← Glen Svensson

Glen Svensson: Gelug Tradition of Mahamudra (part 3)

Glen Svensson · 1 h 13 min · Kunsang Yeshe via Internet Archive

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  • 1:00

    The actual practice of Mahamudra has two main components. The shamatha practice and the Vipassanā practice of course is to develop single point of concentration, to develop calm, clear, focused mind. So that's what we need to be able to penetrate the nature of reality, to penetrate the nature of our own mind, which is the Vipassanā practice. Usually translated in English as Vipassanā means insight or special insight. Insight into the nature of our mind.

  • 7:00

    Is to purify the mind of negativities or obscurations and accumulate the collections. And to purify our mind of obscurations, or here obscurations means negativities, we can do the four opponent powers. So one way of applying those four opponent powers is Vajrasapha practice. So if any of you have ever done Vajrasapha practice, you'll see explicitly each four of those are in the practice. There's an element of regret and of course the reliance here is the generating refuge bodhicitta in the bodhicitta practice. The remedy is the actual visualization and reciting the mantra and then the resolve is to not do those negative things again.

  • 27:46

    Okay, let's look at the actual practice now. There's two levels of practice. If we look at the middle of page 2, it says here, there are many ways of preaching Mahamudra, but they can all be classified as either Sūtra or Tantra Mahamudra. And here now is a brief description of Tantra Mahmudra and really I want to be very, very brief on this because we've only got limited time this weekend and I think there's a lot of important practical stuff in the sūtra level of practice that we should really look at. Very briefly, just a couple of points on the Tantra which is mentioned here just at the bottom of page 2. It says, Tantra Mahmudra refers to the clear light mind.

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1:00 The actual practice of Mahamudra has two main components. The shamatha practice and the Vipassanā practice of course is to develop single point of concentration, to develop calm, clear, focused mind. So that's what we need to be able to penetrate the nature of reality, to penetrate the nature of our own mind, which is the Vipassanā practice. Usually translated in English as Vipassanā means insight or special insight. Report an error

1:30 Insight into the nature of our mind. So these are the two core practices in the actual practice of Mahan Buddha, the Samatha Vipassanā. So what do we need as a preliminary to those? What do we need to have as a solid foundation to that practice? We saw in the preliminaries then of course the entry point into the Buddhist practice in general of course is to take refuge into the Buddha Dharma Saṅgha. Report an error

2:02 And then as the entry point and support of the Mahāyāna level of practice is this mind of bodhicitta. So these are the entry and foundation. And of course, as the Panchalama mentioned here, we need to not just have those things as words from our mouth. We need to really develop refuge bodhicitta in a heartfelt way. Report an error

2:33 To help us to have the basis of even developing refuge and bodhicitta, we can talk about these four thoughts that turn the mind. And any of you who've done a little bit of study in the lamrim can also understand that these are exactly the same practices in exactly the same order within the lamrim structure as well. Report an error

2:54 So we're not talking about something different than the lamrim. It's just here that those four core practices are packaged. In a very nice way in the Kargu, that's why I've used that presentation, the four thoughts that turn the mind. But then here we were in the middle of looking at these other four things, back on page one, sort of in the middle it says, the four guiding instructions. Report an error

3:23 Going for refuge, generating bodhicitta, Vajrasattva meditation, mandala offering, guru yoga. So what is being said here is that Particularly when we talk about, it says here, any profound instructions. This is sort of really pointing to the highest level of practice, this tantra level of practice. All Tibetan Buddhist schools have that tantra at the highest level of practice. So what you find then is that even as a preliminary, particularly this list of four things here, Report an error

4:02 are really preliminaries to Tantric practice. And this is something that's often a little bit misunderstood. Because here these four, the Kargyu Nigma schools, are very much emphasised, but also in the Guluk school, particularly the Vajrasapha practice is quite often emphasised, but also the others. People get this idea that as a beginner, The very first thing they need to do is these four practices. Because what you find in many traditions is that these four practices we have to do extensively. Report an error

4:45 In fact, often it's said that we have to do 100,000 repetitions of each one of those. We have to recite Vajrasattva mantra 100,000 times. And often the going for refuge and generating bodhicitta is combined with prostrations. So then we have to do 100,000 prostrations. 100,000 Vajrasapha mantras, the mandala offering, maybe you've seen this offering mandala, we have to do 100,000 of those, and then 100,000 guru yoga verses as well. Report an error

5:16 And so people look at that, which is quite daunting, and then they think, okay, I want to really follow the Buddhist path, I should begin with that. This is not the case. These are really preliminaries for tantric practice. Report an error

5:33 We need to understand that. But within those, of course, the ideas behind them also we should apply at our level. So we shouldn't say then, we shouldn't go to the other extreme and say, oh, that's just the tantra, forget about that. That would be a mistake as well. Because what we've seen here is that the refuge and bodhicitta are entry and support for... Report an error

6:01 So what it's saying here... Is that to realise this ultimate nature of the mind, to engage in the shamatha particularly vipassanā practice, our mind needs to be in a very good state. That includes doing two things, purifying our mind of obscurations and accumulating the collections. We haven't talked about accumulating collections yet but we're still on the purifying the obscurations. Report an error

6:55 So what we need to do here to prepare our mind for mama to practice Is to purify the mind of negativities or obscurations and accumulate the collections. And to purify our mind of obscurations, or here obscurations means negativities, we can do the four opponent powers. So one way of applying those four opponent powers is Vajrasapha practice. So if any of you have ever done Vajrasapha practice, you'll see explicitly each four of those are in the practice. Report an error

7:30 There's an element of regret and of course the reliance here is the generating refuge bodhicitta in the bodhicitta practice. The remedy is the actual visualization and reciting the mantra and then the resolve is to not do those negative things again. So those four aspects of purification are built into the bodhicitta practice. But of course bodhicitta practice is only one way of applying those four opponent powers. Report an error

7:56 So we shouldn't think... That to purify our mind, we have to do the Vajrasattva practice. Again, Vajrasattva practice itself is really a little bit of a tantric practice. So again, these four preliminaries, because in all four Buddhist schools, tantra is the highest level, then even these preliminary practices have a very much tantric flavour to them, as you can see by that list. Report an error

8:24 Even the refuge and bodhicitta practice with the prostrations, if you look at that practice, There is a little bit of a tantric flavour to that as well. Of course, Vajrasattva meditation is tantric practice. Mandala offering is tantric practice and so is Guru Yoga. So they all have a tantric flavour. Why? Because it helps to prepare us for that level of practice. Report an error

8:49 But, of course, Report an error

8:56 the ideas in those practices at a more basic level. And the Vajrasattva practice, again, is to do here with purifying obscurations. So we can, if we wish, at our level, we can simply apply these four opponent powers in whatever format we want. And actually, as mentioned here, some of you may be familiar with this, if we look at that paragraph where it talks about the Vajra Sapa 100,000 times, it says here, and in addition, as an essential practice, earnestly confess negative actions and promise to refrain from doing them again. Report an error

9:40 By completing the four opponent powers through practices such as making as many hundreds of prostrations as possible while reciting the admission of downfalls. The admission of downfalls practice is another name for the 35 Buddhas practice. So maybe some of you are familiar with the 35 Buddhas practice. Report an error

9:59 So this is also a form of doing this purification with the four opponent powers. But basically what that paragraph is effectively saying is that we need to, if we really want to engage in Vipassanā practice, even at the Sūtra level, forget about Tantra, at our level, if we want to engage in this practice of coming to realize nature of reality, realize nature of the mind, we need to purify negativities and we need to accumulate the collections. Report an error

10:32 So purifying negativities, obscurations, is all about four opponent powers practice. So whatever form that takes for us, even if it's a very simple form, not a structured practice, I think it's important, particularly at least on a daily basis, in a practical way of how to do this is often suggested that at the end of a day, before we go to bed, before we go to sleep, maybe we're already in bed, is review the day, have a look at our day and Have a look at any negative things that we've done and then apply the four opponent powers to that. Have regret for what we did that day. Report an error

11:16 Again, no guilt. Get rid of the guilt thing. If you feel guilty, get rid of that. Throw it out. The reliance. Again, we can do the refuge bodhicitta there. The remedy. Think of some positive way of opposite to that negative action we did. Again, maybe it simply involves... Some sort of apology to the person the next day if it was something negatively said. Think of something to do as a practical way of remedy and then make a strong resolution not to do that negative thing again the following day. Report an error

11:46 So I think if we do that, at least at the end of a day, of course best would be soon after having done it to go through this. Report an error

11:57 But if not that, at minimum at the end of a day to do that. And that's going to be very helpful in here. in purifying our mind of negative negativities and negative habits. It's going to help prepare our mind to put it in a good The other thing that it says here we have to do is to accumulate the collections. Report an error

12:22 Here the collections, we can talk about the two accumulations or the two collections. Not Report an error

12:50 only do we have to purify our mind of negativity, but we have to increase the positive. Aspects of the mind. So reduce the negative, increase the positive. That's what we're talking about here, these two themes. So reducing the negative here is mentioned. One way of doing that is the Vajrasattva practice. Increasing the positive here is mandala offering. Now when we talk about the positive, increasing the positive, accumulating the collections, we talk about two collections or sometimes called the two accumulations. Report an error

13:54 here in accumulating collections, of course we need to our positive actions and our wisdom, as we mentioned before. Particularly here as a preliminary, it's really to the Report an error

14:09 that we really need to increase our positive actions and the positive potential in our mind. And here, the way it's mentioned to do that, in fact in the text it's not really directly mentioned, it just says we need to accumulate the collections, but then it doesn't mention anything. Report an error

14:26 The one is back here, the mandala offering. Again, a mandala is a tantric practice. A mandala here is a pure way of seeing ourselves and the world around us. So in a mandala practice, we are imagining ourselves in a fully enlightened form and the environment around us is being completely pure. And so that usually happens together with a particular deity. So in a mandala offering, we are offering basically this pure universe. Report an error

15:12 And of course any sort of offering practice is generosity. And of course generosity is a practice of merit or virtue. So again here, this part here is all about increasing our virtue. And again because here we are having a tantric flavour to that, the way that is suggested here as a preliminary for higher tantric practice and to prepare ourselves for tantric practice, the way of doing that is a mandala offering. Report an error

15:43 But again here at our level of practice, what we're talking about here is just increasing our virtue, increasing our positive actions. And of course at the sūtra level of practice, again when we look at that practice, The spiritual path, the Mahāyāna path to enlightenment, the core practices are the six perfections. Report an error

16:12 Generosity, ethics, patience, joyous effort, concentration, wisdom. In those six, the sixth is wisdom. The others can be included in merit or virtue. So any of those practices accumulate in the collections. Being generous, being ethical, being patient, joyous effort and even concentration itself. So doing those sorts of things also can help here. So as a preliminary then we can simply engage in those sorts of practices as much as possible to increase the amount of merit or virtue or positive potential in our mind. Report an error

16:57 So those two things together are going to prepare us, our mind for mahamudra practice but practice in general, any sort of practice we're doing. If on the basis of refuge bodhicitta motivation, we can then purify the mind of negativities, reduce negativities, increase the positive aspects of our mind by engaging in virtuous activities, that will set our mind into a very good state for doing this sort of shamatha vipassanā practice. Report an error

17:28 But then there's one last thing here I mentioned, guru yoga. And of course guru yoga is also a tantric practice. And particularly at the level of tantric practice, the relationship with the teacher is something very, very close. Report an error

17:51 At that level of tantric practice, we have to very precisely follow the instructions of our teacher. We are very much reliant on teacher's instructions because tantra level of practice is very subtle, very profound, very difficult to sort of do on our own. Report an error

18:10 Here, as a preparation for that, this Guru Yoga practice is to make that connection with our teacher, that very close connection with our teacher, to receive inspiration from our teacher so that we can be inspired to do the practice. But actually at the level of Tantric practice, it's a little bit more than that. And that is that, particularly in the area of Mahamudra practice, The teacher can literally plant the seed of wisdom directly in our mind. At the very highest level of Mahamudra and also Zogchen practice, you'll hear a lot about what's called pointing out instructions. Report an error

18:55 Pointing out instructions are very pith instructions, very short instructions that point out the nature of our mind directly to us. But for them to work... We need to be at a certain level already, which means we need to have really purified the mind, done a lot of virtuous activity, done a lot of this practice, so we're at a receptive level. Report an error

19:21 Then the guru, the teacher, would use some very short pith instructions to trigger, to literally plant the seed of wisdom in our mind. It would trigger some sort of experience of the nature of our mind directly. For that to happen, One, we need to be at that level, so we need to have done all these things. Of course the teacher needs to be qualified. The teacher needs to know precisely what sorts of words for you as an individual could help trigger that. Report an error

19:52 And then of course you need to be open to that. To be open to that you need to do the Guru Yoga practice where you really have that strong faith and connection in the teacher, being completely open to them, being inspired by them. So that when you get those instructions, you're not going to go, I'm not sure whether they know what they're talking about here or not. That's going to block that possibility. Report an error

20:16 But if we've done the Guru Yoga practice well, we're going to have a lot of faith in the teacher, inspire, open, and if we're receptive, that can really penetrate that instruction. So that Guru Yoga at the highest level is really all about already planting the seed of wisdom in our mind. But of course at our level at least we can do something similar to a Guru Yoga practice here whereby particularly if we have a teacher, a personal teacher, even if we don't we can use someone that inspires us like the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa, someone that really we look up to and we can use a similar sort of practice where we imagine them, request them to give us instruction, to guide us. Report an error

21:06 And then as part of this practice, as you'll see a little bit later, we absorb them, visualize absorbing them into ourselves. And of course the goal of this at our level is so that we are very much inspired by them. So that then our mind is at a very good state. We know from our own experience, when we're really inspired about something, then we can put a lot of effort into it. Report an error

21:31 It really puts us in a very good state. So that's what here this Guru Yoga practice is, which is mentioned in the middle of page 2. It says, So here we're requesting our teacher to please, please give us some instructions to help guide us. And then we, as we'll see in the next part of the practice, we then imagine, them absorbing into us and sort of we become inseparable from our teacher so that then we are in this very inspired, uplifted state. Report an error

22:14 And that's going to be very helpful for us for our meditation. So these are the four practices. Again, all of those four, particularly if we're going to enter into a tantric level practice, many of the traditions, Kargu, Ning, and even sometimes Kalu, Require us to do 100,000 repetitions of these, effectively so that we are in a very receptive state to be able to do that high level practice. Report an error

22:44 But what those four are saying is that for us as a beginner, we really need to work on refuge bodhicitta, we need to purify our mind using the four opponent powers, we need to engage in as much virtue as possible. To gain that positive potential in the mind. And then we need to have some connection with a teacher so that we can be very much inspired and guided by that teacher. Report an error

23:11 So that's the four preliminaries. Report an error

23:24 Generally, like I said, in the Kagyu and Nigma traditions, if you want to practice a little bit at the Tantra level of practice, They traditionally will not give you any instructions until you've completed all four of those, 100,000 of each. They'll say go away and do that because unless you do, your mind is not going to be in any fit state for these very high level subtle instructions of tantra. Report an error

23:54 You're just not going to get it. That doesn't mean, and again, the mistake often is that people see this and they think, oh, this is preliminary to all practice. I need to go away and do 100,000 of every one of those. Before I even do anything. This is not right. But what it's saying is that they are essential or something equivalent is very essential for the high level of practice but even at our basic level something equivalent to those is necessary. Report an error

24:28 If we really want to have an effective meditation practice we need to have A good motivation, refuge bodhicitta, we need to really purify our mind of negativities, we need to increase the positive aspect, we need to be inspired. If we can do those things, then our mind is in a good state for any sort of meditation, whether it's shamatha vipassanā or anything. So that's what we can take away from that. Report an error

24:56 That really, if we want to be effective in our shamatha vipassanā practice, we need to do those things. We need to have that. Basis of refuge and bodhicitta, the good motivation. We need to purify our mind all the time with the four opponent powers. We need to increase our positive potential by doing virtuous actions and we need to receive inspiration from a teacher or someone who inspires us. Report an error

25:23 That's what we need to do. That's what's said here. Otherwise, Shantideva passion practice says, look, if we don't have a good basis and motivation, our motivation is poor, We have a lot of negativities in our mind. We don't have a lot of positive potential in our mind and we don't feel inspired. Difficult. Practice is difficult. Report an error

25:46 That's all I wanted to do on the preliminaries. Any questions on that before we move on? Report an error

26:09 Actually, the word yoga, literally the word yoga means to yoke. To yoke. To bring two things together. Coming through the Tibetan word for yoke. Yoga is neljor, which literally means to join to what is real, which means actually to connect with reality. Report an error

26:35 So yoga in Tibetan Buddhist context, or in Buddhist context in general, is to yoke, to connect ourselves to reality. In fact, it's very interesting, I think the word religion has similar meaning, the etymology. Ri means again, Legare, which is the root of religion, I think the Latin root. Legare means to connect. So it means to join again, to connect again. Report an error

27:07 So in that sense, it's the same idea. I think to connect again to something true. Of course, we've lost our way. So that's what the word yoga here means. So yoga, that's exactly what it means. So yoga is all the practices we do to come to... Directly or indirectly connect with reality. Because that's why we're suffering. We're not connected with reality. We misunderstand reality. Report an error

27:39 So that's what the word yoga here means. Report an error

27:46 Okay, let's look at the actual practice now. There's two levels of practice. If we look at the middle of page 2, it says here, there are many ways of preaching Mahamudra, but they can all be classified as either Sūtra or Tantra Mahamudra. And here now is a brief description of Tantra Mahmudra and really I want to be very, very brief on this because we've only got limited time this weekend and I think there's a lot of important practical stuff in the sūtra level of practice that we should really look at. Report an error

28:19 Very briefly, just a couple of points on the Tantra which is mentioned here just at the bottom of page 2. It says, Tantra Mahmudra refers to the clear light mind. Report an error

28:33 The difference between sūtra and tantra is the level of mind that we are trying to gain access to. So tantra practice is not about achieving some sort of other goal or some other motivation. So like sūtra, tantra level of practice, we have to develop refuge bodhicitta, the goal is enlightenment, so it's the same motivation, same goal. Report an error

29:01 We have to develop the same wisdom. The same wisdom of emptiness. Same, same, same. What is different is the level of mind that we're doing all of these things with. Now we have what's called our coarse mind, the mind that is active now. What we're trying to do is to subdue this crazy monkey mind with shamatha, subdue it to make it calm, clear, focused. Report an error

29:28 Then we apply that To develop Vipassanā, realize emptiness. And slowly, slowly we wipe out then the ignorance and disturbing relations in our mind. That's going to take a long time. But we have deeper levels of the mind. In fact, in Buddhism we talk about usually three levels of mind. Coarse, subtle, very subtle. The mind that we have now that's active now is coarse mind. Then we have subtle and very subtle mind. Report an error

30:00 And the very subtle mind is this mind here called the mind of clear light, the clear light mind. This very subtle mind is something that is never active in us. Report an error

30:14 In a normal person, it's never active in our entire life. The only time it becomes active is at the time of death. Through the death process, the different levels of mind collapse. And right just before the time of death, then this very subtle clear light mind becomes active. But of course in a normal person that death process is a bit of unconscious. We're not really aware of that. But Tantra has methods to gain access to this very subtle clear light mind. Report an error

30:45 How to do that is mentioned briefly here. It says that it is through the skillful methods such as penetrating the vital points of the subtle Vajra body. Report an error

30:57 So just as we can talk about three levels of mind, coarse, subtle, very subtle, We can talk about three levels of body because every mind is associated with a body. Our mind now, our coarse mind is associated with this body, particularly the brain, dependent on the brain. If we damage the brain, coarse mind doesn't work very well. They're not the same thing but they're dependent. Then we can talk about what's called here the subtle Vajra body. Report an error

31:28 Subtle body is these channels, subtle energy channels. We can talk about the central channel, two side channels, lots of channels running out. We can talk about chakras along the central channel. We can talk about subtle wind energies in Sanskrit called prāṇa, sometimes called chi. Tibetan it's called lung. Report an error

31:52 Subtle wind energies that are moving through these channels. And then they also talk about these little things called drops or bindu. So we can talk about channels, chakras, winds and drops. Report an error

32:07 This is the subtle Vajra body. Report an error

32:16 With those subtle energies in the body, they're associated with the subtle mind. So the subtle mind is connected to the subtle wind energies, just like our coarse mind is connected to and relies on the brain and the body, the coarse body. Likewise, the subtle mind is dependent on these subtle wind energies, and the analogy often given is a rider and a horse. The wind energies is the horse, The subtle mind is the rider. And so in Tibetan there's an expression called lungta. It means wind horse. Report an error

32:53 So maybe you've seen wind horse, a horse with wings. This is subtle energy that the subtle mind resides or rides on. So what happens then is if you manipulate subtle energy, you move subtle energy around consciously, you're actually manipulating the subtle mind. Because where the horse goes, the rider goes. Report an error

33:17 That's why subtle energy work at a deep level can be potentially dangerous. If you're not skilled and you're not doing controlled way, manipulating subtle energies, you're manipulating subtle mind. And if you don't do that in a controlled way, you can damage the mind. You can have deep psychological disturbances come up. Many cases of this happening. Report an error

33:38 To gain access to the very subtle, clear light mind, what we have to do... All these subtle energies are moving throughout the subtle body. What we have to do is withdraw all of these subtle energies into the central channel and make them come to the heart chakra. Report an error

33:58 Then the heart chakra can open, then the very subtlety like mind becomes active. So that's what we need to do. So that's tantric practice. There are two stages in tantric practice, in fact called the two stages. Report an error

34:42 So in Tibetan practice we heard about this condition called Lung. Actually the full name is called Sok Lung, life energy. Again, what happens is when we do meditation, and this is going to come up a little bit this afternoon in this session or maybe tomorrow morning, one of the most common, probably the most common problem that people experience in meditation By far, is too tight. Too tight. Probably 90 % of all problems we have in meditation is we're simply too tight. Report an error

35:25 And it's a little bit unfortunate that, like, actually if we briefly look at page 5 at the top, it says, the instruction, it says, firmly tighten the focus of mindfulness on the mind. Yeah? Firmly tighten the focus of mindfulness on the mind. So the general instruction is we need to have firm focus. But the problem is that these manuals, meditation manuals, were written centuries ago and I think people in ancient India and ancient Tibet were a little bit more shanti-shanti, more casual than we are now. Report an error

36:01 Probably they were sort of too relaxed, you know? So they're sort of like, you know, they're probably, that's why firmly focus. Whereas we, our backgrounds of... Stimulus, stimulus, stimulus, work, work, work. We have sensory overload every day. Our minds are completely stressed, completely agitated, completely tense. Report an error

36:27 That's how we come into meditation. Then the instruction says firmly tighten your focus. What do we do? Because our mind is so agitated and we're trying to focus on the breath, we can't. So what we do is we clamp down on the breath even more because our mind is so scattered. know, overloading Report an error

36:43 But that's going to create problems, exactly the problem you mentioned. Because what happens is, when we're too tight, and this is going to come up a little bit later today and tomorrow morning, we're too tight. Yes, for a short time we can focus on the breath, but a huge cost. We know from our own experience, if we've been very tight and forceful in meditation, we usually get a lot of tension here, maybe sore neck and shoulder, and at the end of meditation we're completely exhausted. Report an error

37:12 Completely exhausted. But we managed to hold the breath for a few minutes, you know, maybe. But at a huge cost. This is not the way to go. And this, if we do this long term, particularly if we're doing retreat, many hours a day, week after week, doing this, this tight focus is actually causing the solid wind energies to be completely out of whack, out of balance. Report an error

37:40 Which means our subtle mind becomes completely out of balance. And that's Lung. This condition called Lung. Yeah, I've been in retreat. Report an error

37:54 Exactly. Oh, you've got to do 100,000 repetitions and you've only got one week to do it. Go! Exactly. Exactly. That's why, and that's what I'm going to emphasise this afternoon and tomorrow, for us particularly as Westerners, the first thing we need to do is... Relax, relax, relax, relax. But of course the meditation manuals don't emphasise that because people in those days were pretty chilled to begin with. Report an error

38:26 They were too relaxed in fact. The opposite problem. That's why they had to say firmly focus. Because they were too relaxed. So this is something we need to keep in mind. And often it's not stressing the text because in those days it didn't need to. But now it's completely different. Report an error

39:02 If we get to the stage where about to do that don't have any problem with law we won't have law, impossible So don't worry about that condition. Report an error

39:17 think we just need to try and focus on the breath a little bit now. But here, that's what we need to do. At this level of practice, we're trying to withdraw all these subtle energies. So generation stage practice in Tantra. And those of you may already be doing a little bit of generation stage practice because generation stage practice is often to do, you're doing what's called a sadhana, Report an error

39:57 what the word sadhana means. There are many things we do in generation stage practice including visualising ourself as a deity, maybe reciting some mantras, doing all sorts of things, some Vipassanā exercise as well often. But effectively the core of generation stage practice, is we're trying to develop single point of concentration. So generation stage practice is a little bit like shamatha practice. So we said here at sūtra level there are two aspects, shamatha vipassanā. Report an error

40:34 At the tantra level of practice there are effectively these two practices. Generation stage practice is shamatha Report an error

40:44 and there's a lot more Report an error

40:50 that's there. Because in completion stage practice we're doing this withdrawing subtle energies to the heart chakra. Of course when the heart chakra... eventually opens and we can gain access to that clear light mind, we use that to penetrate nature of reality. use that mind to realize emptiness. That's all Report an error

41:15 I wanted to mention on Tantra. I mean, we can talk about Tantra for a long time, but I think because we have a limited time this weekend, I think much more practical and beneficial to us immediately to focus on the Sūtra level of practice because that's where I think we can get a lot of practical advice. Report an error

41:33 So remember again, Tantra practice is simply a high level of practice where we are trying using the same motivation, trying to achieve the same goal of enlightenment by realising the same wisdom of emptiness. But we're trying to gain access to a more subtle level of mind to do that. By doing that, it will accelerate our path. Because the more subtle the mind is, the more powerful it is. Report an error

41:58 Therefore, if we can realise emptiness with that more subtle mind, we can wipe out the ignorance and disturbing emotions much more quickly. In fact, in the best case scenario, we can achieve enlightenment in this very lifetime, all conditions being in a good way. But let's have a look now at the sūtra level of practice. So we can go to the top of page 3. Report an error

42:23 It says, Sūtra Mahamudra refers to ways of meditating on emptiness as directly indicated in the Extensive, Middling and Brief Perfection of Wisdom Sutras. Report an error

42:36 So the sutras where the Buddha explicitly taught this idea of sunyata or emptiness are called the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras. Report an error

42:49 And here it says Extensive, Middling and Brief. There are many Perfection of Wisdom Sutras. Three of the best known are called the Extensive. Which is a perfection of wisdom sūtra in 100,000 stanzas. The middling is 20 or 25,000 stanzas and the brief is only 8,000 stanzas or verses. That's the brief. Of course the brief of the brief, the one probably most of you have heard about is the Heart Sūtra. Report an error

43:18 The Heart Sūtra is very brief. It's only in fact 25 stanzas. But anyway, that's where the Buddha taught this idea of Shunyata emptiness. Report an error

43:31 Then it's quoting here Arya Nagarjuna or Nagarjuna depending on how you pronounce it. There is no path to liberation other than this. Nagarjuna or Nagarjuna, even those Perfectional Wisdom Sutras where the Buddha taught empty is difficult to understand. So what Nagarjuna did was he wrote a text called The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, Mulla Majamika Karika in Sanskrit, where he... Report an error

44:00 He described very succinctly what this idea of emptiness means. And so he's saying that there's no path to liberation other than this. We cannot be liberated from saṃsāra if we don't realise emptiness. So he says here, then it goes on, it says, Here I shall give instructions on Mahamudra in accordance with his thought and describe ways to introduce the nature of the mind in accordance with the instructions of the lineage masters. Report an error

44:28 And then he goes on to talk about why again is this emptiness thing called Mahamudra in the next paragraph. Basically saying that since emptiness is the nature of all phenomena it is a seal or a stamp and since it is realised one is liberated from all degenerations it is great or supreme. The same idea we said right at the beginning. Then here in the next paragraph we see a list of many different Maha Mudrā style practices. And you can see here within the Kagyu school there are a number of different sub-schools. Report an error

45:06 So the first practice of Maha Mudrā which is called co-emergent union is the way that Maha Mudrā is explained in what's called the Karma Kagyu school. So maybe most of you have heard about the Karmapa. Karmapa is head of the Karma Kagyu school. And then there's other kagyu skills here as mentioned, Shankpa kagyu, Drikum kagyu, Drukka kagyu. Each one has their own Mahamudra practice packaged a little bit different called the amulet box, the five parts, six cycles and so on. Report an error

45:40 So here we have a list of many different Mahamudra and Mahamudra equivalent practices. But then the Pancha Lama goes on to the next sentence and says, however, Report an error

45:53 When investigated by yogis, learned in definitive meaning scriptures, skilled in logical reasoning and experienced in meditation, they all come down to the same intended meaning. Report an error

46:07 Which means that although there are all these different practices, if you look at them, they all come down to the same point. They are realising the same emptiness, the same nature of the mind. Report an error

46:22 And so then he goes on to say, this being the case from among the two systems within Sūtra Mahamudra, Seeking to meditate after having gained the correct view and seeking the correct view after having meditated, I shall explain in accordance with the latter system. So remember, to gain, to realise nature of mind, realise nature of reality, we need shamatha, Vipassanā practice. Report an error

46:49 That's what it's referring to here. Seeking to meditate is talking about doing shamatha practice. After having gained the correct view means a correct view, a correct understanding of emptiness. So it's saying that we can have two approaches to this practice. Either we can gain the correct view of emptiness, then develop shamatha, or we can develop shamatha and then gain the correct view, the Vipassanā practice. Report an error

47:21 But here he's saying that he'll follow the latter system. And he's quoting Shantideva on this, another great Indian master, who says, Vipassanā endowed with shamatha, Completely destroys the afflictions, knowing this first Sikh, Shamata. And then the next, he also quotes a sūtra which says, through abiding in ethics, concentration is attained. Report an error

47:44 Having attained concentration, cultivate wisdom. So again, what we find is that actually in all levels of practice, whether we're talking Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayana, Tantra, Report an error

48:00 We need these three same core practices as quoted in the sūtra. We need an ethical foundation. On that basis we need to develop concentration. And then on that basis we need to develop wisdom. And so often these three are called the three higher trainings. And in Sanskrit ethics is shila, concentration is samādhi and wisdom is prajna. Report an error

48:30 So Shila, Samādhi, Prajna are the three core practices that we need to develop. And so here, of course, some of our preliminary practices, particularly in terms of karma, in terms of refuge, in terms of bodhicitta, is helping us to develop that ethical foundation. On that basis, we need to do these two core practices, concentration and wisdom. Develop calm, clear, focused mind. On that basis, develop our wisdom. Report an error

49:00 So the two practices here that we are focusing on now is Samatha and Vipassanā. How to develop single point concentration, then how to use that in our wisdom practice. How to penetrate nature of reality, how to realise emptiness, how to realise the nature of our own mind. So let's look now at the Samatha practice. Report an error

49:23 Because I think here is a lot of, particularly the Mahamudra approach to Samatha. I think there's a lot of very useful practical advice to help us, not only in our meditation but in our daily life. And also, from my perspective at least, Report an error

49:45 shamatha is not emphasised enough. Report an error

49:52 Again, these three practices of ethics, concentration and wisdom are the three core practices in all Buddhist traditions, whether it's Theravāda, Mahāyāna or Vajrayana. Because in fact... We said generation stage practice is basically a shamatha practice, completion is vipassanā. Of course also within Tantra we need to have an ethical foundation, Report an error

50:22 contrary to popular belief. Because often people believe that in Tantra we're beyond ethics, we can do whatever we want. Quite often people think that. But actually the ethical foundation in Tantra is much more stringent than at Sūtra or Theravāda level. In fact, in Tantra level of practice, giving up love for even one single sentient being is a serious ethical downfall. Report an error

50:55 Serious. That's the level of ethics we're trying to hold in Tantra. Extremely difficult. So, ethics is again also the very foundation of Tantra. Without ethical foundation, Tantra is at best, again, at worst, Creating problems for us. So again, even in Tantra we talk about ethics, concentration, wisdom. All levels of practice. Report an error

51:22 But, and all levels of practice, if you look at the text, it says yes, shamatha, shamatha, shamatha, necessary, necessary, necessary. But somehow when it comes to actual practice, I think across most traditions, it's not emphasized very much. Report an error

51:41 I think within Tibetan tradition, One of the main reasons for that is that shamatha is sort of inbuilt into generation stage practice. So, you know, in Tibetan traditions you talk a lot about the lamrim and the foundation practices, bodhicitta, then it says, okay, now do tantra. Report an error

52:04 So, at our level, of course, then if you look in the text, it talks about the shamatha practice, how to do it. But generally when it's taught and when people practice, not a lot of emphasis. And I think across the board, also from what I understand in many Theravāda traditions, you know, for instance, Goenka Vipassanā. Report an error

52:27 A lot of you probably heard about Goenka Vipassanā. Report an error

52:33 Again, Vipassanā Vipassanā Vipassanā. Not a lot of emphasis on Samatha. And that's unfortunate because if we don't have a calm, clear, focused mind, Report an error

52:46 Whatever practice we're doing, whether it's Vipassanā, trying to develop bodhicitta, whatever we're trying to do is not going to work very well. We're not going to have much progress. So I think we really need to put some effort into Samatha practice. That's my personal opinion. But anyway, let's have a look now at the Samatha practice. What do we need to do? So again, at the bottom of page 3, it says there are two stages, preparation and actual practice. Report an error

53:21 And again here, preparation is something important to prepare ourselves for this practice. And again, often these sort of things are overlooked and sometimes people just dive into this practice and then they have all sorts of problems and they wonder why they're not making any progress. They sort of forgot about the preparation. So let's have a look at what sort of preparation we need to have to engage in the shamatha sort of practice. Report an error

53:58 Here in the text it says, it's quoting Maitreya, the text called Ornament of Imayama Sūtra, it says, the place where the intelligent practice is a place with easy access, a safe place, a place with good friends and good grounds and the requisites for yogic practice. So in explaining that text, the verse, the Panchana Lama says, it is explained that we are remaining in such a place, It is necessary to rely on the prerequisites for shamatha by abiding in pure ethics, having few desires, being content and so forth. Report an error

54:33 It is definitely necessary to do the six preparatory practices. Here we can talk about what I call the six prerequisites for shamatha practices. Report an error

55:14 The first prerequisite is sort of mentioned in that root verse. It's talking about the outer conditions. Report an error

55:52 The root text mentions what things we should look for in a supportive environment. So it says here that it's a place with easy access. Report an error

56:03 Now this list is actually talking about the conditions we need if we really want to go on to a sort of long retreat on shamatha. If we want to go into some sort of retreat on Shavantar, What sort of conditions do we need? But what we're going to see of course is that we can also apply this same list of six things to life in general. Report an error

56:33 If we want to have conducive conditions in our life for spiritual practice, I think these conditions are also useful. The first one is the supportive environment. So here when it talks about easy access it's talking about Of course, in a retreat setting you need access to food and water and so forth. A safe place, again, I guess historically, you know, sometimes in Texas it says a safe place means not where there's lots of lions and tigers and things that are going to eat you and stuff like that. Report an error

57:11 A place with good friends, good ground and good friends. So good ground here means a healthy place. Again, if you're in a retreat and there's a lot of disease around you and a stomach problem. Report an error

57:25 Here I think good friends is something, Report an error

57:31 is we need to, in the retreat, among us who are supporting us in the retreat, but I think here applying them to life in general, Report an error

57:49 this is something very important, it comes back to these three jewels, Buddha Dharma Saṅgha, the Saṅgha. This is something very important also from my own personal experience, is unless we surround ourselves, Saṅgha, Some spiritual community. I think it's very difficult to make progress in the spiritual path. Unless we happen to be some very strong minded person. Report an error

58:19 Because particularly as a beginner, we're very much influenced by things and people around us. And if we're living in an environment where we have a lot of unhealthy influences, things and people at work or at home or community. Then we're often pushed in directions we don't really want to go, but we're not strong. So I think here if we really want to follow spiritual life, particularly as a beginner when we're not very strong minded, we're easily influenced by other people and things around us, I think it's very important, if not essential, to have some Saṅgha. Report an error

58:59 Meaning have some people around us who are supporting us in our spiritual life. So I think being connected with a place like here, very good idea. Often when I give an introduction course, because I'm mainly based in India and Dharamsala, and often I give a 10 day introduction to Buddhism course. And so quite often towards the end of the 10 days when I've explained everything about all these things, often people pick out a few things that they think, wow, this could really help me in my life. Report an error

59:38 But then towards the end of the course it sort of suddenly dawns on them that when they go back home to implement these ideas is going to be hugely difficult. In fact sometimes people come to me for interviews and sometimes they sort of break down and cry because they sort of can see the value in some of these ideas but then they look, they think about their environment back home and they think well this is going to be impossible, impossible to do these things. Report an error

1:00:07 The environment I live in back home is just so hostile, so negative. So I think we really need to make sure that we have good friends around us that can really help support us in our spiritual practice. Otherwise, it's going to be very difficult. Of course, when we advance in the path, in fact the opposite happens. Now as a beginner, we need a lot of supportive people around us to help support us. Report an error

1:00:40 That's conducive for us as a beginner. But actually, as we progress on the spiritual path, we're actually going to need people who irritate us. That's conducive because one of the things we have to develop, of course, is patience. At the high level of practice, when we progress, we need people who are challenging us. Report an error

1:01:04 Otherwise, if everyone's always nice and kind to us, it's hard to develop patience. In fact, we can become deluded. Thinking that, oh I'm super patient now, I haven't been angry for the last three months. But maybe that's because no one had been around us pushing our buttons. So we need to look for conducive conditions. Report an error

1:01:23 But of course us, for us beginners, we don't need to search out these irritating people. We have enough contact. We need to rather surround ourselves with people supporting us. Report an error

1:01:37 But as an advanced person, in fact in the text it says we need to go out and look for these. Annoying people. Really. In fact, Lama Tisha, when it came to Tibet, he brought an attendant who was completely obnoxious. And the Tibetan said, why have you got him? Get rid of him. Get someone nice. And Lama Tisha said to him, he's my most holy teacher. So, of course, maybe we're not at Lama Tisha's level. Report an error

1:02:06 So, again, maybe surrounding ourselves with supportive people is a better idea for us. So that's something very important. Report an error

1:02:17 The last point here in the supportive environment says, and the requisites for yogic practice. When we look at that, what that means is that we need a quiet place. Report an error

1:02:30 When we look in the text, that's what it means, a nice quiet place. But then we need, so that's outer, that's the outer conditions, we need a supportive environment. Report an error

1:02:45 Then there are five more which were briefly mentioned in the next sentence. which are inner conditions, Report an error

1:03:10 desires and being contentious. I think they're both mentioned in the text there. They are very closely related. Futures is in terms of things that we don't have and being contentious with respect to things that we do have. Report an error

1:03:28 Again, if we are trying to accumulate lots of stuff and thinking that that's going to make us happy, Then that's really going to create an obstacle in our practice because we're going to spend a lot of time and energy chasing after all these things and of course if we don't get them we're going to get frustrated and even if we get them they won't really make us happy, we'll become disappointed, maybe even depressed, crave more, big mess. Report an error

1:03:59 So we need to have few desires and be content with what we have. But of course here we're talking about material things. When it comes to spiritual practice it's the opposite. We should have lots of desires in terms of ambition to progress and we should never be content with our spiritual practice. But unfortunately for us now usually it's the opposite. We have few desires when it comes to spiritual practice and we're completely content with what we're doing in spiritual practice and yet we have lots of desires in earning more money, getting more possessions, never content with... Report an error

1:04:39 The clothes, we need to buy new clothes, new car, new house, all this sort of stuff. So anyway, I think this is something quite important in life in general. Because if we can really develop this, you'll find that it will free up not only a lot of time and energy, but also it will be a very liberating experience to not have to worry about, oh, I've got to get more money, a bigger car, better clothes, all that sort Report an error

1:05:18 of stuff. The second Report an error

1:05:19 one here is Report an error

1:05:30 activities. And I think this is something also particular we can really apply to our daily life. Again, now we tend to fill up our life with stuff, with things to do. Nothing Report an error

1:05:48 to do is Report an error

1:06:01 what we see. So we sort of watch Report an error

1:06:07 some TV, go here, see that person, go there. Because then we don't have to look at our own mind and it's Report an error

1:06:19 very much emphasized that if we're not doing something, we're not being productive. You know, we've got to do something. Report an error

1:06:28 So I think here, particularly those foundation practices of precious human life and death, if we really try to internalize those, then a lot of the activities we do now, the extra activities in our life, I think we're going to see that a lot of these things are not really that meaningful in Report an error

1:06:54 our time. So if we do those reflections, I think what will happen is our life will become much more simple. We'll simplify our lives. Our lives are way, way too complicated. Too many different things going on. A lot of those things, some things of course are necessary, some things not. And so if we really reflect on those things, the things that are not necessary, we're going to start to see through them and understand that these things are not really doing anything useful for me. Report an error

1:07:21 They're probably costing me a lot of money. Let's just drop. Report an error

1:07:36 If you do those reflections on life and death and really internalise it, you're actually just going to lose interest in doing it. Report an error

1:07:47 And then rather than... Report an error

· · ·

1:09:44 Compulsive thoughts are, again, a lot to do with not being happy with our current situation. So we're fabricating, dreaming about some sort of fantasizing about some sort of future or something. So a lot of this compulsive thinking is to do with Remembering wonderful things in the past and sort of fabricating some imagined future and completely just not only is it really agitates our mind a lot but it gets us out of the present moment whereas the only thing that happens is in the present moment. Report an error

1:10:27 So compulsive thinking itself not only does it agitate the mind heavily but it blocks us. From being present, being in the present moment and experiencing things. And in fact it was very interesting, very recently, and then it's time for a break, I saw an experiment that Harvard psychologists, Report an error

1:11:03 exactly how they did it, but basically the outcome, well basically they saw that our mind is hardly ever in the present moment. We're wandering all the time into the past and the future and the outcome of their survey was that it's not that happy, therefore we sort of look for something else and we wander, but actually that it's the wandering mind that makes us unhappy, which is a little bit this idea, compulsive. Report an error

1:11:40 It makes us unhappy. And basically, I mean, all traditions, particularly Buddhism, is saying that. It's the living in the past and the future that... It really makes us unhappy. We're never in the present moment. So fortunately, particularly the shamatha style practice itself, even though this is a prerequisite, that will in turn help to reduce this. Report an error

1:12:03 But coming into shamatha practice, if we're really caught up in our stories and fantasizing about all sorts of things, shamatha practice is all about being in the present moment. It would be very difficult. So at least as a beginner, We need to sort of reduce that somewhat so that we can begin to have this shamatha practice. But of course the shamatha practice itself will help to further reduce that. Report an error

1:12:32 So anyway, these are six prerequisites that are mentioned in the texts for anyone who wants to do a shamatha style retreat. But I think if we look at them we can understand that even in our life if we want to lead... A meaningful life and have a good basis for spiritual practice. I think we really need to pay attention to all of those things there. Report an error

1:13:01 Then we need to pay attention to a tea break. Report an error

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Talk by Glen Svensson. Original at Kunsang Yeshe Retreat Centre via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/GlenSvenssonGelugTraditionOfMahamudra. Licensed CC BY-ND 3.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.

Recorded at Kunsang Yeshe Retreat Centre, Victoria, and archived by the centre on Internet Archive. More from Kunsang Yeshe

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