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 the foundation of genuine spiritual practice: belief in past and future lives. He argues that most people speak of compassion without truly embodying it, and that cultivating real love and compassion requires habituating the mind to these states. He presents logical reasonings from Buddhist scriptures — particularly that consciousness must have a preceding moment — to establish the reality of rebirth. He then offers direct evidence, describing how children naturally display qualities shaped by their past lives: some are inherently compassionate and peaceful, others are driven by anger and attachment, independent of instruction. He illustrates this through the example of Lama Osel, whose natural compassion and peaceful demeanor attract people across religious backgrounds. From this foundation, Lama Lhundup pivots to the preciousness of human birth and the urgency of using it for Dharma practice. He contrasts worldly pursuits—wealth, status, possessions—which have no lasting essence and only increase suffering, with Dharma practice, which alone creates true happiness. He concludes by urging students to decisively renounce worldly preoccupations and commit to the path.
File metadata (for organising)
File: lama-lhundup-lam-rim-02-lr
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Lam Rim (Lama Lhundup)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~1,397
Many people talk about love and compassion, but if we look in terms of if we look at their mind, they hold some people very close, and some people, they push away and they hold them at a distance. We got eleven o’clock. Eleven o’clock? Yeah, that’s okay. Let me check.
Yeah. We go to eleven o’clock. Yeah. Just to check our life. So, if we examine our own mind, then we can see that we have not been accustomed or habituated ourselves in past lives to these emotions such as love and compassion.
So the way we can begin to subdue our mind is to habituate it, or that is to cultivate renunciation, love, and compassion. And it’s important to develop some confidence that former lives in fact do exist, we should try to come to some firm decision that past lives exist. If we don’t develop this confidence that past life exists, it’s difficult to develop these other states of mind. Within the Buddhist scriptures, there are many reasonings set forth establishing the existence of past lives. So for example, the the mind at conception, actually the knower, the knower or with the consciousness.
The consciousness at con if we take for example the consciousness at conception at the consciousness at the moment of conception, It has a preceding moment of consciousness. Why? Because it’s consciousness. Just like, for example, the present consciousness. So not only can we rely on various types of reasoning to establish the existence of past lives, we can also rely on experience.
If we take, for example, small children. Now some small children have quite naturally a great deal of anger and a great deal of attachment or desire. Some have a great deal are very loving and very compassionate. Some, quite without anyone criticizing or instructing it, have a very good behavior. So we’ll be able to see this for ourselves when we meet Lama Yeshe’s reincarnation, Lama Osel.
There you know, whatever such a child, whoever meets it, no matter what tradition he may he may be a part of, for example, he may be a Buddhist or he may be a a Hindu, Islam, whatever. Just by meeting, there’s a feeling of that they have some faith in him, that there’s a a quite a a liking towards him. So around Kopan monastery in Nepal and the surrounding area, it’s they’re all Hindus. But even though they’re they’re Hindu, all the all the little children extremely are extremely fond of Lama Osel. They all whenever they can, they come over and and and meet him.
So what is the reason for this? It’s because Lama Osel, in his previous lives, his Lama Yeshe, etcetera, in his previous lives, had cultivated extremely powerful compassion. And due to the force of this in his present life, the children are attracted to him. So, now, Lama Osel, just by his very nature, it seems that people like him. He doesn’t have to say a lot to them.
It’s just the way they have a feeling about him which causes them to like him. So this is his very nature, and by the and by his very action. People like him by the way he acts. And, Lama Osel, whenever he sees suffering, he’s not able to bear it. He’s not able to bear seeing suffering.
But sometimes his attendants, they have to What do you say? Beat him. Beat They have to beat him. Smile. Yeah.
Maybe something more polite. But even even though even though he’s just been beaten, he he doesn’t get upset. He he he reacts with a with a very good nature and sort of pacifies the other person or just beat him, just beat him. And his manner of actions is very similar to how Lama Yeshe acted before. Sometimes when one of Lama Yeshe’s students did not act correctly, did something wrong, Lama Yeshe would have to criticize them.
And at this time, many of the students would cry. But he did this out of his great compassion. He also cried. And he would also cry with his students. So not only can we establish the existence of former lives by reasoning, but we can establish that through direct experience, direct perception.
So by seeing children who due to having cultivated or developed compassion in their past lives, in this life, even when they’re small, naturally benefit others and they are naturally very peaceful. Other children? Other children, due to having been habituated to desire and hatred in past lives, automatically there arises in minds desire and hatred. And out of this they are quite agitated and they suffer a great deal. So now we should think that, you know, I have attained this human body and it’s extremely important.
We should try to realize how the great importance its great value. We exist within cyclic existence, while existing within cyclic existence we have taken a human body. If we hadn’t taken this body, we would have taken a body of a non human. And if we hadn’t taken this human body, the opportunity to practice Dharma is extremely difficult. Whatever we do, we would always be creating negative actions.
Because usually the afflictive emotions are extremely powerful within our minds. So we should develop a great joy, happiness, that we’ve attained a human body. And we should develop a real courage to make use of this human body, to practice Dharma. I would say we should develop the courage that from today on, I am going to practice Dharma. Enthusiasm.
So we have to try to take the ultimate benefit of having attained a human body. So we should try to generate the thought that no matter what I’m doing, I’m going to try to live within the Dharma, that I’m going to try to cultivate all the paths of the Dharma. And if we can develop the various paths of the Dharma, then we’ve taken the essence of this life. No matter if we had all the money in the world, we would not have taken the essence of this life. We have to create is within our own minds.
It’s not outside in the world. So we can we can have all the wealth of the world, but it we don’t have to become attached to it. Because it has no essence. It has no excellent qualities. And because it is momentarily arising and disintegrating.
However much wealth we may get together, So, you know, if we gather together a great deal of wealth, if we don’t know how to make use of all these things that we’ve gathered together, these things will only serve to increase our suffering. And we will never and in pursuit of all these objects, we are not going to have any time to practice the Dharma. And our desire and hatred will only increase. And we’re going to create many enemies. Therefore, we should think of all the various marvels and the wealth of the world, they have no essence.
They’re like a water bubble. The way we can understand whether these things have essence or no essence is by is through practicing the Dharma. So among the various occupations, the work that we can engage in as to whether which have some essence and which have no essence among all these, the Dharma is the one that has the has essence to it. By practicing Dharma within our own mind, we will create the greatest happiness. So if we just condense very briefly, we have to think, I’ve finally attained a human body.
And you must make a determined thought, now that I’ve attained the human body, I have to take its essence and I have to practice Dharma. And between the two, the world and the Dharma. Give up. We give up the world. So essentially, we have to begin to deemphasize attachment to this life and see that, and begin to give up the world in order to practice Dharma.
So we should think we should think about this, about the existence of past and future lives. And if you have any questions or doubts that you would like to bring up, you can ask them now.