Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. His Holiness the Dalai Lama tackles the fundamental distinction between physical and mental suffering in this 65-minute teaching, drawing on Buddhist philosophy and practical wisdom relevant to contemporary life. He begins with diet and physical health—arguing that moderation in eating, following the pattern of a large breakfast, medium lunch, and light or no supper, prevents diseases like obesity and diabetes while supporting mental clarity. He then moves to the architecture of mental suffering, instructing listeners to guard their sense gates—especially the eyes and ears—through mindful restraint: avoiding compulsive shopping and endless browsing, controlling what we listen to so envy and jealousy don’t take root. When suffering does arise, he distinguishes sharply between temporary pharmaceutical numbness and genuine mental mastery: a person deeply in debt must keep a calm mind while rationally seeking solutions, not reach for alcohol or antidepressants that merely postpone the crisis. He concludes with counsel on choosing teachers and living ethically. A live Q&A follows, addressing whether meditation can cure stomach aches and how to work with depression in Western contexts.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2014-03-22 – KR.mp3
UUID: 616b1755-abc9-4c36-9f6e-9fc7427d9cef
Teacher: HH Dalai Lama
Collection: Awareness and Knowledge
Date: 2014-03-22
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,958
Baby, Is he or she? Six. How older? Six months. Six months.
Oh, yeah. Good. I’m delighted so many of you have come today despite the fact that you have many responsibilities and occupations. And I was asked to say a couple words, which hopefully, if you keep them in your minds, will be of some benefit. Since I myself am a Buddhist monk, what I will say will naturally be related to the Buddhist teachings, but the Buddhist teachings have a strong correlation with reality, with the way things are.
Don’t forget. Little pages. Page. So on the table. Not good.
Why precisely were we born from our mother’s womb in this world? A sizable proportion of the reasons for which we were born were probably connected with attempts to find physical happiness. Now this is a case for human beings. Now regarding happiness, happiness is of two types, physical and mental happiness. Different two.
Likewise, suffering is twofold, physical and mental suffering. It’s easy for us to understand that there are two ways to address physical suffering. The first is to prevent a physical suffering arising from the constituents to arise. The second is to counter it once arisen. And this is clearly intimated by Ārya Asaṇga in one of his statements.
Now probably most of the physical sufferings we experience in this world can be traced back to food. Then how precisely does this occur? Clearly the timing and the measure of the amount of food we ingest is important. Ārya Asaṇga says, it is important to have measure in consumption of food. In our cases, we eat three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and supper.
And therefore, it is generally said that it is preferable to eat a sizable breakfast since this will keep us going until lunch. Therefore, one is said to eat breakfast like a king. And for lunch, it is said that lunch should be a meal of intermediate size, less than breakfast. And as for supper, and this may be difficult for most of you, one should abstain from supper. This is the practice of Buddhist monks and nuns who have only two meals a day.
The reason for this is that if one eats supper on top of these two substantial meals in the day, one will gain weight, As a result of this, we’ll be unable to focus on study. Then if possible, one should abstain from supper. If this is impossible, one should eat a very light supper, as light as possible, thinking all along of the breakfast on the morrow, which will become all the tastier. It is therefore very wise to eat in this way, in a way which not only does not harm one’s health, but benefits one’s health. Then if one does not do this and one eats a large breakfast, a massive lunch, and an even more massive supper, one will become fat, and being overweight, one will be exposed to all the diseases due to obesity such as diabetes and all the other diseases which we well know arise from obesity.
In this matter, are different from engines. The more gasoline you put in the reservoir of an engine, the longer it can go. This is not the case for human beings. The more we eat, the more it harms our bodies. If because of one’s own intemperate habits or simply due to the way things are, disease arises as a result for instance of eating too much or eating the wrong sorts of food, then this disease must be countered, and the foremost means to counter disease is obviously the usage of medication which we should rely upon.
Otherwise, if one has the fantasy that it is possible to eliminate a stomach ache or a badly blocked nose through meditation, one will see quite rapidly this is completely ineffective, there is little or no relationship between physical suffering and the practice of meditation. So this is a means to prevent on the one hand the arising of physical suffering and to counter it if it has arisen. Then the following category of suffering is mental suffering. Our foremost problems arise from mental suffering. Likewise, mental suffering as physical suffering must be subdivided into two.
First, one must try to prevent mental suffering from arising. Secondly, one must find means to counter mental suffering if it has nonetheless arisen. Regarding the first topic, how to prevent mental suffering from arising, as Ārya Asaṇga quoted by his holiness the Dalai Lama said, control the gates of the senses. In other words, control the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, and the body. Then how should one proceed?
Let us take the example of eating a meal. When we go shopping for vegetables, if we have the clear intent to buy only vegetables, and we only focus on the vegetables at the store, then when we return home, there will be no particular difficulty. On the other hand, if when we go shopping for our weekly lot of vegetables, we do not practice contentment and in the shopping mall, instead of stopping at the vegetable stand, we wander over to the mobile phone store and see the latest mobile phone, and think my goodness, it’s new, it’s nice, just how expensive is it? And Then we realize we don’t really have the money to buy it, but then we go home and our mind is constantly preoccupied by this mobile phone we really can’t afford. And this occurs because we have not been the masters of our visual organ, and precisely because we were not the masters of our visual organ of our eyesight, great suffering arises as a result.
Likewise, with the ear sensory or auditory sense consciousness, let us imagine for instance, we have decided to watch a TV program, whether it be the news or let’s say a comedy. It is extremely important that we remain the master of the event. We watch the news, then when the news over we stop, or we watch a comedy, then when the comedy is over we stop. Otherwise, if we watch news or the comedy and then think oh there’s a lot of other stuff available and keep zapping from channel to channel, we will consume a tremendous amount of time, eventually be unable to sleep, and this for instance if we are students will affect our studies since the next day without having slept, will be very difficult for us to study. This is something of which most of us have direct experience.
In addition, if we are not the master of our auditory consciousness, we will for instance casually listen to the criticism of others, which gives rise to great mental turbulence within our mind, such as anger and so forth, or we will listen in when the qualities and the wealth of others are praised, which gives rise to other types of mental disturbances such as envy or bitter jealousy. It is probable that neither envy nor jealousy can arise within the mind without a strong contribution of the factor of hearing. And therefore from your own side, try not to listen to everything which is said around you. Otherwise, if you do so, it is certain that as a result of the lack of control of the auditory sense consciousness, great mental suffering will arise, and for instance bitter jealousy, envy and competitiveness will arise within your minds. Then if you check for yourselves, you will find that most of the suffering in this world arise from jealousy, from envy and from competitiveness.
And if therefore we can practice a form of contentment in which we remain in control of our eye consciousness, our ear consciousness and so forth, then we will greatly reduce the amount of mental suffering we experience. To give you an example, if we have some valuables we are afraid might be stolen, and they are in a house with only one door and no windows, then if we block the door really solidly, the chances of the goods being stolen are nonexistent. And therefore, if in keeping with this example, we are able to control, to tame, to subdue our sense consciousnesses, specifically our visual and auditory consciousness, and to tame and to subdue our physical and our gustatory sense consciousnesses, then as far as physical suffering is concerned, there is a strong chance that it will not arise. It will be of great benefit for us to examine from our side whether it is true indeed or not that at the root of mental suffering, we systematically find the sense consciousnesses such as the visual consciousness or the ear consciousness. This is something to check.
Likewise, one finds that the majority of physical suffering arises in dependence on the olfactory, gustatory and tactile sense consciousnesses, Therefore, restraining these sense consciousnesses is very important. Then how do we eliminate mental suffering if it has arisen? Injections, and for that matter even pills, will not work in the long run. If for instance, we are mired in a pit of debt, then most probably great mental suffering will arise. So I would like to use that here as an example.
The most important in such situations is for one’s mind to be unaffected, unchanged, untroubled as before. It’s extremely important in these situations not to use stupefying substances, not to drink for instance, or to use anxiolytics, somnifacients or illegal drugs. If from drinks, alcohol will enable us to remain a state of stupor and tranquility for a day or so, After that, the problems return. Exactly the same thing is true with anxiolytics, antidepressants, and so forth. And therefore in such a situation, it is critical that one’s mind remain calm as before, and even though one is heavily indebted, with a calm and peaceful mind, one should try to find a way to be freed from one’s debt.
If one is heavily indebted, there may or may not be means to be liberated from one’s debt and these means we must try to find. However, whether there are such means or not, if on top of the difficulty of being heavily indebted, we because of lack of mental control allow our minds to be profoundly disturbed by this, we have true sufferings, the physical suffering of the debt and the mental suffering of mental disturbance. So this is in my opinion the means by which one prevents physical suffering from arising and counters it if it has arisen, prevents mental suffering from arising and counters it if it has arisen. Too much lunch. So It’s the suffering of being of a fool.
Problem. It’s no problem. I’ll take some exercise until 06:00, I’ll be fine. It is extremely important for us in our behavior to remain within the law. The law of the land must be obeyed in the self same way as if we are Buddhist practitioners, we must obey the disciplines which the Buddha installed.
Most importantly, we should prevent ourselves from engaging in criminal deeds such as murder, but also theft, extreme forms of sexual perversion and aberration, extreme lies profoundly harmful to others, and irrespective of whether one is a religious person or not, if we are able to have this basis of self discipline and ethics, then at the time of our death our passing will be peaceful, on the other hand if we have not behaved in this way at the time of our death there will be great fear and remorse. Irrespective of whether one is a mundane person or a religious practitioner, it is clear that when we rely on an instructor or a teacher for training, our choice of our instructor or a teacher is critically important. He or she must be someone who has all the requisite qualities for training us. Likewise, in a mundane context, if we are training in an important and sensitive profession, then it is critical to have an instructor, a teacher who is fully competent in his field. Very good, think so.
And when one is relying on someone for such critical functions, it should be irrelevant whether they are or not one’s parents, one’s relatives, or one’s friends. If for such important tasks we can rely on someone who is impartial, someone who has a high motivation, and someone who has experience, then it is 99% sure that we will be successful. This is something I have had some experience with and therefore I have allowed myself to talk about it. When one has great goals and one must rely on critical tasks for somebody, one does need someone who is well educated, someone who is impartial, someone who has a high motivation, and someone who is experienced. Do you understand?
Very important. This will be it for today. Then examine for yourselves whether what I have said is correct or not, is the metaphor I have given you of gateways or doors of the senses correct or not, is it correct or not that through controlling the gateways of the senses, we will be happy or not. I believe that you will be happier in this life if you do so. Likewise, it is critically important when we wish to study the path to have someone who can teach us the path correctly and appropriately.
Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Alright. Finish.
Alright, wow. Geshe-la will only take a couple of questions. Just one or two. Alright, enough. Yeah, come, come.
Why? Do you have any questions? Thank you. So have you question? No?
I find it interesting that you were mentioning that if you’re to meditate it’s not going to help your sinus problem or your stomach ache But I find yeah I don’t really understand that. If you’re going to meditate it doesn’t help these physical difficulties if you’re having a stomach ache you know I think if you’re meditating you might be able to forget about your stomach ache and then it’ll go. You’re talking about the correlation between the mind and the body? What’s the question? Lots of answers.
Lots. There’s a distinction made that if you’ve got a stomach complaint So physical complaints arise because of our physical constituents, then the realm of our physical constituents and the mental realm are two different realms. So mental activities such as meditation have little effect on our physical constituents. This is one point. The second point is that from a Buddhist standpoint, clearly physical suffering has a connection to past karma, past deeds which were performed.
Another? Undeniably, self-grasping occurs when we are sleeping, when we are dwelling, and when we are walking, and in dependence on self grasping the afflictions, and in dependence on the afflictions activities such as overeating do occur. When one counters self grasping, one eventually leads the afflictions to abate, and this in turn reduces these harmful activities, but it is an indirect process, not a direct process, and it takes a long time. Behind you, Chris. Then we should eat butter and barley flour.
In Tibetan culture, you know? Whatever is in keeping with your habits, you have good clean food in Australia, then eat whatever you’re accustomed to. Yeah. Reach out. Really?
Can I just ask about depression? Or like, you know, if you are feeling depressed, obviously because I’m not really too afraid with Buddhism teaching you know I know you said you know antidepressants and all that sort of thing will not help so what is it just meditation or I mean it’s probably a whole wide range of things but what do we do especially in our western culture when we’re sort of entrenched when we go to the doctors and we talk about our mental state that we are encouraged to take antidepressants. Let’s take the case of depression, it has a cause, then if the cause is for instance over indebtedness, which I gave an example of, then instead of allowing one’s mind to be overwhelmed by this situation, and then going to a doctor and taking antidepressants, which by definition do not solve the problem, they basically just put us in a state of quiescence for a period of time, after which we have to take more medicine, we should adopt a different approach and become the masters of our own mind from the inside, preventing our mind from being troubled or agitated, and then rationally and logically try to find a solution, a way out of the indebtedness which is a cause of the depression.
Do you understand? It is really important to rely on the right people in life. For instance, one’s teacher, one’s instructor. Very important, very important. From the beginning.
Yeah, yeah. So just Recharge. It exists, but it’s very, very rare. It’s much rarer than here with you people. The most important thing in life is the teachers, the people you rely upon, they should be impartial, they should have a good motivation, they should have experience.
Thank you. Thank you so very much. You’d like to stand up, please. Thank you, Elia. I thought I would mention out of for your curiosity, there is not a single word in Tibetan for depression.
I find it very difficult to translate. It’s a western problem. Please join us for a cup of tea. Can I just ask if there were anybody here who came as a result of seeing the event on Facebook or Facebook anybody or the flyers anybody? The email.
Okay. You’re welcome to have a quick cup of tea. Otherwise, check out our website and newsletter. Thank you very much.
Key terms in this teaching
- self-grasping dag dzin (Tib)
- The mind that apprehends the self as inherently existent. This refers to both the self of persons and the self of phenomena. LYWA
Definitions adapted from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive glossary, as taught in the Gelug tradition.