Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The image of a blind mother stumbling toward a cliff while her child watches idly opens this 43-minute session by Khensur Rinpoche, anchoring his commentary on developing the awakening heart. He works systematically through the sevenfold cause-and-effect instruction: equanimity toward friend, enemy, and stranger; recognizing all beings as one’s mother across infinite rebirths; remembering their kindness; gratitude and the wish to repay it; attractive love; compassion; exceptional resolve; and finally the awakening heart itself. The equanimity step is grounded in a concrete reflection — over countless past lives, all three categories of person have helped and harmed us equally. A short Q&A closes the session, addressing why a child’s intelligence comes from their own past karma rather than their parents’. Suited to practitioners working through the Lamrim path.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 TAH 1993 08 15.mp3
UUID: 9d632e56-f915-4f65-a60e-d6616f312866
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: The Awakening Heart (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-08-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 43.4 minutes
Words: ~2,660
This this embodiment which we now all possess by means of which we can eliminate our suffering, means of which we can achieve happiness is really solely come about through the kindness of our mother. For those who are able to discriminate, are able to reflect and to distinguish what is actually helpful to ourselves and what is actually harmful to ourselves, applied this ability to discriminate with respect to our mother, we begin to appreciate the great kindnesses and the tremendous benefit which she has shown us. If we don’t consider this fact, then we will simply forget the kindnesses that she has shown us. We simply won’t remember them. So if we do consider and weigh up the benefits that we have been given by to our mother, then there will arise in this tremendous appreciation for the great kindnesses that she has in fact shown us and a natural longing to return that kindness that I have to do something to show my gratitude toward my mother.
That but if we don’t consider it in this way, if we don’t reflect upon the kindnesses, then there’s a tendency simply to overlook them and we will not develop this attitude. What what constitutes healthy ways of being in the world or what healthy ways of acting in the world is is is dependent upon our ability to discriminate what is helpful and what is harmful. If having seen the great benefit that someone has shown us, that those with wisdom, those who are able to discriminate what is worthwhile in life, what is good, what is bad, what is of use and no use, that such individuals who have a sense of righteousness and unrighteousness would tend toward the they would quite naturally begin to tend toward a sense of repaying this great benefit. To not repay this would not only be a sad situation but would display a lack of wisdom, a lack of discriminatory quality, a lack of understanding the the what is, you know, the the lack of the ability to discriminate between right and wrong. Throughout whether it be in secular matters when somebody does something good to oneself.
There is an expectation to return that good toward others. And what to say of how this should be extended in the domain of one’s spirituality. So this is the very foundation of the universal vehicle, the Mahāyāna. Know, looking upon all of these living beings as parents and not forgetting the great kindness that they have shown you again and again. And in in the view of this great kindness, what are we to do?
What is it that they want? They want to be happy. They don’t want to suffer. Then it’s incumbent upon us as their children who have experienced their great kindness to try as well as we can to bring this in and about, to bring about the welfare of our parents, to eliminate their suffering, to find to bring them happiness. And this is the awakening heart.
So if we were to apply this situation in a descriptive metaphor that we can imagine that our mother of this life was was blind and unable to walk well and she was stumbling toward a cliff. And while you, her child, sat by watching this situation. You know, remembering the you know, if one doesn’t help one’s own mother, then who can we expect to help our mother? And that seeing her stumbling about as she is in suffering, if one does not take it upon oneself to eliminate her difficulties, to eliminate her suffering, then one is in a very sad it’s a very sad situation. Is acting in a very shameful manner.
And remembering the great kindness and the difficulty that our mother is now experiencing, the child who has who has been recipient of that kindness, it’s incumbent upon them to try to do whatever they can to allay their mother’s circumstance. So if this child were not to come to the aid of the mother, then I think everyone would think that this person was really a worthless person, that they really had an extremely negative mind, that they weren’t a good person. So we really have to try to help as children to help our mothers. On the other hand, if the child to help the mother to try to seek to benefit her, to allay her circumstance, then you know everyone would say well that’s really a good child and that they would praise and not only that but the child would him or herself be happy. So this is the way that we can proceed in developing an awakening heart on the foundation of equanimity which we haven’t spoken of.
We then, we initially begin to recognize all living beings as our mothers and that they are the individual who is ultimately to be held dear or is to be held ultimately dear. And then we go on, this arises through remembering their great kindness. Then we develop in a sense of gratitude which wishes to repay their kindness and dependence upon that we will develop attractive love, and dependence upon that compassion and love wishing to free them from suffering to lead them to happiness and dependence upon that we will go on to develop exceptional resolve. And in dependence upon that we will develop the awaking heart, this tremendously precious attitude which is the foundation of the universal vehicle in which its excellence in quality is equal to space. So that’s the that’s the method of explanation of the seven cause and effect instruction.
So this is the sevenfold cause and effect precept. The way that it derives its name is that there are seven causes and effects. There is one effect which is, that is say the result, which is the awakening heart. This one result arises in dependence upon six causes. First, not first, but the direct cause of the awakening heart is the preceding development of the exceptional resolve.
That arises in dependence upon compassion and love. That arises in dependence upon attractive love. That arises in dependence upon the development of the wish to repay kindness. That rises in dependence upon remembering the kindness of our mothers and that rises in dependence upon recognition of all living beings as our mothers. So these six causes act to bring about this one result.
Therefore it is called the seven cause and effect pre instruction. This has as its prerequisite the development of equanimity before going on to recognize all living beings as one’s mother, we seek to develop an equanimity which does not hold some close and others at a distance. That is to say, we try to develop an even minded attitude toward the three categories of friend, enemy, or friend, enemy, and stranger. We try to see them in the same light, have an even minded attitude toward all three, see them as equal. And it’s just as by way of analogy, you know, we were going to grow a crop and it is necessary that we prepare the field, that we remove all the stones and wood, whatever, to prepare it in such a way that we can then go on to plant the field.
Or if we were going to paint a mural on a wall, for example, we would want that the surface be very smooth and even. Otherwise it would very difficult to paint well upon such a surface, a rough surface. Likewise, in the development of the sevenfold cause and effect precept, it is developed on the foundation of the smooth surface, an even surface of equanimity where we where we have an even even minded attitude toward all living beings. The way that we can proceed in development of equanimity is by first imagining these three categories of individuals before you, that we imagine before ourselves, a friend or someone you hold dear, a stranger, and an enemy. And we will have a natural feeling of a liking toward the friend, a dislike for the enemy, and a feeling of indifference toward the stranger.
On the other hand, if we were to reflect well and train our mind through our meditation we could develop the attitude of it, we could have an even minded attitude toward those three. How do these natural inclinations of liking, dislike, how do they arise? If we examine, we will see that this person who we look upon as our friend was liking, that we like them because they have benefited us in some way over the course of this life and therefore we have a liking for them. On the other hand, the enemy we see as having harmed us and therefore we have dislike or anger toward them. And then the third category that of the stranger, we see them as neither harming us nor helping us over the course of this life and therefore we remain indifferent to them.
To our dear friends, we see that having out of their benefit to us that we have a liking for them. But if we reflect in a deeper way, we can see that we can begin to see that over an infinite number of rebirths that this same person has previously killed us awfully many, many times. With respect to the person we view as an enemy and understanding that it’s because we see them as having harmed us, therefore we dislike them, reflecting in a deeper manner that over infinite numbers of rebirths, this person has been our mother and has been of tremendous benefit and has shown us great kindness. So then we go on to the stranger and we see the reason that we hold this sense of indifference toward them, feeling of indifference, is simply because we cannot see that they have benefited us or harmed us and therefore we, it doesn’t matter and we develop a sense of neutrality or a difference toward them. But in fact this person over in the numbers of previous lives has been our mother and has benefited us greatly.
But additionally, they have harmed us also greatly in the past. In fact, all of these three, friend, enemy, and stranger, have treated us over the long haul in exactly the same ways. That they have benefited us, they have harmed us. And therefore, we begin to develop the attitude which sees them with a sense of equanimity, an even minded attitude, seeing that they have all the stranger has harmed me and helped me, the friend has harmed me and helped me, the enemy has harmed me and helped me equally. No difference whatsoever over the infinite numbers of rebirths.
And through this we develop a a an even minded attitude which is in which there is an absence of aversion or attachment. So this person who has done good things to us, this person who has done bad things to us, this person who appears to have not done neither, they are in fact the same. They have all do the same. They have all treated they have all treated us just as badly as well, whether it be the stranger, enemy, or friend. They are all the same in that regard.
So one develops a sense of equanimity where where one is divorced of either a liking or dislike for any of them where there’s no aversion or attachment. So if you if you who are aspiring to the universal vehicle, if you see that the precious that the awakening awakening heart is extremely worthwhile and precious, and you want to develop it, then you can develop it through meditating in this manner gradually working through these steps. First on the foundation of equanimity, then going on with the development of recognizing all living beings as one’s mother, remembering their great kindness, developing their gratitude which wishes to repay their kindness, attractive love, great compassion, exceptional resolve and the awakening heart. So there are these eight steps by which we can develop an awakening heart. So the two essences of the the universal vehicle are firstly, awakening heart.
The the awakening heart is is one of the essences of the universal vehicle, dharma, and the other is the view of emptiness. And to ensure that these two are able to be developed well, they are they rely upon the determination to be free or renunciation. So these three, the determination to be free, the awakening heart and the awakening mind, the view of emptiness, are the three fundamentals of the path. This is what we are discussing on Tuesday nights. These represent the essence of the Buddhadharma.
Kusha. Yeah. Okay. Question? So we’ll just take a few questions because you’re hungry.
Blood of the child which constitute the flesh and blood component which constitutes the child’s body came from the flesh and blood of the parents. But the beauty of how that flesh and blood is arranged comes from the karma of the child. That as we mentioned, a beautiful body arises through the practice of cultivated patience in the past, that the child has that karma whereby the flesh and blood will take on beautiful parents. On the other hand, having out of anger, having habituated to anger in the past, one will will have very unattractive body. The very fact that one can take such a human embodiment is dependent upon ethics.
The fact of having taken, that we have wealth is dependent upon our generosity in the past. So all of these karmas are part of the factors of the child and these aren’t coming from the parents. Just the flesh and blood component are coming from the parents. So the fact that the parents are dull minded then or is is a is a product of their karma, had not they having not trained the mind in previous lives, not having developed wisdom, then then karma consequences that that they have dull minds. On the other hand, the child being a genius is dependent upon that child having trained their mind in the past, having developed wisdom, and that karma is now expressed as being the wisdom, the genius quality of the child is is a result of their karma.
So that which continues on to take rebirth, goes on to future lives, is the consciousness. We are constituted of a body and mind which are are held in in relationship through the force of karma just like gluing two pieces of paper together. The glue is holds these two pieces of paper together. When the potency of this glue is weakened then finally they separate. And likewise when the karma which holds maintains this relationship between our present body and mind is exhausted then the body is left behind but the consciousness which will continue onward.
And that is what will take rebirth. But it is the consciousness which will go on to take rebirth. This process of taking of rebirth is facilitated due to the force of karma and afflictive emotions. These are assisting in the facilitating this process of taking rebirths. So it is due to our karmic affinity and the afflictive emotions that we will enter into, this consciousness will enter into a particular union of sperm and ovum.
Gradually this zygote, this zygote, this fertilized egg would then develop into a fully formed body. And then subsequent to the gestation period, we take rebirth. We are born. And again the process will reoccur that the karma which binds the consciousness to this particular embodiment will eventually weaken and become exhausted and then the body is again left behind and the mind then proceeds onward to another rebirth. If that karma is positive then we will take a positive rebirth.
If that karma is negative we will take a negative rebirth. Okay. My body, I like clothing.