Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 51-minute session, Kyabje Rinpoche teaches the third of the Four Mindfulnesses—mindfulness of mind—and addresses a central question: is the mind the brain? He rigorously refutes this materialist view, explaining that consciousness perceives external objects, exists in formless realms without physical form, and develops qualities like wisdom that matter cannot possess. After opening meditations on compassion and bodhicitta, and reviewing mindfulness of body and feeling, he explores the nature of mind itself. He discusses consciousness as luminous and non-material, examines where it resides (body as motel, mind as guest), explains karma as sustaining the body-mind connection, and guides students to recognize mind as empty of inherent existence through careful analysis. For practitioners studying consciousness and emptiness.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1994-08-23 – 10A – 9th Chapter – KR.mp3
UUID: a7c12dbc-b4ea-41e5-a13d-9ec2c283e54c
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra
Date: 1994-08-23
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,976
Let’s start by doing brief few minutes meditation on kind thought related with mind of enlightenment. I do not want suffering. Similarly, all other sentient beings do not want suffering. And yet, like myself, similarly all other sentient beings are very much tormented by suffering. Therefore, I wish that all sentient beings be free of suffering, and I pray that they actually become free of suffering.
That becomes meditation on compassion. And then the next one thing says, I do want happiness. Likewise, all sentient beings equally do want happiness, but like my case and similarly with all other sentient beings, they are destitute of happiness. Due to this fact, I wish that all beings be with happiness, and I pray that they actually be with happiness. That becomes thinking that way becomes meditation on loving kindness.
Here, before going to develop the mind of enlightenment, one needs first to think on those two necessary requirements: compassion and loving kindness. On top of those two, one needs to have the superior dedication, what is called universal responsibility thinking, that I alone, if it comes to that, take the responsibility to really make all sentient beings free of suffering and be with happiness. It is appropriate to think by way to think that even if it comes to that, I would alone take the responsibility to accomplish that. Why that is appropriate is because from one point of view one does have all the necessary capability to actually accomplish that. How that is so is one presently have attained good rebirth as a human complete with all capabilities.
On top of that one has encountered the correct and meaningful spiritual path, the Dharma. On top of that, one has good inspiring companions on the spiritual path, other dedicated practitioners. One as well has teachers who show the path unmistakenly and completely, fully, fully and unmistakenly. So, yeah, it is appropriate. If it is appropriate, then one does need to think even if it comes to that ‘I’ alone am willing that ‘I’ alone would take the responsibility to remove all other sufferings and bring them happiness.
But with one’s present state of mind, if it is asked, does one’s mind have all the necessary capability and excellent qualities to actually accomplish that? The answer would be no. The reason why that is so is because one presently has in one’s mind so many destructive and bad bad types of thoughts. And one does not have enough of all the excellent qualities of the mind. The good thoughts, the excellent qualities of mind in the form of good thoughts, the least one does not have.
So one needs to make the determination that in order to accomplish others’ welfare I will put effort into training my mind to get rid of its impure thoughts and to acquire all the excellent qualities. In order to train the mind to get rid of its impure thoughts and to acquire excellent qualities, one needs to develop the mind of enlightenment, bodhicitta, combined with the wisdom realizing emptiness which together becomes the essence of the whole training on the path of Mahāyāna, the great vehicle. If that’s a fact, then one here builds a special determination to be interested and take our necessary effort in doing learning, reflection and meditative familiarization on the topic here on the realization of emptiness. At this point, Śāntideva explains the mind is not in the senses nor it is on the form and others. What this part concerns is firstly from earlier Tuesday evening’s teachings we were on how to understand the selflessness of phenomena, which was done through looking into the four mindfulnesses, the meditations on the placement of four mindfulnesses, of which we finished the first two, the meditation on the placement of mindfulness of body and of feelings.
So tonight we go to the third, that is the mindfulness of mind. As regards the only two mindfulnesses, to sum up we can say mindfulness of the body means firstly one through analysis have ascertained or have confirmed that the body is emptiness of inherent existence. Having established that, then in one’s awareness one retains the mindfulness or the memory. Mindfulness is no different from memory. One retains the mindfulness or the memory along with that wisdom realizing the emptiness on the body.
That, in essence, is the mindfulness of body. With the mindfulness of feeling, what it in essence means is firstly, there are three basic types of feelings: pleasant, unpleasant and neutral feeling. Whatever any of these three types of feelings there are, one analyzes whether feeling inherently or truly exists as independent entity or not. And when one establishes, when one finds that feeling as well is emptiness of inherent existence, then one retains that awareness in one’s mindfulness, in one’s ever present memory or state of mind mindfulness, along with that wisdom realizing the lack of inherent existence. And then here with the mindfulness of mind, what it means is firstly, let’s say as a person we have two features.
One is the mind, one is the body. So as far as body goes, we covered that already. Now we look at the mind aspect of our existence, our being. And that includes the mindfulness of mind, where through analysis one realizes that mind as well is emptiness of inherent existence. Mind lacks inherent existence.
And then one repeatedly meditates on that awareness realizing emptiness of the mind. And having repeatedly meditated like that, one always retains the mindfulness, the memory of that awareness. And that, in essence, is the mindfulness of the mind. From one point, generally speaking, mind can be of two types, what is called the two types of consciousnesses, the sensory consciousnesses and mental Sensory consciousness means the five types of sensory consciousness such as the consciousness of the eye, of ear, of nose, of tongue, and of body. They are the five sensory consciousnesses.
By mental consciousness it means a consciousness which does not rely on the five senses but which relies on the mind. And that consciousness relying on the mind is the mental consciousness. Here, in the mindfulness of mind, when the mind is analyzed to be of emptiness nature, the study here looks into those two types of consciousnesses. Firstly, the analysis concerns the emptiness of the mental consciousness. Mind awareness and consciousness, the three mean the same.
They refer to the same entity. There are different names used for the same entity. The example would be flower, would in Tibetan be called as metok. And flower and metok are two different names, but they both mean the same thing. Because mind is not a sensory object, for example, because mind is not a visible form to be seen by the sense of eye, it is difficult to understand what mind is because it is not something to be seen.
Similarly, it is not something which can be heard by ear sense nor it is something that can be smelled by the nose sense nor it can be something touched or felt by the touch, the bodily sense. Being not a sensory object, therefore it is an invisible, intangible thing. And as it is intangible, invisible, and so forth, no matter an average person may think about what mind is and try to grab it, what an entity it is, but due to being of such nature not subject to a sensory perception, It is yes, can be explained as quite difficult thing to understand about. In the so called scientific field, there are claims of people saying the mind is the brain, or others saying the mind is the neurons. But it would be seen such description of mind being brain and neurons are indication that they have not clearly understood what mind is.
The nature of mind is something which perceives objects internal or external, both. For example, mind has the nature to see anything out there, white colored thing, red colored thing, and as distant as sun and moon and so forth. That is with the nature of mind. But let’s say, if earlier with reference to where the claim is the mind is the brain or it is the neuron, then in that case it would mean, in that case it would be wrong to say the mind is such and such, our brain and neurons. The reason for that is if it is brain or a nerve, then yes, due to being within the person’s feeling there would be some feeling of heaviness, then the thing is like that, meaning the brain or the neurons.
But they cannot have the nature to see external external things. If mind is the brain, it would mean it would not be able to see external things. If mind is the knowers, then it would mean it would not be able to see external things. The reason for that is brains and neurons are matter built up of so many tiniest particles. If that’s their nature, then they are matter inanimate, then it is quite understandable that they would not have the nature of able to see outer things, our external or internal At the time when one conceives in mother’s womb, one conceives in between the blood combination from father and mother.
At that time, the mind of the person born is there conceived, but there is none of the brains and knowers. There is the mind, but none of the brains and knowers. Great excellent qualities of the mind when trained, such as the excellent qualities of precious bodhicitta, mind of enlightenment, such as the excellent quality of the mind, wisdom realizing emptiness. These are the excellent qualities of mind for which do not reside or stay upon the neurons and the brains. Or to paraphrase the actual word is these excellent qualities of the mind are not to be found with the neurons.
At the There are so many sentient beings who exist with mind but without neurons and brains. For example, the sentient beings on the form realm, what is called the upper realm, such as the celestial beings in the form realm, they have existence with the mind only, but they don’t have neurons and brains. Similarly, the realm above that is called the formless realm. To start with, it is called formless realm because beings there don’t have concrete body or form. There’s just and that would that that’s how to start with.
And obviously, in that realm, beings don’t have brains and neurons, but there is mind. So the mind is the mind has to be something which sees objects, perceives objects, realizes objects. And mind cannot be anything which don’t have such attributes, such properties about it. By that, then we can say knowers and brains definitely can’t be mind because they cannot see, they cannot perceive. They cannot see, they cannot perceive, they cannot realize objects out there.
So that’s how it is. And this would mean, according to Buddhist perspective, mind definitely has to be a thing or an entity which has those capability to realize, to see things. Anything apart from that cannot be accepted as the mind. But that’s how far, as the Buddhist goes, that would be. We cannot still what’s called we can’t still rule out that there could be other opinions by other people in different fields opposed to that.
So that’s where the law of opposition to us. When one becomes a Buddha, an enlightened being, there is none of the concrete appearances one personally as ordinary beings have. There is no solidity of body at all. Instead, the body is in the form of light. It is like light.
It is like the electric globe’s light. Or it is like a rainbow, so clear and radiant, luminous. Luminous, is in that form. So this would mean in that state there is no such thing as solid brains and neurons. As well, there’s no such thing as a concrete body built up of the built up of the four elements.
What It is with dependence on the mind that all aspects of universes manifest. The environmental universes and the resident sentient beings’ physical appearances, they are all they all manifest by depending on the workings of the mind. So apart from workings of the mind, there cannot be external varieties of sentient beings, different species, appearances, nor there can be a whole variety of environmental residential universes. And by same talking, we can say in brief, if there is no mind, there cannot be nirvana nor there can be saṃsāra. Everything comes about manifest with dependence on the mind.
All sufferings, all fears, all tragedies, all bad rebirths come out from bad types of mind, or in other words, workings of the mind. All happiness, all fulfillment, attaining as well attaining the state of bodhisattva, and even eventually attaining the state of Buddhahood, they all come from good types of mind, the good workings of the mind. In essence, there can be no good or bad results without there being firstly good and bad thoughts of the workings of the mind. The teachings given by the Buddha solely and completely are meant to stop bad thoughts or the bad workings of the mind arising, and those born to be removed. So that is on the whole purpose, this solely and completely of all those teachings.
Our mind presently is abiding or taking residence, is taking residence in our body. And the reason, the causes why the mind presently in our case takes residence in the body is due to karma. That due to our previous karma or previous actions that we are born in this form of rebirth, and it is the karma which sustains the present state of mind residing in the body without leaving the body. Yet it is due to karma. In the example of two papers glued together, the two papers being retained and separated is due to the glue.
So glue is the one which sustains the staying together of the two papers. Like that in our case of body and the mind staying together and not let separated is due to karma. Karma is the one which which sustains the two to be together. Now, in the case of the example, if the glue dries up, therefore becomes no more effective as a glue, then the papers separate. Well, if it ever happens, the papers separate.
Now, like that, when karma expires, then the body and the mind separates. Until then, it would be, in brief, separation and the staying together, both are the workings of karma. So in so for the body and the mind to remain together in bad rebirth is due to sorry. For the body and the mind to be remaining together in good rebirth is due to good karma. Sorry.
Actually spoke good karma in English. So like that so like that, for the body and the mind to be staying together in the bad rebirth is due to bad karma. Oh, jeez. That’s the We then ask presently where is our mind in our personality residing. Well, to start with, if we recall the earlier divisions of mind as two types of consciousnesses, we say in the case of the sensory consciousnesses, it is quite clear that the sensory consciousness resides with the senses, so it is within the range of the body where the senses are.
As far as the mental consciousness goes, it resides not on the senses but with the mind. At any rate, or at any event, we can say presently, as an ordinary person with the body and mind staying together, can say our mind both the sensory consciousness and the mental consciousness both are residing in the body. So that’s where they are residing. And in the case of mental consciousness, although it doesn’t depend on concrete form to reside. But it still needs a basis to live, to reside.
And that basis, at the moment, As ordinary being with concrete body, it is within the body. Our body is like the motel and our mind, which is of two types, sensory consciousness and the mental consciousness is like the guest in the motel. And inside that motel, which is body, the mental consciousness is like the chief boss or supervising everything going about and being done through the mind to its working. And the five sense consciousnesses are like the room boy room boys or the orderlies are positioned on the five senses having positioned them there on the five senses, the mind thus goes about with its functioning and so forth. But like in the case of a normal guest staying at motel, when the time is up, the guest would leave the motel.
Similarly, the mind also would leave eventually the body and go to next rebirth. Oh, now Here, in trying to ascertain that the mind is emptiness of inherent existence, one looks at the successive points about the mind in relation to its residence and workings and so forth, such as although the mind resides in the body, but it does not reside inherently or it does not truly resides in them. Similarly, although mind perceives external things and objects, so forth, it does not inherently or truly perceive them. Similarly, the mind is although it is residing, but it does not reside inherently neither in the senses nor on the external objects. Similarly, mind does not exist inherently or truly in any other area or avenues, any other areas or avenues apart from these already mentioned ahead.
So in these successive ways of looking at the mind, we find that mind is not an inherently existing entity.