Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A student’s worry that meditating on selflessness might cause the self to cease opens the most striking exchange in this 33-minute talk by Khensur Rinpoche. The commentary works through each of the four close placements of mindfulness — body, feelings, mind, and phenomena — mapping each to a specific noble truth: the contaminated, appropriated body as entry into the truth of suffering; feelings as the ground from which craving arises, pointing to the truth of origins. For the mind, Rinpoche explains that impermanence means a continuum of momentary arisings, not a severed thread — so nothing is lost in realising selflessness. The Q&A then traces how Buddhist tenet schools approach the selflessness of persons with increasing subtlety, from the lower systems up to the highest Madhyamaka view. Suited to practitioners already familiar with the Lamrim framework.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 CP of M 1997 06 08.mp3
UUID: 2a17de49-53a3-43bc-95a6-fbb3487e4812
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Close Placements of Mindfulness (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1997-06-08
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 33.4 minutes
Words: ~1,527
The small level of the path of accumulation — in order that they enter into the practice of the four noble truths, understanding with regard to the four noble truths what is to be abandoned and what is to be practiced. With regard to the four noble truths, the first two truths — the truth of suffering and the truth of origins — are to be abandoned. And the third and fourth — the truth of cessation and the truth of the path leading to cessation — are to be practiced. In order to gain a realization, there is a necessity for meditating the four close placements of mindfulness. Within these objects of observation of the close placements of mindfulness — body, feelings, mind, and phenomena —
there is no phenomenon which is not included. All phenomena — this is a way of, in a few categories, including all phenomena. So, first, taking the body as the object of observation. The hearer, or the practitioner of the individual vehicle, would take their own body, whereas the bodhisattva would take both the bodies of themselves and others. And again, they would meditate both the general and specific characteristics — general characteristics being impermanence and suffering — and then the specific characteristics of the body, for example, being those of the elements and their evolutes.
Out of this they would come to understand that the body is in the nature of suffering. The contaminated body — and here contaminated means the appropriated, afflicted body — is, as it states here, the appropriated, afflicted state. That the contaminated body is that which is taken on and is a state which is afflicted. This would be the insight into suffering — that is to say, the recognition of the truth of suffering.
So the necessity or the reason for meditating this first close placement of mindfulness is in order to understand the first noble truth. And for the feelings — what is the reason for meditating on those? It is in order to come to an understanding of the nature of pleasurable feelings and unpleasurable feelings: that upon generating pleasurable feelings, there arises a craving or desire which does not wish to be separated from this object. On the other hand, when unpleasurable feeling arises, there is generated a craving or desire which wishes separation from the object. And knowing that as a basis for the craving are the various types of feelings — and through this understanding that the main cause of suffering is craving — thereby to develop the desire to abandon the second noble truth, the truth of the origins of suffering.
And out of that we will come to the understanding that the origins of suffering — that is to say, the second noble truth — are to be abandoned. And the basis of the origin of suffering is contaminated feelings. The basis of the truth of suffering is the contaminated, appropriated aggregates. These arise out of contaminated feelings, which are the source of the second noble truth — which are to be abandoned — the truth of the origins of suffering.
So we said that the body was looked upon as the residence of the self, the feelings as the ground — the grounds upon which the self enjoys, the site where enjoyment takes place. And then we said that the mind is actually viewed as the self. So we are to meditate — some people might think, well, if we are to meditate upon selflessness, that’s not a very good thing to do. Why?
Because, I mean, the self exists. And if I meditate on selflessness, then I might go out of existence. And I don’t want that to happen. So there is a reluctance to meditate on selflessness. But coming through an understanding of what selflessness means, then there is no fear around cultivating an understanding of selflessness that the self does not cease to exist once one understands selflessness.
And the same holds true of analyzing the mind in terms of impermanence. And so we’re thinking of the mind as the self and we’re also thinking of the mind as being impermanent. And here we come to understand by impermanence we mean the momentary arising and disintegration. And that there is a continuum of these moments, these momentary arisings and disintegration of the mind. That though the mind is impermanent, it does not cease to exist.
There is no cut in this continuum. It’s a continuum of momentary arising and disintegration. So though the mind is impermanent, it’s still the continuum of the mind. It’s not somehow cut or stopped, interrupted. Understanding that, analyzing the mind in terms of that then when there is no longer any fear around realizing that the mind and therefore the self is a continuum of impermanent moments.
And therefore, one can readily go on to attain a passage beyond sorrow. That is the cessation of that, of the conception of it being permanent and a conception of it being self. So we’re going to stop there, but we have some time left. And if you have some questions, we’ll take those. Yes.
Could you clarify a little bit more? What is it that doesn’t continue? You identify the continuum of the mind as the self. Continuum of the mind is the self. You hold that the continuum of the mind is the self.
Continuum of what? Your body and mind — is that the self? And how do you stop that? Is that okay?
So the continuum of the body and mind, or let us say the continuum of the collection of the aggregates, is not the self. Why? Because it is not a substantially existent self. It is not the object of use of such a type of self. If we take, for example, a cup —
a cup, in terms of the selflessness of persons, is empty of having a self of persons. Why? Because it is not the object of use of a substantially existing self, of an independently existing self. So there is no substantially existent self which exists independent of the continuum of the collection of the aggregates.
There’s no substantial existent self which exists independent of the continuum of the collection of aggregates. Therefore in the case of a cup, we can talk about the cups being empty of a self of persons by way of saying that it is not the object of use of such a type of self. So, in this explanation of the selflessness of a person, this is the common assertion of all the tenets. It’s not that the it’s not the exclusive assertion of the Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka school. Whichever.
So it’s necessary to meditate on the selflessness of the person. We have to develop a wisdom understanding selflessness. At present, our wisdom is not powerful at all. And that moreover, our minds under the control of the conception of self. And because our minds are under the control of the conception of self, this acts as a motivating force behind all our various activities.
Whatever we do is under the influence of the conception of self. So we have to meditate in order to develop a wisdom realizing selflessness. And we can work through the various levels of the tenet systems, coming to this understanding and developing this wisdom. For example, in the lower tenet systems they would say that the I or the self is not substantially existent because it arises in dependence upon causes and conditions. In the upper tenet systems they would meditate that the I does not truly exist because it is neither truly existent as one nor truly existent as many.
In terms of the consequence of middle way school, they would say that the I is not inherently existent because of being a dependent arising. So, in the course of coming to an understanding of each of these methods, each of these levels of understanding, your wisdom would grow that much greater to that same degree that your understanding of selflessness would increase in its power, then to that same degree, the mind would go more and more under the influence of wisdom and less and less under the influence of the conception of a self. Eventually, so the conception of a self begins to arise less and less until the conception of a self decreases in frequency and force to the extent where it’s completely abandoned. And all our activities, our mind is under the control of the wisdom, understanding, selflessness. So, in summary, it is necessary to meditate on selflessness, and the mind will realize selflessness and no longer go under the control of the conception of self.
So how how how do you explain the consciousness entering into the the fertilized ovum? So I think some people are tired and having maybe it’s difficult for them to continue, but we will answer that question tomorrow. Okay? We’ll continue tomorrow. So some are having difficulty, they’re tired.
Okay. Is that okay? Yes. Yes. So tomorrow, I’ll leave time for more questions.
Yes. Okay. Good. Yes. Thank you.