Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Why would a meditator who attains calm abiding no longer need solid food — and be able to fly like a bird? In this 91-minute talk, Khensur Rinpoche deploys that arresting image to motivate genuine engagement with calm abiding as the indispensable foundation of the Mahāmudrā path. Working systematically through preparation, he covers the ideal physical setting — drawing on Maitreya’s criteria of solitude, safety, and harmonious companions — followed by internal conditions of ethics and contentment, altar and seat setup, correct sevenfold posture, and the nine-round breathing practice using visualized channels and colored light. He then outlines the preliminaries of refuge, bodhicitta, and Guru Yoga (including the seven-limb prayer), before explaining the ultimate and temporal benefits of calm abiding and introducing the first of five obstacles to its development: three distinct forms of laziness.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 MM 1996 12 17.mp3
UUID: e663a777-0e45-45da-84b5-bbb2ae1910b8
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Mahāmudrā 1996-97 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1996-12-17
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 91.3 minutes
Words: ~5,244
So we’ll begin by adjusting our motivation developing the awakened heart. We’ll meditate for five minutes. So we should begin by developing an altruistic attitude, let’s say a thought to benefit others. Beginning with the thought that I must eliminate all undesired suffering of both myself and all living beings equal to space and lead them to complete happiness. But if I don’t eliminate my own suffering, that is if I don’t eliminate my all of my various faults and bring the consummation all of my excellent qualities, how can I ever lead others to that same state?
So initially I must bring about my own welfare in in by means of quickly as quickly as possible achieving a state whereby I have eliminated all my various faults and by the consummation of my own excellent qualities. In order to bring that about I’m going to first listen to this teaching on the essence of the universal vehicle. Seeking to understand it within that context, reflect upon it, thereby arising the wisdom understanding and thereby putting into meditation bringing my consummation to completion and thereby being of best benefit to all living beings. Preliminary prayers beginning with verse number three. Verse number two.
And the prayer of Mahāmudrā, which is toward the back. We pray to supremely wise Mañjuśrī, father who gives birth to the victors of the three times in the infinite Buddha fields of the ten directions of the universe. Bless us that we may quickly attain the supreme great seal path of unity, severing the continuum of attachment to conception of self, and bringing consummate skill and love, compassion, in the awakened heart. Bless us that we see our holy spiritual master as Buddha, that we may turn aside our attachment to this place of cyclic existence, and taking upon ourselves the burden that our mind and your mind, father, may become inseparably one. And then finally, the the mandala offering, which is verse number five.
Quoting a verse by the superior Ārya Maitreya from the Ornament for Great Vehicle Sutras where he says, the place of practice for those who are intelligent has the following: good acquisitions, solitary location — by solitary I mean something beneficial, a solitary place — solitary friends and possessions of pleasant articles of yoga. So here Maitreya is describing what is the proper place to ensure that our cultivation of calm abiding is successful. So as we’ve explained previously, there are two goals that we have set for ourselves. These can be categorized in terms of the goal of high status and definite goodness. And with definite goodness there is divided into still two further levels, those of liberation and omniscience.
In order to achieve these latter goals we must abandon the afflictive emotions. In order to abandon the afflictive emotions we must be able to apply the antidote to these afflictive emotions. The antidote to these afflictive emotions is special insight, that is the wisdom realizing emptiness or in this context the great seal. But prior to developing the great seal or the wisdom realizing emptiness it’s necessary that we develop calm abiding. Without having developed calm abiding or Samatha there is no way that we can develop special insight and thereby abandon the afflictive emotions.
Therefore, it is of great importance. So, as Maitreya says, needing to describe the place where the practice can be carried on, the practice of calm abiding can be carried on successfully. And first it must be a place where the necessities of livelihood can be easily acquired such things as food and drink can be easily gotten. So the first quality of such a place is necessary that the good acquisitions or that is the acquisitions of the material necessities of life can be gotten easily. And the second quality of the place should be is in terms of its location.
It should be located in a spot which is free of of any types of harms. Harms from people such as whether it be thieves or robbers or harmful demons or types of wild animals which could harm us. And it’s a a solid a a healthy area or free of all any types of harms that can bring be brought to us. And the third quality is that of its place. So a solitary place that is a it should be a place which is a healthy place.
A place which is free of sickness which is clean water not polluted water for example. A place where an isolated place. A place where there aren’t, you know, the the the sounds of dogs and birds, and, where where there is a healthy area. And then the next quality is that of companions. So it is necessary that we have dharma friends, those who are are in agreement with our our views with our who are conducive who abide in the same ways of conduct.
So there’s harmonious friends who have qualities of love and compassion. So it would be difficult to carry on a practice completely by yourself. So having such types of friends, one or two or three or even four such types of friends as your companions. So what we’ve spoken of thus far are external conducive conditions which are necessary, but there’s also internal conducive conditions necessary. These are for example that in terms of ethics, abiding in as we’ve mentioned previously having abandoned the ten unskillful actions or if one has taken vows, the vows of a lay person or if one is a renunciate, the vows of a novice or fully ordained or if one has taken the vows of the bodhisattva abiding well in those vows or vows of tantra.
So these are the internal conducive conditions. Those abiding well in vow in ethics. And the next quality is that of having few desires. You know, we shouldn’t be the type where if we have one of something we want two of it or whatever or if we have some of of something we we have one article we want a better article and we have that article we want something better than that. And they’re continually wanting something better or more.
But be able to to be satisfied with what we have, to have few desires. If you have great desires, you’re going to generate a great deal of afflictive emotions. The next quality is extremely important. It is that of knowing satisfaction or contentment. You know, being satisfied with whatever it is that you in fact have, whether it be clothes or food or even your seat.
Saying, you know, whatever you have thinking, well enough. That’s good enough. I don’t need something better than that. So it’s extremely important to have to have a sense of content order or to know satisfaction. So we this represents the the attitudes in the in the in the surrounding area and now the actual place, the place where we’re going to carry on our meditation.
That is the the actual room itself. There are certain preparatory practices we should involve ourselves in that first the area should be clean. We we sweep the area. We we sweep our room. Then we set up an altar, placing representations — for example the Buddha — and if it’s applicable then various images of say Tārā or Chenrezig, various photographs of one’s lama, etcetera, one’s spiritual master, and setting out in a very in a beautiful arrangement various types of offerings, flowers, incense, food, etcetera.
Then prepare a meditation seat for oneself. Beneath the actual cushion that one is going to sit upon, it’s advisable to draw a white swastika which is symbolic of stability, so as a means to induce stability of mind. Placing kusha grass under the seat. And then if one is involved in the practice of a tantric practice then also what is called darbha, a jointed grass, is placed in order to eliminate any obstacles to the practice. The actual seat should be higher in the back and lower in the front.
The the kusha grass, if you’re familiar with the grass, is sometimes brooms, the long sweeping brooms are made of this types of a very long stalk and the head of it is many, has many separate tips of the head of the grass. And this is, that is say, they’re not all interwoven, they’re not all mixed up. And this is symbolic of the clarity of developing wisdom that one is not confused, that one has clarity and you’re not mixed up in your mind. Then the Kusha Grass is jointed and this has these joints are very sturdy and this is to help to induce long life and to develop powerful attainments or siddhis. So then the actual sitting posture, it should be one should sit in a in a proper posture and this is sometimes referred to as the seven fold or sometimes eight fold posture.
And placing the legs in the vajra posture or Asaṇga. Then the hands placed in the gesture of meditative equipoise. And the back should be straight. It should not be curved. And the mouth should be closed.
It should not be left open, but it shouldn’t but it shouldn’t should not be clenched. It’s left in a natural state as it naturally comes to a close, not clenched but not left open. Then the tongue is placed at the against the hard palate. The tip of the tongue is placed against the front of the hard palate. The the by closing the mouth this improves the quality of the breath and the breathing goes much better and by placing the tongue against the hard palate the mouth saliva is not lost and the mouth does not dry out.
Oh, it doesn’t dribble from your mouth. And the head should be slightly bent forward. The neck slightly bent, not not allowing the head to drift up looking upward, but chin slightly pulled in. Then the eyes, eyes should be slightly open. They shouldn’t be wide open whereby you know you would be looking around and the mind rides upon the winds.
So if one is looking about, if one’s vision is cast upward, then the winds will exit and this will disturb the meditation. But likewise we shouldn’t close the eyes completely. That will induce sleep. So the eyes are held in a very just slightly open just as in the case where we in the pictures where we see a Buddha. The the sitting straight, the the the shoulders should be even, not not one higher than the other, slanting to one side.
So is describing the the next facet of the of the meditation posture in terms of the of the actual breathing. And this is the nine round breathing meditation. So we are imagining the three main channels running upward from the nostrils and down to approximately within the front of the spinal cord down to approximately the level of the navel. So the right hand channel is associated with anger and aversion. The middle channel is associated with ignorance and bewilderment and the left hand channel is associated with desire attachment.
So imagining these channels. Imagining that the blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are being breathed in in the form of brilliant white light through your right nostril. So this brilliant white light which is the aspect of the blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas coming in and going down the right channel and down to just below the navel and joining up now with the left channel and now through the left channel breathing out through your left nostril, all of the desire in the aspect of black light. So breathing in the white light, the blessings to the right channel and then breathing out through the left nostril to the left channel the black light in in the aspect of black light. Three times.
And then the second set of three breaths would begin with breathing in through the left nostril, breathing again breathing in the blessings of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas in the aspect of a brilliant white light moving down the left channel and crossing over to the right channel and breathing out the various afflictive emotions those especially associated with hatred in the aspect of a black light and breathing out that out through the right channel and out through the black the right nostril. And then the third round of three breaths would be initiated with breathing in through both nostrils, the blessings in the form of the aspect of white light moving down the two side channels and down below the navel and now the two side channels join into the central channel. And so the white light moving into the central channel and breathing, exhaling, the negativities and the various afflictive emotions associated with ignorance and bewilderment in the aspect of a black light exiting out the central channel. So, you know, one should having completed this process that the mind and the channels are completely clear and clean. The analogy is that if you had a container of muddied water, if you were to leave that container undisturbed, the mud would settle out with all the various settlements which were suspended in the water would settle out and you’d be have be left with crystal clear water.
Likewise, having performed this nine round breathing meditation that you should imagine that now your mind is extremely clear, healthy, it’s a very flexible and clean state along with your various channels, psychic channels in the body and that you all of the negativities and all of the various problems of the mind have been eliminated. So having freed the mind from its gross faults and clarified the mind, one then goes on to adjust motivation and that is the motivation of the awakened heart that that one is going to involve oneself in this practice for the sake of all sentient beings. That in order to free from all suffering and to place in complete perfect awakening, I’m going to involve myself in this practice. That is the motivation behind this practice. So adjusting one’s motivation as the awakened heart.
So just as we explained previously when we were talking about the prepared preparations for a practice of secret mantra, this involves the going for refuge, the opening of one’s heart, and the union with the spiritual master, Guru Yoga. And this would apply here that one is practicing the great seal as a universal practice and it’s within the context of a Buddhist practice. One goes for refuge to the Three Jewels and in order to make it a universal vehicle practice one opens one’s heart and it tries to develop as a motivation behind the practice the awakened heart. So we don’t need to explain these practices any further as has been explained in detail previously that in order for our practice to become a practice of Dharma with the Buddha Dharma we go for refuge to the Three Jewels and to ensure that our practice falls within the context of the view, practice of the universal vehicle we develop the awakened heart. So these are two necessary preliminary practices which we’ve explained previously.
So now to the practice of the union with spiritual master, the yoga, that wasn’t set out in detail previously. It wasn’t clearly explained how we could actually perform that. If we wanted to, it should be practiced here and if we wanted to practice union with the spiritual master in an extensive fashion we would perform the offering to the spiritual master or Guru Puja at this point. Or in a middling fashion it would involve the recitation of the six-session Guru Yoga. Today if we were to explain it briefly.
So just a very condensed practice of union with spiritual master. We should imagine that in front of us upon a lion throne, upon a lotus and moon disc is seated our root spiritual master or lama having the aspect of Je Tsongkhapa. So we then reflect upon the fact that the the lama has has three features that are body, speech and mind. That that that the mind of the lama is the Dharma, and the body is the Sangha or spiritual community. Imagine that our lama is the condensation of all spiritual beings, of all the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, the heroes and heroines, the Dharma protectors, that they are all as if condensed into one.
The the lama is marked at the crown with an om, throat ah, and at the heart, So we’re going to meditate on the Lama and what are we actually trying to accomplish? What is the purpose of this meditation? We should reflect in the course of our practice that since beginningless time I have been under the control — my body is under the control of my mind. But my mind in turn is under the control of afflictive emotions. So I am trying to alleviate that state and trying to gain freedom of my mind.
I want to free my mind from the afflictive emotions and gain independence of my own mind and to please help me to accomplish this task. So, you know, there there’s no one other who we can look to for this help and moreover that is the the Lama why that is the the reason why the Lama exists in order to help ourselves. So if we can make this connection by through this requesting from our side and the Lama trying to help us from their side then we can make a connection. There is the seeking to help us from the side of the Lama and our requesting for help from our own side which this connection. So we make various requests to the Lama and then having made requests we then go on to make offerings to the Lama, the spiritual master.
And in the universal vehicle, the Mahāyāna, this is mainly the offering of the seven-limb prayer. So we now offer the seven-limb prayer invoking the blessings of the spiritual master. So we regularly recite this seven limb prayer and this is the prayer which we recite beginning with first the limb of prostration which is the very first line, I prostrate with body, speech and mind in faith. So this is the limb of prostration prostration and we prostrate with the three of body, speech and mind and it is we are making a supplication in the course of this that since beginningless time I have been under the control of afflictive emotions and thereby I have been forced to create karma or various actions and as a result of those actions I have experienced only suffering and have been bound in cyclic existence and I want to be free of cyclic existence and there’s no one else other than you who can help me to do this and therefore I’m looking, I have no one else other than you to look to for help. So with generating a a sense of faith in the qualities of the spiritual master and devotion seeing his or her great kindness going on to making offering of prostration through body, speech, and mind.
So by means of offering our prostrations we both purify negativities and accumulate potential or merit. And the second limb is that of offering. And the actual text reads, Each and every offering I make including those really performed and those mentally transformed. So we offer actual offerings set out, for example flowers, etcetera, as actual physical offerings, but also those imagined, those we mentally emanate, filling all of space and offering these as well as a means to accumulate creative potential or merit. That’s the second limb.
Then the third lemma is disclosure of negativities. So as it says here, I confess every sin collected from the beginners of samsaric life. So from, you know, recalling the various unskillful actions and those even that we can’t remember understanding that we have performed unskillful actions since beginning of this time and whatever I have done in generating a sense of regret around those negative actions and applying the four opponent powers. This is the means by whereby to purify past negative actions. And the the limb of rejoicing.
I rejoice in all in all ordinary and noble beings actions. So, you know, recall into mind all of the skillful actions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and ordinary beings and thinking how wonderful it is that these actions that they that they’ve done. By developing this sense of joy and these skillful actions that they’ve created, one accumulates the collection of creative potential merit. So the the text says, k pak. K means ourselves as ordinary beings and pak means superiors, and both the the of the individual vehicle and those of the universal vehicle are are yes.
And then the sixth, requesting that — the requesting to not pass into parinirvana or parinirvana, non-abiding passage beyond sorrow. And that, you know, that until cyclic existence is ended, that is to say, until there’s no more suffering, that until all sentient beings have been liberated, please do not pass away but remain. Then the question of the teachings that until all sentient beings have been freed that to please teach the Dharma, to please turn the wheel of Dharma. Then dedication and dedicating the creative potential of the merit that one has created through this practice of offering that the teachings remain and flourish that oneself and all others be benefited that there be peace in the world, there be no sicknesses, no wars, all of these various auspicious objects of dedication. And subsequent, following that, offering a mandala or symbolic of the universe, symbol universal symbol.
And making heartfelt request that please, please help me. As we do when we perform the offering to the spiritual master, we recite the praise, we recite his mantra, that as it’s on verse number thirteen in your books, and that: I’m making three prostrations at your feet and you know that I have nobody else other than you who I am pinning all my hopes on you. I have no one else to look to. It’s all up to you and looking to the Lama for all that you need. And that in answer to this heartfelt request, powerful, intense request that white nectar flow down from the Lama into oneself and all of one’s negativities, all of one’s obstructions completely eliminated.
One becomes crystal clear or as an alternative golden nectar flow down into oneself enhancing one’s wisdom, enhancing one’s long life. And then subsequent to that, the aspect joyfully and pleasingly comes down and dissolves into oneself and you become one with the spiritual master. So in terms of the of our meditation on development of calm abiding, which is three parts that of preparation, the actual cultivation of the meditation and conclusion. This completes the path of $1. Even before you get to the meditation of calm abiding, you’re probably already tired.
So you know if we do this preparation purely, perfectly, really well, then the actual session, the cultivation of calm abiding will go really well. That there’s a there’s a there’s a relationship between preparation and the actual session itself. So now we come to calm abiding. So calm abiding, it’s first off calm, the word calm or tranquil or peaceful. So generally our mind is outside of ourselves.
It’s always dealing with external matters. It never abides within. It is like a child who always wants to run around outside and never wants to stay inside. That’s the way our mind presently is. Here, we are trying to curb this present tendency of the mind to run to external objects and cause it to abide peacefully on an internal object of meditation.
That through pacified this tendency to become distracted to external we are able to place the mind single pointedly upon the object of meditation for however long it’s desired. That it will abide where ever it is placed through having calmed its tendency toward external, it remains calmly abiding on internal object. So it is like it’s been, like the mind has been staked at that place. If we can understand the immense benefit of calm abiding, then we will quite naturally develop a liking for it. We’ll be able to practice it without any difficulty.
When we meditate we won’t become tired of it. We’ll think, you know, having seen the tremendous benefit, we’ll think how wonderful it is to be able to have this opportunity to develop it and so we’ll have an exuberance in making effort to develop it. So this is all dependent upon our scene, the immense benefits of the development of calm abiding. So there are a number of analogies that we can make use of to understand this and seeing the immense benefit we have a natural liking toward involving ourselves in the practice. Know for example, a farmer, when they think about all that they’re going to be able to get when they sell their crop, know all the material benefits and all the wealth that they can accrue, then they gladly go through all the difficulty of planting the field and cultivating it.
It’s not really difficult for them. Also, you know, the occupation, whether it’s a carpenter, but anyone who works and knowing what they’re going to get out of it, the pay and the results of that. So if we understand the results, the fruit of our labors well and we see how much beneficial it’s going to be, then we can evolve ourselves in the practice without any difficulty. We will actually have a liking for it. So you know we this what are the benefits of calm Well if we can develop calm abiding we can go on to develop special insight.
in dependence upon developing special insight we can generate the great seal within our minds. In developing the great seal, Mahāmudrā, then we can abandon all the various afflictive emotions. That is to say we can attain liberation. We can attain the level of the bodhisattva and finally the Buddha. We can develop these exceptional qualities equal to all of space where by we can bring about the fulfillment of our own welfare and the welfare of others.
So all of these marvelous results are dependent upon development of calm abiding. So this is ultimate benefit of developing calm abiding. So but what about the even the temporal benefits of cultivating calm abiding? If we attain calm abiding then we can meditate without any difficulty whatsoever. But not only just meditate but we our minds will only experience bliss in the course of our meditation.
Meditation. Our bodies will only experience pleasure during the course of our meditation. We can blissfully meditate for however long we may wish in dependence upon developing of calm abiding. So if we develop calm abiding, we can fly in the sky like a bird. We don’t have to eat food.
What are we going to live on if we don’t eat food? If you were to attain calm abiding we no longer need coarse foods. Those are like liquids and various solid foods. We can live, having developed calm abiding, having attained meditative stabilization, and we live on the food of meditative stabilization. The body becomes extremely light and flexible and pliant.
It becomes it’s it’s it’s like a cut cut? Tempe. Like clouds. A lot. No.
It’s good like cotton. Cotton. Like like cotton wool. You know, it’s it’s just light. So you’re probably thinking, oh, that’s that’s not quite right.
I don’t really believe all that. You can’t really fly, can you? So why is it that we can’t fly? Because we have to eat solid foods and eating of solid foods makes ourselves heavier. However much food that we need, much heavier we become.
But having attained calm abiding we no longer need solid foods. We live off the food of meditator stabilization. So our body becomes extremely light but not only that, not having to eat not having to eat solid foods, it becomes extremely clear and clean. And our meditative stabilization becomes like wings and we can fly. We can we can meditate for however long we wish and even if we wanted to meditate for seven days because we have we need we have no no need of food, there’s no difficulty, we have no physical difficulties, we remain in a happy state even for that length of time.
Wonderful results that can be achieved through calm abiding, then we have come to a sense, well, then I have to meditate on calm I have to actually cultivate this calm abiding to achieve those results. So how are we to proceed in the actual development of calm abiding? As Maitreya says, it is necessary in the cultivation of calm abiding to eliminate five faults and this is done through utilizing what are called the eight activities or eight antidotes. By means of utilizing the eight antidotes, we are able to eliminate the five faults and thereby achieve calm abiding. So it would be good if you noted these.
So what is it that prevents us from cultivating calm abiding? There are certain obstacles to its attainment and these are returned to our term the faults and these are what have to be overcome. So the first of these five faults is that of laziness. So with respect to laziness there are three types. The first of these is know we’re familiar with it in various activities.
Know we simply don’t have a liking for what is necessary to be done and we involve ourselves in various negative activities as a distraction. So in this case, not having a liking for cultivation of meditation, for meditating, but involving ourselves in various negative ways, negative activities. So this would be the first type of laziness. Then the second type of laziness is expressed in the thoughts that I can’t do this, there’s no way that I could ever achieve this, and this is something that I can’t do. And thinking in that way, that is to say the laziness of inadequacy or inferiority.
And then the third type of laziness is a lack of perseverance where you know that initially that you might involve yourself in the cultivation of calm abiding, that you meditate for ten or fifteen days and things aren’t going as you might like them and you simply set it aside. You just give up. So you don’t have any perseverance in in your practice. So that’s the laziness of non perseverance. So this such a type of laziness come quite often.
So we’re going to the time is is exhausted for for our teaching for this evening and we’re going to have a break in a bit. There been requested that there not be too long of a break. So they can continue the teachings soon. So we’re going to have a break until for about four weeks. That is to say, until, January fourteenth, and then we’ll continue from then with the same teaching.
Okay. So if you have any questions, we’ll spend five minutes on those. Yes.