Category Archives: Dalai Lama FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

3 H.H.Dalai Lama: Commentary on Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama: The causal process of pain/pleasure or happiness/suffering is understood in terms of a particular kind of process.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: The causal process of pain/pleasure or happiness/suffering is understood in terms of a particular kind of process.

3 His Holiness The Dalai Lama: Commentary on The Precious Garland “Ratnavali” by Nagarjuna, UCLA Los Angeles June 5-8, 1997.

The Dalai Lama discusses suffering and happiness, the Four Noble Truths, karma, and motivation.

The second half of the day’s teachings were opened with sutra chanting in Japanese, led by Rev. Noriaki Ito, Abbot of Higashi Hongwanjii Temple in Los Angeles.

Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I would like to express my appreciation to the members of the Japanese Buddhist sangha for their wonderful recitation. I was not able to follow the meaning of the verses, though. [Laugher.]

Now, I will resume our discussion where we left in the morning session.

We were talking about beginninglessness and the continuum of consciousness and also the continuum of the individual being, which is designated upon the basis of this beginningless continuum of consciousness or mind.

However, in the Buddhist schools of thought, as far as whether or not there is a possibility to an end of this continuum, all Buddhists schools converge on the point that it is beginningless. Continue reading »

4 H.H.Dalai Lama: Commentary on Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama: What is the Buddha’s dharma? It is the way and means by which the highest good, which is liberation, is attained.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: What is the Buddha’s dharma? It is the way and means by which the highest good, which is liberation, is attained.

4 His Holiness The Dalai Lama: Commentary on The Precious Garland “Ratnavali” by Nagarjuna, UCLA Los Angeles 1997.

In this section, the Dalai Lama continues with his explanation of the first line of The Precious Garland: “Completely free from all faults/and adorned with all good virtues,/the sole friend of all beings/to that Omniscient One I bow.”

Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Dalai Lama

In the context of our discussion here, when I talk about undisciplined states of mind, I’m talking about a state of mind that is dominated by afflictions of the mind, such as delusions and so on. So the question arises whether it is possible to eliminate these afflictions from one’s psyche. Continue reading »

5 H.H.Dalai Lama: Commentary on Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Why is liberation or nirvana said to be the highest good?

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Why is liberation or nirvana said to be the highest good?

5 His Holiness The Dalai Lama: Commentary on The Precious Garland “Ratnavali” by Nagarjuna, UCLA Los Angeles 1997.

All of Nagarjuna’s works were written in verse, though I don’t know if you could say they are poetry per se, and certainly they are not as poetic as many of Shantideva’s verses. Nagarjuna was primarily a logistician and his dialectic is often described as a form of reductio ad absurdum (Latin: “reduction to the absurd”), the method of pointing out the contradictory or absurd consequences of an opponents argument. Although, Nagarjuna maintained that “If I would make any proposition whatever, then by that I would have a logical error; but I do not make a proposition, therefore I am not in error.”

Karl Jaspers wrote, “Nagarjuna strives to think the unthinkable and to say the ineffable. He knows this and tries to unsay what he has said. Consequently he moves in self-negating operations of thought.” On the surface, it appears that Nagarjuna’s logic is rather negative, however, as many have pointed out, it would be a mistake to brand it as nihilism.

Here is more of the Dalai Lama’s teachings on one of Nagarjuna’s most famous works. Continue reading »

2 H.H. Dalai Lama ’08: Teachings on Lamrim Chenmo

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama: We tend to relate to the external world as if the physical world that is out there possesses some kind of independent reality of its own that is independent of my perception and has some kind of discrete reality. 

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: We tend to relate to the external world as if the physical world that is out there possesses some kind of independent reality of its own that is independent of my perception and has some kind of discrete reality.

2 Day One, Afternoon Session, July 10, 2008. Opening Verse: The Buddha’s Qualities. Tsongkhapa’s Motivation for Composing the Text. Listeners Need Three Qualities. Atisha and the Four Schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Attainment of the Two Aims. Four Greatnesses of Atisha’s Teaching.

Opening Verse: The Buddha’s Qualities

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

So, now … [continues in Tibetan]

Thupten Jinpa: The text opens with a salutation to Manjushri in the Sanskrit language. This is partly to indicate that the source of the Tibetan tradition is the Sanskrit tradition and Sanskrit became, as explained before, the dominant language, the medium through which Buddhadharma was presented in the Nalanda tradition. Therefore in Tibet the custom evolved to acknowledge that source, and often at the beginning of a Tibetan text there would be a salutation in Sanskrit.

His Holiness about him: [in Tibetan] [Referring to an un-translated exchange with scholars on stage] Everybody failed to recall that sentence. Of course, understandable. All scholars are now quite old. I know gradually forgetting.

Thupten Jinpa: So the first verse of salutation is salutation to the Buddha. And here, the way in which Tsongkhapa pays homage to the Buddha is by reflecting upon the qualities of the Buddha’s body, speech and mind. And in the first line he reflects upon the qualities of the Buddha’s body. And here he identifies causation, the fact that the Buddha’s physical body, or Buddha’s form body, came into being as a result of its causes.

Continue reading »

3 H.H. Dalai Lama ’08: Teachings on Lamrim Chenmo

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Aryadeva points out that the most skillful way of doing this is to first understand the Buddha’s teaching on emptiness, Buddha’s teaching on no-self.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Aryadeva points out to first understand the Buddha’s teaching on emptiness, Buddha’s teaching on no-self.

3. Day Two, Morning Session, July 11, 2008, Part one. Using Human Intelligence to Transform Our Minds. Perfection of Wisdom. Goals and Conditions for Learning. How to Guide Students. Understanding Emptiness as the Key. Chanting of Heart Sutra in Vietnamese.

Using Human Intelligence to Transform Our Minds

His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Now, I think in the beginning of the afternoon session, perhaps some questions may be useful.

So, Buddhadharma. Some scholars described, “Buddhism is not a religion but a science of mind.” I think it’s quite true, because in Buddhism, like any other non-theistic religion, the basic concept is law of causality—cause-and-effect, cause-and-effect, goes like that.

So the thing which we are very much concerned with, that is suffering, pain, and the joyful or pleasant, happy…

Thupten Jinpa: …happiness.

His Holiness: So the pains and pleasures, these things are feelings. So feelings means: part of our mind. So the causes of that (of course external factors are also there) but mainly within our own mind. So logically, in order to reduce suffering, pains, worry, sadness, fear: they ultimately depend upon our mental attitude.

So shaping in new ways our mind, just mere determination, or mere wish, to some extent it has some effect, but that cannot sort of affect us in a more profound way. So here I think conviction, firm conviction, that is something important. Continue reading »

4 H.H. Dalai Lama ’08: Teachings on Lamrim Chenmo

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Aryadeva says that, at first, one must avert all the de-meritorious activities, and then in the middle, one must cease grasping at self, and finally one must cease grasping at all views, false views.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Aryadeva says that, at first, one must avert all the de-meritorious activities, and then in the middle, one must cease grasping at self, and finally one must cease grasping at all views, false views.

4 His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Teachings on Lam-rim Chen-mo

Day Two, Morning Session, July 11 2008, Part two. Four Noble Truths: Instructions for Liberation. Order of the Four Noble Truths. Why Our Minds Can be Transformed. Understanding Dependent Origination as the Reason for Emptiness. Realization of the Two Aims: Favorable Rebirth and Liberation.

Four Noble Truths: Instructions for Liberation

His Holiness: [in Tibetan]

Thupten Jinpa: So we will now move on to the next section, which is the section: stages of the path for persons of middle capacity. Continue reading »

5 H.H. Dalai Lama ’08: Teachings on Lamrim Chenmo

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Within the mind, all the mental states are by their very nature subject to change.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Within the mind, all the mental states are by their very nature subject to change.

5. Day Two, Afternoon Session, July 11, 2008. Part one. Qualities of the Teacher. Relying on the Spiritual Teacher. The Process and Meaning of Meditation. Analyzing Afflictions and Their Antidotes.

Questions for the Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Sorry. 15 minutes late. Oh, some questions, yes.

Thupten Jinpa: [The questions below in quotation marks are from members of the audience.]

“Your Holiness, how is it possible to go about living an everyday life working at a job, paying bills, taking care of family and so on, but without grasping?”

His Holiness: Without grasping…[continues in Tibetan]

Thupten Jinpa: So the question is how do you understand the idea of grasping here? So for example, in relation to others, if in your engagement with others, if the engagement is tainted by forms of grasping such as strong attachment, craving, or aversion, anger and so on, then that form of grasping is undesirable. Continue reading »

6 H.H. Dalai Lama ’08: Teachings on Lamrim Chenmo

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Karma, karmic law, refers to a causal process that is begun by an agent with an intention.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Karma, karmic law, refers to a causal process that is begun by an agent with an intention.

6. Day Two, Afternoon Session, July 11, 2008. Part two. Stages of Training the Mind: Practices for Persons of Three Capacities. The Sequence of Practice. Beginning the Practice: Impermanence. Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels. Selflessness and Liberation. Emptiness and Refuge. The Law of Causality, Karma.

Thupten Jinpa: [continued] So in Tsongkhapa’s text he then explains that…

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: [in Tibetan]

Thupten Jinpa: So, having relied upon a spiritual teacher then he explains how to make one’s…

His Holiness: [in Tibetan]

Stages of Training the Mind: Practices for Persons of Three Capacities

Thupten Jinpa: … the stages by which one then trains one’s mind. And this is divided into two sections. The first is how to motivate oneself into training the mind, and the second is the actual training process itself. Continue reading »

8 H.H. Dalai Lama ‘08: Teachings on Lamrim Chenmo

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Asanga says that: “An affliction is defined as a phenomenon that, when it arises, is disturbing in character and that, through arising, disturbs the mind-stream.”

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Asanga says that: “An affliction is defined as a phenomenon that, when it arises, is disturbing in character and that, through arising, disturbs the mind-stream.”

8. Day Three, Morning Session, July 12, 2008 at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, USA. Part two. Deeper Understanding of the Three Jewels. The Truth of Suffering. The Sufferings of Change and of Conditioning. The Four Seals and the Suffering of Conditioning. The Origin of Suffering: Afflictions and Karma.

Deeper Understanding of the Three Jewels

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Now… [continues in Tibetan]

Thupten Jinpa: So, yesterday we were talking about taking refuge in the three jewels, and, generally, when the object of the refuge is described in the texts, Buddha is described as the supreme among the two-legged human beings. And the Dharma is described as the supreme teaching or supreme truth that is devoid of, or that is free from, attachment and that is tranquil. That is peace. And the Sangha is described as the supreme assembly. Continue reading »

1 H.H. Dalai Lama on Four Noble Truths, Dharamsala 1981

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave this teaching on Four Noble Truths on 7 October 1981 at Dharamsala, India.

When the great universal teacher Shakyamuni Buddha first spoke about the Dharma in the noble land of India, he taught the four noble truths: the truths of suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path to the cessation of suffering. Since many books contain discussions of the four noble truths in English, they (as well as the eightfold path) are very well known.1 These four are all-encompassing, including many things within them.

Considering the four noble truths in general and the fact that none of us wants suffering and we all desire happiness, we can speak of an effect and a cause on both the disturbing side and the liberating side. True sufferings and true causes are the effect and cause on the side of things that we do not want; true cessation and true paths are the effect and cause on the side of things that we desire.

The truth of suffering

We experience many different types of suffering. All are included in three categories: the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change and all-pervasive suffering. Continue reading »

2 H.H. Dalai Lama on Four Noble Truths, Dharamsala 1981

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave this teaching on Four Noble Truths on 7 October 1981 at Dharamsala, India, second part.

All these negative actions (of body, speech and mind) accumulate bad karma. Killing, cheating and all similar negative actions also result from bad motivation. The first stage is solely mental, the disturbing negative minds; in the second stage these negative minds express themselves in actions, karma. Immediately, the atmosphere is disturbed. With anger, for example, the atmosphere becomes tense, people feel uneasy. If somebody gets furious, gentle people try to avoid that person. Later on, the person who got angry also feels embarrassed and ashamed for having said all sorts of absurd things, whatever came into his or her mind. When you get angry, there’s no room for logic or reason; you become literally mad. Later, when your mind has returned to normal, you feel ashamed. There’s nothing good about anger and attachment; nothing good can result from them. They may be difficult to control, but everybody can realize that there is nothing good about them. This, then, is the second noble truth. Now the question arises whether or not these kinds of negative mind can be eliminated. Continue reading »

H.H. Dalai Lama: Four Noble Truths

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His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama: The primary concern of Mahayana practitioners is not merely their own liberation, but the enlightenment of all limited beings.

His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama: The primary concern of Mahayana practitioners is not merely their own liberation, but the enlightenment of all limited beings.

Brief Introduction to the 
Four Noble Truths by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama in 
Dharamsala, India, 7 October 1981, translated by Alexander Berzin 
revised and re-edited June 2007.

Introduction – When the great universal teacher Shakyamuni Buddha first spoke about the Dharma in the noble land of India, he taught the four noble truths: true sufferings, true origins or causes of sufferings, true stoppings or cessations of sufferings, and true pathway minds or paths leading to the stoppings of sufferings.

Continue reading »