LTF 30: 5 Forces & Powers; 4 Aspects of True Sufferings & Origins

[45] Belief in fact, joyful perseverance, and mindfulness, absorbed concentration, and discriminating awareness are the five supreme Dharma measures. Strive after them. These are known as the forces and the powers, and also what brings you to the peak.

Here, Nagarjuna is speaking about “the forces and the powers” that bring a practitioner to the non-conceptual cognition of the four noble truths – in other words, to a pathway mind of seeing, or the path of seeing. 

Participant: This is not the peak of samsara?

Dr. Berzin: Here the word “peak” is not referring to the peak of samsara. It has a different meaning. We’ll get to that.

In order to really understand what Nagarjuna is talking about here, we need to look at what spiritual goals are. This is a little bit complicated, so we need to give the general point of view here. There are two types of spiritual goals. 

Higher Status

There is what is called “higher status.” Higher status refers to one of the better rebirths – higher status as a human, as one of the divine beings, or as a god. In terms of the lam-rim, achieving higher status is the aim of the initial scope of motivation. 

Participant: Are these higher gods really an appropriate aim? Don’t the gods use up their positive karma, and then, when it’s finished, they fall? I mean, do the gods practice Dharma?

Dr. Berzin: This is an interesting question. Do the gods practice Dharma? Is this a type of higher goal that we would want to aim for? Well, not really. 

Achieving liberation or enlightenment has to be on a basis of a precious human rebirth. There is a discussion (we had this last week, actually) about what level of mind one needs in order to attain a seeing pathway (a path of seeing) or a path of meditation (an accustoming pathway). For that, you need, on the basis of a human body, a mind of the form or formless realm. In other words, you need a mind that has that level of deep concentration, one of the absorptions of these higher realms (we went through the whole list of the four dhyanas last time). 

Aiming for higher status as in a rebirth as a god is something one could look at just in terms of a worldly aim – that worldly people want to go to heaven and this type of thing. Is that really a beneficial goal in terms of a spiritual path? Well, no, it isn’t. But it’s a goal that would apply to all beings. Then, at least, they could get started on a spiritual path. And what would actually be a stepping-stone for continuing on the path would be to continue having precious human rebirths. However, maybe one could understand this aspiration a little bit in terms of the form and formless levels of absorption. I’ve never really heard it explained like that; it’s just sort of an idea that comes to mind. But certainly, you don’t want to be reborn as a god if you want to continue on the path in your next life. Also, this type of goal, getting a higher rebirth, is not a specifically Buddhist goal. That’s common in almost all religions. 

Participant: Still, sometimes they say that one will achieve a good rebirth as a human or a god just to kind of catch some people.

Dr. Berzin: It’s not so much to “catch” people; it’s to get people, basically, to practice constructive behavior because that is the cause of this type of rebirth. 

Participant: There’s one Hindu teacher who pointed out that even the gods envy the humans because they’re able to get out of samsara.

Dr. Berzin: One could imagine that.

Anyway, there is this higher status. 

Definite Goodness – The Three Purified States (Bodhi)

There is another term called “definite goodness.” Definite goodness refers either to liberation as an arhat or to enlightenment as a Buddha. These two levels of attainment, liberation and enlightenment, are both known as “bodhi.” Bodhi (as in bodhisattva or bodhichitta) is a pure state or something like that. So, both of these levels of attainment are known by this term.

There are three levels of bodhi, this purified state:

• As a shravaka arhat, 
• As a pratyekabuddha arhat, or
• As a bodhisattva. 

Now, what would be the way of developing our minds so that we could achieve one of these three levels of bodhi, these purified states? To just aim for liberation would be the goal within lam-rim of an intermediate scope of motivation, and to aim for enlightenment would be the advanced scope motivation. To attain any of these three goals, we need to develop through what is usually translated as “the five paths.” These are actually five pathway minds. They’re levels of mind that act as pathways for reaching this goal of bodhi. 

These pathway minds are usually translated as the path of accumulation, the path of preparation, the path of seeing, the path of meditation, and the path of no more learning. However, I prefer to call them: 

1. “The building up pathway mind,” with which you basically build up a combined state of shamatha and vipashyana on the four noble truths. 
2.  “The applying pathway mind,” with which you apply that combined state of shamatha and vipashyana with the conceptual understanding of the four noble truths.
3. “The seeing pathway mind,” which is when you have combined shamatha and vipashyana focused non-conceptually on the four noble truths. At that point, you start to get rid of some of the doctrinally based obscurations and obtain some true stoppings.
4. “The accustoming pathway mind” – so, you’re accustoming yourself to the combined state of shamatha and vipashyana focused non-conceptually on the four noble truths. Here you start to get rid of the automatically arising obscurations.
5.  Lastly, “the path of no-more-training,” or “pathway mind needing no further training,” with which you’ve attained the purified state of either liberation or enlightenment.

So, with the accustoming pathway mind, you accustom yourself to the non-conceptual cognition of the four noble truths, and you get rid of all the obscurations that you had aimed to get rid of. You achieve arhatship – as a shravaka or a pratyekabuddha – if you have gotten rid of the emotional obscurations, the ones that prevent liberation (namely, the disturbing emotions and their tendencies, or seeds). You achieve enlightenment if you’ve gotten rid of not only the emotional obscurations but also the cognitive obscurations, which, from the Prasangika point of view, are the habits of grasping for true existence (they’re defined differently in different systems).

If we work to proceed along these five pathway minds and we start to actually develop them, then, as a shravaka or pratyekabuddha, we achieve what’s called “unlabored renunciation.” Renunciation is the determination to be free from samsara and its causes and the willingness to give those up. Renunciation is not wanting to be free but without giving anything up. It’s not that. We have to be willing to give up the suffering and its causes. “Unlabored” means that we don’t have to build it up by going through a line of reasoning; instead, it comes automatically all the time because we have familiarized ourselves so much with it.

Participant: Do you practice these five steps one by one? Or is it more that you do all at the same time somehow?

Dr. Berzin: In general, you proceed one by one. In other words, you develop one by one because each one is based on the previous one. 

In Nyingma and some Kagyu (Karma Kagyu, for example) accounts, but primarily in Nyingma accounts, they speak of those who proceed through these five one by one. But there is also mention of those for whom it happens all at once. Those for whom it happens all at once refers to those who achieve all at once the non-conceptual cognition of…  well, in the Nyingma context, it’s rigpa, pure awareness. In this case, upon becoming an arya, that first non-conceptual cognition – with which you are already familiar because of your familiarity with it from previous lifetimes – gets rid of all the obscurations at once. So, you achieve a seeing pathway mind, an accustoming pathway mind, and a pathway mind of no-more-training all at once. That’s what this is referring to. But that is unbelievably rare.

Facsimiles of Renunciation, Bodhichitta, and the Five Pathway Minds

Participant: I was just wondering which stage I am somehow.

Dr. Berzin: We are not there yet. 

Participant: Even if we are……

Dr. Berzin: We are certainly not there yet. 

Participant: Even at number one – accumulating?

Dr. Berzin: Even number one. No way are we even near that! This is what I was saying. In order to start this, you have to have, as a shravaka or pratyekabuddha, unlabored renunciation all the time. And to enter the path as a bodhisattva, you have to have both unlabored renunciation and unlabored bodhichitta all the time. 

This is what, you remember, Shantideva was speaking about in the very first chapter of Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior (Skt. Bodhisattvacharyavatara). When you really become a bodhisattva is when you have unlabored bodhichitta all the time. Whether you are awake or you are asleep, this is your aim in life. You can have, of course, other motivations, like to go to the store and buy a loaf of bread. It’s not saying that you don’t have any other motivations or aims, but this is your major aim in life. And you don’t have to work yourself up to it by “everybody has been my mother” and all of those types of reasonings. So, it’s only then that you actually start this fivefold process. Before that, you have what is called a “facsimile” of renunciation and bodhichitta. “Facsimile,” here, means something that resembles these things. There’s a big discussion about whether or not bodhichitta can be both labored and unlabored or if it can only be the unlabored. The college textbooks differ in their opinion on that, but that’s not essential here.

So, we develop through these five pathway minds. With these five pathway minds, what are we actually focusing on? What we are focusing on are the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths, if we want to speak about what will cover all the schools of both Hinayana and Mahayana. That’s what we are focusing on throughout this entire process. That is divided into the thirty-seven factors or practices that bring one to a state of bodhi. 

All of this is terribly complicated, I know, but these thirty-seven practices… you always have the number thirty-seven – the thirty-seven bodhisattva practices, the thirty-seven dakinis in the Vajrayogini mandalas, the thirty-four arms of Yamantaka together with his body, speech, and mind make thirty-seven. It’s a number that repeats over and over again. 

OK, so there are these thirty-seven practices. I thought I had brought with me the detailed list of those, but apparently, I didn’t. In any case, I can probably recall the thirty-seven but without the full definitions for all of them. We have: 

• The four placements of close mindfulness
• The four factors for attaining “correct riddances”
• The four “legs” they’re called, that bring miraculous powers 
• The five powers and the five forces, which are what’s discussed in this verse 
• The seven branches of bodhi 
• The eight-fold noble path, or pathway minds. 

All of those added together makes thirty-seven. These are practiced in correlation with different stages of these pathway minds. 

Participant: At which stage of these five do the lower rebirths stop, actually? 

Dr. Berzin: That happens within an applying pathway mind (the path of preparation), which is divided into four. It is on the third level, which is called “patience,” when you achieve the third of the four parts of applying pathway mind, that there is no more lower rebirth.

All of this is discussed very, very extensively in Abhisamayalankara (The Filigree or Ornament of Realizations), which is what the Tibetans study the most, actually. They spend five years studying that when they do the geshe studies. 

So, we have the five powers and the five forces, which are what is being discussed in this text. Those are the divisions of these thirty-seven that you practice with the applying pathway mind. Before that, you practice the close placements of mindfulness (which we’ll get to in a couple verses from here) and the four legs that bring miraculous powers. 

This is just sort of the geography of where we are in this map. Nagarjuna points these out because it’s with these forces and powers that we attain the seeing pathway mind. So, we can become aryas on the basis of this practice. 

Now, what are the sixteen aspects of four noble truths? These are actually quite important to know because those actually are what you are meditating on when you are developing these pathway minds. 

Building up Combined Shamatha and Vipashyana to Achieve the Applying Pathway Mind

Now, before we go into the sixteen pathway minds, I suppose I can mention very briefly how we achieve this applying pathway mind. 

The building up pathway mind has nine stages – three initial, three intermediate, and three advanced. What we are doing through this process is, first, focusing conceptually on the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths until we achieve shamatha focused on these sixteen. Then we practice achieving vipashyana, in addition to shamatha, focused on the sixteen. When we achieve the combined shamatha and vipashyana on the sixteen, we achieve the applying pathway mind. Then we start to apply that. So, what is being discussed in the text is when you have this combined shamatha (zhi-gnas) and vipashyana (lhag-mthong) on the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths.

Shamatha, you’ll recall, is not only perfect concentration completely free of dullness and flightiness of mind; it also has, in addition, a sense of fitness. It’s an exhilarating physical and mental sense of fitness, which is a mental factor with which you feel that you’re able to concentrate on absolutely anything for as long as you want. So, that’s a very exhilarating, uplifting “feeling,” as we would call it in our Western terminology, that has a certain sense of happiness with it, both physical and mental. You can sit for as long as you like. Your legs aren’t going to hurt; you won’t have to fidget around; you’re not going to move; and your mind isn’t going to move from its object, no matter what you set it on. Of course, you can train with many different objects to gain this stilled and settled state of mind of shamatha. Shamatha, in Sanskrit, means “stilled” (in the Tibetan word, zhi-gnas, zhi means “stilled”). So, the mind is stilled, or quieted, of all dullness and agitation, or flightiness. It’s settled on an object, and it stays there. 

Vipashyana is one state above shamatha. You can practice something similar to vipashyana before, but actual vipashyana is a combined state of shamatha and vipashyana. You can’t really have actual vipashyana unless you have actual shamatha. What vipashyana is, is in addition to that first sense of fitness – that of being fit like an athlete is fit or like a musician is fit, where you feel like you can play anything you want or run as far as you want. So, in addition, it has a second sense of fitness, which is that the mind is able to understand anything; it’s able to analyze and discern the subtlest details of anything, no matter how complicated a thing it might be. That’s vipashyana. 

What we want to achieve, what we build up with this building pathway mind, is combined shamatha and vipashyana on the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths. We may have attained shamatha before this, focused on our breath or focused on who knows what, but on the building pathway mind, we have to get it focused on these sixteen aspects. OK?

Then we work through this applying pathway mind, which has, as I said, these four levels. 

Before Achieving the Pathway Minds, Contemplating the Sixteen Aspects with the Three Types of Discriminating Awareness

Participant: If we are not even close to attaining this, what can we do now, without having concentration? Is it of any use to contemplate these sixteen aspects even without having shamatha and vipashyana?

Dr. Berzin: Is there any point in knowing about these sixteen now? Well, yes, absolutely.

There are three types of discriminating awareness: (1) the discriminating awareness that arises from hearing the teachings, (2) the discriminating awareness that arises from thinking about them until we understand them, and (3) the discriminating awareness that comes from meditating, from accustoming ourselves to this understanding. 

What we do now, before achieving one of these pathway minds, is to try to develop the first two of these. First, we have to hear the correct information about the sixteen aspects so that we can focus conceptually on them with the appropriate and accurate audio categories without any associated meaning. In other words, in the beginning, we can just recite what the sixteen are (the way the Tibetans memorize something by just reciting it) without knowing what they mean. So, first, we get the correct information, and we at least know the list of the sixteen. 

Next, we get the discriminating awareness that arises from pondering these sixteen, from thinking about them. When we get that, we can understand and focus conceptually on them with the appropriate and accurate meaning categories. Now we know what they mean and can focus conceptually on their meanings, but we don’t yet have terribly good concentration on them. 

It is only with that preparation that we have meaning categories of these sixteen. Once we have that, we can start to develop shamatha and improve our concentration on them more and more. That’s the process. So, it’s important to learn about these sixteen and to understand them. 

Also, what we’ll get a little bit later are the sixteen correct understandings. These are sixteen aspects that are opponents to the sixteen distorted ways of understanding them. These sixteen distorted ways are very important to examine in ourselves – for example, thinking that our suffering comes from no cause, thinking that we can get rid of it only temporarily and that it’s going to come back again, or thinking that there is no such thing as liberation or no such thing as these sixteen such distorted views. Unless we’ve really cleared these distorted views away, it’s going to be very difficult to focus on these sixteen aspects. 

That’s why when we talk about these these powers and forces, the first one of them is confident belief. We have to truly believe, on the basis of logic, that the four noble truths are true and that the sixteen aspects of them (there are four aspects to each of the four truths) are also true. If we don’t believe they’re true, how can we possibly get anywhere in terms of understanding them and getting rid of our problems, our ignorance, our causes of suffering? We have to become convinced, and we only become convinced, first, by getting correct information and, then, by thinking about it until we understand it through questioning, analysis, etc. In the Tibetan context, they would debate about it. So, you see, there’s a lot that we can do now. 

Participant: So, these sixteen categories are part of discriminating awareness, which is a part of this…

Dr. Berzin: The sixteen aspects are topics that you apply your discriminating awareness to. They’re the objects of the discriminating awareness. With the first type of discriminating awareness, you just know the audio categories, which means that you’ve memorized the list and can recite the sixteen aspects, but that you don’t know what they mean. So, you get the correct list and can discriminate what the correct list is and what the incorrect list is. Then, with the second type of discriminating awareness, you can discriminate what the correct meaning of these sixteen is and what the incorrect meaning is. So, you focus on a meaning category. 

Each time you think of this meaning category, you have, of course, a slightly different understanding. But it all fits into the category of true suffering. It has some meaning. And not only some meaning – as I said, it has an accurate and correct meaning. These sixteen aspects of the four noble truths are very, very central to the Buddhist path. And I must say, they are not taught very frequently, which is a bit strange. I find it hard to understand why they aren’t taught. Anyway, you find a great deal of detail on this subject in the Abhisamayalankara (the Filigree or Ornament of Realizations), which is what the monks study for five years. 

So, let’s look at these sixteen. But first, the four noble truths: 

1. True sufferings 
2. True causes of suffering, or true origins of suffering 
3. True stoppings of suffering and their origins
4. True pathway minds that lead to that stopping 

Actually, His Holiness always correlates the first two noble truths with the deluded side of dependent arising and the last two noble truths with the liberated side. In this way, he correlates both pairs with dependent arising. The first two noble truths are speaking about the dependent arising of suffering in terms of the twelve links. So, here, dependent arising is in terms of conventional, or superficial, truth. Then, the last two noble truths, the liberated side, dependent arising is in terms of mental labeling and voidness. So, that’s speaking about dependent arising in terms of the deepest truth. So, this is the way that His Holiness puts the four noble truths together with the two truths and dependent arising. Did you follow that? 

Whenever His Holiness teaches these texts by Nagarjuna, this is his main way of approaching them. Actually, Nagarjuna says it like that as well – that if you understand the four noble truths, you understand the two truths and you understand dependent arising. Suffering and its causes – that’s the twelve links of dependent arising; it’s understanding dependent arising in terms of cause and effect and karma. That’s dealing with the superficial truth. Pathway minds that lead to true stopping – that comes from understanding dependent arising in terms of mental labeling and voidness. That’s dealing with the deepest truth. So, there are two levels of dependent arising in relation to the two truths, and from that you get the four noble truths. That’s quite neat, I must say. 

Now, true sufferings. What are true sufferings? What is that referring to? True sufferings refer to the five tainted aggregates, the aggregate factors of our experience. Remember, the aggregate factors are non-static phenomena (change moment to moment) that make up our experience. Every moment of our experience has, as part of it, one item from each of these five general groupings. One is the aggregate of forms.

Jorge, what’s the aggregate of forms? 

Participant: The body?

Dr. Berzin: The body is the most general form, but let’s get more specific. 

Participant: The senses?

Dr. Berzin: What do you mean by the senses? 

Participant: Tactile sensations…

Dr. Berzin: The objects of the senses – so, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and physical sensations. That’s five. What else is involved with the senses?

Participant: The physical organs?

Dr. Berzin: Right. It’s not so much the physical organs, though. When they speak about the so-called sense powers, they are actually referring to the sensors. These are the photosensitive cells of the eyes, the sound-sensitive cells of the ears, the smell-sensitive cells of the nose, taste-sensitive cells of the tongue, and the cells that are sensitive to physical sensations in the body. Physical sensations don’t just include smooth and rough; they also include also motion, also hot and cold – any type of physical sensation. Then, there are very subtle forms as well, like the types of forms that we see or hear in dreams. These types of things are in this grouping as well. There’s a whole list of those. There are also things that we can’t see with our bare eyes, like astronomical distances and tiny microscopic things that we have to use something else to see. OK? So, that’s the aggregate of forms.

Then, the aggregate of feelings – what’s that referring to? 

Participant: Pleasant, unpleasant?

Dr. Berzin: Actually, it’s happiness, unhappiness, and neutral feelings. That’s all. That’s how we experience the ripening of our karma, regardless of what we’re seeing, hearing, or whatever. Whatever we’re experiencing, there is going to be some level of happiness or unhappiness. Very rarely is it going to be neutral, which means exactly in the middle. That could also be, like when we are asleep. 

Then there is distinguishing. What is distinguishing? It’s usually translated as “recognition.” 

Participant: You choose which feelings you like and which you don’t like.

Dr. Berzin: No, it’s not in terms of choosing what you like and dislike. You’re thinking more of discriminating. Mariana, do you remember? 

Participant: You can distinguish things from…

Participant: You distinguish the door and the window.

Dr. Berzin: Right, we can distinguish the door from the window. In other words, in some sense field or mental field, we can distinguish one form from another. We can put together the colored shapes of what we would label “the head,” and “the body,” etc. We put those together and distinguish that as a form that is separate from the colored shape of the wall. We don’t put together the colored shape of the head with the colored shape of the wall and make that into an object, right? We can distinguish things. It has to do with there being some sort of characteristic of mark. We can, for example, distinguish a person’s voice from the noise of the street. We have to be able to do that; otherwise, we can’t function. So, everybody has that; that’s there in every moment. Translating that as “recognition” is misleading because “recognition” implies that we knew it before and are comparing it to what we knew and that now we recognize it. It’s not that. 

Then, there is… I’m not giving this in the standard order. There is consciousness. Consciousness, the aggregate of consciousness, refers to primary consciousness. Primary consciousness is what is aware of just the basic type of cognitive object that something is. A primary consciousness would be like what happens in a computer. A computer “gets in” information, data, and the function of a computer is to be “aware” that this is audio data or this is image data or this is text data. It’s just aware of the main type of information that it is. So, a primary consciousness would be aware of something being a sight, a sound, a smell, a taste, a physical sensation, or a thought. I always used to explain it in simple language as being what channel you are on. Are you on the seeing channel, the hearing channel, and so on? This is always present. If you think in terms of brain chemistry, there are all these electronic impulses and chemicals and stuff, and there has to be some function that discerns that these electrical impulses are sights and these electrical impulses are sounds and so on.

Participant: It’s quite divided. That’s very neatly divided, actually.

Dr. Berzin: It’s neatly divided. But basically, they are all electrical impulses, aren’t they? 

Participant: Yeah. Contrary to other functions, this is very well differentiated.

Dr. Berzin: Right. So, this is well differentiated in zones. This is what primary consciousness is all about – this differentiation into zones. 

Then, there is the aggregate of everything else, all other affecting variables (Skt. samskara). So, it’s everything that’s not in the other four aggregates. That’s where all the emotions, both negative and positive, are; that’s where concentration, boredom, interest, sleepiness, and all these things are – so, everything else. So, one or more items in our moment to moment experiencing of things is from that aggregated.

So, true stoppings refers to the stopping of these tainted aggregates. “Tainted” means that they arise from the disturbing emotions and attitudes. So, we are not talking about the pure aggregates of a Buddha. We are talking about tainted aggregates – these things that we experience – each moment of our experience that comes from and is affected by our disturbing emotions.  

The Four Aspects of True Sufferings

What are the four aspects of true sufferings? 

[1] The first aspect is that they are non-static (mi-rtag-pa, Skt. anitya, impermanence). 

What that means is that these five tainted aggregates are temporary. Within one lifetime, you have one sequence of them on the basis of one body and so on; so, they’re temporary. Of course, one moment after another, they’re going to continue forever until you achieve liberation; then, they won’t be tainted anymore. Within one lifetime, though, the aggregates are temporary; they change from moment to moment. So, any set of five aggregates in a particular lifetime eventually comes to an end in that lifetime, and in each moment, they’re getting closer to that end. That’s the aspect of non-static. 

[2] Then, the next aspect is that they are miserable phenomena (sdug-bsngal-ba, Skt. du:kha, suffering). 

“Miserable” means the same as the word “suffering,” just in adjective form. So, true sufferings are suffering. That sounds a little bit strange, so we use another word in English: “miserable.” This means that the five tainted aggregates are subject to one or more of the three types of suffering without any break. What are the three types of suffering? 

The Three Types of Suffering

Participant: Suffering of change.

Dr. Berzin: What is usually listed first? 

Participant: Suffering of suffering.

Dr. Berzin: OK. So, what is suffering of suffering? 

Participant: Physical pain…

Dr. Berzin: Yeah. It’s unhappiness, basically. 

Participant: Suffering of change would also be experienced as unhappiness.

Dr. Berzin: No. Suffering of change is referring to happiness, to our ordinary happiness. Suffering of suffering is our unhappiness, which can be associated with pain, although somebody can also be unhappy when they have pleasure. It’s unhappiness. If happiness is the suffering of change, why is ordinary happiness a problem? 

Participant: Because it’s always changing.

Dr. Berzin: Because it’s always changing; it doesn’t last. It’s never satisfying, and you never have enough. Also, there is no certainty, no security, because you don’t know what will happen next. You’re happy in this moment, but you have no security of knowing what you’re going to feel like in the next moment. It can change all of a sudden. That’s the problem with ordinary happiness. It’s the suffering of change; it changes. 

Lastly, the all-pervasive suffering. What is all-pervasive suffering? 

Participant: That we are made of aggregates?

Dr. Berzin: Right. That we are made of aggregates that are the basis for experiencing the other two types of suffering. That’s the problem – the aggregates themselves. We continue to generate more aggregates that continue to be the basis for experiencing the first two types of suffering. That’s the all-pervasive suffering. That’s the real problem. 

Working to get rid of the first two types of suffering is not particularly Buddhist. Animals want to get rid of pain, unhappiness, and so on; so, they gather acorns for the winter and stuff like that. Other religions want to overcome worldly happiness and go to everlasting paradise. That’s not Buddhist. What Buddha is really talking about is this all-pervasive suffering – continuing to have aggregates that are the basis for experiencing unhappiness and this unsatisfying happiness. That’s the real problem. OK?

[3] The third aspect is that they are void phenomena (stong-pa, Skt. śūnya, empty).

[4] The fourth is that they lack an impossible “soul" (bdag-med-pa, Skt. anatmaka, selfless).

Now, there is a big discussion of what these last two mean. Obviously, they can be understood with the different schools of tenets, with the different Tibetan schools, with the different college textbooks and different contexts. But if we look at the simplest explanation, we would say that the five tainted aggregates are devoid (this is the third aspect) of a gross, impossible soul. 

A gross, impossible soul, you remember, is what was postulated by one of the non-Buddhist Indian schools. It’s a soul, a self – a “me” – that  is static, meaning that it doesn’t change. Buddhists accept as well that the “me” goes on forever but not that it doesn’t change. A static soul is one that is not affected by anything. Also, according to this school, the soul is a monolith. Do you remember the two possibilities of what it means to be a monolith (“monolith” means that it is part-less)? The Hindus believed that the self either is one with the universe, that it is a part-less soul that is the size of the universe, or that it is a tiny, little monad, like a spark of life. They also believed that this static, part-less soul is a separate entity – so, independent of the five aggregates – that enters into the five aggregates and inhabits them like a house and controls and makes use of them. Then, when it has finished using them, it throws them away. It leaves and goes into another house, another body and mind. This is what the non-Buddhists within the Indian schools of philosophy believe. And the five aggregates are devoid of such a soul – an impossible soul. That’s this third aspect. 

Participant: If it’s monolith and static and everything, how do they think that different input could actually change the soul to become like Brahma? If it’s static… although, this could mean that, actually, you can change it to become bigger.

Dr. Berzin: Well, no. Let me try to re-phrase your question. If the soul is static, how can there be a change of status between being confined in the body and being one with the universe? If you recall our discussion of the Hindu schools of philosophy, we were saying that they believe that everything is an illusion – literally. So, it’s an illusion that we are this separate body and so on. And, actually, it’s only the Jains who believe that the soul takes on different sizes – that fundamentally it is static but that, temporarily, it changes. They have this weird idea that the Buddhists really jump on. How can something be both static and non-static at the same time? 

Participant: But they also have more or less the same school of thought within modern Hinduism. Some are of the moralist idea that you can be one with God, and some are dualist and say that it’s impossible to fuse yourself, in a sense.

Dr. Berzin: Right. In modern Hinduism, there are, of course, many, many different schools. Some say that we are one with God; some say that we are separate from God. The belief in God comes in, in only some of these classical philosophical schools. Also, it’s not all of them that believe that we’re one with the universe; it was more that we’re the size of the universe. It’s only within some Vedanta schools that they say we’re one with universe. Remember, the Samkhyas say that we are totally separate from the material primal matter aspect but that, still, we are the size of the universe. So, there are many, many different views. We don’t have to get into a discussion of Hindu philosophy; we spent months on that when we were doing Shantideva. But you’ll recall that there are many, many variants of these beliefs. 

In any case, the five aggregates don’t have that type of soul. That’s another aspect that we have to understand about these true sufferings – that, in fact, they are non-static, they’re miserable, and they don’t have a gross impossible soul. 

Phenomena lacking an impossible soul, which is the fourth aspect, refers to the fact that they lack a subtle impossible soul. A subtle impossible soul, as you’ll recall, is a self-sufficiently knowable self. “Self-sufficiently knowable” means that something can be known all by itself, without your mind knowing something else at the same time. This is something that automatically arises. Automatically, I would say, “I know Jorge,” or “I see Jorge.” But how could I see Jorge without also seeing a body? Or “I hear a Jorge on the phone” – how could I possibly hear Jorge on the phone separate from hearing the sound of a voice? But we think, “I know Jorge. I see Jorge. I’m thinking about Jorge.” How can we think about Jorge without at least thinking of his name or some sort of feeling that you have about him? 

This is referring to the “me” – “I” am doing this. “I” picked up the glass. How can “I” pick up the glass without a hand picking up the glass? Or “I” want some food. Is it that “I” want some food or that the body wants some food? 

Participant: To say “the body wants some food” is also…

Dr. Berzin: It’s also weird. “The mind wants some food”? What wants some food? The point is, there can’t be a “me,” a self, that can be known all by itself. However, we think in terms of that automatically. And it feels like that. So, that is the subtle impossible “me.” Again, it’s on this basis of that “me” that we think, “I have to get what I want; I have to get rid of what I don’t want.” Then we get attachment, we get anger; we get all these things as if there were a separate “me” – not just a “me” that is out of these Hindu schools of philosophy but a “me” that is self-sufficiently knowable. 

Then, of course, we can get into the Madhyamaka understandings of what the aggregates are devoid of, but I think it’s sufficient to leave it at this for now. 

So, these are the four aspects of true sufferings of the tainted aggregates. They (1) are non-static – any set of aggregates in one lifetime is going to end. There’s also a subtle non-static-ness, which means that in each moment, they’re changing and getting closer to the end. They (2) are miserable in the sense that they are self-perpetuating; they perpetuate more and more aggregates that act as the basis for continuing to experience unhappiness and unsatisfying happiness. And, yet, they (3) don’t have an impossible soul. They don’t have this on a gross level, and they (4) don’t have this on a subtle level. This is what we would want to focus on with deeper and deeper understanding, deeper and deeper realization and, of course, more and more concentration. OK?

Let’s digest that for a moment. Obviously, as you progress through the five pathway minds, your understanding gets deeper, your concentration gets deeper, and the application of those to the goal of getting rid of your confusion goes deeper and deeper. This is what we are working on. Let’s think about that for a moment. 

What Are We Thinking about When We Meditate on the Four Aspects of True Suffering?

So, when we think about this, what are we thinking about? What we would think about would be, “OK, there is, in each moment of my experience, things I am seeing, feeling… well, in general, I’m experiencing some portion of my five aggregate factors – body, mind, objects, emotions and so on. And all of that is happening one moment after another. There’s no impossible soul, either gross or subtle. Everything’s changing from moment to moment. And it’s a self-perpetuating process because it’s coming from confusion. And it’s the basis for suffering – for unhappiness and unsatisfying happiness. My body is like that, my mind is like that, my feelings are like that. There are just all of these changing things, without some solid ‘me’ there. And it is a self-perpetuating basis for being miserable. Even when I’m happy, I’m not really happy. That’s the problem. And it will just go on and on and on.” So, that’s what we have to realize – that that’s the problem. That’s the true problem, the true suffering. 

Two Levels of Focusing on the Four Aspects – The Conventional Truth and Deepest Truth

When we focus on these aspects with these pathway minds, we are focusing on true suffering of these four aspects on two levels. One level is the conventional or superficial truth of them. In other words, we focus just on the details – that “It’s like this.” Then, we focus on the deepest truth of them, such as the voidness of the one who is meditating on this, what we are meditating on, and the act of meditating, seeing that “There is no true ‘me,’ no static ‘me,’ no self-sufficiently knowable ‘me’ separate from this that’s meditating on this.” In this way, voidness comes into this whole formula of meditating on the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths. Do you follow?

So, it’s not that you meditate on the voidness of the wall or the pillar or your hand but that you meditate on the voidness of the meditation on these sixteen aspects. Then you can meditate on the voidness of the meditation being a cause of liberation or enlightenment. Remember our whole discussion on the voidness of causes. In terms of the analysis of a result arising neither from self nor other, it’s not that liberation or enlightenment exists in unmanifest form in the cause or that the cause is totally separate from and unrelated to the result. And concerning the voidness of the result of liberation or enlightenment – in terms. Of the analysis of the a result being neither totally nonexistent or already existent at the time of the cause, it’s not that the result is totally nonexistent at the time of the cause or that it is already existent. This is where you bring in all of our understanding from Shantideva. You bring it together within the context of meditation on these sixteen aspects. That’s the actual practice. OK? Any questions?

Let’s do the four aspects of true causes –  true origins, actually. 

True origins of suffering refer, in general, to the disturbing emotions and attitudes and to karmic impulses, or karma. More specifically, it refers to items within the twelve links of dependent arising. If you recall our discussion of the twelve links, disturbing emotions and attitudes usually refer quite specifically to craving. Craving (thirsting) is the eighth of the twelve links. Craving is what activates the throwing karma that brings about the next rebirth and, so, the perpetuation of all-pervasive suffering. 

So, what is craving? Craving, which is sometimes taken to be equivalent to attachment, is of three types: (1) clinging not to be parted from ordinary forms of happiness; (2) clinging to being separated from what is fearful – mainly pain and unhappiness; (3) clinging to continuing to have further existences. Remember how much Shantideva’s discussion in the ninth chapter Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior was dealing with this whole issue of happiness, unhappiness, and craving, and how all of that is still going on. This is the real troublemaker – that we continue to experience the ups and downs of samsara. When we experience ordinary happiness, we cling to it; we crave not to be parted from it. Then, of course, in addition to that, there is this belief in the solid “me” – “I have to have this.” It’s one of the obtainer attitudes that we talked about – the ninth link. And when we experience unhappiness or pain, which is fearful, we crave to be parted from it – “I have got to get parted from this.” So, again, a big, solid “me.” 

Then, there is the craving to continue having further existences – “I to want to go on and on and on” – based, of course, on the solid “me.” This is what activates throwing karma to bring about next rebirth. 

Karmic impulses refer specifically to the second and tenth links of dependent arising. The second link is affecting impulses, which is synonymous with throwing karma. Throwing karma is a strongly motivated destructive or constructive karmic impulse to do something, the karmic aftermath of which, when activated at the moment of death, will throw our continuums into another life. And craving is what activates the karmic aftermath that comes from the second link. That activated throwing karma is the tenth link called “further existence,” or “becoming.” 

These are the true origins of suffering, the true origins of continuing to have all-pervasive suffering, which means continuing to have the tainted aggregates that are the basis for unhappiness and unsatisfying happiness. And what is the origin of this? The origin is craving to continue having that tainted happiness, our unsatisfying happiness, craving to be parted from any unhappiness because “I don’t like it,” and craving for further existence – in other words, just having more aggregates that will be the basis for more unhappiness and tainted happiness. 

That craving, then, what does it do? When we act on the basis of craving, we get throwing karma. Craving activates the aftermath from the throwing karma of the second link, the affecting impulses, so that we get the becoming link, the further existence link, which is the actual throwing karma. That makes the whole mechanism go. That’s the true origin of suffering. So, when they say that the true origin of suffering is karma and delusions, that’s what it’s referring to. It refers to this whole mechanism within the twelve links of dependent arising. 

This is very important to understand – what the Buddhist discussion really is. The Buddhist discussion is very much in terms of this all-pervasive suffering and the twelve links that perpetuate it. That’s why His Holiness says, and Nagarjuna says, that the deluded side of the four noble truths refers to dependent arising in terms of karmic cause and effect.

Participant: I want to know the difference between renunciation, really wanting to stop this suffering and to learn how to get rid of it, and the one where…

Dr. Berzin: The craving to be parted from suffering

Participant: Yes.

Dr. Berzin: So, what’s the difference between renunciation and this craving to be parted from suffering?

First of all, craving to be parted from suffering is based on believing in a solid “me” – that I want to get rid of this suffering. So, it makes the suffering into something that is solid and the “me” into something that’s solid; therefore, I have got to get rid of the suffering. Renunciation, on the other hand, is on the basis of at least some understanding that there is no solid “me” – so, some understanding of the four noble truths, basically – and that it is possible to get rid of the suffering. It’s possible to get rid of it forever because it doesn’t exist as something solid, and I don’t exist as something solid. And there is a path that will get rid of that, which is the understanding of voidness. 

So, there is a big difference between the attitude of “I want to get rid of something” and being like a baby whining, “I want to get rid of this! Aah! I don’t want it!” and having a clear understanding that “I’m determined to get rid of this because I’m convinced that there is a way. I know the way, and it’s possible.” See the difference?

Participant: Yes. One is with knowledge of emptiness and the other one not. 

Dr. Berzin: Right. One is with the knowledge of voidness or with a more general knowledge of the four noble truths, and the other is based on disturbing emotions, confusion, and not having a clear idea of any path to get rid of suffering. Or it could be having an idea of the wrong path – “I want to get rid of this, so I’m going to get drunk or I’m going to get stoned.”

Participant: But can’t it be, as you’ve said, that being really fed up can be a motivation, even if it’s a tainted motivation?

Dr. Berzin: Definitely. That’s why we always speak about the facsimile of renunciation and the actual renunciation. It’s something that’s similar but is not quite the thing. It’s based on the difference that I get into with this whole idea of Dharma-lite versus Real Thing Dharma. “I just want to get rid of my problems. But instead of going to a therapist, I’ll go to a Dharma center,” or “I just want to have better relationships” and so on. That’s a start. Definitely, it’s a start.

Participant: That could be a start.

Dr. Berzin: Yes. But it’s Dharma-lite. Don’t think that’s the whole picture. The problem is when people reduce Buddhism only to that. It’s not only that. 

Participant: But that’s really a beginning. You don’t begin with an understanding of emptiness.

Dr. Berzin: Yeah, there has to be a beginning. I agree that this is a beginning for most of us. What is helpful is to realize is that it’s the beginning of a long process and to acknowledge that that beginning is not the final stage and that you have to go further. “This is my understanding of it now, but there are deeper understandings, so I’m going to work for that.” Then there’s no problem. The problem only comes when you confuse the beginning for the end. 

Any other questions?

Participant: I didn’t get the point about what the first aspect of the second truth was.

Dr. Berzin: We haven’t gotten to the four aspects of the second truth. We just said what the second truth, true origins, refers to. It refers, basically, to craving, to the disturbing emotions and attitudes and to karmic impulses, the throwing karma of the second link. When craving activates the aftermath of that throwing karma, it leads to the actual, activated throwing karma of the tenth link. These are the origins of our tainted aggregates, rebirth after rebirth. Then, of course, there are some abhidharma explanations that say that this process works in every moment as well to perpetuate the aggregates. OK?

The Four Aspects of True Origins

The first aspect is that there are:

[1] Causes (rgyu, Skt. hetu). 

Craving, for example, is a cause for true suffering in the sense that, together with an obtainer attitude (len-pa, Skt. upadāna, grasping), this grasping for a solid “me,” it activates throwing karma, which then ripens into a further samsaric rebirth. There’s a whole list of these obtainer attitudes. We had them before.

Participant: What is an obtainer?

Dr. Berzin: An obtainer is something that will cause us to obtain another rebirth. It’s just a general word that’s used for a set of disturbing emotions and attitudes. To “obtain” something means to “get” something. 

We have what are called “the obtainer aggregates” as well. These are aggregates that will obtain for us a further rebirth. An arhat has, according to non-Prasangika, tainted aggregates (meaning that they came from the disturbing emotions), but they are not obtainer aggregates – in other words, they don’t obtain further samsaric rebirths. For us, they are both tainted and obtainer aggregates. They came from disturbing emotions, and they will bring about more rebirths. 

So, there are certain obtainer emotions and attitudes. An obtainer emotion is a desire for some sensory object. Then there are five obtainer attitudes: (1) a distorted outlook, (2) an extreme outlook, (3) holding a deluded outlook as supreme, (4) holding deluded morality or conduct as supreme, and (5) a deluded outlook toward a transitory network. These five, together with craving, are the causes for future rebirths. They are the causes in the sense that they activate throwing karma. So, this is the cause of true sufferings.

The second aspect is:

[2] Origins (kun-‘byung, Skt. samudaya) . 

These points are basically just talking about the same thing from different points of view. “Origins” means that the craving, the obtainer attitude, the disturbing emotions, and the karmic impulses are the origins from which arise, over and again, all of the true sufferings of repeated samsaric rebirths. So, it just refers to the fact that it’s these origins that bring samsaric rebirths about again and again. They cause this by activating throwing karma; they’re the origins from which the suffering of repeated rebirths comes.

The next aspect is:

[3] Strong producers (rab-skyes, Skt. prabhava).

True origins are strong producers in the sense that they strongly bring about the production of strong sufferings as their result. In other words, you don’t need some creator god or anything else. These are the strong producers that are going to produce strong sufferings as their result.

The fourth aspect is:

[4]  Conditions (rkyen, Skt. pratyaya). 

This refers to the simultaneously acting conditions for the arising of further samsaric rebirths and true sufferings. Let’s just talk about craving and the obtainer attitudes. Craving and the obtainer attitudes are the conditions, like water and fertilizer are for the seed – the seed being the aftermath of karmic impulses – that bring about rebirth. 

So, the four aspects of the second noble truth are talking about true origins just from different points of view. It’s only in the case of the first noble truth that the four aspects are talking about slightly different things. In the case of the rest of the noble truths, they are just sets of four synonyms talking about the same thing from different points of view.

The main point to understand is what true origins are. True origins are the mechanism that perpetuates samsara. It’s the cause of further rebirth, the origin for more and more rebirth. It strongly produces suffering by itself, and it’s the condition by which the causes for further rebirths ripen. Those are the four aspects. 

Then, you meditate on those four, on the details of them. Then you meditate on who is meditating on them and the object that you are meditating on – “Does it act as a solidly existing cause for suffering? Is suffering a solidly existent result?” – and all of that. 

OK? Clear? A little bit. Is this is all new for you? 

Participant: Quite.

Dr. Berzin: So, maybe it’s a little bit too much in one sitting. I hope not. But slowly, slowly you’ll begin to understand. There is a lot of background to this in terms of the five aggregates and the twelve links and all of that. You can find a lot of detail about that on my website, actually. So, you are welcome to look there. For the twelve links, I have a newer version that will go onto the website. OK? Good.