Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using the image of a spy monitoring for intruders, Khensur Rinpoche explains the paired roles of mindfulness and introspective awareness in calm abiding practice. In this 48-minute session from a 1990 retreat, he opens by noting that sense consciousness plays no role in meditation — only mental consciousness operates — and illustrates mental visualization through the everyday example of closing one’s eyes and recalling a watch just glanced at. He then unpacks mindfulness through its three characteristics: familiarity with the object, non-forgetfulness, and prevention of distraction. The session turns to why mindfulness alone is insufficient: awareness acts as the spy, detecting laxity or excitement before they erode the three qualities calm abiding requires — clarity, vividness, and single-pointedness. He closes with Śāntideva’s approach of cultivating awareness through continuous examination of body and mind. Suited to practitioners already engaged in structured calm abiding practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 Calm A 1990 06 09.mp3
UUID: bef9c51d-a9ee-4395-9dd4-30911ebd51ca
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Calm Abiding Retreat (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1990-06-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 48.3 minutes
Words: ~2,531
[Translator:] Sense consciousness are as if in a deep sleep, just as in when we’re in deep sleep, though eyes, someone is in deep sleep, though their eyes might be open, they don’t see anything and likewise if you speak in their ear, they don’t hear you. The only consciousness which is operating during the meditation is the mental consciousness. So, what the point of this is to understand that the calm abiding is not accomplished with the eyes. It is accomplished by the mental consciousness.
So, the procedure is such that we inspect closely the image of the body of the Buddha. Then, we hold that image within our mind and the factor which holds the image is the factor of mindfulness. And we cause the appearance, the aspect or the appearance to appear to dawn to our mind and we abide on that appearance single pointedly. So, just as an example, you know, I look at my watch, I look at it well, and then I don’t look at it, I no longer look at it with my eye, but I cause it to appear to my mind. It will appear to your mind, won’t it?
An image of that watch. And likewise we’re taking the looking well at the body of a Buddha, then there will will we cause it to, of course, we roughly cause an image to appear to our mind of the Buddha. But because we’re not familiar with that object, this appearance will be lost. So then we have to cause it to appear again, and then again it will be lost. When we say lost, this is the second fault, that is forgetting the precept, the losing of the object.
So causing the object of the Buddha’s body to appear to our mental consciousness but it continually being lost again and again. What is it that causes it not to be lost where we no longer lose the image of the Buddha which appears? We seek to hold that image by means of mindfulness. This is the antidote to the fault of losing, that is to say, of forgetting the precept. It is so, the way we eliminate the second fault, losing forgetting forgetting the precept, is by means of the antidote mindfulness.
So mindfulness is the fifth antidote. The previous four were faith, aspiration, exertion, and plant. The fifth antidote is mindfulness which eliminates the second fault, forgetting the precept. So if we if by the force by the force of our mindfulness we will not lose the object. Whatever type of work we might do, it is necessary to have mindfulness of what we’re doing or simply So, in various types of work, if someone says something to us and we don’t have the powerful mindfulness, we’ll say, Oh, what did he say?
I don’t remember what he said. But if we have mindfulness we become familiar with what he said and hold it with the factor of mindfulness then we’ll be able to remember it. So mindfulness has the function of holding object and mindfulness has three characteristics. Mindfulness is a mental factor which has performed performs the function of not allowing to forget an object to which there is familiarity. A mental factor which performs the function of not allowing forgetfulness with respect to an object of familiarity.
So it is said that mindfulness has three characteristics. The first of these is that it it must have familiarity with its object. The second is that it causes non forgetfulness. And the third is it prevents distraction. What we mean by the familiarity with the object is that the awareness, there must be an awareness of having, there was an awareness which has experienced that object previously.
If there is a person who we’ve never met before, you say I don’t know that person, I I have no relationship with that person, I cannot remember who he is. If on the other hand we’ve experienced this person, I know that person, I remember who that person is. In order for there be mindfulness there must have been an experience previously and this is the one that is to one must be familiar with the object in order to be mindful of it. So, the object of mindfulness must be one which there is previous familiarity with. We can say for example, I remember what I did this morning because you know what you did this morning.
Or, I remember what I did yesterday. I know what I did the day before yesterday, I know what I, I can remember what I did when I was a child because one has that familiarity with these past events. In order to be mindful of something, there must have been previous experience of it. This is what we mean by familiarity. Without In order for there to be mindfulness there must be a previous experience.
For example, many of you have not gone to India therefore you cannot be mindful of what it’s like going to India. But those who have experienced going to India can remember what it was like in India. This is familiarity. So that’s the familiarity with the object is the first characteristic of mindfulness. The second is non forgetfulness.
That means we do not forget the object. If we remember the object, then we are not forgetting the object. Once we are not able to remember the object, then we have forgotten the object. So, the third characteristic is the function of preventing distraction. That is to say mindfulness is able to hold the object, is able to hold the mind to the object.
That it does not allow the mind to wander to other objects, for example, various external objects causing one to lose the present object. So it prevents, has the function of preventing loss of object by not allowing distraction to other objects. So the mental factor which perform these three functions is called mindfulness. So the factor of mindfulness is of great benefit both from the point of view of developing calm abiding but the dharma in general, but even in the world in general that it’s important that whatever activity that we might engage in that mindfulness is extremely beneficial and useful in completing that act, that activity. So, mindfulness performs these three functions.
The function of that the first is the familiarity with the object that there must be a previous experience in order for that object to be brought to mind by mindfulness. Remembered. If it’s not experienced previously, we cannot be an object of mindfulness. That it causes non forgetfulness, that is to say it’s able to bring that object again and again to the mind and it prevents distraction. Is to say, it does not allow the mind to wander to other objects but holds the mind to the object of meditation.
Presently the power of our mindfulness is extremely small. We haven’t been accustomed to it, we haven’t developed it through, we haven’t cultivated it. It therefore we lose the object of our meditation because it is by mindfulness which we do not lose the object of our meditation, that is to we don’t forget it. It is mindfulness when we seek to have the image of the Buddha appear to us it holds that object and does not allow it to be lost or forgotten. Therefore it is extremely beneficial, mindfulness is extremely beneficial since it is the factor which does not allow us to lose the object.
The mind doesn’t allow the mind to go to another object but holds the mind to this particular object. So it is mindfulness which holds the object which does not allow the object to be forgotten, but it does not function in such a way that it knows whether the object is lost or not. And because of our small power of our mindfulness we can easily lose the object but the mindfulness does not know whether the object is lost or not. And therefore we have to cultivate an additional factor that is awareness or here it’s translated as introspection. Awareness or introspection, I’ll use the word introspection.
It is like a spy which observes, examines whether the object is being lost or not. If we didn’t, without the factor of awareness, introspection, we will not know whether the object was lost or not. So we must make use of both of these factors. Mindfulness which holds the object and awareness which knows whether the object is lost or not. In awareness, I like the word awareness.
Awareness developed in dependence upon mindfulness. So in these two operating together through the factor of mindfulness the object is not lost. But if the object is in fact lost it is awareness which will know whether that the object is lost and will bring the mind back to that object again. So in the course of our meditation it is the downfalls which is to which mindfulness acts as an antidote are excitement and laxity. So, mindfulness is the antidote to the fault of forgetting the precept.
It prevents forgetting the precept. It holds the object. Now it is the factor of awareness which inspects the object. How is the object being held? It is like a spy.
Has it been lost and in what manner is it being held if it’s not lost. And it would inspect as to the faults of laxity and excitement. So it is mindfulness which prevents forgetting the precept. And due to the force of mindfulness the object is being held. Then there is awareness, introspection which recognizes how the object is aware of, knows how the object is being held.
It recognizes whether whether the third fault has arisen or not. That is to say laxity or excitement whether they’re occurring or not. In order to, for example, to catch a thief we have to identify what the thief looks like or there’s no way that we can apprehend him. And likewise, we have to in meditating on calm abiding, we must be able to recognize these faults of laxity and excitement if we are to prevent them from arising. So what do we mean by excitement?
It is when the mind is due to the influence of attachment and desire or desire the mind cannot does not abide on its object but strays to an external object. This would be excitement. So because of our strong attachments to various external objects whether it’s food, pleasant sounds, etcetera, there are a great variety of many different objects which we’re attached to, the mind is not able to abide on its object and strays to external objects and this is a great fall. So in calm abiding the mind abides single mindedly on its object of observation and due to the force of excitement the mind cannot abide on its object of observation therefore excitement is an obstacle to the cultivation of calm abiding. Therefore it is called a fault.
So, because mindfulness does not allow the object to be lost, but it holds the object. It’s extremely important in overcoming excitement. On the other hand, it is the factor of awareness which examines as to whether the object is lost or not, whether the mind has strayed to another object or not. It does not have the it has very little ability to hold the mind to the object. This is the function of mindfulness.
It is simply it examines as to whether the object is lost or not. If we take the object of observation to the mind again and again, that is to say remembering again and again, then this will increase the force of our mindfulness and by the power of our mindfulness there will arrive a point where the object is no longer lost. When we reach a point where the mind no longer strays to external object but abides upon the object of observation, then this is the occasion of the arising of laxity. So, what does, what occurs when laxity arises? As we’ve mentioned, the object is being held, but it does not appear clearly to the mind.
There is a darkness with respect to its appearance, but it is being held. So laxity arises in dependence upon obscuration. What do we mean by obscurations? This is in the process of meditation the body will become the body becomes can become very heavy. Something like lost it something like bored.
And there occurs in dependence upon this heaviness of body, a drowsiness. And in dependence upon this drowsiness darkness begins to pervade the mind and this this darkness is obscuration. So this is, this obscuration is a factor of ignorance. It does not allow the object to, prevents the object from appearing clearly? In order to, and so this factor of obscuration prevents the development of meditative stabilization.
In order to develop meditative stabilization, stabilization the object must appear clearly. I can’t remember. The object must appear clearly, it must appear, it must be I’ll hunt for the word, a vivid. It must be bright, vivid. Yeah, and it must abide single pointedly on its object.
So the object must appear clearly with brightness and the mind must abide single pointedly on that object. Therefore for the development of calm abiding in these three, it is necessary to have these three factors. The clarity of the object, the brightness of the object, and it remains single pointedly upon the object. It is excitement acts as an obstacle to development of single pointedness. Whereas laxity acts as an obstacle for the development of clarity and the vivid appearance of the object.
And therefore these two are the third faults to be overcome laxity and excitement. So, in the development of calm abiding, the main two factors which prevent, which the main two factors which are relied upon in order to in order that these three factors of calm abiding clarity, vividness, and single pointedness arise are the, which are made use of are mindfulness and awareness. That we necessarily have to have both of these factors. By it is mindfulness holds the object and therefore it promotes single pointedness of the mind whereas awareness recognizes how the object is being held, whether is the onset of laxity or excitement, and by the means of awareness the mind is able to remain clear and vivid. The clear and the object can be held vividly.
So Śāntideva talks about in discussing what awareness is, how and the way in which it is developed and it is developed by means of examining the body and the mind. What is the nature of the body? What is the nature of the mind? What is the mind thinking? Is it involved in negative states or positive states.
It is by this constant examination, inspection of the mind and body that awareness is developed. So this examining awareness which acts as an examiner is a factor of wisdom. So if you have a question, we can go through questions. Yeah. Yeah.
Go ahead.