Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with a verse from Candrakīrti’s Supplement to the Middle Way — that among all creatures, human beings alone have the freedom and intelligence to actually pursue happiness — Khensur Rinpoche uses this 67-minute public talk to introduce Buddhism to a general audience. He distinguishes temporal happiness (food, shelter, friendships of this life) from a deathless happiness extending across future lives, then traces the Buddha’s arc from ordinary being to enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. The core teaching covers the afflictive emotions — anger, attachment, pride, ignorance — as the root of suffering, illustrated by how even quiet anger reddens the face and sours food’s flavor. A Q&A touches on karma as a way to work with pain, setting a daily altruistic motivation, and a gracious response to a Christian questioner: some are quenched by tea, others by water. Suitable for those entirely new to Buddhism.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 38 1997 09 28 PT What is Buddhism.mp3
UUID: e27c9081-5258-4aa8-9e50-c32fb47e8f72
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Public Talks 1988-2003 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1997-09-28
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 67.4 minutes
Words: ~3,772
So we’ll begin by meditating for a few minutes on the cultivation of love and compassion. So when we talk about compassion, we it is characterized by four characteristics. The first is simply compassionate self, which is expressed in the thought, it would be wonderful if myself and all other living beings were free from suffering and the causes of suffering. And then there is the characteristic of immeasurable aspiration which is expressed in terms of compassion. May all sentient beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
And then the characteristic of exceptional resolve, and this is expressed in the thought in terms of compassion as I myself will lead all sentient beings to a state where they are free of suffering and the causes of suffering. And then there’s a characteristic in terms of compassion of supplication where we request all of the holy beings about us, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and all holy beings to help us in this aspiration to free all sentient beings from suffering and the causes of suffering. And then again with regard to love, there are four characteristics. First is immeasurable love, which is expressed in the thought, it would be wonderful if myself and all living beings had happiness and the causes of happiness. In the characteristic of immeasurable aspiration in terms of love, which is expressed in the thought, may myself and all living beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
And then the characteristic of exceptional resolve with regard to love expressed in the thought, I myself will lead all living beings to a state where they have happiness and the causes of happiness. And then that aspect of love which is expressed in its supplication that may I have the power whereby to bring about this end and supplicating all of the Buddhas and the Dharma and all holy beings in general to be empowered to do that. But in order that we be able to help others in this way, it’s necessary that first we ourselves remove all our various faults and bring to consummation all our excellent qualities. So we’re going to spend a few minutes cultivating this attitude that in order to be of greatest possible benefit to all sentient beings I must develop myself. So Geshe Rinpoche is going to base his talk on a verse from a great Indian master, Candrakīrti, from a text called Supplement to the Middle Way.
So in this verse, it it tries to emphasize the fact of the preciousness of our humanity. That it says that there are many varieties of creatures in the world, but amongst them, all of these varieties of sentient beings, human beings are supreme. Amongst all the varieties of creatures in the world, they all possess an innate instinct which wishes, may I be happy, may I not suffer. So all living creatures instinctively wish for their own happiness, wish that they not suffer. But amongst all of these various creatures who have this wish to be happy and not to suffer, it is human beings who have the capacity to implement the means to bring that about.
That human beings having the thought, may I be happy, can can implement the causes whereby to bring about their own happiness. And having the thought, may I not suffer, they can stop the causes whereby to end their suffering. So amongst these creatures that we all think very much alike, it is human who are paramount in with in terms of their ability to actually bring about their own happiness, to stop their own suffering. Not only do we have the ability whereby to implement the causes to bring these ins about, but we have the freedom also to do so. Not wanting to suffer, we have the ability to to stop creating the causes of suffering and moreover, the freedom to choose to stop creating these causes.
Wanting to be happy, we have the ability to implement the causes whereby to bring about happiness. And moreover, we have the freedom to make that choice to implement these causes in order to find happiness. Comparatively speaking, animals and all the various other creatures other than human, though having this innate desire to experience happiness and not to experience suffering, do not have the freedom nor the ability nor the intelligence whereby to bring about these ends. But even amongst human beings, there’s there’s a wide variety of abilities and appreciations of freedom that there are those who simply do not appreciate their own power that they have to take control of their life, to implement the means for finding happiness and cease creating the causes for suffering. And there are those who are limited in their freedom to do so.
For example, amongst humans, there are certain limitations which prevent them from completely having the ability to make choices in their life and what they pursue and their power to pursue these things. For example, some have various disabilities, various handicaps, whether it be physical disabilities or mental disabilities, which limits their freedom of choice. And there are different degrees of humans in terms of what they conceive of in terms of happiness and suffering. Though all like or do all wish to eliminate their suffering, though all wish to achieve happiness, they have a different idea of what constitutes happiness for each of them. And in in these terms, when we speak of the levels of happiness, we can speak of both temporal happiness or superficial type of happiness and an ultimate happiness or a deeper type of happiness.
In terms of what we mean by temporal happiness, it is happiness which is only experienced for this life. A type of happiness which is concerned with only this life, a type of an attitude which seeks to eliminate suffering only in terms of this life. So this happiness which is sought and suffering which is to be eliminated in terms of temporal quality is only seen in terms of this life only. Whereas an ultimate happiness is not only concerned with this life but in an authentic happiness, a happiness which is what is called a deathless happiness, which goes on indefinitely. So the types of happiness we refer to when we talk about temporal happiness are those happiness For example, seeking the food and pleasure of this life, clothes and shelter, the friendships of this life.
Though they are important, they are this type of happiness is conceived as as a temporal happiness because it only is in terms of one life only. In this regard, Buddhism or the Buddhadharma, the spiritual practice of Buddhism, is mainly concerned with not just the happiness of this life, not only the happiness of this life, but it is also concerned with the happiness of future lives. It asserts that at the time of our death we are not annihilated. We don’t come to a mere end but that we will continue on. And so a concern of Buddhism is directed toward the happiness and elimination of suffering not only of this life, but also toward these future existences as well.
In comparative terms, the happiness and suffering of this life is seen as rather insignificant compared to the eternal happiness and suffering of future possibilities. So the Buddhadharma is concerned with achieving a deathless happiness which goes beyond this life. So the orientation of Buddhism is toward not only the happiness and the elimination of suffering of this life, but concerns itself with the achievement of happiness in future states as well as the elimination of suffering in those states. So the method that we make use of is a path. A path was taught by the Buddha.
And it is by means that is to say, the teachings of Buddha are practiced. And it is by means of practicing these teachings that we not only eliminate the suffering of this life and achieve happiness in this life but by means of that practice we are also able to bring about happiness in the future, eliminate the suffering of future existence as well. So an important part of the practice of Buddhism is a belief in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, or the spiritual community. So how do we actually generate a belief in the Buddha and the path that he taught? Initially, the Buddha was not always a Buddha.
He was just like ourselves. Like ourselves, he was experiencing suffering and was struggling to find happiness. And in this innate desire to achieve happiness, to be rid of suffering, he experimented with methods whereby to bring this about. He carried on a practice. And dependent upon this practice he was able to abandon from the root, from the very foundation, the causes of suffering.
And by again and again, through his meditation, able to cultivate the causes of happiness until he brought about a final cultivation of happiness. Thereby he himself experienced the path which led to his state of achievement. So at one time, he, just like ourselves, was an ordinary sentient being experiencing all the difficulties that we experience, all the sufferings and wishing for happiness. And in the course of his life, he saw various signs of sickness and aging and dying and all the various sufferings that sentient beings were undergoing. And he renounced all that he had and entered into the spiritual practices.
On the outskirts of Bodh Gaya in India, he spent six years in intensive practice. And then finally at Bodh Gaya itself, he was able to achieve a state whereby he had removed all of his various faults and brought to consummation all his excellent qualities. That is to say, he achieved a state of awakening or enlightenment. Subsequent to his awakening, he traveled to an area of India, a city near Varanasi called Sarnath. And there, he met his prior companions from Varanasi. And there he met with a number of his previous practitioners who implored him to teach and became his disciples. And by their practicing his teachings, by meditating upon them, they were able, like many, many more subsequent to that, to remove all their various faults and bring to consummation all their excellent qualities. So as time proceeded, many more many more disciples gathered around him and were able to achieve the same end as he himself did.
So the practice of Buddhism began to spread out further and further to to distant lands such as Tibet and China, Mongolia, Indonesia, Thailand, etcetera. So Buddha Śākyamūni, out of his compassion, began to teach his method of achieving the state that he himself had achieved. He questioned, Well, what is it that people want and how are they going to achieve that end? He was able to understand all of their various dispositions, all of their various capacities, and he taught in accordance with their particular needs and their dispositions. Moreover, the path that he taught was such that it was unerring, unmistaken, and that he became an authentic teacher.
And this is how the Buddha is looked upon within the Buddhist context, that he is a valid teacher for ourselves. So the Buddha was looked upon as a teacher and he taught a path. And what what constitutes the path? The path is seen as the method whereby to eliminate our suffering and to achieve happiness. And how do we actually implement the path?
Well, our happiness and suffering mainly come about through the mind itself. This is the the foundation of our experience. But these are expressed also through our body and speech. So it it is by the means of eliminating all our various faults of our body, speech, and mind, all the dysfunctions, all the negativities that we express through our body, speech, and mind that we ourselves can experience happiness and that we can bring happiness to others. So it is in this way that the path that the Buddha taught became the means to achieve liberation.
So the the path is the means by which we eliminate our faults and bring to consummation all our potential qualities. And these of the three ways in which we express our being through our body, speech, mind, It is mind which is most important. It is And within the context of mind, the contributors to our suffering are the various afflictive emotions within our mind. So it is these factors within our mind, the afflictive emotions, are the main factors, which are mainly to be eliminated in eliminating our suffering. And those factors within the mind which bring about our suffering, the afflictive emotions, are principally such types of mental patterns as attachment and hatred and pride and ignorance.
These constitute the main contributors to our suffering. Even when those times when we’re sitting quietly by ourselves in a very relaxed manner, the moment that anger rises in our in our mind, immediately, our minds become unhappy. And we experience an attention within our minds. But it also affects our bodies. For example, we become red in the face.
Red in the face, our breathing becomes more rapid. We’re not able to sit comfortably even where we were before. So even when we are on our own, by ourselves, the moment our anger rises in our mind, there is an experience of suffering. And if in such a state someone who was normally our friend was near, we might speak to them in an abusive manner. That in such a state we’re not able to sleep, our food has no flavor, that we become powerless under the control of these afflictive emotions and experience suffering.
So it is if we powerfully come under the control of the afflictive emotions within our mind. When we become angry, we express this anger through our speech, by abusing others, through abusive language. And when they hear this, they too are hurt. So not only are we made to suffer through our own afflictive emotions, but those around us suffer as well. But also we might go on to physically harm others, hurting others even physically.
So the the under the control of afflictive emotions such as that of anger, we bring a great deal of harm both to ourselves and others and create disharmony amongst us all. So this disharmony that we bring amongst ourselves extends not only between yourself and the other person, but extends outward to the family, to the community, even the conflicts between nations are an expression of the afflictive emotions. And the same holds true for an afflictive emotion such as desirous attachment, whereby we develop a tremendous craving for others’ possessions. Out of this craving, we might involve ourselves in various types of negative acts. We might steal others’ possessions, act in unethical manners and thereby bringing suffering both to ourselves and others.
So as a means to initiate a practice whereby to eliminate the root of our sufferings being the afflictive emotions, the Buddha taught a method whereby initially we should try to begin to restrain our physical negative actions. We should stop stealing. We should stop fighting with others in terms of our physical activities. But also we begin to curtail dysfunctional ways of communicating with others like through abusive speech, through lying to others, all of these negative ways that we express ourselves through speech. But also, we have to begin to work with the the root cause of these negative verbal and physical expressions.
That is the mind itself. That we are to abandon even the negative patterns within our own mind. For example, that of harmful intention, wanting to harm someone else, having if when that arises to cultivate the attitude of compassion for the same person rather than wishing harm them, wishing that they be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. When anger rises in our mind, cultivating love for that person whereby we wish them to have happiness and the causes of happiness. When someone else harms us, rather than retaliating, to practice tolerance.
In this way we are to practice applying an antidote to the various negative patterns within our mind. But in brief, mainly we have to concern ourselves with curtailing the negative expressions in terms of our body and speech. The various ways that we act in the world, to try to stop acting in negative fashions. And at the at as a foundation in terms of our mind to develop a kind hearted attitude and altruism which wishes to benefit others. So the practice of Buddhism is extremely vast and we could go on into great detail but we don’t have time.
I just tried to present a very small portion of the thinking of Buddhism. Of course, a very rough presentation of how we practice. Very, very quick. Okay. So perhaps it would be best if you if you ask some questions from your side.
What you would like to know about? How it affects? Yeah. So the chakras or the channel centers are elaborately taught in the area of Buddhism called secret mantra. Very, very big.
It’s very, very big teaching. How do you deal inner How do you deal with Inner hurt. Do you deal with inner hurt? If one is experiencing a great deal of, if one is experiencing suffering, how do you how do you deal with that? So in elimination of our of our suffering, we there are two possibilities.
One is in order to rid ourselves of suffering from its very root, we have to eliminate the afflictive emotions which are the basic cause of our suffering. So barring that, we we can only eliminate partially our present suffering and that will that our present experience of suffering can be worked with through changing our attitudes, working with our way of looking and thinking in terms of our suffering. Let’s let’s just take an example of the way that you could work with your attitude toward the present difficulty and take a physical suffering like if you had something wrong with your eye and you were experiencing pain. And how how do what what would be a way that we can lessen that pain and we could work with that situation? In a in a deep if we were to look at it in a deeper way, there are two ways that we can look at it.
One way is that it’s simply caused by the condition of a disease. But there’s a diff, there’s a deeper way that we can look at it in terms of its, the karma. That is to say our actions. This pain that we are experiencing is the result of past actions that I’ve created. I created those actions and now I am experiencing the result of those past negative actions through the experience of suffering.
And moreover, by experiencing this suffering, I am purifying that past negativity that I created in the past. So in that way, can be some relief knowing that through this pain, some some some something meaningful is coming about, that one is purifying the past negative karma which is which was the cause of this present pain. So, you know, by way of analogy, some people, they really like to eat chili. Chili when you eat chili, it’s very hot. And actually, in a way, it’s almost like a painful experience.
But but we don’t we don’t get we don’t get angry at it because we voluntarily have eaten a chili because we think it’s delicious. So that added even though it’s almost as if a painful experience, because of our attitude toward it, we don’t we don’t we don’t experience it as real pain and and develop anger and aversion for it. Yes. Yes. So as, as what, as we meditated upon previously that developing the attitudes of mind which it it may all sentient beings have happiness in the causes of happiness.
May all sentient beings be free of suffering in the causes of suffering in cultivating this attitude in in one’s everyday life. And but you know in in the benefits of, we can talk about the benefits of cultivating or meditating on love and compassion that you know by generating this kind hearted attitude we develop we accumulate a great deal of creative potential of merit and that we can dedicate this both for our own welfare and for the welfare of others. May myself and others be happy may they not suffer. And you know, most of us have to go to work. And when we get up in the morning, we should set a motivation for the rest of the day, a beneficial, an altruistic attitude that, you know, may my activities over the course of the day be beneficial to others.
And this motivation, by setting this attitude, this motivation will carry us through the day and through a very positive ways of expressing ourselves and through our actions. And this view would be extremely beneficial. So you know, to benefit others, to help others as much as we are able, but even if we aren’t able to any large degree, at least have the attitude that I’m not going to harm others neither through my body nor speech. The spiritual practice of Buddhism, the Dharma, mainly is expressed through our ways of thinking, the mind itself. Yeah.
Thank you very much. So what you said is: Jesus is the way. Yes? What is the way? So it is necessary to be shown how to follow the path of the way.
Is it not? So it is not necessarily contradictory that if Jesus showed the way and Buddha showed a way that the two don’t necessarily have to be incompatible. So if that’s what you believe, then by all means you have found a path which is useful for yourself. And there may be other paths which lead to the same end, to the same place. So some people are thirsty quenched by tea and others by water.
We all we all don’t have to drink the same drink. We all don’t have to drink the same drink to quench our thirst. What a good deal. Good. Yeah.
What what age can you start meditating? There’s no particular age, as long as one knows how to proceed in meditation, then you begin to then once you know how to do it, then you can begin. Yeah. Good. Okay.
Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.