Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Lama Lhundup opens this Lamrim teaching by establishing that the mind is the foundation of all Dharma practice and the vehicle for liberation from cyclic existence. He walks through essential preliminaries to meditation, beginning with the seven-point posture of Vairochana—crossed legs, hands positioned at the navel with thumbs touching, spine straight, jaw relaxed, tongue at the hard palate, eyes slightly open and gazing down. He then describes breath observation as a preparatory technique to clear anger and desire from the mind before generating positive states, using practical analogies of dyeing cloth and lighting a fire. The core teaching addresses the nature of mind itself: it cannot arise from material causes like atoms or parental consciousness, but must continue in an unbroken stream from previous lives. He concludes that our endless cycle of birth and death arises from afflictive emotions and ignorance, and that liberation requires recognizing the shortcomings of desire and anger while cultivating love, compassion, and renunciation.
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File: lama-lhundup-lam-rim-01-lr
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Lam Rim (Lama Lhundup)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~2,783
So the Buddha said that if we subdue our mind, if we control our mind, we will no longer suffer. Subduing our mind, bringing it under control is of great importance. The method for subduing our mind is the Dharma. And in order to put into practice the methods of Dharma, we have to actually hear the teachings on the Dharma. But it’s not enough really to know about the Dharma.
We have to put it into practice in our daily life. So in meditating, it’s extremely important that in the beginning we set good motivation. So the the beginning of our the Buddha has said that the beginning or the doorway into our our meditation is preparation preparing our motivation for meditation. So in in our meditation, in the process of meditation, we begin with the way of the way of bodily position. How do how do we sit in meditation?
So, initially, we must prepare in preparation for the way in which we’re going to sit, we must prepare a proper seat. So with respect to the way of properly sitting in meditation, we take as our example the Buddha Vairochana. And he sits in what is called the seven point posture of Vairochana. So presently we have the impure aggregates, the aggregates of form, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors, and consciousness. By purifying our present impure aggregates, our five impure aggregates are transformed into the five Buddha families or the lineage of the five conquerors.
By sitting in the posture of Vairochana, we will transform this impure aggregate of form into the pure aggregate of Vairochana Buddha. So merely just sitting in this proper posture of Vairochana acts as a cause which will result in attaining the body, the pure aggregate of the Buddha Vairochana. So we begin with the seven point posture for sitting in meditation. The first point is sitting with the crossed legs or the vajrasana or vajra position. So we Then the second point The the second point is the position of the hands.
We sit. Our hands are positioned in the meditative equipoise with the right hand on top of the left hand And the two thumbs touching. And the they’re positioned at the navel. This this positioning the hands at the navel aids in igniting the fire. By igniting the fire, this aids in realizing the actual nature of the mind, bringing bliss.
So the the back should be straight, not leaning forward or backwards? Straight. Keep the back the spine straight. If we are bent over in our posture, this will cause constriction in the psychic channels of the body. If we have a constriction in the psychic channels of the body, the energy winds will not be able to flow properly.
If energy winds are not able to flow properly, this will affect the clarity of mind. Also, we should not lean neither to the right or the left. By leaning either to the right or left, we will cause certain energy winds to arise, which will induce afflictive emotions such as desire and hatred. Yes? So we shouldn’t clench our teeth, press our teeth.
We shouldn’t hold our mouth shut tightly, but just in a relaxed, easy manner. Also, tip of the tongue should be at the hard palate, just where it meets the teeth. Placing the tip of tongue at this place, if we meditate for long periods of time, the saliva will not drip out of our mouth nor will our mouth become dry. It’s extremely difficult to meditate a long time in Australia. And the eyes, our two eyes should neither be positioned.
The eyes should not be wide open nor they should be shut tight. They shouldn’t be shut tight. They should be just slightly open.
If we open our eyes too widely, this will cause excitement. Our mind will be agitated. If we close our eyes completely, our minds will become dull. So we want somewhere in between, just the eyes slightly open. We should focus, not focus, we should look down, slightly seen along the sides of our nose.
Just looking down along the sides of our nose. The right and left parts of the body should be straight, and straight across. This should not be slanted to either side. These are the these are the the seven points which we of the meditative posture. So, by taking this position, it will be of great benefit.
So it is said that initially we observe the breath. This is because when we begin our meditation, if we have either some desire, attachment, or some anger in our mind, then if we proceed with this type of mind, our meditation will not go well. For example, if we’re merely caught up in various desires which are completely involved in this life. So when we begin our meditation, in order to eliminate these negative states such as desire or anger that we may have in our mind when we sit down, we observe the breath. We merely observe the breath going out and the breath coming in, breath going out and breath coming in.
And we do this, we can do this seven or twenty one times, as many as it takes in order to bring our mind to a neutral state. So initially, when we’re observing the breath, if we have desire or hatred, then we observe the outgoing breath, the breath which is going out. So first we begin with the out breath, and then the in breath. So we breathe out this we breathe out this anger or desire that we may have. And then if we have faith, if we have confidence in the Buddhas, for example, then as we breathe in we imagine that we’re breathing in this immeasurable light which comes into us and blesses us.
But on the other hand, if we begin our meditative session with good motivation, our mind’s in good condition, then it’s not necessary to breathe out, you know, to breathe out this desire and hatred. We merely begin by taking in the blessings of the Buddha in the form of light. So it’s not it’s not necessary there’s no reason why we have to do this all the time. But as a temporary as a temporary measure for specific purposes, it’s quite beneficial. By observing the breath, breathing out desire and hatred, we bring our mind to a neutral state.
And having brought our mind to a neutral state, our mind is ready to generate positive states of mind. If, for example, we were going to dye a cloth, if it was red to begin with, then it might be difficult to dye it to another color other than red. But if we washed out the color completely, then it quite easily can be dyed any color we desire. For example, if it was, you know, if the weather was very cold and we wanted to light a fire in order to warm ourselves up, but someone says, No, don’t, don’t light a fire, you know, they tell us not to light a fire. If we say to this person, there’s a good movie playing, there’s a good show at another place, at a movie theater, why don’t you go see that?
And so he goes out to go to see the movie. Meanwhile he’s out, we can light the fire and warm ourselves up. I wasn’t sure about that. Likewise, likewise, by when our mind is in a negative state we want to get rid of this negative state in order that we can get the states of mind that we want, that is, virtuous states of mind. So we get rid of these negative states, and then it’s quite easy to induce positive states or virtuous states of mind.
So these are the preliminaries to the actual meditation session. They’re quite they’re extremely important. So what is the foundation of the Dharma? What is the We in dependence upon the Dharma, taking the foundation of Dharma, we can bring about the benefits of this life, future lives, we can bring about our own purposes and the purposes of others. So the basis of the practice, the basis of our practice of Dharma is the mind.
Now if we ask, well, where, you know, where did this mind come from? When did it begin? No one created our mind. It has existed since beginningless time. From where does the mind arise if no one created it?
The place from which it arise is another mind which was similar to itself, its own continuum, its own previous continuum. So, this present mind that we have at this very moment is dependent upon the mind that we had previously in the morning. And if we continue in this way, that this mind of the morning is dependent upon a previous mind, and that mind is dependent on a previous mind, and that on a previous mind, and previously, previously, previously. We’ll come to the mind which has existed in our mother’s womb, and that mind is also dependent on another mind. So even that mind which was in our mother’s womb is dependent upon a cause which is similar to itself.
That is, the mind cannot arise from a cause which is dissimilar to itself. It cannot arise from form. It cannot arise from atoms. Usually in schools we’re taught that the evolution in the world in the West, we’re usually taught that the evolution of the body is that we’re built up of atoms and organic molecules, and that finally the body grows, and this is the way the human being is formed. But if we look with our eyes at the body, for example, or a machine, all we see is form and color.
We see nothing but form and color. We never see the mind. The mind has neither form nor color. And additionally, when we look at a person, we see when we look we all we see the we see the when we look at a person, we see his body. We don’t actually see the person.
We see the person’s body. But scientists, they say If we are unable to see something with the eye, then we cannot cannot posit its existence. But if the scientist has some sort of clairvoyance, then of course things would this would be a different case. So the scientist, he can only posit the place or the source of the arising of minds or in consciousness as atoms. Therefore, he cannot say that the person, the body, and the consciousness are in any way different.
And therefore, he cannot he cannot set forth that there exist future lives. So in general, the position of Buddhism, as far as external objects, is in complete harmony with the scientific view. All the things around us, the way they appear to us, that they’re built up of atoms. But we differ with respect to how the mind actually arises, the inner phenomena. Therefore, scientists and the within the schools of the West, they find it very difficult to actually posit the nature of the mind and how it arises.
So because they cannot posit the mode of arising of the mind, it’s difficult for them to put forth methods for actually subduing the mind. Now if we look at the mind as it exists in the mother’s womb. Now where did this mind come from? What is its cause? Did the mind come from the mother and the father?
Now the body of the child has as its substantial cause the sperm and ovum of the father and mother. Now, if we posit the mind of the mother and father as the substantial cause of the child, then the child should have all the qualities of the parents, since he shares same mind. If the mother had, for example, had many excellent qualities, then the child should have all these excellent qualities, also mental qualities. But we see that this is not the case. Quite often, the child can be very dumb as where the mother was brilliant.
The the the sperm and the ovum of the parent are the substantial cause to the of of the child’s body. Now if they were the substantial cause of the child itself, then even then then we would because there are times when there is the ovum and sperm of the father come to unite, but no child develops. No conception takes place. Even though these two substantial causes are present, still there’s no child developed. The child does not develop.
So we can get the idea that for these various reasons, the person and the mind must arise from something other than the minds of the mother and father and something from other than atoms or material causes. And aside from where does the mind arise, we must say that it arises from a mind of a previous life. And where did that mind of a previous life arise from? It arose from a mind of the life previous to that one, and that also previous to that, previous previous, goes back, back, back, back, back until we come to the position where the mind has no beginning. But these beginningless rebirths that we’ve been going through, we cannot remember them due to the obscuration of ignorance.
So this is the nature of our cyclic existence, saṃsāra, is that over and over again we take birth and then we die, and again we take birth and we die, and as we go through these cycles of birth and death. So up to this time, from beginning of this time, the reason we’ve gone through this process is because we have not practiced the Dharma. We have not been able to generate the various paths and stages within the practices. But now that we have this opportunity to practice because we’ve attained the human body, Not only have we attained the human body, but we’ve met the Dharma. And not only have we met the Dharma, but we’ve met the buddhadharma.
The final outcome of subduing our mind is the state of Buddhahood. From birth up to this point, we have not been able to really practice the Dharma well. But our mind, the actual nature of our mind is that it is always suitable, or it always has the potential to practice. Because of the desire and anger, hatred within our own mind, it has prevented us from practicing Dharma, and it has caused us to circle endlessly in this process of birth and death. And if we take it is taking this and through this process of cyclic existence, again and again we suffer.
If we look at our situation as human beings, what is predominant in our life? Isn’t it suffering? If we don’t think about it, we’re going to say, oh, I’m happy. Is there another is there some method whereby we can end this process of cyclic existence? The reason we take birth in cyclic existence, the reason we suffer is because we’re under the control of actions, that is, karma and afflictive emotions.
And if we can get rid of karma and afflictive emotions, then we can end cyclic existence. But we cannot all of a sudden eliminate karma and afflictive emotions. So we shouldn’t waste this opportunity of having a human body. We should daily make use of it. So we should try to recognize daily whenever attachment, desire, and hatred arise and make effort to stop them, to get rid of these emotions.
If we do not see the disadvantages of anger and desire, there’s no way that we can stop them. Even even a newly born baby has anger and desire. Even and dependent upon this reason itself, we can establish the existence of former lives. And therefore, we can And therefore, we can come to a firm determination of the existence of past lives. If if in past lives we had accustomed, habituated our mind to emotions such as love, compassion, renunciation, then in this life we would quite naturally not be caught up in cyclic existence.
We wouldn’t have a great attachment for all the various wonders of the world. Whatever the sent however the sentient beings treated us, we would treat it wouldn’t matter to us. We would only show compassion. Whatever we saw, we would only express love. But we find it extremely difficult to generate strongly any love or compassion or renunciation.