Reducing Eight Worldly Concerns

17:40

17:40

Reducing Eight Worldly Concerns

by Lama Yeshe Ling Buddhist Centre

Rated

5

Type

guided

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Experienced

Plays

257

Note: This meditation is recorded in Tibetan along with English translations. Continuing with our stages of the path (Lam Rim) series, Geshe Sonam Ngodup leads a meditation on recognizing and decreasing the eight worldly concerns (eight worldly dharmas). These concerns are outlined by Nāgārjuna in Letter to a Friend: You who know the world, take gain and loss, Happiness and unhappiness, fame and insignificance, praise and blame, Make them the same and don't disturb your mind.

Meditation Tibetan Happiness Fame Peace Dharma Mindfulness Luminosity

Meet your Teacher

Lama Yeshe Ling Buddhist Centre

Burlington, ON, Canada

Meet your Teacher

Lama Yeshe Ling Buddhist Centre

Burlington, ON, Canada

Transcript

The World The World The World The World So first of all, Tashi Dele to all of my Dharma friends and wherever you may be located in the world, Please listen as if we are close to each other. Yes, I am very happy to be here. I am very happy to be here. I am very happy to be here. And so today, Same as usual, We will be talking about how to achieve that wish which is always within our mind and that wish is to be able to achieve a stable happiness. Yes, I am very happy to be here. I am very happy to be here. I am very happy to be here. I am very happy to be here. So in order to be able to achieve that happiness, We need to identify the types of mind, The wholesome things we need and increase those. And we also need to identify the minds that are obstacles to that happiness and deal with those. Yes, That is the most important thing. We need to identify the minds that are obstacles to that happiness. We need to identify the minds that are obstacles to that happiness. And as we mentioned before in terms of searching for this happiness, What we need to do is to build a determination to seek a happiness beyond that which depends on externals, To be able to seek a happiness not within samsara but away from samsara. In other words, To seek towards the happiness of liberation. Yes, We need to be able to seek a happiness beyond that which depends on externals, To be able to seek a happiness beyond that which depends on externals. And so in terms of what keeps us all within samsara, Not just in this lifetime but in terms of what keeps us circling through samsara from lifetime to lifetime, There are several things but one of the main ones is these minds of the eight worldly concerns or the eight worldly dharmas. Yes, These are the ones that are the main ones. They are the ones that are the main ones. And so these eight worldly dharmas, They sort of compel us to accumulate the causes, To accumulate the karma which keeps us in samsara. And through accumulating these causes of samsara, We continue to circle through it. Yes, We continue to circle through it. We continue to circle through it. And we have this sort of mistaken appearance or this mistaken idea that these eight worldly dharmas or eight worldly concerns are something that somehow protects us or something that somehow aids us here. Yes, That's right. We have to be able to do that. We have to be able to do that. And so you might be able to argue that nominally from a worldly point of view, Certain aspects of these eight worldly concerns might help you get what you seek. But if you think about it from the point of view of achieving meaningful happiness, If you think about it from the point of view of going towards lasting happiness, Then actually these eight worldly concerns are something that hinders us. Yes, These eight worldly concerns are something that hinders us. So it's really important that you check, Especially for beginners, To think about what these eight worldly dharmas are. To think about how these eight worldly dharmas and this way of thinking causes bad feelings to arise. And to think about how these eight worldly dharmas cause more discursive thought, Mental projection. Yes, That's right. We have to be able to do that. So as a first step, Let's just put our body and minds into a relaxed state. So just like through the rays of the sun, The dew or the water particles are absorbed, Are evaporated, Think that any discursive thoughts, Any negative thoughts are cleared away. And also think that nature of my mind, Others' minds, The nature is pure luminosity. There are no inherently existence things. This mind has the capacity to clear away, To be rid of all problems. It has the capacity to be able to achieve every lasting happiness. However, These eight worldly dharmas, They have tricked us or deceived us. And because we've been tricked, We continue again and again to circle through samsara, Through cyclic existence. So in terms of these eight worldly dharmas, As explained by Nagarjuna to his friend the king in the scripture letter to a friend, The first two gain and loss. So Nagarjuna explained to the king when guests and subjects come to visit you, If you don't get any gifts from them, Feeling really upset, Disturbed by that, Unhappy. When you do receive gifts, Feeling very happy. If you are happy when you receive a gift and unhappy when you don't, You will not be able to achieve lasting peace. We see this through our own experience, Don't we? In order to seek some sort of happiness with the body and mind, We focus on acquiring something. We focus on getting something. And if we do get it, It can cause more mental projections. And if we don't get it, If we aren't able to get what we seek, This can cause unhappiness. We won't be happy. We need a mind that is able to, If we receive what we seek, To be happy. But also if we don't receive it, If we aren't able to get it, We need to be able to keep our body and mind peaceful. And if we don't get it, We won't be able to get it. We will not be able to get it. Have this determination to do that, Whether gain or loss. If we are able to maintain that, Then a lot of the false projections related to acquiring things will be cleared away. We will be able to remain peaceful. If we don't get what we seek, We won't be able to get it. If we don't get what we seek, We won't be able to get it. We will not be able to get it. Similarly, The next two of the eight, Happiness and unhappiness. When we study and practice and we have pleasant or happy emotions, We feel very, Very kind of excited and gratified with that. Similarly, When we study and practice and we don't immediately achieve that feeling of happiness, Instead we encounter even just a little bit of obstacles, We become despondent by that. If I am thinking, I will not allow myself to waver according to small experiences of happiness and unhappiness, I will remain stable. If I continuously chase after these small worldly happinesses, This actually will become an obstacle to a lasting happiness in my mind. So meditate on the truth of these words. This is definitely something I'll work on. If I am not able to get what I want, I will not be able to get what I want. So the next one is fame and insignificance. If I hear good things about myself, If my fame and name increase, I become overjoyed. If I hear something negative and I feel insignificance, Then I become despondent. The next one is fame and insignificance. If I hear good things about myself, I become overjoyed. If I hear good things about myself, I become overjoyed. Praise and blame are the final two for the total of eight worldly concerns. If someone praises us, Then we experience this unbelievable attachment to that praise and we feel happy. If someone criticizes or blames us, We immediately feel angry and develop a dislike for that person, Seeing them as an enemy. If someone praises me, I may develop this strong attachment but if we think about it, That praise is not so significant because at the same time that there are many who praise me, I may develop this strong attachment. But if we think about it, That praise is not so significant because at the same time that there are many who praise me, There are others who criticize me or put me down. If there are people who blame or criticize me, I don't need my mind to become totally disturbed and projecting and to see the person as an enemy because just as there are people who criticize me, There are also people who praise me. If someone praises me, I may develop this strong attachment to that praise and we feel happy. On the basis of attachment to the eight worldly dharmas, Then there is a strong attachment that manifests to this life. And because of that strong attachment, There are lots of discursive thoughts, Mental projections, And these lead to negative and unpleasant feelings. If contentment does not come in a stable way, If the mind of little desire does not come in a stable way, Then I won't be able to bring forth a stable practice. Because of this powerful human rebirth and this powerful human mind, Because of their potential, As much as possible, As much as possible, I will decrease these eight worldly dharmas or eight worldly concerns and bring forth good practice. On the basis of this, I can definitely bring forth mental peace. On the basis of that, I can definitely bring forth positive mental qualities with joy and the confidence that you can do this, Then engage in hearing, Contemplation, And meditation. So briefly, That was the short meditation and advice for today. And the So then as much as possible try to be able to see the truth in these words, Be able to recognize the eight worldly dharmas and the problems that they cause. And then with this in mind, Diminish those and bring forth to study and practice well. That's the most important thing. Yes, That's right. That's the most important thing. So we won't do a dedication because this is a shorter session. We will end the meditation here. Thank you so much.