Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Lama Lhundup anchors this 42-minute introductory teaching on the foundation of Buddhist practice in a simple but radical claim: whether something is dharma depends entirely on the condition of your own mind. He walks through how all experience arises as a consequence of past actions and present mental states—anger and desire shape what appears unpleasant to us, while positive intentions create pleasant appearances. The core practice is not posture or ritual but the subduing of afflictive emotions through cultivation of their antidotes. Lhundup emphasises that dharma can be any action of body, speech, or mind directed toward this goal, condensed into two essences: never allowing harmful intention toward others, and actively cultivating a beneficial, altruistic intention. He concludes with practical applications—how treating difficulties as voluntary participation in purifying past karma, and redirecting depression into clarity about what can or cannot be changed, transforms suffering into joyful engagement with practice. Suited to newcomers or those seeking a fresh grounding in why practice matters.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 PoD.mp3
UUID: 0ca16371-3fa0-4500-84e0-2666cf7310dd
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: The practice of dharma (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 42.8 minutes
Words: ~3,217
Whether or not something is Dharma is upon only the mind itself. There is no phenomena, there is nothing which exists which does not depend upon mind. So the various appearances that appear to us, all the various phenomena, there are two types. We can classify them as bad and good. So the degree of badness or goodness of the various objects which appear to us are dependent upon our mind.
For example, these various appearances, the degree of badness or goodness is dependent upon our mind. If something bad appears to our mind, this appearance of a bad quality of the object is dependent upon our mind. It not only depends upon our mind, but why does it appear to the mind in this way is due to the predispositions, the latencies of our past actions. For example, it’s by the power of our habituation to having committed bad or negative actions in the past through the influence of the power of these past actions, karma. Therefore, the mind is influenced to create bad appearances and the objects appear in a bad mode or a bad expression or bad qualities.
Likewise, the various good appearances which appear to us through our mind, whether they are sentient beings, that is people, other people, or whatever object, this appearance comes about as a product dependent upon our own mind. This comes about through our past actions that we have created, which influence the habituations that we have created within our mind, dependent upon the actions that we have become habituated to. If we create good causes, if we create positive types of causes, then whatever objects appear to us as an effect of those causes that we have created will appear pleasant. That is, people will appear very pleasant to us, objects will appear pleasant to us as they have a good appearance or pleasing appearance. So, we desire happiness, we desire that things appear to us pleasing.
We desire only pleasure, other words. So, if we want to actually gain the happiness, if we want to gain only the pleasure that we are seeking, then we have to cease the causes for unpleasant appearances. We have to cease the causes for these unpleasant appearances to be appearing to our mind. Therefore it’s necessary to transform the mind by ceasing the causes, that is, blocking the causes’ negative actions which create these unpleasant appearances. We can see this for ourselves immediately within our own experience.
When we have a difficult experience, a situation arises with another person. For example, a harmful situation arises, we feel jealousy or anger toward this person. This object appears very unpleasant to us, this other person, and we should examine our own experience within our own mind. What is the condition of our own mind at that moment? What are we experiencing within our own mind at that very moment that this unpleasant appearance is appearing to us?
So we must examine whether these explanations that we’re hearing about the Dharma, whether they actually accord with our own experience. If these explanations of the Dharma, the teachings of Dharma, accord with our experience, how we actually relate with reality, then we’re wise to put into practice the teachings that we hear about the Dharma. But on the other hand, if our experience actually contradicts or we find that there’s no concordance, our own experience in the Dharma teachings, they’re not in accordance, then we can just as well forget about practicing the Dharma. Within our life, if we’re finding the happiness that we desire, that we seek, then of course there’s no necessity to practice Dharma. We’re finding the happiness that we desire.
But on the other hand, if we are not finding the happiness that we are seeking, perhaps there is a necessity to practice a method. Without a method, if we see that in accordance with the teachings that by ceasing the negative actions, ceasing the negative minds that we can cease the appearances of unpleasant situations, that we can actually find the happiness that we seek. If we see that the fruit of the effect of positive states of mind are happiness, then we have an actual method, a real method to work in finding the happiness that we seek and avoiding the suffering that we don’t want. And if within our experience we come to the conclusion that there is a reason to definitely practice the Dharma, once we’ve come to that conclusion within our own mind, there’s no better time to start to begin our practice than today. Why is it we should practice Dharma?
We must come to our own conclusion, I want to be happy. Don’t want to suffer. It’s based upon this reason, I don’t want to suffer, I want happiness, that we come to the conclusion that I must practice the Dharma. So, you know, we must reflect, we must think about this within our own experience, within our own mind. We must come to some conclusion, some decision about whether we’re finding the happiness that we’re seeking and that, in fact, we want happiness and are we avoiding the suffering that we don’t want?
Are we actually suffering? And as a method to bring this about, is it necessary to practice Dharma? Just as when we were eating food, Like cake. Like cake, for example. Get some taste on our tongue.
Some taste and we get some enjoyment out of it. Likewise, what we hear about the teachings, we have to take it within our own mind and think about it and reflect upon it and try to get a taste of the teachings within our own experience, within our own mind and see if it actually brings the happiness that we want, if we can generate a feeling of joy from our own experience. So we present the reason for why it is necessary to practice Dharma. It’s simply based upon the fact that we want happiness, that we don’t want to suffer. This is the basis for practicing the Dharma.
Now, to when we should practice the Dharma, we have to practice the Dharma in this life. Why do we have to practice the Dharma in this life? It’s because this precious opportunity, this precious human body that we now possess at this very time, in this very life, is very difficult to attain and there’s no certainty that we’re ever going to attain it again in the future life. It’s difficult to attain such a body, such a human body. In order to attain, to take rebirth as a human, we must create the causes for bringing about the effect of a human body, These causes are extremely difficult to create.
The causes in the future taking rebirth as a human are the practice of the ten virtues. So, there are ten non virtuous actions and just to merely abandon or cease the actions of just a few of these, two or three within these ten non virtuous actions, to actually practice them purely is extremely difficult. If we look within our own experience, we can investigate and we look at what our usual states of mind are. For example, how often do we experience desire, anger, jealousy, miserliness, pride, these various negative states of mind? If we are motivated by such negative states of mind, for example, anything motivated by desire can only have a negative result.
Anything which is motivated by anger can only have a negative result. They cannot have a positive result of taking a human rebirth. So we must come to a definite conclusion, some definite decision in our life that this opportunity, this precious human rebirth that we have is extremely difficult to attain. And if I don’t practice today, there’s a chance I never may have the chance to practice and therefore attain in the future this opportunity, this precious human rebirth again. So we may come to the conclusion, “Well, I should practice the Dharma,” but then we might think, “Well, I have a lot of things I have to do before I get down to the business of practicing Dharma.
We may get caught up in the various activities, you might say worldly activities. When I’m old, when I’ve got plenty of time, I’m old, I’ll practice Dharma. Later on, sometime in the future, we may go on and on like this, thinking in this way. But we should try to end such a type of thinking when we consider the fact that we’re going to die, that death is definite. But not only is death definite, but when we are going to die is uncertain.
There is no definite time that we could die. And at the time of a death, the only thing which will be of any benefit to us is the practice of Dharma that we have practiced in this lifetime. Then again, you know, if if it would if we If we didn’t practice Dharma, within our own experience we’ve seen that we are constantly creating negative actions, these various negative states of mind. Now if we didn’t create these, then of course there’s no problem. We don’t have to practice the Dharma since there’s going to be no negative results arising in the future.
But in fact, from our own experience, we see that we’re again and again creating these negative actions. These various negative actions that we’re collecting If we weren’t creating negative actions, then it would be no necessity to practice Dharma. But as we see from our own experience, that through the influence of the conception of the self, self grasping, we create various negative states of mind. And we’re constantly engaging in negative actions. And all these negative actions, these negative karmas, are going to ripen eventually into suffering.
That is to say, the suffering that we don’t desire, these unsatisfactory states in the future. So we are constantly creating the causes for future suffering. We can consider the fact that when we look around us we see people having various experiences. Some people, it seems like their lives are nothing but difficulties, nothing but problems. They have almost continual suffering.
Whereas other people, things go quite easy for them. They have a great deal of happiness in their life. What is the reason, what is the cause for these differences that individuals experience as to happiness and suffering? It’s because in one case the person who suffers has problems has created negative actions which acts as the cause for various problems and suffering which they now experience. And on the contrary, the person who has a relatively easy life, that things go well for this person, that they’re happy, they’ve in the past created positive causes, positive karma, which are now they’re experiencing the results of theirs.
Within our own minds, when we experience some type of difficulty or suffering, rather than becoming depressed about it, we should think about this suffering that I am experiencing now, where did it come from? If we reflect upon it, this suffering that we are experiencing now came from a negative action that we created in the past lives. That when somebody hurts us, we are experiencing harm, we are experiencing suffering from someone hurting us at this moment, then in fact in a previous life we have hurt someone else. We have created this negative cause and now we are experiencing the fruit or the effect of that previous negative action. So we see that all the various appearances are dependent upon mind, Various qualities and the way we experience them are dependent upon our mind.
In order to transform these appearances, we have to practice the Dharma. Now what is the way we actually bring about the mode of practice of Dharma? What do we actually do? The causes for these negative appearances for all our difficulties, for all our suffering are the afflictive emotions. So in order to we have to put an end, we have to cease the afflictive emotions. Therefore, we must habituate, we must cultivate the antidotes to the afflictive emotions.
What is the nature of Dharma? It is the various conducts of body, speech and mind which act as conditions for the destruction of the afflictive emotions, which thus act as a destruction, a way to eliminate our suffering. This is the nature of Dharma. So the practice of Dharma, just because we sit very erect in a meditative posture, this is not necessarily the practice of Dharma. Because a monkey could sit in that position.
Therefore we can see from this that whenever we are trying to control the afflictive emotions, if we are actually subduing the afflictive emotions, then whatever we are doing can be a practice of Dharma. Whether we are eating, whether we are talking, whether we are working, any of our actions of body, speech and mind, if they’re actually being directed to subduing the afflictive emotions, are a practice of Dharma. So, if we condense the meaning of practice, what can we say it is? It’s development of a good heart. For example, what does it mean to have a good heart?
It is to return for any harm which is directed toward us to develop a mind of patience, forbearance. Without a good heart, patience, without forbearance, even if when someone brings us any harm, even just one small word which can cause us if we react to it with impatience, with intolerance, then we cannot develop a good heart. So the essence of Dharma is first, in return for So, the essence of Dharma can be summed up into two. The first is to never allow the development of any harmful intentions towards others. Whatever harm is inflicted upon us from our own side, not developing the slightest thought to harm others.
And the second is, in return for harm, to develop a beneficial intention wishing to help the other person. Essentially, way to create our own happiness is to benefit others. For example, the reason that we eat well, that we have all the food that we want to eat, is because previously we have practiced generosity that we have given to others. The reason that we have a long life, that we live a long time, is the fact that in the past we have abandoned killing others. The reason that we have little sickness now is because we abandon the negative actions of harming others and depending upon that cause, now we have little harm for ourselves and little sickness.
Essentially, through benefiting others we bring happiness to ourselves, by harming others we only hurt ourselves. So in benefiting others, we don’t always have to be running around handing out food and money to them. It’s dependent upon our own mind. If we can develop a thought, have a constant thought of altruism, of beneficial intention, this is the way we can benefit others. So we have to again and again cultivate the attitude, this altruistic attitude, this mind which seeks to benefit others.
If we cultivate, if we habituate ourselves to this thought of altruistic thought of wishing to benefit others, then whenever the opportunity, the time arrives, will not shy away, that we will not pull away from helping others, but we will naturally seek to benefit and we will express this altruistic attitude that we have. So if we again and again develop this cultivate the attitude, this altruism, wishing to benefit others, and then this mind begins to arise spontaneously. Then any actions that we engage in, any type of conduct, whether it’s a body or a mind or a speech, if our actions are motivated with such a wish to benefit others, whether we’re working in an office, whether we’re doing building work, construction work, no matter what we’re doing, then with such a mind all these actions are transformed into actions in the practice of Dharma. Developing such a thought to benefit others, thinking, You know, whatever I can do to benefit others, that’s what I want to do. This very attitude in itself develops a tremendous amount of positive potential within our mind, merit, and also has the ability to purify any negative past actions that we have within our mind.
If we develop such an attitude, such a motivation for our practice, that in order to benefit others that I’m going to practice the Dharma and therefore I’m going to engage in such actions as I’m going to study the Dharma. And developing such an attitude for our practice, then we’re going to develop great joy in what we’re doing. That When we meet some slight difficulty, some slight problem, that we’re not going to say, Oh, I don’t throw away the Dharma, I don’t give up in the face of some difficulty that you have forbearance, that you have some patience because of this great joy in trying to benefit others. If we cultivate such altruism, seeking to benefit others, then no matter what may happen in the course of our practice, whether others may hurt us, whether in fact that we undergo sickness because of our practice, that we undergo great difficulties, that we are taking these sufferings on voluntarily. And not only will we not be discouraged, but we take great happiness and we will find some joy in the sufferings that we undergo with such a type of motivation, is this altruistic motivation to help others.
If we experience in our practice harm from others, if we experience suffering as a result of pursuing our practice, then there’s no reason to react with depression. Then in fact, we’re voluntarily taking on this suffering and this suffering is in fact the effect of our negative actions that we created in the past. Therefore, we can take great joy for the benefit of others that we’re willing to experience the fruit of our negative actions. So, if we become sick, if in return for our helping others, that others return only harm to us, if we have the various difficulties, we will not become depressed by experiencing these sufferings. But if on the other hand, these various difficulties that we voluntarily take upon ourselves, if we cannot forbear in these difficulties, the only result in taking on these sufferings will be that our suffering will increase.
So we experience, in the course of our practice, when we experience difficulties, suffering, then instead of becoming depressed, we should look at the object to see whether we can transform that object, whether we can change the object. In in the course of our practice, when we experience harm and suffering, rather than becoming depressed, we should look at the object which is bringing us this suffering and see if we can transform this object or not, change the object or not. If we cannot change the condition or the situation or the object, then there’s no sense, there’s no benefit in being depressed. Likewise, if we can change the situation, if we can transform the object, then there’s no sense in being depressed. We should go ahead and change the situation or change the object.