Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Starting from a stark reminder that even the greatest masters — Atisha, Tsongkhapa, Milarepa — are now reduced to names in biographies, Khensur Rinpoche uses this 49-minute session to teach the second of three roots of death meditation: the time of death is uncertain. Three supporting reasons follow in sequence: human lifespan has no fixed length and is decreasing, with killing as the primary cause; conditions conducive to death far outnumber those conducive to well-being, and even food or medicine can turn fatal; and the body is as fragile as a bubble in water, killable by a stone or a missed breath. Nāgārjuna’s image of a candle flame in wind runs through the argument. The session closes with a practical push to begin dharma practice immediately, not after further delay.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 19 3PA 1993 08 17.mp3
UUID: e22f022e-1a25-49ce-b569-429160dbe54d
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principal Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-08-17
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 48.8 minutes
Words: ~2,429
There has come in the past many, many Buddhas similar to the Śākyamūni Buddha, and they all abandon their aggregate of form, their bodies. And there have been many great masters, hearers of India, great siddhas, accomplished beings such as Atisha, Āryadeva, Candrakīrti, etcetera. They were tremendous masters, almost unimaginable in their accomplishments, but they now are no more. There have been many great Tibetan masters such as Tsongkhapa and Milarepa, just to name a few. But now we only have their names.
They too have passed on. And there have been many masters of dharmas in other countries in the world, Australia and America, Russia, China, many, many great masters. For some, all that is left is their name. And even for others, we don’t even know we don’t even have their names any longer. They all were in the nature of impermanence, and they all passed on.
So all of these great past masters, they’re they’re now are remains only biographies in various books, accounts of their lives, merely enumerating what they did and only their name remains. They were too they too were susceptible to the impermanence the terms of death. And those beings who are now alive, they likewise will in the future be merely names. And those all living beings who are to come in the future, similarly, there will come a time when they will be merely a name. They all depart due to the impermanence in terms of death.
So whatever is born that will die, this is definite. So we’re discussing impermanence in terms of death in the context of three roots and supported by nine reasons. And previously, we discussed the first of these three roots, that is, that death is definite, and this was supported by three reasons. And now we will continue with with the second root and that is that death the time of death is uncertain. You know, all of us all of us who are listening to the dharma at present, after a hundred years will all be gone.
But though we can be assured that we will all be gone after a hundred years from now, but within that time span, we will go, that is uncertain. Some may die after next year, some after next month. There is no certainty. If if we think in terms that today I didn’t die but I could I could die tomorrow, that each day that it is possible that comes along day after day that it is possible that that might be the day of my going. Then thinking in those in that way, we will not set our priorities in terms of this life, but we will begin to prioritize ourselves in terms of future lives.
On the other hand, if we consistently conceive of ourselves immortal thinking that I am not going to die today nor am I going to die tomorrow nor the day after that, then we will only make preparations in terms that we are going to remain forever in the course of this life. We will not make preparations for future lives. To think that we are going to remain forever in in our in this life, then we are simply all our activities will be directed to toward preparations for this remaining forever in the course of this life, and we will make no preparations for for future lives. And then when when death suddenly comes to us like a a sudden rain shower, and we will, at the time of not only will our life have been led meaninglessly, but at the time of our death we will develop a great sense of regret, a great disappointment, and we it will be extremely sad situation, and we will incur great difficulty. If if on the other hand we are mindful of the uncertainty of death and we are constantly making preparations for the coming of death and our future lives, then each day as it comes we can say, well, I didn’t die today.
That’s that’s great. But even if we were to die that day, we would have made preparations so that’s okay too. So in in the first of these these three roots concerning death, we determined that death was definite. That whosoever has lived in the past, they have died and there is no method, is means by which we can stop the coming of death. That it’s that death in fact is definite, whosoever it may be.
But in the second root we are seeking to come to a conclusion that, well, when am I going to die? Death is definite, but when? But in fact it could be next year, could be this year, we simply do not know when. And so coming to a conclusion that the time of death is uncertain. So the the root is the second root is that the time of death is uncertain.
And the first reason is that there is no definite lifespan in our world. But this holds especially true in these in these degenerate times that there is that our life span is indefinite. The lifespan of humans in our world is indefinite. Quoting from a verse by Vasubandhu, just as an aside, I’m not sure if you’re going to accept this. I don’t think it’s if it’s going to find approval in your own in your own minds.
But anyway, to quote this verse, it says that initially initially in in this world, the human lifespan was numberless. It was it was infinitely long. But slowly, it began to decrease down to the time of Śākyamūni Buddha’s coming where the most people lived to around the age of a hundred. And it is continuing to decrease where now it’s decreased to about sixty years. And it’s going to decrease further down to forty and thirty and twenty.
And there will come a time when the the longest lifespan will be that will be ten years. So why is this situation prevailing? Previously, the people’s minds were altruistic, and they had various powerful minds, and they created great skillful actions. And out of this came long life. Long life is achieved through the abandonment of killing.
But now, to the increasing force of attachment and anger that more people are more and more inclined to kill and more inclined to create unskillful actions. Therefore the lifespan is decreasing proportionally. And people are less happy. They’re creating more negative actions, involve themselves more in the various and unskillful actions stealing sexual improprieties, lying, harsh speech creating many unskillful actions, creating less skillful actions. So the main obstacle to a long life is the killing of others.
And the way in which this is overcome is through abandoning the killing of others. But in fact, those who kill are increasing in numbers. And the and to in order to accomplish a long life or to achieve a long life, it’s it’s necessary to abandon killing. Saving of life that we are able to achieve a long life. If there were a sentient being who was about to be killed and we were to prevent that, we would save that life.
That is to we would be extending that being’s lifespan. And this is how the law of cause and effect operates. That in bringing about the life the lengthening of the lifespan of others, our own lifespan is lengthened. In shortening the lifespan of others, our own lifespan is shortened. So this is aside from that time when the lifespan was numberless, in general the lifespan is uncertain.
But this is especially true in contemporary times. Now in such at present where the we are creating more unskillful actions through such actions such as killing but also creating less fewer skillful actions. All So the way that we can determine the approximate length of people’s lives, if we we visit a like a Christian cemetery and look at the gravestones where it’s written the length of their lives, we can see that that many people have lived sixty or seventy years. So you can look for yourself now. So Our lifespan is continually decreasing over the course of time but how long our lifespan will be is in fact uncertain.
There are some people who were alive last year and are not alive now. There are some people who were alive last month and are not alive now. There are some people who were alive yesterday and are not alive now. There are some who die immediately upon birth. There are some children who die at the age of five or ten or fifteen.
Some die young before the old die. There are many cases where a mother outlives their child or a father outlives their child. So when it is that our lifespan is uncertain, when it is that we are going to die, it’s uncertain that we are going to die when we are home. So the root is that the time of our death is uncertain. The first reason that in general, in the world, that the time of there is no time that someone does not die.
But especially in in our contemporary times, the time of our death is is indefinite. The people can die at any time. So for those who weren’t present at the earlier teachings and when we began our discussion of these three roots in meditating on the impermanence in terms of death. We said that the first three roots was that death is definite, the second was that the time of death is uncertain, and the third that at the time of death it is only the dharma which can be of any benefit. And then we are looking at the second of these three roots, that is to say that the time of death is uncertain, and the first of these reasons.
So each of these roots has three supporting reasons. The second root being the time of death is uncertain. The first supporting reason is, as was just explained, that in our world lifespan is uncertain. Then the second supporting reason is as follows: that there are many conditions conducive to death and there are few which are conducive to well-being. And even those conditions which are conducive to well-being can transform can transform into those which are conducive to death.
So with respect to the preponderance of conditions of bringing about death, there are both animate and inanimate conditions. Animate conditions are those people who could kill us. But there are not only people, but there are nonhuman beings and malevolent spirits which can bring about our death. Also in terms of inanimate conditions bringing about death, there are, you know, where we wherever we go, we are able to see them. There car accidents, airplane crashes, houses falling down on people.
Not only such types of violent conditions, they’re just simply the fact that the body is in the nature of the four elements. The elements of earth, water, fire and wind energies. And these are always in a state of flux. They’re always and if there is a extreme imbalance in any of these elements, then we become sick. This such as we develop hot diseases or cold diseases, and if these inner elements are an extreme imbalance, then we can die.
And we are susceptible to death at any moment. But even those conditions which promote well which generally promote well-being can become conditions for our death. Such things as food and drink, which normally are conducive conditions to our long life, our well-being. If we eat unhealthy foods, if we drink unhealthy liquids, they are not only not conditions for our well-being, but they become conditions for our death. But even medicine, which in general is to benefit ourselves, to make us well, taking medicine in a wrong manner, even though medicine in general is beneficial, if taking it in a wrong manner, can become a condition for our own death.
So a quote in a verse by Nāgārjuna where he points out the instability of our lives, that death is certain but we don’t know when, that our life is like the flame of a candle in a wind. We don’t know quite when it’s going to be snuffed out. It’s gonna be blown out. So in this second reason, we are stating that there are many conditions conducive to death. There are few conditions conducive to well-being.
And even those few conditions conducive to well-being can become conditions for our death. Therefore, the time of our death is uncertain. But now we are presently looking at the third reason. And though in fact there may be many conditions conducive to death, though there may be few conditions conducive to well-being. If we had very powerful bodies, it simply wouldn’t matter.
That is, we still would not be able to be harmed. But in fact, that’s not the case. Our bodies are like a bubble in water, extremely fragile. Just a touch and the bubbles destroy. So even in the course of one day, our body can become extremely weak and wane.
And this shows how extremely fragile our body is. So we we become weak. Even if we don’t even if we weren’t to eat food for one day, we become weak. Our our face becomes waning. Just our body is is fragile to the to the degree that a stone hitting us on the head can kill us or a needle stuck into our body can kill us.
If if we were to exhale and not inhale, then we’re finished. So if, as was said, if our body was extremely powerful, then it wouldn’t matter whether there are so many conditions conducive to death than so few which conducive to well-being. But in fact, our bodies are not powerful. They’re extremely fragile. And therefore, they are continually susceptible to harm and finally death.
And this is the third supporting the fact that time of death is uncertain. Using, if we reflect upon these three reasons, contemplating in our meditation, supporting the root that the time of our death is uncertain, then we will develop the attitude, thinking, Well, I didn’t die last night and it’s not sure when I’m going to die. And there may be no time. Therefore I must practice I must begin my practice now because it’s uncertain when I am going to die. And coming to that I must begin practice now.