Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche opens this 85-minute public talk with a direct claim: between body and mind, mind is chief, yet most people spend their lives serving the body while neglecting the factor that actually determines happiness. Using an analogy of food and nutrition, he argues that just as we learn to distinguish nourishing food from harmful food, we must learn to distinguish healthy mental states from unhealthy ones — and that this discrimination begins with listening. He defines love and compassion precisely, then outlines three foundational practices for actualising them: generosity for physical suffering, ethics as the abandonment of harm, and patience when others harm us despite our own restraint. A Q&A session covers the bodhisattva aspiration’s seemingly impossible scale, the three levels of motivation for Dharma practice, and the Buddhist account of how mind and body relate at conception. Accessible to newcomers willing to examine their assumptions about well-being.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 37 1994 11 06 PT Loving Kindness and Compassion.mp3
UUID: ffd40bd6-0706-421e-b77f-96ff433ff5ca
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Public Talks 1988-2003 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1994-11-06
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 85.0 minutes
Words: ~4,955
On the other hand, few of the negative factors mental negative factors would be anger, pride, jealousy, covetousness. These are extremely unhealthy states. So out of these these various negative states of mind, various unskillful negative activities are engaged in. And the quality of the environment around a person who is continually generating these negative states of mind is that one simply is not happy oneself, all possibility of peace of mind is lost. But not only that, that there is unhappiness in the family of such a person, that there’s unhappiness and disharmony amongst the companions surrounding that person, and this extends to the complete environment, their country, and beyond.
That all this negative effect arises out of these unhealthy states. So out of this way, these negative attitudes comes unhappiness for both oneself and others. And various types of negative activities flow out of these negative states of mind. So essentially what we mean by practice is understanding the detriments of the various states, their nature, and the various benefits, and the nature of positive states, and beginning as much as one can to implement, to promote positive states of mind and begin to cease negative ones. This is essentially this means to as best we can to cease those types of factors which bring about harm to oneself and others to promote those factors which bring about benefit to oneself and others.
This is the essence of the Buddhist teachings. However much we are able to evolve healthy states of mind to that same degree we will experience happiness. On the other hand, no matter what we may do, if we are continually involved in negative states of mind, then ultimately we will be unhappy people. So it’s extremely important that we consider what it means to bring about a healthy state of mind and how to go about it. So understanding the various healthy factors of the mind and understanding the necessity for the development of these healthy factors, continually putting into practice the methods for this development, continually considering the necessity for the development of one’s mind, again and again bringing this fact to mind and the necessity for it to be happy, and gradually your mind will improve.
So the Buddha taught that with respect to the healthy states of mind that we should begin with the development of love and compassion. And you probably all understand what we mean by love and compassion. But most simply, compassion is the intention to eliminate the suffering the the of suffering of another individual or yourself. The intention to eliminate suffering. Love on the other hand is the intention to bring happiness to an individual who is not presently happy.
So how are we to actually implement these, to go about bringing these about in fact, to eliminate the sufferings of those who are undergoing difficulty and to seek to bring happiness to those who are bereft of happiness. So we have to consider, what can I do to eliminate this person’s physical or mental suffering? Understanding that their physical and mental suffering and trying to consider how can I eliminate that situation for them? Additionally, for those who have no pleasure, physical pleasures or happiness of mind, what can how how can I go about giving them some physical or mental pleasure? So Beginning with the elimination of physical suffering, there are individuals who simply don’t have enough to eat, who are thirsty, who are without proper clothing.
And so we can practice initially generosity. There’s no reason why we can’t do that. That for those who are hungry, we give them food. For those who are without clothes, we give them clothing. And this is the way we can practically eliminate their physical suffering.
Though it’s only a temporary elimination of their suffering, it is the beginning of our practice. So initially we can make use of the method of generosity. We can eliminate the physical suffering of individuals and bring them some type of temporary pleasure, happiness. If we were to question, well, how can I go on and eliminate the the mental sufferings of others? So considering what actually brings harm to others, there there is a category of the ten unskillful actions.
And these are the physical action constitute of physical, verbal, and mental actions. For example, in terms of physical actions, the action unskillful actions of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, verbal actions such as lying, divisive speech, harmful speech, these all not only do they harm others’ bodies, do they hurt them physically, but they also hurt their minds. They bring them mental unhappiness. So in trying to go beyond simply alleviating physical difficulties of others and wishing to alleviate their physical their mental unhappiness, we ourselves from our side must begin to cease those types of activities which bring mental harm to others. And that is to say, we must begin to practice the second method of ethics.
And ethics is simply the abandonment of harmful ways of acting. Any type of activity which brings harm to others we are seeking to abandon. So in practicing ethics, we are we we we abandon bringing about unhappiness to others’ minds as a beginning to alleviate their suffering. We cease causing them suffering. So the second practice is that of ethics.
So if we don’t know what ethics is, we can say most simply that it is the abandonment of harming others. That’s we simply do not bring do any type of act action which will hurt either the body or the mind of another individual. So in in order to in in seeking to implement the practice of development of the healthy states of love and compassion. We are beginning to outline various practices for its actual actualization, in fact. And we begin in seeking to eliminate the physical sufferings of others and to give them happiness to practice generosity, bringing about a temporary elimination of their physical problem and giving them some kind of physical pleasure.
Pleasure. Additionally, in order to bring about eliminate the mental unhappiness of others and to bring them mental happiness, at least we cease causing them further mental difficulties. That is that we cease harming others as and this constitutes the practice of ethics. But so we’ve outlined two practices that we can begin with generosity and ethics and one as an individual should begin to implement these. But additionally, the situation will arise that though in fact you may cease harming others, others may in fact continue to harm you, that they others try to hurt you in various ways, to harm you in various ways.
So in though we ourselves may be practicing ethics, seeking not to harm others, but in fact others may bring harm to ourselves. This is a possible situation. What are we to do? How are we to practice in such a situation? Therefore this brings us to the third practice which is necessary to cultivate and that is cultivating the practice of patience.
And this is essentially not to return harm for harm. So in general, we can go on to list six practices which is necessary that we begin to seek to implement and thus far we outlined three practices that of generosity, ethics and patience. So these are the teachings that the Buddha outlined whereby help individuals to become sane and healthy human beings, whereby to help them to develop wisdom to improve their mind. And he said that we must concern ourselves chiefly with the development of our mind. So we can’t go into to this extensively.
So this will perhaps be enough for today. We’ll stop there. Yeah. Good. So if you have some qualms, some doubts, some questions that you’d like to put, we could we could do that now.
So if you have some questions. So, you know, that I’ve I’ve discussed a few of the points of the Buddhist teachings. And you from your side have to consider what’s been said, whether it’s valuable. Perhaps with some of the things that have been said, you have some qualms about some doubts here. I am wondering why is that really the case?
I’m not sure about that. And this is extremely healthy. Out of this questioning we will gain an understanding of the actual subject that we’re discussing. So doubt and examination is to be encouraged. So what has been said you should investigate and see whether it’s of any value to you.
If see that it’s of value then you can practice it and out of that practice you will derive its benefit. If you don’t see the value in it now that you see no benefit then it still would be good to pursue your investigation, your examination to see if perhaps there’s something there which you presently can’t see. The enormity of the task. Which task is that? So, you know, what we’re seeking to achieve is extremely vast in its nature.
And we can’t hope to achieve it immediately. And to think in this way would be extremely difficult. Even in our worldly activities if someone who is perhaps not used to thinking expansively, has a small, very narrow perspective, is presented with a broad undertaking, a huge undertaking. At first he simply says I can’t do it. There’s no way that I can handle this situation.
But gradually he begins to expand his vision and begin to see that he perhaps does have the capacity. But initially it’s difficult for him to see that and he may shy away from undertaking it initially. But this is simply because he’s just a beginner. So what to say when we begin to contemplate the leading of all sentient beings to Buddha, the elimination of their suffering and to bring them complete happiness, that is the development of an awakening heart. To practice the great vehicle one must have extreme bravery.
One must have great wisdom. And this is an extremely vast perspective that we are seeking to cultivate. And initially we simply can’t wrap our mind around it. But we don’t have the experience of it. But through cultivating it will gradually come.
It definitely will. Initially, it’s extremely difficult to have the the vast attitude of altruism, the the beneficial intention to to help all sentient beings. This is an extremely vast and great attitude of mind. It brings such just simply this attitude is of great benefit and it brings about great results. Just to have this as considering this as in leading to one’s practice, having it as a motivation is extremely skillful.
That whatever skillful action one undertakes motivated by this attitude, the positive potential developed is set to be equal to space. But development of this attitude comes about through a gradual manner, through a training of the mind, that we definitely can develop this ability of the mind. And we have to begin to trust in our own ability, in our own capacity to be able to extend our mind to one day where we can actually actualize it. So in practicing the Dharma as set out by the Buddha, it’s not necessary that we have the attitude of carrying on our practice for the benefit of all sentient beings. That this is in fact the the the pinnacle of our attitude which we can bring to practice.
But there are at least three different levels of attitudes that we can bring to our practice. There is this highest level, and then there is a middle level of motivation, and then there is the lesser level of motivation. These three different attitudes. And so all we can to practice Dharma we don’t have to be at the level of the highest level of motivation. It’s not absolutely necessary in order to carry on our practice.
Yes. Manifestation. Can you give me another word besides that? Is the does the mind arise out of the body, or does the body arise out of the mind? Is that okay?
So So we have to look at the situation from two points of view. The first one is that our present combination of body and mind, our present one that we both have, that we have both body and mind. This present body does not arise out of this present mind. This present mind does not arise out of this present body. Just as in the case of these two fingers, their arising is not dependent upon one and the other.
This finger doesn’t rise out of this one, nor this one, this one. But in general, the body arises out of the mind. So if we were to say that the mind is in the the same nature as the body, same. Yeah. So he understands that this is one of the western viewpoints that is set forth, and what we are just talking about is from the Buddhist viewpoint.
So if we if we were to question, when when is when is the body established? Maybe when somebody go to conjecture an answer to the question about when the body is established? When is the body established? We have a body. When was it first established?
So when when does the mind arise? We say that the the the body is constituted when the sperm and ovum unite. When when does the mind arise? So what can we say? So just from the Buddhist presentation that that the mind enters into the union of the sperm and egg.
When these two physical factors unite the mind enters into this union and the mind acts as a condition which facilitates the growth of the body, the development of the body, the evolution of the body. If the mind does not enter into this combination, there will not be the development of a body since the mind is a necessary condition for its development. So initially, upon the upon the union of the sperm and egg, it’s not it’s not a a body that it requires another cooperative condition, that is a mind, to enter into this combination. Before that point, the mind and the future mind and the future body are different entities, different substances. Out of a sense of altruism, seeking to benefit others, the Buddha taught many different texts.
He taught various types of Dharma. But if we were to say, well what is the essence of the Buddhist teachings? That was the means by which to remove the negative factor from the mind and promote the healthy ones. So, you know, with all the the people in the world, we have two common factors amongst us that each of us has a body and a mind. And these two factors are quite distinct one from another.
So the the body is constituted of the various limbs, legs, the arms, and the various internal organs, etcetera. What we mean by the mind is that factor which is able to carry out the thinking process that carries out the functions of memory which can know the past, can hold the past with occurrences, can understand the present, and can project understandings into the future that which acts in this way, that which is able to carry out this this process of thought we’re gonna call mind. So this is not the function of the body. Body doesn’t have this capacity to consider what has been done in the past, to hold within itself, to examine the present and to project in the future. Therefore, from the onset, we have to understand that these two factors are distinct, body and the mind.
So most of us, that is most humans who possess both of these two distinct factors of body and mind spend a majority of their time in considering how to eliminate physical difficulties and bring about physical pleasures. And in thinking upon this, they engage in various types of activity in order to implement what they thought about. So in a way for most people the body is the master. That most of their energy and thought and time is directed toward bringing about the elimination of physical problems and bringing one physical pleasures. And we spend all our time for example supplying ourselves with all our various material needs.
We spend a great deal of energy and time in providing ourselves with a home, shelter, food, clothing. If we’re hot then we have to find some way to cool ourselves off. If we’re cold we have to spend some time finding a way to warm ourselves. If we’re hungry then we have to eat to fill up our stomachs. If we’re thirsty then we have to find something to drink.
So for most, it is the body which is the dominant factor of these two. So for most, their life is spent in pursuit of bringing about physical needs and bringing about their own physical welfare whether it’s in terms of physical health or beauty or simply pleasures. This is the way most people pass their life, be dominated by a need for physical pleasure and elimination of physical discomfort. But on the other hand those individuals who seek to improve their minds, to evolve their minds, and to implement the methods to evolve their minds in the same way that we seek to bring about implement methods to bring physical happiness and solve our physical problems are very rare. So we should consider and try to understand that which of these two should we place primary importance upon in expending our energy and time and efforts?
Which should dominate? Which should be our attention be directed toward the development of? Our body or our mind? Which of the two is most important? Of these two, mind is chief, and the body is secondary.
And therefore in placing primary importance upon our development, it is necessary to place primary importance on development of mind. So the the evolution or the the the state of the body is dependent upon one’s mind because of these two, mind is chief. And it’s not the case that the the quality of the mind is dependent upon the body. In dependence upon physical pleasure, we experience an extremely limited mental pleasure. But on the other hand, if our mind is happy, is at peace, then we automatically have a pleasure within our body.
It’s not the case that as we develop in our awareness, improve our minds, that there’s going to be a counter worsening of a capacity of our body. That is not the case that however much we improve our mind our body is going to become worse in some way. With respect to the mind because the mind is chief between these two, has an unlimited potential that no matter how old we may be that its capacity for development does not decrease, that we can continually increase the ability of the potency, the ability, and the capacity of our mind. So it because between these two, body and mind, mind is chief, it’s extremely important that we place an emphasis on the development of our mind. So in in general, the the teachings of the Buddha were directed toward bringing about a healthy individual.
And to that end the Buddha praised both the body and the mind as having a capacity for extreme health, that we are to seek to have a healthy body but additionally to improve our mind in order to have a healthy mind and thereby to be a healthy individual. So in consideration of the body it’s what types of behavior are we to engage in in physical terms and what are physically positive actions, what are physically negative actions, and understanding which of these are healthy, which unhealthy, making being able to make this distinction. And the same applies to the mind, understanding what are healthy states of mind, what are unhealthy states of mind, and seeking to implement methods whereby to increase positive states and to decrease the negative one. So in in the development of the quality of our physical behavior and our mental attitudes we have to know, be able to distinguish what are healthy behaviors and attitudes and what are unhealthy behaviors and attitudes. If we aren’t able to make this distinction, then we’re not going to be able to implement the methods whereby to increase the one and decrease the other.
So if we just take a simple example of the food that we eat, there’s an enormous variety of food which is available to us but some of it is detrimental. It’s not helpful to our health. On the other hand, some types of food are extremely helpful. So if we’re able to understand the different qualities of food and we give ourselves a proper diet whereby we avoid those which are going to impair our health and we’re going to eat more of those varieties of food which are going to bring about our physical welfare. So we have to know be able to distinguish between the the qualities of the food that we eat.
So if we don’t understand the various nutritional qualities of all of these various foods, then we could end eating a type of food which would not only be of no benefit to us, but in in long terms may actually bring about some kind of illness or lack of needed substance. So just as we it’s necessary to have be able to distinguish the qualities of food in terms of their their nutritional quality or their detrimental quality. Once we understand that distinction, we are going to eat those types of food which promote our health and we are going to begin to reject those types of food which we see as impairing our health. So the same applies to our behavioral conducts of body and speech and also with the attitudes of our mind. If we can begin to distinguish between unhealthy conducts and attitudes and healthy conducts and attitudes, then we’re naturally going to begin to practice those which are going to improve our overall well-being, our mental and physical health, and begin to diminish those which bring about the opposite.
So if we’re going to implement the methods of practice whereby to improve our overall health both mental and physical then we have to understand the nature of our situation, nature of the various methods, the nature of the various things about us and thereby being able to distinguish what should be cultivated, practiced on the one hand, and what should be abandoned, what should be rejected on the other. If we were to question, well, what is the method? What is the means whereby I can understand this distinction of these qualities? So the Buddha taught that this process of coming to this ability to distinguish between positive and negative factors begins with the simple activity of first listening. Hearing exactly the categorization of unhealthy and unhealthy factors in our environment and within our mind.
And upon actually hearing about them, these positive and negative factors, examining them in the light of your own experience and reasoning. And then out of that will come an understanding of the various natures of the things within your own mind and in your environment. Without this initial factor of hearing, listening, then we can never come to this understanding. So going on this advice that the Buddha taught, if we don’t understand, if we don’t have the clear distinction between positive and negative factors it’s necessary to listen to an individual who does. Someone who understands what is positive and is able to explain these factors are positive and why.
Someone who understands these factors are negative and why. Out of this not knowing through the process of listening, carrying on an examination and using our experience and reason we can come to an understanding for ourselves. Through the process of listening to someone who does understand these distinctions between positive and negative factors, there will arise dependence upon listening the teachings of someone who understands these factors, a discriminating awareness, that is to say a wisdom, one will understand this is in fact a positive factor. This is a health promoting factor. And one develops wisdom with respect to positive factors.
On the other hand, upon explanation of negative factors which are negative and why, examining this, one will develop discriminating awareness with respect to negative factors and then one will understand. So the arising of wisdom which is the discriminating awareness which is able to distinguish between positive health promoting and negative unhealth promoting factors begins with the process of listening. So listening to what are the positive factors, physical and verbal, one will develop wisdom with respect to positive factors. With listening to what are the negative factors, one will develop wisdom with respect to negative factors. This discriminating awareness begins with the listening process.
The same holds true for mental factors. Someone pointing out that this is a healthy mental factor. This is an unhealthy mental factor. This is a fault. This is a negativity.
This is a growth promoting mental factor. Understanding the distinctions of the qualities of our various attitudes and mental factors then one will come to understand and be able to discriminate and recognize them as such. So analogy would would be a small child just beginning school. The small child doesn’t even know how to recite the ABCs. And in dependence upon the teacher each day going over this is A, is B, and through this process of listening and instructing, then even a child who at one time didn’t know the ABCs can become a great scholar.
And this development of wisdom, scholarship, discriminating awareness all began with simply listening. In in coming to an understanding of the distinction of the positive and negative factors of the mind and body, one will come to an understanding of what are the various faults. For example, in terms of one’s conduct, what are the negative types of conduct? And listening to the detriments which are brought about through negative types of conduct. What are the excellent qualities, that is to say, with respect to positive conduct, and what are the benefits to be derived out of positive types of conduct?
When one begins to be able to distinguish between the benefits on the benefits on the one hand and the detriments on the other, one will naturally be inclined to practice that which is going to bring about one’s benefit and to cease those types of conducts which are going to be detrimental to oneself. And out of this will come a healthy body and mind. So out of this process of developing physically into a physically and verbally healthy states and additionally healthy states of mind, one will this will not only benefit oneself but would be a benefit to others. But on the other hand, previous to having listened to this distinguishment between positive and negative factors and not understanding what is in fact healthy and what is in fact not healthy, one will, by the force of habituation to unhealthy factors, powerfully engage in negative types of conduct which bring about harm to not only yourself but to others. And the same holds true for the mind that not understanding the distinctions between healthy and unhealthy states of mind And because of previous, out of the power of previous habituation we uncontrollably as it were engage in various types of unhealthy states of mind which motivate verbal and physical conduct which bring about harm to oneself and to others.
So it’s extremely important that we understand what are the positive and negative factors with respect to our body and mind. So if we were to say extremely roughly, well what constitutes the negative factors, the negative qualities of our body and mind. And most simply, this would be those types of physical and mental factors which bring about which give rise to harmful activities, those types of activities which harm either oneself or others. On the other hand, what are the positive factors within within the two body and mind? And, again, most simply, those types of factors which bring about activities of verbal, physical, and mental activities which are non harmful to others on the one hand, but more than that, actually benefit both oneself and others are healthy factors.
But we should understand that between body and mind, mind is chief. And therefore, if we develop a healthy mind, then they will follow-up this healthy qualities of body and speech. And what what do we mean by a healthy mind? What are some of the healthy qualities that we’re that we’re talking about here? The the attitudes of love and compassion, the attitudes of altruism, wishing to help others, and non harm of others.
So if we promote these attitudes of mind, that is to say we use these in our everyday life, develop the qualities of compassion, develop the qualities of love and altruism and benefiting others. Then we’re going to begin by creating a happy environment immediately about us within our own family. That we’re going to create a harmonious atmosphere amongst our friends, our companions. We’re going to promote the welfare. This is going to extend out to promoting the welfare of our country and eventually extend to bringing about peace in the world.
But additionally, we will find a great deal of happiness within our own body and mind. So such a healthy mind is an extremely beneficial mind.