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 closes the preliminary practices of his 7 Point Mind Training series with a striking diagnostic: examine your physical appearance and daily comfort to infer what you practiced in past lives, then examine your present mind — whether it holds compassion or anger — to see where you are headed next. He builds urgency around death’s unpredictability and cites Milarepa as evidence that ordinary people can achieve liberation when effort meets opportunity. Karma’s mechanics are illustrated through the Lord of Death, a Mañjuśrī-appointed judge who weighs each person’s actions. Rinpoche then summarises the ground covered — precious human rebirth, impermanence, the faults of saṃsāra, the Four Noble Truths, and meditating on emptiness — and announces that the next session will begin the main teaching: bodhicitta.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 7P 1998 10 03.mp3
UUID: 1bffeb2d-dc17-469f-b858-5d119858affe
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 7 Point Mind Training (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1998-10-03
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 47.4 minutes
Words: ~3,509
Have and and at this time, we have all these conditions and have we are been very fortunate to have these conditions and No. No. So we are being we have in this town, we are 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, or been very fortunate of us to get such conditions or such a time to get such time to practice. So so once you so if if once you, feel rejoice, once you really feel rejoice of having this, all these conditions and generate great enthusiasm to practice the Dharma and get rid of. So if and by, if one can if one is being able to do this kind of like feeling rejoice to having these conditions and generate good effort or enthusiasm and practice the Dharma, then one can really generate, being able to overcome all 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, say, a famous liberated being or arhat called Milarepa. And also there are many liberated beings or arhats, Indian and Tibetan arhats as well. But but 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 plus practicing the Dharma with great effort or doing a strong, very strong practice, they have been able to become liberated or or being able to become a arhat. So so it is same to us if if we, so we have these conditions, all the conducive conditions, and if we generate enough enthusiasm or put great great efforts in our practice that there is no doubt that we can become liberated or overcome all the sufferings and from in this life. So because we have all the conducive conditions which all those great arhat beings has.
So there’s no So they I mean, where 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 the only reason why we are not being not able to practice or not being able to being liberated oneself or become an arhat is is due to the lack of our effort. No. So so so if if one wish to, you know, have a happiness happiness without any suffering, one should really happiness suffering, one should really practice.
So to 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, postponed or never thought of or, achieving that kind that goal or like happiness without suffering in the next life. And not only, once It’s not And and one also one should start to one should start one’s practice from from now to have that to have that happiness and happiness and never thought of doing like shifting or just procrastinating one’s practice because there is the death is uncertain and it can occur at any time. And if that comes then they 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 at the moment. 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 have to go, but it doesn’t mean that when death comes, we are just That is the end of all, 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. We It’s fine.
We don’t care. Even the death comes but that is 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, well one has to One leaves or one has to leave one’s own body and the only which travels is our consciousness. And so so at the time we at the time we, one dies, then one’s and we have one one has to leave one’s body and has and the one’s consciousness travels travels to the next birth.
And 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 by a good karma or a bad karma, good or bad action. And if one has accumulated a good store of merits or virtues, then one with a greater store of virtues, one’s consciousness travels with the good karma and one will take birth 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 negativities then one’s consciousness travels along with the bad karma and will bring to or will be born in a bad rebirth or lower rebirths. So it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s like this.
For example, like in in this particular world, you know, it depends on the how crime one commits. If one has made a huge crime, then one has been punished in a Been punished by a law. I mean, by One has been punished by One has to undergo to greater punishment and had maintain, sort of retain or stay in a, for example, like a jail for longer period. And if one has committed commit bit small, like, bit less crime than one has been punished a bit less and then And been come come So And even if one commits a very small crime, then it’s been punishable small. It’s like, depends The punishments of our law is depends on the the crime that one person commits.
So it’s it’s same that if one had to commit to get to a male, one has to suffer more. And if one has a certain like, let’s say the three. If one has if one has committed great negativities or bad karma, then one has to suffer more. And then if one has someone with lesser, the lesser the so greater the negativity or bad karma, the greater one has to suffer. And the lesser the ones commit the negative.
Bad karma one had, the lesser one suffers. So it depends on the bad karma or depends on how one has accumulated, one has accumulate accumulate the bad karma or negativities. So one may think that who will check or who will do this, who will check that, I mean, one has committed greater bad karma and has to suffer more. And who judges? I mean, like, one may think that as in our law there is a person like a police or something who checks the crime and the person and they specify what kind of crime he or she has committed. 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 same to our bad So, regarding good karma.
If one has made accumulated greater sort of merit or greater good good karma than one has been, one can have a greater happiness or greater love. And then one has has lesser good karma than one being one. Lesser one and compared 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. So and it’s same. So if one has good store of merit, one can be born in a greater greater one has a greater rebirth and greater and be born in a better place in it.
So it’s it’s so it goes respectively for So, excuse me, if if one if one if one generate huge or great effort and to practice the Dharma in to practice the Dharma in this life, then one can there is a possibility or chance for oneself, for one to become become enlightened in this lifetime and if one if if 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, can been born in human been born as a human in next life and can continue with one practice and become achieve enlightenment in the next life. No. No. So we have heard that, Milarepa who has become enlightened in this life, but but he I mean, No. He was not able to begin, it was not just by his effort in this life to become enlightenment because he was not enlightened by practicing by practicing in just single life.
He has, because of the power of good practice in his previous lifetimes, storing the store of merit and abandoning the negativities and through the power of that, he was been 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 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 this lifetime. So it is sure we can be sure that we have accumulated a 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 a 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 good karma. And so it is, it’s like to have a, to have a result, the cost, to have a result inherently, the cost of the result should, of particular things should precede before. So it’s not, 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 leaving good karmic imprints in the past lifetime, we have achieved this particular, this precious human rebirth. So it is it is sure, so we can we can be sure that we have practiced Dharma and make karmic imprint in the past life as well.
Now. So so we we we have and in this lifetime, we have so achieved the precious human rebirth which is very difficult to achieve or attain and which has the eight freedoms and ten endowments. So, and this particular precious human rebirth or our birth is the result of the good practice in the past lifetimes because you know, by, 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, due 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 our 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, that one has did a one has done lots of practice in the in previous lifetimes. So this is how our past great gurus has stated that, check this life and look look into look look look into this life and I said look look to your present life or present physic present present body that see that 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, one can, and one conditions, what one has. Like foods, physical appearance, and this, precious human rebirth and this body. So by thinking that one can definitely be can be sure that one have done a good good, one one has done good things in the past lifetime and to go and 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. But next rebirth, say, if one if one finds it, if one sees that one one’s mind has, you know, one has good good mind, loving kindness, compassions, and and one is practicing, that’s right. And when one looks into one’s mind and sees one practices loving kindness, compassion and practicing patience and have affection to sentient beings.
If one has these things in one’s mind, it can be sure, one can show 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, one will have a next, I mean, bad rebirth. So this is how our great masters has stated that check, look into this body that to find what one has done in the past and look in one mind where one look in this present mind where one will go in the next rebirth. So Buddhist teachings always been taught through the logical, with logics, with which the logic with the proof. And without If 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 which proves. No. Buddhist teachings only deals with the logic. For example, we can check check-in this lifetime as well. If if one if if if if if a person who has studied well in this well, I mean, been good educated or studied well in their school time and been very friendly with others and have maintained good conduct and and and doing good 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 or the in 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 lives. So it’s like, it’s because of their good, lifestyle in, lifetime from the beginning and like, thank you. From studying hard and then being friendly and have friendly with others and maintaining good contacts. 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. Now. So if one practice in this life and have maintained good conduct and abandon all the misconducts or the 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 just as simple, just I mean, leave the mind as it is then 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 it like 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 we have been, due to that we have been taking births or wandering in the cyclic existence or the saṃsāra. So, one should and where it’s, been born in cyclic existence in a way there is no no which has only suffering in this world, Samsāra. And so once you really try to take rebirth without the karma being accompanied by the disturbing emotions and or one try not to be, or one should try to take a birth without depending on the action which has karma being accompanied by disturbing emotion, that means one, it means that one should try to become a liberated being and have a power to take birth as as one wishes. So try to become liberated in this life. And And so that Yes.
To liberate it to 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 verbal and through speech and three negativities which has been committed through the mind. So, and means to liberate oneself from the Samsāra, one should develop a faith or believe in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and try not to commit any negativities through through any of the three doors which is body’s speech and mind and to try and to maintain or do good, and to keep the mind steadily single pointedly one should do the, one should try to, 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. No. So, up to here we have been talking about, been teaching, given teaching on the preliminary practices of the small and the middling scope. As for the, so the preliminary practice of the small scope is that how difficult it is to practice and to gain this precious human rebirth which which has freedoms and endowments or advantages and our thinking or practice and thinking about the impermanence.
And as for the preliminary practice of, or in the, of the middling scope which is seeing the disadvantages of the cyclic existence or Samsāra and free oneself from the saṃsāra, one’s A method to one, and to method for one to free oneself from saṃsāra is the 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 now. So yeah. And so we’ll finish here for today for the preliminary practices. And and the main practice or the actual practice is about the enlightened mind or the bodhicitta in which we will we will talk about this like actual teaching for, I mean for tomorrow and after tomorrow we’ll deal with the actual practices which is bodhicitta.
So Rinpoche says if there are any questions, he’ll sit for five minutes. We’ll go first then. Yep. Yep. Yep.
No. The lord of the death. Mañjuśrī 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 who judges. He has appointed the lord of death to judge us.
Lord of death. Lord. Lord of death. Lord of death. I mean, like, it’s a Yama.
Yeah. When you mean? Yeah. Yeah. Wait.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I see. Okay.
So you mean okay.