Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche opens this 76-minute Lam Rim session with a striking claim: whether any teaching is profound and extensive — even the three refuge prayers — depends entirely on whether the practitioner has first developed genuine understanding of impermanence. He warns against accumulating teachings without meditating on them, using a Tibetan image: a mind “spoilt with Dharma” is like an oily leather container that butter cannot soften. The session works through Tsongkhapa’s ninefold meditation on death — certainty of dying, uncertainty of timing, and the principle that only Dharma helps at the moment of death — illustrated by the four fears (illness, old age, decay, death), an alarm-clock analogy for karma projecting a fixed lifespan, and Vasubandhu’s count of 21,600 breaths per day. Rinpoche closes with methods for extending life: tantric practice, releasing animals from slaughter, and merit through compassion.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 09 LR 1999 04 27.mp3
UUID: 478373b2-2fbe-4eb0-afb5-06a0aba44052
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1999-04-27
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 76.1 minutes
Words: ~4,649
So it is here stated that the tantric teaching called the Guhyasamāja is said to be very profound and extensive teachings, But in the sense that said, depends on the individual whether it is the profound and the extensive teaching to you or not. If one has developed an understanding of impermanence within one’s mind stream, then as it’s said, the tantric teaching, the text called Guhyasamāja, is actually very profound and extensive teachings within you. If one hasn’t developed an understanding of impermanence with one’s mind stream, even the tantric teaching Guhyasamāja is not, no matter how extensive and profound teaching it is, but it is not extensive and profound teaching for you or within you. So the assertion of the distinction of profound and extensive is entirely depends on one’s mind stream, whether one has developed an understanding of impermanence or not. So, and said, if one has a proper understanding or if one has developed the understanding of impermanence within one’s mind stream, then even the three refuge prayers, even the three refuge, the refuge to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha is a very profound and extensive teaching.
So, the classification of profound and extensive teaching entirely depends upon how that particular teaching benefits you. If that particular teaching brings huge or great benefits to you, then the teaching itself, whatever practices you do, it’s very extensive and profound. A teaching, no matter how the teaching in general is very profound and extensive, but if it doesn’t benefit you, then for you it’s not extensive and a profound teaching. So, the profound and extensive teaching for particular individuals, it entirely depends on one’s — it depends on one’s — could be distinguished through one’s experiences or through one’s practice. So, to develop or to have a good experience on one’s practices, first one has to listen, to have — one has to accumulate a good extensive listening.
And listening is not just enough by listening once. And it’s not also enough by listening. And if one listens and then stops, not contemplating on it, then whatever one has heard will be forgotten within a couple of days. One has to bring all those listenings towards contemplation. Through extensive contemplations, one develops an understanding on the teachings.
Then bring all those understanding or the contemplation towards the meditation. Through this process one can have a proper experience of the practices. So, if one has good experiences or good understanding, then whatever meditation or practices one does, all those practices become very essential, very helpful, very beneficial because the root of the practice, which is the experiences or proper understanding is there. Likewise, if a tree has a good root, very strong root, then it can give good branches, so forth. Likewise, so if one has the good root to practice, like understanding experiences, so whatever practices, meditation, any kind of practice one does, will become very good practice and become very beneficial and will give birth to a good result.
So developing a good experience, proper understanding through meditation is very important. If if one does not do such things, have gained experience or understanding from meditation, then by listening lots of teachings and then later on one knows what teacher is going to say. For example, when teacher teaches something, they start the main topic. And then as he has been listening to a teaching a lot but not bringing into meditation, then one starts thinking, Oh, after this it will come this and this and so forth. Through this, there is no benefit at all because they understand.
They have listened a lot but they never bring into the practice or into meditation. And their mind is more likely becomes like spoilt with the Dharma, which is the worst thing to happen. So one’s mind which is spoilt with the Dharma cannot be cured with Dharma. No matter how much extensive teaching or like a teaching or receive very profound instructions of sutras and the treatises and trainings of the Buddhas, it cannot cure that mind. So it is very bad for one to spoil one’s mind with the Dharma.
This Tibetan saying in general, let’s say the which I use the word here, I mean, mind which is spoiled with the dharma. That mind cannot be cured by dharma. Like Marpa in Tibetan call this the leather container for a butter, which itself is very stiff or hot and very oily. So it means that particular container cannot subdue or make it softened by a butter. Does it make sense?
So for here, the great master, great master Tsongkhapa, stated that one should bring all into contemplation in meditation, bring all those hearing into meditation and practice according to one’s capability. Practices of the Dharma or teaching, the very entrance — or like entrance to enter the practice of Dharma is the practices of impermanence, recalling the impermanence. So impermanence is like an entrance of like a door to enter the room. If one does not cultivate or practice impermanence or recall impermanence from the very outset of one’s practices, then one is more likely left behind or left outside of the door, like the door is not opened. And so which means that one is stuck outside the door whenever, no matter what, how much practice one do, but it’s one is more likely stuck, kept outside all the time.
So the recalling or cultivating impermanence from the very outset of practice is — so impermanence is the right entrance to enter the Dharma or enter the practice as well. So the meditation on impermanence is very important and it is very important from the beginning to enter the Dharma. And in the middle it is very important for one to practice very often. And at the end, it is very and it’s important in the end to accomplish one’s practices. So meditating on impermanence is very, very important.
So the beginning of the pure practices which starts from the impermanence or meditation on impermanence, and without this even one does recite one’s daily commitments like sadhanas, reading books and doing prostrations, reciting some mantras, and doing meditation time to time without recalling impermanence, then this this is not called the pure practice. And so the way of cultivating our meditation impermanence, about the impermanence, and we have been dealing with the disadvantages of not remembering death. And if you just roughly say here that the fault of disadvantage is of not recalling or remembering that is like due to that so one gets all the unwanted sufferings and cannot accomplish one’s wishes. And benefits of remembering death or impermanence is that through this, recalling our meditation on impermanence or death, then one can accomplish one’s both the temporal and the ultimate wishes. The way and so if I’m asked how to meditate impermanence, for the great master Tsongkhapa has stated that to meditate on impermanence, he has classified the two points saying that meditating impermanence through ninefold way of thinking about death and then meditating on aspects of the death.
And about this, the ninefold way of thinking death, and it has been classified as three roots. Three roots. That three roots has been classed, and each root has three points. Then at the end there is one which is called the conclusion meditation, gone through meditation on this ninefold, or through investigation on this ninefold, one makes a conclusion. If you give example here, it’s like the what people in this lifestyle, the main what they try to achieve in this life or for this worldly thing is that there are three main objects or three main points.
They strive very hard to attain a good food and then good clothes or shelter and then the good reputation or fame. So these are the three main achievements for this present lifetime. There are three roots, food, clothes, or the end reputation. And likewise, likewise for death, there are three, it’s been said three roots and which are the thinking about the — the first one is thinking about the certainty of death and the second is thinking about uncertainty of the time of death, which means we — we know that one will definitely die sooner or later, but one cannot identify, one cannot know when one will die. And then third point is thinking that but the teaching or Dharma can help you at the time of death.
It is stated that only Dharma which can help you at the time of death. And if I ask then, there are about the birth, there are four types of births, born from the womb, from the egg, from the heat or moisture, and from the miracles. And the womb birth here are described for the human, humans and animals like cat, dog and so forth. Those are called the womb birth. They have been formed by the father and mother’s sperms and then being first grown up or being formed in the mother’s womb or embryo, and then later comes through the mother — let it give birth by a mother.
So through from the womb. So this is so such animals are human and those animals are called the womb birth. And the egg birth is called those animals born from the egg by being hatched by the — they lay the egg first, their parent, and then hatch, and later comes out. So these animals, like birds, and we can say the snakes are called the egg births. And then the birth from the heat or moisture are those animals, the little insects who just comes in, formed in the root of the tree roots, sometimes there are some little creatures in the folded up cloths, so forth.
So those creatures are called from the birth from the moisture or heat. And those miracle births from miracles are called those beings who — upon us like god beings in the god realms and then like in the cold and hot hell realms and the intermediate states beings in intermediate states, these beings are called the miracle births. They just come from the heat or moisture. So about the birth of the animals, there are four ways of taking — I mean, taking births. And here, if so if I ask the question that all those beings who are born, who took a birth through the influence of the karma and the disturbing emotions will die or not, then as for here we have been granted permission to say, to give the answer yes, the beings who are being born or through the influence of karma and the disturbing emotions, they are definite to die.
They will definitely die. So no matter how precious or good of physical body one had, one has, but has to die, but what that one has to leave physical body or one has to die. And so here in this time, there have been Buddhas and Buddhist arhats or liberated beings or arhats have taken birth in this, has taken birth and they have very good or beautiful physical appearance, and have strong body and so forth, but none of them — none of them has stayed — are able to maintain their — so all of them has undergone through death. So it stated that whatever physical body one has, but one has to die. One has to leave or one has to die.
And there is also there’s no such place no matter what where one goes, but there’s no such a place that one can escape from the death. So there’s no such places that one cannot die. Even those Gods. Anyway, so there is no such places that one can escape from death. And for example, beings in the sky and in space, as we say, example, like sun and gods, they also have to degenerate or have to face death.
And then beings or little worms or creatures in the Rocky Mountains or like great mountains, they also undergo through death as well as the beings in the depth of the ocean or the sea, like fish and so forth, undergoes through the death. So there is no such place that one can escape from it. Even for the time when our — even for the time that — that time means present, past, and present, past, and future, and everyone has to undergo through death. Like the beings, you At this stage, we can’t see any of the beings who were exist or alive in the past times, like like animals, humans, so forth. They they they all died.
Even in this present times, some people, they’ve already died and some are on the way to death or on the way to die, and some are actually processing or going or nearly to die. And even if you check in this particular one itself, you have heard of great famous people who has good reputation, have good fame, and some who are very brave, so forth. And those, we just heard about them, but they all have died. So for this, the Śākyamūni Buddha has stated that there are four fears and when those four fears or fierceness or those four fears approaches, then one cannot — when they approaches, then one at the time they approaches, one cannot escape from them by running or by — and they cannot escape through bodily. And no matter how or what kind of method one tries to escape from them, one can never resist or or escape from those four fears.
If I ask, what are those four fears? The four fears are the fear of illness or disease, illness — in the fear of old age, in fear of decay, in fear of death. And so how the fear of illness destroys one means that while one is in the health, state of good health or happy state, and that disease or the sickness eventually or gradually approaches and starts harming one’s healthy state of health gradually and gradually, and then it finally brings towards death. And you can see this, that when were just born and during your childhood or four tenets, you were very healthy and then had very good health and seems to be very strong.
Gradually, when one becomes older and older and then it starts having more and more illness or disease, catching more and more disease, and then later on once it becomes old that sickness brings you to a final state, which is the death. And you’re saying that one cannot avoid always. Old age will approach us and eventually come to you, and it is inevitable to avoid that. And for example, at the time when one was just born and gradually one starts growing up time to time and then comes to four tenets. And during like a very four tenets time, and one is at the — while during that time, one is — one has good appearances, very, very — one’s body is very — and one can run very fast.
And then even one can sit easily and stand easily. And one can play very well, so forth. And then by gradually, one start growing older and older and then time comes, then one has started losing one’s sight and hearing then one’s hearing and so forth. And then one has start facing problem to hear other people talking, to hear other people and find it hard to talk to others and with difficulty to eat. Also have difficulty to stand up by using forearms on the ground and standing up.
And then when one sits, just leave it like a sack, just one go down. It’s not just one drop in one’s body or fall down. And then the fear of say the decay and decay or decay and which which which eventually — which slowly approaches like others and then it destroys one’s beauty and one’s physical — one is very fragile, pliant or had very — is very pliant or flexible body. And then when that approaches, it destroys everything and then starts start destroying one’s wishes and then bringing all those unwanted sufferings — suffering to it, bringing all one’s unwanted sufferings now. So, now I come to the fourth fear, is called fear of death.
And about the death, and we normally have mind or consciousness or mind and the physical body, aggregates of body, and they are together. And the producer of those two body and the mind to stay together is called the action or karma. So karma is the one conjoins this body and the mind to stay together for a certain time. And as for those beings in the bad migration, those beings and their minds have been created, been together by a karma which are their combination or duration. The combination made up — a project by a karma called the bad karma.
And then the beings in the good migration are in their mind and their body are being gathered by a karma which is called a good karma. And that karma has cultivated so this karma has been cultivated by that particular being in the past lives. And that karma has a certain and they have cultivated in the past, that karma has also created a certain certain time for those those consciousness or a mind and the body to stay together. And for the longest time they can project is — is that hundred years time. So the example, like we said, the last — the karma which project or the mind consciousness and a physical form to stay together for lifespan of hundred years.
And at the time of that particular being is born, just after a moment of that born, a minute passes. And it has one hundred and its lifespan is one hundred years — down. And from the moment of birth, it never stops going. And the time — and one’s lifespan will never rest, and it passes by minutes. And it will never rest — will never rest like a — time — an alarm clock, one set to the twelve o’clock and one just turn on the switch and then clock start going and then it will — and one cannot add because it — that is the one like alarm clock.
It’s alarm clock which one set and one cannot act on it. Likewise, so karma has project the lifespan of hundred years. And from the moment of it — that, it starts approaching towards its death or starts minusing one’s life span and will never rest for a moment to decrease one’s lifespan. And nor that one can add or lengthen one’s lifespan because it is the karma — that karma has already project the one hundred percent lifespan. So, and that life span is been — that life span has been measured by the years and that year has been measured by the months and months has been by days and days has been measured by morning and the evening.
So likewise, through this process, through this approaches, this approach, the death eventually comes to you. So that the death, the fear of death will destroy or measure continuously, minusing one’s life span and day by day one’s life span gradually and then a day will come. And one and the time will come that, oh, now this is the time or today is the time to die. Here the great master Vasubandhu has stated that life actually is meant to call to the consciousness and which act as a condition to survive this physical body. Whether it’s a life or so you can — the life is you can call either life or a consciousness.
It’s it’s also a life here, which helps the physical body to survive. And so those the life of our consciousness is — is are also called the — also called the — it’s called the wind. Oh, windy. And the wind or a breath or a respiration. And here it’s called the — and it’s been stated that in in twenty four hours or one within one day, one does the respiration or like in an exhale or inhale, the breathing is one breathes the time of twenty one thousand six hundred times one breathes.
But for those those the footballers and the rugby people, you know, they just do lots of respiration in a day. So it was also said that it’s good to so the limit of the respiration or a breath in twenty four hours is said to be twenty one thousand six hundred times. And so it is said that it’s good to have or to do a very limited or slow respiration or breathing in the daytime — have a longer life span. And he’s also said, so if one can so limit respiration is twenty one thousand six hundred. So if one try to save one’s breathing, say use twenty thousand in twenty four hours and save sixteen hundred.
And through this skillful means, it was said to be there’s a chance of lengthening one’s life span. So in the sense, he has said that by not exceeding the the breathing of twenty one thousand six hundred and trying to save, to use the limited, like as we said before twenty thousand and save sixteen hundred to lengthen one’s life. And here in the sense it means lengthening one’s life means what here is the karma has already project certain time to get together with the consciousness and the body together. And so here the lengthening one’s life doesn’t mean that one can lengthen that karma, which the time duration which is projected by karma. So it is like the karma has made certain time.
And so here, lengthen one’s life depends on how one is skillful or clever to use the karma for how long duration. Like the full tank of water. So you’ve got a full access of water, the full tank of water. And if one just leaves the tap twenty four hours on, then that — what — the water will — I mean, the will be empty very soon. So if one is very clever to use that water, it can last for a long time.
So lengthening here, saving is like that. But you can’t stop the breathing like you stop the water in the pipe. So if you stop like that, then one will die. So it means try to use as little as one can, but one has to use it continuously. So this process, there is it depends on how one uses that kind of the duration of one’s lifespan.
But it is definite that one will not avoid or one will not avoid the death or one cannot avoid the death. It is definite. And if there is a possibility or chances to overcome the death or one can escape the death, then these days, these scientists, they invent many new things. And they’re also trying to research on how to stop, avoid death, but they can’t because it is definite that one has to undergo to death. So through all these investigations, one should understand that one cannot escape from the death and it is definite for one to approach the death.
Through this, should cultivate a good understanding on the death or impermanence. So through this understanding, then one should cultivate and bring some benefits beforehand or before one dies and to overcome all the sufferings and cultivate ultimate happiness. So it is good to do or premeditate or do beforehand before death comes because one actually dies, but it doesn’t mean that after one’s dead, one is not disappearing somewhere. One still exists. But after that, it is very, very rare or difficult to get an opportunity to cultivate some benefits.
Such understanding, one should — it’s very important to cultivate beforehand. Oh, yeah. I think that’s really — see, Darwin. So unless yeah. To what they are not really coming.
Message always. So yeah. We’ll stop here and save a question for five minutes. So this sort of the process or practices of White Tārā and Yamataka so forth of lengthening the lifespan is is being told through the practice according to the viewpoint or through the practice of Tantrayāna or Tantrics. And according to the Sūtrayāna or the lower vehicles like the Vaibhāṣikas and the Pratyeka solitary realizers.
Through this system they don’t agree with these concepts. And also they don’t agree in the context of the practice of Tantrayāna or Tantra practice. So there are many systems of or many classification of saying of lengthening the one’s lifespan through the tantric practice. And some say that by receiving special blessings taking blessings through one’s practices and those blessings act as a conducive condition to one’s body, creating a new conditions to survive the body. And some they say they are meant to be ten initiations or ten empowerment and like the empowering the life, like the birth initiations and the life initiations.
And these are through according to the Mahāyāna teachings vehicles and through having a good understanding or the realizations in the training grounds of the practices of the Tantrayanas. And through this, through such realizations in the pathing grounds, one attains certain powers over — a lot of — suppose, how one can survive or how one wants to stay. And about like empowers on one’s birth means one can take a birth wherever one wishes or one wants to take a birth. And also there are some the lengthening ones lifespan through developing a special through the altruism or through the bodhicitta and cultivates very special or strong compassion and love towards sentient beings, especially to those beings who are nearly to slaughter at the butchers and — what it and like so forth. By seeing those they are nearly to be slaughtered.
And by seeing those undivided special compassion and love and then freeing them from this slaughtering or from the butcher’s hand and by buying them and putting, know, like liberate them or put them in a sanctuary. And so by doing this, one has helped to lengthen particular lifespan of particular animal. So likewise, and through such great compassion and love, and through this one cultivates a very, very strong virtues or merits. Then through this indeed also there is a one on one has possibility of cultivating or lengthening one’s life as well because of lengthening other’s lifespan. So in the system, in the schools of Mahāyāna vehicles, are many skillful means, the method to use.
Skillful means like the great compassion, love, bodhicitta or altruistic intention and through the through special wisdoms. By using those as a method, can there’s so many skillful means of lengthening. And through the realization of powers gained through training in the tantric practices. And according to the Hīnayāna, all over vehicles or Hīnayāna vehicles, the assets like some beings in the past, they go through untimely death, which means they have a life span, certain time left over from their past lives. And those beings from — and the arhathood, like those liberated beings, according to the Hīnayāna school Hīnayāna schools.
And if they and if if they find themselves very beneficial to stay — benefits of the sentient beings by staying longer, then through their meditative stabilizations, they recollect all their leftover lifespans from the past past and then lengthen their present lifespans because they see it’s worthwhile, they benefit sentient beings by staying longer. And this kind of system is being stated according or stated in the Hīnayāna vehicles.