Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 86-minute Lamrim commentary, Khensur Rinpoche opens with Geshe Potowa’s point that gross impermanence — watching buildings fall or people die — cannot dislodge grasping at permanence; only recognising subtle, moment-by-moment change, where the person of one moment literally does not exist in the next, genuinely loosens attachment to worldly life. He walks through the three roots and nine reasons of death meditation — certainty of death, uncertainty of its timing, and Dharma as the sole help at that moment — then describes the dissolution of the four elements and the fear-visions each stage produces. A description of the intermediate state follows, with colors and directions indicating which realm of rebirth awaits. Rinpoche closes by framing Dharma as food, navigator, and captain for the long journey through successive lives, followed by Q&A on how formless consciousness maintains continuity between embodiments.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 LR 1999 05 11.mp3
UUID: d3505738-e1a5-4561-a507-1ee2f6f2d13f
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1999-05-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 86.4 minutes
Words: ~5,978
There was a great Tibetan master called the great Geshe Potowa, and who was a great scholar, great yogi, and and who mainly practice on the of cultivating the bodhicitta or the altruistic intention. He’s also one of the Lamrim masters who is presented in the Lamrim field. And he has stated that through, I mean he came to know through his experience of, through his practice or through his experience that the main practice he had done through — And yes, so you said that to to overcome or to abandon the the attachment towards this the worldly concerns or towards this towards towards this present life is to meditating on meditation on impermanence. So in other words, said to abandon or to overcome the appearance towards this life of this life means it’s also called the appearance towards this life which is to avoid that appearance to avoid that one has it’s good to meditate upon the impermanence or death. And by knowing that after death one has to leave everything behind.
And he said that so by by doing by knowing that one has to die and by knowing this and then through this one one came to know that at the time after the death one one travels alone or single or by oneself. And due to that, by knowing this, one came to overcome the appearance towards this life, which means the worldly concern concern of this life. So and so by by cultivating cultivating the conscious or aware of those about the death, impermanence or a death, then one can one will abandon, one can abandon the attachment towards this life. And he has stated that so so unless one has unless one has developed such a mind that abandon attachment towards this life within one’s mind, then such a such a person is never be free or such a mind, such a being is obstructed to cultivate the higher knowledge and also higher states and travel through the high paths and grounds as well. So and also it means is that one has to cultivate a meditation on meditation on impermanence.
And and but and to to to in order to generate such a mind to abandon such a mind which is abandoning the attachment towards this life. To do that one has to have one has to cultivate proper experience of the understanding of impermanence by doing meditation on impermanence. And it cannot be cultivated just by simply saying the mere words impermanence or if one is being asked to talk, give a talk on impermanence one can easily give a speech on impermanence but it doesn’t necessarily mean that one has a proper understanding of impermanence within oneself. The best thing is to one have to one has to reflect on on impermanence through through doing meditation through meditation and through this one can cultivate such a mind within one’s mind stream. And about the reflecting the impermanence within one’s mind stream, and we are we we do have a reflection of the gross impermanence like the the destructions of the buildings and then the the death of person, people dying during morning and evening.
So these are the gross impermanence and in which we have this sort of like gross reflection of impermanence within oneself. And I mean, such a reflection of impermanence is not enough to enough because it cannot abandon or abandon the the mind of grasping permanent. Because because because such that that reflection is not enough to it’s not enough because because it cannot stop the — sorry — the mind grasping on permanence because we can’t see this the very subtle impermanence of saying so because we cannot avoid one’s accepting that yesterday the person exists today and then that a person one hour — one the person you saw an hour an hour before is same at this I mean, at two o’clock and then such person is also same at the end of the next couple of hours. But the fact is it is not the same person. A person who exists today is not the yesterday’s person because everyone changes momentarily.
Because example, if we if we believe or if we consider that the the the person of the first hour is still exist at the at the second hour, that means the person of so that implies that means the person of the first hour is considered to be the permanent. So so here the concept of permanence is that the permanence should be something which is which which is not born by causes and condition. So being a permanence here is that something which is born from the causes and condition is impermanence. So the person of the first hour is not exist at the second hour because the person of the first hour is a birth or the result of or comes from the due to the causes and conditions. And because of that it changes momentarily.
Every second it changes like the second, like the second of the second of the minute, every second it changes, it passes by. Likewise, that impermanence is like that every second of an hour of a minute. So here it shows that all the products are impermanence and they change momentarily, but moment by moment. And so one has to has to develop, one has to cultivate such experience about impermanence by meditate through meditation or impermanence or meditation on impermanence by thinking that all products, changes yeah, they changes moment by moment. And So so one has to cultivate an experience through doing a meditation on impermanence, by through within the meditation doing investigation by seeing that all the products are comes from the comes through the causes and conditions and due to that the changes they never stayed permanent even for a minute or second.
So that changes moment by moment. So through through such meditation, one has to cultivate a proper understanding of one can to one can cultivate a proper understanding of impermanence. Otherwise, just by saying just by mere words, through I’m saying words through mouth impermanence, then it can’t it it it doesn’t bring any help towards one’s — mouth. So and as for the way of meditating on the impermanence and we have been dealing with this how to meditate upon impermanence. And here for that we have stated the three roots and then and and and three reasons for each root becomes nine nine.
And as for the first one that these thinking about the certainty of death, and then so it has three reasons that that you will die. There’s no such places where we can avoid death. There’s no such time you can avoid death. There’s no such body you can you can avoid death. And then for the second root, which is thinking about the uncertainty at the time of death.
And for that and oneself one note that it is uncertain that one’s death is uncertain, one cannot predict that when one will die. So as one is definite to die, so one should bring help towards one’s self and to bring help, to have advantage or to bring help. It is the only, so sorry, it is the only Dharma, you came to know that it’s only Dharma which can be helped at the time of death. So by knowing this through all these investigations, then one should practice Dharma because it is the only help at the time of death. And about the and again for the second root, which is thinking about the uncertainty of death, it has three reasons by showing that showing the uncertainty of the time — uncertainty of the time of death.
Like the first, the time of death is uncertain because in general all the lifespan of beings in the world is uncertain in particular it’s uncertain during this time of degeneration. It actually has not and it’s not we the time of death is uncertain but we see that we have very few conducive conditions to help us to stay alive and we have more causes and condition to let us die or to cause us to die. So by knowing all this the second reason is also the time of death is uncertain because there are many causes of death which was that few which will help you to stay. And the third one is the time of death is uncertain because the body is very fragile like a bubble of water. So by knowing all this one should came to know in the earlier one should come to know that Dharma is the only one which helps.
So one has to practice. It’s not just by simply knowing that one has Dharma on to practice but at the end of this second reason, at the end of this second root, one should come — one should come to know that not only should practice Dharma, one should start the Dharma, start practicing Dharma right from — from right right from now. And so at the end or the conclusion of the first and the second root one should come to know that one to do practice. And not only that one has to practice Dharma, one has to start from right today itself. And so by knowing this then one has to also, the third one is, it’s not just by practicing the Dharma, should do only Dharma or only practices because at the time of death no one can help.
There’s no help from one’s relatives, one dear one or from one dear ones. For example, like at the time of death if one was surrounded by one’s dear ones and relatives and so forth and holding your hands and legs, but at the time when the death actually comes you can’t take even one of those dear ones. To travel one has to travel single. And also your wealth and properties are not held at the time of death. Say you are very rich and then all the all the possessions, the treasures of the world belongs to you and all those the mountain like, gold mountains and so forth that belongs to you, but they can’t help at the time of death and you can’t even take even a size of particle with you during the time of death.
Not only the wealth, only the wealth, at the time of death, also your this very precious body itself which comes which you had it from the time of your birth. And at the time of death you, I mean this body which you look, I mean you have looked after this body very well, very dearly and protected and putting good clothes and warm clothes to protect from the cold and feeding very delicious food and so forth. But this body itself is not held at the time of death and you can’t take this body with you after the death. After the death, you I mean, at the time of death, have to leave this spot, I mean, very precious body somewhere at the corner. So as great Master Śāntideva stated that you were born alone and then you have to travel at the time of birth you were born alone and at the time of death you will go or die alone.
So it’s true that any of their relatives or friends are not held at that time. You have to travel by travel alone. And at the time of death, are the time at the time of death, the mind is being classified into two, the grosser mind and the subtle mind. And so at the time of the death, we said, the two levels of mind and at the time of death, at the time of the grosser level of mind, the four elements which helps one to stay like the four elements like or the constituents of the four elements which are earth, water, fire and wind. And during that time that the earth element which is in your body cannot act as a basis for your consciousness to abide.
Due to that, the element dissolves, and during that time you have a feeling or appearance like you’re being crushed under the huge hills and so forth. And then, and also, and after that then, the water element is not able to act as a basis for the consciousness, and due to that it dissolves, and during the dissolution of that earth water element, then you have a fear of seeing the appearance like you’ve been drowned in a great ocean, in the great water or or there’ve been like a great waterfall — been falling on your head onto you. So you have this kind of fear, appearance of fear. And then, and also, and after that the fire element start dissolving.
And then, during that time the — fire element cannot help or act as a basis for the consciousness and during that time, that time of dissolution of the water fire element, then one has a fear of having appearance like the whole place is being filled up with great fire and blazing fire. And also, and then when the dissolution of the wind element starts then you have the appearance like being in the place where the huge, I mean the breeze or the hurricanes or yeah. So so huge wind blows or breeze been blown, and then you have lots of and develop lots of fear. And so at that time, so there are different level of fears for the person at the time of death. One who has accumulated a great — I mean, who has done a lot of non virtuous or unwholesome deeds, then those person has more more fear at the time of death.
And person who has cultivate a good wholesome deeds, good actions, and the virtue virtue things, then he that person has less fear at the time of death. So at the time of the mind of the grosser level of mind, one can see, one can experience these sort of appearances. At the time of this subtle level of the mind then there is no — one’s been not able to — there’s no such appearances in his own. It’s just one’s not — one’s not thinking and they just have kind of like a dark — one’s been placing somewhere like a in a huge darkness. One is just being conscious, I mean unconscious.
For example, like, one is not thinking or not mind say, like unconscious, like, say, one one is in the sleep. So it’s like and so and then after that the state of the level of the the subtle level of mind then after that it’s the intermediate state status. It’s like the example here, Rinpoche said is that, so the level of the gross level of mind is not at this stage that we are awake and then we can see we have all these appearances we can see. And then the subtler level of mind is like when we are in sleep. So during sleep we can’t see anything.
And then and after the so and after one sleep or one’s been woken up and one start to see things again. So it’s not the intermediate state is formed — you’ve seen and seeing all those appearances and also getting that gross level of mind back. Yeah. So that intermediate state comes at that time. And about the formation of the intermediate states, there are different types of formation according to the person’s I mean, according to the person, the action of the person where one is traveling, which part one is traveling.
And they have different shapes, different colors. So the so if if if one were to take a birth and then god realms, then during the intermediate states one has the color — the white color. One’s one’s color is white color and then has one is and one sees that one is walking upwards. And if one were to take a birth in the human realms, then one has has the appearance of the color of yellow — one’s been in a yellow color and walking state forward or straight. And then if one were to born in a lower rebirth like hell realms and so forth and then one has appearance of or color of the darkness, black, and then then meant to be appearance of just one — one’s heads up.
One is walking on one’s head means just putting head on the ground and going downwards. And then the color of their body is like dark, very dark like the say, the scorched or say the burnt toast here. So the intermediate state, the way it’s called intermediate or intermediate state is because it is the time between this life and the next life. So it remains the life which occurs between the present life, the deceased and that intermediate state form and then until the next life. So it remains between these two lives.
This is how it’s called the intermediate intermediate state. So about the how does the performing the non virtuous, non virtue actions or the negative actions will about the disadvantages of those doing negative or non virtue actions will come in the next teachings in near future. And so today here, so one has come to know that after one here, so one has to die and then so at the time of death only Dharma helps. Only Dharma helps at the time of death. So to do the meditation, so by doing a meditation impermanence and to have being a help at the time of death and have better rebirths and here at the point is that only Dharma can help at the time of death.
So here I will deal with the benefits of the dharma, how it helps at the time of death. So, at the time of death we have this, both the body and the mind, and they are separate because the body is a form and the mind is the formless. So at the time of death we leave this body we leave the body behind because this body is not traveling toward the next life. If I ask, so which one travels? Means here the mind which travels to the next life or mind or the consciousness. So at the time of death, as we leave our body behind, and we also left quality, what good quality the body has and what good or bad qualities that body has, it’s also left at the time of death as well. So so, you know that the consciousness or a mind which travels from the life which travels after the death and goes towards the next life. So any kind of good qualities or good qualities or practices which based on this consciousness will also travel with the mind because as mind travels and these qualities are based or established on one’s consciousness, and so therefore, it also travels with the consciousness. And about that mind, and the mind has been classified into three, three state of mind which is the good or virtuous mind and then the non virtuous mind which deals with the disturbing emotions, hatred, anger and so forth and also there is a state of mind which is called a neutral state of mind.
So there are three. And so that the neutral state of mind, hasn’t got much potential to produce produce the results because it’s been a neutral mind, been a neutral state and it hasn’t got much potential to give birth to a good or have happiness or suffering. So for here the great master Nāgārjuna has that from the negative actions or unwholesome actions comes all the sufferings and all the bad migrations or from or through the good actions or virtuous actions and all the happiness or the better rebirths and have the happiness in all lives. So here he deals with the results of the good and bad actions. And so that the bad state of mind, or the non virtuous mind, leaves the imprints on the consciousness or our mind, the imprints or the seeds upon that consciousness or our mind which will give birth to suffering and then to give birth to the very bad physical forms and towards the bad migrations as well.
And then the good state of mind or the virtuous mind leaves the seed or imprints on the mind or consciousness that can give birth to have better feelings or feeling of happiness, to have happiness and have better body or better form and have better states. What I can do is — so we travel or the consciousness or the mind travels from the beginning is done and the first, the previous, the first mind — leaves imprints on the next one and then next one goes respectively so we keep putting the imprints or seeds on the mind. So, we here said that at the time of death only Dharma is the only help. So because it is stated that the Dharma is the only help at the time of death because the great masters have stated that the Dharma will help you to travel in the — travel will help you to travel in the paths which you have never been and traveled through, which you never knew. Dharma is also the one will help you to go through the difficult — to travel through the difficult parts.
And also the Dharma is the Dharma. And also Dharma is a captain to travel a long path and to cover the long travel or long journey. So by knowing all this the great master had said that one should perform the practice Dharma through the three doors. So it’s like making conclusion here or resolution here that by through all this our will or one should bring all the actions through all the actions of body, speech and mind or three doors into the Dharma or practice. All to me is — And in other words, as earlier we said, it’s a captain to pass through the long journey or long path.
And it also here, it’s another meaning saying that the Dharma is the one, Dharma is food during the long journey or a very long journey. Here in the sense long journey means that after one — said there is no end of one’s traveling. One passes through life and life and travels. So it’s a very long journey. So here it means the Dharma is the food or supply.
Mean it’s the food during the during when one travels in this long journey or a path. So, the Dharma is like food during the long journey or during the long journey. So here it says that one has to do, it’s very important for one to do the practices like generosity and towards to being practice of giving or generosity towards the human beings and animals and so forth. And about the practice of generosity one can do the generosity of teaching Dharma and giving material things, of giving or showing love and compassion giving protection and so forth. So if one does this practice and during that journey, one will have the result.
And one can enjoy the results of doing these practices while one was traveling alone. For example, say, if we, at this time, I mean, we feel hungry and so forth and but but when we feel hungry, but we do have a food at and and time to time, we are we we get the food at the right time. So one has enough, one has food to eat at the time when one feel hungry. And at that stage if one asks, how do you get that food? You might probably say that, Oh, I buy it.
I paid for it and I buy it. And then you so when one when one says that I buy it, and then one and if you ask at that time, where do you get that money? So if one has been asked, where do you get that money? And then the answer is that that money comes through the causes and conditions. So is the result of having practiced the generosity in the past, which is the cause for it.
And then, so not only it’s enough to have a cause to have the result, but one also needs a condition. As for condition you had worked hard or you had worked somewhere and then, so which, so your, so the work you have done to get the money is to act as a condition, and then the practice of generosity in the past is the cause. So due to the combination or the collection of causes and the conditions, have that money. So all the products come through the causes and conditions. Without causes and conditions they won’t come.
So the money you get through workings and so all this, the works you have done, like we said before, like a condition to have the money and the main thing is, the main cause is that the practice of Chenrezig you have done in the past. So it’s like for example, we’ll take example of the flower. To grow that flower one needs all the causes and conditions and so the main cause is the seed. From the seed the flower comes from the seed. But it’s not okay by having the main cause which is the seed.
One has to have all the other conditions like the earth and water, manure or fertilizer and heat and so forth. Either side is not enough of the cause or conditions. Because if there is a cause which absence all the conditions like water, earth water and so forth, then the seed cannot give birth to a flower. And it’s also not okay to have all the conditions without the seed because without seed, the cause of those conditions cannot give that flower to grow. So the main cause of having the money is virtuous actions, the practice of Chenrezig you have done in the past.
And then all those works, you’re contracting other people, working, so forth, these sort of actions are condition to have money. So if one does the proper practice of generosity at this time, then so at the time during the time of that long journey one can have a proper, a very good food during that time. So, it says that the food is saying that Dharma is a food during the long journey. And here Dharma refers to the practice of generosity or giving. And it says that the Dharma is a navigator of the difficult path or difficult journey.
So here it means that if one leads the ethics, ethical discipline or holds ethical discipline then it will not let you go down towards the hell realms or animal realms, hungry ghosts and so forth and it will bring you to the better states or better rebirths. It’s also said that Dharma is the one which helps you to travel in a very difficult, here again means the path with lots of obstacles. For example, one is traveling in a very wild forest where there is a danger of having seen or encounter with the wild animals. Likewise, so Dharma is the one which completes that difficult or horrible or journey full of obstacles. So here the sense, here the dharma it means the patience.
The patience is the one which helps you to avoid all the obstacles during that journey. So if you summarize here then, the dharma is the one which helps you to overcome all the unwanted sufferings and also overcomes all the disturbing emotions like ignorance and hatred and so forth which gives you all the sufferings. Dharma helps you to attain the ultimate. It it helps you to attain one’s wishes, like the ultimate wishes, like the liberation states and then enlightened Buddha and so forth. So if one has the proper understanding of the Dharma, I mean how effective is Dharma.
And so the advantages of doing a Dharma and the effectiveness of doing Dharma. So knowing all this then if one has the proper understanding or have this sort of experience knowing the help or the advantages of practicing Dharma, one one can one one becomes if one has proper understanding, one one becomes one will have more become more enthusiastic or enthusiastic or practice, and one is more keen to practice Dharma. So it is because of not having the not knowing the proper advantages of the Dharma. So here at this stage we are not enthusiastic enough to practice Dharma. And then the second is that by not seeing the disadvantages, how those disadvantages or how those non virtuous actions harms you and will yeah.
One how those non virtuous actions will harm you. But without knowing this, so that one still lacks the interest or enthusiasm in practicing. Okay. Any questions? Yeah.
So it’s saying that during the ordinary state of being, or being of ordinary state, our mind and the body mainly cultivates lots of negativities through the disturbing emotions. By cultivating those negativities one leaves imprints of those actions on one’s mind. Then at the time of that, it’s said that the secondary mind actually, the secondary mind travels out from the body. It’s like, so during this state, I mean, like ordinary being a state, our body and mind mainly involve in doing negative actions. And Due to that we leave lots of bad imprints of negative actions on one’s mind stream.
At the time of death, the particular mind, the mind also acts as a mind and the mind raises the attachment towards this body and mind. Because of that attachment it becomes like a condition to that imprint to arise. It’s like a seed underground, so the cause is already there and giving drops on the seed to give birth. So it’s like the mind — the time of death, we already have the imprints of those both the good and bad actions. And then at the time of death, and that particular mind, example, at death, say they develop attachment towards the body and mind, and that attachment becomes like a condition which becomes like a drop of water to that seed, and then which makes to and ripen that particular imprints.
So, actually, to know about how the consciousness of our mind travels, if one deals, go through the twelve limbs of interdependence, how one travels, one will have a better and proper understanding of how mind or consciousness travels. So the twelve limbs of interdependence has been classified into six and into two, like six causes and six results. The first one starts from the ignorance and through ignorance one performs the action and then the actions and then one cultivates the imprints. They threw ignorance and action and then they recultivate, leave all the imprints. At the time of that then we have what we call this craving, grasping and existence.
So during that existence, at the time of craving it becomes like a water towards it, towards those imprints. And then at the time of grasping, one will have all the conditions and of course being formed and nearly to give birth. According to the action or a mind which has been performed through particular mind and it comes to the existence, means it takes a birth or a form. Nobody. So the mind, it’s a single mind which travels through all this and there’s no body.
Following on to that, is there even there even the subtlest subtlest kind of potential for body that travels with mind that keeps it from sort of dissipating into nothing? I mean, because if something is formless, at least the way we think of something is being formless, it it’s it’s like a gas. You know, gas is formless, and it and it just dissipates into nothing. So how does how does basically something that’s formless keep itself together from one embodiment to another? That’s sort of what what you were asking too?
Yeah. Well, I’m trying to be — Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So Konrad Kasimovsson — Yeah. Yeah. Holds it all together when it — Yeah. Yeah.
This word. And the first you were also saying that subtle is kind of body. It’s a really, really, really subtle, subtle, subtle kind of body which travels with the conscious mind. Yeah. Or mind.
Yeah. That is what the — So normally when we say that the consciousness or our mind is not being seen, it’s formless, which is being stated according to the appearance of the ordinary beings. As for the the clairvoyance of those great yogis they’ve been able to see the consciousness of all the mind. They’ve been visible to those great yogis who has attained certain sense of clear sight, but person like us or another being, we can’t see. And it’s been stated formless.
It’s invisible according to us. For example, for us, I mean, if there is a smoke far distance, we can hardly see that smoke as well. So we can’t see those but those great yogis or supreme beings, aryas who has attained, I mean those who have attained the clairvoyance, so those people can actually or their mind is being visible to those people, they can see. Yeah. So those people can see beings.
We don’t realize emptiness but those beings realize emptiness directly. The way in the sense you said that being like the as we stated that the person of the first hour I mean, a person at first hour is not exist at the second hour. Right? Or the person of the first moment is not exist at the second moment. It doesn’t mean that the person is not exist at all, but the continuation of the person is still there.
Alright? So the second moment is a continuation of the first first one. So it means the continuation is still there. So it means — Yeah. So during the second moment, the second the the moment of the second being is there.
And then when it passed on to the third moment, so the second is not — not there, but continuation of this that person is still there. So it’s it’s bit I say that. So when you do meditate impermanence, but just so you see, every moment it changes and you you just what you need to do is it’s really impermanence. And then so while you’re sitting and then say the yesterday of you is not here today. It’s been passed or been changed or and and it’s not exist.
Alright? And seeing that and then just meditate upon. The first moment is not exist right now. And then so and then when second moment start, the third moment start, you just meditate that. Okay.
Now second moment is also disappeared or it’s gone. So just — Yeah. So it means what we say is the continuation or similar form of the first bit. I mean, moment of first means — just continuation is the main — the word is this. Dumbalad, do you do you still have the body which you had during your childhood?
So that means it’s gone bigger and still it’s not there. Yeah. And you have those soft skins and during the childhood, you know? So change.