Handouts - Truths of Cessation & Path - Fall 2011

Below are links to Handouts 23-29 for the Fall term of the Perfection of Wisdom Course topic:  the Four Noble Truths.  Handout 23* covers the Third Noble Truth - the TRUTH of CESSATION.  *For convenience, material on the Truth of Cessation that was handed out in class on Handouts 22 & 24 is incorporated into the beginning of Handout 23 for download.  Handouts 24-29 cover the Fourth Noble Truth - the TRUTH of the PATH.

The Handouts, prepared by Geshe Kelsang Wangmo, serve as the text for the Fall 2011 semester.

Please note:  Even though the Creative Commons logo copyright logo does not appear on the downloadable Charts and Handouts, they are also covered by Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs" Copyright.  [See right hand column.]

Handout 23.  Four Noble Truths - TRUTH of CESSATION - "the complete &
irreversible elimination of an obstruction to liberation or enlightenment."  Meaning, synonyms, Arhats, effects of Karma, Cessations as permanent phenomena, Four Possibilities between permanent & eternal.  Afflictive Obstructions.  Two-fold categorization:  I. Non-Analytical Cessations (སོ་སོར་བདགས་མིན་གྱི་འགོག་པ་) & II. Analytical Cessations (སོ་སོར་བརྟགས་འགོག་པ་).  Two-fold categorization of Cessations:  I. Nirvana with Remainder (ལྷག་བཅས་མྱང་འདུས་) & II. Nirvana without Remainder (ལྷག་མེད་མྱང་འདུས་).

Four Noble Truths - TRUTH of the PATH.  

Handouts 24.  Eight-Fold Path & Five Paths.  THREE TRAININGS:  1.  Training of ETHICS (ཚུལ་ཁྲིམ་ཀྱི་བསླབ་པ་).  2.  Training of CONCENTRATION (ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གི་བསླབ་པ་).  3.  Training of WISDOM (ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་བསླབ་པ་).  EIGHT-FOLD PATH:  1. Right View.  2.  Right Thought.  3. Right Speech.

Handouts 25.  EIGHT-FOLD PATH, cont.:  4. Right Aims of Action.  5. Right Livelihood.  6. Right Effort.  7.  Right Mindfulness.  8. Right Concentration.  Eight-Fold Path divided amongst the Three Trainings.  FIVE PATHS:  1. Path of ACCUMULATION.  2. Path of PREPARATION.  3. Path of SEEING.  4. Path of MEDITATION.  5. Path of NO MORE LEARNING.

Handouts 26.  FIVE PATHS: Restated.  Introduce Panchen Sonam Drakpa's presentation of the Four Noble Truths in his textbook (General Meaning - སྤྱིད་དོན་) and debate manual (Decisive Analysis - མཐའ་དཔྱོད་).  General Meaning expounds Four Noble Truths by way of:  1. Definitive Enumeration;  2. Order;  3. Definitions;  4. Etymology; and 5. Sixteen Aspects:  1. DEFINITIVE ENUMERATION.

Handouts 27.  General Meaning's Five-fold exposition of he Four Noble Truths, cont.  2.  ORDER .  3. DEFINITIONS:  I. Truth of Suffering - Three kinds (Suffering, Change & Pervasive Compositional). II. Truth of Origin - (A) Karmic:  i) Meritorious - Projecting Karma for (a) human & (b) celestial desire realm rebirth; ii) Non-Meritorious - Projecting Karma for (a) hell, (b) preta realm & (c) animal rebirth, iii) Immovable - Projecting Karma for (a) Form & (b) Formless realm rebirth.  (2) Delusional Origin: (a) Six Primary & (b) 20 Secondary.  III.  Truth of Cessation - Explain Different Aspects of Cessation; Three Categories of Cessation; Eight Categories of Cessation - 1) Symbolic, 2) Ultimate. 

Handouts 28.  Eight Categories of Cessation, cont. - Cessations that are:  3) not thoroughly completed, 4) thoroughly completed, 5) without ornament, 6) with ornament, 7) with remainder, 8) without remainder.  IV. Truth of Path:  Different Aspects of the Definition (thoroughly purified truth in the continuum of an Arya & nominal cause of its object of attainment (Truth of Cessation); Three-fold Categorization; Five-fold Categorization.  General Meaning's Five-fold exposition of the Four Noble Truths, cont. - 4. ETYMOLOGY.  5.  16 ASPECTS:  4 Aspects of (1) Truth of Suffering (Impermanent, Suffering, Empty, Selfless); (2) Truth of Origin  (Cause, Origin, Strong Production, Condition).

Handouts 29. General Meaning's Five-fold exposition of the Four Noble Truths, cont. - 5.  16 ASPECTS:  4 Aspects of (3) Truth of Cessation (Cessation, Pacification, Auspicious Highness, Definite Emergence); (4) Truth of Path  (Path, Suitability, Achiever, Deliverance). Relations between each of the 4 Noble Truths; and between the 16 Aspects. Decisive Analysis - refuting two incorrect presentations of the Four Noble Truths.

Handouts & Class Notes - Truth of Origination - Fall 2011

Below are links to Handouts 10-22 for the Fall term of the Perfection of Wisdom Course topic:  the Four Noble Truths.  Handouts 10-22 cover the Second Noble Truth - the TRUTH of ORIGINATION, which is the subject starting in the 6th Class held September 23, 2011.  For Handouts used in Classes 1-6 (Sept. 12-23), click: TRUTH of SUFFERING.

The Handouts, prepared by Geshe Kelsang Wangmo, serve as the text for the Fall 2011 semester.  Also below:  links to CLASS NOTES/Partial Transcripts (DRAFT) of Truth of Origination (prepared by Ven. Tenzin Nordron) will be posted.  Each Class Blog Post also links to the Handouts covered in the class (and partial Class transcripts when available).

Please note:  Even though the Creative Commons logo copyright logo does not appear on the downloadable Charts and Handouts, they are also covered by Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs" Copyright.  [See right hand column.]

Handouts 9-22.  Four Noble Truths - NOBLE TRUTH of ORIGINATION - ཀུན་འབྱུང་འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ། 

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").

NEW CORRECTED - 2011 Handout 11 -  Delusions (ཉོན་མོངས་): IGNORANCE , cont. - Six Primary Delusions (རྩ་ཉོན་དྲུག):  Five Non-Views:  (1) Attachment, (2) Anger, (2) Arrogance, (4) Ignorance, (5) (Afflictive) Doubt; Five Views of (6) Wrong View = Ten Delusions:   Five Non-Views:  (1)  Attachment - འདོད་ཆགས་.  (2) Anger - ཁོང་ཁྲོ་.  (3) Arrogance - ང་རྒྱལ།. (cont. in Handout 12).

2011 Handout 12 - Ten Delusions, Five Non-Views -  (3) Arrogance, cont. - 7 Kinds.   (4) Ignorance - མ་རིག་པ་.  (5) (Afflictive) Doubt - ཉོན་མོངས་ཅན་གྱི་ཐེ་ཚོམ།.  Five Views -   (6) View of Transitory Collection - འཇིག་ཚོགས་ལ་ལྟ་བ།.  (7) View Holding to Extremes - མཐར་འཛིན་པའི་ལྟ་བ།.  (8) Esteeming Unworthy Views - ལྟ་བ་མཆོག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ།.  (9) Belief in the Supremacy of Mistaken Ethics & Religious Conduct - ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་དང་བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་མཆོག་འཛིན་. (cont. in Handout 13). 

NEW CORRECTED - 2011 Handout 13 - Ten Delusions, Five Views - (9) Belief in the Supremacy of Mistaken Ethics & Religious Conduct, cont.  (10) Wrong View - ལོག་པར་ལྟ་བ། / ལོག་ལྟ།. Twenty Secondary Delusions:  (1) Aggression / belligerence - ཁྲོ་བ།. (2) Resentment - ཁོན་འཛིན།. (3) Concealment / denial - འཆབ་པ་།.  (4) Spite - འཚིག་པ་།.  (5) Jealousy / envy - ཕྲག་འདོག.  (6) Miserliness - སེར་སྣ།.  (7) Pretension / deceit - རྒྱུ།.  (8) Dissimulation - གཡོ།.  (9) Haughtiness - རྒྱགས་པ།.  (10) Harmfulness - རྣམ་པར་འཐསེ་བ།.  (11) Shamelessness / non-shame- ངོ་ཚ་མེད་པ།.  (12) Inconsideration / non-embarrassment - ཁྲེལ་མེད་པ།.  (13) Dullness / lethargy - རྨུགས་པ།.  (14) Excitement - རྒོད་པ།.

NEW CORRECTED - 2011 Handout 14 - (15) Non-faith - མ་དད་པ།.  (16) Laziness - ལེ་ལོ།.  (17) Non-conscientiousness - བག་མེད་པ།.  (18) Forgetfulness - བརྗེད་ངེས་པ།.  (19) Non-alertness - ཤེས་བཞིན་མ་ཡིན་པ།.  (20) Distraction - རྣམ་གཡེང།. Three Types of Cravings:  (1) for Sense Pleasures.  (2) Fearful Craving; (3) Craving for Existence.  Process of Producing Delusions, cont. on Handout 15.

NEW CORRECTED - 2011 Handout 15 - Process of Producing Delusions, cont.  Six Causes of Delusons:  [(1) Basis; (2) Object; (3) Distractions; (4) (Mistaken) Explanatons; (5) Habituation; (6) (Wrong) Mental Engagement]:  1. Basis: Imprints that: are and are not Seeds. 2. Objects (cont. on Handout 16). 

2011 Handout 16 - Six Causes of Delusions, cont.  3. Distractions.  4. (Mistaken) Explanations.  5. Habituation.  6. (Wrong) Mental Engagement.  KARMA (ལས།) - Four Reflections on Karma: (1) Certainty of Karma. (2) Magnification of Karma. (3) One does not experience the result of an action one has not accumulated.  (4) Actions one has accumulated do not perish.  1) Certainty of Karma - (ལས་ངེས་པའི་ཚུལ།). (cont. on Handout 17). 

2011 Handout 17 - Four Reflections on Karma, cont.  (2) Magnification of Karma - (ལས་འཕེལ་ཆེ་བ།).  (3) One does not experience the result of an action one has not accumulated - (ལས་མ་བྱས་པ་དང་མི་ཕྲད་པ།).  (4) Actions one has accumulated do not perish - (ལས་བྱས་པ་ཆུད་མི་ཟ་བ།). Strength of actions is dependent on Four Factors {i.e.,  (1) Powerful in terms of the recipient.  (2) Powerful in terms of the support.  (3) Powerful in terms of the substance.  (4) Powerful in terms of the motivation.} (1) Powerful in terms of the recipient (ཞིང་གི་སྒོ་ནས་སྟོབས་ཆེ་བ།). (cont. on Handout 18.) 

2011 Handout 18 - Four Factors for Weighty Actions, cont. (2)  Powerful in terms of the support (རྟེན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་སྟོབས་ཆེ་བ།).  (3) Powerful in terms of the substance (དངོས་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་སྟོབས་ཆེ་བ།).  (4) Powerful in terms of the motivation (བས་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་སྟོབས་ཆེ་བ།).  Presentation of 3 Karmic Results (i.e., (1) Fruitional Results; (2) Causally Concordant Results; (3) Environmental Results.)  1) Fruitional Results (རྣམ་སྨིན་གྱི་འབྲས་བུ།).  2) Causally Concordant Results (རྒྱུ་མཐུན་པའི་འབྲས་བུ།): (i) Causally Concordant Behavioral Results (བྱེད་པ་རྒྱུ་མཐུན་གྱི་འབྲས་བུ།) & (ii) Causally Concordant Experiential Results - (cont. on Handout 19.)

2011 Handout 19 - Presentation of 3 Karmic Results, cont.  (ii) Causally Concordant Experiential Results (མྱོང་བ་རྒྱུ་མཐུན་གྱི་འབྲས་བུ།).  (3) Environmental Results (བདག་པོའི་འབྲས་བུ། or དབང་གི་འབྲས་བུ།).  Various Classifications of Karma.  A. (1) Physical Karma / Karma of the Body (ལུས་ཀྱི་ལས།). (2) Verbal Karma / Karma of Speech (ངག་གི་ལས།).  (3) Mental Karma / Karma of the Mind (ཡིད་ཀྱི་ལས།). B.  (1) Virtuous Karma (དགེ་བའི་ལས།).  (2) Non-virtuous Karma (མི་དགེ་བའི་ལས།).  (3) Neutral Karma (བཏང་སྙོམས་ཀྱི་ལས།).  C. Category of Projecting & Completing Karma:  (1) Projecting /Throwing Karma (འཕེན་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ལས།) - (cont. on Handout 20.) 

2011 Handout 20 - Various Classifications of Karma:  C. (1) cont.  (2) Completing Karma (རྫོགས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ལས།). Four Possibilities re Inter-Relationship of Projecting & Completing Karma re Virtue.  D.  Category of Karma that (1) Will Definitely Be Experienced (མྱོང་བར་ངེས་པའི་ལས།) & (2) Will Not Necessarily Be Experienced (མྱོང་བར་མ་ངེས་པའི་ལས།) & Accumulated Karma:  Four Possibilities between Karma that is Accumulated & Karma that is Done (e.g., killing).    E.  Timing of Result of Karma that Will Definitely Be Experienced - (cont. on Handout 21.)

2011 Handout 21 - cont. E.  Karma that Is Experienced (1) in the Current Life (མཐོང་ཆོས་ལ་མྱོང་འགྱུར་གྱི་ལས།); (2) after Taking Rebirth (སྐྱེས་ནས་མྱོང་འགྱུར་གྱི་ལས།); (3) in Subsequent Existences (ལན་གྲངས་གཞན་ལ་མྱོང་འགྱུར་གྱི་ལས།).  F.  Order of Precedence in which numerous Karmic Imprints that exist in mental continuum Ripen.  G.  Middle Way Consequentialist (Madhyamika-Prasangika) & Great Exposition (Vaibhashika) Tenets re Mental, Physical & Verbal Karma Differ from Sutra School (Sutantrika), Mind Only (Cittamatrin) & Middle Way Autonomy (Madhyamika-Svatantrika) tenets:  1) Karma that is Intention (སེམས་པའི་ལས།) & 2) Intended Karma (བསམས་པའི་ལས།) - (cont. on Handout 22).

2011 Handout 22 - cont. G. Chart.  H. Three-fold Division of Projecting Karma:  (1) Meritorious Karma (བསོད་རྣམས་གྱི་ལས།); (2) Non-meritorious Karma (བསོད་རྣམས་མ་ཡིན་པའི་ལས།); (3) Immovable Karma (མི་གཡོ་བའི་ལས།).  I.  Contaminated Karma & Uncontaminated Karma (ཟག་མེད་ཀྱི་ལས།).  Concludes Truth of Origination & Begins TRUTH OF CESSATION.

CLASS NOTES/partial transcripts

Rough drafts of notes/partial transcripts of Classes on topic, the
Second Noble Truth of Origination,
offered for what they are worth, will be posted here as they become available.

Class 6 NOTES

(If you are interested in assisting in proofing/editing, contact Ven. Tenzin Nordron.)

If any of the links do not work, please leave a comment or notify us by e-mail.

Handouts & Class Notes - Truth of Suffering - Fall 2011 Classes

Below are links to Handouts 1-9 for the Fall term of the Perfection of Wisdom Course topic:  the Four Noble Truths.  Handouts 1-9 cover the First Noble Truth - the TRUTH of SUFFERING, which was the subject of the first * Classes held September 12-, 2011.  Click on TRUTH of ORIGINATION for Handouts on the Second Noble Truth.

The Handouts, prepared by Geshe Kelsang Wangmo, serve as the text for the Fall 2011 semester.  Also below are links to CLASS NOTES/Partial Transcripts (DRAFT) of Truth of Suffering (prepared by Ven. Tenzin Nordron).

Please note:  Even though the Creative Commons logo copyright logo does not appear on the downloadable Charts and Handouts, they are also covered by Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs" Copyright.  [See right hand column.]

Handouts 1-9.  Four Noble Truths - TRUTH of SUFFERING

2011 Handout 1 - Ornament for Clear Realization's two verse 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 (cont. Handout 3).

NEW CORRECTED - 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.

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.)

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)   

2011 Handout 9 - cont. Six-Fold Categorization of Suffering:  4) Suffering of Repeated Rebirth.  5) Suffering of Repeatedly Descending from High to Low.  6) Suffering of  Having No Companions.

CLASS NOTES/partial transcripts  

Rough drafts of class notes/partial transcripts of Classes on the First Noble Truth of Suffering - offered for what they are worth - are posted here as they  become available. 

(If you are interested in assisting in proofing/editing, contact Ven. Tenzin Nordron.)

Class 2 NOTES

Class 4 NOTES
Class 5 NOTES

If any of the links do not work, please leave a comment or notify us by e-mail.