Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The image of a traveler who can never reach India — first paralysed by wavering desire, then misdirected by a wrong road, then stuck in doubt about the road itself — gives Khensur Rinpoche’s treatment of afflicted doubt its distinctive edge. In this 51-minute session from the Awareness and Knowledge series, he covers the last three of the six principal afflictive mental factors: afflicted doubt (uncertainty about the Four Noble Truths, karma, and past lives), ignorance (likened to a blind person unable to see either path or destination), and the view of the transitory collection — the solid, concrete sense of “I” that flares up the moment someone accuses you of theft. He then ties all six together: body and speech follow mind, mind follows afflictive emotion, and subduing the afflictions is therefore the whole project of the path. A Q&A addresses self-defeatism versus genuine confidence, the constructive pride used in deity yoga, and why responding to anger creates karma for rebirth as a snake.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 31 AK 1989-03-02.mp3
UUID: 5139d3b2-70b6-4ec5-9dff-fac7bc51aa18
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Awareness and Knowledge 1988-1989 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1989-03-02
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 51.3 minutes
Words: ~2,291
So, pride actually prevents us as an obstacle to the development of higher qualities, various stages and paths and stages. Whereas one of the best foundations we we can have for developing ourselves is the quality of humility and respecting others. So then the fourth of the six principal afflictive mental factors is doubt. Afflicted doubt. Before in awareness and knowledge we studied the awareness of doubt, but here we’re not talking about doubt in general, but afflicted doubt.
And afflicted doubt is for example, doubt with respect to such things as that when the Buddha taught at Varanasi the four noble truths and wondering whether, and the doubt which questions whether the four noble truths exists or not, whether the Three Jewels exist or not, whether the law of cause effect exists or not, whether past and future lives exist or not, are examples of afflicted doubt. This is one of these one of the six principal afflicted mental factors, afflicted doubt. It’s said that the quality of afflicted doubt is extremely a great fault. That for by way of example, with respect to the four noble truths, if we were traveling on spiritual journey toward liberation and that we we kept we had the question as to whether the four noble truths exist or not, then we wouldn’t be able to arrive at our destination. So, Vasubandhu has said that we will never arrive at our destination as long as we have doubt.
And if we take by way of example, if we wanted to go to another country, maybe India, and but we have doubt initially as to whether we want to go or not. Sometimes we have desire to go and sometimes we don’t have a desire to go. In such a state, then obviously we’re not going to arrive at our destination, we’re never going to get to India. But even if we were to finally develop the desire to go, then if we were to travel a wrong path, then if we took, we could end up, for example, in China, and ending up in China having taken a wrong path, obviously we’re not going to get to India. But even if we were to, so we have to question, if we were to question, have doubts about what is the correct path, will this path take me to India, will this path not take me to India?
And if one is stuck in that doubt as to the correct path, again, one will not arrive in India. So all these are such types of doubts or obstacles to finally arriving at your destination. With respect to a spiritual path, if, for example, we were traveling a path to liberation and we began to question whether the Four Noble Truths actually exist or not, and we abide in that state of indecisiveness, then we’re never going to arrive at the destination of liberation. So then the fifth of the six of the six principal afflictive mental factors is ignorance And ignorance is likened to a blind person, in that they’re not able to, a blind person is not able to see either the superficial or the deeper nature of either the superficial objects nor the deeper nature of those objects. They’re not able to see, for example, a path, and therefore, they’re not able to see their destination, and they’re not able to perform any the work necessary to engage in following a path.
Ignorance has the same quality. It has the quality of not knowing. It is an obscuration and not seen. Is not seen with respect to both the superficial and the more deeper nature of objects. It is an unknowing with respect to what are the practices to be cultivated and what is to be rejected.
And ultimately, it is the unknowing or the obscuration to the ultimate, with respect to the reality, the the nature the the final nature of all phenomena, their ultimate nature. It is an obscuration with respect to the final mode of abidance or nature of all phenomena. So it has the function ignorance has the function of obscuring the final has the function of obscuring the final nature of all phenomena. And due to that obscuration then we engage in the various faults of the the afflictive emotions. The sixth of the six principal afflictive mental factors is view.
So with respect to the view, there, you know, general, the I exists. In general, the I exists. You know, we say, for example, I’m going, I’m doing, I’m eating. We make all these various statements about the I, and this I appears to us in dependence upon the aggregates, in dependence upon the, aggregates. So we say things like I’m a monk, I’m a woman, I’m a man.
So in general, the I exist? So this eye, this type of eye, it eats, it drinks tea, it engages in destructive actions, constructive actions, various types of activities. So this I, it is established in dependence upon the aggregates. There is no I which is not established in dependence upon aggregates. But when we have an under extreme emotional state, when we have a great, a forceful feeling of I, at such a time, there appears an I which is not, which the I appears to be self sufficient and not dependent upon the aggregates.
Such an I appears which is self sufficient and not dependent upon the aggregates. So, you know, if we take an example, and then we’re all we all have our we’re all people with our various names. If if, for example, we were to say, someone were to call Kimball, and Kimball Kimball would think, ah, he’s calling me. And whatever name we might have, if they if we heard our name called, then the thought would arise in our mind, ah, I’m being called. So, in dependence upon each of our having our various names called, we would think, I am being called.
So this this I exists. So, you know, in general, when somebody calls our name, our individual names, the thought arises, I am being called, and this I exist. But on the other hand, if this person were to say us, Oh, you’re a thief, and were to point us out and say, Oh, you’re a thief, and immediately we would be taken aback. We would say, how dare you say that to me? What do you mean by that?
I’m no thief. And we would become flushed. In that emotional state which arises, there appears the, there arises the appearance of an eye which is very concrete, solid eye which is in no way dependent upon the aggregates. So at such a time when there’s an extreme emotional state thinking, you know, I didn’t do that. There arises the appearance of an eye which is very concrete, which is not dependent upon the aggregates, which in no way depends upon aggregates.
The awareness which is apprehending that eye is view or the view of the transitory collection. The view of the transitory collection or simply view. That is the consciousness which is apprehending such a type of eye which is very solid, concrete, and no way depends upon the aggregates. So this view of the this is the view of the transitory collection. This is an afflictive emotion.
And this is view. So, Śāntideva says in dependence upon apprehending the I as a self, there arises the conception of mine (M-I-N-E), my aggregates, my possessions. So this, you know, there are five views, and this is one of these five views is the view of the transitory collection. So it depends upon the apprehension of a naturally existent I.
There arises the view of the naturally existent mine, and that we develop such apprehensions as my nose, my ear, my friend, my possessions. It depends upon the transitory collection apprehending I and mine. We develop attachment toward those things that we like, hatred toward those things that we dislike, and thereby are forced to engage in in actions creating karma, and this perpetuates cyclic existence. So we’ve explained the six principal afflictive mental factors, and the reason they’re called principal is that when these develop in the mind, these are the main conditions, these are the main developers of negative states. These are the main developers of negative states, therefore, they’re called the six principal afflictive mental factors.
So when afflictive emotions arise, are generated in our mind, we no longer are under control. It’s as if we’re being blown by the winds of the afflictive emotions. We become completely under their control. And not only is our mind made unhappy, we lose the peace of our mind, but that we’re forced against our, due to the force, we’re forced to engage in negative actions, create negative karma, and perpetuate cyclic existence. So if we reconsider the situation that we’re in, now we have a body and mind, but the body and mind are under the control, remain under the control of the mind itself.
So I before, I forgot to mention speech. So we have body, speech, mind. So the body and speech are under the control of mind. The mind is under the control of afflictive emotions. So that which is to be subdued, that which is to be controlled are the afflictive emotions.
So due to the influence of the afflictive emotions, then the mind comes under the control of negative factors, and thereby the speech and body. So when we talk about subduing or controlling our mind, we’re talking about subduing or controlling the afflictive emotions, the negative factors within our mind. Developing, cultivating more and more of the positive factors of mind, positive states of mind, and decreasing or pacifying the negative states, the afflictive emotions. Now our situation is that of the strength of the two, negative and positive states, the negative or the afflictive emotions are a greater strength. So, if we don’t begin to make effort toward again and again cultivating positive states, and increasing those positive states at which we have generated, as a means to decrease the force of the afflictive emotions, then we’re always going to be stuck in a situation of creating negative karma and therefore consistently or continually or continue to experience suffering.
If on the other hand, we were to again and again seek to cultivate to to generate the eleven constructive mental factors. Using these as a foundation for developing the qualities of renunciation, awakening the heart, correct view, going on to develop the correct understanding of emptiness, that leading our mind in a more and more positive direction, then naturally our body and speech are going to follow in that positive state. So if you have some questions. Yeah. So what about the negative effect of negative mental state where it’s like the reverse side of pride, where the mind holds very strongly to being you know, lesser than other people, but in a way that’s very negative.
So, pride is pride is the exaggeration of some quality which we don’t have. Either attributing, superimposing a quality which we don’t have, or taking a quality which we do have, exaggerating it, and thinking that you have this exaggerated quality. Thinking that I can’t do something, that I’m very low, and is simply a matter of, this is a quality of self defeatism. So this isn’t a desirable quality either. We have to have self confidence in that we can do things in accordance with our actual situation, what qualities we do have without exaggerating them to be able to see those for ourselves and have confidence in that without either deflating ourselves or exaggerating.
So, we can say that, for example, that can attain Buddhahood, I can develop myself, because that’s in accordance with our actual nature. We can, for example, when meditating on deity yoga, thinking that I am Chenrezig or I am Yamāntaka, that these a matter of pride. These are, you know, desirable states to to cultivate. Yeah. You mean helping them with their anger or just avoiding them?
Well, yes, ma’am. Helping them with their anger. So if someone were to become angry with you, then you can help them most by developing toward them love and affection, not returning any harsh words but speaking pleasurable words to them. Kind words. Can you do that?
I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. When we are provoked in the anger or another, what is the outcome of it? Where does that come with them? When we are provoked in the anger. Provoked?
Yeah. Pardon? So because you you generate anger, you’re creating destructive karma. You’re destroying past positive karma, constructive karma that you created, and you’re creating the cause to be reborn as a snake. Snake.
Because he provoked you to become angry, he’s he’s creating some small negative karma himself or herself. But if he had no he had no negative harmful intention, if he was just playing around, then it it would be it wouldn’t matter from his side. But if if but if he had negative intention, it would create negative karma. Yeah. So so the relationship between fear and anger is very rare?
Very rare? So there I mean, there could be a case where someone who who frightened you, You could get angry at that person for frightening you. You know, someone who who you thought was was who pretended to be a thief or something and scared you. You gotta and because they when you realize that they were at this, them frightening you could act as a cause for, becoming angry at