Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 49-minute teaching, Lama Lhundup offers a foundational examination of how to align our spiritual practice with genuine motivation rather than worldly ambition. He opens with Śāntideva’s teaching on the rarity and preciousness of a human life with leisure and fortune, then pivots to the core obstacle: the eight worldly dharmas—the eight pairs of concerns (gain and loss, fame and disrepute, happiness and pain, praise and criticism) that contaminate Dharma practice if left unexamined. He walks through each pair methodically, showing how attachment to wealth breeds miserliness and future poverty, how chasing fame and pleasure degenerates practice, and how criticism, properly understood, is an ally against pride. The practical counter to each is equanimity and recognition of impermanence. He stresses that even profound teachings become worthless if mixed with these eight worldly concerns, and closes with the classical image of Buddha renouncing all royal wealth to exemplify dharmic resolve. Suited for practitioners beginning to examine their actual motivation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 HY.mp3
UUID: 2433e31a-bfaa-4e06-8da1-aa18ef9e9861
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Helping yourself helping others (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 49.5 minutes
Words: ~2,429
So the master Śāntideva said that this human body possessing leisures and fortunes is extremely difficult to find. And if we merely use it to fulfill our desires, then it will go to waste. But in fact, we should we must use this body to in order to to fulfill the meaning of of having attained this human body of leisure and fortune, we must use it to practice Dharma purely. If we do not practice Dharma purely in the future, we may never find such a human body again. So not only have we found a human body with leisures and fortunes, but we have come in contact with the holy Dharma.
And we are practicing, engaging in the practices of listening and reflecting upon the Dharma, therefore we rejoice in this and have a great feeling of joy. Not only this, but we must create the conducive conditions to make use of having met the holy Dharma. That is, we must adjust our motivation. We should not our motivation should not be directed towards only toward the welfare of only this life. If we direct all our activities our practice of Dharma, such as meditation, developing all the various realizations, trying to develop compassion, etc, If all these are simply directed toward the happiness of this life, then our practice will not go well.
The the great master, the Pandit Atisha, was asked the question, if our practice is directed only toward this life, what will be the results? What will be the fruit of such a practice? And Atisha answered, the fruits will only be realized in will be realized only in this life. But after having passed from this life, in the future lives, one will be reborn in hell or as a hungry ghost. So whether or not we’re practicing Dharma purely or not is solely dependent upon our motivation for practice.
If our practice is mixed with worldly intentions, then we are not practicing the Dharma purely. So in order to listen to the Dharma purely, we have to know what are the ways of the world, and these are contained within the eight worldly dharmas. So the first of the eight worldly dharmas is that when gain arises, then we have pleasure If the opposite, that is loss, arises, then we have displeasure. Likewise, if we receive if we have fame, then we take pleasure. If, on the other hand, we have we fall into disrepute, then we experience displeasure.
Likewise, when we experience happiness, there arises pleasure toward this happiness. When we experience pain, then there arises displeasure. When we are praised, we take pleasure. When we are criticized, we take displeasure. So with respect to the first, that is gain.
There are many different types of gain that we can experience. We can gain various types of possessions, we can gain money, we can gain a name, a high name. Whenever we experience such gains, then we always there arise a liking or a great pleasure in such gains. So in proportion, we like a great deal of wealth. We like to have many possessions.
To the degree that we take pleasure in acquiring possessions, in proportion to that, the pure practice of Dharma will degenerate. Likewise, the less attraction that is the less degree of pleasure that we take in acquiring merely wealth in proportion to that, our practice of Dharma will increase in strength. Due to the pressure we take in acquiring great wealth, the pursuit of that wealth, due to the pleasure, we create the disharmonious conditions and unconducive conditions for practicing Dharma that is, we create friends and enemies, spend all our time working toward gaining wealth, and this is the reason our practice of Dharma will degenerate. So if we experience a great desire for amassing wealth, a method to reverse this trend, to reverse the desire, we should meditate that all these possessions are, for example, impermanent, that they have no essence, that they’re undependable, that they’re not to be trusted. But on the other hand, we say we can make use of wealth.
So by being mindful of the fact that the wealth has no essence, that it is impermanent, not to be trusted, we begin to understand of what use it actually can be made of. We can understand that it has a use, it can be of benefit, for example, in practicing generosity, making offerings, for example, to the Three Jewels, we can give various possessions to the poor, and therefore it has a use. As our desire for wealth and possessions increases, likewise the thought of generosity will decrease and our miserliness will increase. By developing miserliness we will experience the results in the future life. For example, we will experience having we will lack possessions, we will not have enough food, we will not have enough to drink, and we will have not enough for our body to live comfortably.
The ripening result miserliness is to be reborn as a hungry ghost. But even when we’re born as a human being in the future, we will experience difficulty in finding food and drink. We will be poor. These are results of miserliness. So we should consider the disadvantages, the demerits of miserliness and therefore in considering this we begin to understand that wealth in itself is essenceless.
Then thinking this again and again of the essence of possessions in themselves, then our practice will become purer and purer. So the second of these pairs of worldly dharmas that is fame and disrepute, So this is taking pleasure. We pleasure in merely gaining fame in the world. So by taking a disproportionate the great pleasure in mere fame, this will act as an obstacle to our practice. So what we want to develop is the feeling that whether or not fame arises or not, whether we fall into disrepute or not, it doesn’t matter.
That is, we want to develop a feeling of equanimity toward both fame and disrepute. Likewise, with the third pair, that is happiness and pain, Generally we take a great deal of pleasure in merely finding happiness, but if we take great pleasure in finding and seeking happiness of this life, then our practice of Dharma will degenerate. For example, if we take a great deal of pleasure in the pleasantness of sleep, then of course we will sleep all the time and our practice will degenerate. Likewise, if we take a great deal of pleasure in the pleasantness of eating, then we’re going to be eating all the time and this will also degenerate our practice. Likewise, if we take a great deal of pleasure in happiness of sex, we develop a great deal of attachment toward this, then because of this attachment we aren’t going to find the opportunities to practice Dharma.
So most of our suffering comes in the pursuit of seeking these happinesses. So we should think of the disadvantages of a life dedicated to seeking pleasure. That is, in pursuit of pleasure we create a lot of negative actions, and these negative actions not only bring us suffering now, they’re going to bring us suffering in our future. So if we are merely content with the happiness that we are experiencing today, if happiness arises for today and this is enough, then we are not going to make any effort toward bringing happiness for tomorrow. Likewise, if we are only concerned with the happiness of this life, then we are not going to practice any methods to find happiness in future life.
And if we have a great attachment to the happiness of this life, then we will not be able to bear even small sufferings that may arise. Someone who’s actually practicing Dharma when suffering arises is able to appreciate their suffering. Why? Because when suffering arises for us, we’re able to see that this is exhausting our negative karma. By this way of exhausting our negative karma now, then we won’t experience suffering in the future.
So for one, for a Dharma practitioner, someone who’s practicing Dharma, when he experiences a great deal of suffering, pain, then he should develop a great courage. So why, he should think that, for example, when we’re sick and this is the way of, like when we sweep away dirt, that we’re actually, we’re sweeping. Yeah. There’s like a broom sweeping away, like when we sweep away dirt and this is the sickness is like sweeping away negative action, negative karma. Therefore, at those times when we are unhappy and suffering, these are the times we should cultivate joy at these times.
So if we do not practice, when there is times when, for example, we have physical suffering, not only will we have physical suffering, but we will also experience, due to the physical suffering, mental suffering in relationship to their physical suffering. Therefore, our suffering is even increased. So our sufferings are unlimited. We have many varieties of sufferings. Have conflicts between husband and wife, we have the suffering of not gaining that which we desire, etc.
So when we’re practicing the Dharma, at those times when suffering arises, we should think of this suffering as the way to exhaust the fruit of our negative karma. Where does our suffering arise from? Where does it arises from the negative karmas that we have created? Therefore this will serve to motivate us to abandon the causes of suffering. That is, it motivate us to not create negative karma in the future.
Briefly, whether happiness arises or pain arises, we should try to develop a feeling of equanimity toward these emotions. If happiness arises, we should not be greatly attracted to happiness, or if pain arises we should not have great aversion to pain, but have a feeling of equanimity toward these two. The fourth pair was praise and criticism. We strongly take great pleasure when someone praises us, or that is, he tells us what a great person we are. We become very puffed up and we develop pride.
And therefore the person who has praised us, we like that person very much. And likewise, someone who criticizes us, puts us down, perhaps calls us stupid, to that person we develop a dislike. But rather than when someone criticizes developing the suffering and becoming depressed, we should think that this is a way of deflating our pride. Therefore, since this person who criticizes us is a method for helping us to deflate our pride, therefore there is no reason to become angry or to hate such a person. So therefore, this person who criticizes is very kind, and we should be mindful of his kindness.
How so kind to us? Because by criticizing us, instead of our pride, thinking that we’re such a great person, rather than it’s continually increasing and increasing, he actually helps us to get rid of our pride, to decrease our pride. Pride is extremely bad. With pride, we cannot develop excellent qualities. So we should always be thinking of ways to destroy our pride.
So as an antidote to the development of pride, we should think that it doesn’t matter the fact that we’re being praised. That though this person may be praising us, but somebody else, another person, could just as easily criticize us, and therefore this will act as an end to pride. So within the eight worldly dharmas there are four there are four that desires and four non desires. So we should put into practice the four non desires. So when we’re trying to practice Dharma, we should make sure that our practice is not mixed with or adulterated with these eight worldly principles or dharmas.
It’s difficult to understand the sense or the meaning of these eight worldly dharmas because we have been, from beginningless time, habituated to the eight worldly dharmas. For example, if we don’t think about these eight dharmas, even when a teacher is giving a talk on the Dharma, his teaching can easily become mixed with the eight worldly dharmas. And if his teaching becomes mixed with the eight worldly dharmas, then there is no benefit to be derived. Even if his teaching is extremely profound, he’s talking about emptiness or some subject like that, from the side of the teacher there’s no benefit. From his side it can’t be included within Dharma.
It cannot actually become the teaching of Dharma. So we have to identify well the eight worldly dharmas. During those times when we’re conscious of them, they may actually arise directly, but immediately when we’re not aware of the eight world dharmas, they will arise. Therefore, wherever we are, for example, if we’re in a group or we’re talking, we’re at a meeting, we always must be examining to see what whatever we’re doing, whatever we’re saying, is it mixed with any of these eight worldly dharmas. So we have to make effort in whatever we’re doing to make sure that our actions of body and speech do not come under the control of the eight worldly dharmas.
If they do arise, then we should So if the eight worldly dharmas do not arise, then our practice is a pure practice of Dharma. So when we talk about giving up this life, this means that we give up the attachment to pleasure. So, but you might think, if I give up this life and I try to only practice the Dharma, or maybe I’ll become like a beggar, I’ll become poor. So, if we think this, that maybe I’ll have to become a beggar, then we should take courage and think in order to give up this life, you have to think it doesn’t matter, it’s okay if I become a beggar. So the Kadampa Geshe said that in order to practice the Dharma one should not We should make the main aim, our main aim, to practice the Dharma no matter whether we have to go hungry, no matter whether we have to go thirsty, that we have to become a beggar.
So in trying to make our main aim, the Dharma, we should think of Śākyamūni Buddha, who was from a royal family, had all the wealth and marvels of the world. He gave up all these possessions and wealth. In giving up all these marvels of the world, giving up his home, being an outcast from his family, in giving that all up he cultivated the Dharma within him.