Holiness teaches, there are very few sessions, very little time. He’s asked to go through a whole text, and what’s important from a Tibetan point of view is to give the oral transmission of the whole text and go through the whole thing, and so usually there isn’t time to review at the beginning. But if you’re working more slowly with a teacher over a long period of time, then that review at the beginning and a summarizing at the end can be very helpful to help us “digest.” 

The question you raise is one that is raised by so many Western people, and I think it requires, as I said, a lot of analysis of oneself as to why are we complaining.

Participant: Why we feel like this.

Dr. Berzin: Why we feel like this. Marianna?

Participant: I was wondering if the original thing was to teach you meditation or… 

Dr. Berzin: Right. The negative action here was not attending teachings on how to develop concentration. 

Participant: That means meditation?

Dr. Berzin: Here for mental stability. Concentration. 

Does that mean that we have to go to every teaching that’s available? There are lots of courses on shamatha, for example. 

Participant: This is what’s meant here?

Dr. Berzin: This is what is meant here. There are a lot of courses on shamatha. Shamatha (zhi-gnas) is a stilled and settled state of mind. It’s basically talking about how to develop concentration. Does that mean that we have to go to every single course that is given on that? If we live in a city in which there are many Dharma centers, there could be many, many courses on that. This becomes a question, doesn’t it? Because they’re taught by many, many different teachers as well, from many different traditions. 

Participant: What if you know you don’t have the opportunity to put it into practice because you don’t have any free time? That could be an excuse.

Dr. Berzin: She says: if we don’t have the free time or opportunity to put it into practice, then that could be an excuse for not going. That is precisely that, an excuse. In other words, if we take the notes and get the instructions, you can do it later. 

Does it also mean to go to all these shamatha retreats if they’re offered? I don’t know. This is what I mean by analyzing these vows. 

Participant: I think that just to hear the teachings about it… I think it’s only useful if you really put it into practice. 

Dr. Berzin: Right. It’s only useful, she says, going to the teachings if we put it into practice. That is precisely the reason for going to teachings. You don’t go to teachings unless you want to put it into practice and you’re motivated by a positive motivation to put it into practice. Otherwise, why are you going? As a social event? You have nothing better to do? I mean, what’s the reason? To be cool? 

Participant: Yeah, but then you said the reason could be just to note it down.

Dr. Berzin: To note it down because you want to eventually put it into practice. 

I extended this to other teachings, but this is specifically regarding the methods for developing concentration. This is something that we’re going to need, that in order to benefit others, to help others, we need to be able to concentrate. That doesn’t mean simply concentrating on the breath. That’s just a method for developing concentration. We need to be able to concentrate, for instance, when somebody is telling us their problems or difficulties. If your mind is wandering or you’re falling asleep, you can’t really listen to them and you can’t really give your full attention to trying to help them and give them advice. Same thing when we are working in some way, whether it’s physical or verbal or whatever it might be, in some activity to help others, whether we are explaining something to someone or we are helping them in terms of taking care if they’re sick or something. You have to concentrate. 

It’s a very important tool that we all need, and it’s not exclusively something in the Buddhist domain. The methods for developing concentration that are used in Buddhism, especially on the sutra level, are totally in common with other schools of Indian philosophy, with the general teachings that you find in all Indian systems. It’s something that we need to learn and pay attention to. So, I think that’s important. 

As to whether or not we go to every course that is on this by anybody who teaches it. That I don’t really know if that is the meaning here. I think we’re talking about when we’re studying with our teacher and our teacher comes up to this topic, then we go. I would think that’s the main point, wouldn’t you?

Participant: Why do they make such a special emphasis on shamatha?

Dr. Berzin: Why do they make such a big emphasis on shamatha? Shamatha is a stilled and settled state of mind. There is a huge, long list — I have it on my website — of the various things that you could focus on in order to develop it. You shouldn’t think that it is exclusively developed with focus on the breath. There’s an enormous number of things that one could focus on. 

If you recall Shantideva’s chapter on mental stability or concentration, there concentration was developed on the giving and taking meditation, of thinking in terms of... Well, he doesn’t speak in terms of giving and taking so much but exchanging our point of view with others. In other words, looking back in order to overcome, let’s say, pride, putting ourselves in the position of somebody who is facing that proud me, that how terrible that would be, and so exchanging the viewpoint from this point of view. That’s the topic that Shantideva uses for developing concentration. 

Is your question about why to develop shamatha in general or why to focus on the breath? 

Participant: Why is this vow not about in general to attend the teachings? 

Dr. Berzin: Why is this vow in general not to attend the teachings? I don’t know. 

Participant: Are there any others about attending teachings?

Dr. Berzin: Are there any others about attending the teachings? Now you’ve put me on the spot. I must confess that I don’t have the complete list in my mind. I haven’t digested it, as you would say. I haven’t memorized it, so I don’t recall whether there is another one like that. But I think that we can extend these, broaden them. What is it talking about? What’s the point behind it? The point behind it is: what do I need to be able to help others? If there are teachings on what I really need to help others — go to them, don’t make excuses. Whether it has to do with concentration, or it has to do with vows, or it has to do with teachings on voidness, or whatever they might be, the point is to recognize that I really need this to help others. 

And if we’re not ready for the teaching? Again, here in this specific one, we’re talking about instructions on how to do it. Are we just thinking about it? We’re talking about instructions, instructions you always need. There’s no excuse not to be able to understand the instructions. We’re not talking about getting teachings on something really complicated like voidness; that you could say, “I’m not ready to understand it.” But we are ready to get the instructions. Whether we’re ready to actually be able to sit down and meditate... We may not have the time right now, but at least get the instructions on how to do it. That’s what’s important. 

When we talk about instructions, what are we talking about? There are lists. There are the nine stages for settling the mind, and the list of the various hindrances to it, and the list of what you apply at different stages to overcome that, and the different types of attention that you apply, and… There are big, big lists from Asanga’s teachings, a great Indian master. You could say, “These are only lists.” But they’re not; they’re very practical advice. That’s something that we need to at least try to understand.

Participant: I think it comes back to the purpose of our lives. I think with this vow, not going to teachings is included in a more general way — not to waste our time.

Dr. Berzin: Right. She’s saying that — to summarize — one of the important factors here, in going to teachings, is to not waste our time with other things, whether it’s non-Buddhist teachings or worldly things or whatever. That comes up in other vows — that’s mentioned later on — in terms of the faulty actions that would hinder our development of discriminating awareness. Anyway, let’s go on. 

[2] Not ridding ourselves of the obstacles preventing mental stability

The next one is not ridding ourselves of the obstacles preventing mental stability. This is when we’re actually meditating. The obstacles here, I think, personally, are something that we need to work on avoiding not only when we are just specifically doing a shamatha meditation on concentration. But when we’re doing any type of meditation in our daily practice, we need concentration on it, and so we need to work on trying to rid ourselves of the obstacles that inevitably come up when doing any sort of meditation practice. 

[2a] Intentions to pursue any of the five types of desirable sensory objects

The five obstacles that are listed by Nagarjuna in his Friendly Letter — we looked at that when we studied that text — is, first of all, intentions to pursue any of the five types of desirable sensory objects. This is pointing out an intention. What does that mean? Because there’s a separate one on flightiness of mind, which is the mind flies off to these desirable objects, like food or whatever it might be. Music. We’re trying to concentrate and a song is going through our head, or a movie or something like that. 

This is a little bit more subtle. There’s the intention — “I intend, as soon as this is finished, to go eat,” to do something like that. It’s not that we’re actually dwelling on the food, but it sets up a frame of mind which is “I can’t wait until this is over so that I can do something that’s more pleasurable,” isn’t it? I’m going to rush through my meditation because I intend, right afterwards, to do whatever that’s going to be fun: “I have to finish the meditation really quickly because my favorite TV program is on in 15 minutes, and I have to finish before that.” This type of thing. The intention. 

[2b] Thoughts of malice

The next one is thoughts of malice. Malice means having bad thoughts about someone, that “I want to hurt this one. I want to get even with this one for something that they did,” and so we plot in our mind. Basically, thoughts of anger and how I can hurt somebody. That could be a big obstacle to concentration. 

[2c] Foggy-mindedness and drowsiness

Then the next one is foggy-mindedness and sleepiness. Foggy-mindedness is a very heavy feeling of body and mind, and then sleepiness is getting sleepy. It’s not just feeling heavy but the mind is getting very, very sleepy, withdrawing into sleep.

[2d] Flightiness of mind and regrets

Then the next one is two things: flightiness of mind and regret. Flightiness of mind is when your mind is actually flying off to these objects of desire. Thinking about the food, thinking about a loved one and what you want to do with that loved one, and so on. Or a song going through your head. Regrets is talking about... usually the main emphasis with regret is regretting positive actions that we did, and so one could dwell on that very, very much. It doesn’t necessarily, I suppose, have to be positive things, but we made a decision, we did something, and now: “Oh, I shouldn’t have done that. What should I have done? Maybe I made the wrong decision,” and we go back and forth, back and forth on that, and that could become an obsessive thought that would prevent us from getting concentration. 

[2e] Indecisive wavering or doubts

Then the last one is indecisive wavering or doubts. “What should I do? Should I do this? Should I do that?” It’s not necessarily restricted to doubts about the teachings but about anything that’s going on in our life. If we are constantly obsessed with this indecisiveness – “What should I do? What should I do? This? That? This? That?” and so on — we’re never going to be able to get concentration. 

These are the things to watch out for, and not only to watch out for them but to try to rid ourselves of them (which means to stop).

Participant: How to stop?

Dr. Berzin: How do you stop? It’s called discipline. And self-control I think is a very important aspect of that. 

Again, I go back to my own experience: Falling asleep at night. The only way to fall asleep really, as far as I know, that is effective — may not fall asleep, but which is helpful for it — is to shut up the voice in your mind. As long as that voice is going on which is making plans (so intentions), regretting, indecisive (what should I do? what should I not do?), flightiness (you’re daydreaming about who knows what), it’s very difficult to fall asleep. Especially if you’re on an airplane overnight. The key to that is just quieting your mind, and the only way to do that is self-control. Of course, you can use much more sophisticated, difficult methods, like the thing in dzogchen (recognize the nature of the thought as like writing on water, and this sort of thing), or we can use the letting go (breathe out the thought, the distraction). There are many methods like that, but I think it all comes down to self-control, which comes down to motivation. 

Participant: But also, self-control can be practiced in a few ways. For example, you can say “I’ll ignore it” or you can say “I’ll push it away.”

Dr. Berzin: Yes. Self-control can be to ignore the thought or to push it away. There are many different methods. But self-control in general means self-control to apply a method. The method may be simply to... There are different methods that are followed. 

In mahamudra, for example, in Kagyu mahamudra, one basically ignores the thought: you don’t follow it out. You don’t try to stop it. You don’t recognize it as this or that. You basically ignore it (they don’t use that word, but that’s what it comes down to). You don’t get caught up in it. Then there’s no place that it can go is the analogy or the simile that’s used: like a bird that flies off a ship in the middle of the ocean, there’s no place it can go except to settle back down. That’s one method. 

Another method, as I said, is to just see that it’s like writing on water, and when you focus on each syllable of what they’re saying in your head, and really slow it down like that, all the energy is gone from it. 

So, there are these methods. Or… I don’t know. I think again of my own experience: I just stop. I don’t use any method. I just stop. 

Participant: But is this a decision, to stop?

Dr. Berzin: It’s a decision, right. That’s a decision. Motivation...

Participant: I think that’s a power.

Dr. Berzin: Right. That is power. 

Participant: It also means you have to be aware you’re doing that in the first place.

Dr. Berzin: Right. You have to be aware of the thoughts. You have to be aware that “This is something that I want to stop.” You have to be aware that “I want to stop it because I want to go to sleep, because I need to wake up in the morning and be fresh so that I can continue my work,” or whatever. And then you just stop.

Participant: Then it comes again, and you have to decide again.

Dr. Berzin: Right. When it comes again, you have to decide again. That’s why you need the instructions on concentration because it says that — that in the beginning this is what’s going to happen (it’s going to come again), so you have to have repeated attention, repeatedly bring your focus back. That’s why the instructions are very helpful. But in the end, it just comes down to stopping. The motivation. You’re just fed up with it: “This is stupid!” “This is stupid” is a very good one, especially when it’s a song or something like that. 

There are other methods. I mean, it depends on the meditation. Mantra is very, very useful for, in a sense, flipping the energy of the mind. If the mind is filled with uncontrollable verbal energy — and I think the strongest example of that is music, at least I find that in myself (I start singing a song in my head over and over and over again and can’t get it out of my head) — the only way of dealing with it that I found to be successful is using that energy to recite a mantra instead, and that will help to stop it. Because usually the force of a musical thing is much stronger than just “blah, blah, blah,” talking in our head. Much stronger. But it has to be accompanied by a strong wish and intention to stop. With me, I always think of how incredibly stupid this is. “This is like a cricket: when the sun goes down, it uncontrollably makes this noise. Do I want to be like an insect that’s uncontrollably making this noise in my head? I don’t want to be like that,” so you forcefully use that energy to recite a mantra instead. 

There are many, many methods. But it all comes down to the self-control to apply them, which comes down to awareness that the problem is occurring, the intention, motivation, all these other things. All of those are in the instructions on how to concentrate. That’s why you need the instructions. If you don’t know the teachings, you need to get the teachings. OK?

I think part of digesting, by the way, is remembering. Remembering (dran-pa), if you recall, is the same word as mindful in Tibetan. To be mindful of it is to remember it, which means to be able to call it up when you need it — mindfulness, you remember, was the mental glue to not let go of something — to keep on recalling and recalling and recalling and not lose it. 

Here specifically we’re talking about the methods for developing concentration. We’re not talking about a list of 27 things. We’re talking about very practical advice, instructions. Use them to overcome these obstacles.

[3] Regarding the taste of bliss from gaining mental stability as its main advantage

Then the next one is regarding the taste of bliss from gaining mental stability as its main advantage. As we gain more and more concentration, the energy that was tied up in nervousness and worry and indecision and thoughts of longing and resentment, and all these things, gets released. There’s a lot of energy that was tied up that is released. So naturally you get what’s often just called bliss, but it’s an exhilarating feeling, an exhilarating feeling of body and mind — exhilarating means “uplifting” — full of energy, and it’s very blissful; it’s very nice. It would be a fault to just aim for that. “I want to gain concentration so that I can bliss out,” as they say in colloquial English. Get high on meditation. There are definitely people who experience something like a high, a drug high, from meditation. Whether this is spacing out and not actually proper concentration or whatever, the point is that’s not what we’re aiming for in gaining concentration and so it’s important not to be attached to that and not have that as our goal. 

These are the three faulty actions that we want to avoid that would hamper or damage our development of far-reaching mental stability. 

Then there’s a list… the next list (the next group, I should say) is eight faulty actions that hinder our development of far-reaching discriminating awareness. That means the perfection of wisdom (prajnaparamita). But we’re talking here about discriminating awareness, awareness with which we discriminate between what’s helpful, what’s harmful. It’s not just discriminating between what is impossible reality and what is actual reality, not just that type of discrimination about how things exist, but more in terms of a general thing. We have to be able to discriminate what’s helpful and what’s harmful as well — that’s within the sphere of this discriminating awareness — what to practice, what not to practice. 

[1] Forsaking the shravaka (listener) vehicle

The first of these is forsaking the shravaka vehicle. The shravaka vehicle is… we can look at that as the Hinayana vehicle, which is not exclusively Theravada but wider. Remember, what’s included in the general Hinayana vehicle are all the monastic vows. It’s that aspect that is usually emphasized here when they talk about not forsaking the shravaka vehicle. 

We had one of the root downfalls… the root bodhisattva vow was to avoid claiming that the teachings of the shravaka vehicle are not the Buddha’s words. And the 14th vow was to avoid saying that instructions on them are ineffective, they don’t work. Those were root vows. The 13th was to tell bodhisattvas who hold these vows which are part of the shravaka vehicle that there’s no need for them, as bodhisattvas, to keep these vows. For these root downfalls to be complete, that specific one, the bodhisattvas hearing our words have to actually give up their vows. 

Here what we’re talking about in this secondary vow, this faulty action, is simply to think or tell others that bodhisattvas have no need to listen to teachings from the shravaka vehicle — it’s specifically referring to rules of discipline about the vows — or there’s no need for them to uphold or train themselves with it. Nobody has to actually give up their vows as a result of our saying this. If they give up their vows then it’s the root downfall, but here it’s just thinking that or speaking it in general. 

This is an important vow in terms of helping us to develop discriminating awareness. What is discriminating awareness here? To discriminate between what types of behavior are to be adopted and what types of behavior are to be avoided when we study the vows and keep the vows of discipline. Whether it’s speaking about avoiding the ten destructive actions or actual vows, these are important to train in so we can discriminate, discriminate in our daily behavior. It’s not just in terms of vows; it’s in general, our behavior. Discriminate that “Ooh, I’m getting angry. There is hostility in my voice. I’m getting uptight. My shoulders and neck are stiff.” Discriminate “This is a sign that I am uptight,” and relax them. You have to be able to discriminate between what’s helpful and what’s harmful. 

Here it’s referring to specifically about the vows, so discriminate within our behavior “I am doing something harmful.” It could be lying, it could be stealing, it could be whatever. But this is something that we need to avoid, thinking that there’s no need to listen to these teachings (and follow them) about discipline taught from the Hinayana point of view.

Participant: Just to make sure. Within the 13th root vow, the objects there are the bodhisattvas, but also laypeople as well?

Dr. Berzin: Yeah. A bodhisattva — in other words, those following the Mahayana path — could be either lay or monastic. They don’t have to necessarily be monks or nuns.

Participant: In the root vow, we were talking about bodhisattvas.

Dr. Berzin: No. In the root vow… Then I perhaps left it out. But bodhisattvas… it doesn’t have to be that they’re a full bodhisattva. They’re following the Mahayana path. 

Here’s some people who are following the Mahayana path. They’re aspiring to be a bodhisattva (that’s why you’re following the Mahayana path). And they have a vow, let’s say the lay vow not to take intoxicants. To tell that person “Oh, come on, have a beer. Have a glass of wine. There’s no harm. You don’t have to really follow that,” and they believe us and become convinced and actually then drink a beer, then we’ve broken this vow, the bodhisattva vow. To just think it — “They’re stupid for following that. There’s no need to actually do that” — that would be the secondary vow. OK? It refers to if they have the vow. If they don’t have the vow, that’s something else. 

[2] Exerting effort in them while having our own methods

Then the next one is exerting effort in them while having our own methods. That’s exerting effort in studying and upholding merely the pratimoksha vows from the shravaka teachings to the neglect of studying and training in the Mahayana teachings concerning compassion and wisdom. 

There are people who just become obsessed with the vows and the rules and just study that and focus completely on that. Presumably they are on a Mahayana path, and they ignore, then, studying and training in the Mahayana teachings on compassion and wisdom or voidness. They just become super disciplinarians like that. That would hamper your discriminating awareness. Why? You see, it’s important to understand why this would harm our discriminating awareness. 

First of all, we’re not discriminating properly between what’s helpful and what’s not. We certainly need to follow ethical discipline, but we’re discriminating falsely that that’s the only thing we need to do. That hampers our development of this discriminating awareness. While we’re working on ethical discipline — what’s used to exemplify the shravaka or Hinayana teachings here — then we need to simultaneously work on the Mahayana methods as well, specifically compassion and the understanding of voidness. 

Participant: It requires taking the middle way, not taking one extreme. 

Dr. Berzin: Right. It means a middle way, not going to.... 

Participant: Not being a tyrant about “You can’t do this. You can’t do that” more than developing compassion.

Dr. Berzin: Right. Not being a tyrant in terms of “You can’t do this. You can’t do that,” but also working on developing compassion. Yes. A balanced approach, not ignoring either angle here. 

[3] Exerting effort in studying non-Buddhist texts when it is not to be done

Then the next one is exerting effort in studying non-Buddhist texts when it is not to be done. What is this referring to? If you look at the commentaries, non-Buddhist texts here refer to works on logic and grammar. That’s what the commentaries say. We could probably extend that though to include various languages and mathematics, science, and so on. Here the fault is putting all our efforts into studying them and neglecting our Mahayana studies, the Buddhist studies, so eventually we forget all about them. 

You have to balance this with the statement that Shantideva says, that there isn’t anything that a bodhisattva doesn’t learn in order to be able to benefit others. If we are extremely intelligent and we’re able to learn things quickly, and we have a stable foundation in the Mahayana teachings, based on logic and reason and these sorts of things, and meditation, and we’re able to retain these teachings, not forget about them — the Mahayana teachings — then there’s no fault in studying the non-Buddhist material, so long as every day we maintain our Mahayana studies and practice. 

This becomes quite relevant when people for instance want to study… this refers to grammar here, so they want to study Tibetan: Westerners would like to study Tibetan language. Tibetan language is not an easy language to learn. Very difficult. It requires a great deal of time and effort. To just do a little bit and not maintain it… you’re going to quickly forget it; it’s not going to really be of great help. Those who study it first, or want to study it first, without any Buddhist background… It depends whether the... 

I mean, I look at my own example. I studied the Asian languages: Chinese, Japanese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, all four of them, before I really got involved in Buddhist practices. But that was because the Buddhist practice wasn’t available at that time. We’re talking about the early and mid’60s. At least it wasn’t available where I was. So, I studied academic Buddhism at the same time. I didn’t just study the languages, and I studied the languages to be able to understand Buddhism. I didn’t ignore the Buddhist studies, but I didn’t really have access to the living tradition. 

But the point is to just study the language and not have anything, any part of our effort, be in training in the Mahayana teachings and studying them and practicing them, you get completely sidetracked. What this is saying is first get a stable foundation in Buddhism. Keep your priorities straight. Then if you have the ability to learn the language — great, do it. Because as so many of the great teachers say — at least my teachers have said — that if you really want to understand Tibetan Buddhism, you have to be able to understand the language, because for the next several centuries not everything is going to be translated. And you’re never going — this is what Serkong Rinpoche used to say — you’re never going to be able to find a teacher who will have the time to teach you every text that you want to learn. You have to learn to be able to read it yourself, and then you can go to a teacher and ask questions about what you don’t understand. Also, to really understand the nuances of the teachings, you have to know the language, the original language, so that you know what does that term really mean, not just get the wrong idea from a translation term that might be quite misleading. 

It is helpful to learn the language, but only if you’re capable of it, you don’t get fixated on it, and you have a good foundation in Mahayana. It’s the same thing in terms of studying anything which is not the Buddhist teachings. Don’t lose the priorities. Anything that we study that is outside of the realm of Buddhism — try to see it as something that I want to be able to learn in order to help others. Make it a part of the Mahayana training, whether it’s science, whether it’s mathematics, whatever it might be. Medicine. OK?

[4] Even if able to exert effort on them, becoming infatuated

Then the next one is even if we’re able to exert effort on them — on these non-Buddhist teachings — becoming infatuated with them. Infatuated means that we overemphasize their importance and become fixated on it. Being a Master of Mathematics is not going to bring us liberation or enlightenment. Following the Mahayana teachings will bring us liberation or enlightenment, developing our minds fully in that way. Not to become infatuated means not to lose sight of what we’re aiming for — liberation and enlightenment — and what is actually a method for being able to reach that goal.

Participant: This one integrates somehow with the one before? 

Dr. Berzin: Is this integrated in the one before? It follows from the vow before. The first is not putting all your effort into these other things when it’s inappropriate — these other studies — when you don’t have the basis. This one is when you do have the basis and you are studying these things, don’t become so enamored with them and infatuated with them that you ignore the Mahayana stuff. 

What’s helpful is, at least part of each day, do your Mahayana meditation. If that becomes a regular habit as deeply ingrained as brushing your teeth in the morning… “Just as I wouldn’t miss brushing my teeth — because my mouth feels yucky in the morning after sleeping (I want a fresh mouth) — similarly, not doing my morning practice, my morning meditation practice… it’s just unacceptable; it would make me also feel terrible.” We need to develop that type of attitude, that it’s just part of our daily life, and that at least we keep this Mahayana perspective and have it be some sort of Mahayana practice every day, not just a “blah, blah, blah” in our head of reciting something without it actually generating some feeling in us. 

[5] Forsaking the Mahayana vehicle

The next one is forsaking — we’re not going to get through all of these today — forsaking the Mahayana vehicle. The sixth root bodhisattva downfall is claiming that the Mahayana texts are not Buddha’s words. Here, we accept that in general they are authentic, but we criticize certain aspects of them, specifically texts concerning bodhisattvas’ unimaginably extensive deeds and the inconceivably profound teachings of voidness. 

This is not an easy one. This is referring… In the Mahayana texts, it sets the stage: Buddha was on Vulture’s Peak, and in the sky in the valley in front of him, looking down, there were millions and millions of gods, heavenly beings, all sorts of different beings from different realms and so on. And Buddha multiplied himself into countless forms at the same time, teaching in different dimensions, different universes. In every pore of the Buddha’s skin was a pure land and Buddhas teaching in that. All that sort of stuff that we find in the Mahayana texts. It is talking about that aspect. And then the super complicated stuff on voidness that we find in a lot of the texts as well, which are very difficult to understand. 

We could repudiate them — in other words, say “This is no good” — in four ways. 

1. We could say that their content is inferior (in other words, they’re just complete nonsense). Which is easy for us as Westerners to say in terms of all these invisible countless beings that Buddha’s teaching to and multiplying into various forms. 
2. Or we could say that their manner of expression is inferior (in other words, they’re bad writing and they make no sense). Which is often a criticism given against Nagarjuna and so on for writing in this very pithy style. It’s difficult to understand. 
3. Or we can say that the author is inferior. They’re not the words of an enlightened Buddha. 
4. Or their use is inferior. This is of no benefit to anybody. 

By discriminating falsely like this in a close-minded and hot-headed manner, we damage our ability to discriminate anything correctly. 

As Serkong Rinpoche used to say, don’t criticize the way that a text is written when it is very vague and is filled with this and that and can be filled in with many different levels of meaning. He said, “Don’t think that Nagarjuna, for example, is a bad writer. If he wanted to make it clear and specific, he would have done that. He made it like this for a purpose.” You have to try to understand what the purpose is. There the purpose is to be able to use it as a root text onto which you can understand many, many different levels of meaning and interpretations simultaneously, which we need to be able to teach people of all different capacities. 

What about all these Buddha-lands and all the Buddha-fields in the pores of the skin of the Buddha and all these other more fantastic things? How do you approach that? How do you approach that? Are you just embarrassed about them and skip over it?

Participant: I think a very common mistake Westerners make that leads to breaking this vow is saying, “It’s merely an archetype. Really, they’re just symbols.”

Dr. Berzin: Right. That is an interesting thing. We can rationalize and say, “Buddha didn’t really mean this literally.” Although there are many teachings that are not to be taken literally, that they are to lead us to an understanding of voidness. But what you’re saying is that we could rationalize and say that this is really just speaking on a mythical level with analogies, like a Jungian analysis of fairytales, this type of thing, poetical, and so on. 

In a sense, there is that level of understanding. One should not count that out as one level that one could understand many of these accounts and gain benefit from that, but that doesn’t mean that that’s the exclusive use of it or the exclusive reason why Buddha taught it. But I think the clue is to understand there are many, many different levels. 

I mean, this thing about every pore is... inside that is a Buddha, and so on. If you think in terms of holograms, that every tiny little portion of light contains the information of everything, of the whole hologram. You have something like what’s in the Avatamsaka Sutra, that all in one, one in all — that all the teachings are contained in every word of the Dharma. That’s not so farfetched, that from each word of the Dharma you could derive everything. This is an image of that, that in every pore are all the countless worlds and so on. 

Is that a Jungian thing? Are we rationalizing here? I don’t think necessarily so. I think that everything… When you look at the distinction between interpretable (drang-don) and definitive teachings (nges-don) that you find in certain traditions, there are many different interpretations of what that means. But interpretable is to lead us to an understanding of voidness, and the understanding of voidness also entails dependent arising. Buddha’s teaching to all these countless beings… everything is interrelated, and so on. So one can, through this, start to think in terms of dependent arising and voidness. 

But, as I said, this is a very difficult one, particularly for our Western mentality, when we read these what seems like fantastic scenarios in the Mahayana sutras. But it’s not something to dismiss or to put down. The point is not to be close-minded about it and to get annoyed with it and say, “This is nonsense.” Just say, “I don’t understand the purpose for this. There must have been a purpose for it even if we don’t understand what it is and don’t appreciate it,” and leave it at that. 

Participant: On the other hand, there’s so much material that’s available also about voidness, and you have to be sure who’s the author and who’s his teacher, and so on. There are so many authors writing about voidness, and I think a lot of them probably don’t know what they are writing about.

Dr. Berzin: Right. She brings up a point that there are so many books on Buddhism, particularly about voidness, that we need to also discriminate between who is an authentic author writing something correct — or, I would add to that, a good translator — and who is not. That of course… that doesn’t come under the domain of this vow. But also in terms of discriminating awareness, we need to be able to discriminate. For that, it requires some experience, some knowledge, depending on… if we don’t know ourselves, relying on somebody we do trust who can say this is authentic or is this not authentic, and so on. 

But here we’re talking about the actual sutras or the actual texts by Nagarjuna and complaining about them. That’s important, not to complain about them, not to have that attitude, but to have an attitude of respect and to be able to discriminate that “OK, this is an authentic teaching.” Discriminate “I don’t quite understand it now.” But what we don’t want to be is close-minded about it. 

Let’s end here, and we’ll continue these vows next time. We’re coming close to being able to finish them. We have just three more in this list and then the twelve faulty actions that contradict our working to benefit others, then we’re finished with this list and can go on. Good.

We end with a dedication. We think whatever positive force and understanding has come from this, may it go deeper and deeper and act as a cause to reach enlightenment for the benefit of all. 

Here what is, I think, a point that sometimes we miss is that if we are dedicating just for our own enlightenment and then, as a side thing, for the benefit of all, still the aim is dedicating it for ourselves. As His Holiness points out, that’s a limited scope of dedication. If you really want to be a Mahayana practitioner, His Holiness was emphasizing these other days in Nottingham, it needs to be dedicated to: “As a result of this positive force, may everybody achieve enlightenment. May it contribute to everybody’s enlightenment. Not just my own enlightenment to help them, but may it contribute more directly to everybody’s enlightenment. Because maybe I’ll be able to help them, but maybe other people will be able to help them as well. But may it, as a general force, contribute to everyone’s enlightenment, which obviously will be to the benefit of everyone.”