Ngakpa LIVE 3.0 – Discussion Group
Ngakpa LIVE
- A study group, to review the teaching and text
- So that you have regular review before losar exams
- A discussion group
- To connect with sangha
- To experience and nurture lateral conversations with equals, with fellow dharma practitioners
Format
- Welcome Host
- 10 minute Zhine
- Read the passage and questions for tonight – taking turns reading.
- Go into break out groups
- Check in 2 minutes each – How are you doing? Whats new?
- Discuss the questions on the lessons
- Go back to big group to wrap up
- Learners will volunteer to share comments, what did you learn from a recent class or group discussion – 1 min each
- Announcements & Any business items
*Active Listening – No advice, please*
NT 3.6 – Sept 2020 – Location and Appropriate Consort
2.3.1.2. གནས་ཀྱི་གོལ་ས།
The deviation of the place
གཉིས་པ་གནས་ཀྱི་གོལ་ས་ནི༔ སྤྱིར་གནས་སྐབས་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བ་རྟོགས་པའི་གང་ཟག་དེས་མཐར་ཐུག་གི་ལྟ་བ་རྟོགས་པ་ཀློང་དུ་འགྱུར་བར་བྱེད་པ་ལ༔ རི་ཁྲོད་དམ་དུར་ཁྲོད་ལ་སོགས་པ་དབེན་ཞིང་དངས་པའི་གནས་སུ་འགྲོ་དགོས་གསུངས༔ གནས་སྐབས་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བ་ཡོད་ཀྱང་དེ་སྐྱོང་བ་ལ་རི་ཁྲོད་མ་འགྲིམས་ན༔ གནས་ངན་པས་ལྟ་བ་གོལ་བ་ཡིན་མོད༔
The deviation of the place
གཉིས་པ་གནས་ཀྱི་གོལ་ས་ནི༔ སྤྱིར་གནས་སྐབས་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བ་རྟོགས་པའི་གང་ཟག་དེས་མཐར་ཐུག་གི་ལྟ་བ་རྟོགས་པ་ཀློང་དུ་འགྱུར་བར་བྱེད་པ་ལ༔ རི་ཁྲོད་དམ་དུར་ཁྲོད་ལ་སོགས་པ་དབེན་ཞིང་དངས་པའི་གནས་སུ་འགྲོ་དགོས་གསུངས༔ གནས་སྐབས་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བ་ཡོད་ཀྱང་དེ་སྐྱོང་བ་ལ་རི་ཁྲོད་མ་འགྲིམས་ན༔ གནས་ངན་པས་ལྟ་བ་གོལ་བ་ཡིན་མོད༔
Secondly, the topic of the wrong place.
“Generally, that person who realizes the provisional view, thereby to realize, the ultimate view, they must order to change deeply. So they must go to a hermitage, charnel ground etc… They must go to an isolated place, a pure place,” said Padmasambhava. “Although they may [only] have the provisional view, in order to protect it, if they do not go to a solitary hermitage, by being in a bad place, that is a deviation of the view.”
མཚོ་རྒྱལ་དེར་མ་གོལ་བར་འདོད་ན་གནས་སྐབས་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བ་རི་ཁྲོད་དུ་སྐྱོངས་དང་གསུངས༔ ༈
“Tsogyal, if you do not want that deviation, protect the provisional view in the hermitage, he said.”2.3.1.3. གྲོགས་ཀྱི་གོལ་ས།
“Tsogyal, if you do not want that deviation, protect the provisional view in the hermitage, he said.”2.3.1.3. གྲོགས་ཀྱི་གོལ་ས།
The Wrong Companion
གསུམ་པ་གྲོགས་ཀྱི་གོལ་ས་ནི༔ སྤྱིར་གནས་སྐབས་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བ་ཡོད་པའི་གང་ཟག་དེ༔ ཆོས་དང་མཐུན་པ་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་མི་འཕེལ་བའི་གྲོགས་དང་འགྲོགས་དགོས་གསུངས༔ གྲོགས་ངན་དང་འགྲོགས་ན་ངན་པའི་སྤྱོད་པ་མི་འགོ་མི་སྲིད་དོ༔ དེས་ཚེ་འདིར་ཁྲིད་ནས་ལྟ་བ་སྐྱོང་དུ་མི་སྟེར༔ ཉོན་མོངས་པ་འཕེལ་བས་གོལ་སའི་རྩ་བ་ཡིན༔ མཚོ་རྒྱལ་དེར་མ་གོལ་བར་འདོད་ན་འབྲེལ་མེད་ཀྱི་གྲོགས་འབྲེལ་ཐག་ཆོད་ལ་གཅིག་པུར་སྡོད་གསུངས༔ ༈ [354]
“The third topic is the wrong companionship.
That individual who has the provisional view, must have a relationship with a companion whose afflictions are not increasing and who is in harmony with the dharma. If having a relationship with bad companion, its possible that there will be bad conduct, no understanding and it will be impossible [to progress].
Due to that having been guided in this life, to guard the view [the wrong consort] is not permitted. [Or: To guide them in this life, to protect the view, is not permitted]. Since there would be increasing afflictions, that is the root of this deviation.
Tsogyal if you do not want to avoid that deviation, cut the connection with a friend who is unnecessary/unconnected, stop the relationship and remain alone,” said Padmasambhava.
That individual who has the provisional view, must have a relationship with a companion whose afflictions are not increasing and who is in harmony with the dharma. If having a relationship with bad companion, its possible that there will be bad conduct, no understanding and it will be impossible [to progress].
Due to that having been guided in this life, to guard the view [the wrong consort] is not permitted. [Or: To guide them in this life, to protect the view, is not permitted]. Since there would be increasing afflictions, that is the root of this deviation.
Tsogyal if you do not want to avoid that deviation, cut the connection with a friend who is unnecessary/unconnected, stop the relationship and remain alone,” said Padmasambhava.
NOTES
The Two Truths
བདེན་པ་གཉིས་ bden pa gnyis, ‘den pa nyi’: The two truths
In the text as: གནས་སྐབས, gnas skabs, ‘nay kab’: provisional མཐར་ཐུག ultimate / complete,
1. ཀུན་རྫོབ་ཀྱི་བདེན་པ, kun rdzob kyi bden pa; ‘kun zob ki den pa’ :
ཀུན་ totally རྫོབ་ concealed བདེན་པ truth
བདེན་པ་གཉིས་ bden pa gnyis, ‘den pa nyi’: The two truths
In the text as: གནས་སྐབས, gnas skabs, ‘nay kab’: provisional མཐར་ཐུག ultimate / complete,
1. ཀུན་རྫོབ་ཀྱི་བདེན་པ, kun rdzob kyi bden pa; ‘kun zob ki den pa’ :
ཀུན་ totally རྫོབ་ concealed བདེན་པ truth
- literally concealed truth
- the seemingly appearance of things
- the apparent modes of things
- the superficial mode of things
- deceptive aspect of reality
- perspective of ordinary beings
2. དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་ don dam bden pa, ‘don dam den pa’ ultimate truth :
- the ultimate mode of things,
- the real, true, unmistaken mode of things.
- The view that Buddha or Padmasambhava has
- understood in different ways according to the different vehicles
- through the direct perception of emptiness, things appear in the way they exist.
- or emptiness in the way it appears to highest consciousness
- expressible aspect
- aspect unexpressable in words and symbols because it is the reality itself
- to hold them as non-separate or separate
Refer to Longchenpa, Treasury of Philosophical Systems
99-104 on his discussion of the two truths:
To hold that the two levels of truth are separate aspects of a single essence is to accept that illusion is ultimate truth. 266 [55b]
99-104 on his discussion of the two truths:
To hold that the two levels of truth are separate aspects of a single essence is to accept that illusion is ultimate truth. 266 [55b]
This contradicts the following passage from a sutra of The Perfection of Sublime Knowing: For one who has actually awakened to manifest and complete buddhahood, any given phenomenon is neither true nor false…
Timeless awareness of meditative equipoise knows all phenomena to be like the vault of space, whereas timeless awareness of post-meditation knows all phenomena to be like illusions.
It is not the case that ultimate truth consists of sensory appearances that are devoid of true existence.
Taking ultimate truth as the object to be negated, if one applies an unqualified negation—that it is neither one nor many—the negation cannot be verified, any more than can the horns of a hare.
If one simply applies a qualified negation, the negation cannot be verified, any more than can relative truth.
One might use as one’s proof a special kind of qualified negation, stating, “Ultimate truth exists within the scope of one’s awareness, perceived as being free of one thing or many. ”
Then, however, there is a contradiction between these very facts—that ultimate truth exists within the scope of awareness and yet is free of being one thing or many in essence.
Thus, such a proof cannot be established and is therefore not logical.
It is neither reasonable nor logically consistent, for it has the following flaws: it would mean that ultimate truth is in no way different from what is valid on the relative level; it would imply that an object to be negated could be examined in similar ways from the viewpoint of both levels of truth; and it would make the Madhyamaka view inferior to that of the Chittamatra system. (3)
As for holding that the two levels of truth are substantially separate entities, we may quote from the sutra The Definitive Commentary on Enlightened Intent, which undermines this position through five lines of reasoning: This would mean that even though one had actual realization of ultimate truth, one would not attain nirvana, because what is relative would be conceived of as being apart from the ultimate. This would mean that ultimate truth—substantially separate from what is relative—would not be the actual nature of relative truth, just as a vase is not the actual nature of a blanket. [56a]
This would mean—because the two levels of truth would be substantially separate—that ultimate truth would not constitute the mere fact that what is relative cannot be established to exist in the slightest, just as the mere fact that a vase cannot be established to exist in the slightest does not constitute a blanket. This would mean that even at the point that nirvana was attained through realization of ultimate truth in one’s direct perception, there would still be all-consuming afflictive states, because what is relative is a frame of reference apart from that of ultimate truth. This would mean that there would be no contradiction in all consuming afflictive states and total enlightenment functioning simultaneously in the mind of a single person. (4)
Therefore, ultimate truth (a freedom from all conceptual elaboration) cannot be described either as some real entity other than relative truth or as one and the same as relative truth; their “separateness” is merely a matter of their identity being negated.
Third, as for the derivation of the terms involved, the Sanskrit term samvrti means “that which obscures, ” and the Tibetan equivalent is kun rdzob (falsifying everything). 270
This refers to confused consciousness that obscures what is authentic. In that there is a validity inherent in the scope of such consciousness, there is “truth”; this truth lies in the very fact that, in essence, all the phenomena that manifest in myriad ways (as forms and so forth) are similar to dream images.
The Sanskrit term paramartha means “the goal sought by those who strive for what is truly excellent, ” and the Tibetan equivalent is don dam pa (sacred, or highest, meaning). 271
This refers to consciousness as the awareness that is in essence an unconfused state of mind; furthermore, it is sacred because it is the most sublime level of magnificence. In that there is validity within the scope of the unconfused state of mind, there is “truth, ” suchness itself. [56b]
Fourth, as for the definitive enumeration of these levels of truth, one can ascertain a context that involves dualism, owing to the simple negation of anything transcending all of the dualistic frameworks (existence and nonexistence and so forth) that apply to forms and other objects of knowledge. 272
In the absence of a third alternative, the valid cognition that conceives in terms of dualities brings a certainty that there is a definitive enumeration—a pairing of what involves duality with what is beyond duality. This definitive enumeration is achieved by classifying the two aspects of this pairing as the two levels of truth. Fifth, the detailed analysis focuses on two topics: the ultimate and the relative levels of truth. As the sutra The Reunion o f Father and Son indicates: There are two levels of truth for those wise in the ways of the world. You should not just listen to others talking, but see these for yourself. They are the relative and ultimate levels; in no way is there a third level of truth. If we analyze relative truth, we find that it also has two aspects. There is what is erroneous on the relative level (what is apparent yet incapable of performing a function) and what is valid on the relative level (what is apparent and capable of performing a function). Delineating the Two Levels of Truth explains: Although these aspects appear to be similar, because of the ability or inability to perform functions there is what is valid or invalid; this constitutes the analysis of what is relative. 273
That is, what is valid on the relative level comprises phenomena such as forms and so forth that are endowed with four characteristics: they are capable of performing functions according to the way they manifest, they come about from causes, they cannot bear up under mental examination, and they manifest according to their respective types. 274
They “exist” in that they have the ability to perform a function. [57a]
What is erroneous on the relative level comprises those sensory appearances that manifest but are incapable of performing a function, such as the optical illusion of a hair falling across one’s field of vision or the appearance of a double moon. 2″3
The Svatantrikas hold that these erroneous sensory appearances can be distinguished from valid phenomena on the basis of their inability to perform a function. As for what is ultimate, this also has two aspects. There is a quantifiable aspect of the ultimate; this aspect entails the simple negation of production and so forth in any true sense, but other than that, it does not entail freedom from the conceptual elaboration of nonproduction. The unquantifiable aspect of the ultimate is a freedom from absolutely all elaboration such as production and nonproduction. 276
According to the same source: The negation of production and so forth is considered to concur with what is authentic; the term “ultimate” is applied to the subsiding of all conceptual elaboration, even that of nonproduction. 277
Wounded Deer Poem by Thinley Norbu
Isolation
One who can remain alone
in stainless mind
is the continuous Buddha.
If I need a friend,
then I must find one
who can adapt to me,
who can comfort me,
and who can be a support
to my enlightenment.
But just one other person
can cause attachment and hatred,
and between attachment and hatred
there is always suffering.
So I had better try
to isolate myself
like a wounded deer.
0 Lord Buddha,
will you remain in my heart always.
– From Magic Dance: The Display of the Self-Nature of the Five Wisdom Dakinis
Isolation
One who can remain alone
in stainless mind
is the continuous Buddha.
If I need a friend,
then I must find one
who can adapt to me,
who can comfort me,
and who can be a support
to my enlightenment.
But just one other person
can cause attachment and hatred,
and between attachment and hatred
there is always suffering.
So I had better try
to isolate myself
like a wounded deer.
0 Lord Buddha,
will you remain in my heart always.
– From Magic Dance: The Display of the Self-Nature of the Five Wisdom Dakinis
Yeshe Tsogyal’s Night of Enlightenment
Another day, I was besieged by phantom herds of ferocious beasts. Tigers, leopards, bears, yetis and other carnivores appeared, roaring above and outside the cave entrance. From my right and from my left, animals attacked from every direction, howling in their various styles, their mouths gaping ravenously, snarling in rage, beating their tails, their paws scratching at me, shaking their bodies, hackles risen, hair bristling. From the assurance I had gained from abandoning attachment to my body and love of myself, arose compassion for all these beasts, and they vanished. Then leaving me with no respite, a vast army of billions of different insects and worms led by spiders, scorpions and snakes inundated the area. Some slipped through my sensory doors, some bit me, some stung me, some scratched me, some climbed over me, some jumped on me, some fought each other, ate each other and left piles of carcasses scattered about. There was no trick that these insects failed to use to frighten me. I shuddered a little, yet I found pity in my heart, but the insects became increasingly terrifying and loathsome. ‘Since I have often vowed that I will in no way be attached to any form of body, speech, or mind,’ I though to myself, ‘why should I now be afraid of such illusory tricks of spirits, the activity of sentient beings – insects – that is karmic manifestation? Because all behavior is determined by positive or negative concepts, I should understand that whatever occurs, good or bad, is a mental construct, and so keep a level head.’ With this thought I regained my assurance and I sang: ’All ‘phenomena’ are only tricks of the mind, I see nothing to fear in inner space. All this is nothing but clear light’s natural radiance; there is no reason at all to react. Since all activity is my ornamentation, I should remain in mute meditative absorption.’ And so saying, I entered the samadhi of universal identity in which there is no discrimination or evaluation and the apparitions vanished.”
Another day, I was besieged by phantom herds of ferocious beasts. Tigers, leopards, bears, yetis and other carnivores appeared, roaring above and outside the cave entrance. From my right and from my left, animals attacked from every direction, howling in their various styles, their mouths gaping ravenously, snarling in rage, beating their tails, their paws scratching at me, shaking their bodies, hackles risen, hair bristling. From the assurance I had gained from abandoning attachment to my body and love of myself, arose compassion for all these beasts, and they vanished. Then leaving me with no respite, a vast army of billions of different insects and worms led by spiders, scorpions and snakes inundated the area. Some slipped through my sensory doors, some bit me, some stung me, some scratched me, some climbed over me, some jumped on me, some fought each other, ate each other and left piles of carcasses scattered about. There was no trick that these insects failed to use to frighten me. I shuddered a little, yet I found pity in my heart, but the insects became increasingly terrifying and loathsome. ‘Since I have often vowed that I will in no way be attached to any form of body, speech, or mind,’ I though to myself, ‘why should I now be afraid of such illusory tricks of spirits, the activity of sentient beings – insects – that is karmic manifestation? Because all behavior is determined by positive or negative concepts, I should understand that whatever occurs, good or bad, is a mental construct, and so keep a level head.’ With this thought I regained my assurance and I sang: ’All ‘phenomena’ are only tricks of the mind, I see nothing to fear in inner space. All this is nothing but clear light’s natural radiance; there is no reason at all to react. Since all activity is my ornamentation, I should remain in mute meditative absorption.’ And so saying, I entered the samadhi of universal identity in which there is no discrimination or evaluation and the apparitions vanished.”
~ Sky Dancer, the Secret Life and Songs of the Lady Yeshe Tsogyal, page 80
Important topics:
What is concealed truth vs ultimate truth
What is a wounded deer
What is concealed truth vs ultimate truth
What is a wounded deer
What is a wrong place
What is the wrong consort
What view did Yeshe Tsogyal adopt in the face of her obstacles during her meditation?
Why are both hermitage and charnel ground ideal places for practice
