Continuing with HANDOUT 6, we had gotten to the suffering of having the five aggregates.

Transcription

1 Ornament for Clear Realization Perfection of Wisdom Studies Class FALL - September 21 Wednesday 1 Institute for Buddhist Dialectics, McLeod Ganj, India Teacher - VEN. KELSANG WANGMO Continuing with HANDOUT 6, we had gotten to the suffering of having the five aggregates. The suffering of (having) the five aggregates The Buddha said: "In brief, the five contaminated aggregates are suffering." Here the Buddha means that the five contaminated aggregates are in the nature of suffering. This is explained in five points: 1) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of future suffering 2) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of present suffering 3) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of the suffering of suffering 4) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of the suffering of change 5) The five (contaminated) aggregates are in the nature of the all- pervasive compositional suffering Basically it all comes down to: The Buddha said: " In brief, the five contaminated aggregates are suffering. " What are the five aggregates? What is special, peculiar about those five? What are they? Form, Feeling, Discrimination, Consciousness and Compositional Factors. Is there anything peculiar about those five? STUDENT: Feeling and Discrimination. GESHE- ལགས : Yes, and also Compositional Factors. Of the Five Aggregates, three of the set are minds. Consciousness can be taken as a main mind, but Feeling and Discrimination are two of the Five Omni- Present Mental Factors that are always present with a main mind. These are ingredients that make up a person. How many Mental Factors are there: 51 in one categorization, but there are so many different Mental Factors. So why separate out these two Mental Factors as part of the five ingredients of a person? STUDENT: They are with every main mind. GESHE- ལགས : Well, three other Mental Factors are also Five Omni- Present Mental Factors.... Who discriminates? Who is the main discriminator? It is a little hard to come up with the answer. In the Abhidharmakosha, Vasubandhu said there are two types of people: ordinary people and those interested in philosophy. 1 ROUGH DRAFT -

2 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering For the ordinary people, all their problems arise from feelings. Feelings of pleasure usually leads to attachment; feelings of displeasure to anger; neutral feelings to ignorance. For intellectual types, disputes arise not so much from feeling but from disagreements, i.e., in discriminating disputes: This is right. That is Wrong. Sometime both Feeling and Discrimination cause us problems. Discrimination itself is not wrong. It means to differentiate. But discrimination leads to judging, chauvinism and bigotry. Those two Mental Factors are very important and always present, but when wrongly used, they lead to all of the disputes in the world. Feelings and Discrimination are the troublemakers. At the time of the Buddha, ordinary people meant those who did not have any education. Education enables one to use discrimination in more sophisticated ways. But delusions lead to problems. Someone I know once said in reply to the question, What is the main cause of problems in the world today? : Education. It sounds horrible. Of course, it is not true; we need education. However, education can give rise to dissatisfaction, because of being able to discrimination leads to lack of contentment. But it was not meant to say that education, per se, is harmful; just when it is not used constructively. Compositional Factors includes all the other Mental Factors plus other ingredients of a person: e.g., imprints that are left on our Mental Consciousness that are not Form, Consciousness or Mental Factors. MEDITATIVE CONCENTRATIONS OF FORM & FORMLESS REALMS In our tradition, developing concentration is vital; but attaining the Form and Formless Realm Concentrations is not. It is not said to be important to be reborn in those realms; a human birth is emphasized as precious. Attaining the First Four Concentrations of Form Realm overcomes Feeling. The Abhidharma divides feelings into five categories: 1) Feeling of pleasure associated with a Mental Consciousness. Feeling of pleasure associated with a Sense Consciousness. 3) Feeling of displeasure with a Mental Consciousness. 4) Feeling of displeasure with a Sense Consciousness. 5) Neutral feeling. Why that division? Because either the Feelings associated with Mental Consciousness are more subtle than those associated with Sense Consciousness. Or the Feelings associated with Sense Consciousness are subtler than the feelings associated with Mental Consciousness. Which is it? Sense Consciousness: the Feelings associated with Sense Consciousness are subtler than the feelings associated with Mental Consciousness. That is why a Mental Consciousness can overcome a Sense Consciousness, which is the reason that the feelings of Mental Consciousness are said to be coarser than those of Sense Consciousness. Overcome in the sense that if I have a toothache, I mentally reflect on its causes, and think about using the pain to benefit others which can help me deal with the suffering. When one generates the First Concentration of the Form Realm, the first feeling overcome is the mental feeling of displeasure, which is easier to overcome than the physical feeling of displeasure. 2

3 2011 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering 3 That s another way of determining which feeling is subtler: It is harder to overcome the mental feelings than the physical feelings, i.e., the coarser one is more easily overcome. The Second Concentration of the Form Realm overcomes the unpleasant feeling associated with physical consciousness. The Third Concentration of the Form Realm overcomes the pleasurable feeling associated with mental consciousness. The Fourth Concentration of the Form Realm overcomes the pleasurable feeling associated with physical consciousness. These are all ordinary or contaminated feelings. You cannot overcome the fifth type of feeling of neutrality with ordinary concentration or you would have no feeling at all. Feelings of neutrality can only be overcome when one realizes Emptiness to the extent of becoming an Arhat or a Buddha. So in Form Realm concentrations, contaminated feelings of neutrality cannot be overcome without applying the Buddhist path. So these are the Four Worldly (Form Realm) Concentrations. Form Realm and Formless Realm concentrations are known as worldly because they are not concerned with realizing Emptiness. The only way to overcome all of the contaminated feelings, including neutral feelings, is by realizing Emptiness directly.... The next Four Worldly Concentrations overcome increasingly subtle types of discrimination. The Abhidharmakosha describes three types: 1) Limited Discrimination of Desire Realm; 2) Extensive Discrimination of Form Realm; and 3) Immeasurable Discrimination of Formless Realm. So when you reach the Form Realm you have already overcome the Limited Discrimination of Desire Realm, i.e., the very limited consciousnesses we have in the Desire Realm. We cannot focus due to craving for new sensation/objects, i.e., boredom. Beings in the Form Realm do not have the (coarse) delusions we have (unless their concentration degenerates). So the Form Realm discrimination is more extensive; and in the Formless Realm, the mind is so vast. Buddhism does not stress that one should strive to reach the Formless Realms because one gets stuck there for thousands of years. What are the Formless Realm Concentrations: First Formless Realm Concentration is called: Limitless Space, Limitless Consciousness, Limitless Nothingness, Peak of Cyclic Existence. So Limitless the object becomes less and less solid. These subjects are raised in the extensive study of the Abhidharma. So we have understood the Five Aggregates in relation to the four Form Concentrations and four Formless Concentrations. [TRACK 2] - SUFFERING OF (HAVING) THE FIVE AGGREGATES [HANDOUT 6, P. 2] We go back to Feelings because everything in the Desire Realm is governed by Feeling. 3

4 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering Of course Discrimination is important, but Suffering is explained in terms of Feeling because Suffering is a Feeling. The Buddha said: "In brief, the five contaminated aggregates are suffering." Here the Buddha means that the five contaminated aggregates are in the nature of suffering. This is explained in five points: This category of suffering is a bit repetitive: 1) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of future suffering. 2) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of present suffering. 3) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of the suffering of suffering 4) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of the suffering of change 5) The five (contaminated) aggregates are in the nature of the all- pervasive compositional suffering. Note, the five aggregates being vessels of past suffering is not included. Buddhism doesn t worry about past life from perspective of Buddhism, past lives regression is not said to important because who cares? It is all gone anyway. 1) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of future suffering The five contaminated aggregates are vessels of future suffering because due to our present contaminated mind and body we create the causes for future misery. Having a body and a mind that is under the control of ignorance and other delusions we constantly accumulate negative actions of body, speech, and mind that induce problems and difficulties in the later part of this life or in future rebirths. As explained previously, due to our present five aggregates we experience feelings of suffering which induce anger (resentment, hostility, hatred, etc.); we experience feelings of contaminated happiness, which induce attachment (desire, longing, craving, etc.); and we experience contaminated neutral feelings, which induce ignorance (misperceptions that misapprehend reality). Anger, attachment, and ignorance in turn cause us to engage in harmful actions (karma), which eventually ripen into various types of problems and difficulties. Although it is repetitive it is extremely important to contemplate. How attached are we to our mind and body. Check. We need contemplate in order to lessen the attachment to our mind and body. 2) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of suffering that presently exists. The five contaminated aggregates are also responsible for us presently experiencing various troubles and discomforts. Due to having our current mind and body we experience the problems of sickness, aging and death. We face all sorts of difficulties, frustration and dissatisfaction. When afflictive emotions that induce future suffering arise we immediately lose our peace of mind and feel disturbed and restless. So those are from the perspective of present and future problem. Then again the Three Types of Suffering are mentioned here. 4

5 2011 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering 5 3) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of the suffering of suffering. Regarding the five contaminated aggregates being the vessel for the three types of suffering, our present mind and body are the vessels that experience the various types of suffering of suffering, i.e., the physical suffering of cold, heat, pain, exhaustion, etc. as well as the mental suffering of sadness, depression, loneliness, anxiety, etc. There is a point in making it extensive, although I am going through quickly. 4) The five (contaminated) aggregates are vessels of the suffering of change Our present mind and body are also responsible for us undergoing the suffering of change. That is so hard to understand: even the happiness to which I am most attached. Understanding this helps us to decrease cravings, especially those that do not benefit us at all. Craving is a deep instinct, whatever you mean by instinctive. We don t make a decision every time, do I want this or not; not we naturally experience craving. Thinking about this one day, a week or a year is not enough. Joyous Effort refers to intensity and to continuity. In Tibetan, there are two ways to say someone works hard: one does not imply the person joyously works hard, but if you say someone works with perseverance, diligence, i.e., joyous effort, it means the hard work is done with intense joy and persistence. So if we do not refrain from negativity and then start thinking about Bodhicitta, that is just wishful thinking. Bodhicitta cannot arise without firm internalization of the First Noble Truth. Then, having internalized the Truth of Suffering, continuous and intense joyous effort naturally arises. Then there are fewer obsessions with I, me and mine, which gives more space to think of others. Naturally, we are more interested in the advanced practices and teachings. So this material may seem boring, in the sense of nothing interestingly new here, but it is the foundation that needs to be internalized. Look at our class. The term on the Two Truths, the room was crammed with people; now we have more space. So even though it may be boring, in the sense of no new material, but this is what we must internalize. Our present mind and body are contaminated because they are under the control of ignorance, other delusions and karma. Why does it mention, other delusions? First is the root delusion, ignorance and then all the other delusions arise. So this is getting at the Truth of Origin. We re getting there, but we have nine Handouts on Suffering! Those delusions and karma are the causes and conditions of all our problems and difficulties. Therefore, the moment we are born with our contaminated aggregates we carry the potential to experience suffering. As explained before, whatever samsaric happiness we experience, it cannot last and inevitably transforms into some form of misery. It is in the nature of our aggregates that whatever pleasure or happiness arises has a limit and cannot be sustained. Eventually it will change into dissatisfaction and displeasure. 5

6 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering Why am I surprised and complain about unhappy circumstances when they are to be expected in Cyclic Existence? Our mind- body complex is compared to an open wound, sensitive to touch and always ready to hurt. Our pleasant experiences are like putting cool water on the wound, which temporarily relieves the pain. However, as long as one has an open wound, pleasant relief from the pain cannot last and will inevitably change back into pain. Therefore, even if for the time being we are happy and content, circumstances can easily change and transform our happiness into dissatisfaction and misery. Our aggregates are like an open wound, and the Suffering of Change is like the cool water temporarily relieving the Suffering of Suffering. For an Arya Bodhisattva, their compassion towards someone who inflicts physical suffering upon them is the same as towards someone who inflicts pain. Even though our pleasurable experiences induce desire and attachment, there is nothing in any of these experiences that has an essential nature of pleasure. Two disadvantages: We get bored if a pleasurable sensation goes on for too long; and unhappy if changes too quickly, before we re satiated. So either it changes before we can get bored or we get bored, either way we re going to have dissatisfaction. Contaminated pleasant feelings arise from the temporary relief from suffering. They are a mere lightening of the burden, which are then labelled "happiness". It is only in comparison to previous feelings of displeasure and pain that we call the temporary absence of those feelings "happiness". It is absurd that we are calling a temporary lightening of our burden of suffering happiness. Our happiness is so relative. When everything seems to be going well, we don t appreciate our successes. We re so much happier right after we recover from illness. [TRACK 3] Lama Tsong Khapa says in his Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: Quotations such as these from Je Rinpoche and other masters, are relaying to us the personal experiences of someone who has realized the subject. 6

7 2011 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering 7 Lama Tsongkhapa says in his Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: Moreover, your current pleasant feelings which cause attachment to grow mostly arise only upon the relief of suffering; pleasure does not exist naturally, independently of the removal of suffering. For example, if you suffer because of too much walking, a pleasant state of mind arises when you sit down. Then, as the earlier intense suffering fades, pleasure appears to arise gradually. Yet sitting is not naturally pleasant, because if you sit too long, suffering arises again, just as before. Suppose that sitting and other postures were causes of pleasure by their nature. Just as suffering increases in proportion to your involvement with causes of suffering, so should pleasure increase the longer you walk, sit, lie down, drink or eat, or stand in the sun or shade. However, it is clear that if you do any of these for too long, suffering is all that results. The suffering from standing in the sun or shade became so clear in Ladakh because the shade becomes too cold quickly. I should have given Buddha s quotation earlier, but thought it would be better in this context this materials is all from the Lam Rim Chen Mo. Buddha says in the Sutra for Nanda for Entering the Womb: Nanda, the physical activities of walking, sitting, standing, or lying down must each be understood as suffering. If meditators analyse the nature of these physical activities, they will see that if they spend the day walking and do not rest, sit down, or lie down, they will experience walking exclusively as suffering and will experience intense, sharp, unbearable and unpleasant feelings. The notion that walking is pleasant will not arise. After explaining the other three physical activities of sitting etc. in the same way, the Buddha continues: Nevertheless, Nanda, because they break the continuity of suffering in one or the other of the physical activities, some other, new suffering arises; and this they take to be pleasure. Nanda, when this contaminated feeling of pleasure arises, it is only suffering that is arising; when it ends, it is only this nature of suffering that ends. When it arises yet again, it is only the compositional activity that arises; when it ends, it is only compositional activity that ends. The examples given here mainly refer to the body, in that they demonstrate that certain physical activities may initially provide us with physical happiness and well- being. However, that happiness is only temporary, for our body is under the control of karma and delusion; it is like an open wound and thus in the nature of suffering. Therefore, physical happiness is merely the temporary absence of physical suffering. Examples that are related to the mind demonstrate that certain mental activities may in the same way initially provide us with mental peace and well- being. Even during prayers. When I first became a nun, the prayers could move me to tears, and then that stopped and it became hard work. The lamas give us a taste of what it could be like that is why it is so important to go to H.H. Dalai Lama s teachings because there s a chance we will get one of those blessing experiences that give us a taste. Then we have to work from scratch to make it last. For instance, remembering a joyful event may make us feel happy and satisfied. However, since our mind is equally under the control of karma and delusions, since it is also like an open wound and thus in the nature of suffering, the initial pleasant feeling is only a temporary relief from suffering and thus will inevitably change into an unpleasant feeling of, for example, boredom and tediousness. 7

8 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering What is it that makes this boring and tedious? Our own negative tendencies the imprints, that we are born with that create blocks and obstacles. Our dharma practice is really like an obstacle course, but we expect it should be a smooth path. I think that is important to understand as a part of the practice. I do look at dharma practice as a stairway to happiness, but it is like you get stuck on certain stairs. It is not straight up. Sometimes it feels like two steps forwards and five backwards. Je Tsun- ma Tenzin Palmo said she spoke to western scientists who told her that each person has a certain level continuity of happiness. There s a certain degree of satisfaction, a happiness quotient that is different for each person. They have found that the happiness quotient of people who spend time meditating on compassion rises, increases. That is evidence that you can actually increase, slowly, your level of happiness. After ten years, you see that you get less upset by natural ups and down and restore you equilibrium faster. This explains why, no matter how blissful and happy we feel upon getting or achieving something we yearned for, that happiness is only short- lived and quickly replaced by boredom and dissatisfaction. Aryadeva says in his Four Hundred Stanzas: For pleasure, when it increases, Is seen to change into its opposite. When pain increases, It does not similarly change into its opposite. Sometimes, we suffer, suffer, suffer, and then it changes back to more normal state; but that is not always the case. With happiness it is always the case that states of mundane happiness decrease. 5) The five (contaminated) aggregates are in the nature of (pervasive) compositional suffering The very existence of our five aggregates constitutes pervasive compositional suffering because our aggregates are conditioned by karma and delusions. In fact, anything that is conditioned by karma and delusions is in the nature of pervasive compositional suffering. Therefore, having the wound of those aggregates we can temporarily find some relief by taking painkillers, or can make it flair up in pain by applying an irritant like chilli. However, the wound of the aggregates itself is the basis of the other experiences of relief and pain. At the same time it also gives rise to a future wound and thus to unwanted future pain. We make sure that our wound stays open; as though we keep scratching at the scab. NEUTRAL FEELING, A PERVASIVE COMPOSITIONAL SUFFERING. Lama Tsongkhapa says in his Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: In the same way that someone bearing a heavy burden cannot be happy as long as the burden must be borne, you too will suffer so long as you carry the burden of the appropriated aggregates. Though you have occasional moments when painful feeling is absent, because the aggregates are firmly embedded in the dysfunctional tendencies of suffering and the afflictions, compositional suffering is still present, and therefore myriad sufferings are just on the verge of arising in countless ways. Therefore, since compositional suffering pervades all suffering and is the root of the other two types of suffering, meditate on it often in order to become disenchanted with it. 8

9 2011 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering 9 That type of pervasive compositional suffering is not identified as suffering by non- Buddhists. Of the three feelings, the neutral feeling is a pervasive compositional suffering. If you generate the high concentration, you don t overcome that neutral. The other four types are easily recognized by non- Buddhists as causes of suffering. We find it hard now to identify attachment to neutral feelings. Apparently attachment to this neutral feeling is the subtlest, i.e., the strongest feeling. Even though everyone wants to be happy, Formless realm beings have transcended that and are only attached to neutral feelings. Buddhas only have blissful feelings. STUDENT: Pleasurable feelings really, there are not five types of feeling because all you have is the feeling of suffering because the feeling of happiness is the mere temporary relief of suffering. GESHE- ལགས : Everything is relative. But the feeling of elation that we experience as human beings, that has different causes, but we all experience such elation. So it is a greater diminishment of suffering not lasting happiness (which is only experienced by Arhats and Buddhas from uncontaminated feelings). Suffering is like being below Zero degrees Centigrade; while Happiness is like being above Zero. Our experiences of contaminated feelings are all below Zero. But there are degrees below Zero. Say, 0 C to 10 C is happiness,... We label this relative scale of feelings that in relationship can be judged to be relatively pleasurable or suffering. Still nothing truly exists, so in the end what is it? When you start looking for the happiness, you can t find it. But conventionally, we can label feelings as happiness, suffering and neutral. While neutral is kind of colder but it distracts the mind less than attachment and aversion. Of the three kinds of delusion, the worst is anger because anger always non- virtuous. The second worst is attachment because it can induce both non- virtuous and virtuous acts.... Ignorance grasping onto the Self is neutral although it induces the other delusions, but it doesn t immediately induce non- virtuous action. So feelings that induce feelings that generate attachment and anger can be diminished by meditation until only the neutral feelings are left as philosopher- saints at the time of Buddha were doing, until at the Fourth Concentration they only had neutral feelings, which are less disruptive than the other two. But they had attachment to neutral feelings. We ll go into this more later. Therefore, since compositional suffering pervades all suffering and is the root of the other two types of suffering, meditate on it often in order to become disenchanted with it. Pervasive compositional suffering is very subtle and extremely difficult to comprehend. We are so enmeshed in our attachment to cyclic existence, in our attachment to this present psycho- physical complex and to our imagined inherently existent "I" that it requires great determination and effort to understand the third type of suffering. This suffering is not subtle but so deeply ingrained in us, so instinctive we don t recognize it. 9

10 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering The Commentary on the Treasury of Abhidharma says: When one hair from the palm of the hand Goes to the eye, There will be discomfort and suffering. The childish, like the palm of the hand, Are not aware of the hair of pervasive suffering. The saintly are like the eye, And will feel the pervasive suffering. As ordinary persons, we don t notice our own pervasive compositional suffering anymore. Not only do we not perceive it as suffering, but also we want this suffering. We can t feel this suffering naturally anymore than we feel pain from a hair on the palm of your hand. The saintly notice the pain of pervasive compositional suffering as obviously as we feel a hair in the eye. [TRACK 4] However, only if we realize how our entire samsaric existence is pervaded by this subtle nature of misery, can we realize the first of the four noble truths and thus effectively generate renunciation. It is seeing the deep, inescapable, all- pervasive suffering nature of everything in cyclic existence that inspires the sincere wish to overcome our contaminated aggregates and achieve liberation. So we must understand the First Noble Truth before we can get anywhere: to make progress on the Buddhist path, we must effectively generate renunciation, i.e., the wish to be free of this suffering). SIX CATEGORIES OF SUFFERING - UNCERTAINTY The next category of suffering is also challenging: Another category of suffering is that of the six types of suffering, a reflection on which necessitates a reflection on past and future lives: Because many don t accept reincarnation, this category of suffering is not always expounded. Buddhism doesn t really make sense without past and future lives, e.g., asserting liberation, law of Karma. Still, there are great benefits from understanding the Eight Types of Suffering, our nature in Cyclic Existence. But without acceptance of reincarnation but it is difficult to practice. So there is a 50% chance of reincarnation 1. The suffering of uncertainty. 2. The suffering of insatiability. 3. The suffering of having to give up our bodies repeatedly. 4. The suffering of repeated rebirth. 5. The suffering of repeatedly descending from high to low. 6. The suffering of having no companions 10

11 2011 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering 11 The suffering of uncertainty There is no certainty regarding the relationships we have with other people. Good friends become enemies and enemies become friends. Those that like and respect us today may set out to harm us tomorrow. Then HANDOUT 8: The Tantra Requested by Subahu says: In a short span of time an enemy becomes a friend, And a friend becomes an enemy. Likewise, some become strangers. While those who were strangers become enemies, Or close friends. Knowing this the wise never becomes attached. Rejecting the notion that they can find happiness in friends, They rest their minds in the pleasures of virtue. This is not to say that we should not have friends. H.H. Dalai Lama has so many friends, but without attachment. But we don not have that kind of friendship. Ours is so attached that we feel we can t exist without our friends and loved ones; that is the type of attachment being discouraged here. With the newer Western students, they need to understand the realistic need to reduce coarser attachments and resentments respecting other people. Reflecting on this, we should prevent the arising of attachment and resentment, which are the result of making unrealistic distinctions between friends and enemies, between "good" and "bad" people. Our mind is so changeable, so be mindful when you have a sense of being very close to someone. Or imagine your relationship 100 years from now. 100 years from now on, we will all be gone. Everyone who is close to us now, when we re reborn, will likely be a stranger. My mom loves me to pieces but in my next life, she might not recognize. I feel that my friends and loved ones are my friends in solid permanent, eternal relationships. Like, I will love you forever. Just to get a sense for this: that will reduce attachment. Attachment is harder to give up than resentment (like cloth soaked in oil), because we don t enjoy feelings of resentment, but feel we benefit from attachment. We have a tendency to judge people based on very superficial reasons. Oftentimes we only focus on one characteristic without seeing the entire person with all their good and bad qualities; we have a "black and white" kind of view of them. Further, we are not aware of the impermanent nature of phenomena; we are not aware of ourselves, other people, situations, circumstances, etc. changing moment by moment. Therefore, we have a sense that those we feel attached to and those we feel resentful towards do not change and are always the same. We have instinctive reactions that judge people for superficial reasons. We come into a room full of people and instinctive feel: like, don t like, don t care. Even though we have that reaction, we can choose to overcome it. Even though it changes quickly, it is instinctive. Even if His Holiness is not a Buddha, but is a highly realized Bodhisattva, that does not happen to him, when he walks into a room everyone is equal. He loves everyone equally. STUDENT: How do you define instinctive? Is it related to Imprints? 11

12 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering GESHE- ལགས : Something that is not taught that we all have naturally; basically, we are born with. No one needs to teach us that, although it can be enhanced or suppressed by our native culture. But we all have this naturally tendency. I still remember who I liked and didn t in Kindergarten. And the cause would be past imprints, limitless imprints from beginningless time going back to the root ignorance. There are so many different imprints, those responsible for us to be a human being, and the biological structures that allow us to continue cultivating those tendencies. Some animals can t make the distinctions that humans can do. We carry the imprints and have this present body because we have this present brain which results in this present coarse mind, which we had the karma to be born with... And other completing karma were responsible for causing the brain to develop in certain ways. We have a tendency to judge people based on very superficial reasons. Oftentimes we only focus on one characteristic without seeing the entire person with all their good and bad qualities; we have a "black and white" kind of view of them. Further, we are not aware of the impermanent nature of phenomena; we are not aware of ourselves, other people, situations, circumstances, etc. changing moment by moment. Therefore, we have a sense that those we feel attached to and those we feel resentful towards do not change and are always the same. We have a sense of that which is not necessarily intellectual. Also from the point of view of past and future lives, as we take constant rebirths, close relatives such as our mother and father become enemies in other lifetimes, while enemies become close relatives, etc. Changing the whole time. My favorite example: The uncertainty of cyclic existence is illustrated by the following story: There was once a layman whose father liked to fish in a nearby pond. When the father died he was reborn as a fish in that same pond. The layman's mother was so attached to the family and the family house that she was reborn as her son's dog. The layman had an enemy whom he killed for having an affair with the layman's wife. Since the enemy was so attached to the wife he was reborn as her son. The layman caught his father, the fish in the pond, and killed it. While he ate its meat, his mother, the dog, stole the fish bones and was therefore beaten by her son, the layman. At the same time, his enemy, the layman's son, was sitting on his knee. One of Buddha's foremost disciples, Shariputra, who had clairvoyant powers, watched the scene and declared: He eats his father's flesh and hits his mother. The enemy he killed sits on his knee. A wife gnaws her husband's bones. Cyclic existence can be such a farce It is also possible that we have the same type of relationships with persons we had a relationship with in prior lives, e.g., love at first sight... though it won t continue for all times. Nagarjuna said in his Friendly Letter: For those in cyclic existence there are no certainties Because fathers become sons, mothers become wives, Enemies become friends, And the opposite happens as well. 12

13 2011 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering 13 So the first type of suffering there is no certainty. If you get a feeling for that, you have less attachment and aversion. Thinking about suffering generated for such superficial reasons,... this is really a meditation on Equanimity. The reason we are so attached to someone is really due to very superficial discriminations. The next of the Six Sufferings is the Suffering of Insatiability The suffering of insatiability Since our mind and body are in the nature of suffering we will not be able to find any lasting satisfaction in this existence. From a Buddhist perspective, we have been taking rebirth in cyclic existence since beginningless times. If we collected all the milk we drank from our mothers as animals or humans it would more than fill all the oceans of the world (according to ancient Indian explanations there are four oceans in this world). Furthermore, unless we make an effort to overcome our present psycho- physical aggregates we will continue to take countless rebirths. We will never find lasting satisfaction. Nagarjuna says in his Friendly Letter: Each one of us has drunk more milk Than would fill the four oceans; yet Those in cyclic existence who act as ordinary beings Are intent on drinking still more than that. This is about milk, but what about, we re been all kinds beings, e.g., the most powerful person in our world, but still we want to do it over and over and we never get satisfied. We ve been this and that; the only thing we haven t been is a Buddha. We ve even reached the final concentration of the Formless Realm, the Peak of Cyclic Existence (the Concentrations are: 1) Limitless Space, 2) Limitless conscious, 3) Nothingness, Peak of Cyclic Existence i.e., the Third Concentration is not called Limitless so correct that. We ve been reborn in these regions countless times, and still we re around and unsatisfied. Moreover, Ashvaghosha s Alleviating Sorrow (Soka- vinodana) says: Again and again in hells You drank boiling liquid copper So much that even the water in the ocean Does not compare. The filth you have eaten As a dog and as a pig Would make a pile far more vast Than Mt. Meru, the king of mountains. On account of losing loved ones and friends You have shed so many tears In the realms of cyclic existence That the ocean could not contain them. The heads that have been severed From fighting one another, If piled up, would Reach beyond Brahma's heaven You have been a worm And, having been ravenous, you ate so much sludge That if it were poured into the great ocean It would fill it completely 13

14 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering There is not a single pleasant object in cyclic existence that we have not already enjoyed; there is not a single worldly feeling of happiness that we have not experienced. Countless times we were extremely rich, powerful, and famous, we were incredibly beautiful and handsome; we had wonderful friends, family, spouses, children, and so forth. Whatever worldly objects we wish for in this lifetime we have obtained innumerable times in past rebirths. Everything we long for in this lifetime, we ve had in past but it was unable to give us lasting satisfaction. However, none of those were able to give us any lasting satisfaction. We also experienced measureless pain, sorrow and misery; in fact, there is no suffering that we have not tasted. Nevertheless, despite those countless experiences of happiness and pain we still repeat the same mistakes, we are never satisfied and always crave for the same meaningless and transient objects. What a waste of time and energy! Chandragomin says in his Chandragomin says in his Letter to a Student: What realm of birth have we not come into hundreds of times? What pleasure have we not already experienced many times before? What luxury, such as splendid white yak- tail fans, have we not owned? Yet, even when we possess such things, our desire continues to grow. What is so luxurious about Yak- Tail fans? [Discussion]. Whatever luxury it is, flat screen TVs There is no suffering we have not experienced many times. The things we desire do not satisfy us. There is no sentient being that has not slept in our bellies. So why do we not rid ourselves of attachment to cyclic existence. In the Compendium of the Perfections (one of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras) it says: You get what you want, Use it up, then acquire more, And still you are not satisfied What could be more pathetic than this? We re actually getting near to the end of the sufferings. The next point is so interesting: The suffering of having to give up our bodies repeatedly When we are born with a particular body we start regarding that body as "my body. Even though we re so attached to or bodies, the one thing in life that is certain is death, so we must, eventually, move on and leave our cherished bodies behind. Therefore, over the course of countless lifetimes we repeatedly experience the suffering of death - of separating from our physical aggregate. Still our attachment to our own bodies seems to be so natural because we only feel the sensations of our own bodies. This fact is so interesting. This question comes up when we do a meditation to generate Bodhicitta, Equalizing and Exchanging Self for Others, where an obstacle is that we don t feel their sufferings now. If someone pokes Marta, I don t feel it. And that seems so 14

15 2011 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering 15 natural. One of the Ohio- Miami students asked Gen Gyatso, But that is what I feel, and no one else does? And he replied that You ve grown so accustomed to feeling that way, because when your mind entered this body, you developed such a strong sense of my body; my body; my body; my body, the mind itself developed a very strong sense of my body. And it is necessary for survival to have a healthy sense of my body. Some people suffer from condition where they can t feel pain, so that is a contradiction of that which is a problem. One also has problems if one doesn t have a healthy grasping onto a sense of self, healthy, e.g., due to mental illness. I m not talking about someone who has realized Emptiness and doesn t have a grasping onto a self anymore; that is very health; the healthiest you could wish for. But before you ve ever understood that the self doesn t exist, you must have a strong sense of the self. People who don t have that cannot really follow the dharma and overcome that. I ve heard of a kind of mental illness where one forgets everything done the minute after doing it. Without memories, it would be very difficult, impossible, to build up a sense of identify. Our sense of identity comes from everything we d done in the past, etc. So the mind and body must connect in order to stay alive. But we have grown overly accustomed to it. What if in a past life I was a Tibetan Lhasa Apso in a monastery, and got some imprints. And I was so very attached to my little furry white body, and my tail and everything. Now, I m so attached to this body that that is beyond my understanding, but that is only because I ve grown so accustomed to it. So really you need to get a sense that it is mentally created, over and over again, my body, my body, my body. This explains our un- natural natural feelings. Our attachments are really quite bizarre. Why shouldn t we really be attached when (we re younger) to the bodies we had before because we had them longer? Oh, well not a Lhasa Apso body - - that doesn t last so long When we are born with a particular body we start regarding that body as "my body" and become attached to it. However, since the one thing in life that is certain is death, we have to eventually move on and leave our cherished body behind. So that is a suffering: having to leave my body again and again. What a hassle. Therefore, over the course of countless lifetimes we repeatedly experience the suffering of death - of separating from our physical aggregates. If we piled up the bones from all the bodies we possessed in previous lives, they would form a pile whose height would exceed that of the king of mountains, Mount Meru. A legendary mountain, said to be much higher than Mt. Everest, an extremely high mountain, the highest possible. Nagarjuna says in his Friendly Letter: Each of us has left a pile of bones That would exceed Mount Meru. So next class HANDOUT 9, and then we start with the Truth of Origin, and then we will slow down. Understanding the First Truth, this is our job as Buddhists, understanding the First Truth. We have a lot to contemplate. 15

16 Fall Term - Class 5 Notes Four Noble Truths: Truth of Suffering STUDENT: Raj had four questions. Regarding suffering: Is the suffering physical? Is it mental? If it is both, what about the person who suffers, as the person is neither physical nor mental? GESHE- ལགས : Too much to fully answer here. But regarding Who suffers, we ll start with this question next time. STUDENT: Second question: What about an Arhat with Remainder, does that Arhat Suffer? GESHE- ལགས : There s a quote in the next handout that addresses that, the physical body that an Arhat attains Liberation in. There ll be a quotation about that later. But as to the first question, who suffers? Try to answer that for yourself. The Five Aggregates, what or who suffers? This is a good question about all the suffering we ve experienced. And we ll discuss it at the beginning of the next class. STUDENT: My suffering is real. GESHE- ལགས : Yours is real, mine is realer. 16