Suffering As Combination of Internal and External Factors
Suffering As Combination of Internal and External Factors
When thinking of problems: raise your arms and hands forward and bringing together into the sound of a clap.
All the problems are like the sound of a clap. They need the two hands to get together to explode into sound — try to do the same with only one hand. Problems need the external and the internal factor to arise. We tend to consider, and see, only the external, and want to remove that one.
There are infinite external factors. It takes infinite time to remove those. Internal factors — non-technically speaking — are two: selfishness and ignorance.
If you can remove the external problems, why choosing to do so is it less wise than removing the internal ones? Because external factors are too numerous, you would require infinite time, and only limited time is at your disposal.
Geshe-la illustrates this by giving us verbally mental calculus, first at a steady slow speed and then at a very high speed. It was easy to answer to the first one, but not to the second one. A computer can handle easily but not our brains. Geshe-la spoke too fast — external — my brain is slow — internal; we blame the external.
To be wise is to be skilful at selecting whether we should select internal or external resolutions when problems arise. Among people there are two extremes: Blaming it all only to external causes; Blaming it all only to internal causes (mental). Managing both simultaneously yields best results. Taking care of the external problems can accommodate resolution of some internal ones.
How do we stop ALL painful tears? — Remove the internal factors completely, this is a long process. For very long processes — programmes just like doing PhD — requires taking care of external factors (taking holidays to clean environment, make sure we stay comfortable, make exercise). How de we proceed after that? — be able to identify internal factors.
Internal factors = obscurations
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Afflictive obscuration Description Contaminated karmas Karma* driven by afflictions Afflition Mental factor the presence of which disturbs the mind Active seeds** of the first 2 Causes that produce the potential to develop them 3 Poisons
Attachment འདོད་ཆགས། Aversion ཞེ་སྡང་། Ignorance གཏི་མུག
“Attachment is involuntary pull, aversion is involuntary push, ignorance is not knowing the reality” — Ven. Geshe Dorji Damdul
Ignorance is at the root, and gives rise to attachment and aversion.
Link to originalWisdom is the discerning mind whose apprehensions of the objects tell us the reality.
4 Invesions (Ignorances)
impermanent as permanent, miseries as happiness, impure as pure, selfless as selfhood
- Ignorance misconceiving impermanent phenomena as permanent
- Ignorance which misconceives miseries as happiness
- Ignorance which misconceives impure things as pure
- Ignorance which misconceives what is selfless nature as selfhood
They get counteracted by the NDC605 4 Seals of Buddhism
Also known as four distorted views / four inversions
Viparyāsa
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Skt. विपर्यास
Tib. ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་བཞི།NDC Question — Can internal factors alone cause suffering without needing external ones?
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Examination of Self and Phenomena
We need to know what is the mechanism by which the miseries arise. By praying alone you won’t get a job.
Nirvana being free from pain;
Samsara lack of freedom.
Everybody wants freedom despite being religious or not.
Nagarjuna Examination of Self and Phenomena — Verse 5
ལས་དང་ཉོན་མོངས་ཟད་པས་ཐར།
ལས་དང་ཉོན་མོངས་རྣམ་རྟོག་ལས།
དེ་དག་སྤྲོས་ལས་སྤྲོས་པ་ནི།
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་འགག་པར་འགྱུར།Ceasing of (contaminated) karmas and afflictions is liberation.
Karmas and afflictions arise from conceptual thoughts (conceptualization of inappropiate attention).
These arise from elaboration (of self-grasping ignorence).
Elaboration ceases by (or into) emptiness.Extracting 5 Elements
We need to know how these 5 are cause-related, so miseries I go through cease. We need to know how these 5 come into being.
# Element Tibetan 1 Suffering in Samsara འཁོར་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ 2 Contaminated karmas ཟག་བཅམ་ཀྱི་ལས་ 3 Afflictions ཉོན་མོངས་ 4 Inappropriate attention (conceptual thoughts) ཚུན་མིན་ཡིད་བྱེད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་རྟོག་ 5 Self-grasping ignorance བདག་འཛིན་འཛིན་མ་རིག་པ་ INFO
Remove the root (contaminated karmas), and the rest fall apart.
Nirvana being free from pain; Samsara lack of freedom. Opposite of samsara is nirvana.
Karma (contaminated ones) is why we are in samsara.
For liberation we need to identify the immediate cause of: [contaminated] karmas and afflictions.
What is the immediate cause of karmas and afflictions?
- conceptual thoughts or of inappropriate attention.
What is the immediate cause of conceptual thought?
- Elaboration of self-grasping ignorance
Afflictions
Afflictions is listed as a separate element, that is because it refers to gross afflictions.
But inappropiate attention and elaboration of self-grasping ignorance are also considered afflictions (subtler).
Dream Example
Example. I’m asleep, I’m dreaming I am in Tibet House Delhi attending class. In the class I pick up the phone. I look very carefully Oh, this is a brand new iPhone 17 Pro Max. You try to get it but another person comes fast to pick it up from you. You feel angry and start a fight with that person, which happens to be a kid. You go to jail.
Why are you in prison? Because of the fight.
Why did you fight? Because I want the phone and another person wanted to take it out from me.
Why are you angry at the competitor? Because I’m attached to the mobile.
Why are you attached to the mobile? Because the iPhone is amaaaaazing.
Element Example Being in [dream] prison Samsara Fight Contaminated karma Attachment to mobile (+ its characteristics) Affliction Aversion to competitor Affliction Exaggeration of the qualities of the mobile Inappropriate attention Seeing the dream phone as a real phone, misconceiving it’s reality Misconceiving the reality of the object If you didn’t want to end up in prison what should have been done? Not getting into fight → turning down affliction (not having attachment to the phone nor aversion to opponent) → not exaggerating the qualities of the object or having inappropriate attention → not being ignorant → wake up.
If you want to stop the pains of samsara wake up1 from the sleep of ignorance.
In Goals and Obscurations we spoke about afflictions and contaminated karma, we should now understand Inappropriate attention and Self-grasping ignorance.
Inappropriate Attention
When we see something we can identify: object + attributes / qualities.
When you misconceive…
- …object → ignorance
- …attribute / quality → inappropriate attention
- Exaggerating negatively
- Exaggerating positively
Object & Characteristics
INFO
Be aware of the object and its characteristics are different.
Exaggeration (or exaggerated disinterest) might happen on the object and/or its characteristics.
Aspect Level Example Object Subtle This is a piece of cake (is) Characteristics Gross This cake is soooo delicious (taste) Link to original Footnotes
Hence why the Buddha is referred as the fully awoken one. ↩