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.