Bodhisattva ethical restraints: Auxiliary vows 22-24

• 22. Not dispelling the three types of laziness (sloth, attraction to destructive actions, and self-pity and discouragement).

• 23. With attachment, spending time idly talking and joking.

• 24. Not seeking the means to develop concentration, such as proper instructions and the right conditions necessary to do so. Not practicing the instructions once you have received them.

Let’s recall our precious human life and the fact that we are now one day closer to death than we were yesterday, that our life is getting consumed moment by moment. With the awareness of its transient nature let’s really make a strong determination to use it wisely and to extract full benefit from this opportunity while we have it, so that when the time of death comes, we feel completely okay about saying goodbye to our body, our mind, our friends and relatives, our possessions, our whole constructed ego-identity. And so that when all these things fade away, we’re completely fine with it all and can die with a bodhicitta motivation aspiring to have rebirths from now until enlightenment that will provide the best circumstances for us to be able to practice, so that quickly, quickly we can be of the greatest benefit to sentient beings. Learning the bodhisattva precepts is one step in that direction. 

Background on the Day of Miracles

I found something on the web that is about the Day of Miracles. I thought to share that with you all so that you’ll know why this day is special. Why is this day unlike all other days?  

There are four special days in the Buddhist year, and one is the Day of Miracles, which is today, and that occurs on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Then on the fifteenth day of the fourth lunar month we have Vesak, which is the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing-away. Seven weeks after that, we have the day that commemorates his first turning of the Dharma wheel. And then after the end of the rains retreat, we have Lhabab Duchen, which celebrates the day that the Buddha came down from the god realms after teaching his mother the Dharma there for the three months. There’s lots of stories about all of these, but I thought to tell you about the Day of Miracles. I found something about it here which is interesting, and it happened at Sravasti.  So now you get a little bit of background about the history of Sravasti. 

“When the Buddha was forty years old”—must have been because he attained enlightenment at thirty-five, so not too long after that, there were six great non-Buddhist teachers who existed at that time, and they challenged the Buddha to a competition of miracles. At first the Buddha declined; for quite a long time he declined because he thought “This is just miracles-schmiracles, what’s the big deal?” And they kept bugging him and bugging him so finally he accepted their challenge. “At that time there were great kings in noble families who sponsored teachers who could perform miracles.” Eventually the Buddha accepted because he thought that many people would benefit and attain arhatship and that people in the future would be inspired to practice because of his demonstration. 

So, the first day of the new year to the fifteenth day, the whole period is actually the miracle period because the Buddha performed miracles each day. And today is kind of like the ultimate culmination of all of them. 

“The competition happened at Sravasti. There were 80,000 Buddhists and 84,000 non-Buddhists.” I don’t know why more non-Buddhists came, maybe they didn’t type it right here. “On the first day the Buddha held his toothpick, he put it in the ground, and it turned into a wish-fulfilling tree.” That one was for Venerable Chonyi, the money-tree. “It was decorated with jewels. On the second day, the Buddha manifested two wish-fulfilling jewels.” That one was for you for the perfect kitchen. “On the third day the king offered to wash the Buddha’s feet, and afterwards when the king threw the water, it became a pool with the eight special qualities of water”— pure, limpid, and so on—”and whoever drank it or touched it was healed.” That’s for you and you, and everybody else who is sick. “Today there’s a well there, where small amounts of water are offered for sale,”—we give ours away free—”and it’s useful for treating diseases.” 

“On the fourth day it rained and rained and filled the eight canals. On the fifth day the Buddha emitted golden light from his mouth and people could see the beings of the six realms being liberated.” That’s for John to solve all of his doubts. “On the sixth day the Buddha transformed some energy, and everybody became clairvoyant and knew each other’s minds.” Uh-oh!  I hope they had great compassion when they did this. “On the seventh day, the Buddha manifested as the wheel-turning king, and many people converted to Buddhism.” That one’s for Danny, so she knows why everybody is doing what they’re doing. 

“On the eighth day, the gods from Indra’s palace sponsored the meals, they served the Buddha and made offerings to him.” That one’s for Tracy, sponsoring the food, and Cheryl, too. “At that time the Buddha’s hand pressed the side of his seat, a thundering sound was emitted, and five frightening giant cannibals came out of the ground, went for the seats of the non-Buddhist teachers, and Vajrapani also threatened the non-Buddhist teachers so all those non-Buddhist teachers ran away. Vajrapani manifested a great storm, it became a tornado”—that went over Missouri and Indiana—”and put all the houses that the other tornado tore up”—put them back in place—”picked up the non-Buddhist teachers and their retinue and tossed them into the water.” But I think Noah’s ark came along and saved them. [laughter] 

“Sixty-thousand non-Buddhists converted that day, many monks and nuns attained the arhat state and their understandings, and the gods showered flowers. On the ninth day the Buddha grew his body until the Brahma realm was under his chin”—the Brahmas are the third realm of the four jhanas. “On the tenth day the Buddha’s body grew to the top of Akanishta”—which is the fourth of the form-realm ones, so his body got quite big. “On the eleventh day the Buddha was not visible, but the sound of his voice was heard everywhere. On the twelfth day light came from his body and radiated to all of samsara and developed loving-kindness in everybody.” That was nice, that’s for all of you. 

“On the thirteenth day, the Buddha manifested light from the spot between his eyebrows, filling all of space with buddhas who all taught the Dharma”—that’s for everybody. “On the fourteenth day, the flowers that were offered by the gods filled all of space and on each flower a buddha manifested and taught. On the fifteenth day the Buddha gave the energy so that all the beings could see all six realms. Many people converted to Buddhism after seeing the lower realms with their own eyes.” And Chenrezig Hall instantaneously manifested, complete with all facilities that were forever the right size for all the Abbey’s guests and needed no repairs from now until samsara ends. [laughter]

So, that’s what we celebrate today. All the merit created on these days is multiplied, I don’t know how many millions of times. Any small action or big action – listening to teachings or meditating or whatever you do, making offerings—all the power of the merit is multiplied. Very auspicious. So, we should all make effort to rejoice in each other’s merit, not only to create merit but to rejoice in each other’s merit. 

Now we’ll come back here to the bodhisattva precepts.

22. The laziness of discouragement

We did number 22 about not dispelling laziness and the like. You all got up this morning? This one mentions the three kinds of laziness. Actually, the next one, number 23 is related to one of the kinds of laziness. We talked yesterday about the first kind of laziness, the one of oversleeping and lying around, what we normally consider laziness. 

Then we started to talk about the laziness of being very busy with samsaric activities: with our work, our hobbies, our social life, our this and our that, running around and collecting things, selling things, your Bonsai trees, your bowling club, being very busy with cyclic existence, climbing up the corporate ladder, making all your political connections, and entering the presidential primary. [laughter] It’s all samsaric activity if it’s done with that kind of motivation. It’s keeping ourselves, as Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey says, “The busiest of the busy.” That’s what it means to be a successful person nowadays: you’re too busy to do anything, and that means you’re successful.

If you have any free time whatsoever, it means that you don’t have a life. You must be stressed-out, over-worked, have too many things to do, and so many friends that you’re forever busy and popular. That means that you’re happy, doesn’t it? Isn’t that what we’re told? Cultivating that kind of life is the second kind of laziness; we’re so busy doing things unrelated to Dharma that it’s laziness in Dharma practice. It’s cultivating that kind of samsaric lifestyle and getting ourselves so immersed that we don’t have time to breathe or do anything else.

The third kind of laziness is the laziness of discouragement. This one’s about discouragement, self-pity: “Poor me, I can’t do it; everybody else understands but I don’t; they all have a precious human life, but I don’t; I have more problems than everybody else; they have 84,000 afflictions, I have 85,000 afflictions; I can’t do it, I don’t understand, this is impossible.” It’s having a self-critical, self-defeating, discouraged mind—that’s laziness. We spend a lot of time being lazy, don’t we? We spend a lot of time in that self-pity, self-deprecating mind.

So, next time you get into that mental state say, “I’m transgressing this precept.” See if that wakes you up a little bit. “The more I indulge in this self-pity state, I’m going against this precept. So, if I want to really counteract my laziness, I must try to pull myself out of that mental state.” How do you pull yourself out of this mental state, your nice, self-pity party with your lead balloons? You’ve dug yourself a nice hole, 15,000 feet into the ground, you’ve descended into your hole and decorated it all in black streamers and told yourself, “I’m just worthless, I can’t do it, this doesn’t work.” How are you going to get yourself out of that hole?

Audience: Rejoice.

Venerable Thubten Chodron (VTC): Rejoice. Rejoice in what?

Audience: Everything.

VTC: Like what?

Audience: Oh, let’s see, I got up this morning, that’s a good start.

VTC: Yes, you got up this morning, rejoice. You cultivated bodhicitta when you got up, I hope.

Audience: Oh, I most definitely did.

VTC: Okay, so you rejoice at that.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Oh, yes, so notice your good qualities and give yourself some empathy.

Audience: Rejoicing that we’ve met the Dharma and that we have teachers.

VTC: Yes, rejoice we met the Dharma, we have teachers, and we have the opportunity to practice. That’s really something to rejoice at. I mean, think of being in Syria right now. Same planet as we’re on; think of living in Homs, then look at our situation. That’s something to rejoice at, isn’t it? And not to take for granted. 

Audience: Tonglen: thinking about people who are suffering more.

VTC: Okay, so taking and giving, or Tonglen: taking on the suffering of others, giving them our happiness. You don’t think that’ll make you more depressed?

Audience: It doesn’t seem to. 

VTC: It doesn’t seem to. It’s kind of miraculous, isn’t it? That when you take on others’ suffering, it alleviates your own depression. I think that’s because it makes us feel like our suffering is worthwhile in some way. 

Audience: I think it takes me out of myself.

VTC: It takes you out of yourself, yes. “It’s not all about me,” “Duh!” What a revelation, but it is a revelation, isn’t it? It’s not all about me. 

Audience: I remind myself that that method doesn’t work, it just brings me so much misery, and that helps me.

VTC: Yes. So, it helps you to remember that digging yourself a hole and having a pity-party doesn’t help.

Audience: Just doing some kind of service activity, something for others.

VTC: Yes, another way to get yourself out of yourself is to do something for others. Some kind of volunteer activity or service activity—get out of the hole and do something.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Yes, thinking about the condition of other people who are practicing without food, without the good comfortable conditions that you have—that really helps you feel up. And thinking that all those other people who are living without food and in the cold and everything, they are still working for the benefit of sentient beings in their practice.

Audience: Taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha instead of taking refuge in self-pity and depression.

VTC: Yes, so taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. I personally find it very helpful to contemplate the qualities of the buddhas and bodhisattvas when I’m feeling down. Just thinking about their qualities helps make my mind happy, and it makes me think, “Oh, they used to be like me, and they developed these qualities; there are beings in this world with these wonderful qualities.” 

Audience: That made me think about how not always but a lot of times if I’m feeling down there’s a little bit of guilt, or something I feel bad about. Or that I don’t feel good enough because there’s something I didn’t do well enough. It’s kind of legitimate, so purification practices make me feel like, “Okay, I can get that off my chest and receive some real positive energy back.”

VTC: Yes, purification is helpful because you’re saying sometimes when you’re down it’s because of something that happened, and you don’t feel completely at peace with your own actions. So, getting to the bottom of it and seeing what it is that you don’t feel comfortable with. And then doing purification of that releases the bad mood, the depressed mood.

Audience: That it’s changeable.

VTC: Yes, to remember that it’s changeable. It’s not inherently existent. It took us a while to remember that is an antidote, didn’t it?

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: To recognize your own integrity, to tap into your self-confidence. There’s a lot we can do to pull ourselves out of a depressed mental state. The thing is, what you should all do is re-run this video, write down all these methods, and then put it on your refrigerator or your nightstand or something, where you’ll remember to use them. Because we always brainstorm ideas, but then when we feel down, it’s like, “What do I do? I don’t know what to do.” We must remember these things and then use them when we need them. That’s your homework assignment. I’m going to check everybody’s room and see if you have a list somewhere in your room. You think I won’t? We’ll see.

The one about being too busy in samsara, the way to counteract that, so that you don’t transgress the precept, is to think about the disadvantages of samsara. Review the three kinds of dukkha, the eight kinds of dukkha, and the six kinds of dukkha. If you don’t know what they are, look them up and contemplate those. When you do this, you see the disadvantages of cyclic existence, and that gives you a lot of energy to get yourself out. Or like this morning when we were talking about The Friendly Letter that talks so much about renunciation, maybe read that text and get some energy from that.

23. Indulging in idle talk

Now we’ll go on to number 23, which says, “Indulging in idle talk.” The literal translation is “conversation about bears.” That’s idle talk, isn’t it? It could be a conversation about donkeys and elephants, I don’t know. But it says we’re doing it “out of attachment.” Here it says, “With attachment spending time idly talking and joking.”

The third misdeed in relationship to joyous effort is defined as ‘attachment to negative activities.’

He put that second kind of laziness here in this one.

It consists of indulging to excess in the pleasure we draw from senseless conversations.

I think that second kind of laziness isn’t just senseless conversations, it’s much broader. But this is really pinpointing it. Because this is one of our favorite activities, isn’t it? We enjoy hanging out and chatting. 

What is considered ‘excessive’ indulgence? In other words, can we have moderate indulgence?

If out of attachment to this kind of talk we spend more than an entire morning, afternoon, or evening discussing various topics—

This is quite a long time. A whole morning, a whole afternoon: that’s a long time. Listen to the topics he then mentions:

Our childhood—

You can tell he’s a contemporary teacher. This one was not for Tibetans; they don’t talk about their childhood. Who talks about their childhood? Us—“My childhood!”

Crime, women, men, politics—

It could also be sports, sales, computer equipment, widgets. What else? 

Audience: Food.

VTC: Food. Oh, yes, of course. What else?

Audience: The weather.

VTC: The weather. What else?

Audience: The latest television shows.

VTC: Oh, yes, the latest television show and what the Red Sox are doing.

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: Yes, talking about what this person’s doing and that person’s doing. Talking about who is an incarnation of Maitreya and who is an incarnation of another figure. It’s kind of like that, isn’t it?

And doing this is a misdeed associated with afflictions.

If there is no attachment involved and out of forgetfulness [which is most of the time] we just do not see the time go by, the misdeed is not associated with afflictions.

So, you’re talking and talking and you’re not realizing a whole morning went by.

Audience: I have a question. In some of these, when it says it’s not out of attachment, how can you spend a whole morning and evening and afternoon talking and it’s not out of attachment to talking?

VTC: I have that same question.

Audience: It might be your job.

VTC: That’s true.

Audience: That’s not idle, that’s just doing a job.

VTC: There are different conditions listed here. We’re going to get into them, situations that would make for that kind of thing.

There will be no misdeed under the following circumstances: First, from the point of view of the listener, which is to say us, we listen only briefly to someone’s idle talk in a positive frame of mind, intent on helping the person who is talking, and remaining mindful all the while. In other words, we refrain from getting completely drawn into the conversation.

That means what the other person’s talking about is boring. If it’s interesting, we get drawn in very easily, don’t we? So, keep that same distance, even if it’s interesting. Be mindful, not completely buying into the conversation. I don’t know about you, but I can’t stay a long time in a conversation like that. If something’s not interesting, then I usually don’t stay long in the conversation, or I change it to another topic. Like if they’re talking about sports, and I want to talk about the color of the carpeting in the meditation hall. That’s interesting, isn’t it? 

The second exception is from the angle of the topic: The conversation concerns outstanding events or news, and we just ask a few questions or reply to those that we are asked. It is important for those practicing the bodhisattva path to be aware of what is going on in the world at large.

We might talk about politics or this or that, but just not spend all day and night discussing politics, like who should run against who, and how they should strategize their campaign, and how if the Republicans would only put up somebody… If we talk a little bit about things just so we know what’s going on in the world, that’s fine, but not excessive talk.

Also, here, it could be a situation like, let’s say you’re working in a nursing home (and this could be what Tracy’s talking about), where you say it’s part of your job. You’re taking care of different patients, they’re lonely because their relatives aren’t coming to visit them, so you stop and chit-chat with them. You talk about this or that or whatever they want to because it makes them happy, or just because it’s some kind of personal connection. 

The same thing at your job. It isn’t like you go in and are silent to everybody to avoid idle talk, but you chit-chat with people and you’re pleasant and friendly so that you establish a nice feeling of kindness at your workplace. That wouldn’t be a transgression. This is really when we get very involved in the conversation and all our time goes by talking about things that really aren’t worth very much. That’s what it’s opposed to; the precept is trying to get us not to waste our time, number one. And number two, not to incite anger and attachment in our mind, because so many of the topics we talk about when we chit-chat are things that have to do with attachment, that are going to make attachment grow in our mind or going to make anger grow in our mind. This is a way to protect ourselves from not getting caught up in negative emotions that we wind up acting out and creating negative karma, is another reason for this precept. It doesn’t mean we’re just like zombies, not going to talk to anybody. That’s not bodhisattva practice, is it? 

In the last paragraph he says:

Of the three secondary misdeeds relative to the practice of joyous effort, the first is contrary to a precept of the ethic of helping living beings.

That one was the one about being eager for gain and honors, gathering a following; that interferes with the ethic of helping living beings. It says right here:

Which is to gather a circle of followers in a manner that is accordance with the teaching. The second goes against a precept of the ethic of collecting virtue: to practice joyous effort [because we’re being lazy, so we’re not collecting virtue]. And the third conflicts with the ethical conduct of abstention because we are required to avoid amusements and seek solitude so as to create favorable conditions for observing the bodhisattva ethical conduct. 

Remember, we talked about three kinds of bodhisattva ethical conduct: to restrain from negativities, to do virtuous actions, and to benefit others. He’s saying there’s one for each of those three types of ethical conduct. 

Audience: [Inaudible]

VTC: There’s three kinds of bodhisattva ethical conduct. One is to abstain from negativity. The one that corresponds with that is this last precept of not indulging in idle talk out of attachment. A second kind of bodhisattva ethical conduct is to create virtue, and the one that helps us do that is number 22, because we’re dispelling laziness. Then the third kind of ethical conduct of a bodhisattva is to work for the benefit of others, and precept number 21 corresponds with that because it protects us from gathering a following out of a really rotten motivation, which doesn’t benefit anybody.

Audience: Can I ask you a slightly related question about getting out of idle conversation, gossipy-type of talk, politely without lying? Because at one point you said, “Make sure not to lie.” For example, someone says, “Oh, have you heard about what’s going on with so-and-so’s marriage? What’s up with that?” You do actually know, because they’ve confided in you, but do you say, “I don’t know,” or do you say, “I know but I’m not going to tell you,” which, in fact, infers that there are problems?

VTC: So, somebody says to you, “Oh, do you know what’s going on with so-and-so’s marriage?” They’re hoping you know so that you can tell them, but you don’t really want to tell. You know because somebody’s told you, but you just don’t feel like it’s your business telling other people, and you really don’t want to talk about it. Then you can say, “Well, you know, I heard they’re having some problems, but I’m not completely clear on it all.” Which is true, because even if they’ve confided in you, are you completely clear on their problems? No.

Audience: So, be slightly evasive but truthful?

VTC: It’s truthful but it’s, “Yes, something’s happening, but I’m not really clear about it.” The couple isn’t clear, so of course you clear can’t be clear either. Something like that.

Audience: I always tell them that it’s not my truth to tell someone else.

VTC: Yes, for sure.

Audience: Like, it’s not my knowledge, it’s theirs. Even if they told me, I say, “Sorry, I don’t know, it’s not mine.”

VTC: Right, it’s not your knowledge. Exactly, you can say that, too. You could say “It’s not up to me,” and just be truthful. “I don’t really feel like talking about what’s happening with other people.” You can say that as well.

Audience: I find it helpful in some of these kinds of situations to say something to the effect of, “It’s not something I’m interested in talking about.” It kind of cuts it.

VTC: Yes. That’s the kind of feeling that I like to give if I say, “I don’t really know everything that’s going on.” It’s like, “This isn’t important, I don’t really want to talk about it, it’s not my business.” Instead of, “Yes, they told me the whole scoop, this and this.”

Audience: I’m sworn to confidentiality. [laughter]

24. Not seeking the means to develop meditative concentration 

Then we have the three misdeeds contrary to far-reaching meditative stability. Number 24 is, “Not seeking the means to develop meditative concentration.” Here it says, “Not seeking the means to develop concentration, such as proper instructions and the right conditions necessary to do so,” and also includes, “Not practicing the instructions once we have received them.” 

This refers to our failure to collect information on concentration by attending lectures on it and is described therefore as ‘a fault at the preliminary stage.’

Because when you’re going to develop meditative stability, the preliminary stage is to learn about what you’re supposed to do. This is interesting because we get all sorts of people who are new to the Dharma, who want to meditate, so eager, at least my generation, way back; people now are different. We all wanted to just go in and meditate. We had no clue about what we were supposed to be doing, being so enthusiastic but not really knowing what we were doing. If you do that, then not much changes in your mind, either in terms of purification or in terms of developing any kind of meditative stability. 

Someone recently told the story of Lorraine who was visiting one geshe, and somebody came in to see him who had just done a three-year retreat. And the person was saying this and this and this and this and this, and when the person left, the geshe said, “Oh, three years later and the mind’s still the same.” Laughing, yes. Because if you don’t know how to meditate properly, and you don’t understand the Dharma properly, you could spend a long time but not really accomplish a lot.

The fault is not learning about what to do—not attending teachings, not knowing what meditation is. Because now people make up their own meditation. Meditation is you sit down, and you daydream about prince charming, that’s meditation. People make up their own meditations. I even have people who have been studying the Dharma for quite a long time, and they mix and match different sadhanas; they change the sadhana around and do this and that and the other thing, but maybe they haven’t heard teachings on it, or maybe they’ve heard teachings and they’re ignoring the teachings, which is the next one. So, this is about making sure that you have the teachings so when you do retreat you know what you’re doing. And even in our daily meditation practice, to know what we’re doing.

When we want to develop our powers of concentration, refusing to attend a presentation on concentration techniques out of animosity or pride, thinking that we already know everything on the subject for example, is a misdeed associated with kleshas [with afflictions].

So, our teacher is giving a talk on that topic, or something is going on, and we say, “Oh, I’ve heard that already.” Or, “I already know how to do the practice, I don’t need it.” There’s either arrogance or animosity—“Oh, that person doesn’t know what they’re talking about.” It’s that kind of thing. That’s a misdeed associated with afflictions.

And if we fail to participate out of laziness or sloth, as usual it is a misdeed dissociated from afflictions.

So, you’re just too lazy to go to the teaching. 

There’s no misdeed in these situations: One, we’re physically incapacitated by illness [clearly.] Two, we suspect that the explanation might be inaccurate.

So, it doesn’t mean you need to go to everybody who is teaching about concentration, because if you don’t think the person has any experience or that they haven’t studied the text correctly, then there’s no obligation to go.

And three, we have already studied the topic thoroughly and are now able to remain in one-pointed concentration or are presently applying the instructions on it.

So, you’ve studied the topic, you’re meditating, doing it, and you’re under your teacher’s guidance, so what you’re doing is going on, going well. 

Audience: What about when you have a teacher, but you don’t trust the teacher? You have the offering, and there’s the possibility to go to teachings about meditation, but you’re not sure if you want to listen to this teacher?

VTC: So, there’s the possibility to go for teachings on meditation, but you’re not sure that you want to listen to that teacher. That falls under the second one if you don’t know if instructions are going to be accurate, and you’re not sure if you really want to set up a teacher-student relationship with that person. Then it’s fine, there’s no obligation to go. I think this is mostly talking about when it is your teacher, and you know it’s going to be good instruction, reliable and so on, but it’s different if you’re angry or arrogant or just too lazy.

Audience: About the laziness one: is there some comment about laziness in each of the precepts that if you don’t do anything to counteract this, it would be dissociated from afflictions?

VTC: Yes. In so many of the precepts it says that if you’re doing or not doing the action that you’re supposed to do or not do, but your motivation is out of laziness or sloth, that it’s a transgression without afflictions. It’s still a transgression, but the karma is not as heavy. And you’re asking if you fail to counteract that laziness and sloth, is that itself a transgression?

Audience: Yes, it’s circular…

VTC: Yes, circular. So, it would seem from looking at the ones about enthusiastic or joyous effort, that if you have the habit of being lazy and slothful, and you do nothing to counteract that…What does he say in here? Did he talk about afflictions or non-afflictions with either of these? The one about indulging in idle talk, he talked about afflictions or non-afflictions. The one about laziness, oversleeping, and stuff like that, there’s no talk about afflictions or non-affliction, it’s just if you don’t apply an antidote to it. And with the first one of attracting people with bad motivation, he talks about afflictions and non-afflictions. The one about sleeping and lolling around, he doesn’t say, so that one doesn’t have that condition.

Audience: So, for this last one about concentration, when he says you want to develop concentration, this only really applies in the context of being mature enough and having the conditions to have formal retreat?

VTC: You’re asking if this one about not learning about meditative stability only applies in the condition of wanting to do a retreat to attain concentration? No. It primarily applies in that situation, but, in general, we should learn something about what concentration means and how to attain it.