Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The story of Geshe Ben Kungken — a Tibetan meditator who stood guard over his own mind with an imaginary spear, tallying each day’s mental states as piles of white and black stones — anchors this 50-minute commentary by Khensur Rinpoche. Drawing on Śāntideva and Atisha, Rinpoche teaches that examining the mind’s moment-to-moment quality is the whole of ethical discipline: notice whether the mind is positive or negative, apply an antidote immediately, and reinforce whatever is wholesome. A spy analogy drives home the prerequisite — just as unrecognized agents undermine all plans, unrecognized afflictions cause harm we cannot counter. Rinpoche then proceeds through four secondary mental factors: haughtiness (taking pleasure in one’s own qualities), harmfulness (intent to harm due to lack of compassion), non-shame (indifference to the appropriateness of one’s own actions), and non-embarrassment (indifference to others’ disapproval). Part of a longer series on mental factors, this session suits practitioners engaged in systematic mind-training.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 35 AK 1989-03-16.mp3
UUID: 85162d8c-6886-48b7-a165-ec80f204be8c
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Awareness and Knowledge 1988-1989 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1989-03-16
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 50.4 minutes
Words: ~2,573
So initially, we should adjust our motivation such that we’re going to listen to this profound teaching on the great vehicle in order to put into practice the means by which we will be able to attain peerless Buddhahood in order to establish all sentient beings equal to space and complete and perfect happiness and peace. Yes. So with respect to minds, there are we can categorize them into two types. Those that are dissatisfactory. Those which are dissatisfactory and those which bring happiness.
With respect to minds, we categorize them into two types. Those which experience suffering states and those which experience happy states. Those which bring us satisfaction and those which bring us dissatisfaction. Of these two, we’ve completed the positive states of mind. And now we’ve been discussing the negative states of mind.
Initially, we explained the negative states of mind divided into two divisions. The six principal afflicted states and the twenty proximate or secondary mental states or mental factors. We completed a discussion of the six principal afflicted states And now we’re engaged in the discussion of the twenty secondary mental factors of which there are we’ve completed the eight the eight, the first eight. The Śāntideva has said that the ethical discipline is made up is constituted by examination of one’s own mind as to its state, whether it’s in a positive or negative state and where it is leading to. This is the essence of ethical discipline.
There is no other greater ethical discipline than this itself. So ethical discipline involves a certain activities. And this activity essentially is examination of the mind, guarding the mind as to the nature of its state in which it exists within and where it’s leading to. When we meditate, the essence of meditation is to be able to be mindful of our own mind, what state it’s in and guard our mind. There is no necessity to meditate outside of this.
So our main practice in meditation is the contemplation of the state in which our mind is existing within. Examining whether our mind is in a positive, negative, or neutral state. If it’s in a negative state, then we are to take measures to cease that negative state. If it’s in a positive state, to take measures to increase the positivity, the power of that positive state. That whatever positive state, such as compassion, love, awakening heart, faith, to increase it higher and higher.
So we’re always trying to cease unproductive states and to promote productive states of mind. This is the main practice within meditation. So Atisha has said that when we’re alone, we should examine our mind. When we’re when we’re within in a crowd, we should examine our speech. This is because when we have a tendency that when we’re with other people speaking, that our speech can easily lead lead us into generating anger and attachment.
And then he went on to say that when we’re alone, for example, when we’re in our room, then we should contemplate the state of our mind. We should think whether it is in a negative or positive state. If it’s in a negative state, take measures to cut off or cease that negative state. Or if it’s in a positive state, to take measures to maintain and promote that positive state. During the course, even while we’re by ourselves, can produce a vast array of many different types of minds.
And some of these are quite negative, some are quite positive. Simply sitting in our room by ourselves, we could develop the thought to hurt someone else, to kill someone else, and therefore we could easily generate a great deal of negativity or create a lot of negative karma just sitting quietly in our room by ourselves. So there was a great meditator in Tibet by the name by the name of Geshe Ben Kungken. And he was once asked, what is your practice, Geshe-la? And he answered the, My practice is to examine my mind.
When I’m contemplating and examining my mind, I stand there with a spear. And the moment an afflictive emotion arises in my mind, I stab it with my with with with the antidote of my spear. So this is this is this is the meditation practice to apply antidotes upon the rise of negative states of mind. Geshe Ben Kungken used to engage in the practice of counting the various, states of mind which arose during the course of his day. If a positive state of mind arose, then he would place it in a pile of white stones.
He would take a white stone and place it in a pile. If a negative state of mind arose, he would take a black stone and place it on in a pile. And he would make a count in this way. So initially, when he was engaged in this practice at the at the beginning, he had a high pile of black stones and just a few white stones. So at the end of in the evening, he would look at his pile of stones and he would say and of course, initially, in the beginning, black pile of black stones was much larger and just a few white stones.
And he would say, hey, You know, look at look at this. Look at this situation. He said, if if if this happens again tomorrow, I’m not gonna give you any more food. And over a period of time, his count began to change. Slowly the black stones began to decrease their amount and white stones began to increase and got to the place where there were more.
At the end of the evening when he counted up his negative and positive states of mind which are experienced during the course of the day that he would see that he actually had more white stones, more positive states and less than he did negative states or black stones. At such a time, he would take his hand and shake his own hand and said, you know, Geshe la, you’re a grand fellow. It’s a pleasure to meet such a person as you. And he would praise himself in this way. So this is the way that we can progress, that we can improve our mind.
You know, it came to pass that eventually there were only at the end of the evening, there were only a few black stones in there. There was a great pile of white stones. And by using the spirit of an antidote, whenever afflictive emotions arise, we can begin to cease our negative states and increase the positive states of mind. So this is the implication of the quotation by Śāntideva when he was talking about the main ethical discipline is simply examining the negative and positive quality of our mind, what state it’s in, and taking the necessary measures to prevent negative states and promote positive states. And so this is the way we can proceed in our practice for ourselves in the same way that Geshe Ben Kungken did.
That if we consistently, upon the arising of a negative state, apply an antidote, they will begin to lessen in frequency and in power and begin to decrease. And we can keep promoting the frequency and power of our positive states until a point is reached where we can have this cessation of all negative states and the continued production of positive states of mind. And if our mind is in a positive state, then all the actions proceeding of body and speech from that state will be only positive. So our present situation is that we generally don’t examine the state of our mind. And therefore we don’t, aren’t aware of the negativity and positive states states that we’re involved in.
It’s but even when we do, it’s difficult to initially to begin to produce positive states of mind. So in order to proceed as Geshe Ben Kungken did, then we have to be able to identify or recognize positive and negative states of mind. If we don’t know, if we aren’t able to identify what is a negative mind, what is a positive state of mind, then we aren’t going to be able to put into practice the we will not be able to apply the antidotes at the proper time nor be able to produce positive states of mind since we don’t know what they are. So it’s necessary that we begin to identify the quality of negative and positive states of mind. Begin to identify them, be able to identify them.
In the case of, for example, Tibet, before the Chinese had invaded, that there were cases where the Chinese had planted spies in the, within the Tibetan government itself. That they would, that these Chinese spies would listen to what was being said and they would read the various correspondences so they had an idea what was going on in the thinking of the Tibetan government. And they would report this back to their own government. And so this occurred since the Tibetan government could not identify, wasn’t able to recognize that they were in fact spies. And it’s important that we be able to recognize this various states of what are negative and what are positive states of mind in order that we can take the appropriate measures.
Gathering of some sort, then there there are Chinese spies. And the Chinese government knows exactly what’s the next day, they know what happened during the meeting. Then they’re able to report back having spied upon these meetings that this person said this, this person said this, and this person said this. Thereby reporting back then the Chinese are able to take countermeasures and causing the disruption of all the plans that that were being made at this meeting and working against the, you know, the cause of which the Tibetans are trying to find or trying to gain. So the problem at present is that we don’t recognize the afflictive emotions when they exist within our mind.
That many afflictive emotions are arising and we simply allow them to remain, not recognizing them and not recognizing the fact that they are bringing us harm. So in order to cease them, in order to cease the harm that they ultimately cause us, we have to initially begin to recognize them, distinguish what are negative and what are positive states of mind. And upon recognizing the coming to identify the negative states, making effort putting into trying to apply a particular antidote to cease that particular negative state. Therefore, it’s initially necessary if if to recognize the various afflictive states of mind. And these are are the various the two categories of the six principal afflictions and the twenty secondary afflictive mental factors.
Right. So it’s just in the using this analogy again of a meeting. It’s the same case where if we are able to identify a spy, if we recognize that there’s somebody within the group who’s a spy working against us, then we’re going to immediately throw him out. We’re not going to let him remain. But if we don’t recognize him, then he’ll he’s going to remain even though he’s working against our best interests.
So the twenty secondary mental factors, we are up to the ninth. The ninth is haughtiness. Haughtiness. Is a mental factor which, which, due to attachment to our particular states of being such as our, that we have a good, that we don’t have, we aren’t sick, that we have health, that to long, our long life, our beauty, our beautiful voice, some excellent quality.
Due to attachment to one of those qualities, we take great pleasure in ourselves with respect to that quality. Thinking how beautiful I am, upon attachment to one’s own beauty. You know, I’m such a beautiful person and taking pleasure in that thought. I have such a beautiful voice and taking pleasure in that thought. I have such excellent qualities and taking pleasure in that thought.
And this acts to induce other further afflictive emotions. Then the the tenth is tenth secondary emotion, it is harmfulness. Harmfulness. And this is the, a thought motivated by uncaring or lack of compassion to harm others or to engage someone else to harm others. So it is the thought motivated by uncaring or lack of compassion to harm others or engage someone else to harm others.
So there’s no compassion. Where is there due to lack of compassion, oneself either harms the person or you engage someone else to harm the person? Yeah. Other. Then the eleventh is The eleventh secondary mental afflicted mental factor is non shame.
Non shame. And this is Previously when we discussed the positive states, positive mental factors, one of them was shame. This is the opposite of shame. Non shame. And non shame can be produced by either of the three basic afflictions.
That is attachment, hatred, or ignorance. There’s a type of non shame which arises, which is produced out of attachment, hatred, and out of ignorance. And it represents the rejection of, due to an uncaring attitude, the rejection of the restraint of inappropriate action.
Oh. Wrong. So, non shame is that is a lack of caring from one’s own side. A lack of a lack of caring, a lack of concern as to the appropriateness of one’s actions. The lack of caring, the lack of concern as to the appropriateness of one’s of one’s actions.
So, if and I give an example of non shame. In the case of a monk who has the vow not to drink alcohol. The the thought to drink alcohol might arise in his mind and he would, due to a sense of shame, he would refrain from drinking alcohol since it it would be inappropriate activity, action. When if there was a non shame existing in his mind, then the thought would rise, Oh, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care.
Even though monks not just drink liquor, alcohol, I have a desire to drink liquor and it doesn’t matter. I’m going to drink it. So it’s a lack of concern or a lack of caring as to the appropriateness of one’s activities for oneself within one’s own mind. The twelfth secondary afflictive mental factor is non embarrassment. And again, this is the opposite of one of the positive mental factors which we mentioned before was embarrassment.
Embarrassment. And this, you know, first by way of example, that in the case of a monk who is not allowed to drink alcohol, that that seen that even though he may desire to drink alcohol, that his Lama, for example his teacher, if he were to be seen drinking alcohol, that his teacher would disapprove. That his teacher would think, Oh, he’s a monk. He’s not supposed to be drinking alcohol. And therefore, having a concern.
So therefore, not So embarrassment is the concern or the caring of the appropriateness of one’s action from the point of view of the approval of others. So non embarrassment would be the opposite of that. A lack of concern, a lack of caring of the appropriateness of one’s action in the face of disapproval of others. The disapproval of others. One simply doesn’t care if it’s being disapproved of or not by others.