Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A business analogy — exchanging self and others is a venture with guaranteed profit and zero loss — anchors Khensur Rinpoche’s 102-minute closing session of the 2000 Lam Rim series. He opens by correcting a common misreading: the practice does not mean imagining you are someone else, but swapping two mental habits — converting self-cherishing into cherishing others, and directing toward oneself the neglect previously shown to others. He then walks through all ten non-virtuous actions, naming the specific fruit each abandonment yields: long life, wealth, harmonious speech, better rebirth. A story of enemies who become intimate partners and later become enemies again illustrates how fluidly the mind shifts, reinforcing Geshe Chekawa’s point that the untrained mind’s one great quality — despite all its faults — is that it can be trained.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 17 LR 2000 04 11.mp3
UUID: 4e657bc1-b6aa-4b35-be1f-f4299e5d3e7c
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 2000-04-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 102.0 minutes
Words: ~4,824
Yeah. That’s the moment. So, we’ll first set up the sincere motivation then follow through a short meditation for a few minutes. So here the good motivation refers us, refers that if one developed a motivation along with the development of love, compassion, special insight, and the bodhicitta, which is altruistic intention. So, having that kind of motivation is being called good motivation.
So, it is through this way we can set this motivation by thinking that like oneself there are the entire limitless sentient beings or same in nature, wanting or wishing happiness and do not want suffering? So, as both oneself and others, entire sentient beings are wishing happiness and do not want suffering. So, by thinking this and wishing, developing love and compassion towards both oneself and others, wishing us to attain the happiness and its causes and be free from all those sufferings and their causes through this one develops love and compassion. So the love and compassion affections are very beneficial and also those are very good qualities to have. Also, we can develop the special insight on top of those which has also even greater quality and benefits than others.
So the special insight is not just, it’s not like others, developing a mere wish. special insight is the one that, but on top of that wish, you also take all the entire responsibility to take the burden of both self and others to free the entire sentient beings from all the sufferings and work for their happiness. So, at this stage, even though one has developed a special insight, but one will know that one hasn’t got this potentiality or capable or one has no capability of doing so. So at this stage, one hasn’t found the capability of accomplishing that wish, it is because one is being tortured by the sufferings at this stage plus and also one is being obscured from all those good qualities by the layers of disturbing emotions and disturbing emotion, the causes of the suffering and so forth. But if asked, can one achieve that capability or that potentiality or not, the answer is that one can eventually achieve that capability, and it is through this way one achieves that by abandoning all the defects and negativities and the bad state of mind.
So, in order to achieve, in order to free both oneself and others from the sufferings and bring them to the state of happiness, I let them have all the entire happiness and its causes. I shall here perform this meditation in order to accomplish such wishes. So we’ll be doing the prayers. So, in the last teaching we have been dealing with, been training in how to develop the altruistic intention, the bodhicitta, the system set forth from the great master, Śāntideva. So, we have set forth the first three subdivisions which are the equalizing self in others.
The second is the defects or the disadvantages of self-cherishing attitude and the advantages or the benefits of cherishing others. So, after all, having been trained in this process, training in all those subdivisions that teachings given, so forth, of the disadvantages of the self-cherishing attitude and the advantages of cherishing others. After all, having trained in this, one should now make a resolution by knowing all the disadvantages of the self-cherishing attitude that all the unwanted sufferings and so forth comes from the self-cherishing attitude and all the happiness, the good happiness and good qualities comes from the cherishing others. So, by knowing this, one should make a resolution here and should be happy to practice cherishing others and should see always, should not develop the self-cherishing attitude which is the source of all the miserables. Even in our normal life, that whenever one sees the disadvantages of doing something or if one sees the force of doing something, one automatically make the decision not to perform such action whatever it is.
We’ll not do it again, and anything positive or good happens by doing something one always feels happy to involve in that activity. So, likewise, it is same in the spiritual practice as well that one practices all the practice which produces the good qualities and will not do the disadvantages. So, whether it’s a spiritual thing or a modern thing, if one still engages in an activity which causes him or her suffering, then we consider that person as very foolish and also considered as put them in a low position with something who has lack of understanding. And also, it’s the same both spiritual and the modern thing. Doing something which produces a good quality or happiness, then it may be quite hard to implement that sort of action, but one will still try best to do that activity because of the good result by doing so.
So, now at this stage, we need to change self and others, but the way of changing self and others is, first, in order to do such a practice, first one should see the disadvantages of self-cherishing attitude and the advantages of cherishing others. So when changes the self from others, it doesn’t mean that the self from others in the sense of thinking oneself as others and others as oneself. This is not the way one should perform this changing self, exchanging self and others. The way of changing is that one should swap or change those two type of minds, the two types of mind which are the self-cherishing attitude and the mind which agrees that others doesn’t exist in the sense that sort of mind never thinks of others. So you should change those two types of mind, converting that self-cherishing attitude into cherishing others, and the mind which sees that others doesn’t exist, which are set forth, does not think of others should convert towards the self, which means think about the self or purposes.
So, if we make it a bit clearer, clearer, then yet. So the self-cherishing attitude, because of having that attitude, that mind or self-cherishing attitude influences one to attain the happiness and the pleasure for self and also always put oneself more important and also put all the work to get rid of all the sufferings or the problems of self. All actions one performs are mainly influenced or comes through the self-cherishing attitude. And because of that having a self-cherishing attitude, one produces or performs lots of non virtuous actions, and as a result, one suffers. And because of the self-cherishing attitude, again, and then one considers oneself more important than others, and due to this, one will not have a strong affection towards others or one have no strong caring about others and due to this one will not work that one will not able to put much effort on overcoming others’ sufferings and the problems.
And that the one which, as we said before, the mind which does not see, the mind which sees that others don’t exist in the sense that doesn’t work, which does not let you put much effort on benefiting others. And that happens because of not having a strong, caring, compassion, love to others. So, to exchange certain others, one should exchange those two types of mind, that they swap or change that self-cherishing attitude which shows oneself more important than others towards others. And then change and take the second mind towards oneself that the mind which do not put much effort on overcoming the other’s sufferings and also which lacks the compassion and love towards others, change that towards oneself and by changing that one will not consider oneself more important than others and will not consider oneself, will will not consider that attaining happiness for self and also overcoming oneself is not that important as others. So, one may develop a fear or one may see that there is a great loss by doing such thing that they’re not working, not considering oneself important than others, and not working, yet fully working to overcome one’s own problems should always work for others.
By doing so, it quite scary or one may feel scared to do so. What it means no good, no good. Not happy, not So one may likely to think that I’m not happy with this practice because it gives me huge loss. That thought is the main obstacle to practice the self, exchanging self in others. And one may likely to think, but it is not, but there is no loss at all by doing such practice that instead of loss, one will have great profit.
So, it is like doing a business, but in that business, there’s no loss at all. One will have huge profit in that business. So, we are like a great businessman, and we need a profit, not just a profit, we need a huge, great, very, very big profit. And by doing such, one will have great profit. Such practice, and the profit is that by cherishing others more important than oneself, by cherishing others important than oneself, then one will start doing action which gives them a happiness and avoid their sufferings.
And to avoid their sufferings because of not wanting them to suffer, then one stopped cultivating harmful actions like ten non virtues and so forth. So, doing such practice, one will start stopping the ten non virtuous actions and will start from the first, which is stop killing and stop by abandoning the action, the act of killing. As a result, one will have a long life. And we all want to have long life. Then, we’ll stop the second non virtuous which is stealing, but by avoiding that, as a result, one will have good enjoyment and will become rich.
As everyone wished to be rich, and because of that we worked day and night in hot and cold weather, and it is because we wanted to be rich. So by stopping that action, the act of stealing, without any hardships, one will have good enjoyment. And by avoiding the third non action, which is sexual misconduct, one will have by avoiding that non virtuous action, one will have a better rebirth and will not be born in the three lower realms like the animal hell and the hungry ghost realms. Instead of death, one will have a better rebirth in god realms humans and the demigods. And by avoiding the thought, which is lies, by avoiding the lie, as a result, everyone will start believing you, and as the people trust you, you can easily accomplish your own wishes.
Hope you will laugh after me, actually. And then the what was that? Fifth. That’s right. Dream Tamarot.
And then the by avoiding the fifth nonvarious action, is the Tamarotlacus. What do you call for that? Sorry? Yeah, what? Yes, splendor or divisive speech.
So, by avoiding that, then one can live very harmonious, harmony with other people and becomes very friendly and there is no problem or trouble finding a companion or a partner. Okay, everyone avoid that divisive speech or the slander, then in this world, there won’t be much single person. And then, by avoiding the sixth non virtuous action, which is harsh speech, avoiding that then everything what hears will be very pleasant and there be no one who speaks harshly towards you and everything you hear is very soft, sweet, and so forth. And then avoiding the sixth, seventh, isn’t it? Seventh, which is idle gossip.
Avoiding that, then one will never waste any time and everything, anything that comes from you or your mouth will be very meaningful and very effective and there won’t be any word coming from or any word with us. Everything comes from your mouth will be very meaningful, which is to bring the happiness and help others and will never have the useless words coming through your mouth. And there are other three non-virtues that come from the mental, from the mind, which are the covetousness, harmful intention, and the wrong views. Of not abandoning or possessing those three mental non virtuous actions. As a result, one always wanting things and never be satisfied with what one has.
So by avoiding those non virtuous actions, then one will have a very one will be one will have a pleasure of being satisfied with what one has and also all the one’s wishes, what one wants will be obtained without any difficulty. And also avoiding the harmful intention, then by avoiding this, one will have a strong love towards the entire sentient beings and because of loving them as a response, also the sentient beings, the humans, non humans, and all these beings will develop love in you and always, always, always help you. And then, the last one, the wrong view. The wrong view, developing wrong views, then one will, as a result, there is a danger of taking rebirths in the area where the teaching does not exist, and also in a place like barbarian place where the teachings have never been spread or flourished. We’ll also take rebirth in very bad places.
So by avoiding the wrong views, one will take a rebirth in a good place where there are the things which are in a place where the teachings have been flourished through practicing so one can accomplish one’s wishes. So, when one avoids harming others, When one trained in that self and exchanging self and others, then one will start avoiding harm to others. By doing so, avoiding harm to others, then one will stop cultivating the ten non virtuous actions because ten non virtuous actions are the one which causes harm to others. As one do not want to harm others, then one will avoid the ten non virtuous actions, and by avoiding so, one maintains the ethical discipline of avoiding the ten non virtuous actions. Through this one accomplishes the first training, which is the ethical discipline, and as a result, by taking that as the basis one develops in the practice or in the second training, which is concentration or a meditative stabilization.
And then one will also be attained the realizations in the third training, which is the training in wisdom. Through training in the wisdom, as a result, will abandon all the disturbing emotions which are the causes for the sufferings. So by avoiding the, by abandoning the disturbing emotions, one will automatically abandon or alleviate all the sufferings and develop the love and compassion and also through such trainings one has the benefit or advantages of attaining the all the greater or the lesser qualities or realizations of the lower and the lesser and the greater vehicles, and also there’s a chance of attaining the enlightenment. So, briefly speaking, then by doing such practices, one will avoid all the unwanteds and attain one’s wishes. Yeah, attain one’s all the wishes and there is no no such a greater profit than this.
So if you want that profit, then exchange self and others. And if you want the opposite of that profit, then you don’t need to exchange self and others, and the opposite of the profit which is that one will not avoid all the unwanted and cannot accomplish the one’s wishes in the sense that the self-cherishing attitude which brings all the unwanted sufferings and can’t attain happiness. And the self, the cherishing others, the mind which cherish others, cherishing others is the one which brings all the happiness and avoids all the unwanted sufferings. So you can make your own decision which one you want. So here the great master Śāntideva has set forth in his in his text called the engaging in the bodhisattva’s deeds.
He said that one needs to change self and ourselves and others. If one do not change self and others, then one will not attain the Buddhahood as well as one will not become bodhisattvas and so forth. And as a result, by not changing self and others, one will keep wandering in the cyclic existence and by taking rebirths and cycling in the cyclic existence, there’s only sufferings in the saṃsāra. Also, if one asks, can one really do such practice or not? They’re changing those two types of mind and can one consider others more important than oneself and will not put much effort for the attainment of self happiness and the abandonment of the suffering of the self?
If asked such questions, then the answer for that question, the great master Śāntideva has said yes for the answer. So, if you demonstrate an analogy or example here, sometimes we have an enemy and it’s not just an enemy, a very, very bad enemy that forget about seeing the enemy. That enemy, just by hearing the name of the enemy, one develops fear and develops strong anger. And also have intention that if I see that person, I’ll straight away kill him or her. So, we have that kind of enemies.
So, at that time, forget about cherishing the person, the enemy, very dearly or working for his or her happiness or overcome his or her sufferings, one will have a strong sense of, If I see the person, I’ll kill him straight away. Then, for a time being, when the time passes and there will be a time that directly or indirectly one gradually becomes able to contact with the person and slowly becomes a friend or a partner or whatever. By becoming so, later all the time has been changed. Then there will be a time that one can’t stay without the person, and there is no happiness at all if he or she is not allowed. These things are possible to happen, and it is also possible for this thing to happen.
Like at this stage, one has a very, very close friend or partner, and one cannot exist or stay without the person even for a moment. And then the time passes, and then it becomes more and more distant. Then later on it will become like, I do not want to see that face again, him or her. Also sometimes if it becomes too worse, very bad, then either there’s a danger of killing each other. Yeah, and this is possible and it is also very obvious one can understand, especially in the West.
It is possible to kill kill each other. All those things are possible to happen, and while during the closeness, feeling very close to other people or one’s friend or one’s partner, at that stage one has a strong caring the mind which really cares the person, sometimes even more important than oneself. One takes care, considers him or her more important than oneself and always try to work for the person. This is how it and then that thought can be changed later on becoming an enemy. So when one examines how it comes, it just comes from the converting the thinking of the mind.
So, likewise, all these things can it is possible to exchange self from others by converting the thoughts or converting those minds which cares for others and not much for oneself as much as one does for others. So, for example, at this stage we care for self very much and have the strong sense of self-cherishing attitude. When one takes the cherished self in the sense we always consider that the body is the self and very dear to the body and also so when it’s trying to protect that body very much if it’s hot or from the hot or sometimes when it feels cold trying to wrap it with a good or warm cloth and so forth. When it’s hungry, feed the body and so forth. It happens because of the holding the body as an I, body as a self or an I.
In fact, the body is not the I. It is just the result which comes from which is being produced by the mixture or by the meeting of the father and mother’s drops. As a result, by mixing those two drops, as a result, one gets that body, but in fact, the body is not the self. So, in the real sense, the fact is that we consider the self, which is thinking the body is the self, and develop a strong sense of caring for the self, which is to the body. But in the true sense, the body is not oneself or a self, but we have we consider that body as a self and work for its happiness or its pleasure always being very clear to the body.
So likewise, if the others are not self, but like the body one comes to as self, If one does the practice, one can develop the mind of cherishing others and also can cherish others now as important as like that body. By developing such a caring to others, by having that caring to others then there’s no doubt that one works for happiness of the earth because of that. There’s no doubt to work for their happiness and for their goodness. So here the great master Geshe Chekawa in his Seven Point Thought Transformation or mind training, stated that the mind with the faults has one good quality. It’s in the sense our mind, the disturbing emotions have not permanently entered, but the mind has been mixed or it has disturbing emotions like the stain on the material or a cloth.
That mind with the faults, which in the sense it’s been defiled by having the disturbing emotions and it has been obscured by the layers of disturbing emotions. Although it is a mind with the faults, it still has one good quality, which is that that mind can be trained. If one trains that, whatever one teaches to that mind, it can learn and it understands. It depends on whether one trains the mind or not. If one trains the mind, it can be well trained.
And so it has one good quality and not just a good quality, it has a very, very big quality. And one can train that mind. For example, like at the time of the birth, one cannot say the alphabets A, C. By teaching that mind, one can say the alphabet A, B, C, in the sense the Tibetan ka, kha, ga, nga. So likewise, if one teaches how to meditate on love, that mind can meditate on the love and that mind can recite the six level mantras.
One can cook food and can learn how to, you know, like a tailoring, and can also develop the bodhicitta or the altruistic intention, can understand the emptiness and realize the emptiness, also develop renunciation or the good qualities of small, middling and the great scopes of the Lamrim texts or Lamrim teachings, and as well as can practice the tantra or secret teachings and can learn about the secret practice or secret teachings and start meditating on visualizing the celestial mandalas, and so forth. So that quality is a very, very big quality that can learn a lot. And if I train that mind narrowly or in the wrong way, then that mind can be trained how to tell a lie steal, how to torture other people, kill. The fact is, whatever you teach, it can learn. So, yeah, so if one trains that mind, can be trained, and whatever one teaches to that mind, that mind can learn as well.
Also, great Master Śāntideva has stated that if one maintains, if one develop enthusiasm or put effort, nothing nothing is impossible. It is true that that depends on how much effort one put and also on what subject one put effort or maintain enthusiasm in. If one directs that enthusiasm towards the bad things, then that mind can be trained well. For example, like in these days, the people produce atomic bombs and trains and can know how to harm other people and also especially in this time lots of computers just by pressing a button. There is a possibility of turning up, you just by pressing a button, the wall can be upside down in a minute or something.
Also, yeah, people produce things for the Third World War or fourth war. Yeah, and especially the human beings in this world have a greater quality and are more intelligent than the beings in the other planet. The humans in this world or this planet are very intelligent. They’re very sharp minded and they can learn a lot and very easy to understand. It is because they are very intelligent and have sharp faculty or sharp minds.
What we can say is because in this era, because It is because there will be the thousand Buddhists coming in the world, and among the thousand Buddhists, only three Buddhas will give the tantric teachings or the secret teachings. That does not mean that the other Buddhas do not understand the tantric teachings. They all can teach tantric, but the reason why all Buddhas do not teach tantric teachings is because in some eras or eons during the other Buddhas there will not be disciples with a sharp faculty or very intelligent disciples who are suitable objects to teach the tantric. Among those thousand Buddhas, only three Buddhas would teach the tantric teachings, and among those three, the Buddha Śākyamūni, the Buddha of this era, is the one who teaches tantric. And that means that the beings in this world have greater intelligence and are more intelligent and have better faculty than others, and because of this Buddha Shakyamunii has taught the tantric teachings.
Buddha Śākyamūni is the first among those three who teaches the tantric, who has taught the tantric teachings. But other two Buddhas who will teach tantric teachings, there is not such a prediction or spiritual prediction that there will be three Buddhas who teach the tantric teachings, and the Buddha Śākyamūni is the one who taught. But about the two next Buddhas who teach tantric, there is no such spiritual predictions, but it’s been established through the logics. Among the thirty, in the future there will be a Buddha called Jale or Kalle, that will be the great master Tsongkhapa who comes to this world and shows the twelve deeds of the Buddhas and will teach in this world. We said that the future Buddha, Kalle, will teach tantric because the great master Tsongkhapa in his life has composed lots of tantric texts and has given lots of tantric teachings.
Because of that reason, we said that when he comes as a Buddha in future, which is Buddha Kalle, he will teach the tantric teachings. Then the last of a thousand Buddha will teach teach, which also teach the tantric because it has been stated that when the last Buddha turns into his world, that he will do all the deeds of the above ninety nine-nine-nine Buddhas. As he said, he will perform all the actions, all the deeds of the above Buddhas, and the Buddha Śākyamūni has taught the tantric teachings. So that is the reason that the last Buddha will also teach the tantric. Yeah, I think So we’ll conclude today’s class here.
Today is the last teaching for a time being. In the past teachings, went very detailed through the training one’s mind according to the sevenfold cause and effect instructions, the training one’s mind in the equanimity and all those sevenfold causes which are cultivating limitless equanimity, recognizing beings as one’s mother, remembering their kindness, repairing their kindness, cultivating affectionate love or appealing love, compassion, special wish, and the bodhicitta or altruistic intention, and also went very detailed through the practicing in turning one’s mind into this, you know, on exchanging self and equalizing and exchanging self from others. So you have heard very detailed information about that practice. And it is very good to contemplate on the teachings what one has heard. Contemplation is very, very important in order to protect one’s listening.
Through contemplation then comes the meditation and then comes the realizations, insights and realizations are obtained meditation. One should examine what one has heard from the teaching or what one has heard. I went through all the details about the benefits of doing so and disadvantages of not doing a practice. As you have heard everything, you should analyze on one’s hearing through contemplation and then meditate as much as you can. But through this one can derive or extract the benefits from receiving teachings.
And through this, putting all this hearing and contemplation into the meditation, and by doing meditation, and if that happens, Oh, I’ve been able to obtain the equanimity. I have developed love and compassion, been able to see all sentient beings as one’s own, my mother.