LPA45: Obtsacles to Achieving Shamatha

Reliance on a Qualified Spiritual Mentor

Tsongkhapa explains, to his friend who asked him to explain all of this, that we have an excellent working basis: we have a precious human body, we have met with the teachings, we have spiritual masters, we have the intelligence and ability to discern what do we need to practice and what do we need to get rid of. We need to actually, on that basis, take advantage of it and engage ourselves fully in the teachings. For that we have to rely on the guidance of a spiritual teacher who knows exactly what the things are to adopt, what are the things to get rid of; doesn’t add anything, doesn’t leave anything out; and knows the proper graded order of how to develop them. Such a teacher needs to have learned all this from the experience of working with his or her own teacher in accordance with the study of the great Indian classics of Buddhism. 

The Motivating Mental Framework

On that basis, then, we need to actually get into the teachings. To begin our practice, we need to tame the mind, which means to develop the proper motivating mental framework, and for this there’s the graded stages: 

• The initial scope of turning our minds away from having our main interest just on this lifetime to taking an interest in the happiness of future lives, specifically in insuring that we continue to have a precious human rebirth so we can continue on the path. This basically involves putting the safe direction of refuge in our life and refraining from acting in destructive ways.

• Intermediate level. We need to turn our interest away from just having better samsaric rebirths to gaining liberation completely from uncontrollably recurring rebirth. We do that with renunciation for it. We need to get rid of the disturbing emotions and the karma that is brought on by them that generates or perpetuates our samsaric rebirth.

• Then, on the advanced level, we think in terms of everybody else. Everybody has the same problems. With the basis of love and compassion and taking the exceptional resolve that we’re going to really lead everybody and help everybody to enlightenment, we develop a bodhichitta motivation or aim which we focus on our own not-yet-happened enlightenment which nevertheless can happen on the basis of our Buddha-nature factors. And we aim to achieve that enlightenment in order to benefit others as fully as possible.

We have these graded levels. 

How to Meditate

In order to actually develop these motivating mental frameworks in an uncontrived manner, we need to actually meditate on them, build them up as habits, not just have an intellectual understanding of them. Tsongkhapa then explains how to meditate, how to build them up. For this we have to know what are the causes that will enable us or bring us to these states of mind, what are the things that they are based on, what are the steps before it, what are the various aspects that we have to include. We have to understand what will help in our development of them, what is detrimental or harmful for developing them, what we need to focus on in this state of mind that we’re trying to develop, how our mind relates to it or takes that as an object. We need to also build up a lot of positive force and cleanse away obstacles that would prevent us from developing these states of mind. And then once we develop them, how will they function? What will they do? All of these are important for being able to actually develop a motivating mental framework through meditation. We need to maintain these motivations all the time, not just at the beginning of a meditation session, not just throughout the meditation, but all day.

The Ethical Self-Discipline of Keeping Vows

Then if we want to engage ourselves in tantra practice, Tsongkhapa emphasizes that we need to be sure to have our ethical discipline very strong. This will involve the vows for individual liberation, either as a layperson or a monk or nun, and then keeping the bodhisattva vows, and then keeping the tantric vows if we are engaging in the two highest classes of tantra. We went through a discussion of these vows — how to keep them purely, what happens if they weaken, what are the factors that weaken them, and how do we restore and revitalize them.

Then we need to receive an empowerment if we’re going to meditate on tantra. That means a ritual ceremony in which, through inspiration, the various Buddha-nature factors that will allow us to become a Buddha become activated. At the empowerment what again is most important is keeping the vows, taking the vows and keeping the vows. Tsongkhapa emphasizes that for keeping either tantric vows or even bodhisattva vows, it is best if we are a fully ordained monk or nun. But at least some level of pratimoksha vows is necessary, vows for individual liberation, at least as a layperson. 

The Proper Order of the Generation and Complete Stages of Anuttarayoga Tantra

Then we have, for the highest class of tantra, the practice of the generation and complete stage, and Tsongkhapa emphasizes that these need to be done in their proper order. 

How to Visualize in Tantra Practice

The generation stage involves a great deal of visualization of ourselves in the form of a Buddha-figure within the context of the understanding of voidness. Tsongkhapa goes through a great discussion of how we actually visualize, and this involves meditating or imagining ourselves in these forms first with the most general form and then filling in the details. There’s no need for us to repeat all of that. Then Tsongkhapa also emphasized that we need to have as many short meditation sessions as possible, rather than making it an ordeal into a long one, and work on trying to make these short sessions of good quality so that then we can gradually increase their length.

Then we started on the explanation of how to gain single-minded concentration or, more specifically, a state of shamatha, a stilled and settled state of mind, that here in this case will be focused on ourselves as one of these Buddha-figures. Last time we spoke about what are the conditions that are going to be most conducive for the development of this perfect concentration. Now today we’ll speak about the deterrents to concentration, what are the things that make hindrances, and identifying them. Then we’ll get into the discussion of what are the various opponent forces we can use to overcome these hindrances. OK?

The Five Deterrents to Concentration

Maitreya, in a text called Differentiating the Middle from the Extremes, explains five deterrents to concentration (nyes-pa lnga), five things that are hindrances to gaining concentration, and then eight composing mental factors (’du-byed brgyad) for overcoming them that help us to compose ourselves to get rid of coming under the influence of these hindrances and become more focused. That’s what the word compose means. It’s when you are upset and then you… compose yourself means that you bring yourself back into a proper functioning order.

What are these five?

1. Laziness

The first of these is laziness (le-lo). This is probably the strongest obstacle to gaining concentration and one of the ones that is most difficult to overcome, at least in the beginning. Laziness is of three types. We had a discussion of these in Shantideva’s text.

1. The first one is procrastination, putting the meditation off until later because we don’t feel like doing it (sgyid-lugs). 

That is a very serious problem. To do things just when we feel like doing them is actually very self-indulgent — it’s like being a bit of a baby — that “I’m only going to do it if I feel like doing it. If I don’t feel like doing it, I’m not going to do it.” If we wait until we feel like doing meditation — for many of us, we may not feel like doing it every day. What is important is to do our practice whether we feel like doing it or not. You just do it. It’s like for instance I don’t feel like brushing my teeth. Well, even though I don’t feel like brushing my teeth, I brush my teeth. This type of thing. That is the first thing, putting it off until later because we don’t feel like doing it.

By the way, if you have any comments or your own experiences with this that you’d like to share… These are important things to work on, to recognize in ourselves, and to recognize that it’s a hindrance. “I don’t feel like doing my homework.” “I don’t feel like taking out the garbage.” “I don’t feel like walking the dog.” You walk the dog anyway whether you feel like doing it or not. The important thing is if you do walk the dog, then not to resent it.

Participant: I often have to tell the dog to wait to go out until I’m done meditating.

Dr. Berzin: Right. And not to tell the dog to wait until I’m finished meditating to go out. “I don’t feel like getting up in the middle of the night and the baby is crying.” Well, that also is not good. Or “I don’t feel like getting up because I have to go to work.” Nevertheless, you get up. The same thing with meditating.

2. Then the second obstacle is clinging to negative or trivial activities or things (bya-ba ngan-zhen), such as going out drinking, being with friends who are bad influences on us, wasting time basically with things that are trivial. 

It’s very easy to just spend the whole day pottering around the house doing little things that are basically nothing and spend the whole day like that, or my favorite TV show, or this or that. That’s another form of laziness basically.

3. Then the third type of laziness is a feeling of inadequacy (zhum-pa), that “I’m not good enough. I’m not able to do this. It’s too difficult for me.” 

This is identified as a form of laziness because we are too lazy to actually try and so we use as an excuse that “It’s too much for me. I am not up to it.” 

Of course, there are certain extremes that one has to watch out for. Maybe that’s not the best way of saying it. I don’t quite know how to say it. But there are certain things that we may not be able to do, and this is something that we need to be quite clear about, that legitimately I may not be able to sit cross-legged for many hours because I have a knee injury or something like that. That’s not a form of being lazy; that’s being realistic that we are not able to do that.

Participant: But that’s not an excuse to not meditate. You can still meditate.

Dr. Berzin: That’s not an excuse not to meditate. But one needs to differentiate what am I realistically capable of doing and what am I realistically not capable of doing. And if I am capable of doing something, to say that “It’s too difficult for me,” this is really an excuse. “I can’t understand it,” for example. You say that and you don’t even try to understand it. That’s laziness. Whereas if it’s something in advanced mathematics that I’ve never studied, then obviously I can’t really understand, and so that’s not laziness. 

One has to be realistic about what we are capable of doing. We are capable of doing far more than we admit, so it’s important to take on things that are difficult, take on things that are challenges, that are within our grasp to be able to do. OK?

Putting things off until later because we don’t feel like doing it. Clinging to negative or trivial activities. There’s both of these, negative or trivial. Negative: go out drinking with my friends, get drunk, etc. And trivial would be just… I don’t know. 

Participant: Wasting time.

Dr. Berzin: Wasting time. Getting addicted to surfing on the internet, for example.

2. Forgetting the guidelines instructions or losing the object of focus

Then the second deterrent to concentration, the second obstacle, is forgetting the instructions or losing the object of focus (gdams-ngag brjed-pa). It can be understood in both ways. You don’t remember, basically, what you’re supposed to be doing or how you’re supposed to be doing it in the meditation, or you don’t remember what we’re trying to focus on. Let’s say we’re trying to focus on a Buddha in front of us, and I don’t remember what the Buddha looks like, for example. Although probably most of us can remember what the Buddha looks like. But something like that. Forgetting the instructions or losing the object of focus.

That’s quite important in terms of when we are doing a… I mean, these are general instructions for any type of meditation in which we want to focus on something. But for instance, if we are doing a meditation… This example of the seven-part cause and effect sequence for developing bodhichitta — if you can’t remember what the seven steps are, then that’s a problem; that’s an obstacle. You have to remember.

3. Interruptions due to mental flightiness or mental dullness

Then the third obstacle is the one which is discussed in the most detail, so we’ll come back to it, and this is considered the… Laziness was the big problem for getting started. But this is the worst problem that we really need to focus on when we’re trying to gain concentration, and that’s interruptions due to mental flightiness (rgod-pa) or mental dullness (bying-ba). These are two terms that have many levels or grades, and we’ll come back to that and discuss them in more detail. Generally, mental flightiness is when the mind flies off to another object, and mental dullness is when we can’t actually generate an image or it’s not in focus.

4. Not applying opponents to them

Then the fourth type of problem is not applying opponents to them (’du mi-byed). That’s a big problem, a big, big problem. In other words, our mind wanders. Very, very easy to meditate with mental wandering, very, very simple to do. We could recognize that it’s a problem, and we know what the opponents are, but we don’t apply the opponents. That could be because of laziness — it could be for many different reasons — or we just enjoy our mental wandering. A lot of people use the mental wandering in their meditation to plan what they’re going to do for the day, to solve various problems that might be going on during their day. I must confess that I get some of my best type of analysis of different problems with my website and so on in the mental wandering that occurs during my morning meditation before I get down to work. That happens, that’s a problem — not applying opponents to them — I confess.

5. Not stopping applying the opponents when they’re no longer necessary

Then the fifth one is not stopping applying the opponents when they’re no longer necessary (’du-byed). Serkong Rinpoche used to use a very wonderful example for that: It’s like if we are in a room and we have a bowl of milk on the table and there’s a cat in the room. Then when the cat is coming to try to take the milk, you have to go “Shoo! Shoo! Go away!” like that. But the example for this fifth one is, when there’s no longer any cat in the room, to continue to stand over the milk and go “Shoo! Shoo! Keep away. Keep away!” This is a problem. Once we have taken care of getting rid of these various deterrents to concentration, then we have to relax and stop being a policeman or policewoman and stop applying these opponents but just get on with the effortless meditation.

These are the five that Maitreya points out. Any questions about them? 

I’m sure if one analyzed, one could find more problems, but what other problems? “I’m too busy, too busy to meditate.” That’s a serious problem, and it might be a very legitimate problem. For instance, a primary caretaker of small children, the mother or father. “I don’t have time. I have to take care of the baby.” What do you do then?

Participant: Develop insomnia.

Dr. Berzin: Develop insomnia. It’s very difficult.

Participant: Buddha just got up and left.

Dr. Berzin: Buddha got up and left. That’s not a general recommended practice. Buddha lived in a royal family, an extended family in which there were plenty of relatives and servants, etc., to take care of the responsibilities. He didn’t leave his family in poverty. That’s different. Also, in the case of the Buddha, Buddha belonged to the warrior caste, and so it was expected that the man of the house would go off to war. Again, it’s unfair to project onto the example of the Buddha an irresponsible husband that just dumps the wife and leaves to go off on their own trip.

If we are a primary caretaker, then at that time we need to try to use the baby and taking care of the baby as the object of focus. We adapt to the situation. And it’s going to be difficult. But as everybody says who is a very serious Buddhist practitioner and the parent of small children, having a small child is an extraordinary opportunity for developing generosity (you’re constantly giving to the child), lack of selfishness, discipline (to get up in the middle of the night, etc.), and patience (when the baby won’t stop crying), and joyful perseverance (you have to project to the child our being happy and smiling and so on), and of course concentration, and discriminating awareness (to discriminate between what is going to be helpful for the child and what is harmful, so we’re constantly “What’s wrong?” and you have to check; that’s discriminating awareness), not to mention of course love and compassion and these things. With raising a child, that doesn’t need to be an excuse for saying that I can’t do any Dharma practice. Dharma practice doesn’t have to be sitting formally on a cushion and meditating on a Buddha or something like that, away from everything.

As for tantra practice and so on, that might be a little bit difficult if we’re not used to it. If we are used to it in terms of the generation stage, there isn’t any reason why one couldn’t continue to visualize oneself in the form of a Buddha-figure, particularly as an opponent to the trip of “Poor me, I’m stuck in the house,” and so on, this type of self-pity image. Or “I have no life of my own. My whole life is taking care of the baby.” That also is something that one has to analyze: Is that true or not?

We’re too busy with work, say, if we have a profession. Again, is this a little bit of an excuse? To do meditation practice, or any Dharma practice, doesn’t necessarily require having a huge amount of time and devoting a huge amount of time as a separate activity for meditation. Usually, we can spare five minutes in the morning before we start the day. It’s not going to really damage our work if we sleep five minutes less. It’s a matter of discipline, isn’t it? 

You know the type of alarm clock where you can press the button and after five more minutes it will go off again? Rather than doing that five more minutes of sleep (which is a very terrible habit actually to get into, especially if your alarm clock will do that several times before it stops), then instead use those five minutes to do some meditation. Or while you’re showering or while you’re shaving, what are you doing with your mind? There’s nothing preventing you from using your mind to generate thoughts of love or whatever. There are periods of the day in which we could fill in a certain type of meditation practice. 

I remember I had a friend who came from one of the former communist countries, and she lived in a very tiny room with her mother and her mother’s radio and television and shared a bed with her mother. And her mother was certainly not in favor of my friend doing meditation. She was a sort of an underground Buddhist in this country. She told me that she did all her meditation practice and Buddhist practice on the toilet, because that was the only place where she could have privacy, without her mother being suspicious of… “What are you doing?” type of thing. It is possible to adapt. OK.

I remember in another former communist country that one friend told me that they used to escape up on the roof to do some practice, to be able to sit quietly.

Participant: There was a prisoner who found an empty closet that they locked themselves into to get away from…

Dr. Berzin: Right. I haven’t personally done prison work, but I would imagine that also in prisons. He mentioned that there was someone who found an empty closet that they could go into. I would think you would have a similar problem if you were in the army. That’s a big one. If you are in a barrack with twenty people, people make fun of you and could beat you up. I’m sure that would happen in prison as well. This is quite difficult. Then one has to again adapt, which is… you’re lying down in bed before you go to sleep with your mind racing, then you might as well use that period of time to do something with your mind, for example. These are not easy situations, but the point is that we are very adaptable beings with the proper motivation.

OK. Any other deterrents or problems that would prevent us from meditating or from gaining concentration that you can think of? What about attention… What is it called? What is the word?

Participant: ADD. Attention deficit disorder.

Dr. Berzin: Attention deficit disorder. What is that?

Participant: A lot of people have a lot of trouble who have that. It’s very, very difficult.

Dr. Berzin: A lot of people have that, and a lot of people have difficulty focusing or concentrating. 

Participant: It’s a neurological problem.

Dr. Berzin: It’s a neurological problem. OK, so what can people with that do?

Participant: Very short meditations.

Dr. Berzin: Very short meditations. 

Participant: Try to relax first and be calm.

Dr. Berzin: Try to relax first, calm, and don’t… I mean, again this brings up the question that I said in the beginning, which was, on the one hand, you don’t want to deny that you have this problem, but on the other hand you don’t want to use it as an excuse for not trying. Otherwise, one is always identifying oneself as “Poor me, the victim.”

Participant: It creates an identity.

Dr. Berzin: It creates an identity, which then you make solid, and you think it’s permanent, not going to be affected by anything, and then you lock yourself into it.

Participant: The main thing I’ve seen with people is when they think “I’m a parent. I can’t do anything. For the rest of my life, I’m doomed.”

Dr. Berzin: Right. What he’s saying from his experience, especially in light of what I just said about clinging to a certain identity and using that as an excuse, is that “Now I’m a parent and so forget it. I can’t possibly meditate,” and so on.

Participant: I’ve even seen it in advance. They know they’re planning a family, and then they already are planning “I’ll have to cut out a lot of my practices because there just won’t be time.”

Dr. Berzin: Right. She says that she’s seen with people who are planning a family that they decide already, before having the baby, that “I’m going to have to give up my meditation practice.” As I say, again one has to be, on the one hand, realistic, and on the other hand, not use this as an excuse, and on the other hand — the third hand — be adaptable. 

Participant: I can think of another one. Peer pressure. Peer pressure being the discouragement to practice: My partner or spouse is jealous if I spend time alone doing this. Or I have a family, and my mother-in-law thinks I shouldn’t be spending my time doing this; I should be tending to the children. Peer pressure. Guilt placed on us from outside.

Dr. Berzin: Right. What Zina brings up, which is a very true point, a very good point, is that one of the problems sometimes is… she called it peer pressure, but it’s not just peer but, in general, pressure from others. Like, for instance, you’re in a partner relationship, and the partner is jealous of the time that you spend going to a Buddhist center or to meditating and wants you to spend the time with him or her. You gave the example of a mother-in-law who is very critical, saying “You should spend more time with your children,” even though the person was spending a lot of time, but that going and meditating is just neglecting your responsibility.

Participant: Even if they’re meditating in their home, not going to a center.

Dr. Berzin: Right. Even if they’re meditating in the home, this is being self-indulgent and selfish and so on. That’s a big problem because, on the one hand, such people come under the category of a misleading friend. A misleading friend is one that says, “Oh, don’t do anything constructive like meditate or stuff like that. Let’s go and drink. Let’s go and have fun,” or stuff like that. They lead you away from doing something constructive and lead you into doing something usually destructive or a waste of time. The one that’s saying, “Take care of your children…” 

Participant: That’s using guilt.

Dr. Berzin: That’s using guilt. Or the partner who is jealous and so on. “Spend more time with me.” I don’t know how, from a definitional point of view, they would come into this misleading friend type of thing, but it is a serious problem. And I know that I had a number of students, particularly in Mexico, I must say, where the relation between the man and the woman is very macho oriented, and the women who came to the centers often experienced a tremendous amount of problems from their husbands who didn’t want them to go, and it was an act of defiance that they went, and sometimes they could be hit for doing so. I mean there’s playing guilt, but then there’s also sometimes a bit of a danger in that type of situation.

What to do? Do you have any solution?

Participant: It’s difficult. It depends on the factors involved with each person. Like in the communist state, you may have to secretly do these things without telling when you’re doing them or how you’re doing them. Say you’re going to the supermarket but really go to a church just to meditate, anywhere where you can have quiet.

Dr. Berzin: Right. She was saying that one might have to adopt a strategy, as many people did or still do in communist regimes or totalitarian regimes, that you do things in secret, you can use excuses. You say you’re going to buy food, and instead you go to a church or a quiet place to meditate. This I think is a bit of an extreme type of thing. Some people have to, but that could be difficult if you’re found out. 

Participant: You could also be direct and exert some counterforce.

Dr. Berzin: Right. You can be direct and exert some counterforce.

Participant: Don’t interfere with my life.

Dr. Berzin: “Don’t interfere with my life.” This might be difficult in a strongly macho type of marriage situation in which you can get beaten.

Participant: I was thinking more of the mother-in-law situation.

Dr. Berzin: She was thinking of the mother-in-law playing guilt. I don’t know that it would work in all cases, but one psychiatrist friend of mine suggested a strategy that seems to be very helpful with people who demand a tremendous amount of our time: “Be with me all the time.”

Participant: Neediness.

Dr. Berzin: Neediness or clinging, clinging, and demanding all our time. “Don’t go out with your friends, don’t go out and meditate, don’t go to the Dharma center. Be with me.” This type of thing. Or who call you all the time, or who want you to call them all the time, and they never get off the phone. This type of thing. What my psychiatrist friend suggested was that the person needs to learn that a rejection is not an abandonment — that is the key here — and to get them to acknowledge or to understand that this is not an abandonment when you say no. That you give them a certain amount of time: “I can’t spend all my time with you, but every morning we’ll have breakfast together,” or “Every Saturday I will call,” or something like that. You make it very definite — you give them something — and you are reliable in keeping that.

Participant: Because it’s insecurity that creates that.

Dr. Berzin: It’s insecurity and the fear of abandonment that makes them cling.

Participant: I think if you give very defined parameters, it makes it easy to…

Dr. Berzin: Accept. If you give them defined parameters, it makes it easier to accept. I don’t know if that’s going to be the case with the husband that doesn’t want you to go. I mean, there’s also situations in which the family belongs to another religion, and they don’t want you to go to a Buddhist thing. You know, that type of situation. Again, doing things a little bit in secret — not that you have to sneak off or something like that, but you just don’t tell them.

Participant: But it depends on how much you want to commit yourself. If you really want to commit yourself wholeheartedly, then you have to make some life changes.

Dr. Berzin: If you want to commit yourself wholeheartedly, you have to make some life changes. I’m thinking now of a Western Buddhist nun who is a teacher, a very well-known teacher (there’s no need to mention names). She was married to a lawyer, very successful financially, and she herself was a schoolteacher. She started studying Buddhism, and she decided that she was going to give up her marriage, get a divorce, give up the whole thing, and go to India and become a nun, a Buddhist nun. Her parents were certainly not of the Buddhist faith, and the parents absolutely freaked out at the whole thing. The parents were very wealthy, and they basically disowned her, which means that “You’re no longer my daughter,” and they gave her no financial help whatsoever. And for about… now, I don’t remember the exact number of years, but I think it was something like fifteen years or more that the parents never spoke with her, never had any contact with her. 

Participant: That’s a good example.

Dr. Berzin: When you have strong determination and conviction, then you just sort of do it. I mean, she didn’t have children, so it wasn’t as though she was leaving her children. But sometimes it’s like that. It depends on the individual. It depends on the situation. Subsequently, after many years, the parents did come around and she did have contact with them again.

Participant: Because many times the parents will never come round, and you have to accept that.

Dr. Berzin: Right. There are many times when the parents never come around. I think there are examples of, for instance, when a child marries outside of the religion of the family. It happens sometimes that the parents just say, “You’re no longer my daughter” — it is usually with a daughter — and that’s it. Sometimes it changes when there’s a grandchild. At that point sometimes the parents will establish contact again.

Participant: But I think if somebody makes that commitment, that they really want to study the Dharma in all seriousness to that degree, and something unfortunate like that happens, you still have to go forward and not keep pining away: “I hope my parents will contact me.” Because that’s another form of attachment that will really prevent you from getting anywhere. You have to accept what has happened. It would be nice if it changed. But the more you pine away and dwell on it, it’s going to interfere.

Dr. Berzin: Right. If, as in the case of my friend who became a Buddhist nun… And mind you, in Buddhism when you become a monk or a nun you don’t cut off contact from your family as you would in becoming a catholic monk or nun. They maintain contact with their families. In Tibet, very often the monks — if their families were farmers, they would go home from the monastery in the summer to help the family with the harvest and then go back to the monastery. Very, very different from catholic monastic life. But nevertheless if your family doesn’t want to have any more contact with you and you really are very convinced of the path and this is what you really want to do, then as you point out, you need to not feel guilty and not pine about it, not keep on thinking about it and so on, because that will be a huge interference to any type of practice…

Participant: Or progress. Real progress.

Dr. Berzin:  Or progress. That’s very true. 

There are many different things that could interfere with our meditation practice, and certainly one has to be very, very considerate. I’m thinking of another example of someone who wanted to become a monk, a young man. That young man had parents and grandparents, lived in an extended family. Serkong Rinpoche, the old one, pretty much advised against it, and he said that “You should take care of your parents. When your parents are well taken care of and you can be confident of that, then you can become a monk. But you have the responsibility to your parents.” He became a monk anyway, and he didn’t last as a monk; he disrobed after a few years and went back to his family. And actually, his family needed his help. His mother is practically blind, the father is not very into taking care of the mother, and so he’s the one that has to help her, take care of her. 

There are different situations in which sometimes the responsibility to a family is important. One needs to have the permission from one’s parents usually to become a monk or a nun if you’re a child. 

There are many different situations here. Let’s go on. That’s enough for this topic.

I know many examples actually of people that gave up a very, very high paid job and marriage and all these sorts of things and went into an intensive Dharma study program. One needs to see what one’s own needs are, what one’s responsibilities are. But he made enough money to provide for his wife and provide for his parents, so he did that in a very, very responsible way. OK. As Buddha did. Wasn’t irresponsible with respect to his family.

Levels of Mental Flightiness and Mental Dullness

The biggest problem that we’re going to have to work with, once we overcome the initial laziness, is mental flightiness and mental dullness. Let’s get into our discussion of what those are.

We speak very often about a mental hold (’dzin-cha) on an object of focus, a mental hold on the thing. That has two aspects — these are technical terms in Tibetan — one is mental placement (gnas-cha, mental abiding) and the other is appearance-making (gsal-cha, clarity). That often is translated, the mental placement, as mental abiding, so it’s sort of staying there on the object. And appearance-making is that word that’s translated as clarity, but that’s really not a very good translation. Clarity doesn’t necessarily mean in focus. We’re talking about just to make something appear, whether it’s a state of mind, like love, or whether it’s a visualization. The mental hold on an object of focus has these two aspects. 

When we talk about mental flightiness (rgod-pa, agitation) or mental dullness (bying-ba, sinking), these two obstacles, mental flightiness is a fault of the mental placement, and the mental dullness is a fault in the appearance-making aspect of the hold. Let’s look at them a little bit more carefully.

Mental flightiness. It’s a subcategory of mental wandering (rnam-g.yeng) or distraction (’phro-ba). These are two technical terms in Tibetan. Mental wandering goes on and on and on. Distraction goes off to something else. Mental flightiness is when the mind goes off to something else due to desire or attachment for the object, and this is singled out as being the strongest element that causes mental wandering. Obviously, if we are angry the mind could also go off and think about anger: “Grr, this person said blah blah blah…” 

Participant: Fixation.

Dr. Berzin: Fixation on that. Jealousy is usually attachment, a type of desire or attachment: “The other person got my girlfriend or boyfriend, and I didn’t. I want the person,” this type of thing. But objects of desire seem to be more impelling. Do you find that the case? Is that correct?

Participant: I think anger also. I think holding a grudge tends to be very distracting.

Dr. Berzin: Holding a grudge, anger. When you talk about craving, for example — although it’s not used here — there’s craving to be parted from something that you don’t like. Anger has a certain aspect of that, that “This person hurt me, and I don’t want that. I wish that that didn’t happen.” In that way, I don’t know. But could you say that that’s a type of object of desire? I don’t know. I don’t think that’s actually what’s meant here.

What’s the most common thing, I think: You’re sitting in meditation, and you want to do something else. “I want it to be finished.” This is an object of desire. “I want to get up. I want to scratch my head. I want to move my leg,” “I’m hungry. I want to eat,” “I want to go to the toilet,” “What’s next? I’m bored. I would like it to be more interesting, something to happen.” 

Then of course there are objects of desire, like sexual objects and so on, someone that we’re very attached to that I like to be with: “I’m in retreat but I want to be with my loved one.” Shantideva puts the big emphasis — in his chapter on mental stability or concentration, the whole first half is dealing with overcoming attachment and desire, because that’s the biggest distraction, and there he focuses on attachment to the body of someone that you’re sexually attracted to. This seems to be the case, that if we think in this broader range of objects of desire and attachment, that probably is the more dominant thing than objects of anger, in terms of problems to concentration. But certainly, problems with anger are there.

When we talk about mental flightiness, it’s a fault of mental placement on the object due to desire or attachment. That’s the definition. There are two levels of it which are explained, although you could differentiate three levels of it: 

1. Gross flightiness of mind. We completely lose the mental placement on the object because our mental hold on it is so weak that it’s lost. 

You see, this is what we’re always working on, the mental hold, hold on to the object. Mindfulness is what maintains that hold so you don’t lose it. Now, with gross flightiness, your hold on it is so weak that you lose the object: you start thinking about something else.

2. Subtle flightiness of mind. You keep the hold but not tightly enough, there’s an undercurrent of thought about the object or about something else. 

That’s very, very common. For instance: In tantra, we do a sadhana practice. You’re going through some sort of text. Very often, since we don’t memorize it in the West very frequently, most of us are reading it. Or you could read a prayer as part of your practice. And instead of actually generating the thoughts that are being described there, or the visualization, you’re just going “Blah blah blah,” reading it — and it could be even just mentally reading it — yet at the same time you’re thinking of something else. The mind is all over the place, and yet still there’s the hold on the object. That’s subtle flightiness of mind.

But there’s an even more subtle form of it, which is: 

3. Even though there’s no undercurrent of thought, yet because the hold is slightly too tight, you feel restless and you’re itching to leave the object. 

This is very subtle. You’re focusing, but you are squeezing a little bit too hard.  You’re not thinking of anything else, but there’s sort of… It’s like the energy in a balloon. It’s squeezed a little bit too hard. You squeeze on the balloon and there’s sort of this… You’re not thinking of something else; there’s just sort of… I found the best way to describe it is the word itchiness. You’re just itching… You know the word to itch? Something you want to scratch.

Participant: Jucken.

Dr. Berzin: There’s sort of something inside you, a sort of itching, that you want to move, you want to do something, you want to start thinking about something else. This is the subtlest form of mental flightiness.

Mental flightiness (rgod-pa), by the way, other people translate it as agitation. Agitation sounds to me a little bit too neurotic. When your mind just leaves the object — is that agitation? I wouldn’t call it that.

Mental dullness (bying-ba), some people translate it as sinking, but I don’t think that really captures what it means. It’s an interruption to concentration due to a fault in the appearance-making factor of the mental hold. It has three levels: 

1. Gross mental dullness. We lose the object because the appearance-making factor is too weak to give rise to it. 

Remember, gross flightiness: you lose the placement. Here with mental dullness, gross mental dullness, you lose the object, because that appearance-making factor is too weak and you can’t actually generate love or generate a visualization.

Participant: There’s nothing to hang on to anyway.

Dr. Berzin: The hold was too weak, so you weren’t able to reestablish it, or you established it and then you lost it. That was the fault of meditation called either forgetting the instructions or losing the object of focus. You lose it because either the placement is too weak or the appearance-making, what generates the state of mind, is too weak.

Gross mental dullness can be either with or without foggy-mindedness (rmugs-pa) — this is another mental factor — and with or without sleepiness (gnyid).

Foggy-mindedness. Do you know fog? What is the German word for fog? Nebel. Foggy-mindedness is defined as a heavy feeling of body and mind. You just feel very heavy and weak. Sluggish. That’s another way of translating it. 

Participant: Sometimes leaden. Sometimes so heavy it’s sort of leaden.

Dr. Berzin: Right. You feel like lead. The mental dullness in which you lose the object could either be with that heavy feeling of body and mind or without that feeling of heavy body and mind (you just can’t generate it, the state of mind). It could be with or without sleepiness. You can feel very heavy and weak but not sleepy. Do you know that difference? “I feel very tired, but I’m not sleepy.” These things are differentiated here as what could go together with the gross mental dullness.

2. Then there’s the middle level of mental dullness, in which we can give rise to the appearance of the object, but the hold is not tight and so it loses sharp focus (ngar). 

You’re able to generate the visualization, but it’s not in focus. You’re able to generate a feeling of everybody having been my mother, but it’s sort of fuzzy, in a sense. It’s not really clear. It’s not in focus. Sort of vague. This type of thing. That’s the middle level of mental dullness. 

The subtle level of mental dullness is: 

3. We can give rise to an appearance of the object and have sharp focus, but because the mental hold is still not sufficiently tight, it’s not fresh (gsar), fresh in each moment it’s there and generated. 

It becomes… Stale is another word for it, like bread that’s been sitting for too long. It’s not vibrant. It’s not sort of alive, in a sense. This is described as subtle mental dullness.

If we think of the word in the West, there’s no Tibetan equivalent to it, of spaced out. Spaced out could apply to all three levels of dullness. I thought originally, in my early days of translating and meditating, that spaced out only referred to the subtlest level, but actually you could be spaced out so that you’re not able to generate anything, just gross mental dullness. Or spaced out as in “I feel nice. I feel happy. Everybody’s near love,” etc., but it is not in focus at all. That’s another form of spaced out. That’s the middle level of mental dullness. And then of course the very subtle, where it’s not sharp. That’s another form of mental dullness. I know I experience that sometimes, in which I’m just sort of focusing on nothing really (the wall or something like that). I’m not really paying attention to anything, but my mind is perfectly quiet, perfectly clear, and perfectly spaced out. Have you experienced that?

Participant: Sometimes. Yeah.

Dr. Berzin: We’re just sort of off somewhere, but it’s not as though I’m thinking about something else.

Participant: You have to realize it and come back.

Dr. Berzin: Right. This is considered the most serious problem for gaining perfect concentration because it is easy to mistake that for being the real thing of what we’re trying to achieve. That’s always pointed out, that it’s not fresh, and I would imagine that also this sort of spaced-out thing.

Participant: The vajra-like quality, the diamond-like sharpness, is what you need rather than clarity without any focus.

Dr. Berzin: Right. He says the diamond-like or vajra-like quality which… One would have to know what that means. That’s just jargon. The word that’s used is fresh. Actually, literally, new. It has to be new in each moment, so fresh is the word.

It’s interesting how that is described in the teachings on ways of knowing in the Gelug system. The non-Prasangika view within the schools of Indian philosophy is that a valid cognition, a valid knowing of something, has to be both unmistaken — non-fallacious (mi-bslu-ba) is the technical term (there’s no fallacy in it) — and it has to be fresh in each moment. It’s not something which is subsequent and not fresh. Prasangika drops that out, the qualification that it has to be fresh, because it says, from the point of view of voidness, every moment is fresh anyway, is a new moment, so you can’t… 

Participant: You mean it’s inherent in it anyway?

Dr. Berzin: It is new in each moment anyway. That doesn’t discount this aspect here that they’re talking about fresh. It’s going to be a new moment anyway, but it doesn’t have a certain quality of freshness. That’s an interesting distinction. It’s not that you’re just holding something, and it becomes stale. Prasangika would say, “It changes moment to moment anyway.”

These are things that we have a lot of detail, description, in the texts, and we could get more or less accurate translations of them, but really what’s required is practical experience of meditating and actually being able to identify all these different states of mind and the different hindrances and obstacles from our own experience. Only then do we really know what they’re referring to. 

OK? Any questions on that? Everything clear? Good.

The Eight Composing Mental Factors

Then we have what’s called the eight composing mental factors. I don’t know that we have enough time to get through all of them, but we can get through some of them. There are eight things that we can use to counter these five hindrances or deterrents. 

The four factors for overcoming laziness

To overcome laziness, we apply the first four of the eight (nothing symmetrical here): 

1. The first is belief in a fact (dad-pa), namely in the advantages of achieving shamatha, a stilled and settled state of mind. 

When you translate that same word, what I translate as belief in a fact, belief that a fact is true — if you translate it as faith, I don’t know that that’s really… To have faith that there will be advantages to it? I think that that’s a little bit too vague.

Participant: It’s more that you’re convinced.

Dr. Berzin: We’re convinced. We believe. This is a fact. It’s not that I’m believing that Santa Claus is real, or the Easter Bunny. It’s belief in a fact and we believe that that fact is true, that if I do gain perfect concentration, stilled and settled state of mind, there will be many benefits from that. That’s the first thing to overcome laziness, remember: putting it off till tomorrow, “I don’t feel like doing it. I’d rather potter around the house or watch my television program,” and “It’s too difficult. I could never do it.” So convinced that this is something beneficial.

2. That leads to the second factor, which is a conscious intention (’dun-pa) to concentrate: “I’m convinced that this is beneficial, and so now I very consciously intend that I’m going to try to do it.”

3. That leads to the third one, which is joyful perseverance (brtson-’grus), which means we are happy to make an effort to try to do it. 

We put our energy into it, and I’m happy about it, about what I’m doing. It’s not as though I’m being forced to do it and I hate it and can’t wait until it’s over.

Then the fourth one is that:

4. Joyful perseverance leads to a sense of fitness (shin-sbyangs), which gives us the flexibility to apply ourselves to the practice. 

If I enjoy it and I’m putting my energy into it, then I feel fit and capable that I can do it, and I have that flexibility to overcome the feeling of “I can’t do it” and “I don’t feel like doing it” to actually do it.

Participant: Fitness is a good word, I think, because you imagine a kind of mental fitness. Everybody can relate to physical fitness. I think the word fitness has a good connotation to conjure up how to have that.

Dr. Berzin: Right. I think we can understand this also from the example of going to a fitness club and doing exercise or going jogging or whatever. I think of the advantages of this, in terms of health and so on, and so that gives me the intention “I’m going to do it.” I enjoy doing it while I’m doing it, and because I enjoy doing it — it’s fun, in a sense — then I feel that “I am able to do it.” Because I see the benefits, and then I push myself to… I mean, I go to exercise classes, and I push myself to do it for fifty minutes.

Participant: Or the contrary: you can see the benefits, but you also see the backsliding if you weren’t to do it.

Dr. Berzin: Right. Seeing the benefits also always involves seeing the disadvantages of not doing it and backsliding.

Those are the four factors for overcoming laziness.

The four supports and two forces to enhance joyful perseverance

Shantideva, if you recall, explains something called the four supports (dpung-bzhi) and the two forces (stobs-gnyis) which are going to enhance or strengthen that joyful perseverance of taking joy in putting all your energy into it:

• The first is a firm aspiration (mos-pa), being firmly convinced of the benefits of the goal — not just believing that it’s true, but now firmly convinced of the benefits of the goal — and the drawbacks of not achieving it, so that aspiration to attain it cannot be swayed. That’s a firm aspiration, firm conviction: “I’m going to do it, and nothing is going to convince me not to.”

• Then the second one is steadfastness (brtan) or self-confidence (nga-rgyal). Steadfast means that we’re steady. It comes from examining if we are capable of achieving the goal and being convinced that we are capable, and then applying ourselves steadily, even though progress goes up and down.

Participant: Perseverance.

Dr. Berzin: It’s a different word. I mean, these are the things that will add strength to perseverance. This is self-confidence that I can do it and being steadfast. I’m being steady.

Participant: Firm.

Dr. Berzin:  Firm. Firm is another way of translating the word. You get that firmness from being self-confident.

• Then the third one is joy (dga’-ba). Shantideva describes it as not being satisfied with just a little progress but taking joy in advancing with a sense of self-satisfaction. “I can now sit for five minutes without my legs hurting.” “I can now sit for ten minutes without my mind wandering.” It’s the same thing in lifting weights: “Now I can lift thirty kilos,” “Now I can lift forty kilos. I’m really happy.” I’m happy that I’m making progress. This is joy.

• Then the next one is rest (dor), taking a break when tired, not out of laziness but in order to refresh ourselves. If you know when to take a break, then the perseverance can get stronger. If you make it into an ordeal in which “I can’t wait until it’s finished,” then you don’t want to go back and continue doing it.

Those are the four supports that Shantideva describes. Then there are two forces: 

• The first is naturally accepting (lhur-len), which means naturally to accept what we need to practice and what we need to rid ourselves of in order to reach our goals, and naturally to accept the hardships involved, having examined them realistically. 

I accept that in order to gain concentration, I’m going to have to sit every day. What I need to rid myself of is, for instance, surfing on the internet, doing things that are going to cause my mind to be more distracted. And I accept it. That’s a very important factor. I accept that it’s going to be difficult. I’ve looked at it realistically. I don’t have false expectations. I don’t look at it with rosy things: “Oh, it’s going to be so easy,” and so on. It’s going to be a lot of hard work, and I accept that it will be. That’s one of the supports, the force; it gives us force.

• Then the last one is taking control (dbang-sgyur), which means to take control of ourselves and apply ourselves to what we wish to achieve rather than letting our laziness take control or whatever. 

I mean, even though there’s no separate me that is the controller that’s going to take control, etc., etc. Let’s not get into a dualistic way of looking at it. You know, the superego me is now going to take control over the lazy slob me that doesn’t want to do anything. But in colloquial English we would say, “Get yourself together, get your act together, get a grip on yourself, and just do it. Pull yourself together.” All those things are included here in this word. Self-control is part of it as well.

These are the four supports and the two forces to enhance our joyful perseverance coming from Shantideva. OK.

Then maybe, just very quickly, the others. No, maybe not. Let’s leave it for next time. It gets into the whole discussion of mindfulness and alertness, and those are big topics. Maybe that’s best to leave for next time.

Any final questions? Then if not, let’s end…

I think that what we can appreciate from this whole thing is all the experience which has gone behind these great masters writing these texts and pointing out all these various things. This is based on experience, what we find in the great Indian classics by the Indian masters, of how you do it and how you gain concentration. I think that when we find such clear explanations in detail of what happens… And we’ll find as we continue this discussion, they point out “You do this. And if that happens, then you do that. And if that didn’t work, then you do that.” Because all the instructions are there, based on experience of people who have been doing this over the last several thousand years, it gives us confidence that it is possible. We don’t have to… the English idiom is “reinvent the wheel”; it’s been done already. Here are the guidelines, and it’s simply a matter of following the instructions and overcoming the problems that will come up. These are the major problems that will come up and how you handle them. 

When we have a list like this of all the different factors that are going to help us to overcome laziness, for example, then what’s really required is an honest examination of ourselves: What’s the problem? Why can’t I meditate? Why am I so lazy? Then you go through all these things, all these factors. What am I missing? Maybe I’m not convinced that it really is so beneficial. Maybe I don’t set my intention in the morning. I know that it’s beneficial, but I don’t do it. Why don’t I do it? If I set this strong intention, if I remind myself of the benefits and then “I’m going to do it! I’m sitting down to meditate, and I am going to try my best not to use this as a session of mental wandering or planning what I’m going to do today.” You have to set a very strong intention, so maybe that’s the problem. We have to examine ourselves. 

The problem will of course change from day to day, but when we know all these instructions… This is why… You said forgetfulness. We forget them. “I forgot that if I set the intention before I meditate, maybe it will be a better possibility of concentrating.” That is why I say before the class, “Now we set the intention to listen with concentration. If my mind wanders, I’m going to bring it back. If I get sleepy, I’m going to try to wake myself up.”

Participant: I forgot to.

Dr. Berzin: You forgot that I said that? Right. I mean, I put it there because of these instructions. That’s what one has to do before meditating. “I’m going to try to concentrate. If my mind wanders, I’m going to try to bring it back. And if I get sleepy, I’m going to try to wake myself up and get through the period of time that I have put aside for doing this.” 

It’s laziness that usually stops us from doing it, which is also… I mean, this comes through  Shantideva’s — Shantideva’s so wonderful — discussion of ethical discipline. What do we need for ethical discipline? I have to care. If I don’t care… “I don’t care whether my meditation goes well or not. I just want to get through it because I have to get to work. The kids are going to wake up.” I don’t care how it goes, whether it’s good or not; I just do it. Very often that prevents us from having the discipline to correct our state of mind. It’s very important to examine which are the factors that are causing the problems. Perfect Buddhist approach: find the cause of the problem and then work on getting rid of the cause, and then you’ll get rid of the problem.

Participant: Or lack of motivation.

Dr. Berzin: Lack of motivation. That’s another cause. And don’t think that — now we apply our voidness teachings — that what we experience is all coming from one cause. There’s a whole network of causes, not just one thing. Try to analyze and find out what are the problems. Maybe some of them are legitimate: “I don’t have time today. I have to catch a plane,” or something like that, whatever it is. 

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