The Vehicle of the Listeners - Part 2 - Tibetan Buddhism Manila

These are some important terms to make sense of the Path of the Listeners.

For important introduction of these terms – check the Notes on Vehicle of Listeners.

PRATIMOKSHA VOWS

Prati-moksha in Sanskrit means “going towards liberation or liberating“. There are 8 sets of vows: 6 for monks and nuns, 1 for lay people, and 1 is a periodical vow. 8 in total.

The 1 set for lay people (men and women) have five vows:

To refrain from killing.
To refrain from stealing.
To refrain from false speech.
To refrain from sexual misconduct.
To refrain from using intoxicants

We may take one, two, three, four or all five vows at one time.

NINE STAGES OF RESTING THE MIND

Here, the basic idea is that the emotions are getting weaker and weaker. Our minds are becoming more stable and single-focused. There are nine names for each stage.

“Resting the Mind” – focusing the mind upon an object
“Resting the Mind Longer” – maintaining that continuity
“Continuously Resettling the Mind” – whenever one forgets the object and becomes distracted one resettles the mind
Fully Settling the Mind – by settling in that way, the mind becomes increasingly focused on the object
Taming the Mind – by thinking of the qualities of Samadhi, one feels greater joy for meditation
Pacification of the Mind – then seeing the faults of distraction, one’s dislike for meditation is pacified
Complete Pacification of the Mind – then whenever the cause of distraction, such as the disturbing emotions or sleepiness or mental unease occur, they are completely pacified
One-pointedness – then one attains some stability through applying the antidotes for distraction
Resting in Equanimity – finally one is able to rest the mind on its object quite naturally, without resorting to any antidotes

16 ASPECTS OF THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

There are Four Noble Truths. To explain each Noble Truth further, there are four qualities under each of them. Therefore, there are 16 aspects.

Suffering
1. Suffering – to counter the idea that Samsara is happiness
2. Impermanence – to counter that Samsara is permanent
3. Emptiness – to counter that Samsara can be owned or possessed
4. Selflessness – to counter that Samsara has solid essence

Origination
5. Cause – to counter the thinking that things have no cause
6. Origination – this means that anything comes from many causes
7. Intense Arising – the right causes will result in its specific result; it cannot be randomly transformed into any random results
8. Condition – means, no God or force is controlling, things happen due to the mixing of the causes

Cessation
9. Peace – to say that there is liberation from Samsara
10. Cessation – liberation is complete end of suffering
11. Perfection – the happiness of liberation is true and permanent
12. True Deliverance – when someone is liberated, it cannot be reversed

Path
13. Path – there is a path to the liberation
14. Appropriate – there are wrong and right paths
15. Effective – the path really brings the individual to the right destination
16. Truly Delivering – this path will not make one return to the starting point

12 ASCETIC PRACTICES

The main point of these 12 practices is to balance a lifestyle between one extreme of too much self-punishment and the other extreme of too much indulgence. We must not punish ourselves or indulge our senses too much.

To remember them easily, there are
3 about clothing, 3 practices about food, 2 about staying, 4 about sitting.

Wearing clothes found in a dust heap,
owning only three robes,
wearing felt or woolen clothes,
begging for food,
eating one’s meal at a single sitting,
restricting the quantity of food,
staying in isolation,
sitting under trees,
sitting in exposed places,
sitting in charnel grounds
sitting even during sleep, and
staying wherever one happens to be.

EIGHT SRAVAKA STATES

The results of practicing the Sravaka path: There are four main states, and four secondary states. The four secondary states are just a precursor, or forerunner, to the four main states. So, we discuss the four main ones here.

The final Srvaka state is a Foe Destroyer.

(8) Foe Destroyer –“The foe, the emotional afflictions, are completely destroyed.”

(7) approacher to the state of a Foe Destroyer

(6) Never Returner-“A Never Returner will never again return to the Desire Realm. This is his last life in the Desire Realm.”

(5) approacher to the state of a Never Returner

(4) Once Returner – “A Once Returner will be reborn once more in the Desire Realm before achieving Liberation”

(3) approacher to the state of a Once Returner

(2) Stream Enterer – “A Stream Enterer is on the Path of Seeing and will never again be reborn in the three lower realms”

(1) approacher to the state of a Stream Enterer

That’s it. Kindly take the time to read and reread these again and again.

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