Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 47-minute talk, Lama Lhundup guides practitioners through two interconnected practices for reducing afflictive emotions and developing insight. He begins by showing how anger can be progressively weakened through sustained effort, then pivots to a rigorous analytical meditation on the nature of self. Working through logical investigation—checking whether the self exists in the body, mind, or independently—he shows that the solid, concrete sense of self we habitually grasp at simply cannot be found. This recognition of emptiness, when meditated upon even for brief periods, he argues, directly cuts the root of all negative emotions and suffering. He concludes with practical guidance on six causes that strengthen or weaken afflictions: seed, objects of observation, activities, antidotes, habituation, and mental engagement, offering concrete examples such as avoiding excessive socialising and choosing wholesome literature. Aimed at practitioners with some familiarity with Buddhist philosophy and meditation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 TK and I.mp3
UUID: ac7bf73a-b830-4d63-88f7-b81b95d05cc0
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Towards kindness and insights (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.8 minutes
Words: ~2,945
So, we can begin to reduce the anger. Know, one day we try not to get angry, and one month we try not to be angry, and we keep extending one year. And in this way, as we extend this, we will not only be happy happier people while we’re reducing our anger, but we will have fulfilled the purpose and the meaning of having been born as a human being and that we will have fulfilled the benefits of our Dharma practice and our problems will begin to disappear. If we don’t have anger, and then suffering is not going to arise. So this I, you know, we say I, I, what is the basis of what we call imputing, the designated, what is the basis of this I?
The body is not the I. The body is not the self. The mind is not the I. The mind is not the self. So the I is merely designated, imputed to the collection of mind and body together.
This collection of mind and body, we name that, we label that I. We have a feeling in the depths of our heart of a very solid eye, something very concrete, very real? This is a mistaken consciousness. So we have this feeling of a concrete eye, a solid I. Now, when we try to recognize this I, this feeling of this I, and we try to think if it exists, then it must exist either in terms of the body or in terms of the mind.
So then we check up, we investigate. Can we find this I in the body? Can we find this I within the mind? And then when we come to the realization that this I, this very concrete I, as we have conceiving it to exist, in fact doesn’t exist at all, that we eliminate the grasping at such a type of I, then this elimination of the grasping for such a type of I is the understanding of emptiness. It’s extremely difficult to recognize this I that we’re, this self that we’re, that we’ve been grasping continually.
We’re always grasping for this concrete I, but it’s extremely difficult to come to recognize it. We take we naturally hold this concrete I and what is called the nominal I or the conventional I. We hold them to be the same. So to come to, it’s easiest to come to be able to recognize this I, this, this, that we’re, that we’re continually grasping for in times of very strong emotions when we’re extremely happy or when we’re angry or we have extreme fear, at these times of extreme emotions, it’s easier to recognize the nature of this I that we’re always grasping for. So at this at this moment, we have to try to develop the mindfulness and awareness to be able to recognize this I during these extreme emotional states.
And we see that this I, we try to come to identify it, what it looks like, that it’s not it seems this type of I is not dependent upon anything, that it’s not being imputed by the mind. So when we recognize, when we begin to identify So, you know, if we’re certain, we’ve come to a decision that this I exists, that the I really exists. So if this type of I really does exist, well then how does it exist? Is it same as the body or same as the mind? So if we say, well the eye is the same as the body, Then we go on to investigate and we say, Well, is it the same as yesterday’s body, or today’s body, or tomorrow’s body?
If it was the same as yesterday’s body, then the I would not exist today. If the I was the same as today’s body, then yesterday it didn’t exist and tomorrow it won’t exist. So there’s these faults which arise. Likewise, if the eye were the same as the body, then because the body does not go into future life, the eye would not go into future Therefore, if this were the case then there would be the fault of thinking that there would be no future life. Therefore, we can see that the body is not the I.
Likewise, we look at all the various parts of the body. We have arms and legs, etcetera, and we cannot find within any of these parts the eye. And therefore, we have to come to the conclusion that the body is not the eye. So, and we can say, well, is the eye the same as the mind? So, there are many types of mind, many, many types of mind.
Is it the conceptual mind or non conceptual mind? Is it an afflicted mind or a non afflicted mind? If we said, for example, that the I was a virtuous mind, and then we can divide the virtuous mind and non virtuous mind. If it’s a virtuous mind, then when our mind is non virtuous, there is no I. Or if we say that, well, the I is the non virtuous mind, well then when our mind is virtuous, there is also no I.
So there are many reasons we can use to show the faults in all these positions that in fact the I is not the mind. So the I, the self, is not the body, is not the mind. Is it something other separate from the body and the mind? But if the I were separate from the body and the mind, then it would make no sense to, when your head hurts, to say, I have a headache, or when you’re walking to say, I am going, or when you’re eating food, you say, I am eating. This would make no sense.
Therefore, we have to come to the conclusion that this eye as this The eye which appears to us, and is continually appearing to us during the when we grasp for the eye. This eye doesn’t exist at all. So there’s this eye that appeared to us to exist very solidly. We searched for it, we didn’t find it. We come to the conclusion that this I as it appears doesn’t exist and we come to an understanding of the emptiness of this I and we merely sit in meditation on that emptiness.
So we should meditate on however much we can, for example, a minute, two minutes, sit in meditation on that. So for however long we can sit in this meditation. So however long we are able to sit in meditation on actual emptiness, without any mistaken emptiness, actual emptiness, then for that period of time, however much we are able to sit in that meditation, we will destroy that much of our negative actions, destroy that much of our afflictive emotions. So, by cultivating realization of this non inherent existence of the eye, which is the emptiness of the I, by using the power of our mind of renunciation. Meditating we will eventually be able to have direct perception of emptiness in our meditation, and we will eventually be able to destroy, eliminate completely all afflictive emotions from our mind stream.
When we are able to have such a realization a non mistaken realization of emptiness, when we get up from meditation, all our various work, whatever we do, will only go in the direction of Dharma. We will not make any go away from the practice of our Dharma. For such a person who has direct perception, non mistaken perception of emptiness, you know, even though he appears to be doing the same work that we’re doing from the outside, What he is seeing has a very different appearance. For him, all these activities that he’s engaged in are he is merely engaged in and he sees everything as an illusion or a dream. Because he sees it as illusion and dream, he does not hold all the things about him to be true and because to be truly existent.
And because he does not hold them to truly existent, he does not generate any attachment, desire, anger, hatred. No pride. So all his actions are set to be in the direction of Dharma, and he does not collect any negative actions whatsoever. So so we should try to to develop the meditation where we just merely examine, begin to investigate what is the nature of the I, the self. You know, we have this self that we think of as being solid.
We begin to look for it, and we begin to search for it try to find it. When we look for this type of self, we will not find it. We will find an emptiness of such a type of self. This is the understanding of emptiness. But then we can also sit in that meditation for as long as we can, coming to an understanding of emptiness, the non inherent existence of the eye, the emptiness of such a solid concrete eye.
Then also, also the body does not inherently exist. Also, the mind does not inherently exist. All the various objects around me do not inherently exist, do not truly exist. And this will be a great benefit for lessening the afflicted emotion. So, however much time we have in the course during the day, even if we have just ten minutes, we can make it extremely beneficial to cultivate the mind of renunciation and try to develop the mind which is trying to develop bodhicitta, the awakening mind, seeking to benefit other sentient beings by attaining Buddhahood, and with such a motivation then meditate on this looking for the nature of the eye, trying to determine the nature of eye, looking for it as and in this way if we do this consistently day after day after day, our afflicted emotions are going to become less and less and less.
Purpose for meditation, the reason we’re trying to meditate is to eliminate the afflictive emotions. If our meditation is such whatever we’re meditating on, that immediately when we get up for meditation, we go outside and we’re back right to where we were before meditation, then our meditation isn’t really fully qualified. It isn’t a a real type of meditation. So we have to again and again meditate on the conception of the I, that is, on the nature of ignorance which is grasping for I. It is the root of all the afflicted emotions.
We have to get at the root of our problems, the root of our suffering. Like if there’s a thorn bush, a sticker bush, and every day we just cut off it, you know, we want to get rid of it. If every day we just cut off a branch, then the branch grows back and we’ve really not accomplished much. But if we can cut it at the root, then we can finally get rid of this thorn bush once and for all. Likewise, the basis for all the afflictive emotions is the conception of an I, the ignorance which conceives of an I or self.
We can apply temporal antidotes, we can apply to our anger attachment, etcetera, but again, we’re going to continue to suffer. But if we can cut the root of our problem, ignorance, conceiving of the I, then we’re going to eliminate all our sufferings. If were to practice a type of meditation where we just try to block thoughts, that we simply have a blank absent mind. No thoughts. We just block all thoughts.
At that time, afflictive emotions are not going to arise, but we have in no way lessened our afflictive emotions. Immediate arising from that meditation, our afflictive emotions will be just as great as they were when we sat down. So the fruit of the fruit of such a meditation the fruit of such a meditation is that when we die, we will be reborn as a God in the formless realm of And and and and as a god in the. We will be born as a god without discrimination due to this the result of this meditation. So, such a God, he takes rebirth in this God realm, and he doesn’t think for thousands, millions, eons of years.
But when this karma is finally exhausted for maintaining rebirth in that particular realm, then there’s no other place to go but down. And as a result, once he falls down from that realm, will have as a habitual effect, will be extremely dull minded and he will find it extremely difficult to study. Such a meditation even within this life, this blank minded meditation, results in a mind becomes duller and duller and our intelligence becomes less and less. An actual meditation on emptiness will reduce the conception grasping at an eye. By reducing the conception grasping at eye, the other afflictive emotions will lessen.
Because our other afflictive emotions lessen, our negative actions will lessen. Because our negative actions lessen, we will our suffering will lessen. So, you know, what we what we has been explained, what we hear, we should try not to forget. We should think about it. We should try to make use of it.
If every day we think about what is being said, then our mind will improve. And we will begin to see it within our own experience. And through our own experience, through studying, through listening, our realizations will increase. So, in what way can we, what is a general way that we can begin to lessen our afflictive emotions? We can there are six causes for generally lessening our afflictive emotions.
So, we’re explained from six points of view. The first, I just list off the six. First is base. Second is object of observation. Third is activities.
Fourth is antidote. Fifth is habituation. Sixth is mental engagement. So the first at its base, the base is seed. So this is when we plant a flower seed, we grow a flower.
If we plant the seeds of afflictive emotion, then afflictive emotions are going to rise. The substantial cause of afflictive emotions are his afflictive emotions. So the object of observation are pleasing and displeasing objects. Because we have the seed within us now, we have seeds of the afflicted emotions. When we observe a pleasing object, we develop attachment.
When we observe a displeasing object due to the seeds of the afflicted emotion, we develop aversion. So therefore, from the point of view of the of the object of observation, which causes to generate very strong afflictive emotions, we should avoid them. So the reason why when the monks when Buddha when when people became monks, the Buddha sent them and put them in an isolated place. This is the reason he put them in an isolated place. By staying in an isolated place they didn’t have these objects or observations which could which could act as to for them to develop stronger, afflictive emotions.
So we should, so the third was activity. We should try to begin to avoid many activities. For example, when people get together, they talk a lot, and in the course of this they develop afflictive emotions their during the course of all these conversations that they have. When one stays alone, one has less afflictive emotions. Generally, when people get together, they don’t talk very much about Dharma.
Therefore, getting together with people can act as a condition for developing afflictive emotions and therefore developing negative karma. So we should avoid lots of activities, and and if we can’t avoid them, then just try to lessen all our activity. So the fourth was antidote. This means there’s activities specifically, you know there’s many types of books which arouse afflictive emotion, arouse desire for example.
Such type of literature which arouse desire, books about war, for example, can arouse anger and hatred, violent reactions in our mind. We should try to avoid reading such type of literature that really causes to develop these afflictive emotions. Fifth is habituation. If I by staying alone, for example, in our home, then despite our our afflictive emotions will naturally lessen. So this is I translate it wrongly.
It should be contentment. Maybe contentment. So habituating to our self to contentment of being of finding being content with ourselves that we will naturally begin to lessen our affect afflictive emotions will naturally lessen. So, you know, some people cannot be content to, for example, stay with themselves. They always have to be going out, for example, dancing, going to parties, etcetera.
And this allows for the possibility of developing afflictive emotions. If we can become habituated to feelings of contentment, this will in itself act to lessen our afflictive emotions. So I think my first translation. Habituation. Habituation.
For example, you know, we’re habituated from the past to many afflicted emotions. Some children are just because of habituation from past actions are just extremely angry. They become upset very easily. Likewise, from past to being habituated to having cultivated loving thoughts in the past and previous lives, Some children have a very pleasing nature. People like them immediately.
They like being around these children. This is from being habituated to such such thoughts as love and compassion in the past. So we have to decide for ourselves what afflictive emotions is strongest within ourselves. Whether it’s attachment or desire, hatred, pride, and that should and that should be our main meditation to habituate controlling this particular afflictive emotion. So the sixth was mental application.