3 Objects, 3 Poisons & The Remedy | Atisha's 7-Point Mind Training

Mind divides everything in 3. In every aspect of life, you can observe this division. There are the 3 objects, positions that we are made to take by our mind. And sooner or later these 3 positions become a hell in their own ways.

Rise above all 3 to the 4th, which is the observer, the pure consciousness, Bodhichitta!

Join me in a 30 min LIVE meditation session every day at 7 AM CET on my website.

Transcript

Namaste and welcome to this daily live meditation with me,

Dehansai.

Every morning,

30 minutes,

If you walk along this journey towards spirituality,

Towards meditative silence,

It'll bring this much needed inner peace,

Happiness,

Contentment,

Joy,

Tranquility,

That we all need in our life and slightly put our life back in order day by day.

So I encourage you to not only join today's session,

But also build a continuity to meditate,

To contemplate every day for 30 minutes.

With me,

Without me,

Whenever you have time,

These sessions are also available as recordings afterwards.

So there is no excuse except for you not wanting to bring a change to your life.

Right now,

What we are in this series,

What we are working upon is what is known as seven points of mind training by a meditation master called Atisha.

This practice is also a part of Tibetan Buddhism called Lojang.

Why mind training?

Because our mind is all over the place.

This training is not to make you into a Buddhist or follow any particular religion,

But rather to learn and inspire from this rich wisdom that we have from all these traditions,

And take this into the practicalities of our life,

Into our daily life,

To be a bit more wiser,

To be a bit more aware,

To be a bit more silent.

We are on point number two of the seven point mind training.

In today's session,

We are going to close this point and move on tomorrow into a new point,

Into a new phase in this seven point mind training.

Let me just close by going through the last lines of point number two from Atisha's seven point mind training.

Sending and taking should be practiced alternately.

These two should ride the breath.

Three objects,

Three poisons,

And three seeds of virtue.

In all activities,

Train with slogans.

Begin the sequence of sending and taking with yourself.

Yesterday,

I spoke about this sending and taking,

What is meant by sending and taking,

What Atisha meant,

How Buddhists interpret that,

And how you can bring this into your own life with a very simple interpretation of sending and receiving love,

Compassion,

Positivity,

All the good things that is your connection with the world,

Your being,

And the world connected with love,

Compassion,

Joy,

Acceptance.

And all this is what is the bridge between you and the world.

And in every breath that you take,

The sending and receiving should be of this nature.

We took a deep dive into this yesterday,

And today we are going to focus on three objects,

Three poisons,

Three virtues.

What are these three objects?

What are these three poisons?

It's interesting that Atisha,

In the middle of the path towards Bodhichitta,

Which is the path towards Buddha consciousness,

Towards pure consciousness,

Brings this idea of three objects.

When I went through these sutras,

In the middle of the sutras,

In the middle of talking about sending and receiving,

Talking about having pure consciousness,

He brings in these three objects.

It's very interesting why he brings these three objects.

My contemplations about these three objects go beyond just the meditative moments,

To also throughout our lives.

If you observe,

All around you,

There are always,

Everything is divided into three.

You have always the right,

The left and the middle.

You have the positive,

The negative,

The neutral.

In science,

The model started with the electron,

The proton and the neutron.

Of course,

This has moved on.

So,

Wherever you see even the traffic light,

The red,

The yellow,

The green,

You can see this in any example,

Any aspect of your life.

You will notice this if you today walk through your life with awareness.

If you pay attention,

You're always taking these three positions.

Why are we taking these three positions?

Our mind is always taking these three positions.

It's constructed in a way.

It's trained in a way to always take either one of these three positions.

Either it likes something,

Or it dislikes something,

Or it is neither liking nor disliking.

Maybe it has not yet come across that.

Maybe it has not yet interacted with the object.

But the moment it interacts with the object,

It either puts it into the right or the left,

Or in some cases,

It remains neutral.

These are the only three positions that mind always is trained to take.

And our whole world is shaped around these three different positions,

Which Atisha calls as three different objects.

Because this is to objectify things in different categories.

In the positive,

In the liking,

In the negative,

In the disliking,

And in the neutral.

Neither liking nor disliking.

What Atisha is trying to say is,

See how your mind functions.

He's imploring us to see how the mind is always taking these three positions.

And what happens is,

When we walk through life,

These three positions,

They pervert to become the three poisons.

They become the three poisons.

The likings,

They become attractions,

Attachments,

Obsessions,

All that we like,

They all turn into these obsessions,

Possessions,

And we want to grab hold onto everything that we like.

We want to possess it,

We want to hold it,

We don't want to lose it.

We are constantly making our efforts in trying to chase what we like,

In trying to move towards our attractions.

And they become our attachments.

Something that was just a liking,

Something that was a natural tendency of the mind,

I call it natural because it's trained in that way,

To move towards an object,

Towards something with liking,

And it becomes an attachment.

If we don't pay attention to it,

It becomes our bondage,

It becomes our misery.

So from something that is just an object,

It becomes a misery.

You can see this in your daily life as well.

If you recall what's happening in your life,

If you contemplate over it,

If you reflect over it,

You will see everything that you are attracted to.

Everything that you want,

Everything that you like,

Is somehow becoming also misery for you,

The source of misery for you.

That's on one hand,

The first hell,

The first source of misery.

Then the second hell,

The second source of misery,

What you dislike.

When you dislike something,

It also perverts into an aversion.

And we start hating it,

We start avoiding it,

We start doing everything to push it down,

To push that negative,

That what we hate,

That what we have an aversion for,

Down.

And all our life's efforts become,

They gather the energy to move away from what we dislike.

And this also becomes a poison,

This also becomes misery.

This also takes our life into sort of a prison.

See,

There is prison on one hand,

Which is the prison of attachment,

And then there is prison on the other side,

The prison of aversion.

Where to go?

You can say,

Okay,

Let me come in the middle,

Which is neither liking nor disliking.

If you remain too long in neither liking nor disliking,

It also perverts into something that is known as indifference.

And you become cold,

And you shut yourself off from the world,

From the right,

From the left.

You do not let the connection with the world continue.

You become indifferent,

You become cold,

You become numb.

And if you live your life indifferent,

Cold,

Numb,

Where is the joy?

Where is the love?

Where is the taste of life in living indifferent,

In living so cold?

So all these three positions can become a poison,

Can create hell,

Can create misery for you.

Now the question arises,

Atisha talks only about these three positions,

These three objects,

These three poisons,

What to do?

What he did not mention directly,

But what he is implying here is to rise above all these three,

To rise above the attraction,

To rise above the aversion,

To rise above the indifference,

To the fourth position,

The position of pure awareness,

Of pure consciousness.

That is the path towards Bodhi Chitta,

The Buddha consciousness,

To rise above the mind,

To rise towards the no-mind,

And observe yourself in all these three different positions of the attraction,

Of the repulsion,

Of the indifference.

Once you are seated above the mind and its shapes that it takes,

The positions that it takes,

You are the master,

You are in control,

Not your mind.

So when you observe,

First of all you are in control,

Secondly,

By simply observing the obsession is gone and these three positions turn into love,

Compassion and acceptance.

The attraction for one object,

The liking for one or many objects become an unconditional love for everything and anything around you.

The aversion for something,

One particular object or many objects,

It becomes compassion,

Unconditional compassion and that is how you approach everything and anything in this world.

And the indifference,

Instead of being cold,

You become accepting,

You silently accept,

You share that acceptance within silence,

With your silent energy,

You accept how it is,

The way it is,

And in all these three positions,

You yourself remain always above these three.

You still operate with the liking,

With the disliking,

With the neutral position,

But you remain the master and you transform all these three different positions to love,

Compassion and acceptance.

That is the message of Atisha,

That is my message to you for today and for your daily lives.

Let us practice this,

Take this message into our meditation today and see how our mind is taking these three different positions,

Observe it and rise above it into the position of pure awareness,

Pure consciousness,

Bodhi.

Let us close our eyes.

Make sure you have a comfortable posture,

With your back upright,

Your legs and hands comfortable.

They don't have to be in cross-legged posture or any other posture,

As long as you are sitting comfortably,

It is good.

Your awareness inwards.

As you become aware of your inner space,

Notice that you are leaning towards your attractions.

Your body and your mind are pulled towards what you like.

Sort of your energies are in one direction.

Observe your attractions.

In your body,

In your mind,

In your energies,

Observe your attractions.

And relax with every breath.

Get out of the grip of attractions.

Attractions are there in your body,

In your mind.

You distance yourself,

You put yourself at rest,

At ease,

Not getting pulled towards your attractions.

Now observe the second position.

Your aversions,

Your body,

Your mind,

Your energies are constantly trying to avoid.

Let that go,

Relax.

Observe,

Let it go,

Relax.

Observe your dislikings,

Your aversions,

In your body,

In your mind,

In your energies.

Trying to move away from something.

With every breath,

Observe,

Let go,

Relax.

And now the third position,

In the middle,

In difference.

Notice your body,

Your mind,

Your energies are closed towards many things.

Observe,

Let go,

Relax.

Let it go,

Relax.

And now the third position,

In the middle,

In your energies,

Your aversions,

Your body,

Your energies are constantly trying to avoid.

Let go of all observation.

And remain in silent awareness above all these positions.

No attractions,

No repulsions,

No indifference.

Only silence and awareness.

If you wish to stay longer in silence,

Longer in this state of awareness,

Keep your eyes closed and continue.

Otherwise,

Very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes.

Maintaining this sense of awareness,

Sense of silence and the fourth position of the observer of your attractions,

Your repulsions and your indifference.

Take this observation from your meditation session to your day and see,

Observe your mind in action in all these three different positions.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Namaste.

Reviews

🙏

Appreciate this teaching and the time for silence.

To replace like, dislike and neutrality with LCA is indeed a very good position for the entire world. Namaste

With Love and Gratitude for this beautiful meditation! Namaste! 💜🙏🐸

Thank you 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻