Archive Result

1

Talk on Meditation given by Gehlek Rimpoche

at

Jewel Heart New York, July 1, 2004

Welcome here tonight. Last Thursday, we covered the major problems of meditation; specifically, excitation and laxity. We talked in quite a bit of detail; still, I haven’t been able to cover it [thoroughly]. So I’m going to [go into it further]. What I would like to cover this year is a quite detailed meditation on the basis of the Lam Rim Chenmo, and the medium Lam Rim. It looks like I will be able to complete this in the next four- or five-week-long course. I was worried that I might not be able to finish before November, but I believe we will finish in August or September. We can definitely take off one, or probably two weeks during the Republican Convention, because the city will be overcrowded and the traveling will be terrible.

The question that remains is whether I can begin to touch on Wisdom by September or so. I was saving Wisdom for 2005, but I’m not going to cover the Bodhisattvacaryavatara at all in Ann Arbor, because it is so detailed. When I started the Bodhisattvacaryavatara [I used] the most detailed commentary. Now I’m [using] the shortest commentary. Even so, I don’t think I’m even halfway through in Ann Arbor. What happens is, Shantideva starts covering meditation, and then shifts. He says you learn meditation separately. He switches about halfway through the chapter, and talks only about the subject on which you meditate: the Bodhi mind. Then the Bodhi mind has to be covered completely.

Here, we introduced what Samadhi really is. Then, we introduced the two most important problems that you face, namely excitation and laxity. We covered excitation very well last time. We talked about how to bring the mind back. We tried to talk about laxity, but it didn’t really get across very well. A lot of things are involved in this. Number one, laxity means a relaxed manner, losing one’s grip, and losing focus. We also talked a little bit about how to overcome laxity. Within laxity, we have to talk about more than just the gross and subtle levels, what we commonly talk about. At the gross level, we are talking about falling asleep.

I have to use the Tibetan term, [chowa? Chenwa?]. Not only are we not focusing, but there is a negative, non-virtuous nature, which is “not-knowing.” One of [the aspects] is some very heavy stuff, which [hangs over] our mind. A huge darkness has landed on our mind. The sun is gone, the light is gone, it is as though night [has taken hold] of the mind itself.

These are all parts of laxity, or [chenwa?]. In Tibetan, this is called momba, which is ignorance. It is not really the ignorance that is at the root of samsara. The individual [is in a state of] not knowing what to do, not knowing what to think. It is not only a heavy [state], but a blind [state]. The person can’t see, can’t think straight, and the person is becoming so heavy, [she/he] just doesn’t want to move. When you get physically tired, you just don’t want to go, or move. When you eat the wrong food, you feel so heavy that you just can’t move.

A very similar thing can happen in the mind. That is part of that laxity. You are not really sinking, but feeling heavy and dark. Even if you try to think, you just don’t get it. You can’t focus or push it. You just can’t do anything. I think we also sometimes call this depression. I think, however, that this level is in between, before it becomes even a light depression. I’m not talking about heavy depression. You can be alert and have vivid awareness.

This is an in-between state that we call [mupa?] in Tibetan. It makes the individual so dark, so heavy and so unclear. Even if you make your mind really alert, and do something physical like throwing a bottle of refrigerated water on your face, even then, that heaviness can only go away for a short period. This is way before [the state of] falling asleep, losing the focus completely, not knowing what’s going on and beginning to dream; this is clearly becoming gross laxity.

This in-between [state] of heaviness combined with falling asleep causes sinking mind. When actual laxity comes, the focus on the actual subject becomes lax and loose. Even though you don’t lose the focus, even though your mind is quite clear, the connection between your mind and the subject on which you are meditating becomes unclear and loose. I’ve given three examples [to illustrate this state]: being like a blind person, being in darkness, and closing your eyes and seeing nothing.

To overcome laxity, you think of light, sunshine, a great view, the light of the sun over a glacier or snow mountain and visualizing being at a very high level and watching. Now we can utilize the beautiful photos taken from the space shuttle. In early India, there is a traditional, non-Buddhist system that teaches you to visualize being above the clouds, traveling through and visiting different universes. Even in Buddhism, there are some meditations where you visit one pure land after another. You see enlightened beings making offerings. Not many people talk about it. It will be just a mental exercise, not serving any virtuous purpose.

When you develop zhi ne, you may be able to use that to accumulate a tremendous amount of merit. In Vajrayana practice, we visualize light going out of our heart and reaching countless universes and pure lands and making offerings to the enlightened beings. [In that context] we don’t do these things on that level of overcoming depression. This would be a wonderful meditation for that purpose.

So go and visit Tushita Pure Land, meet Maitreya and make great offerings. Go to the western paradise, meet Amitaba Buddha and then at the next site meet Avalokitesvara. Then go all together to the mountain called Potala. With Avalokitesvara, go over to the other side where there is this little blue mountain called [Yulokoy?] where Tara lives. It is a turquoise mountain. Visit Tara.

Some of you could put them together and make a nice, compact meditation journey. It will be very, very helpful to people who have a lot of depression. I don’t think there would be any objections. It will be helpful especially for people who are [doing healing work]. It will be a nice thing to do.

This discussion about laxity and depression is not a part of the teachings. These exist, however, and there is a variety of different teachings, so we can [choose from] them. We can [create a meditation] not in a New Age way, with [elements] taken from here and there and nowhere, but in a nice little organized way. Closest to this universe is the Ganden galaxy. Once there you can visit Ganden towns and cities. Then you can visit the Pure Land of Tushita, where you’ll find Maitreya, Tsong Kha Pa and Atisha. From there, you can make a horizontal journey across the western paradise. There is a togetherness [unity among them] that you can bring in. There is also the Pure Land of the Medicine Buddha.

You can combine them and make them one. We do have a tremendous number of psychologists in Jewel Heart. It will be good for them to create a special meditation. You can call it “Journey to the Pure Lands” with the (I can’t understand).

We can do this with a purpose; when you get to each place, there should be a little purification, a little offering, a little joy, and a little collecting of blessings. Within this little system, we can make a journey that will not only help relieve depression, but it will also help to accumulate merit and purification. Therefore it will be spiritual contemplation.

If you don’t do anything but go somewhere like a tourist, and look at [this and that] site, that’s fine, but it won’t have any spiritual value at all. It might, however, relieve some of the heaviness and darkness. I mentioned one of my teachers last week, who used to take me for a picnic after the great difficulty of climbing the mountain. Then we wouldn’t stay very long because we had to get down before dark. We wouldn’t go early; we’d leave maybe after lunch, and climb for hours to the top. He did that very often.

As a kid, I loved to go, but I hated to climb the mountain. Sometimes I would play the trick of [going partway] the day before. I did manage to do that a couple of times. We’d carry a tent and have a picnic. That was not enough, though. We still had to go to the top of the mountain. We’d get up there, settle a little bit, and then have to get up. But that was a good way of doing it.

Teachers do literally take you to the high mountaintops. This probably helps cut down different types of laxity.

I did mention to you that excitation is part attachment, part obsession, and that laxity is [almost] part ignorance. It is one of the major tricks ego plays to overpower the individual person.

Now, where do they come from? Both excitation and laxity come especially during your practice and meditation, especially if you are taking a retreat. You have to set limitations, so you won’t expose yourself to the vastness of worldly affairs, everything that’s happening.

If you want entertainment, movies are very nice. There is a difference, however, between movies and news. News, at least, is information. You know, I’m just defending my own [inclinations]. It looks like I’m defending my CNN, or my NPR. At least the news has some information of value. A movie is just completely a movie. From the audience: “except 9/11.” Rimpoche laughs. Except 9/11. By the way, I did see it. Did you see it? I was slightly disappointed. With that much effort, they could have organized it a little better. It’s like my teaching. It’s not organized. I don’t prepare, I just come up and talk to you straightaway. These days I do these Tara blessings, which are very organized. It makes a big difference. But I don’t organize at all. 9/11 is like that. I’m sure you will agree. 9/11 could have had a much greater impact. That’s just my stupid thought, sorry.

We are bombarded with all sorts of entertainment; including the news, whether it’s valid or not. When you are retreating, it is great and helpful to retreat from all of those. Keeping silence, i.e., mental silence will help to prevent the two problems of laxity, and especially excitations. Excitations are the thoughts that follow unnecessary chit chat, and viewing something that is unneeded.

In Tibetan language, there is one word that means ‘protecting the doorways.’ It means, don’t look at, or listen to, or speak about what you don’t need to [involve yourself] with. We are especially [conditioned] here to think, ‘I have to entertain,’ so you keep on talking. The person to whom you are talking may not even hear what you’re saying. Still, you keep on talking. [In this case], the doorways are not protected. That is the primary cause of bringing laxity and excitations.

The next cause is not placing limitations on food. That’s exactly what I do. You don’t need it, but you keep on eating a lot. Spiritual practitioners say a couple of verses of food blessing. I’ve said it since childhood. Even now I say it within myself before I eat, but I don’t think about it. The last verse is (Rimpoche first recites Tibetan) use the food as medicine. Have no obsession or hatred. The food is not to make you fat, nor is [its purpose] to make you look good. Its purpose is to sustain you, to maintain your life. It is for your survival. I say that verse by heart, to myself, all the time. But I don’t think about what it really means, which is ‘use food like medicine.’ Understand that. The timing of eating is important, too.

It is recommended that you get up early and go to bed early. Sleeping late occasionally is OK. Going to bed at 7:00 p.m., however, and sleeping past 5:00 in the morning is counted as one of the causes of bringing laxity. If you really are a meditator, if you really want to practice zhi-ne, or if you want to make a retreat, then it is recommended – not compulsory – to get up early, at 4:00, or 5:00 at the latest. There are four periods out of the 24 hours that you don’t sit in session. They are midday, midnight, sunrise and sunset. If you get up at 4:00 or 5:00 and have a session until 6:00 or 6:30, it will be great.

Kyabje Ling Rimpoche and (can’t understand name) Rimpoche always get up at 4:00 or 4:30. By 8:00 or 8:30 in the evening, however, they go to bed. I think His Holiness, the Dalai Lama is following the same [schedule].

When I was a kid, and I didn’t get up in the early morning, I would get beaten up. I would sleep with my knees up, someone would hit my knees with a stick, and I would be awakened by knee pain. Now I don’t get up at all. This is laziness taking over. At the same time, I go to bed very late.

When His Holiness was here for teachings, there was a big deal over whether or not His Holiness would attend a concert at 7:30 p.m. or not. He appeared for a very short time and left. I think it was announced that His Holiness agreed to break his routine. That must mean that he goes to bed by 7 or 7:30. He gets up at 4 or 4:30, wherever he is.

It will be difficult to do this every night, but if you are doing a retreat, it will be nice [to keep this schedule]. If you’re going to get up that early, make sure you go to bed early. You have to get the sleep you need. Excessive sleep, however, causes laxity.

(Rimpoche recites in Tibetan). Lack of awareness is also a cause of both those problems [arising].

Excessive sleep comes first as a cause of laxity. Being too lax in focusing, and too much focusing are causes of laxity. Laxity arises when Shamatha or zhi-ne, and vipassyana or laktong, are not balanced. Using only shamatha, too strongly, also causes laxity. When you feel dark in your mind, you have to lift that immediately. If you let the mind [lapse] into that dark, suffering nature, it will cause laxity. Meditating on something you don’t like is another cause. These are the causes of laxity.

Excitation occurs when your mind is not balanced between sadness and happiness. When you have a lot of ‘haha hoohoo’ business, you become a member of Hahayana (according to Thurman), without thinking of sufferings, you will have excitations. Another cause is focusing too strongly, instead of in a balanced way. Yet another cause is not applying enthusiasm. Overly worrying about your family and family members is also a cause. I don’t know why they counted this here.

These are the causes of excitations. We introduce and [explain] these causes, so that during your meditation, whether you are doing a retreat or just doing meditation, you can avoid those. Also, [place] limitations in your everyday life.

Some of us are so [habit-bound] that after we have a long session, then run out and turn on the television. I do this myself. You don’t care whether you get tea or coffee, but you do care what’s going on. That is probably a great cause of excitations.

When you are getting into [starting] the session, just because the time is going so fast, you turn off the TV, run in, sit down and start doing your recitations; this is another great cause of excitation.

You may decide to do a retreat all of a sudden, with no preparation. Recently I heard a group of people who wanted to do a retreat, and [make sure to] finish by summer retreat, so that at summer retreat they’d be able to do a fire puja. So I said, ‘Whoa, hold on, hold on, hold on.’ You have to prepare for a few months, and do something positive toward that. [The former example] would be a ‘hurry retreat.’ A hurry retreat will cause a lot of excitations. And, the moment the excitations are [released], laxity will take over, because everything has been done hurriedly.

If you have toe jams (Rimpoche is cracking up) and you don’t put powder on your feet, that will cause both problems. [Rimpoche joked delightedly on the same subject at a previous summer retreat.]

All these causes, such as the mind losing focus have an effect because we are based on the five skandhas [form, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness]. All five of them are the causes of trouble.

(Rimpoche recites Tibetan verses.) There are five faults in meditation. They are laziness, not remembering, laxity, excitation, and the last is: when laxity and excitations are there, you are not taking the antidote action; and when it’s not there, you are taking antidote action. That makes five.

These five faults have to be overcome by eight different minds, awarenesses. You have heard a number of times the biggest problem is laziness. The antidote is the shin-jong, the joy of mind and body that you experience when your meditation becomes perfect. Now, when we don’t have that, but we do have plenty of laziness, we apply faith, efforts, and pushing ourselves. These three plus shin-jong are the four antidotes to laziness.

Mindfulness, meta-attention, effort and relaxation are the four other ones, making eight. Those eight different mental faculties should be utilized against the five faults. Perfect oncentration, followed by mindfulness, meta-attention, freedom from laxity and excitations and continuously focusing on the point [make] a good, nice meditation. That applies not only to the Hinayana level, and the Mahayana. This applies not only to the Mahayana Sutra level, but even to Vajrayana. This is it. Briefly, that is perfect meditation.

How do I get to that perfect level? The great masters tell you you get there by climbing the nine different steps. They are known as the ‘Nine Points of Mind-Focusing.’ This will sound a little funny when you first listen. If so, it will be due to my lack of knowledge of English, and not the fault of the teaching.

The first stage is called 'focus'. It means taking your mind away from all that you are thinking. That includes following your past thoughts, inviting future [thoughts] and looking outside. Focus, focus, focus, focus.

The second point is called ‘continuous focus.’ Yes, you can focus, but you can’t stay there. My friend, an old classmate of mine, who was known as ‘Gen Lam rim pa’ wrote a book on focusing the mind. In a note he wrote, he said, ‘the teachings recommend meditating on the image, but I still think it is best to meditate on mind. We try to bring the mental focus inside. When you are really focusing on the mind, you will be looking inside. When you are looking at the image, you will be looking out there.’ He said, ‘that is what I think. You may have other thoughts. What do you think?’ He wrote that note. Maybe it is an important point.

I received the book very late. I took it out the other day and went up to Garrison. I thought I would talk on it to the scientists in the evening. Somehow I lost the book on the road. I found the book, posted back, to my New York address. It was funny, because [to mark my place] I put in a piece of junk mail with this address. So some kind person sent it back. When I was coming here to New York last week, I lost my driver’s license. I had a tough time getting through the airport. When I got back to Michigan, I found someone had sent the license by mail. [There was a note saying] ‘Greetings from far away.’ I looked at the postmark, and it was Detroit. I never go to Detroit. How did it get there? So [those] were last week’s incidents.

So Gen Lam rim pa recommends putting thoughts on the mind, rather than on the image. His reason is a valid reason.

When you are losing the focus, you put in a lot of continuous effort to make sure the mind is not running away. Remember here: remembrance doesn’t mean you’re not forgetting. It means you are constantly thinking. Making sure that you are constantly keeping your mind on your focusing point is the second step. It is called, ‘continual focus.’

A little bit better than that, when you focus a little bit, the moment the mind goes out, try to realize it. Put this [recognition] on top of the focusing point. This is the third level. In Tibetan, (Rimpoche gives the Tibetan words). It means, ‘patch-like focus.’ In other words, if your mind has gone out, bring it back [with this recognition] and focus.

The fourth stage is ‘close focus’ Not only do you bring it back and ‘add it up,’ but you do it well and focus well. Nagarjuna says that your mind is going up, you are collecting it back, and making it focus. You are bringing the focusing level higher and higher and better and better. That level is the fourth point. At level four, you are able to focus for a longer period. You don’t lose as much as you lose at level three. You go a little longer, but you are still not really well focused.

At the fifth level, you should be happy to focus. It is called controlled focus. It really means you should be happy to be able to focus. What makes you happy, is you see the quality of Samadhi, or the meditative equipoise level. You see their quality and their capacity and it makes you happy. You will develop such capacities as clairvoyance. You will read others’ minds and read the future. You will know what’s going to happen for me, for him or her, both in the short term and the long term. At the zhi-ne level, you will have those developments, and seeing those will make you happy.

Level six is called 'pacified focus'. At this sixth level, you know the problems of excitations and losing the focus. You will be unhappy, knowing you are not concentrating. At this sixth level, that unhappiness will be pacified.

The seventh stage is called ‘Completely pacified focus.’ At this level, there are no obsessions, no unhappiness, no darkness, no falling asleep during the meditation. That doesn’t mean you can’t sleep at night. At this level, meditation will give you the same benefits that sleep gives you. You pacify not only the wandering mind, but you have also pacified unhappiness, obsession and attachment. All such problems are well pacified.

The eighth level is called ‘single-pointed focus.’ At this time you are trying to focus without any effort. Up until now, you have put in a lot of effort. You still have to put in effort, but you’re trying to focus without effort.

The ninth step is called ‘equanimity.’ It is effortless meditating and focusing. OK?

These are the nine stages. The nine stages are developed by the six powers. I will touch on the six powers next week, because it is getting quite late.

You will probably not see the transcripts of tonight and next week. There will be a two-week delay, because I would like to make a chart that will include the five faults and the eight minds. We will also chart the nine stages, the six powers and four mindfulnesses, and how they work. Plus we will have the elephant chart, which I’m borrowing from Gang Nam, because they have the best one. Some books are really wrong.

So I’d like to put them together. We may delay the transcripts of the next two or three weeks, until the end of summer retreat. Those who are on line will have heard me.

That’s about it.

9/13/2004