Nine ways of resting the mind 九住心
Nine ways of resting the mind (Tib. སེམས་གནས་པའི་ཐབས་དགུ་, sem nepé tab gu; Wyl. sems gnas pa’i thabs dgu) — whatever the object of our meditation, we pass through nine stages in the development of shamatha.
令心內住(念住)、等住(續住)、安住、近住;調順、寂靜、最極寂靜;專注一趣、平等攝持
- Resting the Mind (Tib. འཇོག་པ་, jokpa) – focusing the mind upon an object [number 2 on the illustration]
- Resting the Mind Longer (Tib. རྒྱུན་དུ་འཇོག་པ་, gyündu jokpa) – maintaining that continuity [9]
- Continuously Resettling the Mind (Tib. བླན་ཏེ་འཇོག་པ་, len té jokpa) – whenever one forgets the object and becomes distracted one resettles the mind [13]
- Fully Settling the Mind (Tib. ཉེ་བར་འཇོག་པ་, nyewar jokpa) – by settling in that way, the mind becomes increasingly focused on the object [16]
- Taming the Mind (Tib. དུལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་, dulwar jepa) – by thinking of the qualities of samadhi, one feels greater joy for meditation [21]
- Pacification of the Mind (Tib. ཞི་བར་བྱེད་པ་, shyiwar jepa) – then seeing the faults of distraction, one’s dislike for meditation is pacified [22]
- Complete Pacification of the Mind (Tib. རྣམ་པར་ཞི་བར་བྱེད་པ་, nampar shyiwar jepa) – then whenever the cause of distraction, such as the subsidiary disturbing emotions or sleepiness or mental unease occur, they are completely pacified [24]
- One-pointedness (Tib. རྩེ་གཅིག་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ་, tsechik tu jepa) – then one attains some stability through applying the antidotes for distraction [26]
- Resting in Equanimity (Tib. མཉམ་པར་འཇོག་པ་བྱེད་པ་, nyampar jokpa jepa) – finally one is able to rest the mind on its object quite naturally, without resorting to any antidotes [28]
The ninth stage of resting the mind is also known as the ‘one-pointed mind of the desire realm’ (Tib. འདོད་སེམས་རྩེ་གཅིག་པ་, Wyl. ‘dod sems rtse gcig pa).
These are taken from Maitreya's Ornament of Mahayana Sutras (Skt. Mahayanasutralankara).
目錄
Six Powers 六力
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These stages are accomplished through the six powers (Skt. ṣaḍbala; Tib. སྟོབས་དྲུག་, tob druk; Wyl. stobs drug):
瑜伽三十卷十頁云:當知此中,由六種力,方能成辦九種心住。一、聽聞力。二、思惟力。三、憶念力。四、正知力。五、精進力。六、串習力。初由聽聞思惟二力,數聞數思增上力故;最初令心於內境住,及即於此相續方便,澄淨方便,等遍安住。如是於內繫縛心已;由憶念力,數數作意,攝錄其心,令不散亂;安住、近住。從此已後,由正知力,調息其心;於其諸相,諸惡尋思,諸隨煩惱,不令流散;調順、寂靜。由精進力,設彼二種,暫現行時;能不忍受,尋即斷滅、除遣、變吐;最極寂靜,專注一趣。由串習力,等持成滿。
- Listening/study (Skt. śrūtabala; Tib. ཐོས་པ་, töpa; Wyl. thos pa) – ‘resting the mind’ is accomplished through listening to meditation instructions
- Reflection (Skt. āśayabala; Tib. བསམ་པ་, sampa; Wyl. bsam pa) – ‘resting the mind longer’ is accomplished through reflection and contemplation
- Mindfulness (Skt. smṛtibala; Tib. དྲན་པ་, drenpa; Wyl. dran pa) – through mindfulness one accomplishes ‘continuously resettling’ and ‘fully settling the mind’; whenever one is distracted one gathers the mind and slowly, through habituation, non-distraction occurs
- Awareness (Skt. saṃprajanyabala; Tib. ཤེས་བཞིན་, shé shyin; Wyl. shes bzhin) – through awareness one accomplishes ‘taming the mind’, ‘pacifying the mind’ and ‘completely pacifying the mind’; with joy for awareness and seeing the faults of succumbing to thoughts and negative emotions, one no longer falls prey to them
- Diligence (Skt. vīryabala; Tib. བརྩོན་འགྲུས་, tsöndrü; Wyl. brtson ‘grus) – through diligence one accomplishes ‘complete pacification’ and ‘one-pointedness’; even subtle thoughts and negative emotions are abandoned
- Complete familiarity (Skt. abhyasabala; Tib. ཡོངས་སུ་འདྲིས་པ་, yongsu dripa; Wyl. yongs su ‘dris pa) – the final stage of ‘resting in equanimity’ where the mind is unaffected by the obstacles of dullness or agitation is accomplished through complete familiarity.
瑜伽三十卷十頁云:當知此中,由六種力,方能成辦九種心住。一、聽聞力。二、思惟力。三、憶念力。四、正知力。五、精進力。六、串習力。初由聽聞思惟二力,數聞數思增上力故;最初令心於內境住,及即於此相續方便,澄淨方便,等遍安住。如是於內繫縛心已;由憶念力,數數作意,攝錄其心,令不散亂;安住、近住。從此已後,由正知力,調息其心;於其諸相,諸惡尋思,諸隨煩惱,不令流散;調順、寂靜。由精進力,設彼二種,暫現行時;能不忍受,尋即斷滅、除遣、變吐;最極寂靜,專注一趣。由串習力,等持成滿。
Four Mental Engagements 四種作意
All of these stages can be condensed into the four mental engagements (Tib. ཡིད་ལ་བྱེད་པ་བཞི་, yi la jepa shyi; Wyl. yid la byed pa bzhi):
瑜伽三十卷十一頁云:即於如是九種心住,當知復有四種作意。一、力勵運轉作意。二、有間缺運轉作意。三、無間缺運轉作意。四、無功用運轉作意。於內住、等住中,有力勵運轉作意。於安住、近住、調順、寂靜、最極寂靜中,有有間缺運轉作意。於專注一趣中,有無間缺運轉作意。於等持中,有無功用運轉作意。當知如是四種作意,於九種心住中,是奢摩他品。
- tightly focused engagement (Tib. བསྒྲིམས་ཏེ་འཇུག་པའི་ཡིད་བྱེད་, drim té jukpé yi jé) – relates to the first two stages of resting the mind
- interrupted engagement (Tib. ཆད་ཅིང་འཇུག་པའི་ཡིད་བྱེད་, ché ching jukpé yi jé) – this occurs from stage three to stage seven, when one is still susceptible to the obstacles of dullness and agitation and is therefore unable to abide for a long time
- uninterrupted engagement (Tib. ཆད་པར་མེད་པར་འཇུག་པའི་ཡིད་བྱེད་, chepar mepar jukpé yi jé – at stage eight one is able to remain unaffected by the obstacles of dullness and agitation without too much exertion
- effortless engagement (Tib. རྩོལ་བ་མེད་པར་འཇུག་པའི་ཡིད་བྱེད་, tsolwa mepar jukpé yi jé) – at the ninth stage one is able to maintain the practice effortlessly
瑜伽三十卷十一頁云:即於如是九種心住,當知復有四種作意。一、力勵運轉作意。二、有間缺運轉作意。三、無間缺運轉作意。四、無功用運轉作意。於內住、等住中,有力勵運轉作意。於安住、近住、調順、寂靜、最極寂靜中,有有間缺運轉作意。於專注一趣中,有無間缺運轉作意。於等持中,有無功用運轉作意。當知如是四種作意,於九種心住中,是奢摩他品。
Alternative Translations
- Nine stages of resting the mind
Notes
- ↑ On a large scale, this picture depicts the complete process or path of shamatha. On a smaller scale, it illustrates the process we go through in almost every meditation session.
Internal Links
Further Reading
- Dzogchen Ponlop, Wild Awakening (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2003), pages 100-109.
- Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, The Practice of Tranquility and Insight—A Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1993), pages 46-55.
- Sogyal Rinpoche, A Treasury of Dharma (Lodeve: Rigpa, 2005), pages 206-225.