LTF 46: Perseverance; the 3 Higher Trainings; Mindfulness

Now we come to the explanation of perseverance, which is what’s compatible with the path – in other words, what we need to develop as a support for the path and what will give us the favorable circumstances for developing discriminating awareness. And this is perseverance – perseverance in which we put a great deal of effort into our practice, into learning the methods, studying them, listening to correct explanations, thinking about them until we actually understand them, and actually practicing them, thereby building them up as beneficial habits. 

With perseverance, we don’t get discouraged. We don’t give up. We are willing to endure whatever hardships are involved because, of course, in our ordinary, samsaric existence, things go up and down. Sometimes things go well; sometimes they don’t go well. It’s important not to get overly excited when things are going well and to get attached to them, and important not to get discouraged when things are not going well but to persevere, to keep on going no matter what. 

Since this path is a path of acting in a constructive manner, and since constructive behavior is what will bring us more and more happiness – according to the laws of karma – the more constructive we are, the more we help others and refrain from hurting others, the happier we will be. So, it’s a joyful path. Likewise, we rejoice in the positive things that we do. That adds to the joy that we take in perseverance. It’s not that we just work hard and are miserable but that we work hard anyway because we feel it’s our duty. It’s not like that.

The verse is verse fifty-two. And it says: 

[52] Liberation depends on oneself. In this, since there’s nothing (to be gained) through assistance from others, make effort in (realizing) the four truths through (gaining) possession of listening, discipline, and stability of mind.

Now, the first part of this, “liberation depends on oneself,” is something that is echoed in one of the texts by Maitreya, the Uttaratantra (The Furthest Continuum or Everlasting Stream). There, Maitreya says, “Enlightenment is to be realized by each one individually; it’s not realized under the circumstances of others.” So, it’s the same thought – that gaining liberation from uncontrollably recurring samsaric existence and its problems and gaining enlightenment are things that depend on our own efforts; nobody can just hand them to us. If it were possible for somebody to hand them to us, to gain them for us, we would all be enlightened already because, certainly, the Buddhas have the wish for us to be liberated and enlightened. 

Although others can help show us the way, can teach us the way, and though we need to rely on spiritual teachers who can teach us and guide us, nevertheless, it’s up to us to put the work in. There’s the saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t drink for the horse.” We can’t make the horse drink, and we can’t drink for the horse. The horse has to drink, itself. Likewise, we ourselves need to put in the hard work. We ourselves need to think about the teachings. We ourselves need to understand them, gain confidence in them, and apply them in our lives. So, in this sense, liberation depends on us alone.

Often, I suppose, out of laziness and lack of self-confidence, we would like for somebody to do all the work for us, but that isn’t really the way. In fact, when you look at the teaching methods of the Tibetans, the Tibetans don’t explain everything clearly. They obviously are capable of explaining clearly, but on purpose, they don’t. If somebody asks for an explanation, they give just a very vague and general explanation. Then the person has to think about it. If they really, really are interested, they’ll come back and ask for more clarification. If they don’t ask for more clarification, then they’re not really that interested. This requires tremendous amount of patience on the part of the teacher, of course, and patience on the part of the student. The student has to ask. 

Normally, Tibetans will not teach unless they’re asked three times. First two times, they’ll say, “No, no. I don’t know anything. I don’t have time,” and this and that. However, nowadays, particularly among Western teachers, people are quite anxious to teach, and we tend to explain, perhaps, a little bit too much. I think, perhaps, I’m guilty of this as well. But the classical, traditional way of explaining, as I’m saying, is intended for the students to work really hard. You’re given various pieces, like pieces of a puzzle, and you have to put them together. Now, no matter how well a teacher explains, still, there will be lots of pieces of the puzzle that you’ll need to put together. And the pieces of the puzzle go together in many, many different combinations and different ways. It’s not so simple.

Life is very complicated, and the problems of life are very complicated; therefore, any type of way of dealing with the complexities of life is likewise going to be rather complex. My teachers often explained it that way – that we shouldn’t expect the simple solution to everything in life; that the more extensive the teachings are, the more extensive the methods are and the more they can fit all sorts of different situations. So, it’s complicated. And being complicated, we have to develop a great deal of perseverance to continue. 

Renunciation – Being Fed Up with the All-Pervasive Suffering of Uncontrollably Recurring Rebirth

How do we develop that perseverance? It’s basically because of a motivation. We are – if we think just in terms of ourselves – so disgusted with our uncontrollably recurring rebirth that we say, “Enough already!” 

There are three types of problems, or sufferings, that are discussed in the Buddhist teachings. 

(1) There’s the regular suffering of pain and unhappiness – this feeling of unhappiness that we have. It’s fairly obvious that that is suffering, something that we don’t want. But just to work to overcome that is something that animals do as well, so there’s no great accomplishment in trying to avoid pain and unhappiness, hunger, and so on. 

[2] Then there’s the “suffering of change,” it’s called. And the suffering of change is our ordinary type of happiness. That ordinary type of happiness is actually a form of suffering. It’s a suffering of change. The way that this is usually explained is that, if you look at suffering of pain, you see that the more you have it, the worse it becomes. It’s not that you get more and more suffering and then it turns into happiness. It’s that you get more and more suffering and that it hurts more and more. 

Well, what about happiness, for instance, the happiness of eating a good meal? If eating a good meal were happiness and that were something that were stable, then the more you ate, the happier you would become. So, if you ate and ate and ate, you’d get happier and happier. But obviously, it very quickly turns to unhappiness, discomfort and pain. The same thing with going for a walk. You want to go for a walk, so you start walking. But if that were true happiness, the longer you walked, the happier you would become. But we get tired. It changes. Similarly, sitting down and resting… well, that as well – the longer that you sit, the more quickly it changes into unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and pain. So, that’s why it’s explained that our ordinary happiness is actually a form of suffering; it’s because it’s just a matter of time when it’s going to change and become unpleasant and you’re going to want to do something different. 

So, it never satisfies. It’s really weird because we think it’s never enough. So, you eat a good meal, and as explained, the more that you eat… well, eventually you have to stop; otherwise, it’s going to become painful. Nevertheless, you want to repeat it; you want to do it again. It’s really quite weird. So, this is our ordinary happiness, this form of suffering called the “suffering of change.” That means that this is not something that we should be satisfied with. If we want happiness, we would want a happiness that the more you had of it, the better and better it would get. And it would continue; it wouldn’t change. 

[3] Now, the third type of suffering is something uniquely Buddhist. You see, the second type of suffering, the suffering of change, is something that not only Buddhists want to overcome but also the non-Buddhists as well. They also teach various ways to overcome worldly happiness and to gain heavenly happiness. So, that is something that other systems of religion and philosophy address. It’s not uniquely Buddhist to be motivated just to overcome that.

What we want to overcome is what’s known as the “all-pervasive affecting (or affective) suffering.” In other words, it is having the type of body and mind that we have that act as the basis for the first two types of suffering. And as a basis, it is going to affect our experience because it’s going to act as a basis for the suffering of pain and the suffering of change. And it perpetuates itself. It perpetuates itself through a whole, very complex mechanism described in the twelve links of dependent arising. And it perpetuates itself from one lifetime to another lifetime to another lifetime. 

So, the real Buddhist aim is to overcome this type of suffering, this all-pervasive affective suffering of uncontrollably recurring rebirth, having a body and a mind that’s the basis for the other two types of suffering. And what we need to develop is complete disgust with that – “renunciation” it’s called – to feel, “Enough, already. It’s just going on and on and on. It’s been going on with no beginning. And if I don’t do something about it, it’s going to continue forever. So, I want to stop this. I want to overcome this so that I’m free from this type of pain and difficulty.” 

Now, just to be disgusted with it is really not quite enough because what sometimes happens is that we get really disgusted with something, but then we get angry with ourselves. So, we don’t want it to spill over into anger. What is usually the most helpful thing is the next step, which comes after disgust and getting angry with ourselves, and that is boredom. We just get so bored with the recurring problems and with life going up and down and up and down. And we continue to act in foolish ways, we continue to get angry, we continue to get upset about things, we continue to get stressed. We are just so completely bored with it that then we stop. I think that this is a key for understanding what we really mean by renunciation. Renunciation means that we are willing to give it up. Giving it up doesn’t mean that we’re left with absolutely nothing; the mental continuum goes on, but it goes on in a liberated state. 

The Exceptional Resolve

Now, if we want to achieve that just by ourselves, then we can continue to live in a very pleasant and complacent type of way. But that’s not enough either because we’re not the only person who experiences this type of suffering, this type of problem; everybody else experiences it as well. And we’re completely interconnected with everybody else. So, we develop the Mahayana path, this love and compassion for others – the wish for them to be happy and to have the causes of happiness, which is for them, to be free from unhappiness and suffering and the causes for that. And we take responsibility to help them, not just in a superficial way but in a way that will bring them all the way to liberation and enlightenment. That’s called the “exceptional resolve,” which is accompanied by the bodhichitta aim. In order to really do that, we need to become Buddhas so we can help them the best. 

And whether we are aiming for liberation just for ourselves or we’re aiming for enlightenment so we can be of best help to everybody – in which case, not only would we be free from this samsaric existence but also our minds would be able to understand fully cause and effect and know how to help others – both goals, gaining liberation and enlightenment, depend on our own efforts. We have to do the work. 

Now, what can Buddhas do to help us? They can teach, of course. They can also give us inspiration. Inspiration is very, very important. Inspiration gives us the energy, the thrust, to go on. And all of it, the progress as well, is based on what’s known as Buddha-nature. The Buddha-nature factors are the factors within us that allow us to evolve, allow us to grow: the basic purity of the mind, the basic absence of it existing in impossible ways…. There are many, many different levels of Buddha-nature. It’s not just one nature; it’s all these factors that allow us to grow. So, it’s a combination of these factors together with the teachings, the kindness and the efforts of the teachers to show us the way, and their inspiration. 

But in the end, it boils down to just our own hard work – perseverance. That’s why it says here in the text that “liberation depends on oneself. In this, since there’s nothing (to be gained) through assistance from others,” meaning that you can’t reach the goal just with the help of others, “make effort in (realizing) the four truths.” The four truths are the basic teachings that the Buddha gave. 

“Make Effort in (Realizing) the Four Truths”

We’ve discussed this quite a bit already in this course, so there’s no need to repeat it in any sort of detail. But in brief, these are the true things that anybody with a highly realized mind who sees reality would see, which is that these are true. That’s why they’re called the “noble truths,” “four noble truths.” “Noble” refers to arya beings. In Sanskrit, these are the ones who have had straightforward, non-conceptual cognition of these truths. They’ve seen that they’re true, whereas ordinary people might not see that they’re true. 

[1] What they’ve seen are the true suffering that we just mentioned, this uncontrollably recurring samsaric existence, which is the all-pervasive suffering. That’s the first noble truth.

[2] The second truth is that it has a cause. And the cause of our recurring problems is basically the whole mechanism that drives rebirth, samsaric rebirth. And this comes down to the disturbing emotions and attitudes. Even deeper than that is our unawareness of reality – of how we and everybody else exists – and of how this brings about compulsive behavior (that’s karma). All that perpetuates our uncontrollably recurring existence. We act in negative or compulsive ways, even if they’re positive, based on grasping for a self, or “me.” That plants all sorts of tendencies and strengthens various tendencies. At the time of death, we have clinging and all sorts of attitudes coming out of thinking strongly of “me, me, me.” All that activates these karmic tendencies and then perpetuates more and more rebirths, more and more problems. It goes on and on. So, that’s the true cause.

[3] But Buddha said it’s possible to gain a true stopping of this so that it doesn’t ever recur. That’s based on the fact that the mind is basically pure of all these “fleeting stains,” they’re called, these disturbing emotions and these karmic impulses. These are not in the nature of the mind, so it’s possible to get rid of them. 

[4] The fourth truth is the true pathway of mind, the true way of thinking, that gets rid of the causes of suffering and the suffering. And that is the correct understanding of reality. With our incorrect understanding, we imagine that things exist in an impossible way. With correct understanding, we understand that there’s no such thing as what we imagine is the way in which things exist – that that’s just not the case. It’s the direct opposite. And if we can get that correct understanding all the time, then we’ll never have that incorrect understanding ever again. 

“Through (Gaining) Possession of Listening”

So, these are the four noble truths. And we need to understand them ourselves. We need to first learn about them – learn about them in detail. Each of these four has four subcategories or aspects. There are also four incorrect views of them (we’ve gone through this before). So, we need to put our own effort into hearing about them. That means making an effort to get teachings on these four, whether it is making an effort to read about them or, even better, making an effort to hear personal explanation from teachers – and not just one explanation but a lot of explanations.

Nowadays, it’s a little bit easy – maybe, too easy – to get teachings, so people don’t appreciate them very much. But in the past, especially in ancient times, in order to get teachings, people had to walk from Tibet to India. They had to work really, really hard and struggle really hard and had to collect a great deal of resources – money and so on – to be able to make such a trip. And they had to bring all sorts of companions because it was very dangerous and so on. They also had to learn languages and all these sorts of things in order to get teachings. Nowadays, people don’t have to make very much effort at all. For a lot of people, just the effort of coming to a class on a regular basis is too much. That’s a little bit pathetic, actually, if you think about it. It doesn’t really develop your character in terms of your real commitment to getting teachings and your real motivation for getting teachings. 

In any case, we have to do this ourselves – putting the effort into getting the teachings on these four noble truths, reading them, thinking about them, and then gaining a correct understanding and becoming convinced that they’re true. Remember, the foundation of everything was belief in fact. In other words, we study this, we think about these truths, and eventually, we gain confident belief that this is correct, that this is a fact. 

Then, on that basis, we do what’s called “meditation.” “Meditation” means to view things in this way over and over again, to practice seeing, “OK, I am suffering. What’s the basis of my suffering? It’s these uncontrollably recurring aggregates. Where do they come from? What is the cause? Can I get rid of that cause? Yes, I can get rid of it. What do I need to get rid of it? I need to develop this correct understanding with the proper motivation.” It means to see that in our daily lives, to practice seeing that over and over again so that, when we experience some difficulty, we have an idea of where it’s coming from and we don’t feel so hopeless. 

We have an idea that the basis for our suffering can be stopped. Of course, it naturally will end because things are impermanent, but what we want is for to stop recurring. And we see what we need to do in order to be able to make it never occur again. That’s what we need to see all the time – whenever we’re facing difficulties, whenever somebody else is facing difficulties. And we see that they can overcome it as well. And how sad it is that they don’t know how to overcome it, that they’re not using the methods and not putting in the effort to overcome it. Everybody has to do it themselves, but we can show them by our example. But we have to do it ourselves.

Why don’t we think about it for a few moments. 

[Pause]

Good. Are there any questions about this point – that we ourselves need to put effort into the practice of hearing the teachings about the four noble truths and putting them into practice? Yes? No? If not, the text continues.

“Through Discipline”

It says, “Make effort in (realizing) the four noble truths through (gaining) possession of listening” – that’s what we have discussed so far: listening to the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths – “discipline, and stability of mind.” Discipline, ethical discipline, refers to taking on one of the seven sets of vows. “Vows” refer to the restraints that we take upon ourselves. A vow is like a promise to refrain from acting in negative ways. There are different sets of these. 

We can take the vows of a layperson – a layman or a laywoman. These are the five things to refrain from: (1) taking the lives of others – so, killing; (2) taking what was not given to us, which is stealing; (3) saying what is not true – so, lying; (4) taking intoxicants – that’s alcohol and other types of intoxicants; (5) and indulging in inappropriate sexual behavior – there’s a whole list, but it’s primarily having sex with somebody else’s partner. We can take all five vows or any number of the five  Buddhist layman or laywoman vows. 

There are also the vows of a novice monk or nun. This is a set of thirty-two vows. There’s a probationary nun, which is something a little bit further, before you actually commit yourself, and then there are the full monk’s and the full nun’s vows. Discipline in general speaks about the ethical discipline of refraining from destructive behavior, which would include taking one of these sets of vows, as well as the ethical discipline to actually do constructive things like meditating, practicing, and so on, and the ethical discipline to actually help others. Although there are these three different types of discipline, in the text, it is primarily referring to the discipline of taking one of the sets of vows. 

So, what this is saying is that we need to listen to the teachings on the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths, to think about them and meditate on them. And the basis that’s going to give us the strength to do that is keeping one of these sets of ethical vows of refraining from acting in various ways that are destructive or contrary to gaining liberation and enlightenment. 

“And Through Stability of Mind”

The third thing the verse mentions here is “stability of mind.” “Stability of mind” refers to one of the higher states of concentration. We’ve discussed this before, so I don’t need to go into it in great detail. But first, we gain what’s called shamatha in Sanskrit, or zhinay (zhi-ngas) in Tibetan. This is a stilled and settled state of mind. In other words, we have absolutely perfect concentration, which is free from all mental dullness, mental wandering and flightiness of mind (which is when the mind flies off to something desirable). So, the mind is single-pointedly focused. And not only that, it has a great sense of fitness, an exhilarating sense of fitness that it’s able to focus on anything. 

Once we get that, then there are higher states of concentration that are divided into these four “dhyanas,” they’re sometimes called from the Sanskrit word, which are states of stability of mind in which the mind is more and more withdrawn either from sense cognition or from feelings of happiness and so on. Eventually, we get just a feeling of equilibrium. But in order to achieve what’s called a “path of seeing,” or a seeing path of mind, which is a mind that has non-conceptual cognition or focus on these four noble truths and in which we actually begin to achieve true stoppings of the problems and so on, we need to have one of these levels of dhyana, one of these levels of deep concentration. 

So, that’s what it’s saying here in this verse – that we need to make effort to realize the four noble truths gained by listening to the explanations (which implies also thinking about them and meditating on them), having the discipline as the basis, and gaining perfect concentration so that we can focus on these four noble truths. And all of that depends on oneself. 

OK? Any questions on that? Alles klar. Everything’s clear. Alright. 

Then the outline goes on with an explanation of the three higher trainings, which are the essence of this path. This was already introduced a little bit in the previous verse. And this section is divided into a general presentation of the three trainings and, then, a specific explanation of the training in higher discriminating awareness.

Verse fifty-three: 

[53] Always train in higher ethical discipline, higher discriminating awareness, and higher mental (concentration). The hundred plus (a hundred) and fifty plus (three) 

(monastic) trainings (constitute) the first (higher training), and the three (higher trainings) are fully gathered in it.

So, this is just the general presentation of the three higher trainings. What are the three higher trainings? They are training in higher ethical discipline, the training in higher concentration, and the training in higher discriminating awareness (or wisdom) as already indicated before in the previous verse. 

Listening would then be discriminating awareness, discriminating that this is this. Stability of mind is the concentration. Although, here, in the explanation and the commentaries, it says that the training in higher ethical discipline is… Well, before we get to that, let me just explain how these go together. 

The way that it is usually explained is that, in order to chop through and cut the root of our samsaric existence, which is this unawareness, this confusion, this incorrect understanding of how we and everything exist, we need discriminating awareness – that it’s not like that, it’s like this. This is like the sharp axe. That’s what will actually cut through the root of our compulsive existence. 

Higher Concentration

But in order to actually always hit the same point with that axe, we need concentration. Concentration is what we need as the basis for discriminating awareness. And even if we can hit the mark all the time with the sharp axe, if we don’t have the strength to chop, it’s not going to work. So, the strength to do that comes from the training in higher ethical discipline. This is why we need these three. 

The foundation for it all is ethical discipline. It gives us the strength and the courage to refrain from acting negatively, like, for instance, being lazy, and “I don’t want to do this. I’d rather watch television” or “I’d rather go to sleep. It’s much easier.” Because of that, we don’t do anything. But the ethical discipline of restraining ourselves from acting negatively gives us the strength to gain concentration. Then, with concentration, we can actually stay with the discriminating awareness and always chop away at our misunderstanding, at our confusion, at our projections. So, we have these three. 

Higher Ethical Discipline 

Now, in the commentary, the training in higher ethical discipline refers to the discipline of refraining from the seven destructive actions of body and speech (that’s how it’s explained here) because that is very fundamental – refraining from the three destructive actions of body and four of speech. 

The three of body are: (1) killing – that’s taking the life of others; (2) stealing – that’s taking what is not given to us; (3) and inappropriate sexual behavior – primarily, having sex with somebody else’s partner, forcing ourselves sexually on somebody, and so on. Those are the three of body. 

The four of speech are: (1) lying, which is saying what is untrue or denying something when we know what it is; (2) using divisive language, which causes others who are friendly to part or, if they are already apart, to get further apart – so, causing division by our speech (which is basically saying nasty things to or about others); (3) using harsh language – so, saying things that hurt other people’s feelings, things that are cruel; (4) then, what is called “senseless chatter,” which is just chattering on and on about things that have no meaning and interrupting other people. Somebody is doing something constructive, and we come along and just start chattering at them – “blah, blah, blah.” It’s completely meaningless, not significant at all, and we interrupt the other person. And not only do we interrupt them, but we also waste our own time. So, this is a destructive action.

The ethical discipline here is to refrain from these. And to refrain from them means that when we really feel like doing them, we discriminate that this would be destructive and cause problems for ourselves in the future and cause problems for other people. And because we recognize that and we want to avoid creating the suffering that would come from that, we will refrain from acting in this way even though we feel like acting this way.

This is very important to understand. Let’s say that we never went hunting and that we have no interest whatsoever in going out and shooting animals in the forest and that, therefore, we simply don’t do that. Of course, that is constructive, but that’s not really what we’re talking about here. What we’re talking about here is when there is, say, a fly or a mosquito buzzing around our heads and we really feel like killing it that we stop ourselves from doing it. That’s the constructive action. It’s when we want to do it, but we realize that this would be destructive and harmful, so we use our discrimination to discriminate, “This is not appropriate. There are other ways of dealing with this situation.” Like, with a mosquito or a fly, when it lands on the wall, we can always put a glass over it and a paper underneath, and take it out. There are more peaceful, more non-violent ways of dealing with insects that we might find difficult to live with, to share our space with. So, this is the discipline here: training in higher ethical discipline.

Higher Discriminating Awareness 

The training in higher discriminating awareness, according to the commentaries, refers to the discriminating awareness of the voidness, or lack, of impossible ways of existing with respect to persons and with respect to all phenomena. We need to discriminate between what actually does exist and what is a projection, something that we add onto the way that things actually exist and that does not refer to anything real. 

For instance, with regard to persons, we might imagine that persons – ourselves and others –never change, that we are always the same. “I went to sleep last night, got up this morning – here I am: the same person.” We tend to identify with some aspect of ourselves and think that that is forever, that it’s never going to change. So, our self-image might be based on still being a young person or a thin person or a fat person or a certain profession. We might identify with being mother, we might identify with being father, we might identify with being the child of somebody. There are many, many things that we can identify with, but then we stick to that, thinking that it’s never going to change – “That’s truly who I am.” These types of things are false. They are obviously not referring to something real. 

We can also go deeper than that. We might think that we or somebody else can be known all by themselves. That, also, is not the case. For instance, when we say, “I see Daniel,” or “I see Lydia,” although we imagine that we actually see the person, we don’t see the person by themselves: we see the body. And based on seeing the body, we say that we see Lydia or that we see Daniel. Or we are listening on the telephone and we think, “I’m speaking with Renata.” Well, we’re not speaking just to Renata. We’re speaking to a box and a voice. And we’re hearing a vibration of some mental thing in a box –  a voice – and based on that, we say, “I hear Renata. I’m listening to Renata.” 

So, like that, we have a false view of ourselves and of others. It’s as if there were some solid “me” inside our heads that can be known all by itself. And on that basis, we say, “I like this. I want that. I don’t want that” – as if there were a “me” separate from what we like or want. Or “I want food; I’m hungry.” Well, is there a “me” separate from the stomach that is hungry? That doesn’t make any sense at all. So, there is no solid, separate “me.” But because we think that there is and because we think so strongly in terms of this “me,” that “me” becomes for us the center of the universe. So, then we think, “I’m the most important. I should always get what I want. And if I don’t get what I want I’m going to be very unhappy,” and then we strike out at others with anger and harsh words or worse. So, we need the discriminating awareness to discriminate that we don’t exist like that, that nobody exists like that. 

Likewise, we need to understand that no phenomenon whatsoever exists in these impossible ways. And again, there are many, many different levels. We tend to think that things are solid and concrete, whereas they are not. Material things are made of atoms, atoms are made of smaller particles, and most of it is empty space. So, there’s nothing solid about our bodies. 

There’s nothing solid about any type of situation. Things are constantly changing from moment to moment and being affected by so many different things. But we imagine that things exist in some very solid, concrete way. You know, “Oh, my child is not doing well in school!” Then, we make a big, solid thing out of that, a big problem, and we get very worried about it and very upset. But if we realized that child might not be doing well because of this cause and that circumstance and this and that, and that there are so many different factors affecting it, then, instead of being overwhelmed by this monster problem, we start to deconstruct it and see, “Well, if I change this thing that’s affecting it or I change this other thing that’s affecting it, the situation will change.” So, we approach things in that type of way. Nothing exists in a solid fashion. Things don’t exist all by themselves, independent of causes and conditions and independent of relations with other things and so on. So, we need this discriminating awareness. 

Again, the higher mental concentration that is mentioned here refer to the four dhyanas, these four higher states of concentration. 

So, the verse says to always train in these three.

Monastic Trainings Constitute the First Higher Training

The hundred plus (a hundred) and fifty plus (three) (monastic) trainings (constitute) the first (higher training).” This refers to the monk’s vows. There are two hundred and fifty-three monk’s vows in the tradition that the Tibetans follow. The text itself – it’s hard to say that it really says like that because it says, “a hundred plus and fifty plus” is actually what the text says. And then the commentary fills it in by saying “a hundred plus a hundred” makes two hundred, “and fifty plus three” makes fifty-three. So, you get two hundred and fifty-three. But it could be referring to a different set of monastic vows. But regardless of the number that is involved, here, it’s referring to the monastic training as the basis. It constitutes the first training. 

We have to realize that, in the Buddhist teachings, the full monastic training of a monk or a nun really was the foundation… as Buddha said, “As long as there’s a monastic community of people keeping the vows purely, then my teachings will be continued to be transmitted.” so, things depend very much on a monastic community following all the teachings, devoting their lives fully to trying to put them into practice. Although there are household practitioners, for sure, and household bodhisattvas, for sure, nevertheless, the most efficient way of practicing is as a fully ordained monk or nun. This is what Tsongkhapa emphasized in Tibet in his Lam-rim chen-mo (The Great Presentation of the Graded Stages of the Path). And the Buddhist whole training was organized around these monasteries and nunneries and was supported by many people. 

Nowadays in the West, most of us think that the emphasis should not be on the monastic community but on the lay practitioners. Most of us are lay practitioners. But if we look at it in a very practical, objective way, we can see that it is true that as householders – lay practitioners – we don’t have so much time. The Buddhist path is very all-encompassing and requires devoting a tremendous amount of time and effort. So, although we can certainly practice as laypersons, and we can certainly derive benefit from it, it can be very difficult to put our full time into it to gain liberation or to gain enlightenment. We might be able to take off a couple of weeks a year to do retreat. We might be able to spare one night a week to go to classes and so on. We might be able to spare a half hour in the morning, maybe, to meditate. But that’s about it. We have to work. We have to take care of the family. We have many other obligations. 

So, even if becoming a monk or a nun is not something that is suitable for us at this stage, it’s something that we certainly need to have admiration for. And even though, mind you, Nagarjuna’s speaking to a king who certainly is not a monk, the king is also told about the importance of the monastic training. 

All of the Buddha’s Teachings Can Be Incorporated in the Three Higher Trainings

The last sentence here is “the three (higher trainings) are fully gathered in it.” That means that with the monastic training, one would get training not only in higher discipline but also in higher concentration and discriminating awareness because, as a monk or a nun, one would get a lot of teachings and be able to devote one’s time to thinking about them, meditating upon them, gaining concentration, gaining wisdom, and so on. 

Another way of interpreting the last line is that these three include all the trainings and all the teachings. So, all the various methods and teachings of the Buddha can be incorporated in these three higher trainings.

Then the text goes on. Are there any questions about that – the three higher trainings? 

Why don’t we take a moment just to digest that. What we need is the axe to cut through the root of the problems. That axe is this wisdom, or discriminating awareness – being able to discriminate between what’s correct and incorrect. To be able to always stay with that, we need the focus of concentration. And to have the strength to concentrate and not to mentally wander, not fall asleep and so on, we need ethical discipline. So, we train in terms of restraining our physical actions and our verbal actions so that we then get the strength to restrain our mental actions from following out thoughts of laziness, sleepiness, and distraction. 

Let’s think about that for a moment. 

Then correlating where we are in the commentary with the outline, the outline goes on: “The specific explanation of training and higher discriminating awareness” and that has the divisions “how to extract oneself from the disturbing emotions” and “the advice how to truly set out for enlightenment.” “How to extract oneself from the disturbing emotions” has “how to turn our mind from things of this life” and “how to turn the mind from the whole of samsara.” And “how to turn the mind away from things of this life” has “a brief introduction” and “a detailed explanation.” So, the “brief introduction” refers to the next verse, verse fifty-four.

[54] O Powerful Lord, the Blissfully Gone (Buddha) has indicated that mindfulness of the characteristic (behavior) of the body is the singular path to traverse. Holding it tightly, safeguard it (well). Through a decline in mindfulness, all Dharma measures fall apart.

This underlines the importance of mindfulness. Mindfulness is something that we spoke about a great deal when we studied Shantideva’s Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior. Mindfulness is the foundation of ethical discipline, the foundation of concentration, the foundation of discriminating awareness. Mindfulness is like the mental glue that holds on and prevents you from loosing your focus on what you’re doing – for instance, the focus on keeping ethical discipline, the focus on aiming at and staying concentrated on some topic… this type of thing. 

So, what we need to always do is to check how we are acting, how we’re speaking, what we’re thinking, and so on – to pay attention to that. And with mindfulness, we try to hold on to a correct way of behaving, hold on to our discipline, and so on. And when we notice that we are straying away from that, then, with attention, we restore our attention back to keeping a hold on the object, on the proper behavior. Also, the hold that we keep with mindfulness needs to be neither too loose nor too tight. If it’s too tight, we get very tense and nervous, uptight and stressed. If it’s too loose, we act in sloppy ways and don’t really keep any type of discipline. 

So, that is why, Nagarjuna says, addressing the king, “O Powerful Lord,” the Buddhas have “Blissfully Gone” to enlightenment. That’s the term Sugata in Sanskrit. Sugata is one who has gone to enlightenment through a blissful, happy path of acting in constructive ways; it brings you more and more happiness. And the goal itself is blissful. And the Buddha himself has indicated that keeping mindfulness on how the body is acting – in other words, keeping a hold on your ethical discipline – “is the singular path to traverse.” It’s the most important thing, the very foundation, because it’s on that basis that you will keep the proper motivation, that you’ll keep the discipline and that you’ll keep the understanding. And “holding it tightly” – in other words, not too tightly but holding it strongly – you safeguard and protect it by keeping watch on what’s going on. Otherwise, if you lose that “mindfulness, all Dharma measures fall apart.” In other words, you won’t really know what you’re doing or how you’re speaking, and then all the disturbing emotions and negative habits will take over. So, mindfulness is absolutely essential. That is the brief introductory verse. 

Then the text goes on with a detailed explanation of how to turn the mind from the things of this lifetime. That will bring us to the topic of next time, which is the meditations on death and impermanence. In order to turn our minds from things of this lifetime, we need to realize that this lifetime is very short and that there’s no certainty about what is going to happen – when we would die. But for sure, we’re going to die. Therefore, since we’re going to go on, we need to think of future lives, not just this lifetime. So, next time we’ll get into the whole discussion of death and impermanence.