Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 27-minute Q&A near the close of his Awareness and Knowledge series, Khensur Rinpoche opens with a challenge to the fifteen people present: whoever applies the greatest effort to recognizing and eliminating afflictive emotions will be the first to attain Buddhahood; whoever dismisses it will be the last to leave saṃsāra. He then draws precise distinctions between related mental factors: doubt (a two-pointed mind uncertain between two possibilities) versus non-faith (a firm conviction that positive qualities don’t exist); and pride (an inflation of the mind thinking “I’m a great master”) versus haughtiness (attachment to good qualities one actually possesses, like beauty or family status). He also addresses whether one can be aware of forgetting while it is happening, and closes by connecting all 84,000 teachings of the Buddha to a single purpose: eliminating afflictive emotions from the mind.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 37 AK 1989-03-16.mp3
UUID: e0522a74-f293-4d7e-832b-a4e9c25faea6
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Awareness and Knowledge 1988-1989 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1989-03-16
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 27.3 minutes
Words: ~1,208
That we’re involved in the the arise of afflicting emotions and the necessity to begin to identify them. However, we should make use of this understanding that we now possess of what the situation we’re involved in, that however much we are able to seek to, through investigation, recognize afflictive emotions when are generated and to apply some sort of antidote to make effort to eliminate them from our mind. So there are fifteen people in this room and we all know this mode of proceeding in our practice that is through examination, recognizing afflictive emotions beginning to decrease the force and the frequency of our afflictive emotions and thereby increasing the positive states within our mind. And that in such a way that although we all fifteen of us know this mode of proceeding, depending upon who makes the greatest effort, who has the greatest enthusiasm for such a way of proceeding will be the quickest one to attain Buddhahood among us. We determine that.
Then on the other hand, if there are those within us among us who say, Oh, know, it doesn’t matter. Forget it. Then we, such a type of, those who are the most skillful in ways, but those who are the most assiduous or most forceful in this way of thinking, oh, forget it, it doesn’t matter. We can know that they’ll be the last to leave cyclic existence among us. So it depends upon one’s degree of effort.
So we went a little bit of a little bit of overtime, but maybe we can take perhaps ten minutes and answer questions. So we have within this the subject of awareness and knowledge, which we’re studying presently, We have one more session, one more teaching, one more class. So in that we’re going to finish off the subject. The last of the mental factors to be taken up is the group called the four changeable factors. The four changeable factors.
So we can, you know, whatever you want, we can do at that time. At the last class, we could, if you like, we could have an examination. Or we could spend that time, the remainder of the time, having finished the subject in questions and answers, reviewing the entire whatever questions you may have with respect to the entire subject of awareness and knowledge. According to your desire, your want. We can debate.
So do you have some questions? Yes. Yeah. That’s my translating. Yeah.
That is my translating. Same word, translating differently. Non-faith and doubt. What is this? Is okay.
So doubt is a two pointed mind. That is to say it has a qualm between two possibilities. It’s not sure it could be this, it could be that. It’s too pointed between two possibilities. Whereas with non faith, there is a conviction and there is no doubt.
And this conviction is the nonexistence of positive factors. Can you note it for the purposes of revision? Yeah. And then that’s So and you can remember that you can remember that you forgot. And if if someone if someone were to talk to you and said, Now I’d like for you to do this work.
And they explained to you exactly what you’re supposed to do. And the next day you see them and you say, What? And they say to you, Why didn’t you do that work that I asked you to do the other day? And he’s, Oh, I forgot. So there you’re you’re you’re you’re recalling your forgetfulness.
At the time it’s present? So if you have stability of mind, then even while through investigating, one can become aware that you are forgetting something in the process. One can be aware of the process of forgetting. That you are losing the object even while it’s happening. I’m just I’m just about to forget that and reintroducing the force of recollection.
What is the difference between pride and haughtiness? Yeah? What is haughtiness? So with pride, there’s a there’s a there’s a inflation, a puffing up of the mind, thinking, you know, I’m a great scholar. I’m a great master.
Thinking like this. But with haughtiness, there is not the puffing up of the mind, but there is the due to some to some factor. There’s attachment to some factor. And what would you say? Due to attachment to some factor thinking, I have, I, my voice is so beautiful.
My body is so beautiful. Maybe I didn’t quite get the flavor of the difference. So there’s no with pride there’s a puffing up of the mind. With haughtiness there’s no puffing up of the mind, but there’s an attachment to the good qualities which you possess. Know, you have a beautiful body, then you come from a good family.
Holding due to attachment as as these qualities as being great or good is the quality of haughtiness. You know, I come from a great family. I have a beautiful body. I think you’re the force of attachment to these things and as great as great good. I don’t know.
So, you know, we’ve almost finished, awareness and knowledge and knowledge you’ve, many of you have compiled a great many notes that you should again and again familiarize yourself with these notes again and again so that you won’t forget them and thereby you’ll be able to quite readily recognize all the various states and awarenesses that we’ve been studying up to now. So, you know, what we’ve been talking about is not some really high states of accomplished minds. For example, you know, the awakening heart, things like this. But these, the minds and the states that we’ve been talking about up to now actually are occurring all the time within our own mind. And so, you know, that everything that we’ve talked about, we can look within our own mind and see them for ourselves, that we know the situation, that the situation is occurring within our own mind even at present time.
So becoming familiar with them and being able to recognize what state is arising and then proceeding to apply antidotes when necessary. So in the in the teachings on the graduated path, when it when it it tries to set out what is the division, what is the determining factor as to the practice of Dharma and the non practice of Dharma. It is simply if we are able to literally harm the afflictive emotions, then this is Dharma. If we do not harm the afflictive emotions, then it’s not Dharma. This is also the teachings of the great Kadampa masters.
They said that in determining what actually is the practice of Dharma. We’ve talked about the various root afflictions in the twenty secondary afflicted mental factors. And the practice of Dharma is seeking to immediately upon recognizing the arising of an afflictive emotion, eliminating it from the mind. This is the practice of Dharma. So all the teachings of the Buddha Dharma, there is said to be eighty-four thousand bundles of teachings, and they all are directed toward the elimination of afflictive emotions.
So this is the principal practice of the teachings of the Buddha is simply the elimination of the afflictive emotion.