Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche draws on Adelaide’s hot, overcast weather to illustrate the central claim of this 92-minute session at Buddha House: afflictive emotions, like clouds, are adventitious to the mind — oppressive only because we haven’t generated the winds of antidotes to clear them. He completes Maitreya’s second and third proofs that all sentient beings possess Buddha nature, explains that the universal desire to avoid suffering is itself evidence of lineage, and tells the story of Śākyamūni first generating the awakening heart as a hell being who volunteered to pull a cart alone for an exhausted companion. A first analogy — a Buddha hidden inside a closed lotus — leads into the closing argument: afflictive emotions can be permanently eliminated because wrong consciousnesses are inherently unstable, while correct awareness ultimately prevails.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 NoM 1992 02 11.mp3
UUID: 3808dd3d-96d5-4826-837c-41e24f2e11fd
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: The Nature of Mind 1991-1992 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1992-02-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 91.9 minutes
Words: ~3,485
That was explained previously; because there are some new people, I’ll re-explain what I said. Up to now we’ve been spending a great deal of time in terms of explaining the way in which we are going to proceed in our meditation, but now we’re going to mainly meditate with very little explanation. And as I explained previously that when we meditate we should have as our motivation a healthy attitude of the awakening heart. And there are probably many, so we continue our meditating on the awakening heart, but there are probably many people who had various desires as to what the subject of meditation should be. Some would like to meditate on compassion, others emptiness, others mindfulness of the breathing, others would like to meditate on the graduated path.
So whatever, it’s up to you, whatever you meditate on you can do as you like. But whatever we do in the course of our meditation we should think about what types of results that we’re trying to achieve and if the basis of our meditation is in terms of a beneficial intention, seeking to benefit both ourselves and others, then whatever we meditate on, the results will be effective. And so we should be mindful of this as a foundation of our meditation, this beneficial attitude and then we can proceed with any type of meditation, any type of meditation which is trying to improve our mind, which is seeking to transform our mind. So thinking in this manner we are going to proceed in meditation for the next ten minutes. In our last teaching we were discussing that all sentient beings have Buddha nature or more literally Buddha lineage, And this is established by means of three reasons, the proof of the existence of Buddha nature with respect to all sentient beings and these are set out by Ārya Maitreya and we discussed the first of these three reasons.
Proceeding with the second reason, establishing that all sentient beings have Buddha nature, that both the Buddha and ourselves have minds. So there are the minds of sentient beings and the minds of Buddhas. And they are of the same type in that they are not truly existent. They are empty of truly existent and they are empty of any inherent stain. They are empty of inherent stain.
Both the minds of Buddhas and the minds of sentient beings are pure in nature. And why is that? Because they’re empty of true existence. And because they’re empty of true existence, they have no inherent fault. So the nature of the mind is faultless and the nature of the Buddha mind is faultless.
But the various faults of the mind have been, a Buddha has removed all the various faults from his or her mind and developed all of the excellent qualities. Likewise, the nature of our mind is faultless, but it has no truly existent faults within it. But the faults, likewise as the Buddha proceeded that by removing the faults from the mind and bringing the consummation of excellent qualities we can proceed to Buddhahood. Do you understand? Can turn it up a little bit?
Can you hear me now very clearly? There are the minds of Buddhas and there are the minds of sentient beings, non-Buddhas. Both of these minds are, the nature of both of these minds are free of truly existent faults. They’re without truly existent faults. That is to say the nature of both of these minds are pure by nature.
Just as the Buddhas have eliminated all their various faults and brought to consummation all their excellent qualities, likewise we have the potential to remove all the various faults from our minds and bring to consummation all of the excellent qualities. But our minds do possess adventitious stains. That is the various faults of the distress patterns or afflictive emotions. But these are, as the word adventitious indicates, only occasional. They are incidental to the mind.
They are not in the nature of the mind. That is to say, they do not always persist. They come and go just as clouds in the sky come and go. From time to time there are clouds and then they move on. Likewise, our mind is analogous to the sky and from time to time the adventitious or the incidental defilements of the afflictive emotions arise in our minds, but they’re only occasional.
This as in the case that there occasionally occurs clouds in the sky, but when the wind comes, the clouds are blown away and the clear sky remains. Likewise, there are the various adventitious stains or defilements arising in the mind. Śākyamūni Buddha was at one time just like ourselves, in that he possessed various distress patterns, afflicted emotions. But these are still, though possessing them, are adventitious or incidental. He went on to meet a spiritual friend.
The spiritual friend taught him the Dharma and he practiced it in terms of meditating on the awakening heart and the view of emptiness. And by means of these, these two acting as the winds, then the various adventitious stains were cleared away from the mind. That is to say all the faults were removed from the mind and the stainless sky of his mind remained. Though all sentient beings possess the clear skies likewise, just as a Buddha, still their minds overcast with the clouds of the various afflicted emotions and distress patterns. And it’s because we have not, through our practice, brought about the winds to blow clouds away, that our minds are overcast with the afflicted emotion.
Sometimes in Adelaide when it becomes overcast and there is no wind and the sun is not seen, in such types of days it becomes extremely hot. And in the same way that we have not been able to generate the winds of the various antidotes to the afflictive emotions and so our minds are overcast by the various afflictive emotions and we are likewise very hot. But if we can generate the winds of practice, then this will clear away away the clouds, and we can see the clear skies, have always been there. That is to say, the winds of the antidotes to the various afflictive emotions, when those begin to blow, then the clouds, what is left is a clear mind, just as the Buddha. So it is said that the minds of all of the Buddhas and all sentient beings are clear like the sky by their very nature.
So that was the second reason, establishing the lineage. The third reason — how is it that we can establish the existence of lineage with respect to all sentient beings? Both ourselves and Buddhas have both the factors of a body and mind. Both Buddhas have a body and mind and we have a body and mind. If we are on our part, we can, because the mind is empty of true existence, clear away any of the adventitious defilements of the mind and we are left with the clear mind of the Buddha.
And additionally, through our practices of generosity, ethics, meditation on love and compassion, we can generate the body of a Buddha. Our body has been formed from, on the one hand, the union of the sperm and ovum of our parents. It is in continuity with those elements and on the other hand in terms of having to practice ethics, that is to say abandoning killing. On the other hand, a Buddha body is not generated out of the continuum of sperm and ovum, the contaminated substances, but it relies solely on, as its cause, on the practices of, for example, generosity, ethics, and love, compassion, and the awakening heart. As was explained previously, when we said that there were two causes for the establishment of a Buddha’s mind and a Buddha’s body.
These were the two types of lineages, the naturally abiding lineage and the evolving lineage. The naturally abiding lineage establishes the truth body of a Buddha; the evolving lineage establishes the form body of a Buddha and because all sentient beings have lineage, they are able to achieve the two bodies of a Buddha. Have these two lineages, then all sentient beings have the potential to achieve these two bodies. This is really excellent reasoning set forth by Maitreya. So this is really an excellent reasoning, which is as follows.
How do we know that all sentient beings have a lineage, that they possess it? Because all sentient beings do not like suffering — it is an undesirable result. On the other hand, they have a desire for the bliss of liberation. They like bliss.
They are attracted to bliss, repulsed by suffering, and this is a sign that they possess lineage. The fact that sentient beings are repulsed by suffering and attracted toward happiness is a sign that they possess lineage. If they do not possess lineage, they would not have, their minds would not operate along these lines. They would not generate these repulsion and attraction.
Such inanimate objects as tables, room, water, trees do not desire to be rid of suffering nor long for the bliss of liberation. And why is that? Because they do not possess lineage. So this reasoning is really excellent and profound. What do you think?
Do they have what? Lineage? Mhmm. Dundula. All all of them.
So even animals all do not desire suffering, and all desire happiness. And the reason these desires are generated is through the power of lineage. All animals are suitable to achieve Buddhahood. These beings are not always animals. From time to time they’ll be born as humans, as celestial beings.
And on those occasions they can be guided by means of the spiritual friend to the Dharma and achieve Buddhahood. But at present they are unable to understand the meaning of Dharma. They’re extremely stupid. Such things as a table, etc, because they do not possess lineage cannot achieve Buddhahood, but on the other hand, animals, because they possess the main cause of Buddhahood, that is the lineage, will achieve Buddha. The word, Sanskrit word Buddha is translated into Tibetan as Sangye, two syllables.
And the word san means that the clearing away of the various faults of the mind, to clear them away. It’s Sangye means to evolve and to evolve our intelligence and our wisdom. So one who is cleared and evolved. There are animal bodhisattvas. For example, if we were to meditate extremely well on the awakening heart and finally we generate the awakening heart, but when we die due to the force of our previous extremely negative karma that we created, we might have to undergo rebirth in a bad migration.
Due to the unskillful actions previously created though we have generated the awakened heart, still we will be reborn in a bad migration. These bodhisattvas, though they are reborn in bad migrations due to the power of their awakening heart, they only experience a small amount of suffering and they only remain in the bad migrations for a short time. They are quickly freed of those bad migrations and take a happy rebirth. It’s like a rubber ball bouncing. As soon as it hits down, it bounces back up.
It is said that Buddha Śākyamūni Buddha Śākyamūni initially generated the awakening heart as a hell being. So how did Śākyamūni Buddha initially generate the awakening heart as a hell being? He said that he and one other hell being were pulling a cart and his fellow cart puller was in very sad condition and could hardly go on and finally fell and couldn’t get up. And hell guardian began to beat him and told him to get up. And though Śākyamūni Buddha had great compassion, he had at that point not yet generated the awakening heart.
And he said, No, I myself, I will pull this cart by myself and in generating that thought he generated the awakening heart. So there are those who have an animal body and have the awakening heart. If we were to ask, well if we have lineage, then we have the potential to remove all our various faults. I don’t know, you know, I’ve never seen my own lineage. How can I come to know that I possess lineage?
It is difficult for us to come to realize our lineage quickly. You know, our Buddha nature or lineage is the emptiness of the mind. It is called the essence of one gone to bliss. Just as the essence of a sprout is the seed, from the seed the sprout arises. So the essence from which it comes forth, the sprout comes forth is the seed.
Likewise, the one going to bliss is the Buddha and it is the lineage, which is the potentiality able to be transformed, which is lineage or the essence. The essence is the potentiality which is able to be transformed into a Buddha. And our lineage, this essence is veiled by the afflictive emotions. It is hidden from our view. Just as if there was some object in our closed fist, we would not be able to see what it was.
But upon slowly opening each finger and spreading our fingers out, what was in the BAM of our hand would become clear to our view. Likewise, presently our Buddha nature, the lineage, is obscured or veiled from our view by the various afflictive emotions. But upon being separated as the various afflictive emotions are separated out from the mind, then our Buddha nature becomes clearer and clearer to our view. This is explained in terms of nine analogies and nine meanings. So today I’m just going to explain the first analogy.
And this is, would be, if there were a lotus and in the center of the lotus was a very small Buddha image. When the sun shines, then the flower opens and the Buddha image becomes apparent. But when the sun sets, then the petals close and the Buddha image is hidden from our view. So when the sun, upon the setting of the sun, the petals of the lotus close and the hidden with, the Buddha image hidden within is not apparent to anyone’s view except for someone perhaps who has clairvoyant. And if this person with clairvoyance is able to see that in fact there is hidden within the lotus a Buddha image, others are not.
But if he were to simply begin to peel back the petals of the lotus, then that Buddha image would become apparent to all. You would be able to see it, wouldn’t you? So within our mind is held through the lineage, the naturally abiding lineage for the emptiness of the mind itself. But due to the obscuring veils of the afflictive emotions of attachment, it is not apparent to us. We aren’t able to view it.
But who can? That a Buddha is able to see that we possess the Buddha nature within ourselves and by teaching various methods and by our practice of abandoning this attachment then the Buddha body within us, within our own mind becomes manifest and becomes more and more apparent until it’s manifested. By the teachings of the antidotes to attachment and through our practice of those teachings and the abandonment of attachment then the potentiality of the Buddha within us is evolved. So the attachment and the lotus are very similar. Why is the similarity between lotus in it and our attachments?
When a lotus first blooms, everyone thinks how beautiful it is and they have a great liking for it. But after a few days it will and no one likes it at that point, just like this flower on the table. Right now it’s very beautiful and we all like it, but in a few days it will be wilted and no one will like it. When people are young, they generate a great deal of attachment towards one another. We’re all quite beautiful when we’re young and handsome.
But as we grow older, we begin to wrinkle, we begin to get bent, get bent, we begin to stoop and our face becomes gnarled and we lose all our attachment for one another. So that’s the first analogy. This was the first analogy in which we said that our lineage was like a Buddha image within a lotus, and that when the lotus is closed, it’s not apparent. We can’t see that there is a Buddha within the lotus and only a clairvoyant can. So if the clairvoyant were to peel back the petals, then even to us it would become apparent that there was a Buddha image within the lotus.
And likewise with respect to ourselves, the emptiness of our mind is that I have such strong attachment, I don’t I don’t think I can destroy completely the attachment from my mind. I can’t abandon it. I can’t get rid rid of my attachment. I can’t really improve my mind, but some may think in this way. Various afflictive emotions such as attachment, etcetera, can definitely be removed completely from the mind, like they are adventitious.
They’re incidental to the mind. Just like the clouds are incidental to the sky, they are not a part of the sky, that they are not in the deep nature of the sky. Likewise, the particular emotions are not are only temporal aberration. They are not in the deep nature of the mind. Are wrong consciousnesses or distorted awarenesses.
They exceed or superimposed qualities upon the objects which they do not possess. So they can be replaced by nondistorted awarenesses that they since they are incorrect themselves, they can be removed or replaced by a generation of correct in the case of someone who lies that they eventually will be found out, Though they may temporarily prevail, the truth will ultimately prevail. That is one who says something is, which is not, or is not which is, So on the one hand, these these all these various distorted awarenesses are not stable. They are can only at best be temporal and adventitious to the mind. And, that we can apply an antidote to remove these distorted awarenesses from the mind.
For example, the conception of true existence is a distorted awareness. Things are not truly existent, but this conceives of it by the way, therefore it is a wrong consciousness. We can generate wisdom which understands that things the conception that there is no flower that there is no flower existing on the table, the conception of that there is no flower on the table is not stable. It cannot ultimately remain because there is an awareness which conceives correctly that there is a flower on the table which has the force of being able to refute the misconception of the noninhiscence of the flower. Awareness which which holds that there does exist a flower on the table is not able to be refuted by any awareness.
Why? Because it occurs with the reality. They are not able to remain permanently continually. And moreover, the antidotes, correct of our awarenesses, then they are by nature stable. And they are by other nature stable.
They are able to remain continually. If we understand this, then we can understand that we can eliminate the particular emotions from the mind. Truth did not appear to a falsely conceiving But there is a there is a degree of strength which determines the temporal dominance of truth and falsity. Sometimes the falsity, because of its greater strength, is is able to temporarily overshadow the the truth. Or in the case of our mind, that sometimes our anger is much stronger than our tolerance.
And this is due to simply to a temporal degree of strength, but it has nothing to do with the ultimate nature of tolerance and anger that that ultimately tolerance will be able to overwhelm the anger. The cause which would bring about Buddhahood. There is a potentiality of Buddhahood. Just like dough can be is the can be made into bread. The lineage can be made into a Buddha.
But we’re actually I mean, literally, the literal translation is Buddha lineage. In that way, it’s become fashionable in the Western, the maintenance of the natural natural existence of the mind villa. The flower the emptiness of the flower can never be transformed into a therefore, an emptiness of that flower can never be transformed into a villa. Is it different than the awareness? Of the actions and the afflictive emotions of sentient beings.
But they do not when they’re in the nature of suffering, they do not feel suffering. They do not have they do not feel suffering because they have they do not have mind. Of the elements of the water and wind.