Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 52-minute talk, Kyabje Rinpoche guides students through a profound meditation on death and impermanence, the essential foundation for genuine dharma practice. After settling the mind on the breath and establishing bodhicitta motivation, he moves into extended analytical contemplation: on the certainty of death and our unknown proximity to it; the unpredictability of when death strikes (more factors support death than life); the futility of seeking protection through wealth, relationships, or medicine; and crucially, that only dharma practice can benefit us at the moment of death. He weaves teachings from Lama Tsongkhapa, Pabongka Rinpoche, and other masters, offering concrete visualizations and counterintuitive examples to shake practitioners free of complacency. The teaching is intensely practical, for those ready to take their mortality seriously.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2011-04-23 – KR.mp3
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Meditation
Date: 2023-04-11
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,170
Very good morning everybody. Welcome back. So we’ll continue. Just taking a few moments to settle the mind. Adjusting our posture.
Just remembering the points that Rinpoche talked about yesterday. Just taking the object of a meditation, the natural in and out breath. Resting awareness at a point as it air enters and leaves the nostrils or the rising and falling of the diaphragm. Noting when the mind is distracted and guiding it back. We can think of the merit field.
Body checking in. Just breathing in white light. As Rinpoche said, we don’t meditate with our body, we meditate with our mind. The motivation is what makes a difference between our actions being virtuous or non virtuous, limited or expansive. And so we think of the wonderful opportunity that we have to be sitting here today.
Uncertain as to which will occur next, our next breath or our next life. Such is impermanence. We only have to look into our minds to get a clue as to where we’ll be going next. The weight of our non virtue will take us straight down to the lower realms. We already have one leg in the grave.
We reflect that there is not one atom of happiness within the cycle of lives within saṃsāra. Nothing whatsoever to rely upon. Thinking this way, it is natural that we wish to find a way out, to escape. We need a reliable refuge. Someone who has paved the way before us, who we can trust.
And then we think, I am just one, others are many. And just to think of my own welfare is extremely shortsighted, especially when we think that we’re only here because of the kindness of countless suffering mother sentient beings who are as vast as space. Therefore, we need a vast motivation. And so we can think, will take this opportunity to do what I can to bring to fruition all my positive qualities, purify all my negative characteristics. And so we can aspire to what is the highest that we can conceive in terms of love, compassion and wisdom.
And this, of course, is a state of enlightenment, the Buddha. We need no other refuge. The teachings, what do you mean to practice, the actual refuge, the spiritual friends? So I’ll just pause for a minute as we think of our body, speech, and motivation. And so to consolidate these thoughts, we will recite the Refuge in bodhicitta prayer, page two, verse one a, then the four immeasurables, and then the three principal aspects of the path.
Page two. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. By the merit of practicing generosity and so on, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings? I go for refuge in enlighten to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, by the merit of practicing generosity and so on, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings? I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
By the merit of practicing generosity and so on, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and its causes. May all sentient beings never be separated from happiness and be free of suffering. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment and anger, holding some close and others distant.
Homage to all the foremost holy Lamas. I will explain as best I can the essential meaning of all the conquerors’ teachings, path praised by his noble children, a crossing for the fortunate seeking liberation. Listening with clear minds, those fortunate of you who are attached to the pleasures of conditioned existence and striving that your life of freedom and richness will find meaning, entrust yourselves to paths pleasing to the conquerors. Without real renunciation, there is no way to stop struggling for sought pleasures in the seas of conditioned existence, and addiction to such existence utterly enslaves you. Thus, at the outset, seek the will to awaken. Freedoms and richness are hard to find, and life does not last long.
Keeping this always in mind will alter the priority you give to this life, thinking again and again about the unvarying relation between actions and their effects. The sufferings of cyclic existence will alter the priority you give to future lives. Meditating in this way, when your thoughts are turned, night and day, towards liberation, and not even for a moment do you entertain a wish for the pleasures of cyclic existence, then you have given birth to the will to awaken. But even such a will, if not conjoined with a complete opening of your heart, does not serve as cause for the perfect bliss of highest awakening. Thus, those of you who truly understand, go on to develop the Supreme Awakened Heart.
Think about what is happening to your mothers, how they are swept along in the currents of four raging rivers, bound by the near unbreakable chains of compulsive actions and held in the iron grip of self grasping. Think how they are enveloped in the thick darkness of ignorance, are reborn into limitless lives, and in those lives are relentlessly made to bear the three sufferings. In this way give birth to the highest of hearts. But even if you were to instill within you the will to awaken and the awakened heart, without the wisdom realizing reality, the Awakened Mind,, still you have no way to cut the root of conditioned existence. Thus work with a means of realizing, dependent arising.
Whoever sees the unvarying relation between a cause and its effect in all things of cyclic existence and beyond, and brings to an end holding them as real, has entered onto the path that pleases the Buddhas. As long as the two, appearance as infallible, dependent arising, and emptiness as freedom from assertion is true, appear distinct one from another, you have yet to realize the subduer’s intent. But when they no longer alternate but coincide, such that in the mere seeing of the infallibility of dependent arising, definite knowledge totally destroys the way you conceive of things as real, then your analysis of the view is complete. Moreover, the extreme of true existence is dispelled by appearance and that of non existence by emptiness. If you understand the way emptiness finds expression within the context of cause and effect, you will no longer be captivated by extreme views.
Then, when you have realized just as they are these essentials of the three principal aspects of the path, resort to solitude, intensify your joyous effort, and quickly, my child, fulfill your eternal dream. So we’ll just spend a couple of minutes Just further watching your breath. We’ll continue straight into our analytical meditation. And here we contemplate, think about the points being presented. If we get a sense of what’s being said, the meaning holding that suspend analysis as that fades.
Resume analyzing. The question arises: What is the actual way to extract the essence from our optimum human rebirth? According to the teachings, is to recall that your present rebirth will not last long and that you will die. We all have an intellectual appreciation, but our minds really don’t want to go there. Venerable Kyabje Khensur Rinpoche has said that in the West especially, we are afflicted by permanence.
He said, At the moment we think we understand impermanence, but we don’t. We have this mindset that the person here now is the same as the one tonight. We plan for tomorrow and the day after. We think in terms of permanence, which is very strong in our mind. Does 01:00 exist in 02:00?
No. The first minute doesn’t exist in the second minute. Likewise, the being that we see in the morning doesn’t exist in the afternoon. We think the opposite, that the being here existed yesterday. We have permanence in our mind, but every moment is changing.
Impermanence is very subtle. After the first moment, the second moment is disintegration. Once death occurs, there is rebirth. Mindfulness of death and impermanence is the exact medicine we need to jolt us out of our complacency. In fact, is the doorway into our practice, the dynamite to loosen our attachment to the transience of this life.
If we don’t meditate on death, there are six drawbacks or faults. Will it become caught up in and preoccupied with the many demands of this life food, clothing, work, family, friends, etc, to the detriment of practicing Dharma? Venerable Pabongka Rinpoche says, Every day that passes without your recalling impermanence is a day of your life wasted. We may consider death occasionally, but always think it will come later and therefore procrastinate. I’ll practice Dharma next year, we say, meanwhile our human life is running out.
We may practice, but because we’re so caught up with the concerns of this life, attachments to pleasure, praise, gain and having a good reputation or being averse to any pain, blame, loss, notoriety or criticism, Our practice is not pure. We may practice, but not seriously, without any perseverance, and eventually get bored and give it away. Without meditating on death and impermanence, our craving for the things of this life only increase, our actions become more non virtuous and life begins to hurt us. When death does occur we are filled with unbearable regret. All will be over except our suffering.
We should fear death now we are advised. Rinpoche once said that the temporary pain and discomfort associated with the death of this life is just evidence of our attachment to this life. It is nothing compared with the interminable suffering of the cycle of lives. This is what we should fear. There are many benefits if we do recall death each day.
Your practice becomes really pure. The Buddha said among all attitudes that of death and impermanence is best. Your practice becomes powerful, destroying the delusions. Recollecting death acts as a cause to start practicing Dharma. It acts as a condition to stimulate you to work hard at the Dharma.
It helps to bring your practice to a successful conclusion, to complete the path and achieve enlightenment for others. Finally, you will die with a peaceful and happy mind, confident like a son or daughter who is returning to their parents’ home. So imagine that you’re in the final stages of a terminal illness. You’re fortunate to be dying either on your bed at home, in a hospice or in a hospital. It’s been a long time since the doctors told you that there was nothing more that could be done for you.
It’s a matter now of trying to keep you as comfortable as possible. You’ve sorted out your affairs, said goodbye many times to family and friends. Perform various spiritual practices, putting things right as much as possible. Your vision and hearing are fading, your body feels heavy and you are aware of some pain. Someone is weeping quietly nearby.
Death is certain. The Lord of death will inevitably come, and no circumstance at all can prevent this. All conditioned phenomena are impermanent. If the Buddha died, why do you think you won’t? Who in this room will be living in a hundred years from now?
There’s nowhere to hide, Not even rebirth averts death. No medicine, mantra, diet or gym program can avert death. Although death is the only event that is certain to occur, we don’t count it among our plans. Think of someone you know who has died. Ask yourself, in what way am I different to this person that I will not die also?
Nothing is being added to your lifespan. You become closer to death every moment. Like a condemned person walking to the gallows to be hung, each step is closer to the inevitable. Water falling in a waterfall will quickly reach the river below, so it is with each day of their lives falling to our death. As Venerable Lama Tsongkhapa says, If we were to fall from a high cliff, there’s no enjoyment whilst falling, and yet this is our plight with every passing day.
Riding on water quickly vanishes, as does a flash of lightning in a dark night sky. So is the transience of your life. Like sheep driven into a fold, so you are driven by birth, old age and sickness into the fold of death. Our life is like a play, it has a beginning, middle and end. Soon this retreat will be over, and so will our lives.
Death will certainly come regardless of whether you’ve made time to practice Dharma. Death fires its arrows and eventually we are hit. Venerable Pabongka Rinpoche says, Perhaps twenty years of remembering that one should do practice, perhaps twenty years of being forever about to do a practice, perhaps another ten years of saying, ‘I never did a practice.’ That’s the story of an empty and wasted human life. We can think how many hours we sleep, work, shop, cook, eat, travel, socialize. Are sick, feel depressed, frustrated, angry, and so on?
And how much time do we seriously practice the Dharma? Death is definite, therefore I must practice Dharma. The time of death is uncertain, the lifespan of beings in this world is uncertain. People die at every stage in the life cycle, in the womb, as babies, children, adolescents, young adults, middle age and into old age. We can’t say exactly when a piece of ripe fruit will drop from the tree, or a candle flame be snuffed out in a breeze, such as the uncertainty of the time of death.
We tend to feel that since we have survived so far, our continuation is secure. But thousands of people die every day, and a few of them expect to die. There is simply no guarantee that you have long to live. There are more factors conducive to death than life. External conditions such as storms, floods, fire, earthquakes, thieves, criminals and accidents, all efficiently perform the work of the Lord of Death.
Internal conditions such as disease and mental problems, a tiny blood clot, turns a strong athlete in their prime into a corpse on a cold slab. Things which generally support life can turn into the conditions for death. We can be poisoned by or choke on our food, have a deadly reaction to the very medication meant to cure us. Houses burn down, cars and planes crash, boats sink. Thus it is clear, says Venerable Tsongkhapa, that there are no causes of staying alive that cannot become causes of death.
Our bodies are very fragile. If mountains, rivers, planets and galaxies come and go, what is to be said for our mere bodies? Our bodies are as insignificant and fragile as a bubble on water blown by the wind. We should therefore be more surprised each morning when we wake up that we are alive and by the reality of death and impermanence. When many people die we say, How terrible, what’s happening?
We just take permanence for granted and don’t say, Why is anyone alive today? Venerable Lama Tsongkhapa advises us to think every day. I will die today. Or at least, I will probably die today. Venerable Geshe Lhundup Sopa says, While eating, no one thinks, ‘I will die before this plate of food is finished.’ But it can happen.
He continues, When you borrow a tool, you take good care of it and use it properly. You don’t waste time because you’ll have to return it soon. Your body is like a precious and powerful tool. Utilize this life to achieve the highest goal while your body remains serviceable. Conclusion.
The time of my death is completely uncertain, therefore I must practice Dharma now. For at the time of death, nothing but the Dharma can benefit. Wealth cannot help. The only thing that we can take with us at the time of death is what is in our mind stream, whether virtuous or non virtuous. Attachment to our possessions only causes us grief, we can’t take them with us.
Like a traveler settling in a place for the night, we’re just passing through, therefore there’s no point to become so attached to this life. Friends and relatives cannot take our place. Only we can experience our death by ourselves, regardless of who was with us at the time. Our attachments and aversions only exacerbate our suffering. Our own body cannot help.
This most treasured and pampered possession of ours at death is nothing more than a hindrance and must be discarded. Conclusion. As nothing but the Dharma will help me at the time of death, I must practice Dharma purely. Venerable, Lama Zonkapa advises us, look at your body now and always see the future corpse. You must train yourself meticulously in what it is to die, not just some vague awareness of death.
Venerable Tsongkhapa says: Although it is quite hard to produce this mindfulness of death, you must work hard at it because it is the foundation of the path. Finally, Kyabje Khensur Rinpoche says, We’ve attained a precious human rebirth, met the perfect Dharma, the teacher and friends. If we don’t take care of ourselves given all these ideal conditions, we’re very foolish, dumb. If you truly love yourself, he said, it’s so important to investigate what’s really important in life, this life or the future. Once we’ve realized that death is definite, make sure you prioritize your life and you’ll be successful in this life and future lives.
But put more emphasis on future lives. Very good. Whatever benefits we’ve gained from our meditation, we’ll dedicate it for the benefit of ourselves and all beings, and success of the Dharma wherever it is. Page 10, verse nine to 12. Oh holy and venerable Lama, from the clouds of compassion, you are the source of all happiness and bliss, all powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso, please remain till the end of existence.
Should the situation arise where the Supreme Precious Teachings no longer pervade, although pervading should they degenerate, then through the mind being moved by great compassion may the treasure of benefit and happiness be revealed. May the jewel of Supreme bodhicitta which has not arisen arise and may it never diminish but increase more and more. May all Father and Mother sentient beings be happy and successful, may all the abodes of evil migration always be empty, and may the prayers of all bodhisattvas, wherever they are and wherever they reside, be quickly accomplished. I hope we all finish our breakfast this morning.