Ornament(for(Clear(Realization(—(Perfectionof*Wisdom...

Ornament for Clear Realization — Perfection of Wisdom Studies

Class 3 -‐ 2012 April 13 –Friday1 Institute for Buddhist Dialectics, McLeod Ganj, India

Teacher -‐ GESHE KELSANG WANGMO

TRACK 1 – CONCLUDE REVIEW OF ORNAMENT & INTRODUCTION TO REFUGE TOPIC.

We’re getting to Refuge topic today. But first a brief review.

PLEASE NOTE: My Word program “crashed” without Save after the “Review” portion of class. In this document, the section of HANDOUT 5 and HANDOUT 6 that are referenced in this First Section of Review (MP3 Track 1) are included below with no draft of Geshe-‐la’s commentary. Class Transcript/Notes resume with Track 2, on page 4 below.

Just as the one (the enlightenment aspiration) and the other (the other's benefit aspiration) are explained in the middling sutra (the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Twenty Thousand Verses) likewise they are explained briefly and extensively in the short sutra (the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Eight Thousand Verses) and the extensive sutra (the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in One Hundred Thousand Verses). The next two verses (verses 20 and 21) present one of Bodhicitta's categories -‐ the category by way of similes -‐ which consists of twenty-‐two different types of Bodhicitta.

As for this: earth, gold, moon, fire, Treasure, jewel mine, ocean, Vajra, mountain, medicine, friend, Wish-‐fulfilling gem, sun, song [20]

།དེ་ཡང་ས་གསེར་*་བ་མེ།

།གཏེར་དང་རིན་ཆེན་འ-ུང་གནས་མཚོ།

།"ོ་%ེ་རི་)ན་བཤེས་གཉེན་དང་།

།ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུ་ཉི་མ་.ུ།

King, store-‐house, great path, Riding mount, spring, Lute, river, and cloud. Thus, these are the twenty-‐two aspects [21]

།"ལ་པོ་མཛོད་དང་ལམ་པོ་ཆེ།

།བཞོན་པ་བཀོད་མའི་ཆུ་དང་ནི།

།"་བ%ན་ཆུ་བོ་*ིན་,མས་/ིས།

།"མ་པ་ཉི་ཤུ་*་གཉིས་སོ།

1 ROUGH DRAFT -‐

2 2012 Class 3 – April 13 Class Notes Draft – Ornament For Clear Realizations – Refuge

The meaning of these two verses is: As for this, the category by way of similes, there are twenty-‐one different types of Bodhicitta. Earth-‐like Bodhicitta, gold-‐like Bodhicitta, moon-‐like Bodhicitta, fire-‐like Bodhicitta, treasure-‐like Bodhicitta, jewel mine-‐like Bodhicitta, ocean-‐like Bodhicitta, vajra-‐like Bodhicitta, mountain-‐like Bodhicitta, medicine-‐like Bodhicitta, friend-‐like Bodhicitta, wish-‐fulfilling gem-‐like Bodhicitta, sun-‐like Bodhicitta, song-‐like Bodhicitta, king-‐like Bodhicitta, store-‐house-‐like Bodhicitta, great path-‐like Bodhicitta, riding mount-‐like Bodhicitta, spring-‐like Bodhicitta, lute-‐like Bodhicitta, river-‐like Bodhicitta, cloud-‐like Bodhicitta. Thus, these are the twenty-‐two different aspects of Bodhicitta. [Bodhicitta was explained during the IBD philosophy course in the autumn of 2010 and spring 2011]

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

Tibetan: གདམས་ངག

-‐ Dam Ngag (Dam = instruct/explain/teach/counsel, Ngag = speech/talk)

As explained before, Bodhicitta aspires to attain enlightenment and therefore, after having explained Bodhicitta, the question that arises is how to attain enlightenment. The only way to attain enlightenment is to engage in extensive and prolonged practice of the Mahayana stages to full enlightenment which in turn must be preceded by listening, contemplating and meditating on Mahayana practice instructions. Therefore, the Ornament explains ten different Mahayana practice instructions. Having explained Bodhicitta, the ten instructions assist Bodhisattvas on the path of accumulation (or those aspiring to become Bodhisattvas) to generate the qualities they have not generated yet and to not lose the qualities they have generated.

The ten practice instructions expound on ten topics. These ten topics are: 1. The two truths 2. The four noble truths 3. The three objects of refuge 4. Diligence/enthusiastic effort/perseverance of non-‐involvement 5. Diligence/enthusiastic effort/perseverance of tirelessness 6. Diligence/enthusiastic effort/perseverance of thoroughly applying oneself to the path of practice 7. Five visions 8. Six clairvoyances 9. Path of seeing 10. Path of meditation

The Ornament describes the ten topics of the ten Mahayana practice instructions in two verses:

2012 Class 3 – April 13 Class Notes Draft – Ornament For Clear Realizations – Refuge 3

Practice, the Truths, The Three Jewels such as the Buddha, Non-‐involvement, Tirelessness, Thoroughly upholding the path, [22]

།"ུབ་དང་བདེན་པ་+མས་དང་ནི།

།སངས་%ས་ལ་སོགས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ།

།མ་ཞེན་ཡོངས་མི་ངལ་དང་།

།ལམ་ནི་ཡོངས་སུ་འཛིན་པ་དང་།

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]

།"ན་%་དང་ནི་མངོན་ཤེས་.ི།

།ཡོན་ཏན་'ུག་དང་མཐོང་ལམ་དང་།

།"ོམ་ཞེས་)་ལ་གདམས་ངག་ནི།

།བཅུ་ཡི་བདག་ཉིད་ཤེས་པར་0།

Bodhisattvas on the path of accumulation should now listen, contemplate and meditate on the Mahayana practice instructions. This will enhance their practice and their progress on the path to enlightenment.

These practice instructions should be known as having a tenfold character since they describe the following ten topics: 1. The two truths: the two truths are explained in order to understand the nature and the

aspect of practice 2. The four noble truths: the four noble truths are the focal object of practice 3. The three objects of refuge: going for refuge to the three jewels such as the Buddha and so

forth serves as the basis of one's practice 4. The diligence of non-‐involvement: the diligence of non-‐involvement counteracts the

laziness of engaging in non-‐virtuous actions and assists practitioners in stabilizing their practice

5. The diligence of tirelessness: the diligence of tirelessness counteracts the laziness of sloth/procrastination and assists practitioners in increasing their practice

6. The diligence of thoroughly upholding the path of practice: the diligence of thoroughly upholding the path of practice counteracts the laziness of self-‐contempt/faintheartedness and assists practitioners in averting the deterioration of their practice

7. The five visions: the five visions are special powers that practitioners need in order to become more self-‐sufficient

8. The six clairvoyances: clairvoyance's six qualities, i.e. the six types of clairvoyance, are needed in order to quickly complete the accumulation of merit

9. The path of seeing: practitioners on the path of seeing have newly cultivated the meditative absorption directly realizing emptiness. The principal function of this meditative absorption is to permanently eliminate the intellectually acquired ignorance etc.

10. The path of meditation: practitioners on the path of meditation have achieved the cessation of the intellectually acquired ignorance etc. and their meditative absorption directly realizing emptiness now eliminates the innate ignorance etc.


HANDOUT 06 – spring 2012 / The Three Objects of Refuge

The first three topics (the two truths, the four noble truths, and the three objects of refuge) are from the point of view of practice itself; the next three topics (the three types of diligence) are from the point of view of avoiding the manifestation of negativities in the continua of practitioners; the following two topics (the five kinds of vision and the six types of clairvoyance) are from the point of view of increasing the practitioners' qualities, and the last two topics (the path of seeing and the path of meditation) are from the point of view of permanently eliminating negativities in the continua of practitioners.

THE TWO TRUTHS The nature and the aspect of Mahayana practice were explained by way of expounding on the two truths (during the IBD philosophy course in the spring of 2011).

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS The focal object of Mahayana practice was explained by way of expounding on the four noble truths (during the IBD philosophy course in the autumn of 2011).

Track 2 – INTRODUCTION TO THREE OBJECTS OF REFUGE

Following that is the explanation of the three objects of refuge:

So that was a summary, just again, how do we get from the beginning of this text to now, Refuge, the main topic. And it is considered so important, one of the most important topics really, because it is the gateway to Buddhist practice, and keeps us on the path. Refuge is always important – at the beginning, middle and end.

Often if you ask people, ‘Do you take refuge?’ They say, ‘Yes’. When you ask, ‘What does it mean?’ They can’t answer.

We need to know two things: the Objects we take Refuge in; and the activity of taking refuge.

What do we take refuge in, exactly. It’s a three -‐old object but what does it mean in a strict and wider sense. What is the meaning of ‘taking refuge’. We have a loose sense. If we were Tibetan, maybe it would be a little easier because, especially, the older generation has such great faith. It is blind faith, but it is really stable and nothing is going to get them to stop taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and H.H. the Dalai Lama. They don’t know exactly what it means to be a Buddha or the qualities of His Holiness. But such strong faith that we don’t have. Unless we were born Tibetan and raised traditionally as older Tibetans were, they have really strong solid faith.


FAITH & REASON

Here we strive for faith based on reasoning, which is preferable. But we can’t choose, we can’t have blind faith because it is not our tradition. We came to Buddhism because of reasoning, it made sense to us, but our reasoning is not strong enough. Our refuge is not enough. A lot of people don’t find teachings on Refuge terribly attractive. Unlike, e.g., the Two Truths. Refuge is more challenging than they may think. The goal of this course is to examine Refuge closely from all angles.

Buddhism talks about the importance of developing constructive emotional states, e.g., Faith. Faith is not a wisdom mind that clearly perceives its object. Faith is an emotional mind of trust, joy. However, such faith can only arise on the basis of reasoning.

All of our emotions are based on a type of reasoning. If we’re in love with someone it is because of certain reasons that make us think that person is attractive. There’s an external appears, a way they speak, an aura, and our mind goes, ‘Oh, those are qualities I really like,” etc., and then an emotion arises. It doesn’t have to be correct reasoning. In fact, most of our reasons are incorrect. “I’ll be happy forever with this person” – No, I won’t because of importance and because that person is not in the nature of happiness. My inherently existent Self will be really happy; but there is no inherently existent Self.

Buddhism takes that mechanism and replaces it with correct reasoning, so that constructive emotions arise. To justify my anger, the thought that ‘this person is all bad’ is replaced by reasoning that the person is not just negative, but has have mixed qualities, and we are interdependent …

Likewise with Taking Refuge, which requires an emotion state of having faith, entrusting ourselves, aspiring — emotional states. So we need to know the why, who and the result of the Refuge. Otherwise, it’s just reciting words. To really feel Refuge all of the time, we can only so do if we really have a rational understanding.

In analytical meditation as opposed to stabilizing meditation, we examine, examine until a certain feeling or conclusory feeling arises, and we then focus on that, and then go deeper. So emotions are very important in Buddhism.

Faith. What kind of faith is it if we don’t have clear understanding? What are the causes for taking Refuge so we can develop strong practice of Refuge?

So I want to challenge you so you also question your own understanding. We should constantly be questioning of our level of understanding. In our Tibetan studies at IBD, we do so in debate. For this class, that is why we have the Discussion group so we can allow this process of going through this material over again. While you’re at home, go through it again and don’t be satisfied with a superficial thought, ‘Oh, I understand.’ There’s always room for improvement.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO TAKE REFUGE?

So what do you think it actually means to take refuge.? I suppose most of you are Buddhists, so you take refuge. That’s the definition of being Buddhists.

DISTINCTION: BEING A BUDDHIST & BEING A BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHER.

There’s a different between being a Buddhist, a person who follows the path, and a Buddhist philosopher.


What is the essence of the Buddhist theory? The Four Seals.

What are the Four Seals: All contaminated phenomena are in the nature of suffering. All conditioned, compounded phenomena are impermanent. All phenomena are Empty and Selfless. Nirvana is peace.

If someone asserts those to be true, they’re said to be a Buddhist philosopher. Usually we categorize Buddhist philosophers as belonging among one of the Four Tenet systems (Vaibashika – Great Exposition, Sutantrika – Sutra school, Cittamatrin – Mind Only, Madhyamika – Middle Way).

STEVE: What are the commonly practiced tenets? Is it just Prasangika?

GESHE WANGMO: I would say so. Yeah. At the time of the Buddha, these philosophers were said to have existed; whether exactly in that form, who knows. We use them as stepping-‐stones to the highest system, the Prasangika (the Middle Way Consequentialist) view.

STEVE: Among Prasangika, there are still some very hotly debated points?

GESHE WANGMO: Definitely, there are points that need to be clarified and so forth. However, there are generally categorized four levels of philosophy and the lower were taught as temporary stepping-‐stones to the higher view.

But they all agree about the Four Seals, although they posit Emptiness and Selflessness differently.

But to be a Buddhist practitioner does not require understanding or knowledge about about the Four Seals, but one must still take refuge in the Three Jewels. On the other hand it is possible to be a Buddhist Philosopher without being a Buddhist practitioner. …

So in these studies now, we are not here so much interested in the Buddhist philosopher, but in what it means to be a Buddhist.

As a sentient being, as a Buddhist, we need to take Refuge. Being a Buddhist is just a name that we apply to a person, and so it has a definition. And it is defined as a person who takes Refuge.

WHY IS “A PERSON WHO TAKES REFUGE IN THE THREE JEWELS” THE DEFINITION OF A BUDDHIST?

Would it be enough to only take refuge in the Buddha; or only take refuge in Dharma; or only take refuge in those two? Why must it be refuge in all three?

OBJECTS OF REFUGE: THE THREE JEWELS

So first I’ll go through the Objects of Refuge — the Three Jewels. The Sanskrit for jewel is ratna which was translated into Tibetan as kun chog (ཀུན་ཆོག་). Actually the Tibetan

for jewel is norbu (ནོར་བུ་). Kun (ཀུན་) means rare. Chok (ཆོག་) means sublime. Sum

(གསུམ་) means three, so in Tibetan the Three Jewels is kun chog sum (ཀུན་ཆོག་གསུམ་).

In English, we have translated Three Jewels from the Sanskrit, not the Tibetan.


Why must we take refuge in all Three Jewels? And there’s a debate at the beginning.

THE THREE OBJECTS OF REFUGE Some masters say (though this debatable) that practitioners who have listened, contemplated, and meditated on the Four Noble Truths (our last topic in Fall 2011), and have attained a deep understanding of those truths, do not have to listen to and contemplate the teachings on the three objects of refuge anymore since they naturally take refuge in the three Jewels, i.e., the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

IF WE REALLY UNDERSTOOD, ACTUALLY INTERNALIZED THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS, WOULD WE NATURALLY TAKE REFUGE IN THE THREE JEWELS? (Italicized emphasis added to Handout above).

Is that true or not?

However, for those who need to deepen their contemplation of the four truths, Maitreya presents the next topic: the three objects of refuge.

Last autumn we spent a lot of time studying Four Noble Truths, but it still wasn’t enough. If we really understood the Four Noble Truths, we would have overcome our attachment to Samsara. Which Truth must we have understood if we had overcome our attachment to Samsara?

The First Truth. Which teaching tells us that Cyclic Existence is in the nature of suffering? How many sufferings do we need to understand to learn? The three types of suffering — all of our experiences are one of those three types of suffering.

We have the potential to suffer at all times. What is Samsara other than our body, mind and experience. We all have our own unique Samsara. So if we understood the First Truth, we would not run after the Sufferings of Change, which we’re very attached to.

We’re all equal in renouncing the Suffering of Suffering. But we are very attached to this body and mind (the Third type of Suffering) and the temporary pleasures of the Suffering of Change.

There’s a difference between having an attachment to Cyclic Existence in general and attachment to this life in particular. Honestly, if a genie came up and said, ‘Rub this bottle, and you can be immediately liberated’, I might be reluctant. So emotionally, I am really attached. So just understanding the First Noble Truth.

I hardly ever think of my next lifetimes. Nor do I think, ‘Will my current actions bring happiness in the next lifetime?’ No, I’m thinking about immediate results. If I was thinking of the next lifetimes’ happiness, I would never accumulate any non-‐virtue. If I want to be happy in my next lifetime, virtuous activity is the only way.

So, forget about renunciation, wanting to be free from Samsara, I don’t even think about my next lifetime. I’m thinking about the next hour, the next day. But that’s okay. Start where you are. But it does show me, the Four Noble Truths has so many layers, and there’s so much to be understood.

When you see these highly realized lamas, who manifest as ordinary meditators, when H.H. Dalai Lama gives a teaching even if it is the Four Noble Truths for the 10,000th time,


they come and listen as though it was for the first time, and for them, it is because they really implement the teachings. So the Four Noble Truths are an aeon-‐long study.

If someone really understood the suffering nature of Cyclic Existence, they wouldn’t be attached to this lifetime.

What about understanding the Origin of Suffering? We would definitely try to get rid of attachment and desire by meditating on Emptiness realizing that it all comes from our basic misunderstanding. Likewise, the Third and Fourth Noble Truths.

But the questions is: If we really understood, actually internalized the Four Noble Truths, would we naturally take refuge in the Three Jewels?

The three objects of refuge, or three Jewels, are: 1) The Buddha Jewel 2) The Dharma Jewel 3) The Sangha Jewel

BUDDHA JEWEL – FOUR KAYAS

You may notice here, it says, “The Buddha Jewel” but it could be stated as the “Buddha Jewels”. Because there isn’t just one Buddha; there are many Buddhas. When I say, the, I’m thinking of Buddha Shakyamuni.

When I say Buddha Jewels, I hate to say ‘he’ or ‘she’. Since Shakyamuni Buddha emanated as a man, it’s okay to say ‘he.’ But really a Buddha, the person who is the emanatory, is beyond male or female or is a complete form – male and female, both, complete. So we think of the Buddha Jewel as the founding Buddha and all Buddhas.

1) The Buddha Jewel The Buddha Jewel refers to fully enlightened beings, who are endowed with the four bodies (the Dharmakaya, Svabavakaya, Samboghakaya, and the Nimanakaya).

MEANING OF BUDDHA BODIES / KAYAS

This will be explained. But when you think of Four Bodies, or four Kayas, Kaya doesn’t actually mean ‘body’; here kaya means the amazing qualities of a Buddha that are categorized into four kayas. Kaya doesn’t mean a physical body with two arms and two legs, but all the qualities of an Enlightened Buddha, all of their amazing qualities. With our limited minds we can only have a limited sense of those qualities, but we should try and we will learn more about.

Track 3 -‐ DHARMA JEWEL

2) The Dharma Jewel

So here it gets a little more complicated than the Buddha Jewel.

Buddha means a Fully Enlightenment Being and refers mainly to which most amazing thing about the Buddha? The mind. Of course, that’s true of how we judge whether a


person is good and bad most of the time – on the basis of their mental consciousness. Superficially, some may judge a person by their ‘great body’ some of the time.

So with the Buddha Jewel, it refers to the person Buddha but mainly the amazing qualities of their mind.

What do we take refuge in when we take refuge in the Dharma Jewel?

What do we usually think of as the meaning of Dharma? The teachings.

But the teachings are not actually the Dharma Jewel except in a very broad, the widest sense. In the strictest sense that is not the Dharma Jewel.

We base the definition of the objects of refuge on Maitreya’s text, the Uttaratantra (Sublime Continuum), which has very extensive exposition of the Three Jewels. It has been translated into English but without a commentary, it is very difficult to understand. In our studies at IBD (Loseling, for example) use a commentary by Gyaltsab Je that has not been translated into English. The root text with commentary by Mipham Rinpoche has been translated to English and there may be others.

So in the Uttaratantra, Maitreya explains the Dharma Jewel to mean, in the strictest sense, Arya Paths and Arya Cessations in the continua of Arya beings.

1) The Dharma Jewel Regarding the Dharma Jewel, there are different interpretations as to what it refers to. According to Maitreya's Uttaratantra (Sublime Continuum), in a stricter sense the Dharma refers to Arya paths (truths of the path) and cessations (truths of cessation) in the continua of beings who have attained any of the three Arya paths, i.e., the path of seeing, the path of meditation, or the path of no more learning.

TWO PATHS

Now, this complicated and requires explanation. ‘A person on the path’. How many paths are there? Two, in a usual sense, we can talk of two paths: The path to the Hinayana goal of Self-‐Liberation from Samsara and the path to the Mahayana goal of Full Enlightenment (which includes Liberation). There are two paths, or two different states of mind (that are called path) that need to be generated to take on to these goals. One of the most important is to generate an understanding of the ultimate nature of phenomena or Emptiness. If you follow either the Hinayana or Mahayana path, you need to do that.

There are five stages, the last being the Goal, on the Hinayana Path: Path of Accumulation, Path of Preparation, Path of Seeing, Path of Meditation, Path of No More Learning. On the Path of Seeing, you realize Emptiness directly, so it is one of the most important paths. Path of Accumulation and Path of Preparation are preparation for Path of Seeing, you realize Emptiness inferentially, not directly. Once you realize Emptiness directly, you actually start eliminating obstacles to Self-‐Liberation.

Let’s say Dana wants to become Self-‐Liberated, and having gone through Path of Accumulation and Path of Preparation, she has meditated long enough on the Hinayana path and realized Emptiness directly. From then on, every path in her continuum is an Arya Path – those are Dharma Jewels.


At the same time that mind that realizes Emptiness directly, gets rid of obstacles to attaining Self-‐Liberation, and those eliminations are called Cessations. They are the second Dharma Jewel.

In the strictest sense Arya Paths and Arya Cessations are the Dharma Jewels.

All of her cessations after realizing Emptiness directly, and all of her positive, virtuous minds in her continuum (e.g., any compassion, generosity) after that time onwards are the real Dharma Jewels to which we go for Refuge,

The same thing for the Mahayana Path. Say Todd’s goal is full Enlightenment, and he reaches the Mahayana Path of Seeing, after that, all of the states of mind in his continuum that are leading him to full Enlightenment are Dharma Jewels along with all of the cessations in his continuum (and the Arya Paths and Arya Cessations in his continuum keep increasing) are, in the strictest sense are the real Dharma Jewel Refuge.

Why? That’s the big question. It is not directly obvious what it means to Take Refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in the proper sense. It is only in the widest sense that the Dharma Jewel refers to the teachings. Because there are two kinds of refuges: Causal Refuge (something or someone else we rely on) and the Resultant Refuge (which is our own future attainment).2 We always need to take those into account.

The Refuge prayer we do before class: Yesterday I read a little commentary by H.H. Dalai Lama on the that verse prayer: the first two lines we do in order not to follow a wrong path, a non-‐Buddhist path with the aim of attaining full Enlightenment (as another path cannot possibly take us to that (Buddhist) goal), knowing that the Three Jewels can definitely take us to Enlightenment. And the Bodhicitta prayer in order to follow the Mahayana Buddhist Path.

The idea of a prayer is not saying the words, but to think and meditate on the words of the prayer, to sincerely take refuge. So what do we take refuge it in the morning. In the Buddha, all right. In the Dharma — taking refuge in the teachings is not enough. We need to take refuge in the Arya Paths and Arya Cessations.

2

The three Jewels can be further categorized into: 1. The causal three Jewels 2. The resultant three Jewels

The resultant three Jewels are one's future Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Thus, the resultant Buddha Jewel refers to one's future Buddha, the resultant Dharma Jewel refers to one's future Arya paths and Arya cessations, and one's future Sangha Jewel refers to one's future Arya being.


REFUGE IN THE DHARMA OF ARYA PATHS AND ARYA CESSATIONS

So first we need to understand them. I can’t just say, “Arya Path” and know what it means. Although you probably have some idea of Arya path.

Arya Path shows that Buddhism is not about ‘gaining something’. We already have all of the ingredients needed to attain Enlightenment. So Buddhism is not about gaining qualities. Buddhism is about eliminating faults until what you are left with is your innermost nature, which currently is obstructed. So we have all we need to become a Buddha already.

We need to eliminate restrictions that we have now that come from misperceptions of reality. And the goal is to eliminate them from good. To eliminate anger so that it can never arise again. That can only begin to happen once we reach the Path of Seeing. It does not happen on the Path of Accumulation or the Path of Preparation, and certainly not before we enter the Path of Accumulation. The real activity happens on the Paths of Seeing and Meditation. Everything leading up to that is merely preparation and temporary. We can temporarily reduce anger by applying antidotes. Those practices are extremely vital and applying those antidotes will smooth out our journey to reach the Path of Seeing. If you stop practicing before reaching the Path of Seeing, then your anger will eventually come back in full force.

Only by realizing the ultimate nature of phenomena directly, only with that mind can we begin to cut away the afflictions. So that is the object of refuge we aim for. You do gain qualities but only by eliminating negative qualities. Our mind is described as a clear crystal that is muddy and distorted, so the practice is about removing the dirt. Realizing the ultimate nature of phenomena removes the dirt.

We don’t want to underestimate the first stage of the Path of Accumulation! But it is not the same as reaching the Path of Seeing and permanently removing obstructions. So that is the real Dharma Jewel. Of the Four Noble Truths, we take refuge in the Truth of Cessation and Truth of the Path (Third and Fourth Noble Truths). The Truth of the Path doesn’t mean all paths. The Truth of the Path is an Arya Path — the Path of Seeing, Path of Meditation, and Path of No More Learning.

To overcome the first two Truths, the Truth of Suffering and Truth of Origin of Suffering, we need to generate the Truth of the Path and then we have Truth of Cessation.

Had all of you known this before?

STEVE: In the Path of Accumulation and Path of Preparation, . . . we can’t really achieve that until we’ve found the Refuge on the Path of Seeing

GESHE WANGMO: No, there’s some confusion. We’re not talking about ‘finding the refuge on the Path of Seeing.” We’re talking about me, now, as a person who has not even reached the Path of Accumulation, when I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in another person’s Arya Path or in my own future Arya Path.

STEVE: But that’s faith.

GESHE WANGMO: Wait, wait for now; we’ll come to that. First, I am talking about the objects of refuge. After that, we’ll talk about what it means to take refuge in that object.


So, once this is clear it’s not that difficult. Taking refuge in the Dharma Jewel in the strictest sense, as Maitreya explains in the Uttaratantra (Sublime Continuum), is to taking refuge in all of the Arya Paths and all the Arya Cessations, all of them. Similarly one takes refuge in all of the Buddhas. Or it is fine to take refuge in just one: e.g., you can take refuge in the Arya Paths and Arya Cessations of H.H. Dalai Lama.

Forget about taking refuge, what is the object of refuge. What is my focus when I recite the prayer: Until Enlightenment, I go for refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. What do I mean by Buddha? What do I mean by Dharma? What do I mean by Sangha?

Dharma in the strictest sense, this. And the explanations take the strictest sense. You can take Refuge in the teachings in a wider sense, but that is an incomplete object of refuge.

So in other texts, it says:

However, in a wider sense, the Dharma Jewel is also explained to refer to the teachings of the Buddha.

Yes, you can also take refuge in those.

Track 4 -‐ SANGHA JEWEL

So what is the Sangha. What do you think ordinarily when you take refuge? Who is the Sangha? Usually, we think of the Sangha as other Buddhist practitioners, or monks and nuns, or four fully ordained monks or fully ordained nuns.

However, again, there is a stricter and more general sense of the meaning of Sangha.

3) The Sangha Jewel Similar to the Dharma Jewel, there are different interpretations as to what the Sangha Jewel refers to. According to the Uttaratantra (Sublime Continuum), the Sangha Jewel refers in a stricter sense to Aryas.

So here we are talking about a person, not so much their qualities of the mental consciousness and their cessations. Previously Dana was standing for an Arya Hinayana Practitioner and Todd for a Mahayana practitioner, and the Dharma Jewel being the Arya Hinayana Path and Cessations in Dana’s continuum and Todd having the Arya Mahayana Path and Cessations in his continuum. That’s what we take refuge in when we take refuge in the Dharma Jewel. Now, I take refuge in them as persons when I take refuge in the Sangha Jewel. So they are both Aryas because they possess Arya Path in their continua, i.e., an Arya Path is any kind of path conjoined with the mind that realizes Emptiness directly. That mind influences all other minds that arise in their continua even when it lies dormant. Every time the mind that realizes Emptiness directly manifests, it cuts away delusions.

So there are two states those Aryas are in, the times when the Arya is in deep meditation and realizes Emptiness directly. Coming out of that meditation, the mind that realizes Emptiness directly is dormant but influences all their subsequent minds. As when we are very happy about something wonderful that happened, and it influences all our actions/thoughts of the day. Similarly, if you have Great Compassion, even though that Great Compassion is not manifest it will influence all your actions.


So once you have realized Emptiness directly, your perception of phenomena has changed. Once you have realized Emptiness directly, your perception of phenomena has changed, and you are a changed person. Then any mental consciousness that is a practicing mind (not the kind of mind that thinks, ‘I need to hang out my laundry’) is changed into an Arya Path. So if we take Refuge in the Sangha jewel, we take refuge in persons who have those Arya Paths in their continua and has achieved the cessations in their continua.

i.e., to Hearers, Solitary Realizers, and Bodhisattvas who have reached the path of Seeing, the path of Meditation, or the path of No More Learning.

So Hinayana and Bodhisattva Aryas, these are now in the strictest sense, my objects of refuge. These should come to mind to make my refuge most effective. What it means to take refuge, we’ll discuss that in a moment.

According to the Vinaya scriptures, the Hinayana sutras, and some Mahayana sutras, the Sangha Jewel refers to the community of ordained monks and nuns, or in an even wider sense, to the community of spiritual trainees who have dedicated their lives to Buddhist practice.

Four fully ordained monks or nuns, in a more general or wider sense — moving away from Arya practitioners — or monks and nuns, or in an even wider sense, the community of practitioners can be taken as the Sangha Refuge Jewel. If we have real Refuge, we should take refuge in Dharma in the stricter and wider sense; we should take refuge in Sangha in the stricter and wider sense. But this doesn’t come naturally right away.

We need to become aware of that, but all things become easier with familiarity as Santideva says. At first, you need to think about it for a while, but when you do it over and over, it takes a second; it’s right there. Of course, the first step is to understand what we take refuge in.

Of course, it gets more complicated and there are a lot of debates.

So these are the Three Jewels.

Track 5 – QUESTION & ANSWER

Do you have any questions?

TODD: Wouldn’t taking refuge in the Buddha subsume all three?

GESHE WANGMO: Are all three Jewels included within the refuge of Buddha the person. If we take refuge in Buddha the person, is the Buddha all three? The Buddha jewel; okay. The Buddha the person is also the Sangha jewel on the Arya Path on the Path of No More Learning.

But is Buddha the person a Dharma Jewel? Buddha the person is not a Dharma Jewel.

VEN. YANGDRON: The Body, Speech and Mind of Buddha … if you saw a silent teaching by the Buddha you would understand something about the teachings because of how he moves.


GESHE WANGMO: My debate was, the Buddhas as a person that I take refuge in all three. And she is saying, all three, Buddha’s Body, Speech and Mind. But Body, Speech and Mind are not the person, the Buddha. The person, the Buddha, is not the Buddha’s Body, is not the Buddha’s Speech, is not the Buddha’s Mind. I was taking a very specific Buddha Jewel. But you are right, because the Buddha’s Body is also a Buddha Jewel, the Buddha’s Speech is also a Buddha Jewel. The Buddha Jewel includes everything to do with a Buddha.

But then we need to see whether one of those is all Three (Jewels). Is there something that is all Three: A Buddha Jewel, a Dharma Jewel, a Sangha Jewel, all Three together.

When you say, Body, Speech and Mind, we need to take the Body: Is the Body of a Buddha Jewel? Yes.

Is the Body of a Buddha a Sangha Jewel? Hum. A Sangha Jewel is a person; the Buddha’s Body is not a person.

Is the Body of a Buddha a Dharma Jewel?

Do you think the Buddha’s Body is a Person?

VEN. YANGDRON: When I see His Holiness, something special occurs that I can’t explain, but is different from my experience of any one else.

GESHE WANGMO: The Buddha is a person, which is not the Buddha Body, Speech or Mind. So is the person Buddha is a Buddha jewel, yes, but the Buddha’s Body is not a person.

H.H. Dalai Lama is a person imputed on five aggregates. The person has a Dharma Jewel but is not a Dharma Jewel. His Holiness has an Arya Path and an Arya Cessation, but His Holiness is not an Arya Path or an Arya Cessation.

H.H. Dalai Lama is not His Holiness’s Body. Even if His Holiness has an indescribable Rainbow Body, His Holiness is not his body, he is not his mind; he is imputed on mind and body.

VEN. YANGDRON: Maybe a Buddha is not a person?

GESHE WANGMO: What is a person? A person is imputed on the basis of a body and mind. That definition doesn’t specify ordinary body. So an Arya or Buddha who has a super special Body and Mind, we can still impute a person on the basis of those.

Actually a Buddha doesn’t need to have a body and only manifest a body for the benefit of others. All I see of Ven. Yangdron is her body; I don’t see her mind.

Let’s say a Buddha manifests a body for our own benefit. H.H. Dalai Lama, a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, we can still talk about the superior Dalai Lama and his excellent body. We can still designate a person, His Holiness, on the basis of his superior body and the superior mind of His Holiness. Is that a Dharma Jewel? No. His Holiness possesses a Dharma Jewel.

H.H. Dalai Lama possesses those as characteristics, but he is not the Dharma Jewel. Any characteristic of a Buddha would be a Buddha jewel. But Dharma means either the teaching that comes forth from that Buddha or the Arya Path or Arya Cessation in their continua.


VEN. YANGDRON: I heard that one says that each, the Body, Speech and Mind of a Buddha, has the functions of all the others. Speech has all the qualities of Mind and Body, etc.

GESHE WANGMO: This is a little tricky. To say that His Holiness’s speech has the same characteristics: in the sense of being totally free of fault, in that sense they are equal. But to say that speech, which is the physical production of sound, and mind, which is non-‐physical, are the same has a fault.

Whatever is a speech is a sound.

VEN. NORDRON: So if I write and publish a paper, that is not ‘speech’.

GESHE WANGMO: No. Words are sound in the strictest sense.

TODD: Dharma Jewel — distinctions between Truth of the Path and Truth of Cessation, how many possibilities with an Arya Path?

GESHE WANGMO: What is an Arya Path? It is a mental consciousness, a state of mind in the continuum of someone who has realized Emptiness directly. Is it impermanent? Yes, Impermanent and constantly changing — not into something worse, but it is a non-‐static phenomenon.

What is a Cessation? An absence, it is permanent. So there is nothing that can be both. A cessation is just an absence. So there is nothing that is both a mental consciousness and a cessation. A consciousness can have a cessation, but a consciousness is not a cessation. I have a hand, but I am not a hand. If a mental consciousness has a cessation it is free from certain shortcomings. A person can possess both an Arya Path and an Arya Cessation. I can have both a right hand and a left hand — there’s nothing that is both a right hand and a left hand. There’s a different between having something and being something. We need to be very precise.

H.H. Dalai Lama is not a mind, he has a mind, and we impute the person of the Dalai Lama upon a body and mind. Of course, we cannot separate them.

STUDENT: Do we take refuge in what happens once you’re on the Arya Path.

GESHE WANGMO: To be more precise that is very powerful. We take refuge in the power of that mind; that is part of the refuge. If I take refuge in you as a Buddha, I take refuge in your power.

We’re not used to taking refuge in mind — especially as Westerners — because mind and brain are equated.

How is the Dharma Jewel different from the mind of the Sangha? The mind of the Sangha Jewel is the Dharma Jewel.

We take refuge in the Arya persons as the Sangha Jewel. And we take refuge in such Arya persons’ minds as the Dharma Jewel.

They are very much connected, we take refuge in all three. I don’t aim to attain His Holiness’ body or personhood, but for his mind; that is the aim. We’re special or not depending on our mental consciousness. Our delusions are all mental consciousnesses.


These are great questions. Don’t be frustrated by having questions about this. They are the way to learn.

AMY: So back to your question: why do we take refuge in the Sangha Jewel. Are we taking refuge in the end of the path (by taking refuge in the Sangha Jewel) and in the beginning of the path by taking refuge in the Buddha?

GESHE WANGMO: Buddha the person is a Sangha Jewel because Buddha has the Arya Path in his continuum. One is an Arya before one is a Buddha.

AMY: Thinking linearly, but a cessation is not …

GESHE WANGMO: Think of Amy as a continuum, Amy’s mind continuum. The body is like changing clothes from lifetime to lifetime, but the mental consciousness continues. So in one life Amy reaches the Path of Accumulation and in a later life, the Path of Preparation. In those lifetimes she’s not a Sangha jewel. But when she reaches the Path of Seeing, in that lifetime, having newly accumulated Arya Paths and Arya Cessations, at that time, she is not a Buddha Jewel: she is a Sangha Jewel and she has the Dharma Jewel of Arya Path and Arya Cessation. Her Dharma Jewel and Sangha jewels continue in her next lives until she becomes a Buddha Jewel.

Before reaching the Path of Seeing, why don’t we consider a person to be a Sangha Jewel? Because their good qualities and temporary cessations can be lost as the seeds of delusion are still present and able to arise again. Once one has attained Arya Paths and Arya Cessations, those cannot be lost.

I would like dedicate this class specifically to one of my classmates, Geshe Tsewang Namgyal. Some of you may know him. He went back to his home in Drango (Luhuo), Tehor (Garze), Kham (Sichuan), Tibet. He was arrested earlier this year for sending some photos via the internet, and just recently was sentenced to 15 years in a Chinese prison. So I want to dedicate our merits that he will stay healthy and be released quickly.

Ornament(for(Clear(Realization(—(Perfectionof*Wisdom...

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