THE NINE MENTAL STATES
A COMMENTARY ON THE
KALACAKRA TANTRA Taught by Geshe Lharampa Ngawang Dhargyey Translated by Gelong Jhampa Kelsang (Allan Wallace) 1) At the beginning of the meditation, one cultivates the first mental state, 'mental placement" (Tib. sems jog.pa). At this point, the mind has very little stability; one finds the object and then very swiftly loses it The mind wanders elsewhere. Thus, it is going out and being drawn in again and again When one actually engages in the cultivation of clear stillness, eventually one feels that, as a result of meditation, one has more wandering thoughts than before. It seems that the meditation is increasing mental distraction. When this recognition occurs, one should not regard it as a fault, but rather as a good sign that one now has a greater awareness of what is happening in the mind. To draw an analogy, one might be outside somewhere and, as long as one is not paying any special attention but is simply sitting there with a wandering mind, daydreaming about this and that, one would not necessarily notice if many cars or people pass back and forth. One would not especially notice, or even know, whether or not a lot of traffic passed by because one would not be concerned. But if, one another day on the same spot, one really paid attention to the number of people and cars passing by, one would notice a great deal of traffic. One might conclude, "There is a lot more traffic today than before," whereas, in fact, there is not. At this time, instead of being oblivious one is being aware. 2) The second of the nine mental states preceding and leading to the attainment of clear stillness is called the 'continual placement' (Tib. rgyun. du.'jog. pa). Before this attainment, one continues practicing a great deal and, again and again, brings the mind in after it has wandered off. Eventually, sufficient stability does arise in the mind so that the attention will remain uninterruptedly focused on the object for, say, five, six or seven minutes, When that degree of stability has been attained, one has reached the second mental state called continual placement. |
3) The third mental slate is called the patch-like placement'
(Tib. glan. te. 'jog.pa). With the attainment of this third state, one's degree of mental stability is even greater than before such that the mind will remain uninterruptedly focused or the object for. say. 10-15 minutes. It is called patch-like placement' because, basically, the mind is focused upon the object with a reasonably good degree of stability and yet, occasionally, it will wander off. On those occasions, one recognizes this and brings it back. One is 'patching-up one's samadhi. This is similar to having a tear in one's robe - one recognizes it and says, "Oh, there!" and just patches it up. 4) The fourth menial state is called 'close placement' (Tib. nye.bar.' jog.pa). Having attained this fourth state, ihe mind no longer loses the object of meditation, because the power of mindfulness has come to completion. This is similar to a person growing up There will be certain physical tasks that can or cannot be performed. However, when this person becomes an adult of 20 years or so, his strength is complete and he is now able to do whatever is necessary. In like fashion, the strength of mindfulness is now complete. One does not lose the object, because the mind is no longer drawn away from it |
5) The fifth mental state is called subduing' (Tib dul.ba.byed-
.pa). While one is abiding in the previous mental slate of close placement, the mind becomes very inwardly directed and a high degree of stability exists. But. on the basis of that attainment, a very great danger of subtle sinking exists as well. For this reason, one especially needs to cultivate an extremely acute introspective alertness. It has to be extremely acute, because this fault of subtle sinking is very, very subtle and difficult to recognize, in fact, many contemplatives of ihe pasi have mistaken a concentration in which subtle sinking has arisen with proper and extremely fine samadhi, They stunted their practice by failing to recognize Ihe fault of subtle sinking and thought, instead, that they had accomplished their goal. To draw an analogy, if one is in a household in which Ihe other people in the house are lavishing one with kindness, praise, nice words and so forth while, at the same time, they are robbing one blind, it is very difficult to recognize them because ihey seem to be one's friends. They are much more difficult to recognize than people who come pounding on one's door is blatant robbers ot bandits. Those, at least, are easy to recognize. In like fashion, subtle sinking can very easily be mistaken for proper meditation, whereas, in fact, it is a fault which must be recognized. It is recognized through an extremely acute introspective alertness. 6) The sixth mental state is called pacification' (Tib. zhi.barbyed. pa). While abiding in the fifth mental state, the subduing, which is, in fact, a very fine degree of samadhi, one is giving a lot of effort or attention to cultivating extremely acute introspective alertness. As a result of this, the energy of the mind increases a great deal. With this increased and perhaps excessive energy of mind, as one goes to the sixth mental state, there is a danger of (ubtle excitement. To guard against this, one needs o recognize it by means of very active introspective alertness |
7) The seventh mental state is called the full pacification' (Tib.
mam.par.zhi. bar.byed.pa). In this state, there is not really much danger of the arisal of either sinking or excitement. They will occasionally arise a little bit and. when they do, they are not difficult to dispel and can be eliminated by the force of enthusiasm. By and large, they are not there. In the illustration of an elephant following a winding path, depicting the course of mental development towards the attainment of clear stillness, at this stage, the elephant, representing the mind, has a little tiny bit of blackness on it symbolizing the fact that the mind, at this point, is only slightly subject to sinking and excitement. Here is a recent example of Geshe Rabkye, who was in the same class with me. In cultivating clear stillness, he had definitely attained the seventh of these nine stales. In his meditation for two or three hours at a stretch, he would have impeccable concentration, a very high degree of samadhi. At that point he died. However, if he had lived, there seems no doubt that he would have proceeded right to the full attainment of clear stillness. Once one has attained the seventh state, to attain the following ones is a matter of relative ease- When I was in Dalhousie (another hill-station in northern India) quite a few years back, I was living alone very, very simply with only the most basic possessions. At that time, compared to Geshe Rabkye, I was very wealthy. He really looked simply like a beggar; all he had was a meditation cushion, a couple of pictures and that was it. Sometimes Geshe Rabkye, who was very good in debate would come to my place and talk or debate. Once I asked him what realization had he gained and he replied, "Well, 1 have not gained any real realization, but I have the feeling no one in the world is happier than I am." This is an indication that he was tnily a spiritual practitioner. His Holiness the Dalai Lama really took a very special interest and had an especially great affection for Geshe Rabkye. He invited him down from the mountain, where he was meditating, into his own palace to meditate there. It is true that His Holiness the Dalai Lama does take this very special interest, have this special affection for people, be they Tibetans or Westerners, who are devoting themselves very earnestly to spiritual practice. 8) The eight mental state is called 'single-pointed application' (Tib. rtse. gchig.tu.byed.pa). Upon the attainment of the eighth menial state, sinking or excitement no longer arise. By this time, at the beginning of one's sitting session, with just the slightest bit the effort, the mind becomes focused upon the abject (in this case, oneself as Kalacakra). One can then simply continue to abide in the meditation for as long as one likes. For the duration of the meditation, there is no sinking or excitement. This can be likened to a person who falls asleep and is completely out for eight hours, sleeping solidly the whole time without any effort. Likewise, with just a little bit of effort at the beginning of the sitting, this person can sit for a long time during which sinking and excitement do not arise. |
9) The ninth mental stale is even-placement' (Tib. mnyam paT.
'jog.pa). With the attainment of this state, one is totally accustomed to the practice Without any effort at all, one simply enters the meditation, focuses upon the object (oneself as Kalacakra) and abides in it effortlessly. This is like a person who has recited the Om Mani Padme Padme Hum many, many times. It becomes so effortless that, even if his mind is wandering all over the place, his mouth is saying Om Mani Padme Hiim. Otp Mani Padme Hum. . . Even at this point, however, one has not yet reached the actual state of dear stillness. This is called 'single-pointed concentration of t h e realm of desire.' One needs to continue in the meditation and, after some time, there arises a very special kind of joy and bliss, SO strong that it is almost unbearable. It arises, and then it wanes a little bit. Thereafter, there arises a physical joy due to physical suppleness, and then a joy due to mental suppleness It is following this that one actually reaches the attainment of clear stillness, also called the access concentration to the first mental stabilization.' Once one has attained this stale, the mind is an extremely fine instrument for any type of meditation one wants lo engage in. The mind will simply be able to focus on ihat And that is that! These are the nine stales one gradually passes through, regardless of whether one is practicing the sutra or the tantra path. The way one progresses (whether focusing on the lace or merely on an eye) is by focusing and maintaining mental stability with good mindfulness for, say, five minutes, gradually extending to ten, then fifteen minutes and, in this way, lengthening the period of stability further and further. If one truly tackles this type of meditation, it necessitates full use of one's intelligence lo approach i! in a variety of skillful ways. Sometimes, one will be silting in meditation, intensely applying oneself while, at other times, one needs to relax. Then again, at other times, one needs to apply oneself toward accumulating merit and purifying unwholesome imprints and obscurations. And why? Through the meditation in which one cultivates clear stillness, one chiefly accrues 'collection of wisdom," sometimes called 'mental merit', whereas, through oihcr practices, for example, devotional practices such as performing the Seven-Limb Puja, as well as through cultivating generosity and so forth, one chiefly accumulates 'physical merit' or collection-of merit.1 Therefore, through meditation one is accumulating only the mental merit. If one is accumulating only one type of merit, this can create an imbalance that can produce insurmountable obstacles. For example, if one is just engaging in meditation, as many people nowadays think is possible, this causes an imbalance which can create simply one obstacle after another. And why? Because with a deficiency of [physical| merit, it is possible that disturbances of one's subtle winds or other obstacles might arise. In fact, even though one is not using up merit through meditation, but is actually accumulating mainly the collection of wisdom, it might seem as if one were exhausting it. The reason for this is that if one is just focusing on and cultivating this one type of merit, which is also very much related to wisdom and intelligence, it is said that this can decrease one's lifespan. When disturbances and obstacles of this type arise, one needs to focus more on the accumulation of [physical] merit and purification of unwholesome imprints, accomplished through performing complementary practices such as the ones mentioned above, the Seven-Limb Pujii, making offerings and so forth. However, if one already has a tremendous store of merit, the situation can be different, but. nowadays, we are beings Living in what is called the time of degeneration.' So, we must balance our meditation or complement it with these other practices [designed specifically for the accumulation of physical merit] Otherwise, because one obstacle will come after another, it can perhaps seem as if one were exhausting one s merit. In brief, one must have a balanced practice, comprised of meditation and complementary practices, that is, one must accumulate |
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