Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche closes his year-long Awareness and Knowledge series in this 52-minute session by covering the final four of Asaṇga’s fifty-one secondary mental factors — those whose moral quality shifts with context. He explains how sleep inherits the character of whatever state precedes it, giving practitioners a direct reason to cultivate positive thoughts at bedtime. Contrition works in both directions: regretting a negative act purifies it, while regretting a generous deed diminishes its merit. Investigation and analysis are then distinguished through a shopping analogy — rough initial scanning versus careful close examination — and both turn positive or negative depending on motivation. He closes by reminding the audience that Dharma study only counts as genuine practice when it actually reduces afflictive emotions in the mind.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 38 AK 1989-03-30.mp3
UUID: ed03236b-9e95-49fb-820b-ceed10c6d8d1
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Awareness and Knowledge 1988-1989 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1989-03-30
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 51.9 minutes
Words: ~2,808
So we should adjust our motivation to develop the kind heart by which to listen to this teaching under the profound great vehicle as a means to put into practice the means of attaining perfect Buddhahood whereby to be enabled to place all sentient beings in complete and perfect bliss and peace. So Pranam. So we have been explaining the fifty-one secondary mental factors according to the tradition of Asaṇga. And we’ve completed the five omnipresent factors, the five object determining factors, the eleven virtuous factors, the six root afflictions, the twenty secondary afflictions. And now we’re going to complete the fifty one by discussing the four changeable factors.
So previous to this, when we discussed the constructive states mental factors, then these were always constructive no matter when they arose. On the other hand, the afflictions are always negative no matter what times they might arise. They always have this character. But here, in discussing the four changeable factors, they’re said to be changeable because at times these factors are positive, at times they’re negative, and at sometimes they’re neutral, depending upon when they arise. So the first of these four changeable factors is the mental factor of sleep.
And this is what we experience every night. While we’re still awake, just before sleep, if we have a positive state, a positive thought in our mind such as faith or compassion, love, these positive qualities, then the sleep which is as a continuation of that positive state will be, by its nature, positive. So, you know, how you know, whatever types of constructive or wholesome states of mind that we fall asleep with, then that will bring about the that our sleep will be a positive state in itself. On the other hand, if we were to fall asleep with a destructive state as preceding the last waking moments, as preceding sleep, the last waking moments being destructive such as attachment or hatred or pride, non faith, all the various did, afflictive mental factors that we discussed, then the sleep would become negative by its nature. On the other hand, if the last waking state was neither constructive or destructive, neither negative nor positive, but was unspecified, let’s just say neutral, then the sleep would have the character of being neutral.
So, you know, considering the fact that the sleep will take on the character of the immediately preceding awakened state of consciousness. If it’s positive, you know, thoughts of love and compassion, awakening heart, faith, and the sleep will be by its nature positive. On the other hand, the immediately preceding waking state was negative. And if sleep is negative, it changes. If it’s unspecified or neutral, then the sleeping state becomes unspecified or neutral, then it’s necessary that we try to fall asleep with positive states in mind.
So this is the reason it’s called changeable because the nature of sleep changes in accordance with the preceding state, awakened state. So the second of these four changeable mental factors is contrition, or sometimes referred to as regret. Contrition or regret. So in this second changeable manner of factor contrition, according to the tradition of Vasubandhu, there are only two possibilities. Either it must be constructive or destructive, positive or negative.
There’s no unspecified or neutral. But in the in the tradition of Asaṇga, there are all three possibilities, positive, negative, and neutral. So the first of these three possibilities when the contrition would be a positive mental factor would be upon either oneself or ordering another person to do some kind of negative activity, destructive activity such as stealing. And after having committed oneself or ordered someone else to commit it, think, Oh, that was developing regret. Think, Oh, that was a wrong thing to do.
And thinking this, in developing this regret, or this contrition, then since the activity was negative, then the regret would be a positive. Would be a wholesome or constructive mental factor. So as we talked about before, when one is acknowledging a negativity that is confessing the negativity created in the past and making use of the four powers. The first of the four, you know, such are the powers of recollection, reliance, antidote, and reverse. The first of these is recollection and this makes use of contrition that we’re regretting and saying, that was wrong.
I wish I hadn’t done that. And developing this regret the positive quality of contrition. It enables to destroy or lessen the potency of the action, the power of the action. So by enacting this positive factor of contrition, though we have committed a negative action and it’s finished, it has the quality of being able to lessen the power of that negative action that we’ve created. On the other hand, if we were, for example, developed through the motivation of compassion or altruism that we engage in a practice of giving generosity.
And for example, we might give somebody one hundred dollars And after having given that one hundred dollars because the motivation was positive, then the action would be positive. Again, this generosity, this giving. But if we thought, I gave him too much money. I don’t have enough money for myself. And we develop a sense of regret at having given.
Then this mental factor of contrition, or regret, would be negative since we’re regretting something which is if it’s a positive action. So we can carry this example to we can apply it to various possibilities. And whatever positive activity that we engage in, and then upon having completed it, we develop with, Ah, that wasn’t a good thing to do. You know, having developing regret, then this regret or contrition is a negative mental factor and it lessens the potency, the power, the latency of that positive action that we created. On the other hand, if having created a positive action and upon completing the positive action we were to rejoice.
We not only do not regret that action, but we rejoice in it. Then this would increase the potency of positive power of that action. So the third possibility is that if we were to maybe doodle, make some doodles on the wall, or on paper. And then upon having doodled, made these marks without any specific motivation, just passing the time, We thought, Ah, that, you know, I shouldn’t have marked up the wall that way. Or, I shouldn’t have marked up the paper that way.
Since the action itself was unspecified or neutral, then even though we developed this mental factor of contrition or regret, it is by its nature unspecified or neutral. So the third changeable mental factor is investigation. Investigation. In Tibetan, it doesn’t show up in the translation, but in Tibetan it’s the same word being used. The Tibetan word also means conception. It’s also translated as conception.
Generally it’s translated as conception when we study awareness and knowledge. The same exact word is usually translated conception, meaning the determinant of consciousness which is suitable to, which apprehends the suitability to associate meaning generality and a sound generality, a conception. But here it’s not used in that way at all. It means investigation. And this is both in the tradition of Vasubandhu and the tradition of Asaṇga.
And investigation is the engaging in the object, the mode of engaging an object apprehending only its rough characteristics. Mode of engaging the object apprehending its only its rough characteristics. So so if we were similar to we say, well, you know, we’re talking about what is Buddha. And somebody said, well, this is Buddha. And they would point to a statue and you would get a rough impression that the Buddha was, you know, had these various characteristics which appear to your eye consciousness.
This would be this is a factor of wisdom, which understands the object in a very coarse or gross way. So this this is a a factor of wisdom which apprehends its object in a very rough way. You know, using the example of the Buddha, just seeing the Buddha and seeing his general shape and if we just seeing his general characteristics. But if we will begin to investigate, looking where its eyes, its eyes and its ears and where its nose was and all the various features of the Buddha, that is to say in more detail, then it’s no longer investigation. We call that analysis, which the fourth of these changeable mental factors.
That is, so the difference between investigation and analysis is that they’re both factors of wisdom, but one simply takes to understand, apprehends the coarse aspects of its object, whereas analysis understands the details of its object of apprehension. So now we can exemplify the difference between investigation and analysis. If we were going to town to buy something and we had something in mind, we were just walking along looking, searching in the windows, searching in the stores. And we see that which we want to buy. So we just see it, just its mere appearance.
It’s sitting over there on a counter on a shelf. So that is investigation. But we don’t buy it right away. We want to check it out. See what its quality is.
You know, what we might if we were buying flowers, you know, we smell it. You know, or if it’s food, we taste it or what. We examine it very closely to see if this is the right one we want to buy. So the first is just searching out. We find the object.
And then that’s investigation. And then we make a real careful examination to see if it’s the right quality for us. And this would be the factor of analysis. So we taste it with our mouth and smell it with our nose. If the object of observation, of investigation or analysis is constructive, is positive, such as if we were observing emptiness or paths or liberation, any type of constructive object, then the mental factor of investigation and analysis would be, by their nature, positive or constructive.
On the other hand, if the object were were negative, there was an object to which the So if we were to take a particular object as our object of observation motivated by positive motivation then the object would be of a positive nature. And then we would, by investigating it and analyzing it, the mental factor would be positive. If, on the other hand, if we’re motivated, for example, by desire and taking an object as our object of observation, a particular object, and then we were to carry out an investigation and analysis upon it, then these two mental factors would be, by their nature, negative. So the changeability of these two mental factors is dependent upon the motivation due to which we engage in the object, And then the mental application of how we engage in that object. For example, with positive motivation, taking positive and having the thought to that this object is to be abandoned, or this object is to be cultivated.
That is the positive type of mental application. Then the investigating and analyzing the object, these mental factors would be positive. On the other hand, if by motivated by desire and then applying ourselves to appropriate that object as a mental application, then the observe investigating and analyzing the object, these mental factors would be would change into negative by nature. And likewise, the third possibility. If our motivation is unspecified, that is to say neutral, and then the object which is taken as an object of observation and investigated and analyzed these mental factors, the investigation and analysis would be unspecified by their nature or neutral.
So these three possibilities. If having positive motivation, taking a positive object, then any type of analysis and investigation would be, by its nature, positive. If our motivation is negative and the object is negative, then our investigation analysis would have the nature of negativity. And then if we had motivation as unspecified, the object is unspecified, then the investigation and analysis would be unspecified by nature. So these factors are extremely important in the sense that their quality, their nature is determined by the way in which we’re thinking whether they’re going to be positive or negative.
If we whether we’re awake or whether we sleep if they’re induced by positive motivation positive thoughts, and they’re positive. If they’re induced by negative thoughts, negative motivation, they’re negative. So those who are practicing can see that since we engage in these actions all the time, these mental factors are rising. Then we have to be it’s important what types of thought that depend upon which they arise, whether they’re negative or positive. So as we and it was mentioned during the retreat this past weekend that when talking about the Dharma and the mode of the way in which it should be practiced is that first we seek to listen to the teachings.
And it’s necessary to listen to the teachings in order to the benefit of listening to the teachings is that we come to an understanding of the teachings. That we understand what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected. But what is the necessity for coming to an understanding? It’s in order to practice. That if we don’t practice, then it’s the same as if we didn’t know.
There’s no difference. You know, people who are going to, in the future, be reborn in a bad migration. It’s simply not people who don’t know the Dharma. It’s, there’s no difference between someone who doesn’t know the Dharma and someone who knows it and doesn’t practice it. They’re both, in the same situation with respect to going to a bad migration.
So, you know, we’ve finished our discussion of awareness and knowledge. This subject is extremely important that, you know, the Buddha you know, we talked about the practice of Buddhism. Buddhism is involved the place of practice is within one’s own mind. So therefore understanding how our mind is operating is extremely useful. It helps us in whatever the level of our practice might be, whatever great states we may seek to attain it, in understanding the nature of the mind, and it’s going to be of great benefit.
So what we have learned, we should not forget. Try to understand it and whatever you do understand, no matter how much it might be, to put it into practice. So whatever the Buddha taught, whether it’s whatever the teachings are, whether they’re the actual discourses of the Buddha, whether they’re the commentaries, the thoughts of the Buddha, they’re all met as a means of subduing the mind. That if they don’t subdue the mind then they don’t become Dharma. And what do we you know, they’re all the teachings are meant to be a method of subduing the mind.
And what do we mean by subduing the mind? That is, the elimination of the afflictive emotions within the mind. If the practice involves the gradual elimination of both afflictive emotions from the mind and the increase of constructive states, if in fact, no matter what we may study, and if it doesn’t go towards lessening our afflictive emotions and we don’t gradually develop more and more constructive states of mind, then it isn’t becoming a practice of Dharma. Two more things. Yeah.
Put them together. So we finished the discussion of awareness and knowledge. And as we did in the final discussion of Opening the Eye of Awareness, no we won’t. So if you have any questions or doubts that you might like to clear up, some kind of qualms, we can take those first. If you don’t, then Rupesh will ask a question.
Sleep completion and basic what was the fourth one? Analysis. Analysis. Oh, I’m sorry. So you would take a particular object to mind, perform analysis, investigation, and then is there another Yeah.
Step after that? That would be positive. So if we were to take an example, we take emptiness as our object of observation. First we perform an investigation. Then we begin to perform an analysis.
So we’re performing an analysis of emptiness. At the same time, we couple this with calm abiding, this single pointed concentration. Then as we proceed in our investigation, then this mind would turn into special insight. We proceed with our investigation more and more and then we would be able to develop the power through this investigation of proceeding along all the various paths and stages throughout the path, finally completing Buddhahood in dependence upon this investigation. Oh, not investigate.
I’m sorry. Analysis. Analysis is defined. Analysis. So if there’s no questions on awareness and knowledge, And then we can take other questions.