Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 40-minute teaching, Lama Lhundup traces the root of human suffering and unhappiness to ignorance and afflictive emotions, particularly attachment and hatred, which arise from a mistaken sense of a permanently independent self. He guides listeners to examine how the self appears to their mind — as if it exists independently — and to recognize this as a misperception, using the mirror-reflection analogy. The core practice is developing wisdom understanding emptiness, which cuts through attachment at its root. Lhundup then addresses the practical path: subduing the mind daily through antidotes to afflictive emotions, never allowing anger to arise, and cultivating universal compassion by recognizing the kindness of all beings across countless lifetimes. He closes with reasoning to establish previous lives and argues that ultimate happiness cannot be attained without developing love. Accessible to newcomers exploring Buddhist perspectives on mind and suffering.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 B and H.mp3
UUID: 5ee39901-47f3-46bc-bec8-2055d284d2c5
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Buddhism and Happiness (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 39.8 minutes
Words: ~2,441
To eliminate our inner illness of attachment, hatred, and so forth. So it is the inner illness of the afflictive emotions which bring our undesired sufferings, and therefore we have to make effort in eliminating these afflictive emotions. So the the root of all the various afflicted emotions is the conception of a truly existent self. The ignorance which conceives of itself. So we have to look within our Each of us has to look within our individual mind.
And when we think, I, I, we have to see how we are conceiving of the I. So what the way the I appears, this self or the I appears to us, is if it didn’t it did it exists independent of anything else, that it isn’t being created by the mind, that it exists independently. This is the way it appears to us, and this is the way we grasp onto it, the way we hold it, it actually exists. But the way this awareness is conceiving the I is actually wrong. It doesn’t actually exist this way.
And we can take the example of a face in a mirror. There appears when we look in a mirror there appears to be a face, but we understand that’s not really a face. There’s no real face there. Likewise, when If we search amongst the body and mind, we will not find we will not find the I or the or the self that we’re looking for. So, you know, when we have this great, very powerful strong I arising, and if we look for it, if each of us were to look for this I amongst the body and mind, search for it, think about it, we would not find it.
So we have to understand that the way the eye is being conceived doesn’t actually exist that way. And when we talk about the non-existent factor of this I, that’s what we mean when we say emptiness. I-emptiness. So it’s due to this mistake that we’re making with respect to the conception of the I in terms of the body and mind That that we generate an I which we feel to be very important. And in terms of this important I that we create, then we other objects are pleasing and unpleasing with respect to this I.
In connection with pleasing objects, develop attachment. In connection with displeasing objects, we develop hatred. So we have to make effort in developing the wisdom which understands emptiness. We have to make effort in understanding in developing the wisdom which understands emptiness. That is, understanding that the the self as being conceived of by ignorance does not exist.
This wisdom acts as like an axe which is able to cut down the tree. So we are always accustomed to we always are accustomed to attachment. So for example, we have attachment to our own body thinking of it as very beautiful, very good, and very pleasing. So but is our body actually pleasing as it’s being conceived of by attachment? As it it isn’t pleasing as it’s been conceived by attachment.
If we look at our body, you know, on the outside there’s this skin which is different Different various colors, black or white. But inside it’s it’s completely dirty. But we we don’t think it’s dirty. We think it’s clean. So, you know, attachment conceives of the body as being very pleasing, very clean, but in fact, it’s not pleasing, it’s not clean.
And just as it’s not doesn’t make sense to be attached to our own body. Likewise, it doesn’t make sense to be attached to other’s bodies. Likewise, all the various objects that we come in contact with form, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches, and that we develop that we see as pleasing, we develop attachment to them, our friends. And to those things we find displeasing, we develop aversion, we develop we see them as enemies. Actually, various objects, sounds, forms, taste, touch, etcetera, they do not exist as being conceived by attachment.
So in order to when attachment manifests in our mind, in order to employ a method to eliminate it, we have to understand that the awareness which conceives of this object is actually a wrong awareness, it’s not correct. So we should We can see attachment as our real enemy. In fact, all the various problems which exist within the world today, our own problems, the root of all our own problems is this very is attachment itself. So we can see for ourselves in our own experience when at those times when there’s no attachment in our mind, When we’re meditating, when there’s no attachment in our mind, how relaxed we feel, how happy our mind is. So when there’s no attachment, we’re extremely happy.
So but but for us, you know, we’re sometimes we’re happy, sometimes we’re unhappy. This is due to the due to attachment. So we have to make effort in the method for abandoning attachment. Therefore, this is we have to see the disadvantages of attachment. So we should think, you know, this this life that we have is not the only life that we’ve had.
Life. Life. Birth. This birth that we have. There’s no there’s no beginning to our rebirths.
It said that the Buddha was unable to see the beginning of rebirths. Now, why isn’t there any reason why isn’t there any beginning to our rebirth? It’s because there’s no beginning to our mind. And likewise, since there’s no beginning to our mind, there’s no beginning to the afflictive emotions within our mind. And by the power of these afflictive emotions, we are forced to take rebirth.
So, you know, if we examine our situation, this body, we think and we think well about it, we can see that, you know, it’s a source it has a variety of sicknesses, that it has many difficulties, that sometimes it’s happy, sometimes it’s unhappy, sometimes we experience anger, we have many problems and difficulties. This is all therefore, where is this all coming from? The basis for its creation is the conception of a the conception the ignorance which conceives of a self. So the root is the conception of self, and the condition is attachment. So other than spiritual practices, there’s no other method to eliminate the afflictive emotions.
So we want happiness. But we should but this mere temporal happiness isn’t enough. We should we should have complete happiness. That is a happiness which is devoid of any type of suffering. We should have ultimate happiness.
So we shouldn’t be satisfied with the happiness, which is just temporary absence of difficulties and sicknesses. So, know, merely the if we we shouldn’t be satisfied with this mere happiness, which is simply the absence of bodily illness, because this will eventually change. So what we want is ultimate happiness. This, if we can attain this ultimate happiness, it is the type of happiness which is unchanging, which can never turn into suffering. So there’s nobody who doesn’t want such a type of ultimate happiness.
We all want that. So in order to gain that, we have to create the causes for it to attain it. The reason we haven’t attained it up to now is because we haven’t gathered together the necessary causes and conditions for its attainment. We have to do this for ourselves. Only we ourselves can gather together the necessary causes and conditions.
No one else can gather these conditions for us. Even the Buddha who has attained complete happiness, his happiness is of no benefit to us. We must for ourselves make the effort in our spiritual practice to create the causes and conditions to attain that happiness for ourselves. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Mhmm. So then what the Buddha has attained is ultimate truth, but that that that doesn’t help us. But how shall we get ultimate truth? We all need to work.
But how do we work? Then Buddha shows us how to achieve that ultimate happiness. So the basis for our suffering are termed the three poisons, that is conception of a self, attachment and hatred. Therefore, these are what are to be eliminated. So we’ve talked about the antidote to attachment.
And with respect to hatred, hatred is the worst amongst all the all the afflictive emotions. By by becoming by developing hatred, we we create a great deal of destructive actions and So it is a very powerful destructive emotion. So, you know, whatever happens, we should make effort in never allowing ourselves to become angry. There’s no benefit in becoming angry. There’s no benefit for oneself or for others.
So even just a short even anger just a short time, we only we only experience suffering from it. So the only action of anger is to disturb the peace of our mind to make us unhappy. So, you know, no matter what circumstances we may confront, we should always constantly remember, I’m not going to become angry. Again and again, bring this to mind. And if we do this every day, then eventually we can eliminate our anger.
If allow ourselves to become angry, the only thing that will happen is that we’re going to harm someone else. By harming others, we’re going to experience only suffering for ourselves. We’re not going to experience any happiness. So we have to subdue our mind. So the way we can begin to subdue our mind is to consider the disadvantages of the various afflictive emotions, to do in meditation develop the various antidotes and not allow these afflictive emotions to manifest.
The afflicted emotions no longer are manifested, then we know that our mind has been subdued. Just like we’re always Just like we eat food every day, likewise, we have to be continually making effort every day in the methods for the methods for subduing our mind. So why do we have to do that? Because these various antidotes that we develop for for getting rid of the afflictive emotions are like food for the mind. And it just As when we don’t eat food, we suffer from hunger.
Likewise, if we don’t practice spiritual methods, then the afflictive emotions will arise in our mind and this will destroy our happiness. So it’s extremely important that in the beginning we seek to pacify our own mind, to bring peace to our own mind. So secondly, we should not only not harm others, but we should seek to benefit them. Why is that? Because now that every all the good things that we experience, food, clothing, our home, are all dependent upon the kindness of others.
The fact that our bodies are not sick is also dependent upon the kindness of others. So we should think about, remember the great kindness of our mother of this life. So this human body that we now possess, which is the base of our training in the development of all the various excellent qualities, came from our mother. So we should understand how very kind our mother has been, understanding all the suffering that she went through. So we should remember the great kindness of our mother.
For example, during the gestation period in our mother’s womb, how she forbore the difficulties of pregnancy and that and at the pain that she experienced at our birth and that the great kindness in feeding us her own milk from her own body that we that we have to remember these kindnesses again and again. So we can Thinking understanding the great kindness of our mother of this life, For those who believe in previous lives, they can understand that the mothers of a previous life have been just as kind. We can develop the We can establish or prove the existence of previous lives in dependence on reasoning. So, you know, for those who do not accept who do not accept the existence of past lives, we can look at the at the body and mind. The body is physical, whereas the mind is non physical.
So, by their very nature, they are mutually exclusive. So, The body has as its substantial cause the sperm and ovum of our parents. So the mind also has a substantial cause, but that substantial cause is not the mind of the mother and father, the parents. We can see this through the cases where a child would be stupid. Very clever parents, intelligent parents would give birth to very stupid child.
So this is a sign that the parent’s mind is not the substantial cause of the child’s mind. So except for mind, there is no other substantial cause to the mind. So the being is actually coming from a previous life. In a previous life, the being dies and then there is the transference into intermediate state. From the intermediate state, once that ceases, the mind then enters into, due to a karmic connection, which is the effect of previous actions, previous karma, into a specific enters into the union of the sperm and ovum of the parents.
So we can establish through reasoning that this mind is coming from beginningless previous lives up to the point where it actually enters into this union. Another reason we can establish previous lives is that there are many people who remember them. So there are holy beings who actually realize, understand the existence of past and future lives. So we ourselves, if we develop clairvoyance, can come to understand our previous lives, you know, where we were born previously, from what country, etcetera. So in this way we can establish that the kindness of our mother of this life is the same kindness which has been shown to us by mothers of our previous lives.
In fact, our mothers Since we Our mothers are beginningless, that is, numberless, and therefore there is no is no being who we can who we can say we have not experienced them as being our mother. So just as our mother of this life has been kind to us, all sentient beings have been just as kind. So not only are sentient beings kind to us when they are mothers, but they are also kind to us when they aren’t our mothers. So we can understand this by through that our ultimate happiness that we’re seeking, we will never attain it without cultivating love. Therefore, our own ultimate happiness is dependent upon the existence of others.