Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 37-minute teaching, Geshe Sonam Rinchen explores karma as personal responsibility by identifying our real inner enemies—desire, anger, and self-misconception—which are far more formidable than external adversaries because they must be conquered through genuine mental discipline. He walks through a practical reframing of difficult experiences: when we lose something, the real cause lies in our own past negative actions, and experiencing the loss now means we’re clearing that karmic debt rather than facing rebirth as a hungry ghost perpetually tormented by unfulfilled cravings. He emphasizes how our mental state shapes our capacity to endure suffering, using medicine and end-of-life care as concrete examples: a doctor’s warmth and the patient’s positive attitude are as vital as medication, and dying with compassion and altruistic thought secures a fortunate rebirth. He concludes that the two universal Buddhist precepts—refraining from harm and being useful to others—are recognised as virtuous across all societies, and that establishing conviction in past and future lives through logic allows us to appreciate the immense potential of human existence.
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File: 02 K.mp3
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Teacher: Geshe Sonam Rinchen
Collection: Karma- Taking Responsibility for your actions (Geshe Sonam Rinchen)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 36.8 minutes
Words: ~3,024
So it’s important for us in order to overcome our misconception about the self, to generate an understanding about how the self and how all other phenomena actually exist. So we have to try and penetrate to reality. We have to try to penetrate to reality to see how things actually exist. And only through that will we be able to overcome the misconception of the self which actually is at the root of all the negative actions which cause our suffering. Our difficulties, all the miseries that we endure, all spring from the exaggerated self concern that we have and from this misconception, the basic misconception about the self.
And if we can uproot these two, then we can get rid of the resultant problems. So these are our real enemies. So these two are not like an ordinary enemy because if you once you get rid of them, once you get rid of them, they’re completely wiped out. They just disappear. So they’re not at all like an ordinary enemy.
If you rout an ordinary enemy, he can go away and gather some more troops and come back, make a new attack. So these are not like that at all. Once you get rid of negative mental states and negative mental attitudes, once you really get rid of them, then they can never recur. We have to recognize the real enemy, the real enemy that lies within. And if we can recognize that, then we have some hope of getting rid of it.
So if we’re real heroes or heroines, then that’s the enemy that we have to combat. And we should be prepared to face hardships. We should be prepared to face difficulties in that battle. Just think how how much people endure in war, how much they’re prepared to endure in order to exterminate and get rid of ordinary enemy, to vanquish a conventional enemy. They’re prepared to endure all sorts of hardships and difficulties, and we call those people and we call those people heroes.
So we call them heroes, but actually, I mean, that enemy dies of its own accord in the long run. Our enemy that is within our enemy that is within doesn’t just disappear of its own accord. You have to actually do a lot to get rid of it. You have to battle against those attitudes, those negative attitudes, and so on in order to overcome them, in order to subdue them. And once you can do so, then they’re gone for good.
So our real enemies are our desire and attachment, our anger and aggression, and our self concern and our misconception about the self. These are our real enemies, and we allow ourselves to be dominated by these constantly. If we allow ourselves to be dominated by our enemies, how can we appear as heroes? So you’d never you’d never talk of somebody as a hero if he’s being led around by the nose by his enemy. If we examine carefully, we can see that everything unwanted that we experience somehow can be traced back to these negative emotions and the actions that spring from them.
If we lose something, if somebody steals something from us, the real blame doesn’t lie with the thief. The real blame lies in ourselves with in something that we ourselves did in the past, which created a certain negative momentum, which created negative energy, and the momentum of that is is ripening. It’s reached fruition at that moment. And a constructive way of dealing with bad experiences of this kind is to think that the negative momentum that one has created is now coming to an end. In other words, this negative energy is fruiting.
It’s fruiting now. The result is becoming manifest. And because it’s becoming manifest, because the fruit is actually occurring now, one is not going to have to experience it again. So we should feel happy when something like that happens. Right?
We should be we should feel happy that we haven’t had to experience a rebirth as a hungry ghost. In other words a hungry ghost is constantly looking for possessions, looking for food, looking for water, can’t find them, right? So that’s how a hungry ghost’s life is. And we should feel happy that if we’re losing something, that we’re losing something, when we’ve been spared that kind of existence or rebirth, that we’re able to experience the result of our negative action of taking away other people’s things, that we’re able to experience it by this small loss, that we’re able to pay our karmic debt, as it were, through this small loss. And another way to deal with unfortunate experiences, with difficult experiences, is to think that, you know, the nature of our world, the world in which we live, is that there constant problems.
There are constant problems, constant difficulties. That’s the very nature of our life as it is now. And because we have this body and mind, because we live in this kind of environment that we find ourselves in now, this is just natural. This is the way things happen because in fact there are more things which create difficulties and problems and suffering than there are things which create pleasant experiences and happiness. And if we understand that our existence is conditioned has been conditioned by negative emotions, negative emotions emotions and the actions that spring from them, and this that this is why we experience these difficult situations.
It will help us to feel a little less conceited. If we don’t like this kind of suffering, if we don’t like these difficulties, then the thing is we should develop a distaste for the kind of existence we live now. We should develop a distaste for it or repugnance for it and try to get rid of this kind of existence. And in addition to this, when we experience difficulties and feel unhappy about it. It helps us to empathize with others.
And when we empathize with others, when we see that others are experiencing exactly the same things, that they have very similar experiences, it makes us develop compassion. One develops compassion and and feelings of pity for other people who are experiencing exactly the same thing that one is experiencing oneself. When we experience physical problems, for example, it’s important for us not to struggle against them, not to struggle against them, not to feel the not to feel the kind of resentment that we normally do. I mean, doesn’t mean you have to give in to them. It just means that you you shouldn’t feel this strong sense of bitterness or resentment when you experience problems.
You should feel that this is the the negative momentum from a past action which is coming to an end, which is coming to an end, and therefore it makes it easier to accept the difficult situation you find yourself in. If we feel bitter and resentful about the experience that we’re undergoing, say if it’s physical pain or whatever, but especially, I mean, if it’s physical pain and you feel bitter and resentful about it, then you’re experiencing two kinds of pain. You’re experiencing the physical pain, and in addition to that, your mental serenity has been completely troubled and you’re experiencing mental unhappiness in it as well. If we can face if we can face physical problems with mental tranquility, with serenity, it definitely helps to decrease the amount of discomfort, the amount of pain that we actually experience. We know that if somebody is seriously ill, if their mental state is positive, if we we can do something to raise their spirits to encourage them, and if they themselves try to maintain a positive attitude, it helps tremendously in effecting a cure.
If the physician is skillful, he gives medicines for the physical ailment, but at the same time he needs to be treating the patient’s state of mind. Right? He needs to attend to the patient’s state of mind. This is very, very important. And if he is kind gentle and encouraging and positive in his attitude towards the patient, this has a very large part to play in his patient’s cure.
It’s important for a doctor not only to be knowledgeable, not only to have the required knowledge and skill of his profession. He needs to be somebody kind hearted, somebody with warmth and kindness, with a good heart. Of course, it’s important for him to know how to approach the treatment. He needs to know what treatment to give. But at the same time, he can do a tremendous amount by directing his energies towards his patient’s mental state.
Patient is incurable, still there’s a lot that a doctor can do and he actually that isn’t the time when the doctor should think that he’s finished. It’s very important for the patient to die in a positive frame of mind. So it’s said in in Buddhism that if you die with a positive state of mind, with a with wholesome thoughts, with wholesome thoughts, with compassionate thoughts, with an altruistic thought in your mind, it’s for sure that you won’t be reborn in one of the unfortunate states. So one one fortunate rebirth, in other words, a human rebirth is actually a fortunate rebirth, a very fortunate one, because of all the potential it has. And one fortunate rebirth is coming to an end at that point.
But a doctor, if he’s skillful, can help his patient to attain another fortunate rebirth if he if he tries to influence the the the patient’s manner of dying. So even if we’re not a doctor, we we can remember this. And if we ever find ourselves in a position where we are near somebody who is dying, we should try to make sure to help that person die in a serene state in a serene state with positive thoughts. And especially in in Western countries, in developed countries, people are quite well off. They have the amenities that they need, but often they suffer from depression, troubled by many different problems, and we should feel that it’s, you know, incumbent on us to help other people get over these problems, help to raise their spirits, help help them to think positively.
Since I see here in the west or in Australia, I see that people when they’re older, they have most of the things that they need. I mean, many of of many older people have everything that they need. They have, you know, whatever amenities they require, and they have money to support themselves, but they often are very depressed about their situation. They often are full of sadness. And if we can do something to help people overcome that sadness, it’s something very, very constructive.
While while people are alive and when they’re dying, if we can do whatever we can to help others to help others, then we’re practicing Dharma. That’s what Dharma is all about, trying to develop an altruistic attitude towards others. The two most important precepts of Buddhism which apply to everyone, which which can apply to everyone and which are applicable to our daily lives are to give up any form of harm towards others, to give up any form of violence towards others, and to try and be as useful as possible to others. Whether you accept Buddhism or not, these two things are considered positive and beneficial by everybody, I mean, in general in our society, to give up harm towards others, to restrain oneself harming others, and to be useful and helpful to others are considered virtuous, are considered wholesome. This is all I have to say, and which is a Tibetan greeting.
By speaking about it to someone else? So it depends in what context you do it. I mean, you just tell somebody else and if say that person is causing you harm on a you know, over a long period and you you consult somebody else and you ask them, you know, what you can do about it, I mean, that’s not hurting that person. That’s not, you know, destroying that that’s not negative towards that person. I mean, it’s quite justified to try and stop somebody who’s doing something bad to you, to who’s hurting you in some way, harming you in some way.
It’s quite justified to take some action to stop them doing it. But that’s different from retaliation. Right? That’s different from seeking revenge. So there’s a difference, isn’t there?
Yeah. So, I mean, depends completely on one’s attitude, you know, in in how one approaches the problem. If the karma for a hungry ghost birth has been accumulated or for a hungry ghost rebirth has been accumulated, accumulated, that person definitely experiences rebirth. That being experiences a rebirth as a hell being or as a hungry ghost. And the two other people in the room sitting near your bed, but they don’t see any house burning.
They don’t they they don’t see they’re not sweating, and they’re not crying out. But for the seeker, that burning house is very real, that heat is very real because his body is covered with sweat, and he’s shrieking in in his dream. So and you can’t say that he isn’t experiencing suffering. Can you say that he that that that doesn’t exist for him? So for the At this time, we’re human beings.
So even if we experience very hot states or we’re tormented by fire or by burning we’re not experiencing we’re not experiencing hell rebirth because we’re humans at this time. All those things, all that pain and the hell part and all those experiences exist for the being experiencing them. We can’t deny their existence, but they’re all created by mind. This human being and the experience of a human being, the and what we experience from our environment, and karma for a hungry ghost creates a hungry ghost and the that environmental And then if we refine the quality of our actions, if we get rid of negative activity, we get rid of all negative activity and only create wholesome actions, it’s possible for us to experience a state of being which is much higher than the our present state of being and an experience of an environment which is quite different to our present environment which we call a pure land and which is quite different to our present environment where there isn’t even the the the sound of suffering. So it’s for sure that if we can purify our minds, if we can purify our physical activity and purify our mental activity, it’s possible for us to experience a state of existence which is very different to this present state of existence, a much purer and more refined state of existence.
So how how do you find rebirth? How do you take rebirth as a hungry ghost? So you take rebirth as a hungry ghost by being very attached and mean about your own possessions and by taking away, you know, acquiring by wrong means other others’ possessions. And then, you know, or wanting to acquire others’ possessions and then performing certain actions which are based on that desire. So that’s how one takes a rebirth as a hungry ghost.
And hungry ghosts are of various types. Some of them have external conditions which prevent their getting what they want, the food and drink that they want, and some have internal obstacles that make it impossible for them to I mean, they find food and drink, but they can’t actually swallow it. They can’t actually use what they get. And and some of them see like a mirage of water Mhmm. Or, you know, see it like a mirage of water and go running after the water, and when they get there, there’s nothing there.
Or some of them see a river, and when they come to the river, it’s it’s a dry riverbed. So it’s this kind of experience that’s been talked about. Meaning of the human life is to make the best of the potential that we are born with. Right? We’re born with enormous potential, we need to make the best of that potential.
And the best way to use that potential is to work for our own future well-being and to work for the well-being of others. So what you need to do is try to establish the existence of past and future lives through logic. Right? And there are certain logical logical means for establishing this. There are certain avenues of thought that one can follow to to allow one to gain a conviction with respect to past and future lives.
And there are many Buddhist texts which explain that. So if one studies those and thinks about it oneself and looks at ones own situation and so on, one is one can come to a point where one is convinced about the existence of past and future lives. Approaches to this problem. But one approach that one can take is to look at the children that are born to the same parents. Two children may be born to the same parents, and they’re given exactly the same kind of food, the same kind of love, the same living conditions, and the same education, and yet they develop in a radically different way.
And also their dispositions are completely different. I mean, one child may be quite gentle and loving. One child might be quite aggressive, might be quite aggressive. Another child might be really into know, might might have a lot of attachment for things. So you find, you know, different emotions predominating.
So you may be able to trace this to certain things like heredity and so on. But if you go if you really look for the underlying causes for the underlying causes, it’s really hard to avoid coming to the idea of past lives. Can we attend to the peace of mind? Well, stop there. Thank you very much again.