Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A vivid opening image anchors this 43-minute commentary: Khensur Rinpoche traces how every sensory contact — a pleasant smell, a harsh word, smooth clothing — instantly pulls the mind into attachment, aversion, or confusion. He identifies the symptoms of accumulated negative karma (difficulty memorising, contemplating, or gaining realisation in meditation), then introduces the four opponent powers used in Vajrasattva purification practice, emphasising above all the power of recollection and the firm resolve not to repeat. A rice-seed analogy illustrates how these powers destroy karmic potency entirely. The story of Angulimala — who nearly killed his mother to complete a rosary of a thousand fingers before the Buddha intervened — demonstrates that even extreme wrongdoing can be fully purified. Rinpoche closes with karma’s doubling law: unconfessed harm multiplies nightly, but diligently practised virtue compounds the same way.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 09 PP 1989-06-03.mp3
UUID: 984543ba-d622-4cf8-be3b-761bba0b1e0d
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Preliminary Practices (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1989-06-03
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 43.4 minutes
Words: ~2,488
So we create a variety of unskillful actions through the three the pathways of physical actions, verbal actions, and mental actions that in in these various all these various varieties of way motivated, you know, engaging in anger, engaging in harsh words, harming others physically, that we’re constantly involving ourselves and creating negative actions. So more than that, we’re always involved in either attachment or hatred, anger, aversion or attachment of some sort. That in a constantly, you know, despite the very active scene, we see a person, a likable person, and immediately we develop some type of attachment toward that person. We see a dislikable person, and immediately we generate some kind of anger toward that person. We see some neutral type of person and in response we develop some kind of confusion, not knowing how to classify that person, delusion with respect to that person.
Again, you know, we hear some beautiful sounds and praise of some sort. We develop attachment to that praise. We hear some harsh words to us, we develop aversion or anger toward those harsh words. When we hear just simply neutral words, we develop confusion toward that. Smelling, we smell something pleasant, we develop attachment.
Something unpleasant, we develop aversion. We eat some delicious food, we develop attachment. When it tastes bad, we develop aversion. When we have nice, smooth clothing, we develop attachment toward it. When it doesn’t feel good to our skin, it’s harsh, then we develop aversion.
This, you know, constantly every day of our life we’re involving our mind either in aversion or attachment to all the various objects. And even when there’s equanimity, this neutral sensation, is a matter of developing confusion. We don’t know how to react to it. It’s a matter of delusion. And just sitting there quietly within your own mind, you’re constantly churning out all these thoughts, you know, thoughts about other people, about how they hurt you, about developing anger in your own mind toward them even when they’re not there, toward aversion or attachment towards various objects, thinking about, planning about various types of negative involving yourself in various types of negative actions.
The mind never stops making all these constant never stops becoming involved in these qualities of aversion and attachment. So involving ourselves through the doors of the three of the various faculties, sense faculties, you know, eye, ear, nose, etcetera, that we understand that by looking around seeing all the various objects then we’re bound to involve ourselves in some type of attachment and aversion. Listening to various sounds, we’re bound to involve ourselves in some type of attachment and aversion. So one of the main practices that we can involve ourselves in is to begin to restrict our involvement in the various sense objects as a means to lessen the development of these three qualities of aversion, attachment, and confusion or delusion. What are the signs that we actually have various negativities within our mind?
The latencies of various negativities. We can understand that these exist, these negativities exist within our mind because of the various signs such as when we seek to memorize scriptures or texts that we can’t hold the words in our mind. That is we can’t remember, recall. That when we seek to contemplate, no understanding comes. When we seek to meditate, we aren’t able to generate realizations.
That all of these are a sign that there are obstacles within our mind. And these obstacles are the various negative latencies of negative actions that we’ve created. If we didn’t have these obstacles, these latencies of negative actions, then we could easily memorize anything that we wished. When we contemplated something we could easily understand it, when we meditated, we would easily gain realizations. Yes.
And if we’re constantly involved in dissatisfaction and suffering from morning till night in every day of our lives. If we were to think about it during the course of our day, we would see that each hour that some dissatisfaction arises. That some suffering arises throughout our day. If all of this suffering which occurred throughout the day was condensed into one hour, we wouldn’t be able to stand it. But because it only occurs intermittently, it goes unnoticed, or we aren’t aware of it.
And all of the suffering that we’re involved in arises from the various latencies of negative actions within our mind. So, it’s necessary to begin to recall all the great amount of negativities that we’ve actually created. You know, even in this life from childhood onward. There are various types of destructive actions that we’ve engaged in with killing, stealing, lying, all of these types of negativities. That if we don’t acknowledge them, then at the time upon death, before our death, then we experience suffering due to them.
Therefore, it’s necessary to generate regret with respect to these various types of negative actions. So, we’re going to apply the four opponent powers. When we in the beginning of the practice of Vajrasattva, we took refuge and then came the mind generation. This constitutes the power of reliance. The power of reliance.
Then the second power is the power of recollection. So the first is the power of reliance and then recollecting all the various negativities that we’ve created not only in this life but acknowledging the fact that we must have created various negativities in previous lives. Acknowledging that fact. Developing regret with respect to those constitutes the second, the power of regret. Sometimes called the power of the object, the power of regret.
And the third. And then we make use of the power of determination not to repeat again. And you know, having developed the regret of committing these various negative actions, determining not to repeat them again in the future. At the cost of my life, I’m not going to do them again. And this is the power of reversal or determining not to repeat again. And then the fourth is the power of antidote.
So, in this, the power of antidote, we actually engage in a specific practice as an antidote to the negativities that we’ve created. And here, we’re engaging in the practice of recitation of the hundred syllable mantra. So amongst these four powers, the most powerful are the second and third. I said the power of regret. It’s actually called the power of recollection.
It’s the power of recollection and power of the determination not to repeat again. These are to be most emphasized. So it’s the purification the degree of purification is dependent upon the degree of forcefulness which we are able to generate these two antidotes or these two powers. That is the power of recollection and the determination not to repeat again. If the force which we’re able to generate these two is very great, then we can completely purify, eliminate all negativities whatsoever.
If it’s simply middling, then we will eliminate some of the potency of the middling amount of the degree of potency of the negativity. On the other hand, if it’s light and the force and the power, then we’re only going to purify the potency or the negativity lightly. The, you know, we’re creating various types of negativities. There’s a karma, negative karma. And karma has a potency.
And in this case, the potency to bring forth the experience of suffering. And if we like, we can use an analogy that of a rice seed. Now, we take rice seed and we plant it in the field and we collect together various cooperative conditions fertilizer. These assist the potential of the seed to bring forth a crop, a rice seedling. If we so there is this potency and in conjunction with cooperative causes, fruit arises and effect arises.
If on the other hand, we were to take this rice seed and apply fire to it, this would destroy the potency. It would lose its potency. It would no longer have the ability, no matter how many conditions were brought together, to bring forth an effect. Likewise, with respect to negative karma, the effect of that potency is experience of suffering. But by application of the four opponent powers, it is as if we are applying, in the case of the seed, the rice seed, a fire which destroys the potency.
And it’s such that the latency no longer has the ability to bring forth a suffering experience. So this process of confession or acknowledgement of negativity is extremely important. You know, if we can implement these four opponent powers with enough strength, then we can purify completely any type of negativity whatsoever. This is a doctrine which is unique to the great vehicle that any negativity can completely be purified. In the lesser vehicle doctrine, it is held that negativities cannot be — they can only partially be purified.
They cannot be completely purified. So the Buddha himself said that we unknowingly have created many negativities in previous lives. Through the application of the opponent powers, they can all be purified. And this purification process is likened to the appearance of a full moon. On the fifteenth day of the lunar month, the moon is full.
And there’s, even though there is a bright full moon in the sky, if there are clouds covering the moon, the moon cannot be seen even though it is present. But if a strong wind were to come and blow away the clouds, then the natural state of the moon as it actually exists would become apparent. Likewise, with respect to the mind, when the moon of the mind is obscured by the clouds of obscurations, then through the movement of the winds of purification removing the clouds, the purity of the mind becomes apparent. And the moon of the mind arises in the night sky just like the celestial moon. Something like that.
There’s a story about which took place in ancient India about a practitioner by the name of Angulimala. And he had a teacher who gave perverted types of teachings. He received a teaching which said that if he were to make a rosary of one thousand fingers, he would attain liberation. So he expended a lot of effort and he killed nine hundred and ninety-nine people and had a mala of nine hundred and ninety-nine fingers. And taking a finger from each person.
And now he only needed one more finger to attain liberation. So he thought his mother was coming to bring him food. And he thought, now I can achieve liberation and I can kill my mother and use her finger. So the Buddha, out of his clairvoyance, understood what was happening and he, in order to prevent this great negative crime of killing one’s mother, he manifested an emanation of himself and Angulimala said, I don’t have to kill my mother. I’ll kill this person.
Not knowing that this was the Buddha. And so, went to kill the Buddha. But it seemed as if the Buddha kept moving. And Angulimala says, Stop, stop. You know, I want to get to where you are. And he says, But I’m not moving.
I’m not moving. I’m not going anywhere. You are the one that can’t catch up to where I am. And talking in this way, Angulimala developed great faith in the Buddha and was eventually reversed, but turned away from these perverted teachings. So in Varanasi in the temple there, there’s a painting of Angulimala with this rosary around his neck.
And the Buddha gave Angulimala teachings and he gave him the teaching of application of the four opponent powers and upon employing those powers, achieved the level of a foe destroyer. And there are other cases, other accounts. In the case of the king Ajatashatru who killed his father, and Devadatta who caused a schism in the Sangha. That even having committed these extremely negative actions that through the teachings that the Buddha gave them, practice of the four opponent powers, by implementing them, purifying the negativity, that these two individuals achieve the various fruits of stream winner, non-returner, etcetera. So there’s no reason that if, for us that by applying the four opponent powers that in the same way that these people who have created great deals of negativity in the past purified their negativities completely that we cannot completely purify the latencies of our negative action. So it’s extremely important that we confess, that we acknowledge, and apply the four opponent powers to the negativities that we create even on a daily basis.
If, for example, we were to simply kill an insect today, this evening, if we were to acknowledge that fact, confess it, then this if we were to express it and develop apply the four opponent powers very forcefully, then we would completely eliminate the negativity that we created. On the other hand, if it was a middling application, it would achieve a middling type of purification. If it was a slight application, then the, at least the negativity would not increase in its potency. It would not increase in its potency. On the other hand, if we were to not confess, not to apply the four opponent powers, then the negativity would not only not be purified, but it would be augmented.
It would begin to increase. And that, it would be as if we, in the case of, for example, if we were to kill a goat or a sheep, the first day we killed a sheep, we created the negativity of killing one sheep. If it was not confessed, then the next day it would be equal to having killed two sheep. And the third day would be equal to having killed four sheep. And the fourth day would be equal to having killed sixteen sheep.
So it’d be in this doubling fashion. It would increase in the potency of the negative karma. At the end of one month, it would be equal in potency to having killed a person. But this doubling effect also applies to positive actions. If we were to say a round on the rosary then this positive action that we created would be doubled, the potency would be doubled the next day.
And then the next day would be four, and next day eight, sixteen, etcetera. But on the other hand, even though positive actions have this tendency to increase in the potency because of constantly generating anger. We’re constantly destroying our positive latencies. I don’t — there’s a — so Rinpoche is still a little — I don’t — I don’t quite — Maybe if I say it, it’ll become clear.
There was a when Geshe was giving a teaching on Dharma to a queen and he was explaining this augmentative nature of karma and how negativities and positive actions are continually increasing in their potency. And the queen said to the Geshe,