Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with the Buddha’s statement “the nature of the mind is clear light,” Khensur Rinpoche uses this 89-minute first session to unpack both the conventional and ultimate nature of mind. He distinguishes the principal knowing factor (mind) from mental factors that analyze objects, then makes the central argument: because mind arises dependently it is not truly existent, so afflictive emotions are adventitious — not inherent — and can be eliminated. Practical images include the untrained mind as a flag flapping in the wind versus the trained mind firm as a mountain. Rinpoche extends the principle outward: one’s mental state shapes physical health and, collectively, the quality of the environment — forests, waters, and the rise of new diseases. The session ends with the distinction between artificially cultivated and spontaneous mental states such as bodhicitta.
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File: 01 NoM 1991 10 22.mp3
UUID: 8e10cb6f-d1fb-4e04-8463-bcc2843957c8
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: The Nature of Mind 1991-1992 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1991-10-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 89.1 minutes
Words: ~4,628
Begin by cultivating the awakening heart. We have attained this wonderful human life which has a tremendous potential and we have a great intelligence to the extent that whatever we put our mind to we can come to understand. And what is it that we want? We want happiness. And what is it that we don’t want?
We don’t want to suffer. Therefore, we have to seek to implement the means of our life, methods whereby to find happiness that we’re seeking and to eliminate the suffering that we do not want. And what are the various methods that we are to implement and how are they to be implemented? And with respect to this, there are a variety of ways. There is the way of the being of lesser capacity, and those of the being of middling capacity, and those of the beings of greatest capacity.
If we implement the very extensive methods, in reliance upon these, we can we can eliminate extensive suffering and bring extensive benefit. And the most extensive methods that we can implement are those of loving compassion. And we seek to go beyond the methods whereby we are achieving happiness for ourselves alone, but seek to hold others more precious than ourselves with a sense of altruism seeking to implement the methods whereby to benefit them. Though the thoughts of love and compassion expressed in the thoughts of wishing others to have happiness and wishing that they be free from suffering are extremely wonderful thoughts, that we have to seek to increase the forcefulness of our attitude of mind, that to develop the great courage which thinks that I myself will free others from their suffering, that I myself will lead others to happiness, that I must try. And what is the means by which we can achieve this wish, in fact?
That in order to eliminate others’ suffering and to lead them to happiness, that oneself must find happiness, eliminate ones own suffering through the elimination of all the ones various faults and the various and bringing the consummation of one’s excellent qualities. Without oneself having done this, there’s no way that we can lead others to the same end. Five minutes, we’re going to cultivate the kind hearted attitude as the motivation for listening to this present teaching. The attitude which is expressed in in the thought that that’s the reason in order to achieve the elimination of others’ problems and the bringing them of happiness, that I myself must eliminate my problems by eliminating my various faults, and I myself must find happiness by bringing the consummation of my excellent qualities. In order to achieve this end, I must train and study well.
And this is my motivation for listening to this present teaching. So cultivate such an attitude as motivation for the next five minutes. So as preliminary prayers, we begin with verse number three, followed by verse number two. Verse number five. Today we begin the explanation of the nature of the mind.
The Buddha said not to take the mind as the mind. The nature of the mind is clear light. What is it that we mean by mind? The mind is that, for example, which sees the flower or sees the table. It sees the coarse entity of an object.
So whatever is that which cognizes, which sees the coarse entity of objects, that is mind. So it is the mind which sees the coarse entity of the object, but the mind is assisted by mental factors. And it is these mental factors which take note of and are able to distinguish the distinguishing features of the object. So these two mind and mental factors inseparately operate together. And if we take the flower as an illustration, there is simply the knowing of the coarse entity of the flower, that that is, the flower is known by the mind, it is seen by the mind.
But then when it begins to distinguish the various features of the object, for example, its leaves, its color, its various petals, how many petals are on the stem, that is that which performs an examination and analyzes the object. This analytic aspect is the role of mental factors. So the mind is the principle of knowing factor. It is the main knowing factor or the principle. But it is surrounded by assisting mental factors.
Further, with respect to the nature of the mind, the mind is not made up of matter. It is not an aggregation of particles. It is formless. It is a collection of former and later moments of knowing. If we cannot see the mind, wherever we think of, the mind goes to that place.
On the other hand, wherever we wish to place the mind, we are able to set the mind at that place, fix it at that place. Previous to having trained the mind, the mind is like the flapping flag in the wind. It is simply blown here and there. But subsequent to training one’s mind, that we can develop the ability that wherever we wish to place the mind, we can fix it at that place and it will remain at that place. Wherever we want to send the mind, we are able to direct it toward that object.
Wherever we wish to place the mind, we can place it and it will remain there, firm like a mountain, just like this example that Rinpoche was showing. Wherever we place the mind, it will always remain there steadfast. Whatever we seek to train the mind in, the mind can be trained in that manner. There is no object that cannot be known by the mind. And moreover, this training of the mind is facilitated in the sense that by training the mind today, then the mind is that much easier to be trained tomorrow.
There is an inducement of the ability to know — a facilitation of the ability to know — through the process of training. Having trained the mind tomorrow, then the next day in with respect to that same object, it will more easily come to understand that same object again and again and the mind has this ability to develop a facilitation to become more easily operated toward objects as it is trained. So it is the nature of the mind that upon habituation, less effort is needed with respect to understanding a specific object through the process of training. Subsequent to that, the object is known with less difficulty and with less effort. It’s just like the mind becomes develops this ability with respect to its training, that it becomes as if it’s second nature.
Just like water flowing down, it is in the very nature of the water to flow down. Likewise, with respect to the mind, it becomes it becomes as it becomes habituated with respect to its training, it becomes effortless and more easy. So the training of the physical training is not similar to mental training in the sense that if we train ourselves in some physical discipline, though it may we it becomes easier, it will always be necessary to engage in that activity, in order to engage in that activity to make some sort of effort. You will still have to initiate some effort to engage in that particular physical activity, but the same is not true of the mind. As the training of the mind continues, the activity becomes effortless.
Taking an example, high diving. The diver must train themselves, their body well in order to perform the dive well. And this individual must consistently make effort in the training of the body to consistently perform at the same degree of proficiency. The mind can be both an adversary and an assistant in the finding of happiness and in experiencing of suffering. If it assists us well, then all things will go well for us.
And in this sense, there is no limit to the bliss that the mind can bring to itself. On the other hand, if it is in the process of training, if it is not trained well, it as if becomes our adversary and likewise there is no end to the suffering that our own mind can bring to ourselves. There is no end to the difficulty and the harm that can follow us by the by the mind itself. So the mind can be likened to water, unpolluted water. It is like neutral and it can be made sweet and then it’s like eating a mango which is quite delicious and nutritious.
And likewise, the neutral water can become polluted and by means of these pollutions one can the various poisons contained in the water can bring a sickness and harm physical harm. So the mind has this potential of great power and great capacity. All happiness whatsoever, both temporal and ultimate complete happiness, all meets back to the quality of our own mind. And likewise, in all of the various sicknesses, illnesses, whether they be physical or mental illnesses, and all the various sufferings as individuals and as a nation, and all the various anxieties and fears that we experience all meet back to the mind itself. So the foundation of all that is good and bad is the mind itself.
All that is desirable in the world comes about through the mind and all that is undesirable. All the various sufferings, whether it be as individuals within one’s home or in one’s country, all come about through the power of mind. If our mode of thinking is productive, then this will induce productive modes of activities of physical and verbal activities. And on the other hand, if the the quality of our of our thinking is destructive, then this will have the effect of inducing destructive verbal and physical activities. So the quality of the body its various activities, whether constructive or destructive, lead back to the quality of the mind, its quality of being destructive or productive.
We can see for ourselves that the quality of an individual’s body is quite often a reflection of the quality of their mind. Those who have some mental illnesses often have a very contorted face and have a very lackluster complexion. On the other hand, those who have a happy frame of mind are usually quite vibrant and and have a pleasing appearance. So the mind has this potential that it is the foundation of all that is good and bad, that through its assistance we can find happiness and benefit, and through its lack of helpful assistance, can find nothing but suffering and harm. So in this initial quotation by the Buddha where we said that the mind is not to be taken as the mind, what is to be understood here is that the mind is not to be taken as truly existently mind, that the mind does not truly exist, it does not naturally exist, It does not inherently exist.
It does not exist by way of its own identity. And this verse went on to say that because the mind has no truth status, that is to say it is not truly existent, then the nature of the mind is clear light. So, with respect to the mind, there are two levels of reality. There is the conventional nature of the mind, which is its conventional reality, and then there is its final nature, which is its ultimate reality and which is its emptiness. So with respect to the mind and the nature of the mind, we can speak of its nature in terms of two levels of its reality, that of the conventional and ultimate.
As it says in this verse that the nature of mind is clear light, it is referring to the final nature of the mind, that is the emptiness of mind. The ultimate nature of the mind is is emptiness. That is to say, it’s lack of truth status. It has it is not truly existent. But if we were to talk firstly with respect to the conventional nature of the mind, that the mind possesses various faults, and by faults we mean the various afflictive emotions such as the conception of true existence, the attachment, hatred, etc.
These afflictive emotions are part of the mind, but they are not in the nature of the mind. They do not adhere in the actual conventional nature of the mind. So this this this what we’re explaining here has a very profound meaning. I just If the mind were not truly existent, that is to say, if the mind were truly existent, then these various afflictive emotions such as the conception of true existence, the attachment, hatred, pride, etc, would be in the very nature of the mind, that the nature of the mind would partake of the afflictive emotions. That being the case, then there would be no way that we could separate these afflictive emotions out of the mind.
If this were in fact the case whereby the afflictive emotions could not be separated out from the mind, that the mind could never be freed from the afflictive emotions since they would be an inherent part of the nature of mind, and therefore there could never be the attainment of liberation. There could never be the abandonment of suffering. There could never be the freedom from suffering which is experienced as complete happiness. But because the mind is not truly existing, then the mind can be freed from the adventitious temporary qualities of the afflicted emotion. So why is the mind not truly existing?
It is not truly existing because it is generated, it arises in dependence upon causes and conditions. That the mind is established through and in reliance upon causes and conditions, therefore it is not truly existent, It is in fact a dependent arising. It is is in dependence upon this reasoning that we establish that the nature, the conventional and ultimate natures of the mind. Through training the mind well, the mind actually becomes it were an assistant, a helper, and in this way that we can increase the capacity of mind and develop in this way the excellent qualities of the mind. We can increase the qualities of mind without limit.
And these qualities of mind seek to benefit us, are able to benefit us. So we can really understand that as we increase the capacity of the mind in terms of the development of these excellent qualities, then there is going to be a concomitant ability to increase our happiness and to eliminate our suffering. So what what is it that we really need? We need to develop these all these excellent qualities of the mind. And it is because of the excellent qualities in the in developed in the mind that we are able to find the happiness that we want. And it is by development of these excellent qualities in the mind that we are able to eliminate the suffering that we do not want.
Why is it that we haven’t experienced all the happiness that we want up to up to now? It’s because our mind is not assisting us and has not up to now assisted fully in this to attain this end. It has not become a benign assistant in finding the happiness that we’re looking for and eliminating our problems. But on the contrary, our mind has, as it were, become an adversary in our finding of happiness. And due to its its destructive qualities that we we are induced to engage in various destructive physical and verbal activities.
For example, if there was a child who came under the influence, under the under the malignant influence of a bad friend, then eventually this this child, though a good child in in themselves, would eventually begin to engage in various negative activities. And this is simply consequence of having come under the influence of a negative friend, of a bad friend. So these bad friends of the mind are the various afflictive emotions such as attachment, hatred, pride, the conception of true existence, and that misknowledge which is ignorance. These are the various bad friends under whose influence our mind has come. On the other hand, we should seek to cultivate benevolent trends for our mind to come under the influence of.
And amongst these would be, for example, wisdom, which is the distinguishing factor of the mind, the factor of the mind which distinguishes between what is faulty and what is beneficial. And how what is the method whereby to increase our wisdom? This is through a process of training. That not knowing, we should go to those who know and listen to explanations of the way things are. We can read various books and reflect upon the meaning thereby gained and gradually increase our wisdom in this way.
So through the development of wisdom we can begin to discriminate what are constructive and what are destructive ways of acting. Dependence upon this discrimination, we can begin to cease these destructive activities and begin to engage in constructive ways of acting. Discerning the various types of faults, then we can understand that in this way of acting there is this detriment, there is this fault, and there is this difficulty, and therefore abandon these various types of faulty ways of acting. On the other hand, knowing the types of excellent qualities, what is the benefit, what is going to be helpful, then we can begin to practice those means of cultivating excellent qualities. If if our mind is accompanied by wisdom, then then the very nature of the mind becomes positive and to the same degree as the wisdom.
And additionally, associating the mind with other positive mental states, states such as love and compassion, the awakening heart, altruism, the understandings of impermanence, understandings of emptiness. But as we accompany these factors and accompany them with wisdom, as they are more and more accompanied with the mind, then the very capacity of the mind is increased and the possibility of benefit of the mind is increased. As we begin to increase the influence of these positive states, the power of the mind likewise increases concomitantly that the power of the various faulty states of mind decreases until the point is reached where the various faulty states or the various afflictive emotions can be eliminated completely from their root altogether. So as we again and again habituate the mind to this process, then those various classes of faulty states decrease and those various classes of excellent qualities increase. And as this continues on, there will we will eventually reach a state where we will experience a happiness completely free of all suffering, and we will be like a Buddha.
The Buddha himself was not from the very beginning without faults and having all excellent qualities. He was just like us to begin with. So by means of the process of mental transformation that he was able to develop all of his excellent qualities by increasing the association of his mind with his positive mental factors and by decreasing its association with all the faulty mental factors and and ultimately completely eliminating them. If we can act in the same way through the training of the mind, then we can eventually bring to consummation all the excellent qualities of the mind. On the other hand, if we never are never able to eliminate the various faults of the mind, that is to say the afflictive emotions, then we’re always going to experience suffering.
So today we very roughly talked about the the the natures of the mind in terms of its ultimate and conventional nature, its adventitious nature, a temporary nature. And we talked about the way in which we can benefit the mind, the way in which the mind is trained and the way in which we can eliminate our suffering. So we’ve talked about the way in which we can benefit ourselves and that is to say by benefiting our mind, the way we can increase our happiness, and the way in which we can increase the capacity of the mind. The body and mind are different, but they do have an intimate relationship. It is as we explained, if the mind is in a positive state, then this will be reflected in positive states physical states.
And on the other hand, if the mind is in negative state, this will be reflected in negative physical states. This this intimate relationship also holds true for the as a whole. If we take as example Australia and the Australian people, that the state of Australia is very intimately related to the state of the mind and bodies of the people there. So we can, we all really understand the relationship between body and mind. If the mind is happy, then there is an experience we usually experience a physical sense of well-being.
On the other hand, when the mind is unhappy, there is a physical sense of unwell-being. And this is a sign of the relationship between body and mind. But this relationship extends further than our body in terms of how it reflects the state of our mind. This reflects into our complete environment that in dependence upon the negative or positive states of mind, this will be reflected in the quality of our environment in terms of the quality of the forest, the waters, the crops, etc. So if due to the harmful states of mind, for example, jealousy, anger, hatred, etcetera, And this will have a reflect this will be reflected in the state of the body and the various activities that we engage in physically.
And the what would you say? The demeanor the the demeanor, the manner of our bodily actions is reflected in the state of our mind. And this will in turn reflect in the environment, in the type of forest, the quality of the crops, the the quality of the water. If we want a beautiful environment, then it’s necessary that we have beautiful attitudes and behaviors. Environment, that we want beautiful forests and we want clear waters and bountiful crops while our minds are full of hatred and jealousy is it would be very difficult to bring about.
So Australia is quite fortunate compared to other countries in terms of its natural resources, its forests and waters and its crops, this is a reflection of the activities of the people here. Other countries, if we were to take an example of, say, China, I’ve never been to China, but I’ve seen it on TV. And there they experience a great deal of difficulties in the environment. And there’s a great deal of pollution, dust, other difficulties in the environment, and I think this is a reflection of the internal conflicts in the people. And this extends all the way to the quality of the world that we want in terms of the external environment.
If we, if we, if the deterioration of the environment is a reflection of activities of the people in the world and all of the various wars and fighting that are going on, the various oppressions of one country by another, and the various stealing of other countries’ resources. So there’s great danger that things will become even worse as the the qualities of individuals’ activities deteriorate, and likewise, there will be deterioration of the environment. Previously in the world, things were very wonderful in terms of waters were completely unpolluted, the atmosphere was unpolluted, there were good crops, there was no sickness. This was a product of the positive attitudes of the vast majority of the people, the kind hearted attitudes in which there were cases of stealing and fighting and things, but these were all very insignificant. It was due to the influence of these types of activities that they experienced such a type of world.
But time, concomitant with the degeneration of individuals, has been a deterioration of the environment. Many people are very anxious about the continued deterioration of our environment. For example, there are protests which against the logging of our forests, and I think this is a very smart thing to do. If we if we if we lose our forest, then we’re going to we’re going to lose the rain. Without rain, we’re not going to have any crops.
Without crops, we’re not going to have any food and there will be famine, as in the case, which is the case in many other countries where they have logged and eliminated all their forests. And all the various animals that live in the forest are lost. So previously, due to the productive ways that people conducted themselves. There are very few illnesses in the world. But as this has deteriorated, the conduct of people has deteriorated down through time, then there arisen many new types of illnesses, many new types of sicknesses, many for which presently there is no medicine.
And many people are developing a great fear and anxiety that there will arise many new sicknesses for which we will not be able to we will not be able to combat them. You have some questions? Yeah. So there is a gradual deterioration in the quality of conduct of people due to the increase of the afflictive emotions of people. And there is this increase in the afflictive emotions people due to a decrease in the lack of effort made in applying antidotes, trying to combat the afflictive emotions.
So, though having generated excellent qualities is necessary to make effort in the methods of causing their non degeneration through bringing them to mind again and again through the process of familiar familiarization. So it’s it’s similar and dissimilar. It’s similar in the sense that if one doesn’t reflect again and again on what one has come to understand, then just as in the case of the training of the body, that there will the training is lost. If we were to but unlike the body, if we continually familiarize ourself with what has previously been mentally attained, then it will it will be able to increase its capacity without limit as opposed to the body. And this training facilitates, it becomes easier and easier to maintain that same level more one trains.
Over and above that, by way of example we were to take the attitude which is determination to be free from cyclic existence, that we can attain a level there are two levels in this quality, one of which is an artificial. It is necessary to make effort to induce this particular state of mind. But through training we can come to a state where it is non artificial, it is spontaneous, it is no longer necessary to make any effort whatsoever for that state of mind to be maintained. So there is a point where it can never degenerate. This quality of artificial and non artificial can be applied to the example of the awakening heart, that we can achieve a level of non artificial generation of the awakening heart such that, merely by seeing an insect without having to even reflect upon that insect, there spontaneously arises in the mind the thought, May I, for the sake of this sentient being, attain Buddhahood.
In order to free this sentient being from suffering and to lead them to happiness, may I achieve Buddhahood. This arises spontaneously without any effort. The prayers of dedication beginning with the verse on page ten. And verses eight and nine.