THE WAY OF MIND TRAINING
This has two topics: the preliminaries and the main part.214
THE PRELIMINARIES
This has two sections: the preliminaries for the session and the preliminaries for the instructions.
THE PRELIMINARIES FOR THE SESSION
This has two points: the remote preliminaries and the close preliminaries.
The Remote Preliminaries
The Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo root text says:
For the way of guiding gradually in accordance with the types of mental capacity,
First, keep far away from places of disturbance
By going to a place of solitude and giving up worldly activities.
As for the way of giving oral instructions in accordance with the different types of intellect or mental capacity, when you specifically know how to guide the gradual type of person, you will automatically also understand how to guide the instantaneous type of person.
In general, without ascending through the stages of the path you cannot suddenly jump to the higher levels, and without the lower qualities of the path having arisen you cannot attain the higher qualities. The manner of traversing gradually is therefore essential.215 The Nirvana Sutra declares:
Just as the steps of a staircase,
You should also train step-by-step
And endeavor in my profound teachings;
Without jumping the steps, proceed gradually to the end.
Just as a small child
Gradually develops its body and strength,
The Dharma is that same way,
From the steps of entering in the beginning
Up until the complete perfection.
The way of guiding step-by-step on the path is as follows. The person who wishes to enter the path should first of all remove himself from and keep far away from places of mundane disturbance that cause physical and mental distraction. Going to the sacred remote hermitages extolled by the victorious ones, he should be content with simply having the immediate necessities. Thus, giving up all activities that conform with worldly people, such as unvirtuous or indifferent actions of body, pointless chatter of speech, and mentally pursuing disturbing emotions or confused thinking, he should one-pointedly exert himself in practicing the sacred Dharma.216
The Sutra to Inspire Superior Intention teaches that being distracted by distractions causes twenty defects, including that your three doors remain uncontrolled, that you are interrupted by Mara, and that concentration and discriminating knowledge do not arise. The Sutra of the King of Samadhi and other scriptures teach that compared to making numerous kinds of offerings for aeons to all the buddhas there is greater merit in taking seven footsteps toward a hermitage, with the attitude of renunciation. You will then achieve all the qualities that are the opposite of the above faults of distraction. In particular, for the beginner who has not attained mental stability, it is essential to adhere to a secluded place.217 This is stated in the Ratna Karanda Sutra:
The beginner should remain in a secluded place in order to pacify his mind and fully tame it.
The Close Preliminaries
The Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo root text says:
Sit on a comfortable seat, straighten your body, and expel the stale breath.
Supplicate the Three Jewels and generate devotion to your guru.
Apply mindfulness and reflect in the following way.
By sitting on a soft and level comfortable seat in a secluded place, a cave, or a meditation hut, you can remain seated for a long time. By straightening the body posture, the channels and winds remain in their natural mode, and thus confused thoughts will diminish. By expelling the stale breath three times, the impurities of disturbing emotions within the channels are purified. By supplicating the Three Jewels to be able to reach perfection in the sacred Dharma, you will have no obstacles. By generating the devotion of perceiving your master as a buddha, your three doors are blessed. By applying a natural mindfulness that is not overcome by adverse circumstances, you will be able to remember the meaning of the meditation practice. Therefore, apply correctly what is explained here, and reflect on the mind training in the following way.218
THE PRELIMINARIES FOR THE INSTRUCTIONS
There are three points: the stages of the path common for people of lesser capacity, common for people of medium capacity, and common for people of superior capacity.
The Stages of the Path Common for People of Lesser Capacity
This has three parts: reflecting on the hard-to-find freedoms and riches, on death and impermanence, and on the causes and effects of karmic actions.
Reflecting on the Hard-to-Find Freedoms and Riches. The Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo root text says:
This bodily support adorned with the perfect freedoms and riches,
Like the udumbara flower, is extremely hard to find.
If you skillfully take advantage of it,
Then this find has great value, exceeding that of a wish-fulfilling gem.
Therefore follow spiritual guides and virtuous friends
At all times and on all occasions.
Giving up concerns for this life, and for the sake of the future,
Exert yourself quickly to take advantage of it, for if you don’t [it will not last].
This has four topics: the identity of this support, the reason it is difficult to find, how this find has great value, and instruction in the need to take advantage of it.219
The Identity of This Support. The identity of the support is the freedoms that are the opposite of the eight unfree states. The five riches from oneself resemble a body with beautiful ornaments, while the five riches from others resemble this body when it is especially illuminated by daylight and are thus showing its special features. The precious human body adorned with such perfect qualities is the indispensable support for attaining enlightenment.220 The eight unfree states are described in these words:
To be a hell-being, a hungry ghost, or an animal,
A barbarian, or a long-living god,
To have wrong views, be deprived of a buddha,
Or to be a mute—these are the eight unfree states.
The five riches from oneself are:
To be a human, centrally born, with intact sense-powers,
To have unperverted livelihood, and faith in the right place.
The five riches from others are:
A buddha appeared and he taught the Dharma,
The teaching remains and it has followers,
And [teachers] who compassionately benefit others.
The Reason It Is Difficult to Find. The difficulty of finding it in terms of the cause means that you will obtain the freedoms and riches if you have accumulated a vast amount of virtuous karma, such as keeping discipline and having connected it with aspirations. Yet, Shantideva said:
By such behavior as mine
I will not obtain a human body.
And if I do not obtain a human body,
There will be only misdeeds and no virtue.
Thus, only few people accumulate merit.
The difficulty of finding it in terms of analogy means that the support of the freedoms and riches is like the udumbara flower, renowned to be as extremely rare as the appearance of a buddha in the world.221 Moreover:
It is extremely difficult to find a human form,
Like a turtle happening to stick its neck through the hole of a yoke
Tossed about on the ocean.
A sutra points out the obvious difficulty of obtaining it when thinking of the numbers:
Hell-beings are as numerous as dust motes on a large plain, hungry ghosts like snowflakes in a blizzard, animals like husks in a barley brew, but gods and humans are as few as the dust motes remaining upon one’s nail.
How This Find Has Great Value. It is said:
By means of the boat of a human body
You can cross the great river of suffering.
Since such a boat will be hard to find later on,
At this time of delusion, do not fall asleep.
If you are skilled and careful in the means of crossing over the samsaric ocean of suffering with the boat of the human body, and thus take advantage of it by gathering the jewels of the permanent goal, this finding of what is difficult to find has extremely great value, even exceeding a poor person finding a wish-fulfilling jewel. According to Chandragomin:222
Having obtained it, it can bring you to the end of the ocean of rebirths,
And you can plant the virtuous seed of supreme enlightenment.
Having once obtained a human form—superior in qualities even to a wish-fulfilling gem—
Who will let it remain fruitless?
Instruction in the Need to Take Advantage of It. Once you obtain what is difficult to find you have achieved something of immense value. You must therefore constantly, at all times and on all occasions, follow spiritual guides and friends with a virtuous view and conduct who can show the correct path of how to take advantage of the freedoms and riches. This is as written in the Letter to a Friend:
Follow a spiritual friend, abide by pure conduct
Fully and completely, since the Muni has so taught.
You should follow the spiritual friend
Since many have attained peace after having followed a spiritual friend.
Conversely, you must abandon someone who leads your mind toward the path of nonvirtue, an immoral teacher or an evil companion who makes you waste the freedoms and riches. The Sutra on the Application of Mindfulness declares:
An immoral companion is a cause of all attachment, aggression, and delusion and is thus like a poisonous tree.
The Jewel Mound Sutra agrees:223
What is a sinful companion? It is someone who decreases virtue and links you to what is unvirtuous. Do not approach, do not follow, and do not look upon such a person.
Moreover, all this life’s experiences are short lasting and substanceless, just like the good or bad dreams during a single stretch of sleep. Therefore, completely give up all worldly aims and, in order to accomplish the permanent goal of benefit for the next life and onward, immediately exert yourself to quickly take advantage of these freedoms and riches. For if you do not, know it is uncertain how long you will live. As is said:
It is uncertain which one will arrive first—
Tomorrow or the next world.
It is therefore logical not to endeavor in plans for tomorrow,
But to endeavor in what is of benefit for the future.
Reflecting on Death and Impermanence. The Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo root text says:
Like the rising and setting of the sun and moon, composite things are impermanent.
The time of death lies uncertain, like a flash of lightning in the sky.
At the time of death nondharmic things are of no help at all,
So practice the sacred and sublime Dharma correctly.
In general, all that appear as world and beings are composite phenomena produced through the interdependence of causes meeting with conditions, and therefore not a single one is permanent. A sutra says:
Monks, all composite things are impermanent.
How are they impermanent? This is described in the Udana Varga:224
The end of gathering is depletion.
The end of rising is falling.
The end of meeting is parting.
The end of living is death.
Not beyond these four limits of impermanence, gross impermanence is the changes of the world and beings, creation and destruction, years and months, and the four seasons. Subtle impermanence is the moment-to-moment aging and changing, just like the instantaneous movement of the rising and setting of the sun and moon. In particular, the human life span is indefinite, so the time of death lies uncertain. There are many causes for death, making it sure that we will die. A human life is similar to a flash of lightning in the sky fading away the moment it has appeared. The Vinaya Scripture describes this:
Like the mountain river flowing into the ocean,
Like the sun or moon approaching the western mountain,
Like day and night, hours and minutes quickly go by;
The lives of people pass in this same way.
When you die, nothing besides the sacred Dharma, such as high mental capacity, friends, servants, or wealth, will be of any help whatsoever. Casting away mundane and superficial aims as though they were spittle, engage in the correct practice of the sacred Dharma as it has been taught by the victorious ones and their sons.
Reflecting on the Causes and Effects of Karmic Actions. The Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo root text says:
The root of practicing the sacred Dharma is the law of karma.
Through evil deeds and nonvirtues you will go to the three lower realms.
By virtuous actions you achieve the higher realms and liberation.
Therefore confess evil deeds and make the wholehearted vow to refrain from them.
Diligently take up the roots of virtue.
Prostrations and circumambulations purify the wrongdoings of your body.
Reciting and reading the Buddha’s words purify the obscurations of your speech,
And supplicating the Three Jewels pacifies the faults of your mind.
Always train correctly in being mindful, careful, and conscientious.
The root or basis for accomplishing the sacred Dharma of emancipation is to correctly abandon evil deeds and adopt virtuous actions with trust in the Buddha’s teachings about the ripening of the effect of intended mental and enacted physical or verbal actions.225 As described in the Jewel Garland:226
Attachment, anger, and delusion
And the actions created by them are unvirtuous.
From nonvirtue comes suffering
And likewise all the evil states.
Nonattachment, nonanger, and nondelusion
And the actions created by them are virtuous.
From virtue come the happy states
And happiness in all rebirths.
The ten evil and unvirtuous actions of the three doors, as well as their sub-aspects, motivated by the disturbing emotions in great amount, will result in the hells; in middling amount result in the worlds of hungry ghosts; and in small amount result in the animal realms. Thus, they make you go to the three lower realms and be tormented by intense miseries.227
By committing the ten virtuous actions that are in accord with merit, as well as by performing their sub-aspects, you will be reborn in the higher realms and experience pleasant results. By performing the virtuous actions embraced by renunciation or bodhichitta that are in harmony with emancipation, you will attain one of the three types of emancipation.228 According to the Sutra of the King of Samadhi:
Committed actions never disappear.
They ripen in samsara into white or black results.229
Thus the ripening of actions never fails, and the effects of virtue and evil deeds will unmistakenly ripen upon their doer. Since the karmas can be increased, even a small cause can yield a large result. The formerly committed misdeeds along with their sub-aspects that can be divided into the four types of impelling and completing, performed and accumulated, should therefore be confessed before a sublime object. With determination, make the wholehearted vow henceforth to not commit them again. You must joyfully undertake the roots of virtue as well as their sub-aspects, even down to the tiniest, with great endeavor and without belittling them.230
The conditioned and general virtuous actions of prostrating to and circumambulating the representations of the Precious Ones will purify chiefly the misdeeds of the three kinds of physical nonvirtues. Reciting incantations and essence mantras and reading the sutras of the words of the Victorious One and the profound tantras will chiefly purify the obscurations of the four kinds of verbal nonvirtues. Turning your thoughts onto the path of virtue, such as supplicating the Three Jewels and the Three Roots, motivated by admiring, yearning, and trusting faith, will chiefly purify the faults of the three kinds of mental nonvirtues.
Both virtue and evil depend upon your attitude. As the Clouds of Precious Jewels (Ratnamegha) states:
All virtuous and all unvirtuous actions
Are created by the mind.231
Therefore strive to control your mind at all times. Shantideva taught how:
All who desire to control their minds
Should guard themselves with effort at all times
Through being mindful and conscientious.
I will join my palms for that.
Thus, always train yourself correctly in being mindful, which means an unwavering watchful attitude; in being conscientious, which means to notice whether or not faults have arisen in your stream of being; and in being careful, which means to be cautious about what should be done or avoided in any action.
The Stages of the Path Common for People of Medium Capacity
This has two parts: how to train your attitude, and the measure of having trained.
How to Train Your Attitude. The Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo root text says:
In particular, for accomplishing the state of emancipation,
With the recognition and remembrance that all of samsara
Is like a fiery pit, a garden of razors, or a forest of swords,
Arouse again and again the intense and genuine attitude
Of desiring to be quickly freed from the three sufferings.
The conceptions common for the people of lesser capacity are indeed a correct view. But, in order to attain what is superior to that, the state of unexcelled emancipation and peace, the attitude of renouncing all of samsara is essential.
The characteristics of samsara are described in the Scripture on Discernment:
As filth has no sweet fragrance,
The six kinds of beings have no happiness.
As there is no coolness in a fiery pit,
The states of existence have no joy.
No matter where you are reborn within the higher or lower realms of existence, there is an exclusively painful quality, like staying naked in a pit of fire, walking barefoot in a garden of sharp razors, or climbing undressed in a forest of swords. A sutra describes the nature of samsara:
Due to craving, becoming, and ignorance,
All beings helplessly circle through the five kinds of transmigration
Among humans, gods, and in the three lower realms,
Just like the spinning of a potter’s wheel.
Since we, in this way, circle without beginning or end, first understand this fact, and then continuously motivate yourself with unwavering mindfulness. The sufferings of samsara can be condensed into the following three types.
The suffering of suffering means that the truth of suffering is established as soon as the five perpetuating aggregates are apprehended and, in addition, all the major sufferings then arise. This is like having boils in addition to leprosy. The main bases for these characteristics are the heat and the cold of the hell-beings, the hunger and thirst of the hungry ghosts, and the stupidity and muteness of the animals. But also the eight sufferings of human beings, as well as the unsatisfied desire of the gods and the fighting of the demigods and so forth, belong to this category.232
The suffering of change means that all samsaric happiness and splendor are impermanent and fleeting by nature, as when being suddenly crushed by sickness or enmity while living happily. All the gods and humans, though they live in seeming happiness, are not secure for long, but change and transmigrate.
The all-pervasive suffering of formations means that all samsaric phenomena comprised of the five aggregates arise and cease moment to moment. Although ordinary beings do not realize that, noble beings perceive that samsaric phenomena are painful because they are always transitory formations. The Treasury Commentary explains:
A single strand of hair lying in the palm of the hand
Will create discomfort and pain
If it enters your eye.
Immature beings, like the palm of the hand,
Do not realize the hair of the suffering of formations.
Noble beings, like an eye,
Perceive that these formations are painful.
When your body and mind cannot bear the painful experiences of illness or enmity even for one instant, how can you expect to tolerate keeping constant company with the three dreadful sufferings in the beginningless and endless realms of samsara? Thinking carefully about this, generate from the core of your heart again and again the strong attitude of wanting to be quickly liberated from these miseries, with an intense yearning that is not just a temporary contrived impulse. The Bodhicharya Avatara says:
Though countless buddhas have passed away
After benefiting sentient beings,
Due to my own demerits
I was not within their reach of healing.
If I act again in this same way,
It will be like that over and over.
The Vinaya Scripture declares:
I have taught you the means of emancipation.
But exert yourselves, since emancipation depends upon yourself.
The Measure of Having Trained. The Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpo root text says:
At some point, when you understand that all samsaric grandeur
Is impermanent, inconstant, and illusive,
Fascination with even the splendor of Brahma and Indra
Will have no occasion to arise for as much as an instant.
By having clearly understood this painful nature of samsara and having generated a strong weariness and renunciation, you will at some point realize that all things, all the seemingly superb wealth and grandeur, from here up to the summit of samsaric existence, are impermanent, like a magical illusion, because of being composite; inconstant, like an autumn cloud, because of being transient; and illusive, like a water bubble, because of being devoid of substance.
Through such understanding, the attitude of fascination with and clinging to even the splendor and wealth of those who are renowned as foremost within the realms of samsara—such as Brahma endowed with the bliss of detachment, Indra who is the king of all the gods, or the universal monarch who is the ruler of men—will have no occasion to arise for as much as an instant. As the regent Maitreya taught:
Due to realizing that the gods have the pain of death and transmigration and that humans suffer from striving,
The intelligent person has no desire for even the eminent might of gods and men.
Thus the wise and the followers of the teachings of the Tathagata
Perceive what is suffering, what is its cause, and what is its cessation.233