Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 47-minute session, Khensur Rinpoche begins by grounding listeners in appreciation for their conducive conditions — the same conditions Milarepa had — before pressing urgency: death arrives without warning, carrying consciousness forward with its karma. He explains karma through a vivid analogy to criminal law, with the Lord of Death (Yama) as judge assigning better or worse rebirths accordingly. He then offers a practical self-diagnostic: examine your body to read past virtue (human birth reflects past ethical discipline, good appearance reflects patience, sufficient food reflects generosity) and examine your present mind to forecast your next rebirth. The session closes by summarising the preliminary Lamrim stages — precious human rebirth, impermanence, the drawbacks of saṃsāra — and signals that the next teaching will take up bodhicitta.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 7P 1998 10 03.mp3
UUID: 4f100c40-9320-4883-8cc3-957370649820
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 7 Point Mind Training (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1998-10-03
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.9 minutes
Words: ~3,232
And and at this time, we have all these conditions and have we are very fortunate to have these conditions and So we are being, we have at, in this town we are free from all the obstructions or obstacles and have all these conditions, conducive conditions and for that it’s a great time for us to have been very fortunate of us to get such conditions or such a time to practice. So so once you feel rejoice, once you really feel rejoice of having all these conditions and generate great enthusiasm to practice the Dharma and get rid of them. So if one is being able to do this kind of like feeling rejoice to having these conditions and generate good effort or interest and practice the Dharma, then one can really generate, being able to overcome all the sufferings and and can able to generate or achieve certain realization within oneself in this life. So, you know, we have great arhats or liberated beings like, let’s say, a famous liberated being or arhat called Milarepa and also there are many liberated beings or arhats, Indian arhats in Tibetan as well. But but do all those beings all those beings are like I mean, from the beginning they are just ordinary being like us and and but they have become by having these conditions for those people and plus practicing the Dharma with great effort or doing a very strong practice they have been able to become liberated or being able to become arhat.
So it is same to us if we have these conditions, all the conducive conditions and if we generate enough enthusiasm or put great effort in our practice that there is no doubt that we can become liberated or overcome all the sufferings in this life so because we have all the conducive conditions which all those great arhat beings have. From the beginning they don’t have those great arhats like Indian and Tibetan arhats, they don’t have extra or something extraordinary conducive other than these conditions. So we have the same conditions, conducive conditions as those liberate beings have. The only reason why we are not being not able to practice or not being able to be liberated oneself or become in is is due to the lack of our effort. No.
So if one wish to have happiness without any suffering one should really practice. To have such happiness, happiness without suffering, without any difficulty or suffering, to achieve that kind of happiness one should really try to, one should really achieve that happiness without suffering in this lifetime and never postpone or never thought of achieving that goal or happiness without suffering in the next life and not only one and also one should start one should start one’s practice from now have that happiness and never thought of doing like shifting or just procrastinating one’s practice because there is death is uncertain, it can occur anytime and if that comes then it won’t give us a time to rest and then give even give a time to rest and then it it destroyed all the conducive conditions which we have at the moment, you know, which we have at this time. So so it is uncertain as to when death will come. When when when death comes, then it won’t leave us. We have to go.
And we have to go leave we we have to go. But it doesn’t mean when death comes, we are just that is the end of our that is the end of us because but it is not if if that is the end of one’s if that is the final end or of one, then it’s okay, it’s fine, we don’t care even the death comes but which is not because when death comes we have to leave, say not only that we have to leave all those like our possessions and friends and even our fame, possessions, friends, fame, one’s name, but not only that, one has to one’s own body and the only which travels is our consciousness. And so at the time at the time one dies then one, and one has to leave one’s body and one’s consciousness travels travels to the next birth. And at that time, at the time how we travel or how our consciousness travel is our consciousness has to be accompanied either by a good karma or a bad karma, good or bad action. And if one has accumulated, accumulated merit and have more store of merits or virtues then one virtues then one can, one’s consciousness travels with the good karma and one will take birth or be born in a good state or a good rebirth and if one has a stronger, greater store of demerit or one has the great store of negative negativities then once consciousness travels along with the bad karma and will bring to or will be born in a bad rebirth or lower rebirths.
No. So it’s it’s it’s it’s like this for example, like in this particular world and it depends on how crime one commits. If one has made a huge crime then one has been punished by a lot, I mean by one has been punished by one has to undergo to greater punishment and had to maintain sort of retain or stay in a for example life in jail for longer period and if one has commit bit small like a bit less crime than one has been punished a bit less and then even if one commits a very small crime then it’s been punished for small, it’s like depends, the punishments of our laws depends on the crime that one person commits. So it’s same that if one had to accommodate negative karma one has to suffer more and if one has a certain like, we say the three, if one has committed great negativities or bad karma then one has to suffer more and then if one has a bit lesser, greater the negativity or bad karma the greater one has to suffer and the lesser the ones commit the negative. Bad karma, the lesser one suffers.
So it depends on the bad karma or depends on how one has accumulated, one has accumulated the bad karmas or negativities. So one may think that who will check or who will do this, who will check that, I mean one has a greater, that has committed greater bad karma and has to suffer more and who judges? I mean, like, one may think that as in our law that a person, there is a person like a police or something, I mean they check the crime and the person and they specify what kind of crime he or she has committed. It’s like so it’s same for us we have a Lord of Death. It is Mañjuśrī who has appointed a Lord of Death there for us who checks our karma and then gives punishment. So we have a Lord of Death like a police we have in this world now.
So it’s the same to our bad So, regarding good karma. If one has accumulated greater merit or greater good karma than one has been, one can have a greater happiness or greater love and then one has lesser good karma than one has been once the lesser one and according according to one’s store of merit or store of good merit, good karma and we have also been a greater rebirth and greater and we’ve been born in better places. It’s same, so if one has good store of merit one can be born in a greater, one has a greater rebirth and be born in a place. It goes respectively for So, excuse me, if one generate huge or great effort to practice the Dharma in this life then one can there is a possibility or chance for oneself, for one to become enlightened in this life time and if one is not able to do that or achieve enlightenment in this life but even they have even with the great effort but one can also have a better rebirth in next life like one can be born in human being born as a human in next life and can continue with one practice and become achieve enlightenment in the next life.
So we have heard that Milarepa who has become enlightened in this life but I mean he was not able to, it was not just by his effort in this life to become enlightened because he was not enlightened by practicing in just a single life. It is because of the power of good practice in his previous lifetimes and storing the store of merit and abandoning the negativities and through the power of that he was being able to take a birth as a human again and again and then practice the Dharma and finally in this lifetime he became enlightened. So it’s not just only the merit he has accumulated in this lifetime, it’s also not just by the merit of this lifetime, the practice in his past lifetime, the good karma or good virtues he has accumulated in the past and also been conjoined for his enlightenment in his lifetime. So it’s same for us, it is sure we can be sure that we have accumulated great store of merit and made a good imprint in our previous life because without a good imprint of a good karmic imprint or without storing any great store of merit in the past lives we cannot, we can’t be able to achieve this precious human rebirth.
So this precious human rebirth is the result of the past, it’s a good result of the past good actions or good karma and so it is, it’s like to have a result, have a result inherently, the cost of the result of particular things should perceived before. So we have a good cause in the past lifetimes and we have practiced the Dharma in the past lifetime and because of our practice, due to the good practice in our previous lifetime and living good karmic imprints in the past lifetime we have achieved this particular, this precious human rebirth. So we can be sure that we have practiced Dharma and make karmic imprint in the past life as well. So So in this lifetime we have achieved the precious human birth which is very difficult to achieve or attain and which has the eight freedoms and ten endowments. And this particular precious human rebirth or our birth is the result of the good practice in the past lifetime because we can check by seeing this lifetime that we have definitely done a proper practice in the previous lifetime by seeing that without practicing the ethical discipline in the past lifetime we cannot achieve the human rebirth in the next life, so in this life.
So this to the good practice of protecting ethical, leading ethical discipline in the past lifetime we have achieved this human rebirth and by practicing the patience in the previous life we have a good physical appearance and everyone has a good appearance, physical appearance and this is the result of our practice of patient in the past lifetime and about our accommodation or like livelihood, we have quite enough food in this lifetime so we have enough food these days. This is the result of our practice of giving or generosity in the previous lifetime. So by checking like this kind of, making this kind of investigation or like checking this kind of thing one can one can can understand that one has did a one has done lots of practice in the previous in previous life So this is how our past great gurus has stated that check this life and into this life and I said look look to your present life or present physic present body that see the what what one has done in the past lifetime and one and one should look in and look in one’s mind to see that where one should where one goes into the next life.
It means that by seeing this physical form one can think and one conditions, what one has, like foods, physical appearance and this which is human birth in this body. So by thinking that one can definitely be sure that one has done good things in the past lifetime and to go and by seeing and by looking into one’s mind one can see that where one can see that where one can where one goes or where one can be born in next rebirth, next rebirth. Say if one finds it, if one sees that one’s mind has, you know, one has good mind, loving kindness, compassion and like one is practicing, that’s when one look into one’s mind, see, one practices loving kindness, compassion and practicing patience and have affection to send means, if one has these things in one’s mind, it can be sure, one can be sure that one will have a good rebirth in the next life and if one has, if one finds only attachments, hatred, angers and so forth in one’s mind in this life then it is sure that one will have a bad rebirth in the next life.
So this is how our great masters has stated that check, look into this body to find what one has done in the past and look into one mind where one, look in this present mind where one will go in the next rebirth. So this Buddhist teachings always been taught through the logical, with logics which the logic with the proof and without if it is illogical or like it’s not proper statements or cannot prove any then we don’t agree which Buddhist teachings doesn’t agree things which contradicts with the logic. So it only deals with logical things which proves. So so Buddhist teachings only deals with the logic. For example, we can check-in this lifetime as well.
If a person who has studied well in this, I mean, well, been good educated or studied well in their school time and been very friendly with others and have maintained good conduct and doing good job and has enough money, I mean collected or have raised enough money then in future, like in the later part of their life or future in their future lives. In their future life means this life, future of this life. Alright? One one has a very happy life and one can lead a very happy life at the end of their life. So it’s like, it’s because of their good lifestyle in lifetime from the beginning and like from studying hard and then being friendly and have friendly with others and maintaining good context.
So this kind of by doing this kind of thing, one one will have a good life in the future life. I mean, future life means don’t think about the next life and we’re talking about this particular life. No. So if one practice in this life and have maintained good conduct and abandon all the misconducts or negativities, it is definite that one will have better rebirth in next life than this life now. So so this life, this present life, if one practice properly or make good practice in this life, one has a possibility to become enlightened or become liberated or an arhat in this lifetime.
And there is also a danger if one does not practice anything in this life and it’s just as simple, just I mean leave the mind as it is then as there is no essence or there’s no meaning in this life, in this world and one cannot say where one will be born in the next rebirth if one cannot practice or just leave the life as it is at the moment now. So, you know that we have no freedom at the moment and due to the karma being accompanied by the disturbing emotions, have been taking births or wandering in the cyclic existence or the saṃsāra. So one should and be born in cyclic existence in a way there is no which has only suffering in this world, saṃsāra. And so one should really try to take rebirth without the karma being accompanied by disturbing emotions or once you try to take a birth without depending on the action which has been karma being accumulated by disturbing emotion, means that one should try to become liberated being and have a power to take birth as as one wishes. So try to become an so liberate in this life.
No. And so that’s to that liberate oneself from this saṃsāra or cyclic existence one should really check, one should not perform any of these ten negativities which is, there are two negativities being performed by body and then four negativities being committed through verbal and through speech and three negativities which has been committed through the mind. So, and means to liberate oneself from the saṃsāra one should develop develop a faith or believe in Buddhadharma and Sangha and try not to commit any negativities through any of the three doors which is body, speech, and mind and to try and to maintain or do good and to keep the mind steadily or single pointedly one should practice the meditative stabilization and to uproot the, to uproot or to overcome the disturbing emotion which is the root of the saṃsāra or cyclic existence, one should meditate on emptiness. We have been, this up to here we have been talking about, been teaching on the preliminary practices of the small and the middling scope. As for the practice, the preliminary practice of the small scope is that how difficult it is to gain this precious human rebirth which has freedoms and endowments or advantages and or thinking or practice and thinking about impermanence and as for the preliminary practice of the middling scope which is seeing the disadvantages of the cyclic existence or saṃsāra and to free oneself from the saṃsāra and the method for one to free oneself from saṃsāra is emptiness, practicing on emptiness and practicing the Four Noble Truths.
So this is the preliminary practice here, the preliminary practices of the small and the middling scope and we’ll stop here on the preliminary practices. And so we’ll finish here for today for the preliminary practices and the main practice or the actual practice is about the enlightened mind or the bodhicitta in which we will talk about this like actual So, Rinpoche says, if there are any questions, you’ll see it for five minutes. We’ll go first then. Yep. No.
The lord of the death. Has appointed the lord of death for us to be a judgment or to do a judgment on like what we have done like good action or bad action. So it’s not the Mañjuśrī who judges. He has appointed the lord of death to judge us. Lord of death.
Lord of of Or I mean, it’s a Yama. Go on. So The Lord of death. Judgment by way. Yeah.
When you mean? Yeah. Yeah. Wait. Yeah?
Yeah. I see. Okay. So you mean okay.