Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche opens this 48-minute commentary on the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation with one central claim: sentient beings are more valuable than a wish-granting jewel because, unlike a jewel, they can deliver both temporary happiness and ultimate liberation. Drawing on Nāgārjuna and Atisha, he makes the case that pride is the main obstacle to respecting all beings equally — even insects. He then focuses on the third verse, introducing a three-part model for stable meditation (intention, the mindfulness that holds it, and a watchful mental faculty that checks for intrusions), and explains how to apply antidotes the moment a disturbing emotion arises. His governing image is a grass fire: stamp out the spark early, or it burns the whole country. Suited to practitioners already working with mind-training texts.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 8VTT 1999 06 13.mp3
UUID: 15933557-8697-43a8-929e-1beb1d57cafa
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 8 Verses Thought Transformation (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1999-06-13
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 48.5 minutes
Words: ~2,659
So the teaching here is called the mind training. And then the mind training, so here the training the mind, what it actually means is that from the beginningless of the time, we have, our mind is, our mind has been, our mind is more familiarized with the disturbing emotions and due to that we have the self-cherishing and hatred and so forth. And due to that we undergoes through the Yeah, we undergoes through we do more negative actions and as a result of that we undergoes through suffering and never be, not free from the saṃsāra. So if we still let our mind remain as it is then there will not be a time for us to free from saṃsāra home. And what we need is that we want to free from we doesn’t want to suffer and then need a happiness which is which need to free oneself from the saṃsāra and attain a happiness without suffering.
So the mind itself by nature or generally it’s very it’s very it’s like a pure water and very delicious and not haven’t got even a slight stain they need. And the mind itself has an entity or aspects of becoming enlightened. Classify the mind into two that by saying the mind which is the state of mind of negative or non-virtuous and say the non-virtuous mind and the virtuous mind. So or say the positive and negative mind. And so the positive mind is one which brings you to free from suffering, brings you all the happiness and then state of brings the positive actions and then the negative state of mind which brings you the suffering and negativity.
So as we classify that mind into the two states of mind, negative state of mind and the positive, so at this stage we have a stronger, the negative state of mind is stronger and because our mind has been more familiarized with the negative emotions or disturbing emotion or negative states in the beginning less of time. So at this stage what we need to do is that we need to decrease or we need to seek a method to decrease or minimize that or that make that state of mind weaker. And the positive state of mind and our mind is not that we don’t have that positive state of mind very strong or very stable because our mind is not, never been familiarized or yet familiarized with the positive actions in the past. So we have classified that the positive and the negative state of mind or the good or bad mind. And the way of distinguishing how one distinguishes the bad and good mind is that a mind which brings health and happiness to others is called the good mind or a positive state of mind.
And mind which brings, which directly or indirectly harms others or gives suffering to others is called the bad bad mind or the negative state of mind. So here the master, Nāgārjuna, has stated that the good migration and the happiness comes through or by helping giving helping sentient beings. And bad migration and the bad migration and the suffering also comes through harming the sentient beings. So so here it comes that the the happiness and the happiness and the suffering comes through helping or harming sentient beings.
So as we wish or want happiness, we should not we should bring help to sentient beings and we and we do not wish suffering so we should avoid harming the sentient beings. So so as the the first verses the first verse of the sent teaching said that the sentient beings are the more valuable than the wish-granting jewel. And then wish-granting jewel. So that the wish-granting jewel it’s because wish-granting jewel will only help you or give you the pleasure of this life, only this life. Whereas with sentient beings, sentient beings can give you both ultimate and temporal attainment or happiness.
And so due to that sentient beings are very kind, sentient beings are very grateful and kind to one, towards one so that one should cherish cherish sentient beings dearly. So the great master Atisha has mentioned in his teaching called the Garland of Travel and say that one should pay respect, one should pay equal respect to a little creature or little insect as one give respect or you have respect to Buddha because the Buddha and those sentient beings are same in kindness, same in showing kindness to you. Buddha shows teaches you the path to attain enlightenment. And through this one, I attain enlightenment Buddha Buddha of enlightenment. And as sentient beings, through sentient beings, sentient beings help you to develop compassion, love, bodhicitta, and helps you to attain.
So this helps you to attain the Buddhahood. So about attaining the Buddhahood, the both sentient beings and the Buddha has shown or are saying I’m equal in helping you to attain enlightenment. So one needs to develop huge pay respect towards all sentient beings and so the things which always avoid us to pay respect is that the main obstacle, one of the main obstacle, one of the main obstacle to paying respect to sentient beings is the pride. The pride which the pride acts as obstacle, to not paying respect to those sentient beings. So if you have pride you will not pay respect to those sentient beings.
So sentient beings are the basis to attain both temporal and ultimate happiness or wishes, one should pay respect to sentient beings and then that means that one has to also has to avoid the pride to able to have respect in sentient beings. And so that one should always place oneself as the lowest position or put it the thing that only there is only water underneath you. So let’s place everything above and putting yourself in the lowest position and through that one to overcome the pride now. So so we’ll now we’ll go to the third So the third the third verses. She says that one should pay respect towards the sentient beings.
And while paying respect to the sentient beings there is obstacle or this thing which acts as an obstacle to prevent you to pay respect which is disturbing emotion or afflictive emotion, he says. So so this is the afflictive emotion or the disturbing emotion which I use. Disturbing emotion acts as the obstacle to prevent you to develop a faith and respect to sentient beings. So in this case, it says that one should, the verse number three says that one should always, in all actions, which are the actions which says they are usually recorded for, while you’re standing and walking, sitting and sleeping. So these four actions, so in all actions one should always look into one’s mind or examine one’s mind that way, yes examine one’s mind and while one was examining one’s mind, one came to know that the mind is going after or generating, developing and disturbing emotions, which are negative actions.
So while one knows that the mind is undergoing truly disturbing emotion, one should, which both oneself and others. So at the moment, on the steadier way, one once came to know that one mind is developing a disturbing emotion, one should, with great effort or with great enthusiasm, one should, with great effort or enthusiasm, should stop the disturbing emotion from growing or increasing. Say for example, say from the beginning we are doing a meditation on on the compassion by focusing on the sentient beings that how wonderful if those sentient beings are free from all the sufferings and have ultimate happiness. And so while doing this meditation and then by focusing on sentient beings and wishing them to be free from all the suffering and hold this state of mind very firmly within one’s mental continuum. So here the it’s like, say has given an example here.
Say, example, taking a glass of water in one’s hand and say the water so we need three things. So water is the glass is the one and then hand which holds the glass and the third one is the mind which makes the hand to hold the glass. So likewise, say while we are meditating on the compassion focusing on sentient beings then that all just being free from the all sufferings. And so that the intention which is focusing on sentient beings and wanting them to free from all the suffering is like the glass and then the hand which holds the glass is like awareness or the mindfulness which holds. And then the third one is that the mind which here refers to the mental faculty which examines whether and where, examine that intention is staying within the hand of mindfulness or not.
So we need, through this, with these three we have to, so by examining or going through these three process we should, so we have to meditate upon compassion or love. Compassion and then always the mental, the mindfulness which holds that intention while meditating on compassion, the mindfulness always keep alert and then never let this mind to go out and one should be sure that one will not lose that intention on one’s meditation. And then, and while you hold hold that intention or that meditation for a long time, so while one’s mindfulness is holding that intention and within that period there are many obstacles coming through, obstacles like the desire, attachment and anger. So mental faculty, always examine the ones, examine that mindfulness seeing if there are any obstacles coming or not. So when it came to know that obstacles like attachment and anger are coming or occurring and then the straightforward say when anger comes on so at the same time develop the love, generate the love and then be applied antidote towards the anger by applying the, generating the love.
So through this process one should do meditation on compassion. So it’s very important to eliminate or abandon the disturbing emotion from the very outset because from the very outset the disturbing emotion is not really, it’s not powerful, it’s very little, it’s very weak and so which is very easy, that’s it, it’s very easy to, it is not powerful, it’s easy to abandon. So here is example of a scheme like the first, it’s like spark of the fire. So we should try to avoid that spark from the beginning. Once it gets greater and greater, more powerful, then it burns the whole country.
Like we faced a problem in Australia a couple of years, that’s what Mr. Said. So one should abandon the disturbing emotion from the very outset while it’s in a very weak position. If not, then later it becomes like a very powerful fire which burns all the country and then one will have lots of many, I mean have difficult eliminating the disturbing emotions. So by doing this is called mind training.
By developing the compassion and holding it very firmly, making it very stable and becomes more powerful and through that the bad state of mind like disturbing emotions which they Well, mean eliminating eliminating those disturbing emotions and making them weaker and weaker. So through this we are just stopping the negative state of mind and increasing or making stronger the positive state of mind. This is called the mind training. So here the great master Śāntideva has mentioned that the practice, we call practice practice and the main practice is to guide one’s mind, check, examine one’s mind and say where one’s mind is going. Is it developing any positive actions or negative action?
If it’s engaging in a negative action, try to stop that and minimize it and if it goes with the positive action, keep it and try to hold it longer or make it stable. So through this, this is the practice, main practice usually. So without examining one’s mind and just involving in the other practices is not really a practice. So we really need much practices other than guiding ones or examining ones mind. This is what great master has mentioned and stated.
And so the great master great master has stated that, so look, examine or look into your speech while you are in crowd and look, examine or look into your mind while you are alone or you are single. Single. So what he said said that one has to check one’s speech while one in a crowd making an announcement to be that that because some people they make mistake in speech and which hurts other people just saying some wrong words. Through this, one cannot accomplish one wishes and not only that, it’s a reason one has harmed others. So one need to be very careful and and very skilled in using words that which words which which does not harm others and also accomplish one’s wishes.
And said the examine your mind while you are alone. It means saying that while you are then always check into one’s mind where one’s mind is going, it’s after positive or negative. So if it’s going, involving with the negative action and so on straight away one should try to avoid it or avoid and eliminate that negative actions or disturbing emotions and if it’s after the cultivating a positive action or virtuous things then hold and preserve it. So the teacher has mentioned that so one should keep alert like a two person in a house. What it means is say there is a couple, just two there and then one night a robber or a thief entered the house and then the couple came to know the thief.
So both couples would use their full effort or sense to get rid of that thief. So likewise, once you keep mind very alert and whenever the disturbing emotions or negative state of mind comes just strive very hard and then try to avoid it or get rid of them. So if one does this very effective practice. So if one keeps this practice or keeps one’s mind very alert, then it becomes the antidote towards the disturbing emotions. As, so due to that, because of that the disturbing emotion cannot develop or comes into one’s mind very often and it becomes weaker and weaker and as a result of that one’s suffering becomes less and less.
So if one should abandon the disturbing emotion from the very outset, if one does not abandon or apply to the disturbing emotion and leave as it is when it comes then that and then as a result that harms both oneself and others and not only that, disturbing disturbing emotion increases and becomes very powerful. It is like a sleeping person, say a one who sleeps a lot. So if that person never changes manner of sleeping, then he just sleeps. He sleeps today and tomorrow and then so he always sleeps all the time. And another Rinpoche mentioned is that person means that the disturbing emotion gets used to one and it always, I’m always engaged in the disturbing emotions and it becomes very powerful.
Like a person, say people consume alcohol and using drugs. So they take one today and two tomorrow, and then later they just got used to it and they become addicted and they can’t stay without those alcohol and the drugs. And like some people, they drink alcohol a lot, they drink wine all the time. And then some people, when they can’t, they don’t get alcohol in the morning, their hands shake. It’s it’s like that.
So it said that the the so one should always see the disturbing emotion as the enemy and always cause harm as much as one could to the disturbing emotion and through this one can stop or eliminate the distem-