Class Schedule Change - Class on THURSDAY

H.H. Dalai Lama begins teaching in McLeod Ganj on Saturday, October 1, 2011 through Monday, October 4.  So there will be NO CLASS on MONDAY, October 4.  Instead, we will have class on Thursday, September 29.  That is, we will have four class sessions this week:  Monday, Wednesday (9/28), Thursday (9/29) and Friday (9/30).

Class 6 - Truth of Suffering & Truth of Origination of Suffering

Download PDF's of Class materials and MP3 Tracks from the 6th class of Fall 2011 term held on Friday, September 23:

DOWNLOAD Handouts used in Class 6 & Class NOTES  (i.e., very rough transcript):

2011 Handout 9 - conclude Six-Fold Categorization of Suffering.  II. (Second) Noble) TRUTH OF THE ORIGIN - ཀུན་འབྱུང་བདེན་པ། - (of Suffering):  Delusions (ཉོན་མོངས།) & Contaminated Karma/Actions (ཟག་བཅས་ཀྱི་ལས།).

2011 Handout 10 - Truth of Origin (ཀུན་འབྱུང་བདེན་པ།), Delusions (ཉོན་མོངས།), cont.  IGNORANCE (མ་རིག་པ་):  Categorizations::  A.  (1) Deprecating Misconception (སྐུར་འདེབས་ཀྱི་ལོག་རྟོག) & (2) Superimposing Misconception (སྒྲོ་འདོགས་ཀྱི་ལོག་རྟོག); B. (1) Innate/instinctive Ignorance (མ་རིག་པ་ལྷན་སྐྱེས།) & (2) Intellectually or Ideologically Acquired Ignorance (མ་རིག་པ་ཀུན་བརྟགས།).  C. Ignorance that is the Root of Cyclic Existence (འཁོར་པའི་རྩ་བར་གྱུར་པའི་མ་རིག་པ།) [i.e., Ignorance that apprehends the inherent existence of:  (1) the "I" and "mine"; and (2) phenomena (other than "I" and "mine").

Class 6 NOTES - rough draft transcript - offered for what they are worth. (If you are interested in assisting in proofing/editing, contact Ven. Tenzin Nordron.)

ALL FALL 2011 PDFs re Truth of Suffering are HERE. ALL Fall 2011 PDFs re Truth of Origination are HERE.

DOWNLOAD MP3 TRACKS:

Track 1 - Handout 9 - cont. Six Types of Suffering:

     (4) Suffering of repeated rebirth:

• Contaminated Karma only triggers rebirth in Samsara if triggered by Delusions (attachment to self, i.e., fear of death of self & craving for existence).  
• Having realized Emptiness directly, Arya Bodhisattvas (below 8th bhumi) are reborn due to attachment to others and prayers, but not in the Cyclic Existence that we experience. Hinayana Arhats and 8th-10th ground Arya Bodhisattvas have Mental Bodies. 

Track 2 - (5)  Suffering of Repeatedly Descending from High to Low.
              (6)  Suffering of Having no Companions. 

• Cultivating disenchantment with our miserable condition in Cyclic Existence and  the single-pointed intention to overcome it, naturally leads to the question: 

What is the origin or the cause of suffering?

Track 3 - (2nd) Noble TRUTH of ORIGIN (ཀུན་འབྱུང་འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ།) of Suffering:

1. DELUSIONS (ཉོན་མོངས་།); and 
2. CONTAMINATED ACTIONS/KARMA (ཟག་བཅས་ཀྱི་ལས་།).  

• Delusions are Primary Cause of Suffering.  
• Root Delusion is Ignorance.

Track 4 - IGNORANCE - མ་རིག་པ་ - [Handout 10] - a mental factor and a mental consciousness:

• Examples, qualities and types of Ignorance:  
• Mere not knowing & Active Mis-knowledge. 

          (1) Deprecating misconceptions (སྐུར་འདེབས་ཀྱི་ལོག་རྟོག):  

            Denial of (aspects of) reality, e.g., deny Law of Karma, 

            Past & Future Lives (or role of human activity in Global Climate Change).

          (2) Superimposing misconceptions (སྒྲོ་འདོགས་ཀྱི་ལོག་རྟོག):  

           Apprehend (aspects of) phenomena that do not exist, e.g., Wrong Views: 

              Ignorance that apprehends a Self to be: 

1. Permanent, Partless, & Independent; 
2. Self-Sufficient Substantially Existent; or 
3. Inherently Existent. 

           Superimposing ignorance is the root of Deprecating ignorance, but 

           Superimposing ignorance are not always non-virtuous; however,

           Wrong Views included in the 10 Non-Virtuous are Deprecating Ignorance.

Track 5 - Categorization of IGNORANCE as: (1) Innate Ignorance (མ་རིག་པ་ལྷན་སྐྱེས་) or (2) Intellectually Acquired (མ་རིག་པ་ཀུན་བརྟགས།).

Innate Ignorance:  Innate Deprecating & Innate Superimposing ignorance.

• Root ignorance is Innate Superimposing ignorance apprehending Inherent Existence & apprehending Permanence.

If any of the LINKS don't work, please leave a COMMENT or notify us by E-Mail.

This is the 6th class of the Fall 2011 Perfection of Wisdom course
addressing the Four Noble Truths, the 2nd sub-topic of the 2nd Topic
(Mahayana Practice Instructions) of Chapter 1 of Maitreya's
Ornament for Clear Realizations - Abhisamayalamkara.

Class 5 - Truth of Suffering - Five Aggregates, Six Categories

Download PDF's of Class materials and MP3 Tracks from the 5th class of Fall 2011 term held on Wednesday, September 21:

DOWNLOAD Handouts used in Class 5 & Class NOTES  (i.e., very rough transcript):

2011 Handout 6 - Five Contemplations of the Sufferings of Encountering what is Unpleasant, cont. 3-5.  Five Contemplations of the Sufferings of Separation from what is Pleasant.  Suffering of Not Getting What We Want.  Five Contemplations of the Sufferings of Having the Five Aggregates - 1-3, (cont. in Handout 7.)

2011 Handout 7 - Sufferings of Having the Five Aggregates, cont. 4-5.  Six-Fold Categorization of Suffering (cont. in Handouts 8 & 9):  1):  1) Suffering of Uncertainty.

2011 Handout 8 - cont. Six-Fold Categorization of Suffering:  2) Suffering of Insatiability.  3) Suffering of Having to Give up our Bodies Repeatedly.  (cont. in Handout 9)   

Class 5 NOTES - rough draft transcript - offered for what they are worth. (If you are interested in assisting in proofing/editing, contact Ven. Tenzin Nordron.)

ALL FALL 2011 PDFs re Truth of Suffering are HERE.

DOWNLOAD MP3 TRACKS:

Track 1 - Buddha said:

In brief, the Five Contaminated Aggregates are suffering.

Two of the Five Aggregates are Mental Factors:

• Discrimination - ordinary and intellectual.   
• Feelings 

Understanding the Five Aggregates in relation to the four Form Concentrations and four Formless concentrations. 

• Five-fold Categorization of Feelings (in terms of coarser/subtler; easier/harder to overcome):
• Limited Discrimination of Desire Realm must be overcome to attain Form Realm.
• Form Realm Concentrations overcome Worldly/Contaminated Feelings - only Buddhist Path can overcome the Neutral contaminated feeling.
• First Concentration of the Form Realm overcomes the mental feeling of displeasure.
• Second Concentration of the Form Realm overcomes the unpleasant feeling associated with physical consciousness.  
• Third Concentration of the Form Realm overcomes the pleasurable feeling associated with mental consciousness.  
• Fourth Concentration of the Form Realm overcomes the pleasurable feeling associated with physical consciousness. 

• Having then transcended the Extensive Discrimination of Form Realm, one may attain the Immeasurable Discrimination of Formless Realm.  Buddhism does not urge attainment of Formless Realm rebirth with its four concentrations of: 

• Limitless Space, Limitless Consciousness, Nothingness, Peak of Cyclic Existence.

Track 2 - Suffering of (having) the Five Aggregates (5 points) – [Handout 6, p. 2]:

• Five (contaminated) Aggregates are Vessels of Suffering (1) in the future; (2) that presently exists; (3) the Suffering of Suffering. [Handout 7] - (4) the Suffering of Change

Track 3 - Five Contaminated Aggregates are vessel of

• (4)  Suffering of Change, cont.; and of 
• (5) Pervasive Compositional Suffering. 
• Neutral Feelings are a Pervasive Compositional Suffering.

Track 4 - Necessity ofunderstanding First Noble Truth in order to generate Renunciation (which is required to generate Bodhicitta).

Six Categories of Suffering

     1.  Suffering of uncertainty. [Handout 8] - regarding the relationships we have with other people.

     2.  Suffering of insatiability:  As it says in the Compendium of the Perfections (a Perfection of Wisdom Sutra):

You get what you want,

Use it up, then acquire more,

And still you are not satisfied

What could be more pathetic than this? 

     3. Suffering of having to give up our bodies repeatedly.

4th - 6th Sufferings [(4) Suffering of repeated rebirth.  (5) Suffering of repeatedly descending from high to low.  (6) Suffering of having no companions.] in Class 6.

If any of the LINKS don't work, please leave a COMMENT or notify us by E-Mail.

This is the 5th class of the Fall 2011 Perfection of Wisdom course
addressing the Four Noble Truths, the 2nd sub-topic of the 2nd Topic
(Mahayana Practice Instructions) of Chapter 1 of Maitreya's
Ornament for Clear Realizations - Abhisamayalamkara.

Class 4 - Truth of Suffering of Sickness, Death, Encounters, Separation

Download PDF's of Class materials and MP3 Tracks from the 4th class of Fall 2011 term held on Monday, September 19:

DOWNLOAD Handouts used in Class 4 & Class NOTES  (i.e., very rough transcript):

2011 Handout 4 - Eight-fold Categorization of Suffering, cont.:  Sufferings of Aging.  Five Sufferings of Sickness - 1) Changes the nature of the body; (cont. on Handout 5).

2011 Handout 5 - Five Sufferings of Sickness, cont. 2-5.  Five Contemplations of the Sufferings of Death.  Five Contemplations of the Sufferings of Encountering what is Unpleasant - 1-2, cont. on Handout 6.

2011 Handout 6 - Five Contemplations of the Sufferings of Encountering what is Unpleasant, cont. 3-5.  Five Contemplations of the Sufferings of Separation from what is Pleasant.  Suffering of Not Getting What We Want.  Five Contemplations of the Sufferings of Having the Five Aggregates - 1-3, (cont. in Handout 7.)

Class 4 NOTES - rough draft transcript - offered for what they are worth. (If you are interested in assisting in proofing/editing, contact Ven. Tenzin Nordron.)

FALL 2011 PDFs re: Truth of Suffering are HERE.

DOWNLOAD MP3 TRACKS:

Track 1 - Discussion:  Implications of third type of Birth, "from moisture", etc.

Track 2 -  Discussion: How a Cause of Production is also Cause of its Effect's Destruction.

• Presentation of Impermanence, Cause & Effect.

Track 3 - Review Sufferings of Birth and Aging.
              Sufferings of SICKNESS [Handout 4 - p. 2] - Five contemplations:

1. Sickness changes the nature of the body [cont. on Handout 5]. 
2. Pain & anguish increase and are seldom absent.  
3. No desire to enjoy pleasing objects. 
4. Forced to recourse to unpleasant objects, even though one does not want them.  
5. Lose one's vital energy, i.e., one dies.

Track 4 - Sufferings of DEATH [Handout 5] - Five contemplations:  One is separated from nice/beloved:

1. Objects of Enjoyment,
2. Close relatives, 
3. Companions, and 
4. beloved Body.  Also: 
5. At the time of death one experiences terrible suffering and distress.

Track 5 - Sufferings of Encountering What Is Unpleasant - Five contemplations:

1. Encountering an Enemy.  
2. Fearing one will be Harmed by one's Enemy. 
3. [Handout 6] Fearing one's Enemy will Spread Malicious Rumors about Oneself. 
4. Dreading death.  
5. Fearing Rebirth in suffering existence due to one's non-Dharmic activities.  Also misc. sufferings from poverty, disagreeable jobs, being resented, unattractive, etc.

    Sufferings of Separation from What is Pleasant - Five contemplations:  When one is separated from loved ones, One: 

1. Grieves; 
2. Verbally Laments; 
3. Harms one's own body; 
4. Becomes sad when one remembers and yearns for the qualities of the departed; and generally experiences
5. Suffering of no longer enjoying what one has lost.

If any of the LINKS don't work, please leave a COMMENT or notify us by E-Mail.

This is the 4th class of the Fall 2011 Perfection of Wisdom course
addressing the Four Noble Truths, the 2nd sub-topic of the 2nd Topic
(Mahayana Practice Instructions) of Chapter 1 of Maitreya's
Ornament for Clear Realizations - Abhisamayalamkara.

Class 3 - Truth of Suffering - Birth & Aging

Download PDF's of Class materials and MP3 Tracks from the 3rd class of Fall 2011 term held on Friday, September 16:

DOWNLOAD Handouts used in Class 3:

2011 Handout 3 - cont. Pervasive Compositional Suffering: Contaminated Five Aggregates.  Four-fold & Eight-fold Categorization of Sufferings of Suffering:  Five types of Sufferings of Birth (cont. on Handout 4).

2011 Handout 4 - Eight-fold Categorization of Suffering, cont.:  Sufferings of Aging.  Five Sufferings of Sickness - 1) Changes the nature of the body; (cont. on Handout 5).

ALL FALL 2011 HANDOUTS & CHARTS are HERE.

DOWNLOAD MP3 TRACKS:

Track 1 - Review Three Kinds of Sufferings (Suffering, Change, Pervasive Compositional).

• Q&A (Is Ignorance arisen from Neutral Feeling?).  
• Handout 3:  Contaminated and Uncontaminated Karma.

Track 2 - [Handout 3]  Another Categorization of Suffering:

• Four Types - (1) Birth, (2) Aging, (3) Sickness, (4) Death - incorporated into 
• Eight Types: (5) Encountering what is Unpleasant, (6) Separation from what is Pleasant, (7) Not Getting What we Want, (8) (having) the Five Aggregates.  
• How do these 8 fit into the Three Types of Suffering?  
• Introduction to 1st of the 8: Birth.

Track 3 - 1. Five contemplations of the Suffering of BIRTH:

• Birth, itself, is Suffering. 
• Birth with Negative Tendencies produces Suffering.

Track 4 - Five contemplations of the Suffering of BIRTH, cont.

• Born with Negative Tendencies, cont. 
• What are "Seeds and Imprints".  
• Birth is Source of suffering. 
• Birth is Source of Afflictive Emotions:  
• Operation of Afflictive Emotions. 
• Birth Results in Unwanted Separation, cont. in Track 5.
  

Track 5 - [Handout 4].  Second of 8 Kinds of Suffering:  Five Contemplations of the Suffering of Aging

1. Handsome body deteriorates.
2. Physical strength and vigour deteriorate.  
3. Senses deteriorate.  
4. Enjoyment of sense objects fades.  
5. Suffering of the diminishment of one's lifespan.

It is well that aging happens little by little. 

If it happened all at once, it would be intolerable.

             - Kadampa Geshe Gamapa

If any of the LINKS don't work, please leave a COMMENT or notify us by E-Mail.

This is the 3rd class of the Fall 2011 Perfection of Wisdom course
addressing the Four Noble Truths, the 2nd sub-topic of the 2nd Topic
(Mahayana Practice Instructions) of Chapter 1 of Maitreya's
Ornament for Clear Realizations - Abhisamayalamkara.

Class 2 - Truth of Suffering - Three Kinds of Suffering

Download PDF's of Class materials and MP3 Tracks from the 2nd class of Fall 2011 term held on Wednesday, September 14:

DOWNLOAD Handouts used in Class 2 & Class NOTES  (i.e., very rough transcript):

2011 Handout 2 - Six categories of Feelings.  Three-fold Division of Suffering:  Suffering of Suffering; Suffering of Change; Pervasive Compositional Suffering (cont. Handout 3).

2011 Handout 3 - cont. Pervasive Compositional Suffering: Contaminated Five Aggregates.  Four-fold & Eight-fold Categorization of Sufferings of Suffering:  Five types of Sufferings of Birth (cont. on Handout 4).

Class 2 NOTES - rough draft transcript - offered for what they are worth. (If you are interested in assisting in proofing/editing, contact Ven. Tenzin Nordron.)

ALL FALL 2011 HANDOUTS & CHARTS are HERE.

DOWNLOAD MP3 TRACKS:

Track 1 -"Has"/"Is" confusion - "Is a white horse white?"

Review:  Feeling, an omni-present Mental Factor accompanying every main mind:

• Feeling itself is suffering & feeling experiences suffering.  
• Feeling is what experiences the three – pleasure, displeasure or neutrality. 
• Objects are not suffering; objects cause suffering and are in the nature of suffering.

Handout 2: Feelings & Six Consciousnesses.

• Distinguishing the Truth of Suffering from Suffering (i.e., feeling).  
• Suffering is Feeling.  
• Truth of Suffering is Feeling and phenomena that induce Suffering, i.e., are in the nature of suffering.  
• Root Cause of the Truth of Suffering.

Track 2 - The (Noble) Truth of Suffering (སྡུག་བསྔལ་བདེན་པ།) - Three Kinds of Suffering:
  Suffering of Suffering - སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ།:

• Suffering here means any unpleasant feeling.
• Physical Suffering - Mental Factor of feeling (of displeasure) that comes along with any of the Sense Consciousness.

  Suffering of Change - འགྱུར་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་།:

• Contaminated feelings are produced by the fundamental mis-perception of reality.
• Contaminated (ཟག་ཅས་) Objects are Not in the Nature of Happiness.
• Main Minds & Five Omnipresent Mental Factors (སེམས་བྱུང་ལྔ་) & ‘objects of pleasant feelings’
• Happiness of sentient beings is just the temporary relief from feelings of intense suffering.

Track 3 - Suffering of Change, cont.:

• Focusing on the nature of the objects that are related to suffering.
• Objects of temporary happiness, i.e., ordinary suffering, are in the nature of suffering because eventually, as they continue being the object of experience, they turn into the nature of suffering.

Track 4 - Pervasive Compositional Suffering - ཁྱབ་པ་འདུ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་།:

• The most important of the three categories of Suffering; 
• Foundation of the other two (the Sufferings of Suffering and of Change); 
• Subtlest and most difficult to recognize.
• Desire Realm, Form Realm and Formless Realms.
• Five (Contaminated) Aggregates: What they are.

Track 5 - Handout 3 cont. Five Contaminated Aggregates - ཟག་ཅས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོ་ལྔ་:

• Contaminated because produced by Ignorance mis-perceiving reality, other Delusions (e.g.,anger, attachment), and Karma. 
• Pervasive Compositional Suffering of the Five Aggregates includes the entire psycho-physical (mind/body) complex that accompany Feelings.
• Why is it Pervasive.
• Questions & Answers (e.g., Buddha Nature and contamination).

If any of the LINKS don't work, please leave a COMMENT or notify us by E-Mail.

This is the 2nd class of the Fall 2011 Perfection of Wisdom course
addressing the Four Noble Truths, the 2nd sub-topic of the 2nd Topic
(Mahayana Practice Instructions) of Chapter 1 of Maitreya's
Ornament for Clear Realizations - Abhisamayalamkara.

Class 1 - the Four Noble Truths

Download PDF's of Class materials and MP3 Tracks from the 1st class of Fall 2011 term held on Monday, September 12:

DOWNLOAD Handouts used in Class 1:

2011 Handout 1 - Ornament for Clear Realization's two verses on Mahayana Practice Instructions; the Four Noble Truths; the Truth of Suffering.  Three Kinds of Feelings.

2011 Handout 2 - Six categories of Feelings.  Three-fold Division of Suffering:  Suffering of Suffering; Suffering of Change; Pervasive Compositional Suffering.

ALL FALL 2011 HANDOUTS & CHARTS are HERE.

DOWNLOAD MP3 TRACKS:

Track 1 - Introduction to Fall course Materials (translated and composed by Geshe Kelsang Wangmo) and context of subject matter.  The Handouts at the beginning of the course rely primarily on Je Tsong Khapa's Lam Rim Chenmo.  Later handouts are translations from the two texts used for this subject at IBD and Drepung Loseling Monastery: the General Meaning and Decisive Analysis composed by Panchen Sonam Drakpa.  The course will use these to acquaint students the debates raised in studying the Four Noble Truths.

Track 2 - Handout 1 - Explanation of two verses from Chapter 1 of Maitreya's Ornament for Clear Realizations (Abhisamayalamkara).  Chapter 1 has 10 Topics and the 2d Topic is the Ten Mahayana Practice Instructions, and the second Practice Instruction is the Four Noble Truths.  The Ten Practice Instructions that set out the Ten Instructions are:

Practice, the Truths,
The Three Jewels such as the Buddha,
Non-Involvement, Tirelessness,
Thoroughly Upholding the Path, [22]

The Five Visions, Clairvoyance's Six Qualities and
what are called "the Paths of Seeing
And Meditation": these practice instructions
Should be known as having a tenfold character. [23]

The first three Practice Instructions named in these two pithy and obscure verses are explained here by Geshe-la, i.e., (1) Practice = the Two Truths; (2) the Truths = Four Noble Truths, and (3) the Three Jewels = Refuge.

Track 3 - Continues Explanation of 4th-10th Mahayana Practice Instructions: Three Diligences of (4) Non-Involvement, (5) Tirelessness, and (6) of Thoroughly Upholding the Path of Practice.  (7) Five Visions, (8) Six Qualities of Clairvoyance, (9) Path of Seeing, (10) Path of Meditation.

Track 4 - Introduction to Four Noble Truths in context of the Ornament, Lam Rim and generally as the blueprint for the entire Buddhist path.

Track 5 - Introduction to Four Noble Truths in context of Buddha Turning the Three Wheels of Dharma. The names of the Four Noble Truths in English & Tibetan with meaning.

Track 6 - Truth of Suffering - Omni-Present Mental Factor of Feeling with every mind of three kinds: Pleasant, Unpleasant & Neutral.

Track 7 - Handout 2.  Categories of Feeling, 24 Kinds of Mental Factor of Feeling, Questions & Answers, function of class Discussion Group (held at 3:00 - 3:45 before each class).

If any of the LINKS don't work, please leave a COMMENT or notify us by E-Mail.

This is the 1st class of the Fall  2011 Perfection of Wisdom course
addressing the Four Noble Truths, the 2nd sub-topic of the 2nd Topic
(Mahayana Practice Instructions) of Chapter 1 of Maitreya's
Ornament for Clear Realizations - Abhisamayalamkara.