Steve de Guise

Stopping

The following is a commentary on Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s teaching 'Meditation on the Subtle Mind’, which can be found on Youtube. These preparatory instructions from my root Guru Geshe Kelsang Gyatso are a part of Oral Gaden Lineage Mahamudra.

Preparatory dharma practices are often called 'so-called preparatory' because all dharma practice is preparing, familiarizing, enabling, clarifying.

The practice of Stopping is an excellent example of this as some dharma practitioners can see it as the instructions of Dzochen from the lineage of Tilopa, and non-buddhists can use it as their main practice.

This commentary is intended to help deepen our familiarity with 'how we normally follow thoughts as the source of all problems’ as opposed to how we blame all sorts of other things.

Geshe-la names the substantial cause of temporarily pacifying the mind as Buddha did, ’Stopping’. This practical training in controlling our power of attention is the basis of all dharma practice. As the opposite of distraction, it enables us to leave deeper impressions of familiarity with wisdom; reversing incorrect views and incorrect understandings.

Whether we seek enlightenment or just happiness for now, there is nothing more practical than developing control over our power of attention.

We can engage in developing control over the power of attention without wisdom, we don’t need to be Buddhist. By this we mean that we can just focus on the true cause of all sense of happiness/peace of mind in this life alone.

As dharma practitioners we engage in stopping with wisdom mindfulness - remembering what we've learned about the true nature of reality and mind, Lamrim, Bodhichitta motivation, and Guru Devotion.

Stopping is the same as saying don’t follow thoughts. As we know this is as simple an idea as forgetting, and yet it is very easy to sense these as ‘mostly impossible’ for us.

Stopping feels impossible due to our ancient habitual tendencies, our familiarity with incorrect views and incorrect understandings.

Mostly, Stopping is difficult because we are unaware of how we are going, we are unfamiliar with the truth of the mental action ‘following’. Thoughts and feelings, memories, the past, and the future, we normally sense and treat these as we do real things, when they are just imaginary, entirely non-existent things, hallucinations.

For example, when the body is losing its balance, most healthy coordinated people do not need to think about how to regain balance. The nervous system automatically sends the signals required to adjust in real-time, to regain equilibrium in real-time.

This real-time system that is automatically monitoring and re-balancing the body, this arises from the mind. So of course the mind does the same for itself. The automatic system of the mind is called mindfulness, and the state of equilibrium is ‘being meditated'. When we engage in Stopping, we are awakening this automatic system.

It is most important to view and understand what is going on correctly, as no one has ever intended to stop anything they didn’t perceive as moving.

The strength of our ability to Stop is predicated upon the strength of our familiarity with the opposite, with the mental action of following.

To try engaging in Stopping - while still sensing our thoughts, feelings, exaggerated self-importance, the past and future, as like real and most important things…..good luck!

To realize following is a step by step process, for every mind. Without realizing each step, we will not be able to stop, not in these times. Normally, we sense that we are a part of thoughts and feelings, that they are happening to us, like we are caught in the flow of a river without any possibility of control.

This is entirely normal as old habits support automatic subconscious responses, and then others are more conscious habits like how our mind of justification functions. So we need to go slowly, patiently, without hope of results or it won’t work.

Step by step

The first step is to develop the ability to temporarily invalidate any and all thoughts and feelings about every thing. Without doing this as the basis, our attachment to them is too strong, so we remain subsumed in ancient familiarity. This first step is revolutionary, we are wise to remember this.

Next, is to develop the ability to simply observe how thoughts and feelings arise, how they continuously appear and dissolve.

Next, is to develop the awareness of the mental action of following.

Next, is to develop awareness of how we normally follow from the perspective of both cognition and feeling.

Next, we continuously develop our familiarity with the true nature of thoughts and feelings.

As we continue like this, under simple observation with wisdom, over time, we will begin to view and understand thoughts and feelings in accordance with their true nature.

Training like this has an effect. This effect enables Stopping.

In these modern times, for us to to achieve any of the aforementioned steps is an incredible achievement, this is even true of people with very powerful minds.

I’ve not transcribed all of Geshe-la’s teaching because it isn’t my intention to comment directly on meditating on the subtle mind.

NOTE: Geshe-la’s speech is bold, my commentary is plain.

Now, how do we do this? Firstly, we stop paying attention to any object. Quite simple in reality. We stop paying attention to any object.

As we can easily see, in order to stop paying attention to any object, we must enable the power to stop. If we are unfamiliar with the perpetual mental action of how we normally follow, if we remain strongly attached to the object we want to stop paying attention to, if we are not aware of the true nature of the object, this is being prepared to fail.

We should not think about anything but remain like a stone or a piece of wood. You know Shantideva in Bodhisattvacharyavatara said, ‘You should remain as a piece of wood.’, many times he taught.

Stone or wood has no memory, past, future, thoughts, feelings, sense of self, identity, personality, emotion, discursive thoughts and afflictive emotions - there is none of this.

No naming, referring, recalling, analyzing, conceiving, 'no perceiving' as Geshe la says; def: to not notice, to not recognize, to not grasp and hold anything with the mind, to not try and comprehend.

We identify with an inanimate objects to get the disassociation with our normal basis of identification, the effective invalidation of all that is cognition, conceptualization.

This is a great example of how much depth of meaning there is in these simple statements from minds like Shantideva and Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. Another level of insight into ‘remaining as a piece of wood’, is a re-imputation of the ‘I’.

So, this is not nihilism or zoning out, it’s being aware alone, sensing awareness itself without an object and so on.

We understand the great disadvantages of distracting conceptual thoughts which is gross mind.

Distracting conceptual thoughts are greatly disadvantageous, the source of these is the gross mind, which we overcome by Stopping.

This kind of practice even in ancient times even non-buddhist had this also, even as their main practice. Many non-buddhist practitioner also concentrating because they understood this distracting mind causes so many problems.

Here, is clearly explained why concentration is one of three higher trainings. It is not merely the capacity to hold a thought or state of mind in a stable manner in order to peer into the nature of an object or situation, it is the absence of problems.

Never allows us to remain peaceful, calm, enjoy life, never allows ourself to enjoy our human life.

So here we can how the practice of not following thoughts, or Stopping, is the substantial cause of happiness and enjoying our life.

We are like a naked person in a thorny ground. Wherever they move they meet problems because of this distracting thoughts.

Here we can see how it is by moving that we meet problems, hence how we need to realize moving, or following. If we don’t sense the movement, and we blame incorrect causes, we are incapacitated.

So they have big renunciation….they stopping….paying attention to any object and not thinking about anything, forgetting every thing, remaining like a piece of wood or stone, without thinking or perceiving anything, so we should do similarly, we remain in this state for a few minutes, then we learn this.

Here we can see how Stopping is ‘big renunciation’, and when is it not a good time to train in renunciation, the enabler of all practices. So here we can think of 'a few minutes' as being any time we can remember to Stop.

So therefore if we forgot, all problems solved. The problem is we never forget. This is the problem. But in reality forgetting is difficult.

How we re-member is by paying and focusing attention to, by following, engaging, with thoughts. How we forget, is by not following the memory, not bringing the past into the present - to think we can do this without directly addressing the underlying causes is not realistic. We know how we view the past, and with this view, no one is forgetting anything in any effective manner anytime soon as we know.

So we learn this, how to accomplish the cessation of gross mind, distracting mind. Practically learning, this is temporarily very beneficial to solve our day by day problems, anger problem, attachment problem, jealousy problems, worry discouragement, disappointment, discontentment, and so forth.

By ‘practically learning’, Geshe-la is talking about how we treat our reality, inner and outer, how we integrate Stopping into our day to day life as our main practice. When Geshe-la is saying ’temporarily’ his meaning is that the greater benefit is primarily for this life, when compared to using Stopping to engage in Mahamudra.

There are many other potential benefits which are said to include such things as, ‘always remaining in retreat’, avoiding creating causes of future suffering, improvement of mental and physical energy, creativity, a purification effect, and the familiarization with not engaging with distracting conceptual thoughts.

As Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and other realized beings tell us, ’The thing to abandon is the conceptual mind that clings to inherently existent things.’ It is easy to see how Stopping enables this intention.

These benefits are described by other Masters especially in the lineage of Tilopa. Marpa, Milarepa, Gampopa, they all taught this to their students as a main practice, as part of Dzochen.

Here we can see how we use any moment, thought, feeling, memory to practically train in Stopping. Otherwise, we go about our daily lives uncontrollably following, and then try and Stop to meditate - this is not integrating into daily life, the very essence of how to use dharma tech.

Stop every thing, forget, and perceive nothing. Because our original intention is to attain enlightenment, for us this is very good you know. If there is no original motivation then it looks like sleeping. But our main aim is to accomplish the 6th stage, that is realizing our continuously residing mind directly, and through this attain enlightenment. Through this we want to benefit all living beings, without exception, this is our main aim.

Therefore to make progress in this aim, first we are doing this.

As part of this aim, there are immediate things to address, the most meaningful one being when we re-incarnate. The perpetual ‘problem’ is we do not die, the body and personality are disposable, the rest continues; dying is birthing. The substantial cause of how we are born is what thoughts we follow, and how we follow them. I can see no greater protection from lower rebirth than engaging in Stopping with dharma wisdom as described herein.

From Buddha Shakyamuni:

‘All we are is what we have thought.’

From The 100 Songs of Milarepa:

'The common mind is in every way misleading, so I practice how to animate awareness.’

From Drubwang Penor Rinpoche:

"From the moment we’re born in samsara, we engage mostly in negative conduct and rarely in positive, virtuous actions. That’s why it is essential to always examine our mind and not follow negative thoughts and emotions. Your mind should abide in stillness and not get distracted by conceptual thoughts. Whatever you do during the day—sitting, walking, eating, sleeping, and so on—most important is to be undistracted.”

From Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche:

"We chase after one perishing thought after the other - this is how samsara becomes endless. While we are governed by this involvement in thought - we are truly helpless. Who can stop samsara for us? There is nobody but ourselves. Unless we become free of conceptual thinking, there is absolutely no way to end samsara and truly awaken to enlightenment.” - Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

From Lama Yeshe:

"The wisdom experience is intensive awareness of your own consciousness. The method experience comes when you get distracted and use that lack of control as a resource to re-generate loving kindness. Then, when you are free of distraction, remain in the experience of wisdom. In summary, when your concentration is good, place your attention on wisdom; when you are distracted, generate loving kindness.”

From Geshe Kelsang Gyatso:

"The more we control our mind, the more our inner peace increases, and the happier we become."

From Lama Gangchen:

"Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as you own unguarded thoughts."