Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche opens this 98-minute commentary on Opening the Eye of Awareness with a striking Buddha quotation: the awakened ones cannot wash away sins with water or remove suffering by hand — liberation comes only by showing the truth. Building from this, he makes a practical case for spiritual practice through vivid contrasts: a practitioner meets a headache or abusive words with equanimity while a non-practitioner compounds physical pain with mental anguish. He describes saṃsāra through factory wheels driven by electricity — beings endlessly revolving through six realms under karma and afflictive emotions. He then catalogs causes of suffering (miserliness, jealousy, attachment, anger, confusion) against causes of happiness (contentment, self-shame, conscientiousness), citing Śāntideva that habituation makes all things easier. A Q&A closes with a nuanced exchange on distinguishing genuine motivation from attachment to power.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 Eye of A 1988 10 11.mp3
UUID: d393cb97-7794-4bc5-8fb1-186f392d69e6
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Opening the Eye of Awareness 1988-1989 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1988-10-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 98.0 minutes
Words: ~4,883
So initially we should seek to develop the kind-hearted thought which is seeking to attain peerless enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings equal to the vastness of space. So the Buddha has said, So, there’s a quotation by the Buddha in which he, the first line says, The laws of subduer’s do not wash away sins with water. And the result of these sins, that is the suffering, the subduers do not remove suffering by laying on their hand, removing suffering by their hand, Nor do they transfer their qualities and realizations to the minds of others. But it’s through that they eliminate the various sufferings that sentient beings experience and the sentient beings are able to gain realizations by the subdueers showing the truth.
That is, the various practices of the Dharma, practices which are to be cultivated and those types of activities which are to be abandoned, it is through these means that sentient beings find freedom. So in order to eliminate suffering, we must abandon the causes of suffering, that is the various negative actions that we create. So in the world there are various types of beings and amongst these there are human beings and further amongst human beings there are in general three types. There are the types who accept some sort of spiritual practice, those who do not accept any type of spiritual practice, and those who are undecided, undetermined. So setting aside the third category of humans, that is those who are simply indifferent.
But we’re going to examine the reasons that some people accept, have conviction in spiritual practice and some do not. What are their actual basis for coming to this decision? So if we were to examine briefly, the basis for coming to our various actions is the attainment of our desired happiness and the elimination of unwanted suffering. So we should actually look at this as a basis for whether to accept spiritual practice or reject spiritual practice in general. So this is the basis we’re going to look at these two types of individuals.
So in the same way that we make use of scientific method in coming to ascertainment of the facts, likewise in developing an understanding of whether accepting or rejecting a particular spiritual practice we should use the same methodology. That is to say, we should be open minded and determined. That is, if it is better in terms of if it is better in terms of happiness and suffering to reject spiritual practice, then that’s what we should be doing and based upon the facts. But if the facts are such that it’s better to accept, to make use of spiritual practices in order to find the happiness and eliminate the suffering that we don’t want, then we should of course adopt that practice. If we actually look at the situation, the difference between those who are engaged in some sort of spiritual practice, Within this life, we see that in fact they experience more happiness and also in the future lives.
Happiness will be extended into the future lives. Whereas for those who do not have conviction or practice any sort of spiritual practice, the question of future lives, happiness of future lives does not arise for them nor in fact it appears from the actual situation that they have less happiness than those who have conviction in some sort of spiritual practice. We can see this difference in the degree of suffering between these two types of individuals From the point of view, when they both experience some type of physical suffering, those who have trained their mind, who are involved in some sort of spiritual practice, they do not have the additional suffering of mental suffering. The added suffering on top of the already present physical suffering. Whereas those who do not engage in any particular mind training practices, any physical, any spiritual practices have not only the physical suffering but on top of this they experience a mental suffering.
So in doing this explanation, this commentary on the text Opening the Eye of Awareness, you should look at the facts being presented and decide for yourself and then we’ll come to an understanding within your own, most of all, your own experience. So the actual text, the body of the text begins with the lines that all migrators or sentient beings are equal in not wanting suffering and wanting happiness. So, the text says that all sentient beings equally want happiness and do not want suffering. So sentient beings are migrators and literally in Tibetan it means goer. What is translated as migrator or sentient being literally means goer.
And here goer doesn’t mean like a motor car or a railroad train, goer is like that. It means those entities which have mind and that they’re under the influence of afflicted emotions and karma. So, the line explicitly says all sentient beings and this is just indicating a large number or the plural, which there are various types of migrators. Amongst the six migrators are the hell beings, the hungry ghosts, the animals, human beings, demigods, and gods. So the six realms are positioned in a hierarchy with the six levels of the existence are in a hierarchy with the lowest level being the hell beings and then the hungry ghosts, the animals, the humans, demigods and finally on top of the gods.
And when it says migrators, it means that travelers, that one is constantly rising up through this hierarchy up to from the level of hell being through the various stages and levels up to the status of a god. One dies from that and then under the power of the influence of karma and afflicted emotions falls back down through the hierarchy down to the lowest level again and then rises and dies and comes back up to the various levels again. This process goes on and on again and again and again and again, constantly revolving through these various levels of cyclic existence and this is what is meant by saṃsāra, cyclic existence. Revolving through the force or the influence of karma and afflictive emotions through these this hierarchy of these six levels of existence. So just like all the various gears and wheels of a machine or all the various wheels in a factory that keep turning, they’re being driven by the force of electricity.
They’re powered by electricity and we’re continually revolving through these levels of cyclic existence through the power of afflictive emotions and karma. So we’re going to remain in this position of constantly revolving through the extremes of suffering and then we rise up to, we gain some slight happiness, then we die from this state and we return to this state of extreme suffering and we rise up again and attain some slight happiness again and again and again endlessly until we put an end to this revolution, this revolving. So, you know, we’re all exactly the same in wanting happiness, not wanting suffering. With respect to these six levels, those in the three lower levels — the hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals — they aren’t even able to think about spiritual practice, let alone try to implement it. But those in the upper realm, even those in the upper realm such as the demigods and the gods, they have obstructions to their practice.
It’s only in the human realm where we have the ability and the clarity of mind and the opportunity to implement a spiritual practice. So the individuals who are able to make use of spiritual practice to its fullest extent are extremely fortunate and there are different levels of the fortune that we possess. There are those who are able to put themselves within the context of a spiritual practice. For example, they may take certain precepts and vows such as the vows of a lay vow holder, the vows of a monk or a nun and they would practice on this level. Then those who have even greater fortune have the power of mind to be able to practice the precepts of the bodhisattva and engage in the deeds of the bodhisattva.
And then there are those who have the greatest fortune who go on to practice the means of tantra whereby they are able to achieve enlightenment in one lifetime. So everyone here is an extremely fortunate person. You know, we’re intelligent and though we are perhaps new to the practice, we still we have the capacity and we can make use of this during the listening to this text. We’re going to find out the various means to find the happiness, the methods to actually bring about the happiness that we all want and to begin to eliminate the suffering which none of us want. So, to this end, you know, when we talk about, you know, attaining the happiness that we all want, eliminating the suffering that we don’t want, we have to begin to understand what are the methods for attaining the happiness.
And the method or the means for attaining happiness are the various spiritual practices which are to be engaged in and what are the causes of our suffering and these are and what are the means for eliminating our suffering, our unwanted suffering. So this is by means of eliminating the negative actions that we engage in. Therefore the matter of spiritual practice is beginning to understand what is to be practiced and what is to be abandoned and this is necessary in this course, to this end, is necessary to engage in the activities of hearing and reflecting about the subject. Without the preliminaries of hearing and reflecting then there’s no way we can understand what are going to be the actions which will promote our happiness and what types of actions are going to in fact bring us suffering. So the Dalai Lama has said that aside from spiritual practice, there are no other methods by which we can begin to bring about happiness in this life and in future lives, life after life.
And not only in future lives will the practice of will spiritual practice be of benefit to us, but it also in this life it will be of benefit to us? For example, you know, if someone became ill, perhaps they have a headache, and so they’re experiencing some physical pain. But now there are two types of attitudes that two different individuals could have toward the same situation, that they’re both experiencing physical pain due to the headache. One who has not trained his mind and one who has trained his mind in spiritual practices. For example, the one who has not trained his mind would think at such a time, Oh my head hurts, ah this is terrible.
Thinking in such a way, he would compound his suffering. He would not only have physical suffering, but he would also have, in addition, mental suffering. But for the individual who is undergoing the same physical suffering, has trained his mind in spiritual practice, he would simply think to himself, well you know this is the nature of cyclic existence, a nature bound by ego, egoistic existence. You know this is simply the playing out of the law of cause and effect and therefore I have to expect, having created the cause, I must expect that such a result will arise. And therefore he’s not going to become mentally troubled by his physical suffering and his mind will remain clear of the additional suffering of mental pain.
So such an individual who does not become overwhelmed, who does not allow his mind to become overwhelmed by physical difficulties, is able through the power of his remaining clear within his mind, not becoming, his mind does not become troubled by his sickness, and he will actually be able to reduce the force of his suffering, of its physical suffering because between the mind and body the mind is the controller of the two. It has the greater power to influence our state of being. Therefore if the mind is not experiencing suffering, it can actually lessen the physical state of suffering. So the, of the three, body, speech and mind, it is the the mind which is the controller. The mind controls the body and speech.
Now the mind is in turn controlled by the various afflictive emotions. Therefore, all the various afflictive emotions arise and it is through the afflictive emotions that all our suffering arises. On the other hand, some people think that those who are concerned with the happiness of this life and seeing that the happiness of this life comes about through the collecting, accumulation of wealth and money and therefore they expend a great deal of time and go through a lot of trouble in order to accumulate money and wealth. Know, such an individual, even after having gone through all this trouble to accumulate their wealth, to get all their money that they want, they have to worry about keeping it and then they have to be constantly concerned about as they see it slipping away through their fingers and about losing it altogether. On the other hand, someone who is engaged in spiritual practice will look upon the situation such that they are not going to go to a great deal of trouble in order to accumulate wealth and money for example.
They understand that it’s all going to be lost in the end anyway, that this life is short and future lives are of great length. And therefore they’re going to understand that the mind is the basis of happiness and this is where they should be creating the causes of happiness. And the causes of happiness are the various positive actions which we engage in. So the individual who does not engage in any sort of spiritual practice expends a great deal of energy, goes to a lot of trouble accumulating wealth, goes to the suffering of perhaps not even being able to accumulate the wealth that he desires and he goes through the various types of suffering, worrying about keeping it, seeing it dissipate, slip through his fingers about losing it and actually losing it, the various types of suffering. Whereas in fact, a person who has trained his mind understands that this great accumulation is not really a source of happiness in itself, that it is the mind which is the basis of happiness and the various causes that we create.
So, he does not have to go through all this trouble and he does not experience all this suffering that this other person is experiencing accumulating all this wealth. But in fact, he’s actually happier in the meantime and in turn, not in turn, he’s happier in the meantime and additionally, he’s creating happiness for his future lives. Likewise, the different reactions of a practitioner as opposed to a non practitioner. If in the course of our everyday experience people continually might attack us with various words, you know, they might speak very harsh and abusive words to us and in response to such these abusive words, then the hearer, the non practitioner hearer would develop a very extremely negative state of mind, a suffering state of mind whereas, and actually it would not be based upon any sound reasoning. Whereas the practitioner here upon hearing even abusive words would understand that these are just, he would see these abusive words just as like an echo, just as sounds.
They are essenceless, essenceless. They are essenceless, just in the same way as an echo and it would not affect his mind in the least. And the Dharma has spoken about the great difficulties that those who seek only to accumulate and gain power in this life experience, seeking in such actions as a means to find happiness only in this life. For example, if someone were to become the prime minister and he has in his advisors, he’s going to have just by simply becoming the prime minister, you’re creating enemies.
Those who are going to everything that you do, they’re going to try to fight against you. Even amongst those who are to support you, amongst your advisers, there are those whose actions you will not be able to follow and they will become your enemies. And there will always be a conflict about whose advice you should take and therefore there is always this worry involved about whose advice can you actually make use of. Therefore, you end up even those who were your friends before, you become friendless and your enemies and you’re actually creating more enemies and always involved in a constant conflict about whose advice to take. As the text points out, from such an attachment to seeking to as a primary being a force for our lives to seek happiness only for this life.
Know, it even extends to the themselves that the various mutual hostilities between nations arise from the individuals within those nations seeking primarily the happiness only of this life. So all the various conflicts from the individual up to the international level come about through the lack of understanding about where our happiness is actually coming from and therefore seeking happiness as a primary means, seeking primarily to find happiness only in this life. So, upon this thought to in dependence upon the misunderstanding of the actual way to find happiness in general and to find happiness only in this life. Sentient beings create a division amongst themselves, between themselves that those that are constantly seeking the good only for themselves and trying to take the good away from others and this is the cause for not only individual conflicts, but this extends all the way up into the wars between nations. So for the real practitioner, the choice between the worldly pursuits and the spiritual pursuits is clear: it is the spiritual pursuits which one mainly endeavors toward.
Between the happiness of only this life and the happiness of future lives, it is mainly the happiness of future life which one endeavors towards. Between the happiness of oneself and the happiness of others, it is mainly the happiness of others which one endeavors towards. So, in the actual practice of Dharma, we’re seeking to eliminate suffering and its causes. And what are the causes of suffering? It’s the various afflictive emotions such as miserliness, jealousy, etcetera.
So what are the causes of the happiness? What are the causes of suffering? The causes of suffering are the various afflictive emotions such as miserliness, jealousy, anger, attachment, obscuration or confusion, etc. So, these various afflictive emotions we’re listing as the causes of suffering such as miserliness. If we go into the study of awareness and knowledge, When we study the various types of minds and mental factors, study these individually.
For example, in the case of miserliness, miserliness is the thought to hold to oneself all the various objects which one thinks will bring one’s happiness, holding them to one’s, clinging to them for oneself only. Whereas, for example, jealousy is not being able to not liking someone else’s attainment or advancement. Being able to like, not liking someone else’s coming up in the world. Attainment. Attainment.
Yeah, obtainment. On the other hand, attachment is seeing someone else’s possession. You think, Ah, that’s very good. I like to have that. This is attachment or desire.
So another afflictive emotion such as hatred is anger directed toward another person such that one thinks to bring them harm? So with respect to the obscuration, it’s a confusion with respect to the nature of the various objects. It’s as if the object appears unclear to the mind. So it’s an ignorance and unclarity with respect to the nature of an object. So these are some of the examples of the various types of causes of suffering.
Therefore, it is through the cultivation of mind that we seek to reduce the force of these causes. The causes of happiness are the various types of mental factors such as contentment. Contentment is being satisfied with whatever is presented, for example food or clothing, thinking, Oh, is enough, this is good enough. I can be thinking that this is satisfactory. This is a constructive mental factor.
And then another constructive factor would be, for example, self shame or perhaps we can say No, that’s good enough. Self shame. This would be that the state whereby one would feel embarrassment by having engaged in a particular action, particular negative action from the point of view that if others were to know about it. If others were to know about this particular negative action that you engaged in, you would feel embarrassed. This is self shame.
So, made a mistake with respect to self shame. This would be one would feel embarrassed even if others weren’t to know about it. One feels, from one’s own side, feels ashamed or embarrassed that one would lose self respect if one had just from one’s own side. Whereas, for example, this next constructive factor which is called regard for others, something like regard for others, would be if one engaged in a particular negative action, one would feel embarrassed if others, someone who you respected were to find out about it such as your teacher or a friend. If they were to find out about it, if they were to know about it, you would feel embarrassed in front of them whereas in the case of self shame, even if they want to find out about you, yourself from your side, embarrassed or have lost some self respect about having engaged in this negative action.
Another constructive factor is conscientiousness. This would be understanding and not engaging in various types of negative actions but on the contrary understanding and engaging in the positive types of action. Discriminating and non engagement these two types of action. These are constructive factors in the mind. When we generate these, we experience happiness during our actual presence, being in that state of mind and they also act as causes for future happinesses.
So these various constructive actions that we’ve talked about, these constructive states of mind, positive states, positive mental factors, We’re not particularly habituated or accustomed to these. More than not, we’re accustomed to the negative side, the negative mental factors. Therefore, now at this opportunity that we have, having attained all the qualities of a human being, and now we can actually begin to reverse this trend and begin to accustom ourselves more and more habituate ourselves, get used to positive states such as these constructive states that we’ve just mentioned. And you know, we can just one day, you know we can’t do it all at once, one day we can make some effort and we’ll have perhaps an increase, a slight increase in the constructive states of mind which we experience in that day and the next day we increase it a little bit more, a more, little bit a little bit more. In this way, we will completely develop our mind.
So, this is just like a small child who’s first learning to write the alphabet. When he first begins to write, it’s extremely difficult for him but he can’t even write his name. But you know, after making effort over a period of time, it becomes natural to him, becomes second nature as it were. It comes quite easily and likewise these constructive states of mind can become our second nature. So the Śāntideva has said that there is nothing in this world that does not become easier upon habituation.
So, we can develop these positive factors in mind every day slightly. We can become more and more habituated, accustomed to these positive factors. Such factors as contentment, self shame, regard for others, conscientiousness. When these states of mind exist within our continuum, we are abiding in constructive states of being. So we have about twenty minutes left and Rinpoche would like to know if you have any questions.
Does anyone have any questions? Any question, Doug? Yes. Yeah. Well, one of the points that came up was feeling embarrassed or self shame, that is feeling shame about a particular act from one’s own side without telling it to another.
Obviously there are degrees of acts in terms of malice or goodness, right? Our own sort of upbringing or social programming sort of dictates those acts that we feel embarrassed of from our own side. Now, some people have confided to me that some of the things they’ve done, that they’ve felt great embarrassment act, and I would tell them not to feel embarrassed at all. So I mean how do they know? From a Buddhist point of view.
So what it comes down to is coming to a decision what types of actions are negative and what types of actions are positive. And so we can’t just rely on anybody determination. We have to rely on experts in the field. And therefore, we have to look to those who we see as being straightforward and being expert in the field and who as a group state clearly that this type of action is negative, this type of action is positive and this is the basis upon which we decide what we should feel shame about and what we shouldn’t feel shame about. But in general we can say that any action which harms another or harms yourself is a negative action and any action which benefits others or benefits yourself is a positive action, positive activity.
And well, explain it. My my dilemma is always well, maybe I may have something to offer in that position. Of it? I’m deciding that it’s probably more the latter that’s really easy to be used by that, do you understand what I mean? Yeah, go ahead.
Understand? Well, I can sort of infer what you’re How can you distinguish between having the right motivation to, say, in being in a position of responsibility and just being seduced by the power of something. How do you know? So someone who’s practicing a spiritual path is not to say he wouldn’t try to become a prime minister or some official with power. That’s not the question.
He would be aware of the suffering that one could undergo. For example, what’s going on now in the United States with the election campaign, they have all these debates, all these disputes and they each have to go a lot of trouble. They’re undergoing a lot of trouble in this contest. And all the various types of suffering which even if they were to attain it, he would undergo. But the spiritual practitioner understanding that all this suffering would come about because of an incorrect attitude for trying to attain that position in the first place.
That seeking power and fame is the reason and seeking power and this position is an expression of seeking power and fame and therefore it is the cause, that is to say seeking happiness only for this life. And therefore in this trying to become a prime minister for example would involve one in suffering. Whereupon the other hand, someone who is a spiritual practitioner would not have this incorrect type of attitude for trying to become the prime minister and he could go ahead and become prime minister with the motivation of seeking happiness for future lives. But it’s not to say that he shouldn’t try to become a prime minister. There’s nothing wrong with becoming a prime minister.
Whether you’re a spiritual practitioner or a worldly practitioner, one worldly practitioner in seeking that same position will experience suffering and the spiritual practitioner will not. So, we’re not saying that there’s anything wrong with bringing, for example, a prime minister. We were talking about the suffering which could entail depending upon whether you’re a practitioner or not. There’s, for example, the suffering of not attaining that position in the first place and then once having attained it perhaps and you’re not able to keep all your old friends and you create a lot of new enemies And there’s all this suffering involved. So there’s no question about whether it’s good or bad to be a prime minister.
So it is said that those in high places undergo mental suffering, those in low places undergo physical suffering, therefore wherever we go, we undergo suffering. If someone shares that power, then that is more of a Buddhist way of using power. Because if one’s attached to power then it becomes corruption and problems. So, if he could The main necessity is that he be honest in his dealings. That whatever he does must be straightforward.
And as far as if he could share his power, then he would not, this would be an antidote to development of attachment that may develop toward his power. So this would be a good way to deal with this situation. If he were willing to give away part of his power, this would be an antidote to developing attachment to it. So we’ll stop here for the evening.