Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 48-minute session from a Four Noble Truths retreat, Khensur Rinpoche opens with a vivid analysis: the grasping “I,” unable to secure happiness alone, conscripts the five sense organs as instruments — eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body — to collect pleasure and build attachment. Drawing on Dharmakīrti, he traces how this mechanism produces the full chain of craving, attachment, and hatred, before identifying the root as ignorance — specifically, the failure to understand dependent arising. The session then opens into Q&A: a student raises the idea of a creator spirit underlying the cosmos, and Rinpoche carefully distinguishes the Buddhist view (each mind creates its own saṃsāra through karma) from theistic creation, closing with an account of how beings degenerate over time as the power of past good karma is exhausted.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 4NT 1999 04 04.mp3
UUID: 0b6236ee-bc26-440b-8db9-23fa278a7e6e
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 4 Noble Truths Retreat (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1999-04-04
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 48.2 minutes
Words: ~2,366
So due to one holding this present I very strongly, this I exists inherently, it is self-sufficient, that I self-sufficiently exists without depending on others. And due to having that strong grasping I, and as a result of that, then one starts positing others, and then the other comes due to the strong idea of holding self that self-sufficiently exists. So and so as a result of that, it comes self and others. And because of that, one has a strong grasping I, then one develops — one who has a strong craving towards the I. And as a result of that craving, then one generates attachment to it, that I.
And because of that attachment, then one starts striving hard to get happiness for that I. The happiness of that I cannot be accomplished by the I itself. So at the time he came to know that the happiness of I cannot be achieved by simply that mere I, then he started seeing that the limbs of the body like hands, legs, eyes, and so forth are the method to use those parts of body to achieve the happiness of I. So do you think it is true or not? So it is true that the I uses the parts of body to have happiness to that mere I, because for example, the I needs a happiness of seeing a good object, or seeing a good form or a beautiful figure.
And that that mere I cannot see the good form. So what what that I does is the I uses the eye consciousness, which which sees the which sees the figure of the particular object. And by seeing by seeing the good figure through the eye using eye consciousness, then then I get the now I I get happiness of seeing seeing a good good figure. And due to that, it’s developed that I cultivate attachment. So likewise, that I needs happiness of hearing good sound, having good taste and good smell and good feeling or tactile sensation.
And so as that I needs this sort of happiness, it uses all five sense organs, like using the nose, using the ear consciousness, it listens to a good sound and then gets happiness from that, and likewise with the rest of these five sense organs. And due to that, it gets happiness and then starts cultivating the attachment towards the five sense organs because it gives happiness to the mere I. And so by seeing by hearing this, one came to know that all the parts of body or the five sense organs are the method to achieve the happiness to this I or to achieve the happiness of the I. So the master Dharmakīrti has said that by seeking the happiness for this I, then it uses the parts of body to cultivate this happiness to achieve that happiness. And by seeing this, the parts of the bodies are the method to achieve the happiness of that I, then they start craving the parts of one’s body and then cultivate attachment and so forth.
And they start using this part of body or any of sense organs to achieve the to get some happiness to the mere I. And then when it fails to achieve that happiness, then it starts hating other people thinking that he or she is the one who causes, who upsets or who disturbs me to achieve such and such, who fails me to achieve this happiness and so forth. And by doing so through these actions, one cultivate different sorts of actions or karma. Middle way school. In his philosophy, he’s saying that first one creates the I, and then hold the mind.
And due to that, one cultivates different sorts of actions. And as a result of that, one keeps circling in the cyclic existence. So it is very difficult to understand all this straight away. But if one does the meditation upon it and gradually slowly through one’s experience, one will gradually come to know that these teachings or these statements are true. So it says that the among within this action and disturbing emotion, this is disturbing emotion is the most.
And within the disturbing emotion, there are three main and among these three, the ignorance or confusion is the main. Dharmottara stated the same as well. So the good master said that the ignorance is the main, like the suffering of this cyclic existence, the container and what it contains is the contents which is the sentient beings, and the container is the world, the external world. So all the suffering of this samsaric existence, the container and what it contains, comes from the ignorance. Comes from the ignorance.
And the Buddha Śākyamūni has to avoid or abandon that ignorance. He taught a method to abandon that ignorance, which is the teaching of dependent arising. So today we have mainly talked about the talked on the action and the disturbing emotion. And we end up here with the figuring that ignorance is the main cause here. So I’ll leave this time for question and answers.
And yeah, you may feel more relaxed if you had if you get some time to put up the question rather than concentrating the teaching and listening. So here it says that ignorance arises from within itself. The ignorance comes from within itself. It is because it is due to or because of not understanding the not under lacking understanding or not understanding the dependent arising, and which is mainly teaching about emptiness. So because of lack of understanding of interdependent, one creates ignorance within oneself. And then that ignorance continues.
Like, what one day would say creates ignorance, and then that ignorance give birth to the next ignorance, and then it keep continues. So Buddha Śākyamūni also said that the ignorance comes by lacking the understanding of dependent arising, which means the lack of understanding of emptiness. So without understanding on emptiness, the ignorance comes. So the main thing is by lacking it by lacking the understanding of emptiness, ignorance comes. God.
Sorry? Like Brahma? You mean something created by, like, for example, like Brahma or Īśvara? Yes. The source of They have created. I wasn’t not okay with your questions.
So yeah. Yeah. It’s a I mean, the cosmic it’s all is for example, like, say, the whole universe. It’s it’s just the Yeah. Do it.
Talk Yeah. I mean, I understand that in English, I was just thinking how to put back in Tibetan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Wasn’t sure about whether it’s still the right answer for you or not. But the it’s it’s weird. Like, beings are not so I have to understand it for him. Like, this cosmic is like universe, which is that because I’m sorry.
Should be okay. Is that alright? No. It’s not saṃsāra. It’s not saṃsāra.
It’s saṃsāra. Samsāra means that. You said the cosmic thing is the universe or this cosmos. Okay? And beings are in this cosmic.
Yeah. I mean Yeah. And it’s like a creation is like this one of reflection. Okay. So alright.
But what Rinpoche’s answer is that the beings in this cosmos are not a kind of creation, or it’s not a reflection. The beings are there in reality because it is a result of action. The beings is the one who circles in this. And it’s not it’s not it’s not a reflection. The beings are not really a reflection.
It is real because it is a result of the action, the action and the disturbing emotion. It’s not something created by someone else. It’s it’s just by the result of its own action. Did I get that one?
I don’t think So do you is there any kind of the idea within yourself that when you talk about cosmos or reflection, etcetera, do you accept any of that creator? Something who creates all this? So and that spirit is the creator of this cosmic whatever. And the beings are this. It’s the reflection inside that of the spirit.
Right? Okay. So I’m trying very hard to put it in simple form. And It’s a good question. It’s a so so you you agree that this universe or cosmic one is created by a spirit.
The beings, which we are, for example, we are a reflection of that spirit in this cosmic thing. Is it? Right? So the and it is your ideal. You just agree that there is a creator of Yes.
Okay. That’s right. So from the viewpoint of Buddhist Buddhist point of view, or we, like the karma, the action, or the, our mind itself is the creator of the, So we can briefly say that the mind is the one who creates certain things. And in other context, other non-Buddhist schools, there are many views that upon particular god as who creates the universe or this saṃsāra or whatever and saṃsāra. And then it also agrees that and and some some some other schools, they have they have particulars like the general it’s called the wait a minute.
Wait a minute. Okay. It’s got the so in terms of the Tibetan word, it’s called the chi tsur. Alright. I’ll come back to this word tomorrow.
And this is that particular is the one who creates the No. No. No. That Yeah. Mind or a kama.
Karma or mind, which created mind and feeling. It’s karma. It’s all the same. It’s like a person. So we said karma or mind.
It means it actually mainly comes from mind. From the Buddhist point of view, when we say this, the mind is the main creator or creates everything. But it doesn’t mean that that particular is a particular single mind which creates all. So what it says is, so one’s own mind, particular person’s mind creates particular saṃsāra or cyclic existence within itself. So due to his his his own good actions created through his mind, then he he he can birth in a higher state and make himself a little better.
So in the sense Very good. So in the sense, when you said a particular spirit which creates these cosmic things or universe, do you mean that there is a single spirit which creates all, and then beings and all the universe is the universe? It’s the origin of everything. Which is the spirit can’t be seen. It’s invisible.
But that spirit is in everything. It’s not. That’s pretty nice. Alright. So that spirit is not a single spirit which Okay. Yeah.
Okay? Very good. Yeah. Very good. Yeah.
Yeah. So it was actually saying that due to the strong grasping of self, one generates or cultivates the craving. And that craving is one who has strong attachment towards the self’s happiness. And so the craving and the attachment is more or less Yes.
So what it says is this. The craving towards oneself, because of craving towards oneself, then comes attachment towards self and the hatred towards others. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like that.
Yeah. Just to clarify that some some translation, they say desire, hatred, and the mainly ignorance. Some people use So actually, there are different sorts of attachment. So the what we the prime minister, the attachment is the attachment in general. But within the attachment, there are different sort of attachment and all attachment represent the prime minister.
Okay. Yeah. You have one question? Yeah. It’s the, yeah, the Buddhism Buddhism does not agree the concept of creator or, yeah, creators.
But the evolution of time, or what you said is, like, from the beginning of this present samsaric existence, it was first that the beings in many ways from the very beginning, the changes come by the changes within the beings. Because the beings in the very beginning were said to be having less desire or less attachments, and they have more kind heartedness and so forth. And it would and those and due to because of having that, and I mean, those beings are the result of their good karma in the past. As a result of that, they have less desire and hatred. And then means more they create, I mean, they have a better environment and and beings are better at that time.
And as the time goes by, and then and those beings starts. So and they were the result, enjoying the results of their good actions in the past. And now the power or the result of that good karma comes into the exhaustion. And due to that, and then as the result or the power of the good actions is coming lesser and lesser to the end, and they start creating bad actions. And as a result of that, they start going to suffer.
So the beings and then because of that bad action, being so also changing because of their bad action that start liking to create more negative actions and so forth. And likewise, and as a result of the bad actions and the universe or this world itself changing into into like from better to the next. So this is come, the evolution comes. Does that make sense to you? Okay.
Okay. So about this subject, if you we don’t have time today. If we go on the teaching or or saying the five degeneration times and how it degenerate, if so if you study on that, if we deal through this, then you can have a clear you can get more clear information about how it changes. And probably, if you have the time, we’ll discuss about this degeneration of the age tomorrow. Maybe.
Yeah. I mean, now what do you need? Master Nāgārjuna has stated that as we taught yesterday, the true origin of the suffering, which is karma action and this type of emotion. And the master has said that if one overcomes, eliminates the karma and the disturbing emotion by applying antidotes, then then then one has reached the attained liberation. And it says that action — where does the action come from?
And the action comes from the disturbing emotion.