Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche opens this 52-minute session with a striking measure of time: sixty-five moments arise and pass within a single finger snap, illustrating why subtle impermanence requires reasoning rather than direct observation. He works through the four general characteristics applied to the body — impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and selflessness — noting that an object’s cause of creation is itself sufficient for its disintegration, that the body arises under karma and afflictive emotions and cannot be a genuine source of happiness, and that emptiness refutes rival schools’ assertion of a permanent self. He then covers specific characteristics — the body (four elements), feeling (experience), mind (observer) — before contrasting the Individual Vehicle mode with the Mahāyāna approach, where observation extends to others’ bodies, selflessness of phenomena is added, and the intended attainment is Buddhahood rather than liberation alone.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 IR 1997-06-08.mp3
UUID: ca811ba8-5557-4343-9a6c-8e47448022c6
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Insight Retreat (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1997-06-08
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 51.9 minutes
Words: ~2,719
That is the nirvana is peace. So, in this first characteristic, all compounded phenomena are impermanent. By compounded phenomena, we mean phenomena which arise as a compounding of causes and conditions. Through coming together of causes and conditions, a phenomenon is produced. So all that is produced out of a compounding or coming together or collecting together of causes and conditions is impermanent.
So whatever is a compounded phenomena is necessarily impermanent. And by impermanent, we mean momentarily arising and disintegrating. So first a compounded phenomena arises, that is to say it comes into creation, and it disintegrates. It is destroyed. So with regard to impermanence, there are two levels, coarse and subtle impermanence.
What we mean by coarse impermanence would be, for example, the death of a person, or the collapse of a house, the breaking of a cup, or the wearing out of clothes. These would all be examples of coarse impermanence. We don’t need to think a great deal about that. We can actually see that for ourselves. When we talk about something being coarse and something being subtle, generally this implies that that which is coarse is easy to realize, whereas the subtle is difficult to realize, so subtle impermanence is difficult to realize.
So for those who are ordinary individuals in this context, that would mean that one who has not realized subtle impermanence previously, and is seeking to newly, or freshly realize subtle impermanence, it’s necessary that they employ a process of reasoning, that by means of examination, using prime cognition, and the process of reasoning, using the signs of impermanence, one can come to a new understanding. But the initial newly realization of subtle impermanence necessarily requires that we use a process of reasoning. So how are we to proceed in contemplating subtle impermanence? Well, in terms of what is the minutest component? The minutest, the smallest component of, for example, time, looking at what that is, the smallest interval of time; in terms of form, the smallest particle, in terms of the building block of which these are built or made out of.
In terms of name or language, the building blocks would be letters. For example, A, B, C’s or in Tibetan, those are the building blocks of the components which build these more complex components. We can look at the minutest, the smallest component of time, of form, the various particles, atoms, for example, and in terms of language, the letters. So, for example, in terms of language, what the word is here is names, but perhaps we can think of it in terms of language. The smallest component is letters.
A language does not consist of a letter, but it is developed out of combining letters to form words and to form names. So the component that it’s built out of is letters. The same holds true for form, or the things about us. These large, masses of things about us are built out of small particles, so a combination of particles builds up into large forms. Time, there are various structures of time.
For example, years, there’s months, and we can work down to hours and minutes, and these are all built out of the smallest durations of time. For example, to give you an idea of what the smallest duration of time would be, that there are sixty-five moments within, sixty-five of these durations of time, or sixty-five of these moments within the time of a snap of a finger. So the finger snap is regarded as the smallest interval for an activity, and within this activity, and even over the duration of the smallest activity in terms of its time that it takes, there are sixty-five of these moments or intervals of time. We can begin to appreciate how very minute are these components, these smallest components, which build up into time. So this is what subtle impermanence is referring to, one of the smallest durations of time, is one sixty-fifth of the time of a finger snap.
So just as, you know, when we look at the time on our watch, that the time never stands still, that it never, even for the slightest, briefest of possible time span, it never remains the same. Likewise, that immediately upon our birth, that we are undergoing this subtle impermanence. That from the very first moment to the second moment, we have not remained the same, to the third moment, that there is no remaining the same even from these minutest of time spans. So there’s a great deal of benefit to be realized in terms of our Dharma practice. There’s a great deal of benefit in our in terms of our Dharma practice if we realize impermanence.
Now as to the causes of creation and disintegration of an object, there is, within our own tradition, it is held that once having come into existence, no other cause is needed for an object to disintegrate. That the very cause of creation is itself the cause for an object’s destruction, that no other cause is needed. But there are other traditions which hold, for example, we’ll take the example of a cup, that in order to destroy the cup it’s necessary that there be another cause. For example, we take a stone and we smash the cup, we destroy the cup, and therefore another cause has to be introduced in order for disintegration to take place. But in our own tradition we say, No, in fact, in order for, at the level of subtle impermanence, for the disintegration to take place, no other cause needs to be introduced.
Its cause of coming into being created is the necessary cause for it to go out of existence through its disintegration. So in meditating on the subtle impermanence of the body, we should try to understand that in the very second moment, the body is disintegrating, that it does not remain the same even for another moment, but even that from moment to moment, it is disintegrating. So what is the reason that we can supply establishing that the body is impermanent? The reason that we give is because it is occasionally created. So this is the reason set forth by Dharmakīrti, when he says, Why is the body impermanent?
That is, to say, in terms of subtle impermanence, because it’s occasionally created. By occasionally, it means from time to time. Sometimes the body is created, and sometimes it goes out of existence. So why is impermanence and suffering a general characteristic with regard to the body? Because it applies to all bodies, to both our own bodies and bodies of others, that bodies in general are impermanent and suffering.
Why do we cultivate this understanding in order to overcome our holding the body as permanent? We have a wrong conception which holds that the body is permanent. And this conception of holding the body as permanent is overcome by realizing its impermanence. So this as was mentioned in the teachings on mind training, that it was this conception of, I’m not going to die today, I’m not going to die, and when that day comes, I’m not going to die today. This constant thinking that one is not going to die today, that is to say, which is holding oneself as being permanent, is said to be the root of all our inappropriate conduct, and is a great obstacle to our practice of Dharma.
So then secondly, the characteristic of suffering. Why is the body in the nature of suffering? The body is not under its own control. It is under other power, that is to say, it is under the influence — it exists under the influence of karma and afflictive emotions — that we, the body, is generated, or is born out of karma and afflictive emotions. So what is it that that understanding stops or blocks?
This is in order to stop the conception that the body is pure and is happy, is a source of happiness. So, it is that this understanding is able to stop the conception of holding the body as pure. If we look at how the body comes into existence, it arises from the combining of impure or unclean substances. The ovum and sperm of our parents unite, and then through the force of karma and afflictive emotions, our consciousness enters into this combination. Consciousness enters into the combination of sperm and ovum, and this constitutes our body — the sperm and ovum constitute our body — and so can we say that the source of our body is clean or unclean.
And we are bound by afflictive emotions and karma, and the body is bound by karma and afflictive emotions, and therefore can we say that the body is a source of happiness? Someone were to tie you up with a rope, would you be happy tied up? So here, we are trying to bring it into the conception of the body as pure and as happiness. So then we apply the characteristic of being empty to the body. This is done in order to overcome the assertion of other tenet systems or philosophical systems which hold that the body is not empty. How is it that they are able to refute those assertions?
The other tenet systems hold that the self has been permanent. So how does this understanding of applying the characteristic of being empty to the body overcome this perception of a permanent self, this assertion of a permanent self? That first, the self is not permanent because it is impermanent. It is impermanent because it’s continually being generated and disintegrating from moment to moment.
Momentary arising and disintegration of the self is a mark of impermanence. The assertion of the other tenet system is that the self has no parts, its existence does not rely upon parts, but in fact the aggregate relies upon its parts, that the self relies upon its parts. The assertion of the other tenet system is that the self and the aggregates are different entities. But in fact, the self and the aggregates are the same entity. They are one entity. So then it’s necessary that we establish the selflessness in terms of the body, and then to overcome the conception of the self of persons, that it is due to the conception of the true existence of persons that we accumulate karma, and due to the accumulation of karma that we continue to circle within cyclic existence.
So, selflessness is to be understood in order to overcome the conception of self with regard to the person. And here the conception of self, or the existence of a self, the self which is to be refuted here, is a self which is independent, does not rely upon the five aggregates or the continuum of the five aggregates. That such a self does not exist. That this self, which exists independently and does not rely upon the five aggregates or the continuum of the five aggregates, does not exist. So these characteristics of impermanence, suffering, empty, and selfless are general characteristics since they apply to all phenomena.
So then follows the analysis of body, feelings, consciousnesses. Now follows an analysis of the body in terms of specific characteristics. The specific characteristics are the individual entities of the body, feelings, etcetera. These are the uncommon characteristics of each of these. For example, the body, the feelings, etcetera, they have specific or uncommon characteristics, and as was mentioned yesterday, in terms of the specific characteristics of the body, that would be the four elements, the earth element, fire, water, and wind, along with the evolutes, those which arise out of combination of these elements.
So the body is composed of a combination of elements and evolutes. For example, if we look to our body, which arises out of a combination of sperm and ovum, actually it’s more literal here to say the blood and substances. For example, our flesh arises from the blood of our mother, whereas our bones and skin arise from the substance of our father. There are other various constituents such as the channels, etc, but we don’t need to go into that. This is the mode of or the manner of meditating the specific characteristics of the body.
If we went on like this and talked about all the parts of the body and what constitutes the body, we would probably get a good laugh out of it. So then we can apply these general characteristics in the same way to feelings. We apply these characteristics of impermanent, suffering, emptiness and selflessness in the same way to feeling. So with regard, we are to meditate both the general and specific characteristics to each of these, including the feelings, and the specific characteristic of feeling is that of experience. So a happy feeling is a happy experience, or pleasurable feeling is a pleasurable experience.
An unpleasurable feeling is an unpleasurable experience. A neutral feeling is a neutral experience. So the specific characteristic of feeling is experience. So with regard to the mind, the specific characteristic of the mind, or to say the uncommon characteristic, is that of observer. That a mind is a subject observing objects, so it takes objects and knows them.
This is the specific characteristic, the quality of observer. So, with regard to the specific characteristics of phenomena, there are a great many, and because there are a great many phenomena within this category, for example, all the various mental factors, there are fifty-one mental factors, for example, then there are non-associated compositional factors, and then there are unproduced phenomena. So each of these, according to which of these are taken as your object of observation, then you would have to determine its particular entity. Each would have its own specific characteristics according to each its own entity. So this manner of meditation is common to both the individual vehicle and the universal vehicle.
We said that there were two manners of meditation, that which was common and uncommon, and what was meant by uncommon manner of meditation was that which is exclusive to the universal vehicle. With regard to the exclusive manner of meditation, of meditating the close placement of mindfulness, there are three characteristics. That of — oh, yeah. Here it is. Objects of observation, mental engagement, and attainment.
So these are exclusive characteristics of the mode of meditating in terms of the universal vehicle, objects of observation, mental engagement, and attainment. So the difference between these two manners of meditation is that whereas the individual vehicle would take as its object of observation, for example, the body, it would be analyzed in terms of both its general and specific characteristics, but it would only — in terms of the body — be only the body of the practitioner him or herself. But in the case of the manner of meditation within the universal vehicle, the body, you know, analyzed both in terms of general and specific characteristics, would be both the bodies of oneself and others. Then the second exclusive manner of meditation is that of mental engagement. This means that in terms of the general characteristic of selflessness, the common mode of meditation was that we understand the selflessness in terms of selflessness of persons.
So we went through these various objects of body, etc, in terms of selflessness of persons, but the exclusive manner of meditation of the universal vehicle — here, the selflessness is not only the selflessness of the person, but it also includes the selflessness of phenomena. Then the third uncommon quality of this third quality of the uncommon manner of meditation is that of attainment. The hearer seeks, through his meditating the close placements of mindfulness, freedom from the contaminated body and the attainment of an uncontaminated body, whereas in the exclusive manner of meditation of the universal vehicle, the practitioner is seeking to attain the non-abiding beyond sorrow, passage beyond sorrow, that is to say, Buddhahood. So there is a difference in results of practice, since there is a difference in motivation for engaging in the practice between the hearers and solitary realizers on the one hand, and the bodhisattva on the other.
Then the reasons for meditating.