Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 48-minute session, Khensur Rinpoche works through the final images of the classical calm abiding diagram — the monk riding the elephant with sword in hand, flames behind — to explain the progression from calm abiding into special insight. He traces the sequential arising of pliancy and bliss: unhealthy wind energies dissolve, mental pliancy emerges, then physical pliancy (the body growing light “like cotton, like a cloud”), then mental bliss — the mark of fully qualified calm abiding. Mind and wind energy are clarified through a memorable analogy: mind has eyes but no legs; wind has legs but no eyes; together they travel wherever they wish. Rinpoche then unpacks the forking road in the diagram — one branch mundane, one supramundane — and explains that wisdom understanding emptiness, symbolised by the sword, is what severs the root of cyclic existence. A Q&A closes the session, covering the four kinds of harmful speech, overcoming meditation agitation through stronger mindfulness, and using firm determination as an antidote to intrusive memories.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 10 Calm A 1990 06 11.mp3
UUID: 33817121-9141-4341-92d4-22e0743c2581
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Calm Abiding Retreat (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1990-06-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 48.0 minutes
Words: ~2,504
Merely as was explained previously that calm abiding is accompanied by the bliss of pliancy, what is called bliss of pliancy, of body and mind. And by the — this does not occur at the ninth mental level of sitting in equipoise. One continues to meditate in equipoise in this fashion and upon the arising of this bliss of pliancy of body and mind, one has achieved fully qualified calm abiding. So there is a gradual unfoldment of this mental and physical bliss of pliancy. First there is pliancy and then there is a bliss accompanying the pliancy.
And first among body and mind, there arises a mental pliancy. First, there arises mental pliancy. This is followed by physical pliancy, and then physical bliss will arise and then mental bliss. If we ask how does the mental pliancy arise? How is it developed?
So in discussing the development of mental and physical pliancy and bliss, first what we mean by body is not this body of flesh and blood. What we’re talking about there is a combination of mind and wind energy. And this combination of these two. The mind is likened to someone having eyes but no legs. And the wind energy is likened to someone having no eyes but having legs.
So if the mind rides on the wind energies, then together they can go to whatever place they desire. So the wind energy cannot see. You know, what do we mean by wind energy? One way of expressing it is the breath itself.
The breath is able to move back and forth. The mind can see but before it’s going must be assisted. And therefore, it is the mind rides upon the wind energy. So previous to the development of calm abiding, there are many unhealthy winds coursing through the body upon which the mind is riding. In dependence upon those unhealthy winds, the mind is — I don’t know the word — literally heavy, heavy minded. It’s very heavy.
Yeah, heavy. But in developing calm abiding, these unhealthy winds or literally bad winds dissolve. They become non-existent. And in dependence upon this, these heavy — so in dependence upon these unhealthy winds dissolving, the mind becomes flexible. It achieves a flexibility.
It can be of serviceability. It can be made use of in any way. And this is what is meant by mental pliancy. So due to the mind having attained this mental pliancy, the winds which accompany that mind achieve a pliancy. When the wind energies which accompany this now pliant mind become healthy.
And when this healthy wind energy pervades the body, then it’s said that we attain a pliancy of body. Then in dependence upon this pliancy of body, so when these pliant winds, when the energies pervade the entire body, then we achieve a physical bliss. When these healthy winds pervade the body, the body becomes serviceable. It becomes extremely flexible. And this is the physical pliancy in which there is accompanied a sense of lightness as if like a cloud.
It’s light. It’s pliant like a cloud. Cotton. Cotton. It becomes light and fluffy.
There’s a sense of light and fluffy like cotton, like a cloud. It becomes extremely flexible, serviceable, and this is physical pliancy. In dependence upon this physical pliancy of the body, there arises physical bliss. So in the same way that cotton is soft and light and can be shaped quite easily. There’s a sense with respect to the body.
And at this time, the body can remain, for as long as desired in whatever position you wish. In the context of skillful actions, one has no physical problems whatsoever and experiences only bliss. In dependence upon this physical bliss, the mind is able to engage in whatever object it wishes in whatever way it likes. And in this way, the mind then experiences the mental pliancy of bliss, the bliss arising of the mental bliss of pliancy — that one has achieved calm abiding. Previously, the mind was as if in control of the person.
Now the person is completely in control of the mind. And this is symbolized by the monk now riding on top of the elephant. The elephant is the mind, and the monk is in complete control. Whatever he desires, the elephant will go in that direction. And before that, just the previous day, you see the monk flying in here.
So as was explained previously in another class when we were discussing the four legs of miraculous emanation in which by achieving meditative stabilization one is able to fly in the air, go under the earth, etcetera. That there is such a lightness of body having achieved calm abiding that one having attained calm abiding can fly in the air. So having eliminated all the heaviness of body and mind there’s a sense that one is light like cotton. And having achieved in dependence upon this meditative stabilization, one can fly in the air. If you want to fly in the air, you’re going to have to meditate.
Six months. And you don’t need an airplane or cars. You don’t have to worry about buying tickets. You don’t have to worry about not being able to get a ticket. So at the very end of the path, you notice that he’s coming back down.
He’s holding a sword, and there behind him there are the flames. So as we were discussing previously in terms of the negative levels of our mind, they are coarse and subtle. It is by means of calm abiding that we’re able to eliminate the coarse level of negativities. In order to eliminate the subtle level negativities in mind, it’s necessary to develop special insight. Calm abiding and special insight are said to be common qualities.
That is to say, they’re in common with Buddhists and non-Buddhists. So as was mentioned previously in the development of calm abiding that we can take as a basis of observation whatever object we so desire. But upon its completion and within the Buddhist context, we begin to take special objects such as impermanence, selflessness and the awakening heart. So, you know, we talk about taking as objects having developed calm abiding — such as impermanence as objects of observation. We don’t, when we mention impermanence, mean simply a coarse impermanence, that is, birth and death, these qualities.
These are common to all the various traditions of understanding. But here, specifically in terms of subtle impermanence, that is, the momentary arising and disintegration of phenomena, that they arise moment by moment and are disintegrating moment by moment. Such qualities are those which aren’t dealt with or understood in non-Buddhist traditions. And so the non-Buddhist would then go on having attained calm abiding to meditate on the various levels of the faults of the lower levels of cyclic existence in comparison to the excellent or the peace of higher levels. They would proceed in this fashion, that the faults of them and the peace of the higher levels.
And this would be the objects of meditation. But in terms of Buddhism, for example, the lesser vehicle practitioner would then go on to meditate on the sixteen aspects of the Four Noble Truths, or the greater vehicle practitioner would go on to meditate on the awakening heart, the view of emptiness in this way and develop really excellent qualities of mind. As Je Tsongkhapa has said that, you know, what we want is to be liberated from cyclic existence. That is to say, to eliminate all our suffering, all our anxiety, and to achieve finally Buddhahood. And in order to do that, we have to have the wisdom understanding the view of emptiness.
So if we don’t have that, we cannot achieve these ends. And therefore we must go on to meditate on emptiness having achieved calm abiding. Is it necessary that we come to an understanding of emptiness in order to eliminate our problems? The root of the subtle afflictions is the misunderstanding of self. Therefore, we must develop a special insight with respect to emptiness if we are going to remove the root subtle negativities within our mind.
So having developed calm abiding, we then take as our object of observation emptiness. But this calm abiding does not analyze emptiness. We use special insight which examines and investigates emptiness. And it examines whether things truly exist or not. Then, upon gaining realization, having gained realization, we accustom ourselves to this realization, raising that level of realization higher and higher by means of special insight and calm abiding.
So if you notice, in the picture just before that, the monk is riding on the elephant. And this symbolizes that the monk has gained complete control over the mind. And then in the final picture, the monk is riding back down on the elephant, but now he’s holding a sword in his hand. And this sword is the sword of the wisdom understanding emptiness, special insight. And just as a sword can cut anything, this sword, the wisdom understanding emptiness, is able to cut the root of our afflictions.
That is to say, the grasping at self, at a truly existent self. That is, it is able to cut away ignorance, which is the root of cyclic existence. So this sword cuts away the root of all our afflictive emotions, which is grasping at a truly existent self. Well, how do — when do we attain special insight? As was explained, we take — having attained calm abiding, we take as our object of observation emptiness.
We then begin to use a consciousness to examine that emptiness. Examine it again and again to see as to whether things truly exist or not. In dependence upon the power of this examining process, when with respect to emptiness there arises a mental and physical bliss of pliancy, we have achieved special insight. Regarding ignorance — you’ll notice that behind the elephant there are the flames.
It’s necessary that we make effort in actually cutting away ignorance, that is by using the sword of wisdom. So the flames denote that we need to make effort to actually cut away the root of cyclic existence, ignorance. So you notice that the road forks and there are two possible interpretations of the forking in the road. One is that having attained calm abiding one can proceed along in the practices of the lesser vehicle or proceed along the path of the greater vehicle. But Rinpoche thinks that the meaning is that this entire road up to now has been a common path to the attainment of calm abiding.
That is common to both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. And now there is a forking in the road. And one path is a mundane path and the other is a supramundane path. That is to say, the one path leads along methods which do not lead to liberation. Whereas the supramundane path leads to liberation and omniscience.
And at this point having attained calm abiding, there is the possibility of traveling either a mundane or a supramundane path. So you’ve already meditated a lot this morning, so we won’t do any meditation. But maybe if you have some questions, we can have some questions. In the future the procedure for traveling the path will then immediately become clear. This process will become evident to you.
This process will become evident to you, and you will gain realizations quickly. And this is the great benefit that we can get from this. So the place we want to get to is a place where there’s only happiness and no suffering and there’s no other path to get there but this. I think that is all for us now. Can you go, can you go quickly?
So again and again reflecting upon what you’ve been taught, but additionally it’s important to make prayers that along with these latencies that you might be able to, in the future, be able to actually practice this path and in this way, this would be extremely beneficial. Yeah. So, you know, I have explained to you the complete practice for the attainment of calm abiding in accordance with the various teachings of the graduated paths of awakening in the different lengths according to Tsongkhapa and Pabongka Rinpoche. Yeah. Good.
Yeah. So if you have any questions, you can ask them. Yes. Lying, which involves tricking someone or confusing someone, telling untruths. Then divisive speech, which is trying to separate two people who are previously harmonious, like husband and wife, a couple, friends.
Harsh — the third is harsh speech. Speech. That is a type of speech where when the other person hears it, it causes them, it hurts them, it causes them pain, mental pain when they hear it. And the fourth is idle chatter. That is simply talking in a way which wastes time.
Whether we talk about whether it’s mundane or talking about Dharma things, still a waste of time. You know, we’re telling stories about what you did last year, etcetera, etcetera. Okay. To not be — with respect to not being able to cause the object to appear again.
As we should reflect upon what has been said previously and understand that we have to create the necessary conducive conditions. This is brought about by creating positive potential and purifying negativities and obstructions. And additionally as was explained, we should make requests to the inseparable spiritual teacher — the spiritual teacher inseparable from one’s meditation on deity — asking for assistance. And part of your question, this agitation that you may experience is due to, you know, we’re like little children initially in what beginning our meditation and that in order to overcome this excitement, then we have to increase the power of our mindfulness. Again and again trying to develop your mindfulness is the way to overcome this excitement.
One session is not enough and it’s not always going to proceed in an orderly fashion. But we have to remove all the conflicting conditions and try to promote all the conducive conditions. If you reflect in this way again and again it’s going to make you sick. So what we have to do is not think about it. And the way we can do this is by developing a very forceful intention that I’m not going to think about this.
And due to this, if we keep reflecting upon this, if we keep bringing to mind this memory again and again, it will increase the power of this memory. But on the other hand, if we make a forceful determination, I’m not going to allow this memory to arise, the memory will begin to lose its potency. The antidote is that we make a very forceful, firm determination, intention. I’m not going to recall this. And we try because seeing the faults of remembering this, all the various faults that are developing out of continually remembering it.