Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 74-minute talk, Khensur Rinpoche targets what he calls the “laziness of insufficiency” — the pervasive conviction that one simply lacks the capacity to practice seriously — and uses the concept of lineage (Buddha nature) to dismantle it: the gap between ordinary people and accomplished masters is effort and training, not innate potential. He then defines meditation as habituation, arguing that daily consistency on a single chosen object builds genuine familiarity in a way that sporadic sessions cannot, and recommends the Lamrim for its progressive sequential structure. The session closes by distinguishing naturally abiding lineage (the mind’s emptiness — unconditioned and permanent) from evolving lineage (the cultivable qualities of mind), before tracing the full path sequence: going for refuge, purification through the four opponent powers, and developing the wisdom that reveals the mind’s natural purity.
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File: 08 NoM 1992 02 18.mp3
UUID: bbea1fce-ff14-45a7-9dc4-218d4eb9a46c
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: The Nature of Mind 1991-1992 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1992-02-18
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 74.3 minutes
Words: ~2,339
As our intention for meditating, we need a kind heart. If we meditate with such a motivation, then our meditation would be of benefit both to ourselves and others. So with this kind of hearted motivation, you could meditate for example on compassion begin by developing the wish, may others be then I myself must eliminate all my various faults and bring to consummation all my excellent qualities. And I do that through being the consummation, the training of the mind. And by training my mind in this way, I can be of vast benefit to all thinking beings.
And that they are dependent upon causes and conditions, and that no phenomena whatsoever exist from their own side by way of their own self-defining nature. Observing the exhalation and inhalation of the breath. And when we exhale we can imagine that the exhalation goes out in the form of black smoke going very far out and this is by all our various negativities and obstructions and all our suffering. Then inhaling in the form of blossoming white light, which is in fact nectarous and auspicious, and we experience great bliss. Call it Buddha nature or Buddha lineage which is more literal translation.
It is the basis for the generation and the qualities of wisdom. It is the clear light nature of the mind. Why are we discussing it? Is there a need for such a discussion as to the nature of lineage? These days, most people have a sense of insufficiency that they think I can’t do this.
I don’t have the capacity. I don’t have the ability to be able to do this. I don’t have the power. And people have little courage. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss lineage in order to help people increase their courage to provide them with the motivation and attention.
That additionally not only do people think they have no abilities or capacity, but many people think that life is simply meaningless, it has no purpose whatsoever in order to eliminate this idea that life in fact is meaningless, we also discuss In order to help us to increase our courage, to help us to develop a sense of meaningfulness in our life, and to help us to understand that we possess the necessary capacity, the potential to develop ourselves. For all these reasons we are seeking to understand well the nature of the mind, let us say its lineage or what is due to lineage. But also to help us in order that we can be able to eliminate all of these various faults, these hindrances from the mind and go on to accomplish something in the course of his life. To help us to understand and to develop our courage, what benefit is it in developing courage? By understanding that we possess lineage, then we will have, if we’re going to pursue our training, that we can, we have the ability to accomplish anything, any activity which we set our mind to.
And therefore, something can be accomplished. That we have the ability to bring meaning to our life and to develop this courage, this intention to go ahead. All of us with intelligence — whatever activity we pursue, by the force of this intelligence we can accomplish that goal. So the root or the foundation of our accomplishments is our lineage. If we have the intention and we make the effort, then we can gain any type of quality, we can develop any type of wisdom.
Can in fact eliminate all our various faults, that we can abandon all of the various negativities, and that we can train and go on to bring to consummation all our excellent qualities. This is all accomplished on the basis of our lineage. On the basis of our lineage that we possess this potential, but it’s still necessary to go on and train in that effort. Through applying ourselves to training we can develop wisdom, the lens of wisdom we can bring the cessation of all other its faults and bring the consummation of its qualities. This is all brought about through making effort on the application of wisdom.
Which is necessary to be made and the intention to make this effort and the development of the subsequent intelligence is brought about by the power of compassion. Initially compassion for ourselves, having compassion for ourselves. We were going to make effort and apply our intelligence. But additionally, through the power of our compassion for other sentient beings, we will go on to make effort and apply our intelligence. Ourselves individually do not want suffering.
Suffering is undesirable from our own point of view. We do not want our own suffering; we want to be free of our own suffering. And the method whereby we can be freed is by making effort in the application of our intelligence. But additionally, it is necessary to have love for ourselves, and that is to say that we want to be happy. And the method we’re doing for establishing this happiness for ourselves is intention of effort and the application of intelligence.
We want to know what are the methods we are evaluating and bring about the desired result. And therefore it is necessary to come to an understanding that it is through effort and the application of our intelligence to the methods for the elimination of our suffering and gaining of the happiness that we desire, it’s definitely because we possess lineage. On the basis of knowledge, we can achieve this aim. A śrāvaka first develops compassion for themselves. Through this training, he or she goes through the process of developing the wish to be liberated from suffering.
And then it doesn’t stop there. It goes on to see others are in the same situation as herself and develops the same attitude to free others from their suffering. The consummation of excellent qualities. And this is in practice, involves the application of intention to make our effort and our wisdom. And as far as the Buddha, is by the power of their understanding that they have the ability to eliminate all their various faults and bring to consummation all their excellent qualities that they are able to achieve their exalted end.
So, we shouldn’t think that we can’t do, we can’t achieve these same ends as these other individuals. We can, there’s no difference between ourselves and them. Upon the fact of our lineage and out of this develop courage, a sense of power, a sense of self esteem that whatever I apply myself to do, I can accomplish and develop the intention to make the effort and apply one’s intelligence. Generated a path? Why is it up to now that we have not developed in our wisdom?
It’s simply because we have not trained well, we have not applied ourselves and made the necessary effort, but we have the basis for these achievements. But simply because up to now we haven’t had all the completing conditions provided by making effort and applying our intelligence. In fact we do have the teachings and the lineage, and we have the ability to achieve this — it is necessary to make the effort. As individuals look for ourselves and try to see what was missing and try to understand I didn’t do this and I didn’t do that and this is why I haven’t accomplished this. We have to individually look at what has prevented you, because you do have the ability, what has prevented you as an individual from accomplishing your need. Through our discussion of lineage, we’re seeking to bring about an end to our general feeling of low self-esteem which we knowingly possess.
Actually, this is a form of laziness, the laziness of insufficiency, thinking I can’t do this, I don’t have the ability to do it. And we lose all that power by thinking in this way. Today, though it might be difficult for me to train in this manner, tomorrow it’s not going to be as difficult. It’s going to be a little less difficult. And it’s going to be a little less difficult the day after that, unless and less and less until we reach a point where our training becomes effortless.
But our ability would increase day by day as we train this reflecting upon an object. This is because the nature of our mind is malleable, but it can develop the ability to jump further and further and further. What they couldn’t do previously, they were able to do subsequently through their training. Some of that’s true with respect to our mind. The power of the mind is increased through the cultivation, for example, meditation.
What was meditated on today becomes easier to generate that same state tomorrow because having accomplished a state today that will benefit the help is augmented by our accomplishment today. It is augmented, supported by a previous many of you like to meditate I think this is really excellent. Meditation is the main way that we actually train our mind. How should we go about meditating? We should have a progressive system in order to our meditation such that in order to develop the higher qualities, we must proceed in order of developing lower qualities and we generate gradually the higher qualities and we develop the smaller of these excellent qualities and then having and we focus upon that then we go on to meditate and develop the muddling quality and then finding increasing greater and greater qualities of the excellence of the mind.
Meditation means habituation. It means that whatever is presented, the object of observation which is being presented to the mind, we familiarize ourselves with it. We accustom ourselves to the object. This is meditation. So this process of habituation or familiarization is such that it is increased.
There is a development of the familiarity by each day presenting the same object to our awareness. Without consistency in meditation, then we will not be able, the ability to meditate will not find expression. We were to meditate on this day and then we skip this day and we go on to meditate again and then we skip this day and we go to meditate again, the mind is not able to habituate itself or familiarize itself with the object and therefore this potency or ability to accustom the mind is lost, is not brought to bear. Initially it is our individual choice as to what we meditate on. But there must be some consistency in our meditation — each day taking that same object of observation and accustoming our mind.
In this way we bring our ability to accustom ourselves with that object which is meditation. For example, it’s excellent to meditate on the graduated path of the Lam Rim because we can gain realization since it’s presented in an orderly, sequential fashion. So the graduated path represents the stages in the realization of the mind. So the stages of the path or the graduated path represents the stages of the order of practice and just as in the case of the schools in Australia, when the child enters into the first class and when gaining proficiency in that goes on to the next and gaining some proficiency in that goes on to the next. Likewise with the sequence of meditations and teachings on the graduated path, these stages.
So ultimate bodhicitta or the ultimate awakening mind is within the practitioner of the great vehicle, the wisdom directly realizing emptiness, the wisdom directly realizing emptiness, the awareness directly realizing emptiness is ultimate bodhicitta. Whereas lineage, all sentient beings, all sentient beings have lineage, but all sentient beings have mind and therefore they express they have lineage. Their lineage constitutes both the mind and the emptiness of mind. Just as they have compassion, they have desire, they have effort, they also have range. The ultimate is an element within the set of lineage.
We have many types of lineages and one of these types of lineages is ultimate britticita. There is the vast variety of types of lineages. Dependent upon cause and condition and one which is not dependent upon cause and condition. The evolving lineage is dependent upon cause and condition but naturally abiding lineage is not dependent upon cause and condition. natural abiding lineage is emptiness and that’s permanent whereas evolving image is all of the various qualities of the mind and it’s all the very skillful actions of the mind.
So the main practice gaining realization of many begins with going for refuge. By going for refuge well, one will be able to be susceptible to the blessings of the Buddha. Through the blessings of Buddha, one’s power of wisdom will increase and thereby one can come to understand the emptiness of the mind. One gains realization that there are no natural, that there are no inherent thoughts within the mind and that all of the various things within the mind are able to be removed from the mind, that the mind is naturally pure by its very nature and one will gain realization of that. So, it all begins with the main, with the going for refuge and then proceeding from refuge to gain, to receiving the blessings of the Buddha, developing in one’s wisdom, gaining an understanding of the emptiness of the mind, that the mind is naturally pure, that it has no inherent stains and that whatever stains there might be are able to be successful to be removed.
And in order to meditate on the mind, on the emptiness of the mind well, in order to gain this realization we should proceed in purifying our various negativity by application of the four apparent powers such as acknowledging our negativities, etc. And then it’s necessary to accumulate creative potential and this we can do through cultivating love and compassion in the awakening heart. A prayer on page ten. In verses eight and nine.