Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 94-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche establishes that mental peace, not physical circumstance, is the foundation of happiness — making meditation essential. He defines meditation as the capacity to focus uninterruptedly on a chosen object through concentration, then illustrates this with concrete examples: possessions multiply endlessly without bringing satisfaction; bodily hardship is irrelevant if the mind is stable; mental happiness from study is immeasurable while physical pleasure is finite. He then addresses practical training: subduing coarse afflictions (anger, desire, jealousy, pride) through analytical meditation rather than fixative meditation alone, since the latter suppresses them only temporarily. He explores the six faults of cyclic existence and grounds the teachings in action by dedicating merit to earthquake victims in Nepal. For practitioners familiar with Lamrim teachings.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2015-04-29 – KR.mp3
UUID: 52a6ed2e-82b4-4f11-9058-ef12b58ed3c2
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Meditation
Date: 2015-04-29
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,983
When we are speaking of a motivation, we are speaking of a single pointedly focused mind which is not distracted to anything else. Then since it is critical for us to meditate, it is critical to understand how the beginning of meditation is the motivation and it is also very important for us to engage in meditation. Then in this context, it’s extremely important to define the nature of meditation. We talked about it last Wednesday and I believe Chris was not there. Chris, what is the nature of meditation?
If you don’t attend teaching, this happens. Thank you. In your opinion, what is the nature of meditation? How do you identify meditation? You meditate so you should understand, right?
And Jin, I think you were not there either, what is the nature of meditation? I think you not at that time so could you? So your answers on the nature of meditation are average. In general, meditation is the capacity to let the mind dwell uninterruptedly in a relaxed fashion on whichever object one chooses, relying on the mental factor of concentration. Then this capacity to focus the mind uninterruptedly on object is extremely important, isn’t it?
So this capacity is extraordinarily important and it is one we should study. For instance, let us say we have to study a topic for two hours and we have developed these great powers of concentration. It is possible to complete these studies then in half the time in one hour. So because we lack these powers of concentration, we waste a tremendous amount of time. Meditation, in other words, familiarization with an object entails focusing uninterruptedly on this object and it is of tremendous benefit.
Then when we wish to study, some are unable to even engage in study out of laziness. Those who are able to engage in study are unable to understand the topic studied out of lack of acumen. Finally, some, even though they are able to understand it, are unable to focus uninterruptedly. Meditation, gom in Tibetan, in other words entails preventing the mind from being distracted outwards and placing it in a state of peace. This is a source of great happiness.
However much our mind is focused on an exterior object by that much, is our mind troubled and afflicted? So the way to mental peace is the opposite one. If our mind is thoroughly pacified, then whatever physical hardship we experience will not affect our mental peace. This is a case because our body in this situation follows our mind. On the other hand, it is very obvious, it is reality that whatever the level of physical happiness we may be experiencing, if our minds are troubled, then we will not experience happiness.
And we can see that if our mind, in other words, pure consciousness is at peace, then whatever physical difficulties we may be experiencing, our sense organs are able to perform their function. I’m not saying this for you to take it on board as such. You should check for yourself in your own experience. Otherwise, just to take on board what people say is not terribly meaningful. It’s extremely important to realize that if your minds are at peace and are happy, nothing will disturb you and if they are not, everything will.
We can see for instance that if our minds are at peace, then even if our bodies are defective, if we have lost a limb, a hand, even half the body, nonetheless, we are still able to think and to function. On the other hand, if the mind itself is troubled, then it is impossible to give them any work of any type, isn’t it? Then our minds should be the lords of our bodies and not the other way round. We always ask each other, are you healthy? And when we say healthy, we only think of physical health, but actually it is mental health we should be thinking about.
This is why the holy elder and this is also to be found in the Lamrim always inquired, is your mind happy? Then instead of asking as the Tibetans do, is your body healthy, literally? The holy elder always asks, is your mind happy and has your mind been good? Now this is in profound accordance with the Lamrim since these are the teachings of the ancient Kadampa Geshes which were rooted in experience. Then if one is being a little bit casual, one just says, is your body okay?
But if one uses honorific language and say, Is your honorable body happy? Then this is rather meaningless. Instead one should ask all of you, Are your minds happy? Then instead of focusing on the body, when we speak of health, we should focus on the mind. Then as a doubt might arise after all, if I don’t take really good care of my body, I will die and then it’s all over.
And this is a legitimate doubt. To this doubt, Śāntideva in Bodhicaryāvatāra responds and says, to this body, your servant, pay its salary and then put it to work. In other words, one must take care of one’s physical health to be able to put one’s body to work for a virtuous cause. And Śāntideva adds, if it does not function well, just throw it aside. This is great advice since it is advice which is directly related with profound experience.
It is true that we should take good care of our body of our aggregates, but this should be done only with the main goal in mind, which is our mental health. For instance, let us say an Australian was planning to go to India and even though the final destination is India, the question arises how he or she will go to India? Would it be via Singapore, via Malaysia or some other way? Likewise, even though our final goal is the mind, contingently we must focus on the body. Therefore the foundation for our happiness must be mental happiness.
If we fancy that we can root our happiness only in physical happiness, we will never be satisfied with physical happiness and this will just be suffering and suffering. Think about the fact that the mental happiness which arises from study is immeasurable. On the other hand, physical happiness is finite. It has a contaminated cause. As Śāntideva says in Bodhicaryāvatāra, after generating bodhicitta, the mind goes from happiness to happiness.
When we try to satisfy our body with physical happiness, that physical happiness is finite, it is limited. For instance, in our addiction to sense pleasures such as taste and tactile sensations, we lack all sense of measure and satisfaction. Let us take for instance, tactile sensations, our most powerful pleasures. Then wishing for instance, for a nice outfit which will feel smooth to the skin, we go to effort to acquire an outfit. Then one outfit is not enough, so we get a second.
Then two outfits are not enough, so we have to earn some money to buy extra outfits. Eventually, we have so many outfits we cannot wear them. At this point, most of them go to waste. Then buying outfits which we cannot use, we need a lot of money. To acquire this money, we need to work.
Since we don’t use the outfits, this money which can be used for something else is wasted. All this amounts to a huge waste. This is something we can see in our own lives. And you can see this with houses, right? Houses are exterior material objects, so they can’t provide a lot of satisfaction.
You So get one house and then you decide you’re an investor, so you get a second house and then another house. Then there’s no satisfaction with the number of houses you have. So all of this is a result of lack of contentment on our side. As Ārya Nāgārjuna says in his Letter to a Friend, it is precisely through lack of contentment which is supreme that we experience mental suffering. It is precisely through lack of contentment, through lack of the supreme contentment, through not understanding the qualities of contentment that we experience such suffering.
And therefore, we should ask ourselves, how can I make my mind contented? How can I make my mind happy? How can I make my mind rich and wealthy? And if we think in this way, then we ourselves will be happy, others will be happy as well. As I explained last time, at the level of the being of the small scope, the main object of abandonment are inappropriate unsuitable deeds of body and of speech.
However, at the level of the being of the middling scope, since the target is within one’s own mind, then the objects of abandonment are more difficult, they are the afflictions. And therefore the main topic I have covered so far is how to turn the mind into the master of the body, how to find the means to generate mental happiness, whereas until now we have overwhelmingly focused on giving rise to physical happiness. And therefore, when we generate the motivation, instead of setting the mind on an exterior object, we should focus the mind on this without waving. Setting or generating the motivation is to meditate. Then for a couple of seconds, Śāntideva said in Bodhicaryāvatāra, unless it is addressed by the mind, it is impossible to eliminate suffering.
And the meaning of this verse is that unless the mind itself eliminates suffering, the rest is mere talk. And therefore protect the mind and do not focus on conduct. It is indeed this way to study. It is difficult to protect the mind because the mind is beginningless. On the other hand, our body for instance is finite, it has an end.
When we say to protect the mind, we mean not to succumb to the afflictions. Now, not succumbing to the coarse afflictions, this is something we can manage. Then we understand the faults of coarse anger, of coarse desire, of coarse envy, of coarse jealousy, we are able to counter them. Then if we reflect on this carefully, we can see how to create mental happiness. Therefore, it is important to start by realizing our own happiness.
Just to pray and say, may the world be happy, may all sentient beings happy is of little benefit if any. Instead, we should start by realizing our own happiness and then after that, if we want to pray, we can pray. Then through subduing coarse anger, coarse desire, coarse jealousy, coarse pride, world peace and happiness will come. Otherwise, if we wish to subjugate the four elements, this is impossible. You saw what happened in Nepal.
Then, through subduing the afflictions, we can eliminate war and so forth, since war and strife are not natural states of affairs. As for the earthquake in Nepal, they said some 4,000 people and more than four thousand died. There is nothing we can do to prevent that, nor can we for that matter prevent floods or fires. This is nature. Then in the context of earthquakes such as these, we should reflect on the extraordinary suffering and hardship experienced by the victims and say to ourselves, I will do whatever I can to help.
To prevent them is not possible. It’s not within our power. Then if instead of that, one should sit in one’s corner in a comfortable country and gloat and think I’m doing well, death and impermanence will catch up with us. And therefore, this is something to which it is important to dedicate one’s roots of virtue at the end when you dedicate virtue, think about this. I have nothing special to add.
In Pabongka Rinpoche’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand in the context of the path of the being of the middling scope while explaining the noble truth of suffering. Suffering is subdivided into two, the general sufferings of cyclic existence and the specific sufferings of cyclic existence. And the general sufferings are subdivided into six. The first is the suffering or the fault of uncertainty. The second, fault of dissatisfaction.
The third, fault of having to relinquish one’s body over and again. The fourth, the fault of being conceived over and again. The fifth, the fault of falling from the high to the low. And the sixth, the fault of being friendless. Then I have no specific explanations regarding these outlines.
We should reflect on their meaning in the light of our experience. However, the second thought, the thought of dissatisfaction alludes to the lack of contentment of which Ārya Nāgārjuna has spoken of in the Letter to a Friend. We should therefore generate contentment. If we lack contentment, however wealthy we may be, we are no different from a beggar since we have the same craving for wealth as a beggar. So I don’t have anything special to add regarding the six faults.
I would like to repeat that we should endeavor for our minds to become masters of our bodies and to find the means for mental happiness. And the means for mental happiness is not to succumb to the coarse afflictions, coarse anger, coarse desire, coarse jealousy, coarse pride and so forth. Instead, if when the coarse afflictions arise, we bow at their feet and say do whatever you wish, we will never be happy. Then it is while these coarse afflictions are not present within our minds that we should reflect on their faults and see their faults as faults. For instance, it is while anger is not present within our mind that we should see the faults of anger.
And then when anger arises, we can target it and control it. Otherwise reflecting on the thoughts of anger when anger has arisen makes it difficult to control. As Langri Thangpa says in the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, when within one’s continuum, the afflictions arise, counter them with force. When they arise, use violence to counter them. So we will stop here.
If you have questions, please ask your questions. Ask them concisely in few words so that we do not waste time. So these faults first, lack of certainty. Second, lack of satisfaction. Third, the fault of relinquishing one’s body over and again.
Fourth, the fault of being conceived over and again. Fifthly, the fault of falling from the high to the low. And sixthly, the thought of being friendless. And another. This refers to power to basically withdraw within oneself what is not withdrawn within oneself.
Then in our case, since if we are not careful, we will fall completely under the sway of the afflictions. When the afflictions try to take over our mind, using power, we withdraw our mind from the afflictions. If we’re using violence, we withdraw our mind and prevent it from falling under the sway of the afflictions. If you reflect on the faults of the afflictions before they arise, then you have hope to avoid falling under their sway. Another?
I’m sorry. I do not remember the term for attention in Tibetan. It’s not the one I use. Is it you have another English synonym? Concentration is a capacity of the mind to focus and to dwell single pointedly on its referent object.
No, concentration and intention are part of meditation. When one generates the intention forcefully, this is meditation. It is true that physical happiness can give rise to mental happiness but it is transient and ephemeral, it is not stable as is true mental happiness which arises for instance from study. No, I don’t think there is any fault or sin involved in erasing files as long as they are superfluous or unnecessary. We have a big problem.
Right? The motivation should be that in relation with the work since this is in this case a commentary on the Lamrim, we should think can these Lamrim teachings in general be of benefit to people? And another question, Samin? Yes, when one is meditating, when the factor of clarity arises, this is part of meditation. And here in a second.
Analytical meditation and fixative meditation are not contradictory or incompatible. Generally speaking, meditation we defined as the mind’s capacity to dwell in a relaxed fashion continuously on its object of observation. Within the context of meditation, within the mind dwelling in a relaxed fashion continuously on its object of meditation, if the mind analyzes or investigates its object, then this is analytical meditation. For instance, if the mind is focused on death and impermanence and within this focus on death and impermanence, one reflects on one’s own death, the fact that one’s death is certain, the time of one’s death is uncertain and so forth to give rise to a strong sense of this death and impermanence, is analytical meditation. Fixative or concentration meditation occurs when the mind is single pointedly focused on its object without any analysis or investigation.
The mind engages its object single pointedly. Another. If one wishes to subdue the coarse afflictions, then one should rely on analytical meditation. Fixative or concentration meditation can only cause the coarse afflictions to subside temporarily. It cannot eliminate them.
No, vigilance inflicts no pain on the mind in the process. When you use a metaphor, the metaphor is there to enable one to understand that which it is a metaphor of. Not all elements of the metaphor can be systematically interpreted. Thank you. Yeah, I don’t have to translate.
Then in this context, I think regarding the earthquake in Nepal, we have definitely accumulated roots of virtue today and we should dedicate them to all of the innocent victims of the earthquake who died in atrocious sufferings, gaining at the very least a good rebirth It should focus on this.
Key terms in this teaching
- analytical meditation vicarabhavana (Skt); che gom (Tib)
- Of the two main types of meditation, this is a meditation where the subject is examined using logical reasoning, as opposed to single-pointed concentration or fixed meditation where the mind focuses on one single object. LYWA
- bodhicitta jang chub sem (Tib)
- A principal consciousness that combines the two factors of wishing to free all beings from suffering and of wishing to attain enlightenment in order to achieve that; the spontaneous altruistic mind of enlightenment can be either aspirational or engaging. LYWA
- cyclic existence samsara (Skt); khor wa (Tib)
- The six realms of conditioned existence, three lower - hell, hungry ghost and animal - and three upper - human, demigod and god. LYWA
- lamrim
- The graduated path. A presentation of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings in a form suitable for the step-by-step training of a disciple. LYWA
- thought transformation lojong (Tib)
- Also known as “mind training” or “mind transformation”. A powerful approach to the development of bodhicitta, in which the mind is trained to use all situations, both happy and unhappy, as a means to destroy self-cherishing and self-grasping. LYWA
Definitions adapted from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive glossary, as taught in the Gelug tradition.