Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche devotes the core of this 97-minute session to the five degenerations — the conditions that make our era so hostile to spiritual practice and, paradoxically, so suitable for mind training. After a brief review of three root-text similes (diamond, sun, medicinal tree as images of bodhicitta and emptiness), he works through each degeneration: afflictive emotions triggered by almost any sense contact, the cascade of negative karma they produce, degeneration of view (the soccer star who considers kicking a ball humanity’s highest achievement), declining lifespan, and the era’s overall decay. His central argument is that mind training turns these conditions into the path — as a parent steers a child away from bad companions. A closing Q&A asks whether degeneration can be reversed: individually yes, collectively no, with Maitreya’s eventual coming as the turning point.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 LMT 1997 05 06.mp3
UUID: 0b9d94bc-5960-4041-82f0-3eae292ea6cd
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lojong Mind Training (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1997-05-06
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 97.0 minutes
Words: ~5,002
So we’ll begin by adjusting our motivation, meditating for a short while on the awakened heart. We’re all exactly alike. We all want happiness. None of us want to suffer, this extends not only to humans but to animals also. But they’re all animals as well as humans, all equally want to be happy, equally do not wish to suffer.
human beings are unlike any other creature in the universe in that we have the discrimination, that we have the ability necessary whereby to actually eliminate our suffering from the very root that we can develop, we can become skillful in methods whereby to achieve the happiness that we all desire. And therefore we are preeminent amongst all the various life forms. We’re able as human beings to generate the quality of mind expressed in seeking to bring all living beings whosever happiness and to eliminate their suffering, that we are able to hold others more dear even than ourselves. And we can even go further than that. We can increase that attitude of mind wishing that others be free of suffering and that they find happiness to the extent where we take personal responsibility that I, my self, will free all living beings from the suffering that I, myself, will bring them happiness, that we’re able to develop such an intense resolve.
But though we may develop such an intense resolve wishing to free all living beings from their suffering and to bring them to a state of complete happiness, we have to examine ourselves and see if in fact we have such an ability to actualize this intention. And when we look at ourselves, we see that we don’t. At present, we don’t have that capacity. But if we were to question, well, does anyone have such an ability? We can begin to understand that if we were to eliminate all our various faults and to bring to consummation all our excellent qualities, just like a Buddha, then we ourselves would be able, in fact, to eliminate the suffering of all living beings and to place all living beings in a complete happiness.
Developing as our motivation to listen to this presentation, the aspiration to in fact bring this about, that I’m going to listen to this teaching of the Dharma. It’s a teaching on the practice of the universal vehicle whereby to develop the awakened heart and the awakened mind as the means whereby to eliminate all our various faults and bring to consummation all our excellent qualities for the sake of all living being. So, to begin where we left off in our teaching of last week, we were looking at the first lines of the, in terms of the root text, the seven verses of training the mind, where first it said, Homage to great compassion, this essence of nectar like instruction is transmitted from Serlingpa. It is like a diamond, like the sun, and like a medicinal tree. The meaning of this text should be known, the development of the five impurities will be transformed into the path to enlightenment.
So as was mentioned last week, we talked about what it meant where it said that this text is like a diamond. A diamond here basically is analogous or symbolizes the conventional bodhicitta or the awakened heart. And if we were to develop such an attitude of mind as the awakened heart, we would be able to go beyond the suffering of cyclic existence. But still, we would not fall to the extreme of passivity. That is to say, we would not seek a solitary peace for ourselves, such as a Foe-destroyer or an Arhat, but we would remain within cyclic existence, develop the methods of the universal vehicle whereby to eliminate the suffering of all living beings and we would achieve the name of bodhisattva.
Then in the similes which are likened in the text, first to a diamond, then it mentions like the sun. And this refers to ultimate bodhicitta or the awakened mind. This, within the universal vehicle, the Mahāyāna, is the direct realization of emptiness. That is to say, the mind, a main mind, a primary consciousness within meditative equipoise on emptiness. So it is this awakened mind which is able to eliminate the extreme of cyclic existence.
That is to say by means of development of the awakened mind, the direct realization of emptiness, we are able to liberate ourselves from cyclic existence. We no longer exist within cyclic existence. It’s likened to the sun. The sun is able to eliminate all darkness wherever its rays make contact. Likewise, with this mind, with this awakened mind, it is able to eliminate all of the darkness of the obscurations of ignorance.
It is able to remove the root of cyclic existence, the conception of true existence, just like the sun’s radiance. It removes all the afflictive emotions such as attachment and hatred and jealousy and pride. It is able to destroy them all. So what are these two bodhicittas able to do, the awakened heart and the awakened mind? This is brought out in the third simile where it is likened to a medicinal tree.
Just as a medicinal tree is able to eliminate all sicknesses, it is able to cure all diseases. Likewise, these two bodhicittas, the awakened heart and the awakened mind, are able to eliminate all suffering whatsoever. That is to say all unwanted results that we experience in our life. It is by means of the awakened heart that we’re able to eliminate self centeredness and it’s by means of the awakened mind that we’re able to eliminate self grasping. These two are the basic diseases which plague us all and it’s by these two medicinal properties of the awakened mind and the awakened heart that we can cure all our ills.
So all of these present teachings have as their source the historic Buddha. His teachings were subsequently clarified and expounded upon or commentated upon by the great pioneers of Nāgārjuna and Asaṇga. It was these two who developed the methods whereby to cultivate these two bodhicittas, the awakened heart and the awakened mind. And the text goes on to say that the meaning of this text should be known, the development of the five impurities will be transformed into the path to enlightenment. And it was here that a third of a lineage, the lineage of the blessings, of the practice, was clarified by Asaṇga and to a great extent, Śāntideva, not Asaṇga, Atisha, and to a great extent Śāntideva in his Guide to the bodhisattva’s Way of Life.
So in addition to the profound and the vast, there is the lineage of the blessings, the practice, whereby we’re able to transform adverse circumstances into a path to awakening. So this lineage of the training mainly comes through, beginning with Serlingpa, as we’ve mentioned, and as has been previously mentioned, down to Atisha, to Potowa, and finally to the composer of the root text, the seven point training of the mind, Geshe Chekawa. Since the development of the five impurities will be transformed into the path to enlightenment. So this is very much a hallmark of the tradition of the Kadampa. The Kadampa practice made use of the obstacles which confronted ourselves in our practice.
And these are condensed into what are termed the five impurities. Sometimes this is translated as the five degenerations or five dregs whereby those who seek to practice the Dharma, especially those who are seeking to practice the universal, though they meet with great harm in the course of their practice, these harms in fact do not become obstacles but become a unique method to actually achieve their goal. So within our universal system, from the point of its creation to the point of its destruction, there will actually be not five universal Buddhas who will manifest, but one thousand.
So how many of these universal teachers Buddhas have already manifested up to this point? There have been four. So from the initial presence of human beings within our world, at the time of the initial presence of human beings in our world, their lifespan was said to be not immeasurable, but due to the development of the degeneration in terms of their attitude and the development of negative types of behavior, slowly their lifespan decreased until it came down to sixty thousand years. It was at this time that the first of the four Buddhas manifested and that was the Buddha Krakucchanda. Then as the lifespan continued to decrease when it came down to forty thousand years, the Buddha Kanakamuni manifested.
And then the lifespan continued to decrease downward until when it reached twenty thousand, the Buddha Kāśyapa manifested. Then when it got down to one hundred years, Buddha Śākyamūni manifested. So, amongst the Buddhas, there was a choice as to their manifesting in the various world systems at various times, and it came to the place where that there were no Buddhas who were willing to descend into our world when their lifespan had decreased to the hundred years. None of them would commit themselves to entering our world. It was only Śākyamūni Buddha who was willing to enter our world at that time.
So, it’s said that of all these, of all the appointed Buddhas, was Śākyamūni Buddha was the bravest of all, that he had to have this courage to enter our world. He considered so extremely courageous to have entered into our world at that time? When we talk about the five impurities or the five dregs, the dregs are what’s left over when the good part’s been removed. And he was it’s such that the people simply were not interested and would not listen to the Dharma, they were continually involved in negative actions, that they had no regard for spiritual teachers or even their parents. So, such a time was considered extremely degenerate and hardly worth there was no opportunity to it was an inopportune time to actually be of use to others, to the people.
So, even in the course of Śākyamūni Buddha’s life, there were many attempts made to harm him. There are stories of when huge boulders were flung through the sky to harm him and that wild elephant, a crazed elephant was set loose to destroy him. All of these attempts were made to harm him. So, but I’m not going to tell you all of those stories. So, what are these five degenerations or five impurities?
You know, just to speak about them extremely briefly, the five are the degeneration of afflictive emotions, the degeneration of actions, the degeneration of view, the degeneration of lifespan, and the degeneration of time. So, as was mentioned, what we mean by this term degeneration or impurity, or more literally it’s translated as dregs. And just like, you know, when you drink tea, you brew the tea, you’ve taken the essence of the tea and as these dregs are left over maybe in the pot or in the cup and that’s what you throw out after you’ve taken the best part of what it is that you want. You have the dregs, and these times were likened to the times of the five dregs. So, the first of these five degenerations of dregs was that of the degeneration of afflictive emotions.
And the time is such during this period that even that afflictive emotions are extremely gross. But more than that, what is being gotten at here is the idea that even extremely subtle conditions can cause the afflictive emotions to be generated, to develop. For example, when the eye sees a color and shape, almost any color and shape can be a condition for development attachment. Even hearing almost any sound, that sound can be a condition for the development of attachment. Just any taste, any smell, All these objects of our senses, even the most subtle, the most subtle can be an object for the development of attachment.
Then not going on from that, not getting what we want and being attached to that object, not getting what we want in the course of our desire for that object, we develop anger and hatred. So the point is that almost any type of situation, condition about us could act as a cause for the development of the afflicted emotions of attachment and hatred and jealousy and pride. Even just the most plain, simple conditions could act as a condition necessary. Just by looking around us, find something to get angry at or just hearing a word we don’t like, we develop hatred. So, we should What is being spoken of should somehow connect up to our own experience.
Know, dharma is something which is related to what is actually happening to ourselves. And this fact of how even very simple conditions can act for us to develop very gross afflictive emotions. We’ve all experienced that before, haven’t we? And in the course of developing these afflictive emotions, our minds become literally inappropriate or unsuitable and thereby become we are caught up in negativity. Our minds are no longer appropriate, suitable.
So, the first of these degeneration was out of the afflictive emotions in that even the most simple conditions can act as a cause for the development of afflictive emotions. But, you know, such as hatred and attachment and desire. But even, due to this situation where even insignificant conditions can act as causes for the development of afflictive emotion, we go on to create karma. And that is to say, these afflictive emotions are actions and therefore it becomes a degeneration of action. So, over the course of one hour, we can generate a tremendous number of afflictive emotions and through those afflictive emotions accumulate numberless actions or karma.
So, that’s the second of these two degenerations, the degeneration of karma or action. The third of these five degenerations is the degeneration of view. And there are many types of practices that we are to involve ourselves in. Are many areas of conduct that we are to cultivate and many types of conduct that we are to abandon. And that there are positive practices and there are negative practices.
We have to begin to There are positive ways of acting and negative ways of acting. We have to develop be able to discriminate which is which and which to cultivate and which to abandon, but we lack that wisdom. We have very little wisdom with this discriminative awareness. So, because of that lack of wisdom, it’s necessary that we make great use of the training of the mind. So, our practice is very much involves determining and implementing what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected.
But we, in the context of the degeneration of view, take the opposite position of what is actually skillful in this regard. That we hold as skillful which are to be rejected, those views which are to be given up, those ways of acting which we should not involve ourselves in, and therefore adopting those constitutes the degeneration of view. To exemplify what we mean by degeneration of view in very simple terms, contemporary simple terms, you know that some people are real experts. Some people those people have become star soccer players. They think that there’s nothing better in the world that one could ever hope to be.
That there is no greater skill than to be able to kick a ball. And those who become famous singers, they also think that they are the best thing that’s ever happened, that there’s nothing greater than their talent. So, these aren’t actual views conceiving oneself in that way, conceiving that being an expert at kicking a ball is the most skillful thing that one can be or that being the best singer is the best talent that one can have. But these are what has been referred to as degeneration of views. So, you know, the views that we would that we are seeking to cultivate are views such as the view of emptiness, or the view of selflessness, or the correct view, or the view of impermanence.
These types of views actually help us to eliminate our suffering. They bring us an ultimate happiness. These other views that we’ve been speaking of in terms of the degenerate views, they serve at best to help us to develop pride and all the various afflictive emotions, and therefore they may bring some kind of temporal happiness. In the end, they bring us nothing but suffering. So due to degenerate views, we involve ourselves in a preponderance of negative actions, all kinds of unskillful and destructive actions.
That is negative karma. And by the force of these negative actions, the lifespan begins to decrease. The lifespan becomes shorter and shorter and shorter. And this represents the degeneration of life. As was mentioned, when Śākyamūni Buddha first manifested in our world it was said that the average person lived a hundred years, and now the times have degenerated to the point where probably the average person lives about sixty five years.
Perhaps things are better in the West and people take care of their health, they have exercises, they have a good they have an excellent medical system. But I know in Tibet, when somebody reached the age of sixty, they were bent over and had to rely on a cane. I know in the place where I was born that now that I’ve gotten to the age of seventy three, I can’t see anybody who still lives there, who’s reached that age. So as our attitudes of mine and our conduct become more and more negative, our life will decrease in its span until it reaches the period of ten years. So when it reaches that level of, lifespan of ten years, time is referred to as the degeneration of time.
So the text says that the development of the five impurities will be transformed into the path to enlightenment. So this word development means when these five degenerations or impurities are flourishing, we were to that this text of mind training has the beneficial capacity whereby that all of the suffering and difficulties that we might meet with at such a time are not obstacles, but in fact can be turned into a practice of Dharma whereby to bring to consummation our practice in the attainment of liberation and awakening. So at such a time, at the degeneration of time, that preponderance of our attitudes will be those of afflictive emotions, and out of that the bulk of our conduct will be that of negative actions and the creating of negative karma. We should reflect upon this in terms of ourselves, whether this is the case or not. I mean, there’s a verse I quoted from Śāntideva, said that we are to that we are to look to our own mind, to look to the condition of our mind whether it’s in a negative state or a positive state, whether it’s in a skillful state or an unskillful state.
And if we were to examine our mind in such a way, what would we see? We would probably see that on one occasion our mind is full of attachment, on the next occasion it’s full of anger, the next occasion it’s full of jealousy that all of these various afflictive emotions are arising one after another. When we see someone that we don’t like have problems, when difficulty befalls them, we think, oh, how wonderful that is. And, on the other hand, when something good befalls someone who we don’t like, our mind develops jealousy and we think how terrible that they’re succeeding. So in this hostile atmosphere where there’s a lack of any beneficial intention, where all of the negative attitudes and conducts are flourishing, that there will come a time when there will be no Dharma practitioners, that those spiritual masters who are able to show us the path have been reborn in other worlds.
At such a time the forces of darkness will prevail. Those malevolent individuals will become all powerful bringing destruction. There will be great fighting and great plagues in the world. And those who have an inclination for spiritual practice, who are inclined to the practice of Dharma, because they are held in disapproval, they will have many obstacles placed before them and be oppressed. So, it is at just such a time when all of these degenerations are flourishing, when darkness prevails, when these malevolent individuals are bringing great harm, That this text on mind training will be the supreme method of practice because it is in the context of the development of an awakening heart using the practice of equalizing and exchanging ourselves with others, where we actually take upon ourselves all of these difficult circumstances that others are experiencing and all their suffering and use this as a method whereby to practice the Dharma — that such a method will be supreme.
So, if we look at our present situation in which we find ourselves in, in terms of how we lack control and how our experience, how our suffering evolves, The person and the mind are different. The person and the mind. Control. The mind controls the person. The mind leads the person.
But in turn, the mind itself has to be differentiated between in terms of the attitudes of mind. That the mind in itself is not controlled, but in our cases it is the afflictive emotions which are in control. It is the afflictive emotions which are leading the mind. So out of the afflictive emotions of being in control, we in turn are led into involving ourselves in negative actions. We accumulate negative karma and thereby experience suffering.
So this is basic. It’s important that you understand this well. We as an individual, the person who we are, are not in control. We are under the control of our minds. But we are led by our minds.
But in turn, the mind is not in control. The mind is in turn led by the afflictive emotions. And the afflictive emotions are, by their very nature, negative. And they lead us into negative actions. And it is thereby that we have from beginningless time up to now experienced only suffering.
We have achieved a wonderful human life, a type of embodiment which possesses tremendous wisdom we can understand, we can discriminate. We can begin to take control of our life through this human embodiment, exercising our wisdom, understanding the evolution of suffering. We have to not allow our minds to go under the control of the afflictive emotions. And in turn, we as individuals take control of our own minds, to take control of our own minds. So the subject that we’re studying is the training of the mind.
And what does it mean to train the mind? What does it mean to practice mind training? It is to take control of our minds, that we no longer allow our minds to be controlled by afflictive emotions. This is what we’re seeking to train in. That we take control of our minds and are able to use it in whatever way we wish.
That if we want to place the mind on an object, it is placed there and it remains there. If we want to involve it in cultivation of, in meditation of impermanence, it will abide there. If we want to cultivate it in terms of love or compassion or the awakened heart, whatever it is that we want to do within our minds, we are in control of it. That is the training that we’re involved in. Not a chance of success.
Do you think you’ll be able to do that? So in developing this control and training our mind, how are we to proceed? First we have to look to our mind, try to understand the nature of our mind. How is our mind being led around by the afflictive emotions? How does our mind come under the influence of afflictive emotions?
And beginning to interrupt this influence, to intervene in this process where rather than the afflictive emotion is controlling our mind, we begin to control whether the mind comes under the influence of afflictive emotions or not. And developing more control of the mind and being able to send it in a desired direction. For example, in terms of developing a loving mind or a compassionate mind or development of the awakened heart, the bodhicitta, we begin to integrate our mind into all of these positive states such as love and compassion and also the realization of emptiness. Presently our mind is mixed with the afflictive emotions. What we have to make effort in doing is beginning to mix it with the dharma.
So it’s like a parent or a mother who has a child who in general is well behaved, but begins to hang out with some bad friends. Eventually, those friends begin to lead the child astray. They become a negative influence on him or her. But if the mother can intervene in such a way that to introduce the child to more well mannered friends, a better type of friend. Then through their influence the child can rather than going in a bad direction, this process can be reversed and child can begin to more and more go in a positive direction.
So out of this So it is the influence of the child’s peers will, through the process of dependent arising, make that child into the type of person that they will become. So depending upon who it is that we associate with will very much determine who we become. So the mother, by trying to intervene by associating the child with more positive types of friends, can make a better person. So the mind is really wonderful. It’s like this child who is open to influence.
Presently our mind is very much influenced by the afflictive emotions. It’s mixed with the afflictive emotions, and we have to seek to counter that by mixing it more and more with the Dharma. And we do this through a process of first listening to the teachings, reflecting upon them, and then finally meditating. This is mainly what we have to cultivate. We can reach such a state that our mind is only Dharma, that our mind abides completely in spiritual practice, and that our mind is not involved in the least influenced by the afflictive emotion.
Our mind is pure and we have gained control of our mind. Would the person as such can make use of their mind as they will? So I’m going to stop there for tonight. If you have some questions? Yes.
The process of degeneration — if through some miracle every person who was in the area of the ceiling became a Buddha in this lifetime, could that sort of energy begin to reverse that process? That can be done? So did you hear the question? So the question is, this process of degeneration, can it be reversed? Can if, for example, those listening to Rinpoche, if they were to achieve Buddhahood, by that energy, would it inevitably could this process be reversed, or is degeneration inevitable?
So this question is answered by means of two parts. One is in general and the other is specific. Firstly, terms of specific individuals, if they were to practice well, then there’s no need for them personally to be involved in these five degenerations. Practice, then they could, in the course of this life, develop the awakened heart, they could achieve a liberation. If they practice well, they could achieve Buddhahood in this very life.
So obviously they haven’t come under the influence of the five degenerations. So this is in terms of an individual. But in general, with regard to sentient beings, in general it would be difficult to reverse this process. So in general it would be difficult to reverse this process of degeneration, but in terms of individual practitioners this process doesn’t necessarily have to unfold. So in terms of the general degeneration when these five degenerations are flourishing as we said that the lifespan will decrease to ten years.
And that the average height of people will be one arm span, not arm span, but a cubit, from the elbow to the tip of the finger. They’ll be that tall. At a time Buddha Maitreya will manifest in the world. And he’ll be of normal size like ourselves, and they’ll be awestruck by his size. And they think, Oh, what a beautiful body, and how wonderful to be like that.
And he will go on to say, You too can become just like me if you abandon killing, you practice ethics, if you abandon lying. And so, just as a means to achieve such a beautiful form as beauty of Maitreya will appear as, that people will begin to abandon the unskillful actions, begin to practice skillful actions, and eventually reverse this process of degeneration and the lifespan will increase finally to eighty thousand years. And then, having gotten to that lifespan, again the process of degeneration will begin. And people will again — all of these degenerations will increase. So as they reach this peak of lifespan, in the course of this evolvement, they’ll be experiencing more and more happiness because of the skillful actions that they created. So they’ll be caught up in their pleasures.
They won’t practice the Dharma. There’s no use for a Buddha to appear at such a time. And it’s only when it peaks out and it begins to- the cycle begins to reverse itself slightly and they begin to have less pleasure that they are open to another Buddha’s influence and therefore at such a time another Buddha will manifest.