Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 43-minute session, Lama Lhundup teaches the seven-fold mind training, a core Tibetan Buddhist practice for counteracting self-cherishing and developing compassion. He begins with the essential commitments: reducing attachment, hatred, and pride; avoiding harm to others; and wishing happiness for enemies. He then walks through the practical framework of daily practice: a morning motivation to prioritize others over self, midday mindfulness checks on whether actions align with that resolve, and an evening examination and confession of shortcomings. He emphasizes the central practice of giving and taking—transforming pleasure into generosity and accepting suffering from others—as the path to developing bodhichitta. Throughout, he stresses guarding the commitments as one would guard one’s life, cultivating a qualified teacher, and forbearing hardship for the sake of Dharma rather than worldly gain. Suitable for practitioners already familiar with Buddhist motivation and preliminary practices.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 10 7FMT.mp3
UUID: 6019c6f2-3f99-49bf-8e12-51e757cef1cb
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Seven-fold mind training (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 43.1 minutes
Words: ~2,105
So we are cultivating the mind training in order to lessen our attachment, hatred, pride, jealousy, self-cherishing. This is to lessen these is the real need for cultivating mind training. So but therefore, we shouldn’t allow our cultivation of mind training to become a source of pride or just knowledge. So we should think about, you know, I’m doing this this great practice and other people, they aren’t doing this practice. We shouldn’t think of this.
So we should not cause other suffering in order to bring about our own happiness. In order to bring ourselves happiness, we should not cause other suffering. So we shouldn’t think, you know, wish about somebody that we didn’t like an enemy that wished that they get sick or that they die. So we should think the opposite rather than thinking wanting our enemies to suffer as people we don’t like wanting them to suffer then we should think the opposite. We should hope for their happiness that everything go well for them.
So these are the commitments of the training of the mind for those who are practicing training the mind. You should guard these, observe these as much as you are able. So then the instructions or advices from the training of mind. All our actions, all our constructive actions of body, speech, mind should all be a method for developing the mind of enlightenment. So if this happens then we should think that all these things that are happening, sickness, etcetera are methods for subduing our own self-cherishing.
So whatever whatever, you know, whatever how how we’re sick we are, we when we when we become aware of being sick, should immediately think that this is the creation of my own self-cherishing. So we should think, you know, this sickness that I’ve had, I can’t bear this sickness. Likewise, other sentient beings are experiencing the same exact sickness I’m experiencing and therefore we develop compassion for these others who are experiencing the same sickness that we are and we take upon ourselves their sickness. And then taking on the torture, the suffering of other sentient beings who are being tortured by this sickness upon ourselves and we develop the wish that they be joined with happiness. Likewise when we should practice this giving and taking for you when we develop some afflictive emotions such as anger, we can understand that this a great obstacle for our practice.
This is an obstacle for our practice of Dharma. But others are experiencing the same obstacle, difficulties in their practice. Therefore, we should practice giving and taking on these obstacles in the form of this afflictive emotion, anger, whatever, and take this upon ourselves. So every day we have two practices of the beginning and end developing motivation and in the end our dedication. Every day when we rise up and when we get up in the morning we should make the develop the motivation and determination not to allow ourselves to go under the influence of self-cherishing but to practice cherishing of others.
Then at night we should examine how our day went, how much self-cherishing, how much cherishing of others. If we cherish others more than self-cherishing then we should rejoice in our day activities and whatever constructive action we created we should dedicate that. Likewise having gone under the influence of self-cherishing whatever negative actions we may have created during that day we should confess them. So whatever, you know, we should the practitioner of mind training, they shouldn’t whatever he should shouldn’t think that now he should whatever arrived Whatever whichever these two arises, we have to, forbear. There are many examples of people who when they’re poor they practice very well and they make a lot of effort in their practice and when things start going well, you know, they get, you know, they get they get spoken of as a great practitioner and they get a great deal of offerings, wealth, etcetera, and then their practice goes to pieces.
Obstacles to our training of the mind. We have to know about these obstacles. So we should guard the various commitments as we would our lives. The commitments, for example, the general commitments of of the Dharma, the general commitments and the the particular commitments of the training of the mind. Practice the three difficulties, three hardships.
It’s difficult to recognize the afflictive emotions. It’s difficult to recognize them. And then it’s difficult to turn them away. And then it’s difficult in cut cutting their continuity, severing them completely. These are three hardships.
So we should try to gather the the three conditions. We should try to cultivate a qualified teacher, qualified Lama, then we should try to gather all the conducive conditions to practice, food, shelter, whatever is necessary, and we should associate with Dharma friends, Dharma companions. So we the main conducive condition for our practice main conducive conditions for our practice are the qualified teacher, qualified Lama, and the various necessities such as food, clothing, etcetera. We should for those who are practicing mind training, we should never allow our respect for our teacher to degenerate or our liking. I like, you know, I like our teacher, caring for our teacher.
So we should practice continually. You know, we shouldn’t when things are going well, we’re happy. And then at those times we practice when we aren’t happy, things aren’t going well, we just give up our practice. This is not what we should do, like this. And so we should you know, happens, whatever arises, however much happiness, whatever suffering, however great or small our happiness is suffering, we should as much as we are able maintain that, continue our practice.
So the practitioner of mind training between the two should mainly make effort for future life rather than this life. Between the two, he should hold others more important than himself. And he should engage in hardships, he should make hardships for the practice of Dharma as opposed to hardships for worldly concerns. It’s difficult for us to bear hardships for the sake of Dharma. That we have to forbear any difficulties.
And then we can look at how much, you know, businessmen or farmers or people in the army, soldiers, just for the happiness of this life, the great difficulties, the great hardships they’re willing to go through to get to get their what they want, their happiness. So then we look at the all the hardships that soldiers go through, you know, the fear, losing losing their life. Have a have a great deal of suffering. So but for us to So the this, you know, this forbearance of farmers, businessmen, soldiers in forbearing in all the great hardships and suffering that they go through, this is inverted forbearance or inverted patience. It’s not correct forbearance or pure forbearance. Likewise if our motivation is not integrated with the Dharma and that we are working for it, we forbearance some suffering in order to gain happiness only for this life, then this is inverted forbearance, inverted patience.
On the other hand, if our actions if we engage in actions in order for the purpose of Dharma, for the purpose of others, purpose of attaining Buddhahood, for the purpose of eliminating our self-cherishing and these are all correct and we forbear in these difficulties for these ends and this is correct forbearance, pure forbearance. It purifies negativity. So we have to we have some rough understanding of what it means to practice Dharma and we should try every day to practice as much as we are able. We can’t give up our work, we have to work, but still outside we have to work. We have to do our job.
But inside we should continually try to put in the practice the Dharma. Such things as friends, wealth, possessions are unstable and not to be trusted. Therefore, we should not we should not allow ourselves to develop attachment. And manner we should develop love which is the non attachment. So the love that we’re developing here in the mind training is a love of which is non attachment.
If we dealt with this love of non attachment then we can really be of benefit to our friend. So briefly, we should try to when we get up in the morning to develop the motivation which thinking that today I am not going to allow myself to go into influence of self-cherishing but I am going to single pointedly try to benefit to cherish others. In the interval, we should check up to see if we are part of that. So So then in the interval in this intervening period we should, using mindfulness and awareness, examine to see whether our conduct actually accords with the motivation that we set in that morning. Is our actions involved in self-cherishing or not?
So during this time the various happiness and suffering, all the various objects that we see whether they’re pleasing objects, unpleasing objects or neutral objects. So at those occasions, usually when we see a pleasing object it makes us happy. At those times we should dedicate this happiness and a pleasing object to others, give it away to others. Likewise, when we when we see something which is unpleasing, generally, we develop some we don’t like it, some unhappiness. At those times we should think about the other people who are experiencing the same unhappiness, the same suffering and immediately take upon ourselves their suffering and this unpleasing object.
And then we should develop the mind which wishes that sentient beings to be joined with happiness and in dependence upon that, meditate and rejoice in that. So just as you know when we see our mother we develop a liking. A liking mind arises. Likewise if we see we recognize all sentient beings as our mother then whatever sentient being that we see we will never see it as unpleasing. We will never see a displeasing sentient being but in fact we will every sentient being we see will bring us a great liking.
So we have been talking about the mind training but we have to continually every day bring to mind to remember the preliminary practices to mind training. If we don’t remember these preliminary practices to mind training, then our mind training itself will not go well. So what so the essential necessity for having taken this this human life, The essential need is to practice Dharma. And amongst the various practices of Dharma, that is the practices of the three types of beings of different capacities, the essence of all these practices is the mind of enlightenment. Therefore we have to the essential need is to make effort in developing the mind of enlightenment.
And in the essential practice in development of the mind of enlightenment is the practice of giving and taking. Much to the same degree, however powerful our practice of giving and taking is to that same degree our mind of enlightenment will develop that much greater and greater. So in developing this mind of enlightenment in this when through this practice of giving and taking when we finally have eliminated our self-cherishing and its potential for development, that is the latencies of self-cherishing, then upon this final elimination we have attained the final goal of Buddhahood. So we’ve completed so we’ve completed a a rough explanation of the seven fold training of the mind and how much you are able to put into practice please do. This practice of mind training is extremely important.
It can bring a great deal of benefit, a great deal of benefit, making pure, purifying great negativities through its practice. Our own teacher, Śākyamūni Buddha, in dependence upon this practice attained Buddhahood. And he practiced his mind the Śākyamūni Buddha practiced his mind training over three countless eons and thereby attained Buddhahood. So when Śākyamūni Buddha attained the higher Bodhisattva grounds, the seventh, eighth, ninth. He was able to emanate bodies which also engaged in mind training.
So these emanations of the Buddha were able to enact to give teachings, eliminate suffering, to bring happiness. This is the way they practice the mind training. So, you know, in the beginning, we’re beginning now, we just have one body, but still if we practice as much as we are able then we can obtain the same practice that Śākyamūni Buddha practice. So, you know, through this practice of giving and taking, we we take