Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The wild elephant analogy gives this session its center: Khensur Rinpoche uses it to explain mindfulness as the antidote to the second fault in calm abiding practice — forgetting the object of focus. In this 49-minute retreat continuation from 1994, he also describes the visualization in practical terms: a thumb-sized Buddha image at the navel, held as transparent golden-yellow light, like a rainbow rather than a solid statue. Drawing on the Indian master Asaṇga’s definition — mindfulness as mind not getting distracted from the object of familiarity — he unpacks each part of that formula and warns against swapping objects mid-practice, like shifting a fire-stick before the flame has caught. Mindfulness builds gradually through repeated familiarization, starting weak and growing to adult strength. The session ends by naming the next obstacle pair: sinking and scattering.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 CA 1994 06.mp3
UUID: 6198309f-1b62-40a9-933d-91bd40e85d74
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Calm Abiding Retreat (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1994 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 49.3 minutes
Words: ~2,927
The mind of enlightenment. Like myself who do not want suffering but do want happiness, all other all other sentient beings equally do not want suffering and they do want happiness. In our case, we have very well attained rebirth as a human. We also have encountered the teaching as well we have encountered the lamas, the teachers who unmistakenly shows what is to be practiced and what is to be discarded away. In a way, our situation as compared to many countless other beings is much better.
Other sentient beings they do not have the awareness to understand correctly what is to be practiced and what is to be discarded away. In that way they do not know how to remove sufferings although they do not want suffering and they do not know how to achieve happiness although they want to have happiness. In most of their cases they don’t have teachers who would show them the path unmistakenly and their state of mind is constantly wrapped by impure thoughts of attachment, hatred and ignorance. So looking at their situation, it is a situation of great continued suffering with them. But also it is a fact that they have been countless times been our parents particularly our mother and in that way they have been countless time been very kind to me, to us.
Therefore it is necessary, there’s no other way, it is necessary, there’s no other way that I must repay their kindness by way of making an attempt to remove their problems, sufferings and to bring them happiness. To be able to repay the kindness presently, I do not have the capability. It is only when I remove all mental shortcomings of myself and attain all the excellent qualities of the mind myself, it would be possible to help all sentient beings. The reason for that is when when I achieve that state, the state of Buddhahood, it is then possible to help sentient beings in the best way and in the most suitable way as required with different cases of different sentient beings. For instance, having attained enlightenment, it is possible to manifest oneself in countless manifestations and with these countless manifestations, one can engage in countless ways so suitably guiding and helping sentient beings in accordance with their circumstances and need.
Therefore, I must attain that state and to be able to attain that state here I will engage in the present activity of learning the instructions and applying them into practice. So please think about these points briefly. In the Mahāyāna part, the great vehicle part, or in any system of instructions and practices leading to liberation and enlightenment all the realizations, experiences and excellent qualities would come about if one has achieved calm abiding the single pointed mastery of the mind. Because of such function of calm abiding I must here learn about calm abiding and having learned it, I will reflect on what I have learned, has reflected and through that way sorted out clearly the instructions well, I will then apply into meditative concentration. So in this way a process try here to adjust one’s motivation.
Now continuation continuation from earlier session, let’s say that in the previous session we went through the first two forms or hindrances, of which the first one was laziness, and the main antidote or countermeasure against it is effort, diligence. The next fault or hindrance is forgetting the instruction, and we are still on that point. Forgetting the instruction means losing the losing the focused object or alternatively forgetting the focused object because here instruction in the present context refers to the object, the focused object. So forgetting the instruction means forgetting the focused object. Therefore, one needs to make sure that the focused object is not lost.
Regarding the focused object, it is up to individual choice which one wish to choose, but preferably in our case, we would go for an image of a Buddha and regarding the location and the size where it should be focused and thought about as being, well, it has to be in the whole of the navel and the size preferably about the thumb size but still on that point, again it is up to you how comfortable and easier to focus and visualize one can do that would be the qualification that the size would be up to one’s choice and it should not be too big and not too small a size. And then as mentioned in the previous session, first, it is important to have a good look at the image of the Buddha of which one is going to focus mentally in one’s mental consciousness inside the navel horn. Looking having a good look would mean that one firstly look at the Buddha image, how its sitting posture, the left hand in the meditative balance and the right controlling the earth and the other features of the body right up to the crown top, which in some ornamental translation is called the enlightenment elevation top.
Hopefully that’s true or not, it is the ornamental translation. So right up to the crown top one, have a good look and once one has that good look, then try to visualize and have that image focused inside the navel hole. And of course, beginning, is not possible to have a good clear appearing of that image. Yet to go about with that, one must not first think think that it is a very heavy substance or matter sort of image and should not be seen as a image made of a clay metal so forth. Instead one look at us as a image of a light.
And to put it in another way, would be very much like rainbow. So in that sense, light transparent. So in the aspect of light, that is the Buddha one focuses on and in the beginning it may not appear very clearly and don’t make attempt to try to get all the details in the beginning. All that would be sufficient at this stage would be as one focuses if one gets just a brief outline and just grows as something yellowy in light aspect then there is and that would be good and you remain focused on that gross or rough outline of the image in a golden yellowish light form and that’s how one starts. Because we do not have any familiarity with the object to focus in the beginning, therefore, it is firstly difficult to have the object to focus appearing.
Secondly, if it does appear for a while, it would very soon be lost with forgetfulness. Because one doesn’t have mindfulness, the opposite of mindfulness is forgetfulness and mindfulness is produced through familiarity going backward. And as far as what forgetfulness means, well it is in our normal case, we don’t remember what, in our normal case forgetfulness what we say, we don’t remember what we did yesterday, we don’t remember it today, we don’t remember what somebody said just a few moments ago, we don’t remember it now. So we very soon forget and don’t remember it anymore, that is forgetfulness. So as a counter measure to overcome this fold, one has to apply mindfulness.
Have the fifth antidote mindfulness, which is the antidote against forgetting the instructions. And it is through applying the force of mindfulness, one has to overcome the fault or the weakness or the shortcomings of forgetting the object of focus. Now when there is the mention of the antidote called mindfulness, it might be questioned what mindfulness means. Description of what mindfulness means, we see a reference in teacher Ārya Asaṇga in his writing, Shiksha Samucchaya or Compendium of Trainings, where mindfulness is explained as mind not getting distracted away from object of familiarity. So in that description we find three parts.
First, there is the object of familiarity which is the object of focus with which one has had already some familiarity and the mind is engaging, which is the second part to that object of familiarity and not distracting or not being distracted away from that part means one does not lose or forget the object of familiarity. So mindfulness has to be one which has those three parts. Now it would be good here to look at instruction of analogy given about this controlling of mind with the line from a text so called the essence of middle way, where the wild elephant is likened to the mind and the need of it to be controlled by mindfulness, introspection, and not forgetting, as with pillar and chain and whip. Sorry. Whip.
Now what that means let’s say if an elephant is wild and untamed, firstly, one would need to chain that elephant, get under control. Once it is chained, one would then fix it or tie it to a pillar, and the pillar has to be very stable. And still, if the elephant is not fully tamed, then it may be necessary to, what’s called beat the elephant in the classical days with very hot iron whips and so forth where the elephant is striked with such instruments and then subdued and even in normal cases we find say some in the case of circus where elephants are disciplined and they are taught how taught to stand up when ordered to stand up, sit down when ordered to sit down and they really do seem to have been tamed to that degree and that’s where the latter part was that we do find this in circus and so forth. So that’s how it happens in the case of wild elephants. Similarly, our mind is like wild elephant because our mind is swept under the sway under the sway of impure thoughts, attachment, hatred, and so forth.
It therefore needs disciplining, taming, And here in the context of the calm abiding practice, that wild mind is tied to the pillar of the object of focus, which here is, say, if it’s the Buddha, then it’s the image of the Buddha where the wild mind is tied to. And in the case of elephants, say when the elephant is tied to the pole, it is tied with the chain. Similarly here, it is mindfulness, the power of mindfulness, the force of mindfulness, which lets the mind, while mind to be with the object of focus, the Buddha. So that’s how so far it happens. And to correspond each of the part with the example, we can say, while our mind is the wild elephant, and the pillar is the object of focus, the Buddha, and mindful ness is the chain.
Here through mindfulness, if we retain the object of focus, then it is not possible to lose or to forget that that object of focus. Therefore, the fault of forgetting the instruction has to be overcome by applying mindfulness. Now in the earlier mention of the description of mindfulness, there was the part amongst the three requirements. The first was object of familiar familiarity where the mind remains undistracted. So object of familiarity obviously implies the practitioner already have had has had some degree degree of focusing on the object already.
For example, the word familiarity itself in normal case would imply having having for some time. Say if we know, if we say, oh, I’m familiar with this person, then we would know that one has already had some dealings with the person already. Otherwise, we won’t say I’m familiar with this person. Therefore, here in mindfulness, it is the capacity of mind to again recollect the object of focus because of the basis that one already has focused on the object repeatedly for a while in the past. And if for the first time one is focusing on an object or to put it other way, if one is focusing an object for the first time, then it is not possible to have mindfulness with reference to that object as one has not focused on it in the past.
Yes, so that’s the implication behind. And then the other part of the mindfulness description is the mind remaining undistracted, which would mean that mind does not forget the object of focus. And it would mean that mind still retains the object. If the mind has forgotten the object, then it’s not possible for the mind to know the object, be with the object as it is it is explained. Knowing and forgetting are two contradictory contradictory things, mutually contradictory things.
So one has to have that part in the mindfulness to not forget the object. About mindfulness, how it come about how it comes is say, when we are very hungry, then instantly we become mindful of our hunger and the food. It’s so strong, so spontaneous in our feelings. So that’s how it happens, mindfulness. In this way one needs to again and again apply mindfulness and be familiar with the object of focus.
Now this is very consistent, this point is very consistent with the actual nature of how meditation should be. Firstly, one ascertains or establishes that object or the topic one wishes to follow by one’s mind is wholesome, meaningful virtues. Having established that then one repeatedly think about it, analyze it, apply reasonings and that part becomes analytical meditation. After one is thoroughly convinced of the soundness of the topic one is pursuing, then one remains single pointedly focused, remain single pointedly focused on that topic, and that becomes settled meditation, what so called translated as stabilized meditation. So it becomes settled meditation, placed meditation.
And that’s how it is consistent even in the nature of meditation. And it is possible that when one applies mindfulness in repeated familiarization with the topic, all excellent qualities of mind can be achieved. Even realization of emptiness can be possible through that way of repeated familiarization with the force of mindfulness. Repeated familiarization to the object with the force of mindfulness, then one through that way overcomes the fall toward the hindrances of forgetfulness. So it is through applying the force of mindfulness that fault is overcome.
Now obviously to have mindfulness going back to the point, it would require repeated familiar ization. The two, the repeated familiarization and mindfulness are inter related. The mindfulness comes about through repeated familiarization. More one repeatedly familiar izes with the object, more strong the more strong the mindfulness becomes. In the beginning, when one has no familiarization with the object, the strength of mindfulness is weak.
It is as if like a strength of a child. Later on when mindfulness increases in strength due to repeated familiarization, the strength is like that of an adult after having gained strength in the growth. One mindfulness one overcomes as well the distraction of our mind outward away from the object. That in a way is the functioning of mindfulness. Our normal case is where we think too much and we have we engage in too many ideas.
And that itself is very, what’s called disruptive to our achieving of, calm and especially here in the context of applying mindfulness where there need not be forgetfulness, distraction away from the object or focus. How we think too much and too too much and too many ideas would be illustrated in this way. For example, if we initially keep Buddha as object of focus and do meditation on that for a while, but obviously it wouldn’t go well in the beginning as beginner, then we might think because of having too many thinking and idea to swap that and have generosity as image, show of focus. And then again later on, we might think of swapping to another object, Buddha of wisdom. So if one does that, swapping from one to another instead of sticking with one consistently, it is not possible to achieve calm abiding at all, never would that produce calm abiding.
So the way about to go is to whatever one has selected that object, one has to persist with it and remain with that solely, completely with that object. An example would be in the past when they would fire out of friction of wood onto a rough surface, that wood to be producing fire with friction has to be placed on one single spot until fire is produced. And if one swaps it onto other part or onto other location, then there will not be enough friction and no fire would be produced at all. Whatever activity one needs to engage into, firstly, needs to think well about it. Because once one choose to do it, one should not swap to other activity.
Otherwise, it might end up that one neither achieves that project nor this one, and nothing is achieved. So with the calm abiding practice, during the preparatory stage, one has to overcome the fault of laziness by producing effort, diligence and with the actual session of calm abiding meditation the first fault or hindrance to overcome is forgetting the instruction, forgetting the object and that that fault has to be overcome by applying mindfulness. That mindfulness should be applied firmly. It has to be a strong mindfulness. During the actual meditation on calm abiding, when the object of focus is being retained by mindfulness, then in the course of while retaining the object of focus, the next faults or hindrances that would come about would be sinking and scattering.
So these two together becomes the third fault, the third hindrance.