Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. This is a writing task, not a code implementation — ExitPlanMode doesn’t apply here. Here is the paragraph:
—
To explain what meditation actually is, Khensur Rinpoche opens this 48-minute instruction with a striking analogy: a husband consumed by attachment, thinking so constantly of his wife’s appearance that everything around him calls her to mind — that compulsive mental habit, he argues, is structurally identical to meditative familiarization, only misdirected. He then works through the four close establishments of mindfulness applied to the body: examining it as impermanent, unclean, and dissatisfactory. Coarse versus subtle impermanence is carefully distinguished, with the body shown to be disintegrating moment by moment — sixty-five such moments passing in a single finger-snap. A second analogy, comparing ignorance and attachment to a president and prime minister, argues that attachment is the more manifestly active force binding us in saṃsāra. A brief Q&A covers how to sequence these two characteristics in practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 IR 1990-10-07.mp3
UUID: 4c290e34-6c78-42d7-9806-10958ec3b1a0
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Insight Retreat (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1990-10-07
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 48.6 minutes
Words: ~2,204
So it says in one of them for clear realization and explaining what meditation is, it is the taking to mind of an object, attending by way of the mind again and again to an object. In this case, we we take as the observed object, the basis of our examination, the body. And we’re examining the body using our intellect. And we are checking to see is it permanent or impermanent? Is it clean or unclean?
Is it a nature of pleasure, in nature of displeasure? And we there is a it is the process and then it is and then we abide upon the conclusion that we arise at and familiarize ourselves. So it is the essentially meditation is a familiarizing the mind with an object, and the mind will tend toward the direction of the conclusion one comes to with respect to that object. So there with, you know, we use the word meditation. It’s, there, it doesn’t, there are, there are positive positive ways of meditating and negative ways of meditating or another way to say familiarizing ourselves or habituating ourselves.
So, you know, here, it’s difficult to use the translation of meditation. But one example of, say, familiarizing process would be that under the influence of desire, a husband continually thinking about how beautiful his wife is, what a beautiful complexion she has, what nice shape. And he familiarizes himself with the nature, the qualities of his wife, becoming more and more familiar with her appearance under the influence of attachment. So, you know, such under the the influence of thinking again and again about his wife that every everything seems to remind him of his wife. He sees a possession, he sees one of her possessions.
He’s reminded of his wife. He sees her shoes. He hears her voice. Again and The desire her desirability arises in his mind. He he finds it difficult to to stay alone by himself in in thinking this way due to the influence of this power of her qualities.
Everything begins to direct him toward her. So his mind becomes due to this familiarizing process, his mind becomes one track in her direction. So if we apply this in in the context of dharma and examining the nature of the body, coming to understand well that the body is impermanent, it is unclean, and in the nature of dissatisfactoriness? Body in this way through the through the process of familiarization with the these qualities of the body. And these are these are said to be qualities of healthy qualities.
These understandings are healthy qualities, that is to say, they’re non mistaken awarenesses with respect to the body, then through familiarization with this examining and having seen these qualities of the body, merely seeing the body, there automatically arises the thought that the body is impermanent, it’s unclean, it’s in the nature of dissatisfactoriness. Through this, by merely seeing the body. The body is seen in this way automatically. And by again and again generating these skillful states of mind, what are these healthy qualities of mind, one generates a tremendous collection of positive potential. A consequence, those mistaken awarenesses with respect to the body, such as conceiving the body as being permanent, clean, and in nature of pleasure, begin to diminish in their potency.
And as a consequence of that, the various afflictive emotions which arise with respect to the body lessen. If if we do not proceed with this familiarizing process, that is to say this meditating process in terms of applying these characteristics of impermanence, dissatisfactoriness, etcetera, to the body, then we will generate again and again attachment and desire for our body. Through the power of this, of our desire for the body. And we, through the power of our of our attachment for the body, we will engage in many many activities in order to bring the body pleasure to eliminate to eliminate its its suffering. And for that purpose, we will generate in in in proceeding in that fashion, many afflictive emotions will be generated, and as a consequence, creating karma.
Through the creation of that karma, we perpetuate our cyclic this we perpetuate experience of suffering within cyclic existence, and we cannot achieve liberation. Understand this, that out of attachment for our body that we seek to bring it to all types of material benefits such as food, clothing, etc. And in the pursuit of bringing the body pleasure, eliminating suffering, we generate to all the various types of afflictive emotions. You know we all I can understand that in the pursuit of our pleasure that we will if someone obstructs the pursuit of our happiness that we generate anger for toward those in the superior place we generate jealousy. For those who are our peers we generate competitiveness, and those who are beneath us we develop an aversion.
She said, You know, this probably the greatest fault that we possess possess is our attachment our attachment to our our own body the bodies of others and articles or possession. The main agent which binds us within cyclic existence is ignorance. The reason that we remain within cyclic existence is reason that we remain within cyclic existence is by is under the influence of ignorance, we create karma. So the foundation of cyclic existence is karma and the afflictive emotions. So though though we we say that ignorance is like the the root of cyclic existence.
That which is most active, the manifesting that which is most manifestly active in bringing about cyclic existence is attachment. So if we take if we take an example from analogy in India. In India, the principal figure of government is the president. But for example, during the administration of Indira Gandhi when she was prime minister, the president at that time didn’t know any, couldn’t speak English. And though he may be the principal figure of government, she was the most responsible for the way in which the government carried out its policies.
She was the most active influence. So though again, the ignorance may be the root of the creation of karma that which that which is actually most manifestly active in the creation of karma is attachment. By meditating and put the impermanence of the body, we will begin to cease the attachment, which is a clinging to the body. How do we do that? How do we go about meditating impermanence of the body?
In general, with respect to impermanence, there is coarse impermanence and subtle impermanence. Meditating in the coarse impermanence of the body is of some benefit, but it’s much more powerful to meditate the subtle impermanence of the body. What is subtle impermanence? If we if we were to if we were search if we if we were if we were to search for the final component of matter, would ultimately come to the atom. And out of the collection of the building up of these atoms, the various forms arise.
And likewise, in in the same way that matter is constructed out of elements words are constructed out of terms. And the ultimate building block, the building block of words and terms is letters. Primitively, you know? A, B, C, like in Tibet. Words is letters.
So out of combination of letters comes syllables. Out of combination of syllables comes words. Out of combination of words comes sentences. And out of combination of sentence comes final building block of time is is a moment. This says that, for example, year is built up out of twelve months, and the months are in turn built out of days.
Days is built out of daytime and nighttime. And if we were to go to the final building block, it would be would be designated as a moment. A moment. If we give some sort of measurement to what we mean by moment, if in in the action is a a snapping a finger is the smallest action, and there are sixty five moments within that action. So in this smallest of actions of the snapping of the finger, occurs over a continuum of sixty five moments.
And therefore, we were to analyze one sixty-fifth of a of a finger snap would be the measure of one moment. So this is an ex extremely small length of time. There there’s no smaller length of time. So in terms of a body, from the moment of its establishment, it’s coming into existence. It does not remain the same even for more than for more than one moment.
Each moment it’s disintegrating. The first moment it it it’s disintegrating. The second moment is it’s disintegrating. It isn’t there’s no abiding even for two And, additionally, the the causes of growth of the body are momentarily undergoing the same type of disintegration. So we will be able to recognize in this way that the momentary understand that the body has no stability whatsoever.
It doesn’t it has no duration. It doesn’t know it only has duration. Don’t go. If we understand that our our body is going undergoing momentary transformation, then this we will reduce our the liking that we have for the body and our and our great attachment that we have for it. If if we if we understand the the instability of another person, even the person who brings us pleasure, but we understand their the their instability, we that in terms of time, then tomorrow they may be they may change or they may die.
Then this will reduce our our attachment and liking for that understanding the the unstable quality of the person will reduce attachment and liking for him or her. The main main function of meditating impermanence of the body is to reverse our attachment toward it. By understanding the nature of the body, we will begin to cease afflictive emotions which are generated and under the influence of attachment toward it. And we will be able to develop a renunciation for cyclic existence. But what is it that we mean by cyclic existence?
You know, we’re we’re talking about this, the happiness of liberation and the and the suffering of cyclic existence all the time. But what is it? What do we mean by cyclic existence? cyclic existence doesn’t mean the houses around here in this place. cyclic existence is the aggregates which are appropriated, taken under the influence of karma and afflictive emotions.
By meditating the four close establishments of mindfulness in terms of these qualities of impermanence, dissatisfactoriness, etc, one will see the faults of cyclic existence and develop a desire to be liberated, and that is the one will develop renunciation. So the same applies to the rest of the observed objects such as feelings. We seeking to recognize the nature of feelings pleasurable feelings, displeasurable feelings. Once we begin to understand the nature of feelings, will develop a renunciation toward them. That same holds true of mind.
Understanding, being able to identify its nature is the, you know, as was mentioned, that we conceive of the mind as being the self. And is the mind the self, or is it not the self? And out of this examination, will develop a desire to be liberated. And in terms of phenomena, examining the various phenomena in terms of whether they are to be cultivated, whether they are be abandoned, in terms of whether they are good qualities or whether they are false, and beginning to develop the attitude which wishes to cease the false and to put into practice qualities. And out of this one will develop a will develop a very strong practice.
So we’ve explained today the the the manner of meditating closed establishments of mindfulness in terms of the two characteristics. So if you have some questions, you can ask them. If you don’t have any questions, we’ll meditate. You mean, meditate the two characteristics in with respect to body and then and then there are two ways to proceed One is that one understands the object in the nature of impermanence and remains there until one understands that object well with respect to impermanence. Having understood that well then moves on to, to examine whether the object in nature, whether it’s dissatisfactory or in terms of dissatisfactoriness.
Or one simply meditates the object in terms of its nature of impermanence and to whatever one as to whether whatever one can and then without having to understand it well moves on to meditate in terms of unsatisfactory. So there are two ways. One you understand as well as you can and move on. The other one is then you remain there until you understand well. So it’s possible that the time could be could be wasted if one were to it’s possible that when the time could be wasted if one only meditated in terms of the object, only meditated in terms of impermanence, and did not realize impermanence and still hasn’t going on to meditate the suffering nature of the object either.
So one has not realized impermanence nor has one even begun to meditate the object in terms of suffering. Other spectrum.