Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute opening session of a series on calming the mind, Geshe Sonam Rinchen begins by inviting practitioners to examine their current mental state before embarking on Buddhist practice. He guides a simple breathing technique to clear disturbing emotions and negative energy, then turns to foundational motivation: overcoming preoccupation with immediate comfort and adopting a long-term perspective on spiritual development. The heart of the teaching focuses on recognizing the preciousness of human life by understanding the eight freedoms and ten riches—the favorable conditions that enable Buddhist practice. Geshe walks through each freedom (not being reborn as a hell being, hungry ghost, animal, or absorbed celestial being; having access to teachings, intact faculties, and an open mind) and each richness (external conditions like a Buddha having taught, and internal conditions like being human, possessing all senses, and having genuine interest in the teachings). He emphasizes that having all eighteen factors simultaneously is extraordinarily rare and calls practitioners to respond with joyful resolve rather than waste this opportunity. Suited for newcomers to Buddhist practice seeking foundational orientation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 CtM.mp3
UUID: 937e7c44-76e1-481f-a3f8-2fb6f1ecd40c
Teacher: Geshe Sonam Rinchen
Collection: Calming of the Mind (Geshe Sonam Rinchen)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.0 minutes
Words: ~4,252
I’m very happy that we’ve all got here together to talk about the Buddhist teachings today. So when you came in here today, I wonder what you were thinking about. And the important thing is to not look outwards, but look inwards and try and assess what was in your mind. So we should look to see what was in our mind. If we came in here for reasons connected only with this life, only with our own normal daily concerns, if we came in here in any way motivated by desire or by anger hatred in some way or by bewilderment.
If those emotions were somewhere in our hearts, in our minds, then we should recognize that these are the very states of mind that have kept us in the condition that we find ourselves in now, that have kept us in the kind of existence that we experience at this time. So if any of those emotions were in our minds as we came in here, and if we were concerned only with the immediate necessities of this life or with concerns to do with our daily existence, we should realize these the very things that have kept us in this situation where we’re constantly facing difficulties and problems. And we should realize that if we continue to be dominated by these attitudes, we will continue also to endure the same kind of difficulties and problems. So what we should do is we should close our eyes for a moment. And as we exhale, we should imagine that all these negative aspects, the negative attitudes and the negative energy that our negative actions produce and all our limitations and everything of this kind are being breathed out and that they leave our bodies in the form of a black light which goes hurtling out into space.
So you imagine all that blackness going hurtling out into space and getting lost. And then you breathe in and you imagine the energy and blessings of the Buddhas and and Bodhisattvas coming in through your nose in the form of this white light, a white radiant light and becoming one with your mind and energizing, activating your mind. So if you came in with your mind disturbed or involved with daily concerns in the way that was described, then you begin by breathing out all that. But if you came in and you are already in a peaceful and serene state of mind with a feeling of conviction regarding the teachings and the Buddha and the spiritual community, or if you came in with a feeling of the validity of the law of causation, or if you came in with a kind thought in your heart with compassion or love or concern for other beings, then you don’t need to begin by breathing out in that way. You can just imagine that you’re breathing in all this energy and blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the form of white light and that the good state of mind, your good state of mind has become enhanced by that, that it’s been somehow enhanced.
So I suggest that we have a look at the state our mind is in for a moment and do this practice three times, that you breathe out three times and breathe in three times. Know that you do three rounds of breathing just for a moment before we actually start. So we should try to do this to clear our minds, to make our minds feel bright and clear, and to get rid of all pollution in the mind. Lama Tsongkhapa said that we should try to combat our concern, our constant concern for the things of this life, our constant concern with our own personal comfort and with our well-being and with our health and with our wanting to live long. So this over concern that we have with all these things.
We should try to combat it by thinking about how precious and difficult it is to come by a human life, to to think about the preciousness of this opportunity we have, and to realize that it doesn’t last forever. So why is it necessary to overcome this extreme concern for our personal comfort and for our daily life? Because the actual reason why everybody is here today is probably something to do with wanting to transform their mental, physical and verbal behavior. Mean, we’re all concerned in some way with that, and that’s what’s drawn us here. We want to transform it because we do, at some level, realize that our life as a human being can become very, very important, that we have tremendous potential, that we have this tremendous potential, and that if we succeed in somehow subduing our body, speech and mind, if we succeed in bringing them under control, we will be able to fully, we’ll be able to fulfill this This human mind is capable of encompassing an enormous amount.
It can encompass actually more than this this single lifetime. It can think about other lifetimes as well. So when we think about animals and try to look at the difference between us and animals, Animals like us have bodies, have minds, have voices. I mean, they can utter sounds. Yet, they are completely concerned with the life they lead, with the daily life.
They are unable to think about anything beyond these immediate concerns, their immediate needs and concerns. And the thing is we’ve been doing the same thing. We’ve been concerned with our own immediate needs, with our own immediate comfort and happiness and so on. And if that had been fruitful, if all that concern had led to anything, we wouldn’t be here now. Then it would be okay.
We wouldn’t need to try and find another way of seeing things. We wouldn’t need to try and find another perspective. We wouldn’t need to try and transform anything about ourselves if we had to achieve what we seek through being concerned with our immediate needs. But we haven’t. So what’s important now is to tame or train the mind, to train the mind or tame the mind.
And that means that we need to decrease our concern with our well-being and comfort and the things to do with our immediate necessities and this life and to take a long term view to adopt a different perspective. So how do we begin? Well, first of all, we talk about the preciousness of human life. We all have this precious human life at this time, but we don’t recognize its preciousness. So we have to first see how precious it is.
We have to recognize it is precious and that we won’t have it for always. That we won’t always have this precious human life that we’ll die at some point. What have we done up to now in past lives, in this life? What have we done up to now? We’ve been experiencing all sorts of difficulties and problems.
What we’ve been doing is creating causes for such problems, for such difficulties, for suffering. We’ve been doing this continuously. We’ve been so involved in all these things that we’ve been doing, comfort, in our search for well-being. We’ve been so concerned with that, that we haven’t actually had any time to think further. We haven’t been able to involve ourselves in any kind of spiritual practices because we’ve been so busy with all this other stuff.
We haven’t had time to involve ourselves in spiritual practices. We haven’t been had an opportunity to evolve. So we haven’t had a chance to think about what is really going to be of benefit to ourselves and what is going to be of use to others because we’ve been so concerned with this search for comfort and well-being. And yet now, at this time, we have a human life, we have a body and mind which can do all sorts of things, can accomplish temporary well-being, our immediate well-being, and our long term well-being. So we need to recognize what we’ve got, the potential that we’ve got.
We need to realize what tremendous potential we have that this body and mind provides us with a tremendous working basis with which we can do whatever we want. We can accomplish any aims with this working basis that we have now. And so we should realize how precious it is and feel tremendous joy at what we have. So the first thing is just simply to recognize what we have, recognize that we do have something extremely precious. And the second thing we need to do is to make a resolve, a strong resolve, not to waste it.
Not to waste this opportunity. So we’ve reached a watershed as it were. With this body in mind, we can determine whether we are going to experience pain and difficulties in future or whether we are going to experience happiness and well-being. So we can decide with what we have now, we can determine what we are going to experience in future. We have a body and mind at this time which has eighteen assets.
We talk about eight freedoms and ten riches ten riches. And not every human being is endowed with these eight freedoms and ten riches. Riches. And we can find that out if we think, if we give it some thought, because although other human beings may look exactly like ourselves in in many ways, they’re not all the same as we are. So what is a freedom in this context?
What does it mean that these are assets which endow us with freedom? They are freedoms. They are freedoms in that they allow us to accomplish our own personal well-being and the well-being of others. We are not in a condition where we are fettered, where we are unable to work for our own well-being and for the well-being of others, but these assets provide us with leisure, with freedom to accomplish these ends. There are four non human states of being fettered and four human states of being fettered.
In other words, where you’re limited and you don’t have the freedom to accomplish your own and others’ aims. So these are not difficult to understand, but what we need to do is think about them again and again. We just have to remind ourselves or recall them. When we talk about four non human states, non human states where you are limited, where you are limited, fettered in some way, that you are not free to practice properly, and we are talking about hell beings. So if you are born as a hell being, as a hungry ghost, as an animal, or as God, as a divine or celestial being with a very, very long life and who is completely absorbed in meditative bliss.
So it’s easy for us to recognize that we’re not in any of those states. Right? Because we are human beings and we’re none of those. Yeah. So it’s easy for us to know that we are not in any of those states.
But what we have to think about what it would be like to be in those states. So if we think about a hell being, a being that’s tormented, constantly suffering, extreme suffering, constantly in torment, There is not a moment when that torment, when that pain ceases. So if we think about what it would be like to be reborn like that, if you are in that kind of state, if you are in a state of complete turmoil and in constant pain, you don’t have time to think wholesome thoughts. You don’t have time to think of anything constructive because you are suffering so much. So we should feel happy that we are not experiencing anything like that.
That we are not undergoing such an experience. That we are free from that experience. So it’s quite clear that you wouldn’t be able to think about spiritual practices about transforming yourself while you are undergoing such extreme pain, mental and physical torment. And we know ourselves, just imagine if you’re meditating and somebody came up to you with a lighter piece of incense and poked it in your arm or if a mosquito bit you, you you felt a really hard sting just while you were meditating. It really disturbed your mind instantly.
You would start thinking about the pain. You know, whatever no matter how positive your mind was a moment ago, it would be ruffled. It would be disturbed. So we know that we can’t even bear something as small as that, that it has the power to really rattle us and to make us stop thinking about something really wholesome or constructive. Now just think next about the condition of a hungry ghost.
If you are a hungry ghost, you are hunting for food and drink all the time. You are desperate to get something to eat. Desperate for food and drink. And you have difficulty finding anything. If you find it, you can’t actually eat it properly.
You don’t get the chance to eat it properly. So you are completely concerned with this hunt for sustenance. And if you are completely overwhelmed by the need to get food, if you are starving, you don’t have time to think about spiritual development. You don’t have time to think about doing wholesome things for other people, helping other people. You don’t have time for that because you are completely overwhelmed by your own need.
So we can see animals for ourselves. We can see their condition. Although their condition is much better than the former two that we’ve been talking about, nevertheless, animals don’t have any thoughts about spiritual development. They aren’t able to think beyond their own needs. They’re not really to think about helping others.
So we know that they are limited in comparison to us. Then, these celestial beings who enjoy a very, very long life. So, they are aware of what’s happening when they are born as celestial beings. Are aware that they’ve been born as celestial beings. But then, from then on they are completely involved in sensual pleasures.
They are completely taken up and involved by the enjoyment of sensual pleasures. And what’s happening is that they are exhausting or using up the fruit of positive actions that they performed in other lives. So they created positive actions, good actions in past lives, which fruit in happiness. But they are using up this fruit just enjoying the sensual pleasures. And they are so involved in the sensual pleasures they are enjoying that they don’t actually create any more positive energy.
So we should feel happy that we haven’t been born in any of these states, that we are not fettered in these different ways. And now what about the human fetters? The human states where you don’t have leisure to practice, to involve yourself in the practice and to try and improve your own condition and that of others around you. Well, the first is if you’re born in a place where the Buddhist teachings don’t exist at all. But we haven’t come to a world where there are no Buddhist teachings in existence because the teachings of the Buddha Śākyamūni, the fourth Buddha, his teachings are in existence.
They extend in this world and accessible. So we weren’t born into a world where the Buddhist teachings haven’t existed, where they are no longer existent. And the other thing that we’re free from is that we haven’t been born in some outlying place. Now, from the Indian point of view, of course, the center of things is in India. None of us were born in India, but nevertheless, we haven’t been born in an outlying place from the Dharma point of view because we have been born in places where there are libraries with Buddhist books in them.
We’ve been born in places where there are ordained people, where ordained people sometimes come and visit and where we can hear about the Buddhist teachings. So we haven’t been born in places where we have no chance, no chance to have contact with the Buddhist teachings. So that’s two things that we have freedom from. We haven’t been born in a world where there are no Buddhist teachings at all. And we haven’t been born in a place where even though Buddhist teachings may exist somewhere else in the world where we personally can’t have access to them.
And we enjoy another freedom, something very important because we can hear and speak and we are not idiots. I mean, we have our minds are okay. We can think, we can think, we can reason. So we are very, very fortunate in that. So our faculties are intact and so we enjoy that great freedom.
And then two, we haven’t got extremely strong prejudices such as having complete disbelief in the law of causation which really would close your mind to any ideas about it. So we’re not completely close to the idea of past lives or future lives. I mean, we may have doubts about them, but we’re not completely close to that idea. We are not completely closed to the idea of the law of causation. We are not completely closed to the concept of the Buddha, his teachings and the spiritual community.
So because we are not completely prejudiced against these, we enjoy another great freedom. Since we’re free, since we are free from these states of being bound or fettered by certain factors, we enjoy eight freedoms, eight assets. So if you really think about that, you realize that there are a lot of human beings who don’t enjoy those eight, who don’t enjoy those eight assets or freedoms. So you can look at yourself and see whether you do enjoy these eight freedoms. If you don’t enjoy the freedom of having an open mind, if you really do have a very heavy prejudice against the idea of past and future lives, If you have a very heavy idea, heavy a strong feeling that there is no such thing as the law of causation or if you have a strong conviction that the Buddha and the teachings and the spiritual community are in some way invalid.
If you have any of these ideas, then you don’t actually possess the eight freedoms. But you can do something about it. I mean, you don’t necessarily have to go on not having all eight of the freedoms. You can make sure that you do come into possession of all eight freedoms. So people who hold wrong views can become people who hold correct views and people who hold correct views can equally well become people who hold wrong views.
So things can go both ways either way. So if one is able to think about this properly, one can realize how fortunate one is, what a very precious possession, what a powerful possession one has. And then we have ten riches. We also are in possession of ten riches. These are amenities or assets which we possess.
And there are five to do with external conditions and five to do with internal conditions. So the first of the riches is that a Buddha has come to the world. A Buddha has come to the world. A fully enlightened being has come into the world. World.
So the Buddha Śākyamūni did come to this world. But actually this one isn’t we don’t quite possess this one because it should be that a Buddha has come to the world but hasn’t yet passed away. So that would be it perfectly. Nevertheless, the Buddha did come to the world and although he has passed away, although he passed away, his teachings remain. So that’s good enough.
And also we have there are many Gurus who teach in exactly the way that the Buddha taught. They teach exactly what the Buddha taught and they use the same means of teaching that the Buddha used. So in that way we still have that asset or richness. So we say also that the second second asset that we have is that the Buddha taught. He didn’t only come to the world, he actually taught.
He gave the teachings. He showed what was to be done. Although we can’t receive his teaching directly from a Buddha, we don’t receive the teaching of Buddha Śākyamūni directly, the Gurus are able to give us his teaching, are able to pass on his teaching to us. Although it isn’t a question now as it was in the days of the Buddha giving the teachings and then people very quickly gaining realizations, gaining insights, being able to achieve state of total liberation and freedom. Although we are not in that happy and glorious age anymore, nevertheless, the Buddhist teachings are still here, they are accessible and if we practice, we can achieve insights.
And also, now the fourth of these riches that we enjoy is that there are people around who have implemented the Buddhist teaching and who have achieved insights, who have been able to generate certain insights and they can serve us as an example so we can look and see what happens if you do it. We have people to look up to in whom we can see what happens when you implement the Buddhist teachings. So that’s a very important factor. That’s a great asset because it acts as an encouragement. It doesn’t have to be great meditators in caves and things like that, but we can just see how people who have taken ordination, monks and nuns, how they behave, what they do.
And even that can act as a great encouragement to us, just seeing how other people who practice more intensively than we practice ourselves, how they behave, what they do, this can act as a great stimulus. And then the fifth is that we need certain amenities. We need certain amenities and we do actually enjoy them. So in order to practice, to be able to practice the Buddhist teaching, need people who are prepared to help us a bit, who are prepared to provide facilities and so on. And we do actually enjoy the help of such people.
So that’s the fifth asset. So these are the five external conditions and we are in possession of those five external conditions, those five assets. And if any of those is missing, if any of those conditions is missing it becomes difficult to practice. And then five internal assets, internal conditions or assets, first of which is being a human being. We don’t need to talk about that anymore.
Then being born in a central place, Adelaide counts as that or if not Adelaide, Australia also because there are people who are ordained and you’ve got the Buddhist teachings are accessible in this place. You can come into contact with them. And we have all five faculties. We have sight and hearing and so on. So we’re very lucky in this.
Just imagine if you were blind, then you wouldn’t be able to see the Gurus who teach, you wouldn’t be able to see statues, you wouldn’t be able to read. If you couldn’t hear, then it creates tremendous difficulty because you can’t listen to somebody teach. Just how fortunate we are to have our faculties, that our faculties are intact. We haven’t committed horrific crimes. We haven’t killed our fathers or mothers.
We haven’t killed some spiritual highly developed spiritual person. We haven’t done anything outrageous of this kind. And now the fifth is that we do have some interest in the teachings. We don’t reject them outright. We have a living interest in the teachings.
So that in itself is a very favorable condition. So if any of those eighteen factors is not present, if we don’t have all eighteen of these assets, then although we may have a human body, a human life, we don’t actually have a precious human life with its full potential. So we should feel really glad, we should feel really joyful that we have a life which is as precious as this, that we possess these incredible qualities that all these different factors are present and everything is ready as it were. When all the conditions are perfect, when everything is right, when everything is ripe and ready, if we waste that opportunity, what a tremendous loss it would be. So we need to give ourselves a push.
We need to spur ourselves on by thinking about how lucky we are at this point, like how everything is perfect and how we need to do something right now. So what do we need to do? What is it we have to do if we are not going to waste our time? What is it we need to do? We need to stop being concerned with the immediate problems, necessities, with our immediate comfort.
We need to think long term and take a long perspective. Think of what is beyond this life even. Think of other lives, our future lives and try to create happiness which is truly lasting. Happiness which is not going to disintegrate, but happiness which is going to be stable and lasting and get rid of all problems. Get rid of problems and difficulty and suffering completely.