The Three Principle Aspects of the Path Part 9

We've finally reached the end of our text on the Three Principal Aspects of the Path. If you've followed along this far, I want to send you a genuine thank you — for committing to your own path of learning, and for joining me on this journey.

To reiterate where we've been: we've gone through the verses on developing renunciation mind, developing relative bodhicitta, and then absolute bodhicitta in the teachings on shunyata, or emptiness. As I've said before, this text by Tsongkhapa is well studied across all the lineages. It's well respected, and it's a kind of condensed version of what we find in much larger commentaries like the Lamrim Chenmo, as well as commentaries by Jigme Lingpa and Longchenpa on the path. So many great scholar-saints and practitioners have written stages-of-the-path texts, essentially taking us from A to Z, and this is a summarized version of that on the sutrayana vehicles.

Verse 14: Strengthen Your Diligence

We're on verse 14, and my idea for the last piece in the series is to connect to its meaning and also to offer some takeaways. How do we put all of this together? How does it become practical for us — maybe at a beginner level, an intermediate level, and for some of you, a more advanced level. 

Verse 14:

"When in this way you have correctly understood the key points of the three principal aspects of the path, withdraw to solitude, dear child, strengthen your diligence, and swiftly accomplish the ultimate and lasting aim."

So we can see that Tsongkhapa is encouraging us to develop these three principal aspects in understanding, experience, and realization — through meditation and contemplation. He's also encouraging us to think carefully about how and where we're going to cultivate this. He points out the benefit of withdrawing to solitude. That might mean a retreat setting, a more natural environment, a break from the normal hustle and bustle of life, away from distractions. So whether we take it literally and go on retreat, or we simply integrate it into everyday life, he's recommending that we put down our distractions and work on these practices.

This becomes obvious once we've done some practice: a lot of our biggest struggles are just dealing with cell phone addiction, or news addiction — and I'm using the word "addiction" lightly here — being on our phones all the time, working too much, spending too much time on things that aren't going to move our path of dharma and realization forward. For most of us who are householders, this is something we have to balance, something we have to think carefully about. We might go into periods of solitary retreat, do some group retreat, or just take a weekend to practice with our phones on silent. There are lots of ways to integrate this. But the main idea is that these things take practice. They don't come automatically, and they don't come just from reading and understanding. We have to take it into contemplation and meditation and actually transform ourselves. That's essentially what he's saying.

So: strengthen your diligence toward developing these three principal aspects of the path, and swiftly accomplish the ultimate and lasting aim — which is Buddhahood, or enlightenment, or the freedom of awakening, however we want to think of it.

Renunciation Mind: Turning Away From What Causes Suffering

Turning the mind away from that which causes us suffering — we could call that renunciation mind. Getting tired and bored with the status quo of how our mind consistently gets attracted to the causes of dissatisfaction for ourselves. For me, that framing makes renunciation mind something doable — and I'd say accurate, and attainable for anyone. You don't have to be a monk. You don't have to be a nun. You don't even have to be a yogi on a mountain. We just have to understand and work with our mind enough to see where it's getting caught, where it's getting stuck, and to start to see how that's causing our fundamental dissatisfaction. When that happens, we begin to cultivate genuine renunciation mind.

As I pointed out in those earlier episodes, sure, we can use external renunciation — simplifying our life, giving up certain activities or behaviors — to cultivate inner renunciation. But the point is the inner renunciation. There are good reasons people take monastic vows; it makes this easier for some. It's a lot harder, in the midst of life and relationship, to develop renunciation mind — but it's not impossible. That's what I wanted to point out. For those of us who don't have the wish, the opportunity, or the circumstance to become a monk or nun, we still have to take this seriously and work with our life as it is.

One of the biggest boons to that is developing a strong awareness or mindfulness practice, where we're able to watch our mind, our behaviors, and our emotions more objectively. And objectively doesn't mean we don't feel them. For those of you who know me, I'm a big fan of feeling our feelings — but we don't want to be drowning in them. So here, awareness can watch and bear witness. Once we develop that muscle, it can bear witness in a more objective way, while we're also in touch, compassionately, with our emotions and ourselves. We're not dissociated.

Either way, renunciation can develop because we're watching the play, the drama, and the projections of the mind. If we take the time to develop our awareness around that, we can see how out of touch our habits really are sometimes. The problem is that when we are those habits, we don't recognize how out of touch they are, because to us it's just reality. It's what we think reality is. So meditation is so important here.

Two Tools: Stabilizing and Looking

Of course we have shamatha, the practice of stabilizing attention and awareness. And we have vipashyana, the practice of looking at the mind — looking at experience, trying to spur on or trigger some insight into the nature of things: their impermanent nature, their nature as dukkha, and their empty, or un-confined, nature. Let's call it that, because some people misunderstand the term "emptiness." If you've been listening or watching, you know what I mean. We're really talking about recognizing spaciousness, recognizing something limitless and infinite — rather than the confined way our beliefs, emotions, and thoughts view the world and ourselves.

So renunciation mind, and this tool of meditation, then leads into relative bodhicitta. Through doing the work of looking at ourselves — seeing the depth of how dissatisfaction and suffering play out in our mind and life — once we've done that to a certain extent and renunciation mind is developing properly, bodhicitta is just that push over the hill. We start to look outward. We start to see, well, I'm not the only one here. I'm not the only one experiencing this — based on what people tell me, how they act, and so on. And then we develop compassion, not only for ourselves but for others. We start to develop an altruistic wish: sure, it'd be great if I could attain liberation for myself, freedom from my confusion and all the causes of samsaric existence — but why don't I do that for others as well? If I'm going to do it, I might as well do it for everyone. And so we begin to cultivate relative bodhicitta.

The Four Thoughts, and How We Actually Meditate

There are contemplations and practices for this. I pointed to some throughout the series, but here's the practical step. As I said, a big part of developing renunciation mind — and continuing to develop it — is being able to see the mind as objectively as possible and to be honest about our habits. Some of those we can't change right away. I can't change all my habits in one day; they take time. I'm talking about the negative habits here — we want to keep the good ones. But that kind of clear seeing comes from awareness practice.

There are also the contemplations we call the four thoughts that turn the mind, which were pointed out early on in this text. If you want to go back to them: the contemplation on precious human rebirth, the contemplation on death and impermanence, the contemplation on karma — cause and effect — and the contemplation on the nature of samsara. Part of that nature is seeing how our mind functions, and our body, and everything, and the world too. These four contemplations are really powerful.

What we do is some analysis on those. There's study involved, something to learn — a kind of road map for how to contemplate them. And then we mix what's called ché-gom and jok-gom. Ché-gom is the pulling-apart process: the investigating, the analyzing — "Hey, is it really like that? Is this human birth really that precious, or not?" We analyze that through different reasonings and stages. Then we blend it with jok-gom, which is to rest the mind. So we don't just think and analyze; we check, and when we land on what I call an ‘aha’ moment, an insight, we rest and place the mind there. Then we alternate. We set up a session — 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour, whatever — we learn, we apply the learning into ché-gom, then rest, then investigate, then rest. Over time, that really helps to develop renunciation mind.

That process of ché-gom and jok-gom actually applies to all three principles. There are ways to do it with relative bodhicitta, and ways to meditate on emptiness with it too. But doing it with these four thoughts is really important, and it would be a formal meditation practice we'd integrate into our day.

So again, I'm just encouraging you and pointing you in some directions. If this text interests you and you want to develop further on the Buddhist path, these are some routes you can take. In the Lamrim Chenmo, Tsongkhapa's longer commentary, he lays out the details of how to meditate on these. There are also texts in other lineages that cover similar material.

What I like to do is study multiple commentaries if I have the timel. If I'm working on a certain practice, I'll read commentary from different lineages, practitioners, and great masters, and then let that inform my meditation. So I want to be clear: this isn't only about meditation — it's about informing the meditation as well.

And then, on top of that, we watch our mind throughout the day. But this takes time, because first we have to stabilize mindfulness and awareness, and then we turn that mindfulness and awareness to look at how the mind actually is — what thoughts, emotions, ideas, beliefs, tension, and clinging are arising. That's not easy, because normally we are the clinging, we are the emotion. So it doesn't happen in a day. It's something we cultivate over many years. But I find it really helpful for developing renunciation mind, because we start to see — wow, I'm almost like a crazy person!  And we also see the potential to not be a crazy person.

I don't mean that literally. I just mean we see how the mind sometimes gets ideas and beliefs that simply aren't based in reality. And I'm not talking about anything dramatic — it can be something really simple, like how we really hate grapes. You know what I mean? Then someone comes along who loves grapes, and it can be an interesting investigation: why do I hate grapes so much? But we're not trying to force ourselves to eat grapes. That's not the point. The point is to investigate the mind and see how it works. Then we start to see the flaw, and we can begin to correct it — through the dharma, mainly through relative bodhicitta and absolute bodhicitta, or emptiness.

Relative Bodhicitta and the Lojong Tradition

Just as with renunciation mind, we have many ways to develop relative bodhicitta. Some of the primary ones come through what are called the lojong teachings, or the lojong tradition. Lojong can actually refer to a lot of different practices, but typically when you hear the word it points to these mind-training teachings that came from Atisha Dipankara and others, traveling from India into Tibet. It developed into a system of understanding and practice that's very pithy and very applicable — a kind of pared-down practice. We don't have to know everything about Buddhism to practice it. We need to know enough, but relative and absolute bodhicitta are basically condensed into practices we can integrate into life.

Some of you may know the practice of tonglen, or giving and taking. We mount compassion and love on the breath: we take in the pain of ourselves and others, and we give our happiness to others. That's one practice that comes out of the lojong tradition. There are lots of things like that — seven-point mind training, for instance. If you are interested in exploring more on lojong teachings and practices, I have a few courses you can work with here.

So the practice of relative bodhicitta is essentially developing the aspiration to wake up for the benefit of all beings, so that we can serve others as we become more and more free. As we become more free, we naturally benefit others. Of course we want to benefit them temporarily where we can — but this is really talking about that ultimate benefit, helping others remedy their own confusion and the samsaric bind. And if we haven't remedied ours to a certain extent, we're not going to be able to help others that deeply.

So this is the relative bodhicitta aspirational wish. And aspiration isn't something we set and forget. It's something we continually cultivate. Usually we might meditate on it before a session of practice, and we take some time with it, because we're essentially aiming the rudder of our ship toward awakening, for the benefit of all beings. So this is loving-kindness and compassion plus, is what I call it. Based on loving-kindness and compassion, developing that for others, we then develop the altruistic wish: I want to be help. I actually want to do something. Okay — what's the supreme way to help? Become awake. Become a Buddha.

In Western culture, when we first hear that, it's not so satisfying, because we think, I want to help now. I want to make change now. And that's a great wish. It's also a complicated one, and we all know this if we genuinely think about it. In samsara, things shift around. We make a little progress here, and then a bunch of other cause and effect comes along and changes it; it shifts over there, and the same thing happens. So at some point we have to see that something needs to change in the underlying mechanism of how we're approaching the problems of the world.

That said, that's not to say we don't help where we can. Where we can see benefits, we try our best. But the problem is that without the factors of awakening, without having realized emptiness, it's very difficult to see where the problems are coming from and how to actually resolve them. It's very, very tough. This isn't something I'm going to try to convince you of — just something I've found through a lot of reflection. At the same time, we're sometimes stuck with limited options, and of course we just try our best. Growing compassion and love, serving others as much as possible to reduce their suffering — that's great work. But we're also recognizing that there's a way to relieve their suffering far more profoundly.

So I'm kind of of the mind: why not do both? If we're a practitioner and we enjoy the dharma, why not aspire for the absolute, the ultimate — as Tsongkhapa puts it, "the ultimate and lasting aim"? Why not aspire for that, and at the same time, if we can help and serve others in the meantime, great. I don't think it has to be either/or.

From Aspiration to Engagement: The Six Paramitas

Either way, we develop bodhicitta through consistent aspirational bodhicitta — generating it before practice, throughout the day, before we do an activity, whatever we can. We can practice it all day long. There are many teachings on how to integrate it into life, but it's aspirational. And then at a certain point, as we grow and develop as practitioners, it becomes actional bodhicitta, or what we call engaging bodhicitta.

Engaging bodhicitta is usually done through the six paramitas: generosity, ethics, patience, perseverance — or joyous perseverance — meditation, and non-dual wisdom, the wisdom of emptiness. The six paramitas have a big connection to that sixth one, the non-dual wisdom, which is the third principle of the path in this text. The other five are embraced by it — by a practitioner who has some experience, some taste, or some realization of emptiness or non-duality. Then the other five become more workable.

Maybe a good way to put this — and to segue into summarizing the third principal aspect, on emptiness — is like this. When we're not bound by the rigidity of our thoughts, beliefs, habit patterns, and destructive emotions — not bound at all would be best, but let's just say less — when we're not bound by those as much, it frees up so much energy and space. Our practice of generosity, our practice of patience, our practice of Buddhist ethics or discipline, then goes not only much more smoothly but in a much wiser way, because there isn't all the noise of the dualistic mind. This is what an actual bodhisattva is: someone who has realization of emptiness and is able to function and serve others in a very, very large capacity through these paramitas.

But we can also simulate them as practitioners who don't have realization yet. Practicing generosity, discipline, ethics, patience, perseverance, meditation, and meditating on emptiness is great. So that's essentially how we work with relative bodhicitta: it has the aspirational aspect, which is the majority of what we do, and it has the engaging aspect.

Renunciation mind and bodhicitta are lifelong things. They're not something most of us accomplish in a short time. They're practices we take up every day. So that's one way to think of these three principal aspects: once we get our head around the meaning, and we have some practices or techniques to help grow them, we do them every day in our practice.

Sometimes in Tibetan Buddhist practice they're integrated directly into a sadhana, where we're also practicing Buddhist tantra, woven into the practice of a certain mandala or deity figure. Or we do them in a preliminary chant. Or we work with them the way I described — learning the maps of how to do this investigation and resting, investigation and resting, and cultivating it that way.

The Third Principle: Approaching Emptiness Gradually

Summarizing the third principle, on emptiness or non-dual wisdom: again, in the sutrayana vehicle, this involves practicing ché-gom and jok-gom, investigation and resting meditation. But we also have many practices that serve this in the vehicles of Vajrayana and Buddhist tantra — mahamudra, generation stage, completion stage, Dzogchen — all these styles of meditation that serve the same purpose to a certain degree.

I think it's good to have some facility in the sutrayana style, because then we've cultivated an understanding, put that understanding into practice, learned the nuts and bolts a little, maybe started to develop some experience — and then when we take up the more direct practices with the Vajrayana lineages, they have a better chance of going in the right direction. There's an argument for the opposite: when you know a lot of stuff, sometimes you can't let go of what you know — you can't let go of analyzing and thinking about it and just be. So that can become a challenge if we get too attached to study. But generally I've found it a boost to have both.

The way it works in the monastic systems is that they'll generally spend years studying these three principal aspects in different forms and commentaries, going very deep, and into a lot of detail. They internalize that, they're meditating on it, they're starting to transform. Then when they bring in other Vajrayana modalities, it's like the icing on the cake, and it's swifter for them to move forward.

But either way, for most of us emptiness is something we have to approach gradually. For the first five years of my Buddhist studies, I was hearing it in teachings and reading about it, totally confused. “What are they talking about?” But there was something in it that caught my attention. Something was there. Many of the Buddhist teachings, many of the Buddha's sutras, focus on emptiness, so there was an obvious reason to take an interest. If we find whatever it is that's enticing us, whatever is giving us the enthusiasm to keep studying — just persevere. Based on that study we start to understand, and then we want to develop techniques for putting it into practice, either through ché-gom and jok-gom, alternating investigation and resting, or through more direct methods like mahamudra if you relate to those more. Either way, I'm a fan of the entire path — doing what we can.

So, through studying these in more depth, developing understanding, contemplating them, and developing more conviction — and I'd say conviction, where it's not about dogma or belief, but about actually seeing more of how things are and ruling out how they're not. And that can only be done with an open mind, with curiosity, backed up by study. But we're not studying in order to believe something. We're studying to have more capacity to investigate with curiosity and come to our own conclusions. That's really important.

Through that contemplation phase, we start to taste it; we start to develop experience. But ultimately, to have realization — where we've transformed ourselves and that's not going to revert, because realization means something that doesn't revert — where we've developed renunciation mind, relative bodhicitta, and emptiness to the point where they don't revert: this takes a lot of practice. A lot of integrating the understanding and the contemplation into meditation, and really hitting at the heart of the confusion that causes suffering.

There Are No Shortcuts — and It's Worth It

Like I said — and you can probably hear it in my voice — people often want shortcuts. There's not really a shortcut here. There's just the cultivation of a lifetime: understanding through study, experience through contemplation, and ultimately realization through meditation.

And yet, whether we attain realization or not, I think it's deeply worthwhile. Putting time into these over the years — over 26 years now for me — has transformed my life in so many other ways, and helped me immensely to live a happier and more meaningful life. So I want to say: it's not realization or bust. There are a lot of benefits to developing these three principal aspects of the path, and I wish you all the best on your journey with them.