Audio (TCP7, Day 13): Stage Nine, Perception and Labeling

A talk on the ninth and final stage of śamatha (calm abiding), samādhāna (balanced equipoise), exploring how perception labels experience — and the northern/southern schools’ differing views on fixation versus flexible balance with any object — followed by a self-guided silent sit.

Sakya tradition · IBA Kathmandu · The Complete Path (TCP) 2026 · English · Talk + silent sit

For the full Sanskrit/Pali/Tibetan glossary and nine-stages reference table, see the Glossary and Summary for Morning Meditations.

Transcript

Good morning, dear friends, welcome back for our morning meditation practice sessions here at IBA Kathmandu, part of the Complete Path 2026. Slowly we make our way towards the conclusion of our time together and begin to meet some of the qualities that define the fruits of śamatha, this practice of stopping. We just have a technical difficulty with Chinese translation, okay? Very good.

Beginning simply with that act of volition, choosing the object with which we place our mind. And moving through these stages of steadily placing with greater and greater continuity, eventually leaving behind that forceful attention, pushing the mind against the object.

For one that is able to stay with the object more continuously, no longer the mind leaping from tree to tree like that monkey, moving from object to object as they appear in the senses rather than through our intention, our wish.

Eventually this pacification, a taming, a calming, a thorough calming, leading us to the possibility of eventually a mind that is single pointedly focused on the object of our choosing. And finally, a placement that is balanced, Dengchi [等持 děngchí, “even-holding” — the Chinese term for the ninth stage.

Session 13 itself has no CH recording to check against, but day 10’s CH translator explicitly names this same term for stage nine (“等持就是让你到家了” — “dengchi means you’ve arrived home”), so treated as confirmed by cross-session consistency]. Here again, as in the last stage, that single pointed stage, ekotīkaroti or ekotīkaraṇa, that single pointed focus.

Here again the name for this last stage is a familiar term perhaps, it has an echo of samādhi, samādhatte. So again this sense of perfection in the placement of the mind, a mind that is in balance.

And again, rather than the emphasis being on fixation, being hooked or stuck with the sign of the object fixed, here the emphasis is placed on the possibility of being in balance with any object, even an object that is changing perhaps.

So that as in the Southern school approach in which dhyāna is considered to be the training that prepares us for vipaśyanā, here in the same way this samādhi perhaps is considered to be ideal for the cultivation of Vipaśyanā. The mind is then turned to the investigation of objects, of phenomena, of dharma in the sense of the arising in our experience.

But rather than an awareness or attention that is the same as the one we have in daily life, when I see an object along with that sense impression arises immediately, a label, a name. It’s also perhaps even more obvious when I meet a person whom I know, I’m familiar with. Even from a great distance, maybe by the way they walk or the way they dress, a label comes into my mind.

I feel like I know that person. And so rapid is that process, the arising of the label and so sticky is that label. That is very difficult for us to separate the two in our normal mode of awareness and understanding. Two experiences maybe that we have had in our life can highlight what are some of the consequences of this stickiness.

Number one, imagine that situation in which you see across the street someone that you know, by their hair or their walking or their dressing, and you cross the street maybe even calling out to them and you cross the street to speak to them and when they turn around it’s not the person who you thought it was.

And suddenly the feeling that you had may be joy or maybe a feeling of tenderness that this is someone that you care about deeply, haven’t seen for some time, immediately that feeling has to change. Now this being is someone, maybe we never even met them, maybe we don’t trust them at all, we have no idea who is this person, but we have been ready to embrace them perhaps.

Nothing has changed in the object. It’s the same person it was before we saw them across the street. But our feeling has undergone a radical change, another situation. Maybe there is someone who we care about and know very well, we would recognize them from across the street, we call out to them, we cross the street, we turn around, it is indeed the person we hoped.

We smile, but they don’t smile back. Something has changed in the object and our feeling doesn’t match. Maybe they are having a bad day, maybe they found out about something that we said about them in private one day, maybe even years ago that hurt them. So something has changed in the object and now we are mismatched to the situation.

If we are caught in the label, we are often mismatched with the reality of the situation because the truth behind that label is that according to the understanding of the Buddha Dharma, in the relative sense there is a river of reality flowing behind that label that is beyond comprehension in terms of subject and object. The truth cannot be grasped in those terms.

This simplification that we use, this label of person, of friend, of enemy, even something as simple as table and tree, what is actually going on behind that label is vast beyond the comprehension of our everyday mind.

But not, we are encouraged to understand, believe perhaps, hope or trust, not beyond the comprehension of a mind that is awakened, a mind that sees through this almost instantaneous process of labeling and then getting stuck to the label. In the conventional sense, the label is usually sticky on one side, the side that sticks to the thing we want to name.

But here we understand that actually this kind of label that we use is sticky on both sides. We also get stuck to the label.

And the invitation here in the process of śamatha and perhaps especially at this moment where śamatha blends into vipaśyanā, where this mind that has been trained in staying with the object, letting go of distraction, relaxing that tendency to grasp or to push away, to get stuck by the label so that eventually it is in balance in relationship to the object, not grasping or pushing away.

Seeing clearly that here is a label and here is also a mind that can be stuck to the label and here is also a river of reality that is flowing, arising and passing, dependent on causes and conditions, a river of reality that is very difficult to navigate when the one at the rudder, the steering wheel, is caught in labeling, always falling into extremes of attachment or aversion.

This is good, this is bad. By introducing some flexibility in the mind, step by step, in the process of śamatha, maybe someone is hanging a hook, there is a possibility for us to taste some of that freedom from clinging and stickiness inside our meditation practice.

Maybe some of us have had such an experience already in our practice where having established ourselves in a stable sitting position and given rise to clear motivation and intention, we find the object, for example the breath, place our mind with that object and then a distraction arises.

Maybe it is in the form of an unpleasant feeling in the body or a sound that we find distracting and perhaps we are aware of a past experience in which the mind became quickly caught by that story, perhaps that thought, that memory of the past.

But here, perhaps we have had that experience in our meditation practice, the object that we have chosen has started to take on qualities that draw our attention naturally back to the object. Perhaps there is a subtle pleasant sensation associated with the breath.

Perhaps there is a flavor of tranquility that we find more fulfilling even than the most enticing thought stream about our favorite food, for example, which in the past might have distracted us a lot.

And in that moment maybe we noticed that that distraction or that unpleasant memory or feeling was a little bit less sticky, that the mind was more ready to unstick from that and come back to the object. And if we have had that experience and we noticed it and we can remember it, then the process of śamatha is underway. We have already begun to taste some of the freedom of letting go.

And it is that taste that encourages, maybe inspires us to continue in the practice, perhaps. And even in its seed form, maybe, in the very first stages of śamatha in this understanding, in this map, we can see how śamatha and vipaśyanā, that stopping and looking deeply, are together from the start.

That while it may take some effort to maintain awareness of the object, it may take some effort and we might feel like we have more misses than hits, as it were. Maybe we only notice one in ten of the distractions. But it’s the same process, the same quality of relationship to our experience that brings us all the way to this perfect placement and is also the quality of mind in vipaśyanā itself.

We might remember that vipaśyanā or satipaṭṭhāna attitude, the energy, the willpower, the application of effort, perhaps, ātāpī, the clear understanding, samprajanya, knowing what it is that we are doing and recognizing which factors that are helpful are arising and which factors that are unhelpful are arising.

Satimā, mindful, that factor of awakening that is never in excess because its function is balancing, not grasping or pushing away at any aspect of our experience. Viharati, dwelling, abhijjhā-domanassaṃ, without craving or dejection — “viharati, vineyya loke abhijjhā-domanassaṃ.”

In regards to the arising in the world, worldly phenomena, in balance, aware when there is this tendency to thinking, applying the antidotes that help us to bring energy back into our practice, investigating curiosity, pleasant energizing feelings in the body where when agitation, distraction, worry, regret is drawing the mind upwards away from the object, rising, applying, tranquilizing factors like clarity and relaxation itself, balanced placement, samādhi and letting go, upekkhā, equanimity, shě [捨].

Wherever we are in this process, if we can bring some of these qualities into our relationship to experience, then slowly the mind becomes more and more familiar with this flow, intentional attention. Slowly the mind becomes habituated to this awareness and tranquility.

The mind becomes so prone to stickiness, able to stay with the object for long enough to notice that behind the label flows a river of reality. So with the time that remains let us continue in our cultivation this bhāvanā, emergence like a skillful gardener, bringing together the conditions that are necessary for the seed of balanced placement to arise naturally.

Bring the ground, we can establish our comfortable meditation posture, supporting the body in a way that is stable, upright, inviting tensions to melt away for the body’s natural capacity to rebound from gravity, holding us upright, planting that seed of awakening not for our benefit alone, but for the benefit of others.

Our motivation, this heart-mind motivated by kindness and compassion for others, providing water and light for that seed to grow and flourish. The light of mindfulness illuminating the object, the awareness of distractions as they arise and the antidote that we need to apply.

Nourished with the cooling water of our equanimity, able to let go of distractions, slowly channeling the energy of the mind so that it flows naturally back to the object of our choosing. Nowhere to go, nothing else to do, simply enjoying in-breath and out-breath, just as we find them, relaxing the whole body, letting go of distractions as they arise and pass.

So as we conclude, always reviewing, noticing what has not worked, what has worked.

Perhaps taking a moment to recall an example in our practice of a distraction that was noticed or an antidote that was applied, maybe we can recall a feeling in the body or the mind that was related to that experience, maybe some taste of a fruit there that was beneficial and in that remembering, keeping the pathway back to that experience, just that little bit clearer through our recollection,

slowly habituating the mind to that more balanced relationship with our experience but not giving rise to frustration if that quality has somehow evaded us in a meditation session, rejoicing also at that noticing because in doing so, just like that skillful gardener, we are also cultivating a factor of awakening, mindfulness itself, the awareness also of unwholesome factors, not caught in those either, not grasping nor pushing away any aspect of experience.

So with our friends waiting patiently outside, we’d have just a few moments if there is a question perhaps, a clarification, with any object. Yeah. Can be with or through or in relation to, maybe to be more clear. Yeah, yeah. So that maybe we could open the door and allow people to start filtering in, I think. Thank you. It’s clear? Okay, very good.

Yeah, just, I don’t know if there’s another way to state that, but for me, the important thing to remember is that the distinction, and I think, again, without falling into the trap of defining one doctrine or another as superior or inferior based on the definition of one particular term, recognizing that even within the Southern school, there is many different ways to interpret the process of śamatha-vipaśyanā, skillful means even within one school, depending on the conditions for a particular practitioner, how to apply the factors, the mental factors, if you like, necessary for the arising of śamatha and the application of that to vipaśyanā.

The key distinction made there is that this mind is perfectly balanced in that it is not hooked or stuck on the sign of the object. So whereas in jhāna there is this implication of a mind that is fixed on a single object, in order for that mind to be applied to śamatha, one needs to exit that fixated state.

And here the interpretation in the nine stages is that that perfect placement is exactly that. If I understand correctly, it is balanced in the sense of not being caught, not being stuck on the object, so that it can relate to any object with that balanced perspective that allows the true nature of the object to be perceived, because it’s not caught in the sign.

So yeah, maybe in relation to any object, whether that be the breath, the sign of the breath, the arising of pleasant sensation in the body, or the arising of unpleasant sensation in the body or mind, the content of liberation, if you like, these qualities.

So let us do our best to carry that energy of clarity, of awareness and of not clinging to signs into our day, making of our mind and body an appropriate container in which to receive these precious teachings from His Holiness. So I wish you all a beautiful day.

Thank you again so much to our translators for your efforts and for your presence here, your diligence and enthusiasm for these basic practices. For me? Question for me? Yeah, maybe we have run out of time. Can you save it for tomorrow’s class?