Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche opens this 45-minute commentary on Langri Tangpa’s 8 Verses of Thought Transformation with a striking image: living beings are the field and we are the farmers — the seeds we plant (harm or kindness) determine our harvest entirely. He then unpacks the first verse in detail, explaining why Langri Tangpa compares sentient beings to wish-fulfilling gems and why they deserve even greater cherishing. Moving through concrete examples — clothes, food, education, livelihood — Rinpoche builds the case that all happiness traces back to others’ kindness. A short story about a daughter jumping from a sinking boat to save her mother illustrates genuine altruism versus self-interested giving. The session closes with a guided ten-minute meditation on love, extending good wishes to friends, strangers, and enemies alike.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 8VTT 1992-Easter Retreat.mp3
UUID: 561eebea-a081-4560-9e67-10b52e1be833
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 8 Verses Thought Transformation (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1992 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.5 minutes
Words: ~2,146
Positive results will arise. In dependence upon negative causes, negative results will arise. By analogy, if we plant a seed of a hot variety such as chili, then a hot plant, a plant which gives off a quality of heat will arise. On the other hand, if the seed has a quality of giving a sweet result or a plant, then it will grow a sweet plant. If we plant a sour quality seed, we will have a sour plant as a result.
These varieties arise dependent upon the variety of seed. So living beings are like a field and we are as if the farmers and we are planting a variety of seeds in that field. Just as in the case we talked about, the hot seeds bringing a result in a hot variety of plant. If we plant the seeds of harming others within this field of living being, we are planting the seeds of suffering. And what kind of crop can we expect to harvest from such a field?
If we relate with this field of living beings with an attitude of kindheartedness, of altruism, and we engage in benefiting others, then what kind of result can we expect? We can expect a result of happiness in the future. The living beings are like the field, and we are the farmers of that field. And it’s clear that by the quality of the seed we plant, we will reap the quality of the harvest. If it’s a negative seed, then we will reap a negative harvest.
The positive seeds have positive results. And therefore, it is in dependence upon these foregoing reasons that we should seek to benefit others, that we should cherish others and seek to bring them happiness and eliminate their suffering. The bodhisattva is someone who mainly acts in the interest of others rather than self. Someone who mainly is concerned with bringing about the happiness of others and eliminating the suffering of others. And as a result of that, then his own faults are eliminated and his own excellent qualities are developed. You know, he doesn’t concern himself with his own happiness, but mainly concerning himself with the happiness of others, he will, as a result, achieve.
Reading from this first stanza of the text where Langri Tangpa sets out. Being determined to accomplish the highest welfare for all beings who excel the wish fulfilling gem. The first verse, I shall constantly hold them dear. So in this verse, he is comparing living beings to a wish fulfilling gem. He’s using a simile between living beings and a wish fulfilling gem.
Wish fulfilling gems are extremely beneficial. They were previously greatly valued. And the verse says, in the first verse, it compares sentient beings to wish fulfilling gems. And then it says, I. I is referring to himself, Langri Tangpa.
I shall constantly hold them dear, but how dear? It says I will hold them even more dear, that even though a wish fulfilling gem is extremely valuable, I will even exceed holding them more dear than the wish fulfilling gem. I will hold all sentient beings. I will hold them more dear than the wish fulfilling gem. So there are two reasons why he compares living beings to wish fulfilling gems.
Previously, there were no factories. There were no farms. There was no wealth, and so people would seek out the wish fulfilling gems. And these were found in the ocean, and they would go to the ocean and retrieve them. And so they had to, first, they had to go to the ocean.
And then the wish fulfilling gems were encrusted with stone. So the outer stones had to be removed, the gem polished. And once that was done, then with the wish fulfilling gem, many prayers were made, offerings were made, and the wishes were granted in terms of one could gain food, clothing. All of one’s possible enjoyment would rain down both for oneself and others. Analogously, sentient beings or living beings are encrusted with karma and afflictive emotion.
And just like the wish fulfilling gem isn’t able to eliminate its own impurities, that is to say, it is not able to polish itself. Likewise, sentient beings are not able to by themselves eliminate their own suffering and afflictive emotion. Just as we go to retrieve the wish fulfilling gems and having polished them, making various prayers, we gain all that we desire. We gain food, clothing, etcetera.
Likewise, we go to them in order to gain that which we want. By benefiting them, motivated by love and compassion, and eliminating their problems, bringing them happiness, then we ourselves will find ultimate happiness, we ourselves will find the elimination of the root of our suffering. All that we wanted will come about by cherishing other sentient beings, and therefore, this becomes our main practice. All our highest welfare is brought about through cherishing other sentient beings.
The bodhisattva acts to bring about the welfare of sentient beings. It is out of compassion and love and helping to bring about the happiness of others and eliminate their suffering that oneself will bring about the cessation of all of one’s various faults and the development of all one’s excellent qualities, that is to say through this process one is brought to Buddhahood. So, also, in dependence upon living beings, that is to say by abandoning harming living beings, that we can attain liberation, that we can abandon cyclic existence. In dependence on sentient beings, we can practice ethics, we can generate meditative concentrations and wisdom. The highest attitude, that is the precious awakening heart, arises out of wishing to benefit living beings. It comes about out of developing compassion and love for living beings.
In order to bring about the welfare of others, we can develop the awakening heart. Without this beneficial attitude toward others, there’s no way that we can ultimately develop the awakening heart. Having a human life with a beautiful body, a long life, and that things go well over the course of our life arises in dependence upon benefiting sentient beings. And all of the material happiness that we are able to experience, out of material such as food, clothing, etcetera, arises out of benefiting others. So all of the various happiness that we experience arise in dependence upon sentient beings. For example, the clothes that we all wear, how did they how did they come about? They came about to the work of of living being.
We didn’t make them. Okay. The food that we ate for breakfast this morning, the butter, the milk, the fruit, the yogurt, these all came about through the work of living beings. The same with the body. The body comes about by means of sentient beings.
Okay. And likewise, the you know, whatever education we may possess that came about through our study. How how did this come about? You know, the fact that we have we have learned a trade, we have attained a method of livelihood, and that we can go to work and receive a livelihood that we receive pay, and that we’re able to carry on our life in this way. How did this come about?
That we had to at some time, we had to study, and therefore, we had to depend upon a teacher. And it was in dependence upon that teacher, other living beings that were able to gain our livelihood today. Initially, when we came into this life, we were like a worm. You know, we could just all we could do is go, ah, ah, ah. And and we the only thing that the only thing that we brought with us into this life was our anger, our attachment, our pride, and our hatred.
Now everything that we have has come about to in reliance upon living beings. And the the fact that we can we can have this meditation course and and have this fine building to hold it in it comes about to the great effort and the kindness of many people. So it is for these many reasons and understanding the great kindness of living being that says that he’s going to hold them dear, that he’s going to seek to generate a beneficial attitude then to generate compassion toward them and to seek to achieve their happiness and eliminate their suffering. Yeah. I need to take care of that.
We’ll take a few minutes if you have some questions. If one has great altruism, then one would say, no. You drink it. It doesn’t matter about me, and you give it to them.
So there’s a story about a mother and daughter who were traveling in a boat in the rapids of the river, and the boat began to sink. And the daughter thought, you know, that if I jump out, then there’s a chance my mother will be saved. So in order to save her mother’s life, she jumped out. And as it worked, she floated along the surface of the river and didn’t die, but her mother sank. But out of her kindhearted attitude, it was due to the power of her kindhearted attitude that she didn’t die.
So if one were to give to others motivated by a thought to eliminate one’s own suffering, then this is not a real practice of generosity. It’s because it’s mixed with self-centeredness. The real generosity is wishing to benefit another and only wishing to benefit that person. There is no thought in the giving that oneself is going to benefit. This is because we have been habituated to self-centeredness up to now. That is extremely powerful and it arises of itself.
This is what is what we mean by thought transformation that we are trying to transform previously negative states into healthy states. We’re trying to generate new states of mind that to transform our mind. Not allowing the mind to come under the influence of these previous negative states, but trying to generate and have it dwell in the positive states of mind. It’s when someone first begins to learn typing, it’s quite difficult. You know, they have to look at each letter.
It’s still very uncoordinated. But after training, then they don’t even have to look at the keyboard anymore. If today we cultivate a kindhearted attitude and we seek to eliminate our various negative states, then it’s going to be difficult at first. But it will be a little bit easier tomorrow, and it will be a little easier the day after tomorrow, and next year, until during the course of this training, we will have eliminated completely self-centeredness. Yeah.
We’ll stop there for today. I think a lot of you have your stomachs rumbling. It’s like a prayer on page ten.
We’re going to meditate on love for the next ten minutes. Can you hear me? Even for five minutes it is unimaginably beneficial for our minds. And additionally, we accumulate a creative potential like space.
How we can proceed in cultivating love: reflecting upon the fact that there are many beings who do not have happiness nor the causes of happiness, and thinking how wonderful it would be if these beings had happiness and the various causes of happiness. And what type of happiness are we talking about here? Not merely temporal happiness, which is unstable, which is fleeting, but the happiness of liberation, which is stable and is completely free of any type of suffering or dissatisfaction. So there are almost an infinite number of living beings who do not possess that type of happiness. And what do we mean by the causes of happiness?
The qualities of mind, the state of caring, of loving, of compassion, the realization of emptiness, and the understanding of the various faults of cyclic existence. All of these qualities are the causes for the type of happiness which is unchanging, which is completely free of suffering. And there are many, many beings who do not possess these causes of happiness. And we are to cultivate this attitude of love not only toward ourselves, not only toward those we love, our friends, those who are dear to us, but those who are not dear to us, those beings such as strangers, those toward whom we have indifference, but additionally, even our enemies, without distinguishing amongst sentient beings, to radiate out this love to all. So please, as I proceed in directing you in meditation on love, please follow the instructions.
It would be wonderful if myself and all sentient beings had an unchanging happiness, complete happiness, a stable happiness, and all the causes of such a type of happiness. May myself and all living beings equal to space have happiness, and the causes of happiness. Myself will bring to all of these