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 the foundational meditations of Tibetan Buddhism’s path to enlightenment, beginning with equanimity and recognition of all sentient beings as former mothers. He then systematically develops loving-kindness by remembering the kindness these beings showed us in past lives, illustrating with concrete examples: the person who gave us food when hungry, and the shame of abandoning elderly parents in the West. Moving from love to great compassion, he shows how to expand awareness from one’s own mother to enemies and people in different countries—presidents and officials included, who accumulate negative karma through their orders. He develops meditations on love that brings happiness and exceptional resolve: the determination to personally attain Buddhahood to accomplish what no sentient being can do alone. Throughout, Lama Lhundup emphasises gradual practice—meditating day after day, year after year—until these thoughts arise spontaneously. For practitioners familiar with Lamrim study.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 15 TK and I.mp3
UUID: 57e2ae8e-a72b-4cde-b493-91f91c09792f
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Towards kindness and insights (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.9 minutes
Words: ~3,196
The great kindness of our mother of this life and I understand that she has shown this kindness again and again in a number of lifetimes and we have turned our attention to our father. Not only has our father been kind to us in this lifetime but when he was our mother in innumerable past lifetimes he showed us the same kindness that our mother has shown us in this lifetime. So then we can move on to our relatives and take each of our our relatives and try to see them as have been our mother in previous lifetimes and the great kindness that they showed us again in all these various previous lifetimes. Then finally we can see our enemy as having shown us this great kindness of our mother innumerable times. So then, you know, we try to imagine all of people as, you know, going through and imagine them trying to remember the great kindness that they showed us in previous lifetimes, innumerable past lifetimes.
And we take as an object an animal and this animal has been our mother in a previous previous lifetime and has shown us innumerable previous lifetimes. They’ve shown us the same kindness as our mother this lifetime. And in the process of showing this kindness, she has entered into she was brought to this state of having to take rebirth as an animal due to the karma. So just take as an object an animal and do it. I’m thinking that, you know, I have I do not remember, but this thing must have been my mother in past lifetime. And not only that, she was showing me the same kindness as my mother in this lifetime in past lifetime.
So just as we did with equanimity and recognizing all sentient beings as our mother, we go through all the various types of sentient beings and remembering their kindness that they showed us as our mother until we get to the point where we should be able to reach the point where we imagine all sentient beings without exception have been our mother innumerable times in the past and have shown us the great kindness again and again that our mother of this life has shown us. So we bring to mind the great kindness of all sentient beings, the immeasurable kindness that they have shown us in the past when they were mothers and we develop the sincere wish to repay this kindness that they have shown us. So, if we were extremely hungry sometimes and someone gave us delicious food to eat, We would always remember this kindness that this person showed us when we were very hungry and they gave us delicious food. Whenever we saw this person, really by seeing this person, we would be happy to meet this person and we would want to somehow repay. We would remember this kindness and we would want to repay him.
We would say, Well, come have a cup of tea or you need anything? Whatever this person might need and there would be a natural desire to repay once we would begin to remember the kindness. So but on the other hand there might be some people who after they had been shown this kindness by this person when they were hungry, this great food — this person gave them some delicious food but this person doesn’t remember it and later on he meets the same person and this person has some problems. He needs some help and he doesn’t remember the kindness that was shown to him. He forgets his kindness and he in no way makes any attempt to help this person even though this person has been kind to him in the past and he needs help now but he doesn’t in any way help him.
And we would think that such a person would be quite shameful of such a person to act in such a way. Likewise, all sentient beings have been mothers in the past and have shown us immeasurable kindness again and again. And for us not to seek to repay this kindness is extremely shameful. So there are cases sometimes in the west. Sometimes it happens that when our parents get old, some people might treat their parents when they get old and they can’t do any work and they have a hard time getting up and sitting down and going that they just want to get them out of the house and so they don’t have to see them anymore.
They don’t want to see them. So not wanting to be of any help to them in their old age, not wanting to even see them is extremely poor way of acting. This is because through the power of not remembering the kindness. So then repaying their kindness, we remember their kindness and we develop the desire to repay their kindness. What do sentient beings desire?
Well, don’t desire suffering. They desire happiness. So we determine to whatever necessary to bring them happiness, we’re going to give them that. So the in repaying that kindness. There’s no This time is best time.
Yeah. There’s no bet there’s no better time than the present time to repay their kindness. Why is this present the best time to recreate this kindness? Because now we have attained a human body with leisures and fortunes. We have met the great vehicle, met the great vehicle Dharma and we now have some understanding of what is to be cultivated, what is to be abandoned and in this way we can begin to, making use of this, can begin to repay the kindness that they have shown us.
So we should think that merely trying to bring them contaminated happiness, giving them different types of wealth and possessions, merely this is not sufficient. We should develop desire that we want to bring them highest type of happiness. So if we meditate well, equanimity, recognizing all sentient beings as our mother remembering their kindness and developing a wish to repay their kindness and we will reach a point that no matter who we meet, who we see, our child, our parents, any person that we see they will always appear to be pleasing to us. They will have a pleasing appearance. No one will ever have a displeasing appearance to us.
So when we can reach the point where that we imagine how pleasing our own child looks to us. Brings us just as the appearance of our child brings us a great deal of pleasure. It’s very pleasing to even look at our child. When we can see all sentient beings having that same pleasant appearance, then we have developed pleasant love or pleasing love. Meditating well on equanimity, remembering all sentient beings as their mother, remembering their kindness and developing the wish to repay their kindness, we don’t need to meditate on those well.
Don’t need to make special effort or especially meditate. It will naturally develop this pleasing love. So then after pleasing love, we meditate on great compassion. So if we have gained some of the experience of the path of the being of middling capacity when we considered all the various So as was explained before the various types of suffering of human realms, God realms, etcetera, and the causes of suffering. We talked about the suffering of birth, old age, and disease, all these types of suffering.
When one experiences sees the suffering in oneself and then one can understand that all sentient beings are also undergoing this suffering, not just ourselves but all sentient beings are tortured by suffering and therefore develop the thought which we cannot bear that sentient beings be tortured by their sufferings and in fact we must separate them from their sufferings. What is the difference between great compassion and compassion? Even the hearers, what are called hearers and solitary realizers, that is practitioners of the lesser vehicle, they develop compassion. That means they they see sentient beings wanting that they be separated from their suffering. They see a sentient being who is suffering.
They want that sentient being to be separated from suffering. But that’s compassion, that sentient beings should be wanting to desire to separate sentient beings from that sentient beings should be separated from their suffering. But great compassion is when I I think I will separate them from their suffering. Then it becomes great compassion. So when we develop the thought of having which sees all sentient beings, there is no difference, that friend, enemy and stranger, there is no difference and seeing that there is suffering and there develops a great strong powerful thought that I must separate them from their suffering and we have developed great compassion.
So we can increase our compassion by degrees meditating on different types of beings. For example meditating on sick beings, meditating on beings where people are being beaten, meditating on people in prisons, animals, hungry ghosts, hell beings. So we can begin with meditating as the object of our mother and that our mother, even though she desires happiness, she doesn’t have happiness but in fact she’s being tortured by suffering and we develop the thought, I’m going to separate my mother from her suffering and then we move on to our father and again we develop the thought with respect to him, I’m going to separate him from his suffering and then our relatives, our friends, the people in our area, our countrymen. And then finally when we can to, when we can take as an object someone who we hold as enemy then with respect to this person if we can think that I must separate this person from their suffering, then we have developed great compassion. So we have to train with respect to all types, many varieties of people, great officials, presidents of country with respect to beggars, poor people taking different types of classes with people to train our minds.
At present, we don’t we don’t develop compassion for these great officials or presidents, but we we should we should have compassion for them. So, you know, we should give our compassion even for bigger picture of the president. You know, these people are by the by by the being in the position they’re they’re they’re in, they’re always they’re creating great deal of negative karma, and they’re ordering people to be through their orders and through the laws that they passed, many people are going to be killed and they have to share in the consequences of creating this negative karma which can only result in suffering in the future. Therefore, they they should be objects for our compassion. Oh, yeah.
Okay. So such people, when they die, there’s no place for them to go but hell. So we should begin to expand scope of our meditation to include more and more people and we can meditate on people in Australia that they desire happiness but in fact they are being tortured by suffering and I will separate them from their suffering and then meditate on people in America, meditate on people in England, meditate on people in India, meditate on people in the east in general because it is quite easy to see a hardship that they’re physically undergoing. They keep moving around with different varieties of people. So when we can finally get to the place where we had this this wish, this thought automatically arising without any effort whenever that all sentient beings whether they benefit me, whether they harm me, whatever class, whatever race without any sort of distinction that I will separate them from their suffering, when this arises strongly, automatically, spontaneously, then this is great compassion.
So if we don’t meditate we’re not going to develop this great compassion but it’s not going to even when we meditate it’s not going to happen all at once. Know, we meditate one, two two days, three days, one year, two years, three years until there will come a time when we actually gain the experience of great compassion. And then we meditate on love which seeks to bring happiness to sentient beings which thinking that that those sentient beings desire happiness. They don’t have the happiness they desire. I will bring them the happiness that they desire.
Compassion, with this particular type of love, the love conjoined with happiness, take different objects of meditation, first our mother and then our father, our relatives, different areas, countries, different countries and we developed this when we finally get to a place where without any distinction, without any partiality we developed taking all sentient beings as objects we developed spontaneously, the thought that I must bring them happiness, that I must join them with happiness. When this thought arises spontaneously then we have developed this love conjoined with happiness. We have to train in this way again and again. Happiness. I must bring them happiness.
The the the benefits from such merely just just thought is unimaginable. We should keep expanding the scope of our love. This thought to bring happiness to sentient beings and then we start with a small area and expand out to the country that we live in. Then we expand out to the world and not only this world but other worlds. And not only other worlds but we reach the point where without that all the space pervading that all the sentient beings pervading space without limit in any direction I will will bring them happiness.
Okay. So there’s no interspace, is there? Okay. So wherever there’s space, there’s a sentient being. Wherever we go, we’re never going to find a place where there aren’t sentient beings.
You know, if we go in a rocket ship, we’re never going to find a place where there aren’t sentient beings, any of the direction. Alright. So there there are a hundred one hundred. One two three. There are ten ten billion worlds like this world that we live in.
So in the universe is designed, shaped in the middle is Mount Meru and around it are four continents. and around it are four continents, and there is a whole world system. And this is an entire world system and there are ten billion of these world systems. No matter what direction we go, if we go one hundred years in this direction or one hundred years in the down direction, we are always going to find sentient beings. So this this is this is what the the Buddha said himself.
So, you know, we cannot say that there are that there are people that there are beings who are born here and there are and but this place, there are no beings that are born. There is no place where sentient beings are not born. We ourselves have taken rebirth. There’s no place that we haven’t taken rebirth. We’ve taken rebirth as a God innumerable times.
We’ve taken rebirth as a human innumerable times. So we have to meditate with great force again and again. This thought that that that I am going to bring happiness to all mother sentient beings as vast as space. So as the same degree as the force of our love and compassion, that much near is Buddhahood. So then we having developed the love we go on to meditate on exceptional resolve.
Try to cultivate the thought thinking that all these infinite number of mother sentient beings, though they desire happiness they don’t have happiness and though they don’t want suffering they are tortured by suffering and that I myself, they make this firm determination without depending upon the Buddhas, without depending upon the Bodhisattvas, that I myself take responsibility to give all these sentient beings happiness and to place them in happiness and to separate them from suffering. So before when we were cultivating, when we were cultivating loving kindness, we thought that we decided, we really developed a thought to repay the kindness of sentient beings, give them the happiness and separate them from suffering. But here when we are developing exceptional resolve, actually make the determination that I am going to do it. You know it’s like when we are going shopping and we think well I need to buy this or I need to buy that and we just are thinking about the various needs that we have. When we actually say, oh, I’m really going to buy this, make a determination, I’m actually going to purchase it, then make a decision, I’m going to buy it.
Not do we see a need but make a decision, I’m going to buy it. So this is the same here in exceptional resolve. We make a decision, we come to a decision. I take sole responsibility to bring this about. So when we think about it, make this decision.
I must bring happiness to sentient beings. I must separate them from all their suffering. But you know, I made this decision but do I really have the ability to do this? Does any sentient being have the ability to do this? So we have to, when we question does anyone have the ability to bring this about, to place sentient beings in happiness and to separate them from the suffering.
So we question does anyone have this ability and it seems. So we have to make examination. We have to examine, well does anybody have, is there any being that has ability to bring this about? Does anyone have the power to do this? And can I myself gain this ability or this power to bring this about? So when we make an examination that who has the power or the ability to bring it in that we decided upon about, we decided that it is only a Buddha who has the ability.
It is only at Buddhahood that one has the ability to develop the power to actually bring this decision into reality. That even the unimaginable qualities the body, speech and mind of the Buddha is that merely the light from the body of a Buddha is able to bring about the benefit of all sentient beings. So and even the single speech of a Buddha, sentient beings have innumerable desires, innumerable aspirations. Sentient beings have innumerable wishes, variety of wishes. They have innumerable languages but the single speech of the Buddha can fulfill all the needs and all the aspirations of sentient beings whatever language they speak.
And it fulfills all their wishes. So it can the Buddha’s speech can cover all subjects. So if one attains Buddhahood then one has that power. Therefore when you consider the qualities Buddhahood and the decision that you have made, then you decide that I must attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. So one comes to the understanding I must attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings but then questions do I actually have the power to do that?
I have the ability.