Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Winning the lottery and watching your mind light up with “I did it!” — that vivid surge of self is exactly what Khensur Rinpoche uses as an entry point in this 40-minute session from Buddha House’s 1992 Lamrim Weekend. He guides practitioners through a sustained meditation: first generate a strong emotion (joy, jealousy, sadness), then use part of the mind as a spy to observe the I that appears — its shape, color, permanence. The search moves systematically through the six Buddhist elements (earth, water, fire, wind, space, consciousness), examining bones, fluids, warmth, breath, the sense consciousnesses, feelings, and thoughts, finding the self nowhere. A Q&A follows on prostrations as an antidote to pride, illustrated by the three-faulty-pots metaphor for the obstacles to genuine listening.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 LR 1992 05 17.mp3
UUID: 887a1a7d-5b6b-420a-a54c-cd5efe2e7fbf
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim Weekend (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1992-05-17
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 39.9 minutes
Words: ~2,343
We have to begin someplace. And first we’ll begin with mindfulness of breathing, and then we’ll try to identify this fantasized self. And as I mentioned, it arises most vividly, it appears to one, in extreme emotional situations. So here you have to become skillful as a meditator in generating an emotional experience, either imaginatively or remembering an actual experience. You can remember some time when you were very sad, jealous, when you were hurt.
It can be a positive experience. Sometimes you’re extremely joyful. You just won the lotto or something, Crosslotto. And a very vivid sense of I. I won.
Wow. And that I. So in emotional state, a part of your mind, and this requires a great deal of experience and skill, a part of your mind, you don’t want to interrupt that emotional state. You want to maintain it. But a part of your mind is acting like a spy and wants to look, I just won the cross lotto.
I can do everything I’ve ever wanted to do. What is that I that can do everything it wanted to do? That I, what does it look like? So while there’s still being experienced, little spies taking notes, what it looks like. What color is it?
What shape is it? Is it changing all the time? Is it independently existing? Is one whole or is it a part? All of these qualities, trying to identify.
But it’s very difficult because normally we’ll overwhelm the emotion. Our analysis will cause the emotion to subside. We’re too we’re too like a bull in a china shop, we’re too gross with our analysis. So we have to become a little more delicate, a little more subtle in the way we act as a spy. So we we can maintain the generation of the emotion, but at the same time, part of our mind is performing this analysis as to how that eye is appearing to me.
They’ve done that. We’re going to look within the body and the mind. The way we’re going to look, one way in which within Buddhist physics, Buddhist chemistry, the entire universe, everything which is within it, is made up of a combination of six elements. I think in the periodic chart of Western chemistry there’s I don’t know how many these days, but I think the last time I studied chemistry was about one hundred and nine, I think, probably more now. But anyway, six elements: earth, water, fire, wind, and space and consciousness.
So everything is simply a combination in different degrees of these six elements, everything is constituted, combined out of those. So if we go through the body and mind looking for those six elements, analyzing those six elements, we should cover everything. If we investigate all those six elements, there shouldn’t be anything left out. And we are going to look within these six elements for the self that we have identified. So first in terms of the body, looking at the physical elements, then the space element within the body, and then within the conscious element.
And I’ll lead you through that. If you take a firm comfortable posture, begin with mindfulness of breathing. Now, either through your imagination or memory, develop an emotional experience in which the ‘I’ appears very vividly to you, and using some part of your mind, try to get a sense, a feeling for what that ‘I’ is like. Is it changing, unchanging, permanent, independent? Is it long or short?
Color? Whatever you can find out about it, try to watch it. Try to identify what it looks like. Now we’re going to search for that eye. We’re going to begin with the body.
And within the body, first we’re going to look within the earth element. So these are all the various dense, solid parts of the body, the various forms of the body, the bones, the organs, the teeth, the hair, the muscles. So beginning at the very top of your head, work your way down through all the solid portions of the body, down to the tip of your toes, looking at each individual solid part, the muscles, the teeth, the bones. Is this the eye which appeared so vividly? And we’re going to look the water element, all the fluids in the body, the blood, the lymph, the urine, saliva, all the flowing substances in the body.
Beginning at the top of your head, working your way down. As you come to each of the fluids in the body, examining, questioning, is this the I which appeared during that emotional experience? Is this the I? Then we’re going to investigate the fire element, the warmth of the body, the heat within the body. Is that the eye?
Is that the self? Then we’re going to look at the wind energy elements, the flow of the breath, the respiration, all the various energies moving throughout the body. Are any of these the I, the self? And we’re going to look at the space element, the various cavities in the body, the hollows, the spaces within the body. Are those spaces themselves, those cavities themselves, the space?
Are any of them the eye, the self? So working your way down through the body, When you come to a space, a hollow is that hollow, the eye, the soul? We’re going to look at the conscious element. What’s the eye consciousness that which sees colors and shapes? That which sees colors and shapes, the eye consciousness.
Is that the eye, the self? During that emotional experience, this is the I that was so happy, that was so sad, that was so embarrassed, The eye consciousness. Perhaps the ear consciousness, that which hears sounds. The nose consciousness, that which smells odors. The tongue consciousness, that which tastes flavors.
The body consciousness that which experiences objects of touch. We’re going to look at the mental consciousness. First, we’re going look at feelings pleasurable feelings, unpleasurable feelings, neutral feelings. Are they the I, the self? Feelings, pleasurable, unpleasurable, neutral.
And there’s the factor of perception, discrimination, the thinking, this is good, this is bad, this is a book, This is a table. Is that quality of mind which discriminates, which perceives? Is that the I, the self? Then there’s thought constructions, the various emotions, positive emotions like faith, love, compassion, negative emotions, attachment, hatred, pride. Are those emotions themselves?
Are they the I, the self? The emotions themselves. How about all the various thoughts which are going through our mind? Are they the thoughts? The self, the I.
Maybe the pictures, the mental images which arise in our mind. And then there’s the conscious awareness, that which knows. The simple fact of knowing. Is that knower? The simple fact of knowing, is that the eye of the self?
That was happy, that was sad, that was embarrassed. Is there anywhere else to look? So for the present artificially, Simply think, what I thought was there, in fact, isn’t. It was a mere appearance. When I looked, I couldn’t find it.
It’s not there. And now we want to reconfirm that, in fact, we do exist. So just understand, I am sitting on the cushion. I am meditating. I’m soon going to get up and go home.
I exist. And then return to the natural, even, gentle, in and out flow of the breath. Someone asked about prostrations. Prostrations are a direct antidote to pride. That’s the reason one does them.
Object to which one is directing the prostration, it doesn’t affect that. It’s not for the sake of that object, it’s not for the sake of the teacher. If it was for the sake of the teacher, then perhaps the teacher is not deserving of our prostrations. It’s simply for our own benefit. We have very little time, I’ll just mention a few words there are certain hindrances in this process of listening.
Buddha’s, all the various qualities of a Buddha, the most important from our point of view is communication. So the process of communication, is a possibility for some kind of insight, some kind of transmission. And so we have to open up channels of communication as best we can. And there are various faults, various obstacles to this process of communication. One traditional way of presenting these faults is in terms of a pot.
Three different faulty pots, I guess you’d say. One is where the the pot has a hole in it, and anything you pour in it comes right out the bottom. We don’t retain what we’ve heard. One of them is that the pot is dirty. That means whatever is heard is polluted with one’s own preconceptions, is mixed in with what you want to hear, so that it fits in with your world view.
You’re not really listening to what’s being said. And the third is an upside down pot. That means you’re so full of yourself that there’s nothing that can be poured into it. By prostrating, is prostration is bringing yourself near the earth, lowering oneself, grounding. Bringing this object above oneself.
We’re creating the opening to the possibility of learning something. I don’t know, I don’t have all the answers. It’s humbling. A mind which is full of pride is closed. There’s nothing that can be put into it, it has all the answers.
And so this is a real obstacle to learning. Pride is one of the main obstacles to learning. It’s difficult for a person with pride to really listen, to really hear what’s being said. So we prostrate in order to overcome that sense of pride. We get in touch with the ground, we raise this object above ourselves.
This is maybe just temporary. Maybe you have many more excellent qualities than this other person in general, maybe. But we are creating a situation of possible communication. This person, for one reason or another, is sitting there, and I am sitting here. And so if I am going to attend this teaching at all, I am going to try to create the best situation for the possibility of learning.
And so I’m going to, I don’t have all the answers. Maybe there’s a possibility of learning something. So one actively puts oneself down physically in order to bring the mind into a receptive state. So one prostrates as an antidote to pride. So it’s for one’s own benefit.
It’s not for the benefit of the object. Generally, before teaching, before meditation teachings, try to prostrate, sort of grounding ourselves, humbling ourselves, opening ourselves up, becoming a little more receptive to the possibility of learning. Maybe that’s enough. We fold our hands. We place our thumbs inside our hands.
Like imagining that you have a jewel in your hand. And we place on the crown of the head, the forehead, the throat, and then the heart area. And it signifies the obeisance of one’s body, speech, mind, and then all three at once. That’s just a word about that. There’s more that can be said, anyway, that will give you some idea.
All of these things, the water that we offer, the flowers, the incense, making prostrations, it all has some effect. It all is trying to, in some way, help us work with our mind. Produce positive states of mind in one way or another. For some people it’s very important, for the physical aspects are very important, for other people the mental side is more important, different dispositions, different capacities. But all in all, it’s probably useful for everyone, to a lesser or greater degree.
So we just have a few minutes, I’m sorry. Wow, I was Yeah. Anybody have a pressing question? You’re okay. And that’s what I was keying with what you were talking about this afternoon.
Where is it that we’re not really self centered and all this, you know, we’re not really that weird, but that that’s we’re completely okay. And that’s and that’s where all this stuff about Yeah, it would seem that we have to be somebody before we can be nobody. That We have to work extremely hard to improve ourselves in order to come to an understanding that there has never been any self to improve. So we have to work in this remedial fashion until we come to some ultimate understanding about ourselves. We are okay ultimately.
Anybody else have a comment, something they would like to share? Like to thank Jim for his hard work in organizing the course and the food. Have to thank you, actually, for coming. I don’t do this for my benefit. Buddha house doesn’t exist for its own benefit.
It tries at least to offer some physical and mental and psychic space to for people to come and and help themselves. As I said yesterday morning, Buddhism can’t really do anything for you. Only person that can help you is yourself. Buddhism is some set of tools, if you like, with which you can work, but it’s you that’s got to do the work. I’d like to thank very much Champa for leading this whole weekend.
I hope that you’ve had the opportunity to explore your own inner space and also a bit of the physical space around here and that you’ve found out where all the information is and where the library is and that you’ll come back again. Thank you. So let’s dedicate to all this positive energy that we’ve created over the weekend. So it’s verses eight and nine. These are just kind of formulas.
The actual feeling behind the words is the most important, but at least it’s giving some direction to the mind. May I quickly become an awakened spiritual teacher and lead each and every sentient being to that enlightened realm through these skillful actions. May the supreme jewel of the awakening heart that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more.