Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche opens this 47-minute session with a household analogy: a troublesome family member whose faults must first be recognised before anyone will act to remove him — exactly why, he argues, meditating on suffering’s disadvantages is the indispensable first step toward wanting to abandon it. He then surveys the First Noble Truth systematically: birth, aging, sickness, and death; unmet desires; separation from loved ones; relational uncertainty across lifetimes; and insatiable wanting. The picture extends to hungry ghosts and hell realms, sharpening the case for valuing human rebirth. Using live examples from the room — practitioners who arrived cold gradually overheating, and vice versa — he demonstrates that pleasant feeling is inherently unstable, before turning to the Third Noble Truth as the only inexhaustible, reliable happiness.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 4NT 1999 04 03.mp3
UUID: d23b1008-9c61-4e64-8f58-324f9effb430
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 4 Noble Truths Retreat (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1999-04-03
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 47.3 minutes
Words: ~3,470
Due to such a behavior of that man, then it is sure that there’s no peace at at home because the car, they argue, and they fight each other. So by seeing the man is such a dishonest person, and he’s not not not a good person, and and he causes lots of trouble within the family and destroy all the harmony or peace in the family. So they had the lady or the family members had seen that the person is not a good person and have seen all the difficulties or the difficulties of that person. By seeing his mistakes, mistakes, then everyone will try to try to abandon or or get rid of him from the family. So everyone will try very hard to get rid of him from the family forever.
It is because they have seen the faults within the man and seeing his faults or not good, bad qualities, but seeing the negative beliefs, faults, etcetera. They will. So it is because of that, seeing those faults, they try very hard to get rid of him. So likewise, one has to see the disadvantages or the faults of the negativities. So faults of the suffering, which is the first one, the true suffering, seeing the disadvantage of all of the true suffering. And by seeing that, one would develop the mind or one start disliking the suffering.
And then by knowing the fault and disliking true suffering, then one will look at the root of that suffering, which is the origin, the second truth, and they will try to uproot or abandon the second truth, which is the true origin of the suffering. So it’s like that the everyone tries to develop a wish or this thought of thought of getting rid of that the man or the the boss from the family, the father from the family to get rid of from from the family. It is because they have generated such a mind or wish to free and get rid of him because of seeing the faults of the man, fault of the person. And so because he is the main cause who brings the who, excuse me, who destroys all the peace and harmony within the family. So likewise, to try to to likewise to abandon the true origin of the suffering, which is the cause or the root of root of all the suffering.
And to develop such a mind to free to get rid of the true suffering, one to to to origin of the suffering, one has to see the disadvantage or the faults of the first two is true suffering. So it is not if if if the family members didn’t see the faults or faults of that the faults of that man in the family, then they will never dislike him. And they they will always like him because he hasn’t got any fault because they don’t see the faults. And they don’t involve in getting rid of him from the family. Likewise, if you don’t see the faults or disadvantages of the suffering, then then you will like start liking the suffering and never thought of abandoning the suffering.
So the good master Buddha Śākyamūni has stated that thinking about how to overcome or abandon the suffering, the first noble truth. It is very important to it is very important to meditate upon the the disadvantages or the faults of the suffering. So as for the suffering, there are many types of suffering. And for example, here are the grossest suffering which we always see, like the suffering of suffering of birth, suffering of aging, suffering of sickness, and suffering of death. And as with suffering of birth, we have undergone through many suffering while one is in the mother’s womb during her pregnancy.
And then, and also we undergo through tremendous suffering during the time of delivery. And then once one goes from the second moment of one from the second moment of the birth, once of the birth, then one starts aging. And then and one and later one goes through this illness. And at at the end, one has to go through the suffering of death. These are the gross sufferings which we always see.
And we also got many suffering comes, but not not accomplishing one’s wishes, even working for for a whole day and nights to to achieve one’s wishes and but and but one cannot accomplish one’s wishes and due to that, one goes through suffering. One suffers. So we suffer a lot because we need lots of money, and we cannot make as much money as we want, and we suffer. And so one tries very hard to earn lots of bucks and then one feels one suffers at a loss by not being able to earn as much as one wishes or one is wanting.
And on top of that, then the unwanted suffering drops upon it, like suffering of by working hard, one has to go through the heat and cold, and the suffering of heat comes, suffering of colds, and then one gets sick. And there is a suffering of not reaching a place on time. And then if one is late all the time, then there is a danger, and then one’s boss will just take your job back. It just means you lost your job, and then excess suffering comes on that. And then there are other sufferings that we we suffer, but by separating from the loved ones, say, to who want love dearly, say, suffering of departing or separating from one’s family, one’s good friends, say, if by dying, we separate from our loved ones, or say, just moving place in a far distance, and one misses a lot, and this is the suffering of separation as well.
And also converting or becoming good friends into bad due to certain certain faults. They come, they start disliking and then they disappear. They separate or they end their friendship. And then by ending one’s one also feels sad means which one is suffering. One suffers.
No? And there is a suffering of encountering, or encountering with unwanted things, like meeting all the time a person who one dislikes all the time, not one’s friends and one hates or something like that. And then meeting with that person, and also some person, they’re like in the cold weather, but it always happen, that person, to be in a cold weather all the time. And so it’s a meeting with the unwanted, which is where they don’t want cold. The person does not want the cold cold weather, but he always encounter or be in a cold place.
And so by meeting with the cold climate or weather he suffers, and on the opposite side, one who likes the cold, but always meets with the heat and hot climate all the time, and that’s another meeting, suffering or meeting with unwanted things. And also, so there are many, many sufferings which comes from meeting with one which one doesn’t wish to. And also, like suffering of aging. The aging comes, everyone does want to get older, but later, I mean, we become older all the time. And this is the also suffering which one, suffering which comes from one which everyone don’t wish to have.
They don’t want to age, become old. So it is not reliable to stay in this cyclic existence, and because to be in this cyclic existence, one has to go through lots of tremendous suffering, various type of sufferings. And likewise, there is a suffering of uncertainty saying that here uncertainty means that one’s enemy might be someone who was one’s friend or relative in the past lives and becomes an enemy in this life. And then someone who is a relative or one’s loved one in the past becomes an enemy in this lifetime. And it’s also it’s uncertain that someone who who is a who is enemy who is enemy or a friend in upper part of life, then later on that that that person become friend or enemy.
Like enemy becomes friend later part, and then friend becomes enemy in the later later part of your life. So it it so it’s uncertainty. These are the suffering of uncertainty, and that’s for our death. And suffering of death comes. And after death, it is not sure that where one will born.
One one can be born as born as born as a child of your enemy, so forth. So these are the suffering of uncertainty. And then we have also, we undergo to the suffering of unsatisfaction or unsatisfactory. It’s their unsatisfaction. So if one has one dollar and then he is not enough satisfied with a dollar, he wants more, hungry.
And then thousand, and then ten thousand, and then goes for the lakhs, etcetera. And then if one has a beautiful object and one is not satisfied with that particular object, later on he wants even a better or good quality than the present one. So likewise, by wanting or by not having satisfaction, one suffers a lot as well. So there are many various sufferings which one undergoes through, suffering of all those, like suffering of change, suffering of uncertainty, suffering of not having satisfaction, and then suffering of separating with the dear ones, and suffering of meeting with ones, which literally says ugly ones. And then and then at the time and we have to go undergo too many sufferings like losing.
We have to take birth again and again and undergo the suffering of death. And at the time of death, one suffers by traveling just for once, alone. At the time of death, I mean, one has to travel alone. So so forth. Like this, there are many different types of sufferings which one undergoes through.
So so one has to undergo through all those different sorts of sufferings. And and so those different sort of suffering we have talked according to the human being which one undergoes through. And still there are many other greater suffering that one has to face because it is not certain that one one will born as a human all the time. It is uncertainty that it has no certain that that one one will certain there’s no certainty that one will born as a human being all the time. One one will also born take birth in animal realms, hungry ghosts, and cold realms, and hot realms.
And so by taking by by taking birth in animal realms, one has goes through different sort of sufferings. And then, being born in the hungry ghost realms, one undergoes through huge suffering of starvation, or hunger, such that one cannot find a mouthful of food in eight or nine years’ time. So huge sufferings. And being born in cold realms, one will have to stay in a huge snowy mountain.
Then one’s body becomes frozen and so forth. And also being born in the hell realms, one will have to suffer in huge, huge heat. So there are many other greater. So one has to, so these are the, there are many greater sufferings than those suffering which are according to the human being.
So due to the results of our good karma, we have taken birth in this human human realms or taking birth in this birth as a human. And and but so taking birth in the human. But even in human, we go through various type of sufferings, but compare our sufferings to the sufferings undergoing those lower realms, those states, on the lower realms, hungry ghost animals, etcetera. Compared to the suffering of those, our suffering is a suffering, it’s happy. So one should feel very lucky with this.
So the fact is that the most of the most most of most of time we spent are in the lowest state. So in the sense here, says that we take, we spend more time in the bad state. It means that we, the human rebirth is very, very few. And we often take birth in the lower states or bad states all the time because we all almost, we cultivate bad karma very often more than the cultivation of good karma. Due to the result of that cultivating bad karma, karma we often born in the lower states or lower births.
No. So we are so we we are putting very great effort to meditate and practice so forth. It is so and and it is to cultivate something, some good good good actions. So we have cultivated the bad action more than the good actions because it is said because to cultivate positive things, good actions, one has to start very hard to cultivate good action practicing and so forth. And as to cultivate a good and bad action, it is we don’t need any effort.
We don’t need to we don’t necessarily strike strike hard to cultivate the bad actions because it just comes by itself. Like, for example, like, getting angry or anger. And then and we fight with others, and we argue with others, and we steal, and we and we use harsh words to others. So likewise, these sort of bad actions are are performed without any effort. So some people, they just get angry by by looking at at looking looking at other people.
I mean, just like some people have a strange looking, and that person get very easily get annoyed by such a look. So the suffering of those lower state is very, very unbearable that if we think, at this present time, if we think about the suffering of those things and imagine that, and you are undergoing through that suffering, that one cannot bear such suffering even for a minute because the suffering in the lower states are very, very I mean, it’s very huge. So so to all different types of beings, the beings in the lower realms, beings in and to beings not the the beings in the lower realms, humans, and then beings of god. So all types of beings, they undergo through different sorts of sufferings. And if one analyze why those people or those beings undergo through sufferings and how the suffering comes.
And then you will come to know that the the sufferings of those beings that comes from the the the second two, which is true origin of the suffering. So in the Buddhist teachings, they talk, they teach many things on the suffering. And the purpose of teaching such is to know, is to see the faults, to see the disadvantages of suffering. So that is the main purpose that the teaching on the sufferings or the method to understand, to know, method to understand or to know the sufferings or to know the disadvantages of the suffering. And we have a suffering of feeling or suffering of bad feeling or good feeling.
No. Excuse me. Suffering of feeling. So it so suffering of feeling, it’s not only human beings understand. All also the animals, they understand the suffering of feeling.
Say, if if you suffering of feeling means if you have a good feeling that you are happy, you’re not suffering. If you have some bad feeling, then you understand the you you understand the suffering. The likewise animal, they also understands. They also feel they also have a good or bad feeling and they understand that that feeling is a suffering which cause give them a suffering. So we can say that animals can understand the suffering or feeling because when they feel cold, they will look for a warm place to move in.
And then when they feel hot, they try to move into cold, cold, cold place. And when they feel hungry, and they undergoes through they know that they are undergoing through the suffering of hunger, and then they look for food to eat. So this is the case that animal can understand the suffering of feeling. So by by by under by knowing the suffering of feeling doesn’t mean that one has understands the understand the understand the suffering. So, but, but, and then we have a good feeling as well.
So he should have said the good feeling and the bad feeling, which we have discussed, and another neutral feeling. And the good feeling which we get some happiness. But if we ask, if that good feeling is reliable or stable or not, and the answer is no. So but the the beings of the world, the worldly beings, they think that when they think that the good feeling the good feeling, the feeling of happiness is the real happiness. And the happy feeling or the feeling of happiness is not reliable, and it’s not the stable happiness.
Because if it is a stable happiness, then no matter how much one make use of that happiness, the happiness that feeling of happiness should increase the happiness of feeling and and should be inexhaustible, but it is not. It later on, becomes by using the by making use of that happiness or the feeling of happiness, and sooner or later, it becomes into suffering. So therefore, it is not the reliable or the not stable happiness. Beginning of this teaching, and some people are enjoying being very warm, putting lots of things, and then enjoying the feeling of warmth. And some go through the happiness of who prefers the cold, then they are just enjoying through the happiness of feeling slight cold.
So and and later almost at So almost, and now almost at Now, we are reaching to the end of the session. And then a person who was enjoying in the pleasure of warm, they now start getting more heat, become too hot, and just maybe that happiness, feeling of warm has transformed into the suffering of heat and, you know, and trying to remove some of the clothes, take off some of the clothes. And then a person who was enjoying happiness of feeling slight cold, become too cold and then trying to put, I mean, add some cloths on it, keep oneself warm. So that happiness, enjoying the happiness of slight cold, has turned into the suffering of cold. And then some, from the beginning of teaching, before the teaching, they had walked around a lot.
And then they just want to have a seat. And then when the teaching start, they’re sitting on the floor and then they feel a bit happiness. But after a long walk, they feel happy and then they have good feeling and they just feel comfortable by sitting and have kind of like a rest. And now, by sitting for a couple of hours here in the teachings, and now they’re just tired of sitting on the floor, and they have sensation of, it will be wonderful if I get a time to get up. Feeling of happiness is not reliable, it’s not stable at all, it’s not stable like the temperature or weather of Australia.
So it so what it shows is it shows clearly that that sort of feeling of happiness is not happiness at all because if it’s a real happiness or stable, reliable one, then no matter how much one make use of that, it should be inexhaustible and then should should give more and more happiness, but it is not. If I am asked that that feeling of happiness is not a happiness, not a real happiness. And if asked, then if that is not a real happiness, or not reliable, or not real happiness, then what is the real happiness? Which is, or what is the real happiness? And here comes the teaching of the third noble truth of cessation, which is the real ultimate and the real happiness, and which comes from the result of abandoning the first two noble truths, the true suffering and the origin of the suffering.
And that is the happiness of liberation and having attained the liberation. And that happiness is the stable and the ultimate happiness because no matter how much one makes use of that happiness, the true cessation is inexhaustible, and you can use as much as you like, and it always remain, remain happiness. To gain such happiness, a reliable happiness, then one has to abandon the root of the suffering, which is the true origin of suffering. Without abandoning or overcoming the true origin of the suffering, then one will never attain this ultimate, reliable happiness. So as we have been discussing about this, this knowing the knowing or understanding disadvantages of the of the suffering is very, very important.