Things to Understand, Things to Train In, and Things to Persevere In

The Ten Things to Understand

Understanding, in Gampopa's system, is not merely intellectual comprehension. It is the clear seeing that transforms how you relate to every aspect of experience. These ten points map the territory of reality as the practitioner must come to know it.

1. Understand that outer appearances are unreal because they are mistaken.

2. Understand that inner mind is empty because it is devoid of self-entity.

3. Understand that thoughts are momentary because they occur due to conditions.

4. Understand that both your physical body and your voice are impermanent because they are conditioned.

5. Understand that the consequences of your actions are inevitable because all the pleasure and pain of sentient beings results from karma.

6. Understand that pain is your spiritual friend because it is the cause of renunciation.

7. Understand that pleasure and happiness is the demon of attachment because it is the root of samsara.

8. Understand that many engagements are obstacles for merit because they hinder spiritual practice.

9. Understand that enemies and obstructers are your teachers because obstacles are inspiration for spiritual practice.

10. Understand that everything is of equal nature, because all phenomena are ultimately devoid of self-nature.

The Diagnostic Framework

Gampopa organizes these understandings in a deliberate sequence. He begins with the outer world — appearances are unreal. He moves to the inner world — mind is empty. He then examines what arises within mind — thoughts are momentary. Then the body — impermanent. Then action — karma is inevitable. Then pain — a friend. Then pleasure — a demon. Then busyness — an obstacle. Then enemies — teachers. And finally, the great equalizer: everything is of one nature, devoid of self.

This is a complete epistemology for the practitioner, moving from naive realism to a recognition of emptiness. But notice that Gampopa does not stop at emptiness. The fifth point on karma ensures the practitioner does not fall into nihilism. Even though appearances are unreal and mind is empty, the consequences of your actions are inevitable. This is the Middle Way in practice — holding both truths simultaneously.

The seventh point is among the most challenging: pleasure and happiness as the demon of attachment, the root of samsara. Gampopa is not saying happiness is bad. He is saying that when happiness is clung to, when it becomes something we grasp and cannot let go of, it binds us more effectively than any overt suffering. Pain at least prompts us to seek freedom. Comfort can lull us into a sleep from which we never wake.

The Ten Things to Train In

Where understanding provides the map, training provides the journey. Each point here addresses a specific life situation and the correct response.

1. Having entered the door to the Dharma, don't get involved with many mundane concerns, but train in accordance with spiritual principles.

2. Having left your homeland behind, don't establish a new base in a foreign place, but train without attachment.

3. Having followed a sublime master, give up conceit and train in accordance with his words.

4. Having prepared your mind through learning and reflection, don't use it to embrace mere platitudes, but train in the meaning of what you understand.

5. When realization dawns within your stream of being, don't let it dissipate into indifference, but train undistractedly.

6. When practical experience has taken birth within you, don't get involved in many distractions but keep to the training.

7. Once you have made promises and taken vows, don't be careless in thought, word and deed, but observe the three trainings.

8. Having formed the resolve to attain supreme enlightenment, don't pursue selfish aims, but train in doing everything for the welfare of others.

9. Having entered the gateway to Secret Mantra, don't let your thoughts, words and deeds be ordinary, but train in them being the three mandalas.

10. While young, don't roam pointlessly but undertake hardship at the feet of a sublime spiritual teacher.

The Pattern of "Having Done X, Don't Do Y"

Each instruction follows a precise pattern: you have accomplished something — entered the Dharma, left home, found a teacher, gained understanding — and now the danger is that you squander what you have gained. The list reads like a set of warnings against the ego's talent for subverting spiritual progress.

The fourth point is especially relevant for those of us who live in a world saturated with information about Buddhism. Having studied, Gampopa says, don't rest content with platitudes. The danger of scholarship without practice is that you accumulate knowledge like armor, protecting yourself from the vulnerability that genuine transformation requires. You know all the right words but have not let the meaning penetrate your heart.

The ninth point takes us into Vajrayana territory: thoughts, words, and deeds should be trained as the three mandalas — the pure dimensions of body, speech, and mind. This is sacred outlook, the tantric practice of perceiving all experience as the display of awakened wisdom.

The Ten Things to Persevere In

Perseverance is Gampopa's answer to the inevitable question: what do I do when it gets hard? Each point here identifies a specific difficulty and names where effort must be directed.

1. When a beginner, persevere in learning and reflection.

2. When experience arises, persevere in meditation training and sadhana practice. Until you attain stability, persevere in solitude.

3. When particularly scattered or agitated, persevere in focusing your awareness.

4. When drowsiness and sloth predominate, persevere in refreshing your awareness.

5. Until your mind is stable, persevere in the composure of the meditation state.

6. Based upon the composure of the meditation state, persevere in the daily activities of postmeditation.

7. When adversity abounds, persevere in the three types of patience.

8. When you feel strong cravings for desirable things, persevere in decisively turning away from attachment.

9. When your love and compassion are feeble, persevere in the training of the awakened frame of mind.

10. These were the ten things to persevere in.

The Medicine for Each Illness

This list functions like a physician's manual of remedies. Scattered? Focus your awareness. Drowsy? Refresh it. Craving? Turn away. Lacking compassion? Train in bodhicitta. Gampopa the doctor is diagnosing specific conditions and prescribing specific treatments.

The pairing of the third and fourth points — agitation and drowsiness — mirrors the classical meditation instruction on the two main obstacles to shamatha (calm abiding). When the mind is too tight, agitation arises. When it is too loose, dullness takes over. The practitioner must learn to navigate between these two, tightening when drowsy and relaxing when agitated, like tuning the string of a lute.

The sixth point marks a crucial transition: from meditation to postmeditation. Many practitioners can maintain some degree of awareness on the cushion but lose it entirely the moment they stand up and begin their daily activities. Gampopa says this gap must be bridged. The composure cultivated in sitting practice must extend into walking, talking, eating, and working. Otherwise meditation becomes a pleasant but ultimately isolated experience, disconnected from the life it is meant to transform.