29.Obsession stems from great desirous attachment. It craves and is obsessed with the objects of the five senses — sights, sounds, odors, tastes, and tactile objects — and is a great entanglement that forcefully keeps us trapped in cyclic existence.
420.Avarice is a mental state of attachment
brought about by being attached to one’s possessions.
The attachment to others’ possessions
is called unsuitable greed.
421.Lusting in opposition to Dharma
is to approve of attachment to women, who should be avoided.
Fraud is when one who does not have good qualities
pretends to have good qualities.
30.Avarice is having strong desire for and attachment to our own possessions such that we can’t bear to part with them.
31.Unsuitable greed is also a form of attachment, but here the object is others’ possessions. This covetousness thinks how nice it would be to have a beautiful thing that is owned by another person. This state of mind easily arises in us, especially in a shopping center.
32.Lusting is yet another form of attachment, but here the object is a person we are sexually attracted to. Motivated by lust, people glorify sexual relations, praise the qualities of someone they’re attached to, and being distracted, they act in ways opposite to the Dharma.
33.Fraud is also a form of attachment. Desiring to make a good impression on others, we give them the impression we have good qualities we don’t have.
422.Great desire is an extreme yearning
that leaves behind the good fortune of contentment.
Craving approval means thinking,
“I will be known as having good qualities, no matter what.”
423.Non-fortitude means that one is unable to bear it
due to harm or when one suffers.
Impropriety is the failure to respect what should be done
with regard to preceptors and gurus.
34.Great desire is extreme greed. Lacking the fortune of being content with what we have, we constantly search for more and better.
35.Craving approval, we try to make others think we are rich, well connected, or whatever quality we believe will impress others. Extremely attached to what other people think of us, we try to create a good appearance or project a good reputation in order to gain praise, approval, and reputation from others.
36.Non-fortitude is not being able to tolerate any harm from others or even a small suffering that comes our way. We easily get upset when criticized and become anxious over a minor illness or injury.
37.Impropriety means not acting in the correct manner, specifically a student not having respect for his or her preceptor — the one who gives them precepts and ordination — or their gurus — spiritual mentors. It also includes failing to show respect or to do what is proper in relation to our parents.
424.Not heeding instructions means
that one does not take seriously statements that accord with Dharma.
Conceptuality concerning one’s relatives
is an attachment that [arises through] fondness for one’s relatives.
425.Likewise to be attached to one’s country
is to overstate its good qualities.
The notion that one will not die means that
one is not concerned with death due to fearing it.
38.Not heeding instructions is disregarding and rejecting teachings, advice, or statements that are in accord with the Dharma. For example, if we act in a mistaken way and a friend comments on it with the wish to help us, we not only reject their advice but also retort, “Don’t comment on my behavior, and I won’t comment on yours.”
39.Rampant conceptuality concerning our relatives is attachment mixed in with fondness and affection. Based on this we worry about our families, miss them, and long to see them.
40.Attachment to our country is to overstate its good qualities.
41.The notion that we won’t die means that we refuse to think about death because we find it unnerving. While this isn’t an affliction per se, it interferes with our practice of virtue and should be abandoned. Our mindfulness of death and impermanence will spur us to practice the Dharma now, without putting it off until later or thinking that we have to first create the perfect circumstances for Dharma practice before doing it.
426.Conceptuality in connection with recognition
is thinking, “Somehow [I must make] people
take me as their guru
by virtue of my excellent qualities.”
427.Conceptuality in connection with infatuation
is to dwell on how
one might help or hurt others,
due to being affected by attachment or malice for them.
42.Conceptuality in connection with recognition involves telling others about our excellent qualities or acting in a way such that they will recognize us as a special person with the motivation that they will take us as their guru, give us offerings, and benefit us in other ways as well. While similar to craving approval mentioned in verse 422, this is more specific, because here we seek perks from their viewing us as their spiritual mentor.
43.Conceptuality in connection with infatuation is the thought wanting to help others because we are attached to them. While in general helping others is good, here it is polluted by the motivation of attachment.
44.Conceptuality in connection with malice involves thinking how to harm someone because we bear ill will toward her. While this and the preceding one want to either help someone we’re attached to or harm someone we don’t like, the actions we do motivated by these are not definite to help or harm. Sometimes what we do with attachment to help someone harms her and what we do with malice to harm someone winds up benefiting her.
428.Erratic displeasure is an unsteady mind.
Desiring union is a mind that is stained.
Lassitude is the laziness of one who lacks energy —
it comes from being physically listless.
45.Erratic displeasure means that sometimes we dislike somebody or something and sometimes we like that same one. It is an impulsive and fickle mind.
46.Desiring union does not necessarily refer to sexual union, but more generally wants to meet whatever object, person, or situation we find attractive. The mind is sullied by that attachment.
47.Lassitude is a type of laziness that arises from being physically inactive or exhausted. We become indifferent, lack enthusiasm for creating virtue, and procrastinate.
429.Affect is the transformation of body and face
that occurs through negative mental states.
Physical discomfort from eating too much food
is physical sluggishness.
430.It is taught that the state of extreme mental dejection
is mental depression.
Longing for the desirable
is yearning for the five sensory objects.
48.Affect is the transformation of our body and speech due to attachment. When we’re attached to someone or something, our physical appearance and behavior as well as the tone of our voice and what we say changes from what it normally is.
49.Physical discomfort that comes from eating too much food is a form of lethargy and torpidity that doesn’t want to eat more at that moment.
50.Mental dejection is a mind that is fainthearted, despondent, and discouraged. It may arise in relation to Dharma practice, feeling we just can’t do it, or in relation to work.
51.Longing for the desirable means having sensual desire — attachment to our experience of the five sense objects. This and the next six can be grouped together to form the five hindrances to attaining serenity.
431.Harmful intent comes from nine causes —
it is the intent to harm others on the part of one who is concerned
about some misfortune in the three times
with regard to oneself, one’s friends, or one’s enemies.
432.Dullness is a state of inactivity
&
nbsp; due to physical and mental heaviness.
Drowsiness is sleep;
excitement is a lack of physical and mental tranquility.
52.Harmful intent is ill will and malice; it arises from nine causes. With respect to ourselves, we think, “He harmed me, is harming me, or will harm me.” With respect to our friends and relatives, we think, “She harmed my dear ones, is harming my dear ones, or will harm my dear ones.” In relation to our enemies or the people we don’t like, we think, “He helped my enemy, is helping my enemy, or will help my enemy.” When we think any one of these nine thoughts, our minds become deeply disturbed and we want to harm the other person.
53.Dullness refers to heaviness of the mind and body, which make one unsuitable for doing anything.
54.Drowsiness refers to sleepiness, a state when the five sense consciousnesses gather inside. The list of five hindrances counts dullness and drowsiness together as one, because in both the body and mind are listless and can’t function properly.
55.Excitement is restlessness, when the mind is not peaceful and is distracted to objects of attachment. This differs from scattering when the mind cannot stay on the meditation object and may go to a diversity of objects — including objects of aversion or fear. In contrast, with excitement the mind is distracted specifically to an object of attachment.
433.Remorse is to lament one’s negative activities;
it arises from agonizing about them later.
Doubt is to be of two minds about
the [four] truths, the Three Jewels, and so on.
56.Remorse is regret concerning an action that we feel wretched about having done. Excitement and remorse are counted as one in the list of the five hindrances because in both cases the mind is in turmoil and not peaceful. Remorse in this case does not refer to reasonable regret for our nonvirtue and misdeeds, which is virtuous, but to feelings of guilt and self-blame, when we agonize over a destructive action we did years ago in an unforgiving way that torments us. Such drastic self-recrimination is unrealistic and obscures the mind. Here remorse may also involve regret for our virtuous actions and kind deeds; this is nonvirtuous.
Regret is called a changeable mental factor, because depending on what we regret, it can be either virtuous or nonvirtuous. Sleep, investigation, and analysis are also changeable mental factors, depending on the situation. If we generate bodhichitta or think about the Dharma before falling asleep, the sleeping mind becomes virtuous. Going to sleep with desire or anger will make our sleep nonvirtuous. We create virtuous karma when we either superficially investigate or precisely analyze a virtuous object with a positive intention, whereas to do so with a nonvirtuous object and a harmful intention become nonvirtuous.
57.Doubt is being of two minds regarding important topics such as the four truths of the aryas, the Three Jewels, two truths, and karma and its effects. Doubt is uncertain about their existence and prevents us from going forward on the path. If left unremedied, doubt may increase and become a wrong view.
These fifty-seven faults are subdivisions of objects to be abandoned and are posited in different ways. Some are mental factors with their meanings; some are the causes of a given mental factor, revealing the way we think; and some are the bad behaviors that result from a particular mental factor. Although the mental state isn’t always explicitly mentioned, we can get an idea of its causes or its resultant behavior. Because these fifty-seven make it difficult to generate bodhichitta and create obstacles to practicing the six perfections, they are to be abandoned by everyone who wants to be a bodhisattva — householder bodhisattvas and especially monastic bodhisattvas.
THE SIX PERFECTIONS AND COMPASSION
Once we have subdued the fifty-seven defects, we have fewer interfering obstacles and are in a better position to cultivate good qualities. Now Nagarjuna will explain the temporal good qualities — the six perfections and compassion, which are cultivated by all bodhisattvas. He follows this by describing the excellent qualities of the ten grounds, which pertain to the arya bodhisattvas, and the ultimate excellent qualities possessed only by buddhas.
434.A bodhisattva should forsake these [faults];
one with [monastic] precepts must forsake even more —
since when one is freed of these faults,
one can easily develop positive qualities.
435.In short, the good qualities that a bodhisattva should develop
are generosity, ethical conduct, fortitude,
joyous effort, meditative stability,
wisdom, compassion, and so on.
The more we free ourselves from the fifty-seven defects, the easier it will be to cultivate good qualities, specifically the six perfections: generosity, ethical conduct, fortitude, joyous effort, meditative stability, and wisdom. These and other good qualities are accomplished with compassion. And so on indicates that the bodhisattvas’ practices are limitless but are subsumed in the six perfections.
The six practices of generosity and so forth are done by hearers and solitary realizers, and some of them are done by non-Buddhists as well. However, for them to become bodhisattvas’ qualities and perfections, three unique factors are necessary. First, these activities must be motivated by uncontrived bodhichitta. Second, they must be supported by an understanding of emptiness — specifically, thinking that the agent doing the action, the object, and the action itself are empty of inherent existence and exist dependent on each other. Third, at the conclusion of the action, the merit must be dedicated to the attainment of full awakening. When cultivated as perfections in this way, these practices transcend people’s usual generosity and so forth.
436.Generosity is to give up one’s wealth;
ethical conduct is to endeavor to help others;
fortitude is the abandonment of anger;
joyous effort is enthusiasm for virtue.
437.Meditative stability is unafflictive one-pointedness;
wisdom is definitively determining the truths’ meaning.
Compassion is a state of mind that savors
only loving-kindness for all sentient beings.
Individually Identifying the Meaning of Good Qualities
Generosity is the intention to give that is free from attachment, and motivated by this intention, it is the physical and verbal actions of giving. There are different types of generosity: the giving of possessions, love, protection, and the Dharma. Here Nagarjuna emphasizes the generosity of possessions — the wish to give away our wealth. There is discussion whether the karma of giving is the intention to give, the act of giving, or both. Sautrantikas and Chittamatrins believe that karma is the mental factor of intention — in this case the intention to give. For Vaibhashikas and Prasangikas the physical and verbal actions motivated by that intention are also karma.
Ethical conduct is usually defined as non-harmfulness and restraint from destructive behavior. In terms of the bodhisattva practices, however, it refers to giving up striving solely for our own purpose and instead endeavoring to benefit others and to accomplish their aims. This includes relinquishing the thought seeking our own liberation and instead striving for full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings.
The act of giving up our own aims and working for others’ aims helps to counteract the ten destructive paths of action. For example, when we engage in the three destructive physical actions of killing, stealing, and unwise or unkind sexual behavior, we do so to benefit ourselves, and our actions harm others. Now we refrain from those actions in order to benefit others. Similarly, we harm others when we engage directly or indirectly in the four verbal and three mental paths of nonvirtuous action, so we abandon them and act in an opposite manner in order to benefit others. The same way of thinking can be applied to the bodhisattva and tantric ethical restraints: transgressing them is motivated by self-centeredness. Instead we endeavor to keep them for the benefit of others.
To protect us from nonvirtue — the essence of ethical conduct — the Buddha recommended “binding the senses
,” which involves monitoring how we interact with the world around us. Instead of letting our eyes wander here and there, looking at any attractive object or person we happen to see, we keep our gaze focused on what we are doing. We are careful what music we listen to and how others’ words can easily spark afflictions in us. Similarly, we are aware of what we allow our nose, tongue, and body sense faculties to come in contact with. Being mindful of our precepts and using introspective awareness to monitor the state of our mind increase our ability to bind the senses.
Those who follow the Prasangika system say that in addition to being the mental factor of intention, ethical conduct is also a type of form that is an object of mental consciousness. For example, when someone takes the pratimoksha precepts — monastic precepts and the five lay precepts — she receives a subtle imperceptible form that is said to act like a dam that prevents those actions. Ethical conduct is also form in that those who keep perfect ethical conduct have a brilliance or luster to their complexion that may be seen by ordinary people. Chandrakirti speaks about this in the Supplement, and perhaps you have also seen this with certain people.
Fortitude is also of three types: abandoning anger when others harm us, tolerating suffering such as sickness, and bearing hardships and difficulties when practicing the Dharma. “Tolerate” does not mean that we grit our teeth and bear it; such a mental state is not happy, relaxed, and peaceful. Here it means the ability to accept pain or difficulty without getting upset.
Joyous effort is taking delight in virtue. This enthusiastic attitude makes us eager to practice and enables us to complete all the other perfections as well as the two collections. Meditative stability is one-pointed concentration that is free of afflictive thoughts such as laxity and excitement.
Wisdom ascertains the meaning of the four truths and the two truths, which involves analyzing their different classifications and meanings. This wisdom is integrated with the aims of others, so that wisdom and method are combined. Compassion is the mind that views all sentient beings equally, with one taste, and wishes them to be free from duhkha and its causes. When supported by wisdom, compassion can be used skillfully to benefit others.
Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness Page 38