Three Stages in the Process of Understanding

Meditation should be understood as the third stage in the development of one’s understanding. The first stage is to listen to or study the teachings with an open and receptive mind that does not distort what is being heard or studied. The second stage is carefully to reflect on what has been received in order to clarify its true significance. The third stage is to integrate the newly acquired knowledge or understanding into one’s being or character. In a sense this is like putting it into practice. When one talks about meditation practice one does not mean one is practicing meditation so that one day one will have perfected it and be able to give a perfect performance. Rather it is practice in the sense of actually doing or being it as opposed to just thinking about it.

     Three Fields of Investigation

The whole of Buddhism is structured around this three-fold training in listening, reflecting and meditating. While Buddhist scholars concentrate on studying or listening to the Buddha’s doctrine, the logicians study valid means of knowing and reasoning; the tools with which one reflects and is able to discern what is true and false. This corresponds to the stage of reflection. The yogis or meditators are those who have established through listening and reflection what must be the case and who are now engaged in training themselves in the art of abandoning their delusions. It is one thing to decide through reasoning what must be true and another actually to see the world in that way.

By relying on these three practices and using each to enhance the others, the fog of confusion and clouds of ignorance are removed; knowledge and understanding can then shine forth unimpeded like the sun breaking through the mist at dawn.

     Three Ways to Remove Doubt

At the listening stage a person should study the Buddha’s words in the sutras and commentaries, relying on explanations of qualified teachers who can clarify one’s doubts.

At the reflecting stage one discovers further areas that lack clarity, and a teacher’s guidance will again be required. After further reflection yet more doubts may arise so the process has to be repeated until a certitude concerning the meaning and significance of the teaching has arisen. With this certitude, or confidence, one is able to embark on meditation. Through meditation doubts and hesitations should disappear, so if one finds them increasing one should resort once more to listening and reflecting. As the doubts disappear one experiences directly the true meaning of the teachings so that eventually one’s meditation stabilizes free from hesitation or uncertainty.

Although people vary as to how much time they have to spend at each stage, everyone needs each stage of the process if they are to reach liberation. Meditation without listening and reflecting is blind, but listening and reflecting without meditation is like having eyesight and no legs.

     Three Texts to Follow

There are Buddhist texts that correspond to each stage of this process. For example the Jewel Ornament of Liberation by Gampopa lays out the paths and stages of the bodhisattva according to the Mahayana sutras. This corresponds to the listening stage where one learns about the vast and profuse aspects of the relative truth, for example karma, impermanence, love and compassion. One can practice progressive stages of meditation on this text by reflecting systematically on its main points. Thus by studying this text one can reflect and meditate on relative truth.

The Madhyamakavatara by Chandrakirti gives a logical exposition of the absolute truth of emptiness. After studying this text one can reflect and meditate on absolute truth. This book of the Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness is intended to assist the development of the meditator’s understanding of this.
The Mahayanauttaratantrasastra (also known as the Ratnagotravibhaga,) is attributed in the Tibetan tradition to Maitreya. It introduces the meditator to the doctrine of tathagatagarbha (buddha nature) which concerns the Clear Light Nature of Mind. It emphasizes that for the ultimate realization of buddhahood to arise one has to experience one’s true nature directly without any conceptual effort to clear away delusion or to create an enlightened state. It teaches that as long as one does not experience the full extent of the powers of the Enlightened Mind one has not reached complete liberation. This is a more subtle teaching than merely that of showing all dharmas are empty of self-nature. It should be studied and practiced after the progressive meditation on emptiness that is outlined in this book.
The doctrine of tathagatagarbha outlined in the Mahayanauttaratantrasastra lays the basis for understanding Vajrayana and Mahamudra teachings and practice. These teachings take for granted that the practitioner has already understood the vast aspects of the relative truth, and the empty nature of all dharmas, so that one is ready to relax in the Clear Light Nature of Mind just as it is here and now, using all experience to enhance the clarity of one’s understanding.

     The Importance of Relative Truth

From these explanations it will be clear that as a preliminary to following the progressive stages of meditation on emptiness one should listen to, reflect on and meditate on the Jewel Ornament of Liberation or some similar text.

Without a proper understanding of the vast aspects of the relative truth, meditation on emptiness can be misleading and even dangerous. Although insight may come quickly, stability comes slowly. The relative truth gives us a way of looking at life and the world which, while conforming to our ordinary common sense notions of time and space, is conducive to Enlightenment (i.e. liberation) which lies beyond them.

The relative truth is the foundation of all the Buddha’s teaching because it gives a proper understanding of what is to be abandoned and what is to be cultivated. By abandoning unwholesome and cultivating wholesome action one creates the necessary conditions for listening, reflecting and meditating to be fruitful. In this way it is through respecting the relative truth that the absolute truth can be realized.

     Absolute Truth

In Buddhism absolute truth or absolute reality means the end point of one’s analysis, in other words, the most basic or fundamental element of existence or experience.

For example, if one takes a clay pot, a potter might say that in absolute terms it was clay, but a scientist might say it was a collection of atoms. If he were being more precise he might say the atoms themselves consisted of atomic particles moving in space, but even this would be a rough approximation to reality. In absolute terms atomic particles can no longer be defined precisely these days. They cannot be said to be this or that or here or there; they have to be expressed in terms of probability. No doubt scientists will express it differently again in a few years’ time.

In the same way absolute truth presents itself differently to practitioners at the various levels of their practice. Just as this emerges in the experience of an individual practitioner, it occurs historically in the way that the Buddhist scriptures emerged as a progression of increasingly subtle teachings.

     Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness

This book Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness presents the key stages in the Buddhist experience of the absolute truth of emptiness as five-fold;

1. the Shravaka stage,
2. the Cittamatra stage,
3. the Svatantrika-Madhyamaka stage,
4. the Prasangika-Madhyamaka stage.
5. the Shentong Madhyamaka stage.

Although these stages are named after the Buddhist schools that formulated them, in fact, they represent the stages in the development of an individual’s understanding of emptiness.

We are not interested at this point in getting involved in scholastic and philosophical debate about exactly how each school worked out its system in detail. The point is that these stages represent five readily recognizable stages in the progression from a gross cognizance to increasingly subtle levels of understanding.
In general a practitioner should be given a teaching that corresponds with his capacities and level of understanding. However, except for the occasional well-endowed practitioner, most people cannot understand and practice the most subtle and profound teachings on emptiness as soon as they hear them. Instead, they have to progress through a series of levels starting with the most basic teaching, just as one has to start in class one at school and gradually work one’s way up from there. For example in the case of a very technical subject, one does not expect to understand the subtleties discussed by experts without having first learnt the principles. In the same way it is highly unlikely that a person will gain an accurate understanding of the most profound teachings of the Buddha without having gone through the progressive stages of the teaching leading up to them.

One can think of the progressive stages of meditation on emptiness as the stages in the refinement process of a piece of gold ore. The initial stages of the process are somewhat gross but nonetheless effective, the later stages become more and more refined until finally the completely pure refined gold itself emerges. Here the gold is compared to the absolute truth of the emptiness itself. Another example of how the stages of the meditation represent a progression from gross to subtle is that of a person being instructed on how to find a needle on a mountain. First he needs to know the general direction of the mountain for which he needs a large scale map. Once he has found the mountain he needs a small-scale map in order to find the exact location. It may lie near a large rock for example. On nearing the rock he can be shown the exact tree under which it lies. On arriving under the tree he needs the exact place pointed out. Finally, however, it is with his own eyes that he has to find it. In the same way the early stages of the meditation progression bring one nearer and nearer to the true realization of emptiness, but finally it is through one’s own direct perception that it is seen.

© Copyright Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche & Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Publications 2002.