Review
In our first class last week, we spoke about meditation. Meditation is designed to help us to integrate the teachings into our lives, our way of being. Through meditation, we familiarize ourselves with the various states of mind that we have learned about from having listened to the teachings.
Before actually meditating, we’ve made certain that we have understood the teachings correctly and have not only become convinced that these states of mind or understandings are valid but also that we want to develop them. Additionally, we’ve become convinced that it is possible to achieve these states of mind and that we ourselves are capable of achieving them. At that point, we are ready to meditate. That process of becoming convinced is something that often comes under the general category of so-called practice, but it is not the actual, formal thing. However, that process is something that’s very, very necessary and worthwhile.
We then started with the general way in which one goes through the lam-rim course of training, which is graded in such a way as to help us to develop an increasingly stronger and more expansive motivation. With motivation, our minds have the energy to be able to develop various insights and to achieve various goals. Any motivation entails an aim, a goal that we are trying to achieve, and some sort of, what we would call, “motivating emotion” that drives us to try to reach that goal. Of course, there also have to be logical reasons for reaching that goal. So, motivation is a many-faceted thing.
We also talked about how – as His Holiness the Dalai Lama has emphasized – the relation with a spiritual teacher is a topic that, although it comes at the beginning of the lam-rim text, really needs to go toward the end of the lam-rim. So, we began with the topic of the precious human rebirth.
We saw that there are two aspects to the meditation. One aspect is recognizing that we are free of the states of no leisure, states in which we would have no freedom or opportunity to practice the Dharma. The other aspect is recognizing that we are endowed with a great many positive opportunities that enrich our lives, specifically opportunities to practice the Dharma.
This structure, if you will, is similar to what we find throughout the lam-rim teachings. For example, to achieve enlightenment, we need to get rid of the troublemakers, the things that cause us suffering, and we need to gain the understandings and positive qualities that we don’t have or enhance the ones we do have. So, on the one hand, we get rid of something, and, on the other, we gain and/or increase something else. The difference here, with the precious human rebirth, is that we are already free of certain negative things and already endowed with many positive things. Recognizing that, we can go further in both directions: getting rid of more of the negative things that we’re not yet rid of and enhancing more of the positive things that we already have. So, we see that, even though this meditation is at a very basic level of practice, it fits very well into the whole structure of the Dharma.
Meditating on the Eight Situations of No Leisure to Practice Dharma
Last time, we started the meditations on the eight situations of no leisure, recognizing that we have a brief respite from them. “Respite” means a temporary situation of relief. It’s like having a vacation or a holiday from these terrible states. As we will see later in the lam-rim sequence, we’ve built up many of the causes to be reborn in these states of no leisure, so we need to take preventive measures – which is what “Dharma” means: “preventive measure” – to avoid getting into any of these worse situations again.
These eight situations of no leisure are divided into four non-human situations and four human situations. We went through the non-human situations last time. These are being born as:
- A trapped being in a joyless realm
- A desperately clutching ghost
- A creeping creature or animal
- A long-lived divine being or god
Recognizing the Object to Be Negated, Negating It, Focusing on Its Absence
We saw that there is yet another structure that is similar to what we find in many of the other meditations that come later in the lam-rim sequence, which is, first, to recognize some sort of object to be negated, then to negate it, and then to focus on the absence of that negated object. That’s obviously the structure that we use in voidness meditation. Here, what we’re doing is recognizing the state of no leisure, then recognizing that we’re free from that – so, negating it – and then focusing on its absence, the state of being free of that terrible situation.
Wanting to Avoid Worse States of Rebirth – Dread versus Fear
Participant: Is it that one has to develop fear of these states?
Dr. Berzin: “Fear,” I find, is a rather heavy word. Fear implies a very disturbing state of mind. What we want to develop is dread of the worst states of rebirth. Dread is one of the causes for taking safe direction, or refuge. It’s the feeling of “I really don’t want that.” There’s a difference between that and fear. With fear, we usually have the feeling, “I can’t deal with it, and there’s no way that I can avoid it.” Dread, however, is joined – especially in the refuge meditation in which we recognize the good qualities of the Three Jewels of Refuge – with the feeling that there is a way to avoid it.
Let me explain dread. Maybe I’m using it in too personal a sense. It’s like, for instance, dreading spending the afternoon with some boring person. “I really don’t want to do this, but I can deal with it. I’m not afraid.” So that’s a different state of mind than fear.
So, yes, we have this feeling of wanting to avoid these, but that feeling will be joined later on with the feeling that there is a way out. That same pattern will repeat with renunciation, the determination to be free. With renunciation, the feeling is disgust – “I don’t want these samsaric situations and what’s causing them” – joined with the determination to be free based on understanding that there is a way out. Then, with the intention to achieve enlightenment, we think of all the disadvantages of selfishness, selfish concern. Again, we think, “I really don’t want that. I want to avoid that,” understanding that there is a way out, which is having concern for others.
I think that seeing that this same structure repeats is quite helpful in approaching this lam-rim material, because then we understand how each scope builds on the next and how the later ones take the same states of mind that we had in the beginning stages and enhances them, expands them, in a similar type of way. That way, we can put the three scopes together much more easily.
When we do these meditations, we try to combine what’s called “discerning meditation” with “stabilizing meditation” – or “analytical” and “formal,” however you want to translate it. First, we try to discern, to actually see the fact that we are free of this situation. Then, we just focus on that state of being free and the feeling of relief that comes with it.
Having a Sense of Joy
Now, there’s a sense of joy that goes with that. This is absolutely crucial when it comes to anuttarayoga tantra meditation, the highest class of tantra, in which we are aiming to have a blissful awareness of voidness. Bliss is a very, very special level of mind that we generate by working with the internal energies, the subtle energies. In any case, here, we have this sense of relief – “Wow, I’m free of this!” So, there is a certain level of joy.
When one gains shamatha, this stilled and settled mind, this perfect concentration, one gets a sense of fitness of body and mind that is exhilarating. It’s so very, very joyful. One can use one’s mind to focus on anything without dullness, agitation, flightiness, or anything like that. Then, with vipashyana, an exceptionally perceptive state of mind, there’s an even more intense state of freedom. Then there’s this state of being free from the disturbing emotions as well. That’s a tremendously joyful state. Now, one might ask, “Why is it joyful?” One of the reasons has to do with the fact that, ordinarily, so much energy is tied up with nervous worry, with disturbing emotions, with mental wandering, with dullness, and so on. When we’re free of those restrictions, the energy is very, very strong, and we experience it in a very joyful, exuberant way. That’s referred to as the “natural joy of the mind” in the Sakya teachings of Vajrayogini.
In any case, here, what we get as a result of these meditations on the precious human rebirth is a sense of relief. “I am free of this situation; therefore, I am happy about my life.” This is very important. Rather than thinking, “Poor me,” we think, “Hey, I’m actually in quite a good situation, and I can do something to make it even better.” So, this is a happy state of mind, not a depressed state of mind.
The Four Human Situations of No Leisure
Now, the four human situations of no leisure are rebirth:
- As a barbarian in a savage border region
- In a land where the Dharma is unavailable
- With severe learning disabilities
- Instinctively holding a distorted outlook on life
As a Barbarian in a Savage Border Region
“Border region” refers to a place where there is no civilization. “Civilization” refers to Buddhist civilization and Buddhist teachings. A barbarian would obviously be someone who is violent, who has a great deal of uncontrolled negative emotions, and whose actions are based not just on anger but on unbridled desire as well. We could probably include in this category societies that are based on greed, societies in which people are focused only on their own gains to the total neglect of everybody else. If we were in that type of society, it would be pretty hard to practice, to work on ourselves.
Now, we could make the objection that if we were well trained, we could practice Dharma in any situation. However, we’re talking about being on a very beginning level. As beginners, it would be very difficult for us to start practicing in that type of situation. If we’re very well trained, OK. But imagine being in an army in which the officers and various other soldiers are always terrorizing and brutalizing us – never mind being in an enemy camp. This would constitute a savage barbarian society, wouldn’t it? Or imagine being in a prison in which there are all these gangs that terrorize and rape the other prisoners. How horrible that would be. We would be absolutely terrified, in a constant state of fear, and just be concerned with protecting ourselves.
Now, this becomes a bit difficult because Dharma is also taught to people who are in prisons. But one hopes that those prisoners are able to avoid the type of violent abuse that goes on in some prisons and that they are at least given some sort of protected space in which they can pursue spiritual practices. But, in general, we are very fortunate not to be in such a terrible situation. Just imagine if we had to live like that.
Perhaps you can come up with other examples.
Participant: Growing up in a children’s army.
Dr. Berzin: That’s very good. As children, we could be forced to take up arms, to shoot our parents and the various people in the village, and so on. And we would be totally indoctrinated to do that. It would be really awful, wouldn’t it?
Let’s try the meditation. As we saw last time, we first try to recognize what that type of situation would be like. Then, we focus on the feeling of being free of it, the sense of relief. We found that some people have an easier time with the meditation by alternating back and forth fairly frequently between imagining what that situation is like and focusing on the negation of that, recognizing that we are free of that. Others found it more conducive to go a bit more slowly, feeling more and more strongly how horrible that state would be and then focusing on the absence, the state of being free of it. So, we have to see for ourselves what works best.
If, when starting a meditation, our minds are still a little bit preoccupied and not settled down, we make the strong intention, “I’m going to meditate. If my attention wanders, I’ll bring it back. If I get sleepy, I’ll wake myself up.” If we need to quiet down further, we focus on the breath for a short period of time.
[meditation]
What I imagined was being in situations in which I couldn’t escape from these savage people – like being in a large crowd of violent people and not being able to get out of that crowd or living in a large army barrack where people are drunk all the time or very violent with each other and are always harassing you. Then I imagined being free of that.
One of the things that I was thinking about – though this is not really in keeping with a very beginning level of meditation – was how, if we already are fairly experienced with the Dharma, going back to these foundational meditations can be very helpful. They are helpful in that we can use these types of meditations to enhance, on the one hand, our bodhichitta meditations and, on another hand, our mahamudra meditations. When we are meditating with the wish to benefit others, wanting to reach that enlightened state in which we would be of best help to others, recognizing that we’re free of these terrible situations is very helpful because we realize that these are the situations that would prevent us from being of best help to others.
The realization that we’re free of these basic hindrances moves us to ask ourselves, “Why aren’t I helping others? I’m not in a situation in which it would be very difficult to help others.” Later on, we’ll see, “It’s my selfishness that’s preventing me from helping others,” or “It’s my anger that’s preventing me from helping others,” or whatever. But, now, on this level, we’re focusing on being free of these situations in which it would be really difficult to help ourselves, let alone help others – unless, that is, we are already very, very well trained and have the ability to deal with these types of situations. But, usually, we’re not well trained. So, either we get caught up in the mob ourselves, or we get totally overwhelmed by fear, in which case, our only concern is protecting ourselves.
Focusing on the Basic Purity of the Mind
When it comes to focusing on the basic, pure nature of the mind, one of the things that we see is that the basic nature of the mind is not stained, and this includes its not being stained by the hindrances of these eight states of no leisure. We focus on that purity of the mind – meaning we focus on its basic nature, which is merely the making of cognitive objects, namely, mental holograms, arise, and the awareness of them. Well, that basic nature is not affected by anything, including those hindrances. Even if we are experiencing one of those states of no leisure, that basic mental functioning is still there. We can appreciate the mind’s natural freedom from stains by recognizing that the more things we find the mind, namely mental activity, to be free of, the more we see and appreciate that we are still left with mind, with mere appearance-making and cognizing.
That recognition can help us in mahamudra meditation as well. There are many different ways of approaching these meditations – and on many different levels.
Participant: How strict does one need to be with this negation? When I imagine an experience and then make the negation, “Okay, I am not in this situation,” I tend to think of the situation I am in now. So, I’m no longer focused on the negation. Instead, I’m thinking, “I have this. I have that. How wonderful it is.”
Dr. Berzin: Well, that’s why there are two sets of things that we focus on: what we’re free of and what we’re endowed with. After this set of four, we will focus on the ten things that we do have and that enrich our lives. First, we focus on what we don’t have, what we’re free of; then, we focus on what we do have. It’s the same when we do tonglen (gtong-len, giving and taking). First, we take away the sufferings from others, and then we give them happiness. So, we are always first getting rid of something and then adding something.
Participant: But you do them both in one meditation session, don’t you?
Dr. Berzin: Of course. It’s the case with all these lam-rim points. As Serkong Rinpoche used to say, if we are well trained, we should be able to go through the entire lam-rim in the time it takes to put one foot in the stirrup of the saddle on a horse and to put the other foot over the horse. In that amount of time, we should be able to go through every point of the lam-rim. That was Serkong Rinpoche. But it’s true. That is what we’re aiming for. We’re aiming to instantaneously, in one moment, generate that whole state of mind. It’s the case in tantra as well, where we have the dissolution and then the generation of ourselves as a deity. We can do it in stages or instantaneously.
What we’re aiming for is instantaneously to have that state of “I’m free from all eight situations of no leisure and endowed with all ten enriching situations.” We want to be able to focus on the state of being free and of being endowed without having to build that state of mind up. It’s what’s called “unlabored meditation.” A labored meditation means that we have to build the state of mind up. Unlabored means that we are so familiar with that state of mind that we can generate it instantly without having to go through all the steps. We should eventually be able to do that with all of the lam-rim stages all the way up to bodhichitta and then the six far-reaching attitudes. We should be able to do that instantly. As Serkong Rinpoche always used to say, when death comes, death doesn’t wait for us to set up the altar, light the candles, and go slowly through a process of generating a state of mind. When death comes, it comes – often – in a moment.
I think of the example of my dear friend Alan Turner who had a massive heart attack. He just dropped dead. Maybe he had a moment or two to generate a certain state of mind. He had been practicing very intensely for the last thirty-five years of his life, so maybe he was trained well enough. I think that if anybody were trained well enough to be able to do that, it would have been he.
That’s a good example: You’re having a heart attack – you’re falling to the floor and are about to die. Wham! That’s it. You want to be able to generate all the stages of the lam-rim in one moment – at least to get your bodhichitta going or, at the very least, the memory of your teacher. You certainly don’t want to die with the last thought in your mind being “oh, shit!” It’s interesting to see what thoughts come to mind when we are suddenly hurt in a big way. Is “oh, shit” the first thought that comes to mind? Or is bodhichitta, the guru, or refuge the first thought? As we have seen in our discussion of the twelve links, the thought at the time of death is very crucial. It will help to shape our next rebirth. It determines what throwing karma we activate at the time of death.
In a Land Where the Dharma is Unavailable
The next human situation of no leisure is rebirth in a land where the Dharma is unavailable. I think that those of you who have lived in former communist countries have some idea of what that is like. During those times, it was very difficult to get any Dharma material, if it was available at all. Also, it was illegal. For many years, I traveled and taught in these countries, so I’m very aware of how awful it is to be in that type of situation. You can be very thankful that you’re not in that kind of situation anymore. But it could happen again at any time, just as being in a barbarian land could happen again at any time.
Imagine this country during the Nazi period. How awful it would have been to be caught up in that whole mentality, to have the police coming at any time, etc. That could happen again. We say never again, but it could happen again – not just here in Germany but anywhere.
Let’s try the meditation again, trying to feel what it would be like to be in a situation in which the teachings are not available.
Now things are not so bad because so much of the Dharma has been translated, but imagine how frustrating it was when nothing was translated. When I first went to India, no translations were available. We would go to the various teachings, rituals, and so on, but nobody had any idea of what was going on. We just had the feeling, “Well, something good must be going on here.” How fortunate we are that that’s not the situation anymore.
[meditation]
Any comments on that?
Participant: I imagined a society like the one described in the book, 1984, where you aren’t even allowed to think in a different way. I thought about how great the danger is now of information becoming restricted in parts of the world and how fortunate we are not to be in that situation.
Dr. Berzin: There are some countries that are now restricting the Internet, for example. So information is getting more and more censored. That could apply to Dharma information as well.
We can also imagine being in some of these former communist countries where they played loud martial music and loud propaganda over the loudspeakers all day long. Maybe it wasn’t all day long; however, there were some places where it was like that. That was one of the tortures in some of the prisons. They would play heavy metal music at ear shattering levels of volume, and they would play it nonstop for several days. There’s no way that one could do any practice unless one were super, super advanced.
With Severe Learning Disabilities
The next one is being born with severe learning disabilities. Calling this situation one with “severe learning disabilities” is the way that I have made this heading more politically correct. It’s actually formulated as being born “deaf and dumb.” Being deaf was considered to be particularly limiting. That’s because, originally, the teachings were not written down, and the only way that one could learn the teachings was to hear them spoken. I don’t think that they had sign language at that time. Remember, we’re talking about the time of the Buddha. In a monastic situation, it would have been very, very difficult to learn the teachings without actually being able to hear them. That, undoubtedly, is why this was specified as one of the situations of no leisure. Nowadays, it is possible to read things, so being deaf is not so much of a limitation. However, we could extend this to having a severe learning disability like Down syndrome. In that situation, it would be very, very difficult to learn much and to develop ourselves much.
So, imagine being like that. Or imagine having a severe stroke… or Alzheimer’s disease. That’s even worse.
Again, we then focus on being free of that. The point to think about is that the situation that we have now is a respite. It is a vacation from these situations – ones that we can have again at any time in the future.
[meditation]
Instinctively Holding a Distorted Outlook on Life
The last one is instinctively holding a distorted outlook on life, denying what’s true. If we were extremely closed-minded, anti anything spiritual, and antagonistic toward anybody who was working toward a spiritual goal, we would have no opportunity at all to practice Dharma.
Imagine having that very closed, stubborn, antagonistic mind. We could have been born with that state of mind, or we could have been influenced by the society around us. There are many ways in which we could have gotten that state of mind. Obviously, if we were influenced by society, we must have had the seeds to be like that within us. But how wonderful it is that we’re free of that.
Imagine how we could easily become closed-minded again by thinking, for example, “Now I’ve understood everything about the Dharma,” but, in fact, having a completely incorrect understanding and then being antagonistic toward anybody who disagrees with our incorrect understanding. That is quite common. There’s also a certain self-righteousness that goes with that wrong view.
[meditation]
Meditating on All Eight Situations Cumulatively
The final step of these meditations is to feel free of all eight of these situations cumulatively – to feel that we have a respite, a temporary respite, from all eight. What we do is to go through the list, one by one, and imagine that each one is like a weight being taken off our backs. We try to have the feeling of more and more weight being taken away so that, in the end, we’re free of all of them.
So let’s do this. I’ll mention each situation. Then we’ll go through the sequence again by ourselves.
- Tortured hell creature
- Starving ghost
- Stupid, persecuted animal
- Totally ignored god, spent all his life in trivia
- Barbaric savage region
- Dharma unavailable
- Learning disability
- Closed-minded, stubborn attitude
- No longer tortured
- No longer starving
- No longer stupid, persecuted, and exploited
- No longer wasting my life on trivia and being ignored when I’m sick and old
- No longer in a savage place
- No longer having Dharma unavailable
- No longer with a mental disability
- No longer with a close-minded, antagonistic attitude
Just try to feel and focus on that absence. If that becomes unclear, we have to remind ourselves once more of what is absent. Then, again, we just focus on the absence. It’s like strumming the eight strings of a guitar. Each string is what we are free of. First, we stroke each string, then, we strum the whole thing all at once – free of all of them. Strum through the eight in your mind.
[meditation]
I think this image of strumming a stringed instrument to make a chord is very useful, so that’s what we’ll do with all these various multi-step meditations. At the beginning, we have to stroke each string slowly, one at a time, but, eventually, we’re able to stroke each one more and more quickly so that, in the end, we are able to go through all the stages very, very quickly and just instantly have the full chord with the full understanding. Then, to put the whole lam-rim together, we’d strum all of those chords together. That’s the method.