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) |
Footnotes
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Hence why the Buddha is referred as the fully awoken one. ↩