Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute teaching, Geshe Sonam Rinchen explores the mental and ethical consequences of ignoring death and impermanence. He shows how the unconscious belief that we will live for a long time drives most of our negative actions—hoarding possessions, pursuing security obsessively, harboring anger toward those who threaten our territory, feeling pride and jealousy. This misconception keeps us trapped in saṃsāra. Rinchen then systematically outlines the benefits of remembering death: it naturally curbs destructive behaviour, redirects energy toward spiritual practice, generates compassion for others caught in the same delusion, and can awaken determination to escape cyclic existence entirely. He grounds this in the Buddha’s own emphasis on impermanence and concludes with practical advice: cultivate awareness of mortality throughout the day, and channel that awareness into cultivating kindness and restraint from harming others. The session ends with a brief Q&A in which a student asks about inner psychological deaths or transitions as an analogy to physical death.
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File: 04 CtM.mp3
UUID: a2329497-5359-4728-badf-2b5bc7b3715c
Teacher: Geshe Sonam Rinchen
Collection: Calming of the Mind (Geshe Sonam Rinchen)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.1 minutes
Words: ~4,256
These are the disadvantages of not thinking about death, of failing to think about death, and the benefits that thinking about death bring. So why don’t we think more about spiritual growth? Why don’t we think more about practice? It’s because we don’t recall the fact that we are going to die. Are not conscious all the time of the fact that we are going to die.
If we were really aware of the fact that we are going to die soon, then we would stop doing all sorts of physical things and verbal things and mental things that we presently do. We’d stop. Because we are not aware of death, because we are not aware that we might die at any moment, and because we are thinking in terms of staying around for a long time, We do all sorts of negative things because we are afraid that we are not going to have enough, that we won’t have our necessities, that we won’t be able to look after the people who are close to us. That we’ll not be able to look after our possessions what we already have. That somehow our power if we have any will slip away.
So we do all sorts of negative things to secure ourselves. So all these negative impulses we have connected with securing our position, with securing ourselves. All come from the fact, these all arise from the fact that we have this idea we are going to stay around, we are going to be around. We have a conception of permanence although it’s not an intellectual conception as such. We think at some level emotionally we think that we’re going to be sticking around for quite a long time.
That we’ll be here for a long time and therefore it’s necessary to somehow secure our position. So for sure, most of the negative things that we do, of the negative activities of our body, speech and mind are somehow connected with securing ourselves and with this thought that we aren’t going to die soon, that we are going to be around for quite a long time. Actually we do have what we need right now but we are constantly concerned with the possibility that we won’t have what we need. That we may in future not have what we need. And so we rush around rush around trying to secure ourselves, trying to protect ourselves, make sure that we are going to have what we need.
If you go into a western kitchen you just see what people have stashed away. They don’t just have one of everything they have two or three. There’s so much sitting around all stashed away. Often they have stocks of things that you couldn’t use in a year or even in two years or three years. People are rushing around to get a better one of these, to get another one of that, and to stash away yet another one of the other.
They are busy rushing around doing all this constantly putting things by, buying new ones for the future. Wouldn’t it be more sensible just to buy one of whatever it is, to buy one decent whatever it is and put the rest of the money in the bank. Anyway, the point actually is that you know all this busyness is somehow based on the idea that one is going to stay around, that one isn’t going to die. It’s sort of ignoring the fact that death could come at any moment. It’s based on an idea that one’s going to be around for quite a while.
So if one is concerned with that, if one is concerned with securing oneself, then one isn’t going to be able to practice. One isn’t going to be able to put time to trying to gain a deeper understanding, trying to gain spiritual insights. So we can see that our lack of awareness of the immediacy of death and our underlying idea that we are going to be around, that we are going to stay here for quite a long time. Lead us into all sorts of actions which cause us problems and difficulties. So based on this idea which betrays us, which is like a traitor, it betrays us because it what it does is it makes us completely concerned with my body, my life, with my possessions, with my loved ones, with my enemies.
So it brings one all these different ideas follow from this basic misconception that one is going to be around for quite a long time. And as soon as one has this attachment, this attachment to one’s own security, what one regards as one’s own territory, one’s own possessions and so on, one’s own territory. Soon as one has that, then as soon as there’s an invader, if an invader manifests, if anybody comes along who in any way harms or encroaches on that territory, one feels anger and hatred. So it’s the same with nations. When people think that they’re going to be ruling a nation for a long time, if they are not aware that their power may go at any moment, then they have this very strong conception of their country, their country that they govern or that they are involved with.
And then if anything, anybody in any way harms that country or if anything happens from the outside, they immediately want to start a war. So I mean That kind of territorial attitude lies behind wars and all disunity between nations. As soon as you have strong attachment and coming along with that strong hatred or aversion, you have the two coming together, then you also have confusion and bewilderment. Bewilderment and confusion, a kind of ignorance that doesn’t understand the negative aspects of these emotions. And as soon as one gains any power or possessions or wealth, one then feels pride and conceit.
Along with that conceit and pride, of course, comes jealousy of others who are doing well. Have jealousy and competitiveness and a whole lot of things. All these things arise from this idea that we’re going to be around for a long time and that we have territory to secure. As soon as you have negative emotions predominating, then the actions which you perform are going to be an expression of these negative emotions. You are going to express the negative emotions in your actions, in your physical activity and verbal activity.
And in that way, you are going to waste your precious human life. You are going to waste this precious life with all its potential and you are just going to let it slip away. So with those sort of activities you are going to create discord, you are going to be out of harmony with the people around you, you are going to do all sorts of things which are violent, which violate their rights and their needs. It’s bound to lead to a bad rebirth. It’s going to lead you to an unfortunate state because you are creating so much negative energy.
It has to fruit in some thing negative in unhappiness. Some of us don’t even think about whether we are going to die or not. It doesn’t even come into our heads. It’s important when we get up in the morning to think a little bit about impermanence, to remind ourselves of impermanence, to remind ourselves of the possibility that we might die that very day. If you’re able to remember impermanence, if you’re able to remember the possibility that you might die, then your actions will become meaningful.
You’ll take a longer perspective. You won’t just be concerned with your immediate needs from the morning till midday. If you don’t think about it in the morning, then your actions between morning and midday will just be motivated by your immediate needs. Remind yourself of the possibility of death throughout the day at different times throughout the day to try and motivate yourself to do things which are meaningful and not to waste your life. In this way it becomes very important to think about death and impermanence. So if one doesn’t keep the possibility of death even if you set out with a good intention to practice and so on.
If you don’t manage to remind yourself of it you going to forget your intention. You are going to be drawn into other things and forget your intention completely. And if you are able to remember it, it does have an enormous ability to help, then we’ll find our qualities, our good qualities increasing boundlessly. Of course, naturally, if you’re aware that you’re going to die soon, that it’s possible that you will die soon, you will be aware also that you are going to have to go on after death. What’s going to happen is if you are aware that you can die at any time, if you feel a sense of immediacy about it, it’s going to really stop you doing negative things.
I mean it works as a great how would you say it works to preclude all kinds of negative activity. So it really works to stop you doing all sorts of things that are negative, creating negative energy which will fruit in an unfortunate rebirth. And it spurs you on to do all sorts of positive things because you realize that you’re going to need a human life, a life like the one you have now to enable you to continue your spiritual search, to continue your spiritual growth and development. So in that way you concern your self with creating positive energy by trying to behave in an ethical way, trying to practice generosity towards others and create all the circumstances and causes which fruit in a human rebirth. And it can even work the thought of death can even work as a stimulus, as an impetus to make you really fed up with cyclic existence because if you realize that you’re going to die and then that you’re going to be reborn again, take rebirth again even as a human, Even in a reasonably good condition like the one we find ourselves in now.
But if you realize that even that human condition that we find ourselves in now is fraught with difficulties, with problems, with suffering. If you see that passing on and on and on, dying and taking rebirth and dying and taking rebirth, then you feel really fed up with cyclic existence and you want to find a way out. And so remembering death can act as a spur to make you create causes to completely get out of cyclic existence. Most of us are very attached to the places where we live. But actually we are going to die and we are going to have to leave those places.
And it’s not like a butter lamp going out. It’s not like a candle going out. We don’t just vanish. Disappear. It’s not extinction.
What happens is that we have to go somewhere else. We have to take birth somewhere else. And we haven’t got the faintest idea where we are going to go. Just imagine now at this point we got some good qualities, we developed some good qualities. We’ve got a certain amount of knowledge.
We’ve developed to a certain extent. But then we have to start all over again. Right? We’ll be reborn either as an animal, maybe as a human, as a baby. Right?
We have to start the whole process, that whole slow process again. So no babies aren’t born with education, with knowledge, with the ability to do all these things from birth. So even if that being had all sorts of qualities in a past life, had acquired knowledge and ability to do things, skills in a past life, when they are reborn again as a human being, as a baby, they have lost all those skills, they’ve lost all those abilities, they have to start learning them all over again. We can see what the process is, right? You have to learn it all again and you accumulate a number of possessions.
You get a whole scene together again and then that whole thing evaporates. You know you have to die and then you start again and you build up the whole thing again. Doesn’t it seem exhausting? So you can see, you can see how if you remember death you can, you realize the pointlessness of this kind of existence. An existence which is conditioned by negative emotions and the actions that spring from them.
An existence which is the fruit of negative emotions and the actions that spring from them. You see the pointlessness of of it and you want to get out. You get fed up with it and you want a different kind of existence. Not that kind of existence. And so death, remembering death can act as a spur to make you get on with spiritual development.
To make you try and generate the insights which are going to allow you to get out of that kind of existence. And you can see too how if you remember death and you realize your own situation in that way, you can also empathize with other living creatures. See how they are governed by this thought, the idea that they are going to stay around for a long time. See how that thought, that idea makes them do all sorts of things which are negative, which cause them problems, difficulties, which lead them into suffering. And by remembering death, by realizing your own situation, by seeing their situation, seeing that their misconception, their misconception leads them into all sorts of difficulties.
You’ll feel compassion for them. You’ll feel compassion. And if you see that people are led into one rebirth after another by these different factors, by their negative emotions and the actions that spring from them. You see that that produces their next rebirth. You’ll understand that there isn’t any such thing as an independent self.
That there isn’t an independent self of the kind that we conceive. You’ll be able to generate an understanding, an insight that there isn’t the kind of independent self that we think exists, that seems to appear to us but that we’re constantly governed by other factors. And so from this one insight the understanding that the death is possible at any moment through by remembering death one can develop skillful means which is compassion, compassion and love and one can develop wisdom which is understanding that things don’t exist the way they appear to us to exist. So these are the benefits of remembering death, of understanding impermanence. If we understand the disadvantages, if we really sincerely can see the disadvantages of not remembering death and the advantages of remembering death and being aware of our own mortality, being aware of our impermanence, we’ll feel spurred on to think more about death and impermanence.
What gets us involved in spiritual practices is an awareness of our own mortality. It spurs us on. It makes us get involved right at the beginning. And then it helps us if we are able to maintain an awareness of death. It helps us actually get on with trying to develop insights.
It makes us get into it at the beginning and then it helps to keep us going. It helps to keep us going in the middle. We shouldn’t think that understanding impermanence, being aware of our own mortality is only necessary at the beginning, at the outset. It’s necessary all the way through because it keeps driving you on. And even if you become a tantric practitioner, even if you involve yourself in the practice of tantra, you need to maintain this awareness of impermanence, this awareness of the proximity of death.
In tantric practice when you visualize the mandala, when you visualize the celestial mansion of the deity and then around the outside there are often cemeteries and corpses and things like that. You imagine those, you try to see those in your visualization to remind yourself of death, that death is near, that you could die at any time. It is really important to be aware of death and we can see the importance of it because when the Buddha first taught in Varanasi, he taught the four truths. When he was talking about true suffering, he explained impermanence at the very beginning. So that was the very first thing He taught.
He spoke about impermanence and death. And when He was passing away at the end of His life, He also reminded His disciples of mortality. So I think it’s really important for us to think, to remind ourselves of death, and to consider our own mortality and the fact that we are impermanent. How you approach it when you really want to think deeply about it is to recognize that you definitely have to die. That you don’t know when you’re going to die.
At the time of death, there isn’t anything that’s going to help you except your own spiritual realizations. We know perfectly well that the very fact that we’ve been born, that we’ve taken birth, means that we must die. We know of the Buddha Śākyamūni. We know the Buddha Śākyamūni was a historical figure and that he actually did live. He had achieved power over his own life and death.
But nevertheless, in order to help us overcome our very, very strong idea that we are going to stay around. This strong idea that underlies all our activities. He showed us that he too had to die. We know of all the people in history, people who were extremely good, who were very famous for their goodness, for the great things that they did for mankind. We know of other historical figures who are well known because they were so evil and did many actions which were destructive to mankind.
So both kinds and then lots of in between historical figures that we read about in the history books. When we read about them, we can still get worked up about their badness or feel admiration for their goodness and it’s like they are still around. Still respond to what they did in a way. Actually as soon as we think about it, we realize realize that they are all dead and gone. They are nowhere to be found on this earth.
And if we think about our own teachers, about our parents, about our friends and loved ones, many of them have gone already as well. So if none of all those people have been able to defy death, if they had to die, if they had to go too, then how are we going to escape death? Since we too have been born like them, we must also die. We know that people live to be eighty or ninety, and exceptional cases, they live for a little while longer than that, but they haven’t got the power to remain much longer. So we have this feeling that we are going to live, but the very fact that we were conceived in the womb, from that very moment of our conception we started the aging process.
We were going closer closer to death from the very moment of our conception. And that process is irrevocable. It’s just like if you throw a stone out of an airplane, it goes down and there is nothing that is going to stop it going down. So in the same way, our time wears out. From the very moment of our conception we go irrevocably closer to death and there is nothing that can stop that process.
It’s like a waterfall. The water keeps coming down. It just falls down effortlessly. It rushes downwards. And in the same way we’re rushing towards death, nothing can hold up the process.
It’s bound to go like that. Our life is running out all the time and it’s not like your stores, if your food runs out then you can go and buy some more and you know, you can replenish your store. But there’s no way that we can replenish our life. It’s running out and that’s it. So it’s for sure that we’re going to die.
That’s certain. So we need to be aware of that. We need to recognize that and not let ourselves be deceived by this idea that we’re going to stay around for long. And we should feel the need, the urgency to practice. When we think of practicing, there are many different ways of practicing but the main way that we have to practice is by subduing, by training our minds, by taming our minds.
And the best way that we can tame and train our mind is to cultivate kindness and goodness and the best kind of goodness, the best kind altruism that we can achieve is the altruistic attitude that we want to achieve enlightenment in order to help all other living beings. But if that is beyond us, if that’s too high an ideal at present, just the cultivation of kindness is enough. So if our understanding of death can make us feel the urgency of doing this. The urgency of cultivating a kind attitude, a good heart and then of course expressing what we feel through our actions and through our speech, then that’s the very best kind of practice that we can do. And if we can if we can do this if we can do this energetically and become somebody that other people feel attracted to, if we can become somebody that other people look up to and admire, then we’re doing something which is really fruitful.
If we are able to cultivate a good heart, if we are able to act out that kindness that we are cultivating, then our own lives will become much happier, the people around us will become much happier, and the society that we live in will thrive. And kindness and goodness means restraint from harming others. That’s what the first step is, to restrain one self from causing any kind of harm to others. And then the next stage, one better than that, is to actually do things which are beneficial to others, which are helpful to others and useful. And then along with that thought, with that intention, you have to do whatever you can to implement it.
And that kind of person, a person who does that is called a good dharma practitioner. And when you talk about a good practitioner it’s got nothing to do with the clothes you wear or how long your hair is or anything like that. It’s to do with what’s going on in your mind and how you implement that state. So I think I’ll stop here today because if I go on any more, it’s going to be too long. Our time is almost up but if there is anybody who wants to ask anything, please do so.
It’s really hard to explain. I think I understand what you’re saying, but it’s really hard to explain the concept, you know? Could you give a concrete example of death, you know, the kind of death one has to experience, the kind of death and rebirth one has to experience within this life? You know, the dying you just said, you know? Could you not give an example which is a little more concrete like a kind of situation?
Because it’s very difficult to explain things like the fragmentation of self in Tibetan because they are very I don’t know, it’s too abstract for me to explain, you know? Yeah, that’s exactly he says, says please give an analogy, you know, please give an example. It’s really hard for me to explain unless I’ve Actually, transpersonal psychology is something that I’d like to find out a little bit more about. I have been tucked away in India for nine years and I haven’t really been in contact with these things. So I am not very conversant with the vocabulary and the concepts.
So I myself need to learn a little bit about that. It is something I would very grateful if you could maybe advise me what I could read on subject. But it makes it very difficult for me to explain unless I have understood myself, you know? I mean, all I can say is that don’t we have to let go go of things? Don’t we have to keep letting go of things and in that sense die in order to reach other stages of development in order to transform.
I mean I can’t express it any other way. So when I’m talking about death, I’m talking about death here on a much cruder level, of death that does come, that does end our life. The death process that ends our life when body and mind are separated. I accept also that one has to die many deaths in between. But maybe we wouldn’t use the word death for those processes.
I mean that’s an analogy isn’t it? When you apply death to those other processes we’re not talking about our normal understanding of that word. So he says I also accept that one must keep letting things go and undergoing change. Yeah. So we know that a child reaches youth