Geshe Tenzin Namdak - Developing Mental Clarity Through Mindfulness Meditation

Join Buddhist Scholar Geshe Tenzin Namdak as he delves into developing mental clarity through mindfulness meditation. In this discussion, Geshe Namdak explains how mental factors such as mindfulness and alertness play a crucial role in achieving concentration and clarity. He elaborates on Buddhist meditation techniques and the importance of mental factors in our daily practice.

Learn how to train your mind to stay focused and present, and discover the benefits of mental clarity for solving problems and achieving peace of mind. This video offers valuable insights for anyone interested in mindfulness and meditation.

Learn more about Geshe Tenzin Namdak

Science & Wisdom LIVE brings meditation practitioners in conversation with scientists to address the problems of contemporary society and come to new possible solutions.

Subscribe to our Newsletter
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Youtube
Visit our Website

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to Science and wisdom live, where scientists and meditators meet. Mindfulness is thrown most of the translations kept us mindfulness, meta awareness. Sometimes it's been translated as introspection, or sometimes being translated as alertness. So there's two very essential mental factors in order to develop a form of concentration. Yeah, what we do in concentration is redirecting our mind. Yeah, we, when our mind gets distracted, we want to redirect it, not towards the distraction, but towards the focus we have to focus upon. Right. So if you train in concentration meditation initially, then when you train in concentration, meditation, you use these kinds of factors of the mind or properties of the mind or, or mental factors as we definitely call them. So we have six types of consciousness, as we just talked about, right? So five sensory perception and one mental consciousness. But there's all a very dynamic aspect of various mental factors. So I won't go into the detail in the numbers here. But, you know, certain traditions, they classify 51 or 52, or 746. Yeah, there's various classifications in the different Buddhist traditions in the Pali tradition, as well as in the Sanskrit and Alana tradition, there's various kind of mental factors being described by definition, function, nature, very detailed kind of aspects, but let us just focus upon two of them. Yeah. So that means that the six types of consciousness, they cannot really operate all by themselves. It's like a king and a queen and the and the ministers or prime minister and the members of parliament, for example, right? The Prime Minister cannot completely functional by themself, right. So by his or herself, it needs to kind of community, so to say, so here also, you see the dependents being very important. And then with with these mental factors, they actually like the the members of parliament, you could say, they've been more interesting then that maybe Members of Parliament, I don't know, but they actually help our mind to function. So and then, those two mental factors, we just talked about mindfulness and meta awareness, or sometimes translated as alertness or introspection, yeah, they are very essential. Initially, they're essential in developing concentration. And then once concentration is developed, then the very essential indirect in the mind, because what you do in concentration, basically, you redirect the mind, every moment that gets distracted, every moment thinks about the past or the future, you bring it back to the present, you bring it back to what you're supposed to be doing. And that's the object of concentration. In this case, for example, the counting of the breath. And that what happens there is you try to concentrate on one particular object, let's say the counting of the breath, you count, I remember this one, I'll bet us two, then in registry, and they account for one to 10. And you do that practice for, let's say, a few minutes, then you dress and then you will see that the mind is just wandering off you if you don't have these two mental factors before, you know, probably 10 minutes passed, and you thought what was I supposed to be doing? Again, what I'm doing, you're completely lost in detox, right? So you need those mental factors to actually direct your mind. Yeah, and if you develop concentration in that way, by being alert, that's this mental fact, alertness or meta awareness, sometimes been translated, that as soon as the mind drifts up, off to the past, or future or to toe pattern, you'll be alerted down yet you you recognise it, so to say. And then with mindfulness, you bring your mind back to what you're supposed to be doing, which is in this case, the counting of the breath. Right. So alertness is kind of this policeman or policewoman on the side of your mind checking, if you're doing the right things or if you are not getting distracted or not thinking about past in the future, if you are not, if you are getting away from from the present moment, so to say. So then with this alertness, you, you, you recognise that there is a distraction. Yeah, so that you train in concentration meditation in that particular mental factor. Then as soon as you recognise there's a distraction, then with mindfulness, you bring your mind back to the object you're supposed to be focusing upon, right? So that means mindfulness is a kind of free translation could be also is kind of Remember, it's to remember, an object and then the particular object you're familiar with. That's kind of how we normally define it in the in the Pali tradition, as well as in Sanskrit tradition, that mindfulness is kind of a remembrance of something you familiar with. So we have mindfulness all the time of objects of desire, for example, when, or objects of anger, for example, when we think about this person, you annoys you so much, there is single pointed concentration present. So to say, with regards to the thought, don't do not get distracted at a time, you're in this completely rage of anger, there's no distraction at all, because you just only focus upon this, this person being bad, or the situation being bad, right? So that's one way we have, we have those those many factors like concentration, we have them, but we don't use them properly, we should use them in more constructive way. Yeah, so that's kind of a sign that concentration is present, especially because if I asked you to meditate on patience, then I think you struggling to keep your mind focused upon contemplating being calm and, and contemplating the aspects of having a calm mind and being patient, right. But if you did, they have to put quite some effort. But if you if I trigger your mind, by looking about your hair dress, or the way you dress, or the way you have your hair, or the way you wear your glasses, or sometimes people have all kinds of headphones these days, on the Zoom conversations, so you can make a joke about it, or you can actually cause a person to get really annoyed, right? So then that's very easy. You know, so our habituation patterns to these kind of destructive emotions quite strong. That's, that's kind of a sign. But it there's a possibility to actually rewire that, or whatever you like to call it to actually restructure your mind in that way. So that if you engage in, in, in, initially concentration meditation, and you develop these two mental factors, as we call alertness and mindfulness, right, so you'd be alert, as soon as the mind gets distracted, and you bring it back, then you get peace of mind, you get concentration, then you get clarity of the mind. Right? So that's a very constructive state of mind in order to solve problems, and to acquire some happiness, basically, why do people engage in extreme sports? is a very interesting question. You know, because in extreme sports, you you live in the moment, so to say, and it gives a kick that gives a bliss of the mind, if you don't have to think about the future or the past, it gives peace of mind, that's, that's what we know with with staying in the present moment gives a peace of mind. Because if you go down freeskiing somewhere in OPS, and you get just take a track, in free skiing, if your mind is not in the moment, the trees will will cause you to, to have a very destructive kind of future, right? So you have to be in the moment, you know, so that's kind of, and people will go in these kinds of sports, they get a kick. And it's, it's, there's a reason for that, because you are in the moment, right. So it living in the moment itself, is a kind of gives you a kind of quietness of peace of mind, you know, so there's kind of a basis to walk upon. If you have this basis of peace of mind, then you can think much clearer. Same with when they go, we're told about people sometimes are in their strains have negative thoughts, we often have to take a distance of those strains in order to work with it. So we go for a holiday, or we go for a break and come back with more clarity and then look at it and can solve it much better. So with a mind we should do something similar, when you go to a place that is kind of gives you a relaxation gives you peace of mind. And that after that peace of mind, it gives you insight. And not only gives you insight by by having trained in these two mental factors in this concentration meditation that gives you peace of mind, right? Then you take those two mental factors into daily life. Because then you look at things from a distance. If you look at things from a distance, there's much more acceptance of difficult issues in life. If you have distance, there's more clarity. Yeah. And then if there's more clarity, there's more control. Yeah, there's more control of the mind to shift the mind in the way you want to shift it. And there again, the way to shift it, as soon as there's a negative thought that passes by or comes up. There's various methodologies to use to redirect your mind or to not pay attention or to break down those thoughts, right. But it mainly depends on these two mental factors that if you are aware of the thoughts coming up in an initial moment, then with mindfulness you can redirect your thoughts and app declared, If you have trained your mind with some, some concentration, and you have some peace of mind. So from that basis of peace that we know in a lake in the ops, when it's no wind, and when there's a clear summer morning, you know, you're looking the lake. And an editing reflects the sky, the blue sky and a few wild clouds and the snow mountains and the trees, everything is crystal clear. But then when the winds of the destructive emotions come, then the clarity goes, right. So in our mind is very similar that we need initially, we need clarity, which we can accomplish with with this kind of concentration, meditation, and then we take that clarity throughout the day, and then try to focus on that clarity, let's say, every hour or so, throughout the day, to make sure we get a little bit touchdown, on this quiet aspect of the mind. And then in between, because the the main challenge, or the main practice is in between meditation sessions, right? Oh, meditation sessions are very short. But the main practice come to how do we practice when we're not sitting on a cushion? Yeah. So then if you sit on the cushion, and you train in these two mental factors, then you take them out into daily life. And then as soon as your negative thought comes by, then alertness recognises that. And then with mindfulness, you can redirect or think about your good intention, you put in the morning, for example, you remember that good intention, and then you redirect your mind, so to say, and then you have opportunity, basically, to change so that this this mental factors of alertness and mindfulness or meta awareness and mindfulness are very essential to be trained in, in this kind of meditation techniques, right, or simple concentration meditation techniques. And then with that, you can actually be more aware. So you'd be more aware of the different emotions in your life, and then not only more aware of emotions, but then also you start to see more, you start to see that these destructive emotions, so to say, are not in concert reality. And because you see, they're not in quantum reality, you can tackle them much better, you know, you're not, you're not kind of you don't go in this emotional hijack, as you did before. Yeah, if you have more peace of mind, you have more distance, there's more clarity. And then those two mental factors are stronger, when a particular torque comes up, you can redirect us, according to these two kinds of potentials of the mind, so to say, and then that goes all the way up to the redirecting, eventually, destructive emotions from the root. If you then eventually understand ultimate reality, and see that everything is a nature of dependence, then, you see there is nothing existing from its own side, as such, and then you see also the destructive emotions and our problems. They're not as solid as they appear. And then over time, we can work on that as well. And actually deal much better with with the difficulties in life. So to say, yeah, so maybe, I think, yeah, that's more or less the time that it was being given. And maybe that's a nice way to stop, too. Yeah. With this presentation. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Castle, I always appreciate the precision with which you speak. And today talking about delusions, the delusions that make us suffer, and some of the ways that we can escape them was wonderful. Well, it's time for questions. People are welcome to ask questions in the chat room, we already have received a lot of them. So I think I'll start with one of them and pose it first to Geshe. La, this was geared this was directed to Geshe LA, but I think it'd be nice to get Dr. Dan Covas response as well. So here's the question, what does Buddhism have to say about willpower? I find that it plays a crucial role in our conviction that there is an essential ego, which is in control of our life experiences and reactions. I wonder why the subject is not usually addressed in Buddhist teachings. So I think and I think it'd be nice to get the scientific view on willpower as well afterwards. So yes, hello. Do you want to address that? Oh, willpower is I don't know what kind of Yeah, willpower is very strong in Buddhism actually. Because if you follow for example, the Bodhisattva Jana parks, and you want to become a Buddha yourself, then the willpower is complete beyond imagination of ordinary willpower. We haven't day to day, day to day life, because willpower is one aspect is our on a more secular aspect. We could say willpower is based upon a kind of seeing your potential and believing your potential, right? That we know we can change and we know how we can change. So that is just a matter of putting some effort in that direction. And there we go. So it's a kind of a I think willpower is a very essential and very important aspect of the Buddhist doctrine, that because of the potential we have, then because of the ability, that the mind is changeable, and the methodology that is available, then is just a matter of fact of putting some effort in and direction and off, you go with willpower, you know, so in one way, that's really true, but then if you ask the question that might be related with, with, we don't consider performance own side existing self, so to say we don't consider things as existing in an independent way. Right. So that's also an aspect of Buddhism, because everything is nature of dependence, and because everything is in nature of dependence, there is no inner and self, as we say. But exactly, because there's no inner and self, there is a conventional self that has the potential to develop, right? So in that context, I think, yeah, willpower is actually very strong in Buddhism, because the Buddha said, Look, they're suffering. Look, there's a cause of suffering. Look, there's a possibility to solve it. Yeah, the Truth of cessation, and then the methodology, how to do it. So that creates an incredible kind of signs of the mind of understanding the issues and understanding the possibility to solve the issues and then also understand the methodology behind it with this very constrained, constructive kind of aspect of I'm going to do this and I can do it. Yeah. So and in that way, I think we'll call is, is quite, it's quite present in Buddhism. Yeah. It's only related with the self that that exists in a conventional way. Doesn't exist inherently. Yeah. Then of course, we talk there's no inner and self right. But on the conventional level, the development and the potential to develop is definitely there. And that produces this kind of courageous attitude. I could say