Mind Training — 2012-06-13

Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. Kyabje Rinpoche uses the Wheel of Life—pig for ignorance, rooster for desire, snake for anger—as a teaching frame for how afflictions arise. In this 122-minute talk, he traces a causal chain: ignorance of true self gives rise to self-cherishing, which generates desire, which produces anger. Concrete examples ground the abstract: shame from public criticism, sleeplessness from jealousy, a dog’s rage over threatened meat. Rinpoche distinguishes afflictive desire (a mental poison) from virtuous aspiration (wish for liberation). Throughout, he emphasizes that understanding afflictions requires study, but subduing them requires reliance on a qualified spiritual teacher—the foundation of Buddhist practice. The teaching closes with student Q&A on the Wheel’s symbolism.

File metadata (for organising)

File: 2012-06-13 – KR.mp3

UUID: 8d7e1dad-e54f-453a-b042-eb1eeb6ca530

Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche

Collection: Mind Training

Date: 2012-06-13

Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide

Words: ~4,386

Dharmakīrti said in his Pramānavārttika, the root of all non virtues to be found in the afflictions and this is corroborated by Candrakīrti in his Madhyamakāvatāra. Since there isn’t a very clear introduction to the nature of the afflictions in the Lamrim, Geshe-la will as we progress give an introduction to what the afflictions are. Now generally speaking, all existence or all phenomena are subdivided into two categories, permanent and impermanent phenomena. Impermanent phenomena in turn are subdivided into three. Matter, consciousness and non associated compositional phenomena.

You might wonder what precisely the afflictions are. They are definitely phenomena. Then within the twofold subdivision of permanent and impermanent phenomena, they are impermanent phenomena or things. Then within the threefold subdivision of things, you might wonder if they are matter or non associated compositional phenomena. Actually, are consciousness.

Generally speaking, little is said about the afflictions apart from the presentation of main minds and mental factors within Lorig, mind and mental factors. And the main section of the teachings which is devoted to a presentation of the afflictions is Abhidharma.. Your translator will not be staying in Australia for a while and Geshe-la in the future when he returns would very much like to give a presentation on Lorig. This understanding of Lorig is extremely important to be able to identify clearly the nature of the afflictions or the delusions. Generally speaking, we all know what anger, desire, envy or competitiveness are when we experience them.

That does not mean that we are able to identify clearly their nature. And we can see when we speak of people who are angry and we say he is angry, the problem in our perspective. We are identifying the person with the anger. This is not the case at all. The person is controlled by anger under the thrall of anger, but we cannot say the person is anger.

Then, this leads to problems in one’s analysis. If one identifies the person with the delusions he or she is experiencing, then what one might wonder, when this person attains the state of an Arhat, they have abandoned the delusions. They have for instance abandoned anger. Then can we say that this person at that point ceases to exist? Obviously not.

There is a specific method to Geshe-la’s approach. If one immediately tries to generate the motivation at the beginning of a teaching and tries to meditate for two minutes on such a superficial motivation, it will not become weighty or powerful. For this reason it is important to give, before generating the motivation, an introduction to the Dharma. Then the motivation can become weighty. What precisely are afflictions, delusions or disturbers??

These are mental factors which when they arise within our mind generate an inappropriate unsuitable state of mind. If we analyze what happens within our minds when anger arises, we can see that one of the main functions of anger is to disturb or trouble the mind. This is one of the key features of anger. If we take the case of envy or the main function of envy or jealousy, jealousy is to make it insupportable for us to think of the qualities of another person. We see this in our own experience.

If for instance, we know of somebody who has remarkable qualities and this person has obtained excellent grades at an examination or we have obtained lesser grades. Our mind is suffused with envy for this person and we think to to ourselves, how did he do it? Then we find this thought insupportable and even when we eat, it is probable that our food will have no taste because the envy within our mind, the jealousy within our mind prevents the realization of the taste of food. Then most probably we will be unable to fall asleep until two or 03:00 in the morning. All of us understand this, both you and Geshe-la.

And then thinking of the good grades this person has received, we think how can I bring him down a notch? How can I make him feel sorry? We call this cutting tall poppies in Australia, I think. All of us know what envy is, what jealousy is, and the difficulties it causes. Sometimes it can last for two or three days.

All of us are equal in this matter. From the Buddhist standpoint, all of these afflictions, anger, desire, envy, jealousy, competitiveness are minds. They are present both within sense consciousnesses and mental consciousnesses. As Asaṇga says in the Abhidharma Samuchaya, the Abhidharma treatise of the Mahāyāna, desire is present in the six consciousnesses. This refers to the five sense consciousnesses and to mental consciousness.

And therefore, war, desire and anger are present both within the sense consciousnesses and within mental consciousness according to Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośa of Vasubandhu, the other afflictions which include envy, competitiveness, doubt, wrong views are not present within the sense consciousnesses but are only present within mental consciousness. However, it is very difficult to understand these topics without Lorig. And Geshe-la hopes that in the future we will have teachings on Lorig at Tārā Institute. And not just teachings like these where people have come and attend in a very passive mode, but teachings which will also include after this perhaps one hour of discussion during which people analyze topics. Otherwise, as one learns something, one forgets it to pass on to something else.

This is something of which Geshe-la has great experience in the monasteries. The monastery or the monastic procedure involves not just understanding and retaining a topic, but reflecting on it over and again. Then it is not sufficient for the topic to be retained in the mind and reflected upon. In turn, one must practice and live these topics. How does anger arise within our minds?

When we see another person whose face is inflamed and in addition, we hear speech this other person is uttering, which is probably not kind and respectful speech. Then anger actually arises within our sense consciousnesses which are perceiving this. The stanza of Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra which says, there is no greater power of destruction than anger. In one instant of anger, it is possible to destroy the virtue accrued over one thousand eons, does not refer to anger which arises within sense consciousnesses, but refers to anger which arises within the mental consciousness. As Candrakīrti says in the Madhyamakāvatāra, since anger is able to destroy the roots of virtue accumulated during one hundred eons, there is no greater ascetic practice than forbearance.

This corroborates the stanza in Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra. Here, the anger which is referred to is anger within the context of mental consciousness. Anger within the context of the sense consciousnesses does not have the power to destroy the roots of virtue accumulated during one hundred eons. Anger which arises within the sense consciousnesses acts as the servant as it were of that anger which arises within the mental consciousness. As is said in Pramānavārttika, what is the root of anger?

The root of anger is desire. Yet, anger and desire cannot arise simultaneously. Desire is an affliction which arises with respect to an agreeable object. While anger is an affliction which arises with respect to a disagreeable object. They are contradictory.

It is not appropriate for you to attend teachings like this without reflecting on the meaning. Instead, you should from your own side analyze what is said and ask yourself whether this is true or not. As Dharmakīrti says in Pramānavārttika, all thoughts arise from the conception of the disintegrating composite. From desire, anger arises and those from desire, from ignorance. This is a very clear quote.

It clearly indicates that ignorance gives rise to desire and in dependence on desire, anger arises. Then between these, one has to place self-cherishing which is not explicitly mentioned. And therefore, if one fleshes out, Dharmakīrti’s quote, from the ignorance which misapprehends an inherently existing self arises self-cherishing, from self-cherishing arises desire and from desire arises anger. Think well about this quote, do not expect to understand it easily. This is not something which with our level of training we can hope to understand.

It is a product of the deep reflection of these great beings from our side. What we can hope for is to generate some type of conviction in this. Now you might wonder how is it possible for anger to arise from desire. Desire is a pleasurable and happy state of mind. Anger is a very unpleasant state of mind.

In addition, anger and desire are contradictory. So let us take an example to understand how this would proceed and how anger might arise from desire. Imagine that you are in a crowd of many students and that someone in a position of authority, it might be a lord, it might be your teacher or your parents, let’s say a teacher turns towards you in this large crowd and says, you there, so and so. What you said, your behavior, your attitude is completely inappropriate and says so forcefully in front of everyone else. Your face is going to change.

Your heart is going to sink. And eventually, despite the respect for your teacher, anger will arise within your mind. What does this anger arise from? It arises from the desire for other human beings. In other words, the desire for the respect of others.

Check for yourself and see if this is true. From his own experience, Geshe-la knows this. Before he became a Geshe, when he was an older student, there was Tsome, in other words, an assembled offering within the lhachi. In other words, the assembly hall of both Sera Je and Sera Mei. Several thousand monks were present in excess of 2,000.

And the assistant of the disciplinarian, the so called Chöpa, who was in the same class as Geshe-la saw Geshe-la in his opinion speaking. He came up to him and he struck him with a whip. The shame Geshe-la felt at being struck with a whip was so great that he actually did not feel the pain for several minutes. All he could think of was the shame he experienced. It stopped the pain.

So you can see that in dependence on the condition of shame, the pain of the blow was not experienced. We can see this very well with dogs if you have dogs. Imagine that you have given a piece of meat to a dog, your dog, and then you try to take the piece of meat back. You will see that out of desire for the meat, anger instantaneously arises in the mind of the dog and he growls at you. Isn’t that so?

Where is he? It’s easy to understand, isn’t it? All of us within our mind streams have anger. It is 100% sure, if we examine, that the cause of this anger is desire. On the other hand, it seems impossible for desire to arise from anger.

Then why are we assembled here today? We are assembled to try to understand the dharma. It is definite in Geshe-la’s own mind that there is no renunciation, no bodhicitta, and no understanding of emptiness in his own mind. He cannot say for our minds, but he suspects it is probably the same thing. So what is the point of attending these teachings?

We cannot hope for these high states, but within our minds there are the afflictions. There is desire, there is anger, there is jealousy, there is competitiveness. And through the application of the antidotes, which we can understand through the teachings, we can cause desire, anger, jealousy, competitiveness and so forth to decrease. To eliminate them is very difficult, but we can cause them quietly over time to decrease. This is of great benefit.

Aspiration. Last time when Geshe-la asked the, assembled students questions, he noticed that most of the students felt there were two types of desire. One type of desire which was faulty and the other type of desire which was not faulty. This is totally at odds with the Buddhist teachings and the Buddhist viewpoint. From the Buddhist standpoint, all desire without exception is a fault.

There is you have to make a distinction between desire on the one hand, ‘dod chags in Tibetan, and aspiration or wishing on the other hand, smon pa in Tibetan. For all desire is an aspiration or a wish, not all aspiration or wishes are desires. If we take an instance, a form of desire would be for instance, the desire for food with the idea or with the wish to satisfy our contaminated aggregates, in other words, our body mainly alone. In the analysis of the Four Noble Truths which sees impermanence as giving rise to suffering and what is suffering as being misconstrued as permanent, we can clearly see that that superimposition on an agreeable object which sees it as supreme is actually the cause which gives rise to desire. It and desire are in a causal relationship.

And therefore, all desires are faulty, are false. There is no such thing as a desire with qualities. On the other hand, what would be an example of an aspiration or a wish which is not a desire? The best example would be the wish or the aspiration to be from the, excuse me, the wish or the aspiration to be freed from these contaminated aggregates for the sake of obtaining liberation, of obtaining bodhicitta, of understanding impermanence, of realizing full enlightenment and so forth. In Every single case, this would be a wish or an aspiration, but it would not be desired precisely because its goal is liberation, the understanding of impermanence, bodhicitta and full enlightenment.

And we can therefore see that desire anger arises from desire. Desire in turn arises from self-cherishing and self-cherishing arises from the ignorance which misconceives the person which is a mere imputation on the basis of the contaminated aggregates to be an inherently existing substantial existent. Based on that ignorance, self-cherishing arises, self-cherishing in turn gives rise to desire and desire in turn which is the superimposition of a sense of excellence on the basis of what is merely agreeable, desire in turn gives rise to anger. And therefore, let us reflect over again in this way on the fact that anger arises from desire, desire arises from self-cherishing, self-cherishing arises from the ignorance which misapprehends the self. self-cherishing and that ignorance which misapprehends the self are quite similar.

Technically speaking, they are similar in terms of the object of observation, but dissimilar in terms of aspect. But we will leave that aside. And you can see this if you observe carefully a Khorlo, a representation of the Wheel of Life. You can see in the center of the wheel of life, which is surrounded by the 12 links of dependent origination, a pig, a rooster and a snake. The rooster and the snake come out of the mouth of the pig.

The pig symbolizes benightedness or ignorance, the rooster symbolizes desire, and the snake symbolizes anger. Therefore, this very clearly shows that anger and desire arise out of ignorance. Within our minds, we have all of these afflictions which have been described. We have desire, we have anger, we have pride, we have competitiveness, we have jealousy and envy. And our goal has to be to cause them to subside, but they will not subside by themselves nor is there any hope that they will subside under the power of prayer.

Prayer is totally ineffective in these matters, it is totally useless. They will only subside if the antidotes are applied. To apply the antidotes, we must understand what these afflictions are. To understand what they are, we must study them in the great treatises. Therefore, first we must study and then on the basis of study, we must practice.

This is a motivation we should try to generate. Now within our minds, there is anger. Why and generally speaking, within the minds of animals, is anger in general as well. Why has the snake been chosen as a symbol of anger? So what are your answers?

Many animals are poisonous. Why specifically were snakes chosen? Like in Tibet? Yeah. Yeah.

Very small. Short. Yeah. Very lazy. They have very small fangs.

They can’t really inflict a lot of harm. Those are good answers. You’ve given some thought to the topic. Then regarding desire, in turn, all of us have desire and desire’s main setting is a sense consciousness. It is in dependence on sensory desire, desire for visual objects, for sounds, for smells, for tastes and for tactile sensations that mental desire in turn arises.

So Geshele would like to know why the rooster is chosen as an example of desire. What is your answer? All birds, I was gonna say crow in the morning. It isn’t very productive. You know a lot more about visitors than I do.

I translate. One of us have ignorance, benightedness and misapprehension of the self as inherently existent. Why choose specifically the pig as an example? Yeah. Yeah.

Just maybe excuse me. Is that Sam? Yes? That’s the most ingenious by far. So your reasons for good, then the Tibetans have a particular understanding of why the pig is ignorant.

It’s because the pig is always rooting in the ground and he never looks at the sky. Then the one time he lies on his and he looks at the sky, he thinks, my, how strange. He never looks at the sky. All of the afflictions without exception are therefore rooted within these three core afflictions, ignorance, desire and anger. Therefore, we must study their nature in detail and understand them.

However, studying them is insufficient. We must apply the antidotes to cause them to subside, to dwindle within our mind stream. Otherwise, mere analysis leads nowhere. To understand these afflictions, we must study them and then in turn to cause them to subside, we must apply the antidote to each of the afflictions. To understand what these antidotes are, we in turn must study and we must study with a teacher who can teach us what the antidotes are.

For this reason, it is said that the foundation of the path is the virtuous friend or the friend of virtue. The Tibetan term for virtuous friend is which when summarized gives There are numerous commentaries on the virtuous friend or the friend of virtue by Lama Tsongkhapa, by our teacher, Khensur Rinpoche. Rinpoche says that the virtue which is referred to here is liberation and therefore that the virtuous friend or the friend of virtue is a friend of liberation. His Holiness Dalai Lama on the other hand says that virtue here refers to the ordinary virtue within our mind stream and friend refers to that friend who enables us to realize this virtue. Therefore, the spiritual friend, the friend of virtue, the Kalyanamita in Sanskrit is extremely important for this reason.

It is said in the Lamrim, the root of the path, the friend of virtue and upon relying upon the friend of virtue, how to train the mind. So the function of the spiritual teacher is therefore to lead one to the subsiding of the afflictions. To give an example, an English teacher is a teacher of English for those who do not speak English. He is not a teacher of the English language for those who speak English who have no need to learn English all over again. And this is the reason for which the 10 features of the spiritual teacher which are listed in the Mahāyāna Sutralamkara by Maitreya include the spiritual teachers being subdued, very subdued, totally subdued, greater in qualities than their disciples and so forth.

Therefore, in addition to being subdued, very subdued and highly subdued, the virtuous friend must have greater qualities than the disciple. He must also be energetic and he must be skillful in speech. In other words, skillful in the means to subdue the disciple. In addition, the spiritual friend or the friend of virtue must be of the nature of love. In other words, he must have love for his disciples and he must have abandoned depression or despondency.

This is a dangerous relationship, especially once you enter into a relationship with a Tantric Guru from whom one has received the four initiations, it is said that such a guru must be examined for for for twelve years, and in turn that the guru must examine the disciple for twelve years. This is not the relationship Geshe-la enters with you. However, you from your side must examine very carefully before entering in that relationship. There is a lot to be said in Buddhadharma about the gain, about the spiritual teacher. If one’s practice is built on the inseparable union of faith in the spiritual teacher and intensive study, then one will progress very far in one’s practice.

Otherwise, on the basis of faith alone, there is no progress. As is said in the Essence of Nectar Lamrim, through the blessing of all of the Buddhas of the 10 directions penetrating into the pore of the mind, one will progress to the realizations of all of the grounds and paths. Here the pore of the mind is a metaphor for the openness of the mind to the blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and it is specifically in dependence on the blessing of the spiritual teacher that all the grounds and paths will be realized. And therefore, this is the advice Geshe-la would like to give us. It is to study carefully at the beginning and through careful study upon seeing that this is indeed the things, the way things are, faith will naturally arise.

Then one can conjoin faith and study. And an example is given for this in the life of Atisha. Dromtonpa and Jangchubpa, two of Atisha’s foremost disciples served Atisha continually while Mahayogi engaged only in meditation. Eventually, they decided to compare their realizations and they found that those of Dromtonpa and Jangchub were higher than those of Mahayogi. When Dromtonpa tended to Atisha, when Atisha was very ill, Dromtonpa carried Atisha’s feces out of Atisha’s hut in his hands without any sense of disgust or revulsion and as a result of his faith in Atisha, he gained paranormal powers which enabled him to perceive everything which happened within a radius of eighteen days of journey on foot.

It is also said that when Trichon Gyeltsen Gyatso was in retreat, his student Potowa Rinchen Sal served him carrying often huge stones which were necessary to build or to consolidate the hut of Trichon Gyeltsen Gyatso. And in gratitude, his teacher allowed him to taste of his cup of inner offering. When Potowa tasted Trichon Gyeltsen Gyatso’s inner offering, instantaneously powerful renunciation arose in his mind under the power of the blessing of the spiritual teacher. Geshe-la will not cover much more on this topic. We have covered very succinctly the presentation of the advantages of relying on the spiritual teacher and Geshe-la will later cover the advantages, the disadvantages of not relying on the spiritual teacher.

Your translator will be leaving for Switzerland to be by the side of his mother on Monday. And therefore the prayers at the end of this class should be dedicated to the smooth trip of your translator back to Switzerland and to the well-being of his mother. Since we have a karmic connection, there will be some efficacy to these prayers. And on Sunday, you will be gathering to discuss the mind training, the Lojong teachings. Then Geshe-la would like to ask the older and more experienced students to guide the younger students and specifically to ask questions from them to clarify their understanding.

Then he would like to ask you to summarize the two or three central questions you have on Sunday and to ask them to him on Wednesday and he will answer them that Wednesday. Then if you have questions, Geshe-la will take one or two questions. Yes, please. All of the advantages of relying on the spiritual teacher are not explained within advantages of relying on the spiritual teacher and the eight disadvantages of not relying on the spiritual teacher. However, in the case of what you have mentioned, it would be included within some of the eight advantages of relying on the spiritual teacher.

Then Geshe-la has not explained them in detail but he can do it in the future. Yes. Have Very difficult. Very difficult. Very difficult.

Very difficult, yeah. Very difficult. Just the belief very difficult. You must understand that such a person through the recitation, let’s say, of mantras, accumulates tremendous virtue. There’s a very big difference between accumulating virtue on the one side and the qualities of understanding involved in renunciation, bodhicitta, or the correct view of emptiness.

Within the three indispensable factors for gaining realizations which Mañjuśrī imparted to Je Tsongkhapa after Je Tsongkhapa single pointedly entreated him and which Je Tsongkhapa received in a vision. Mañjuśrī said reliance on the spiritual teacher inseparable from the tutelary deity, number one. Number two, the accumulation of merit and the purification of faults. And number three, taking as substantial cause of the path one studies. This is as clear as it gets.

To attain full enlightenment, we need both collections, the collection of merit and the collection of wisdom. Are there other questions? Yes, please. So regarding the pig, it is probably because of the fact that in his locomotion, his elementary habits, the pig is not careful. Then he becomes a symbol for ignorance.

Then regarding the snake, there is, Geshe-la remembers a quote in Asaṇga’s Abhidharma Samuchaya regarding the violence of the snake. Regarding the rooster, he does not remember and he apologizes. Then pigs have big ears. There must be some sort of connection. Then, I mean, pigs have tiny porcine eyes.

There has to be something to do with that too. Then with our eyes, which are large, we can see, afar. Pigs with their tiny eyes can see close-up, then this must be a sign of ignorance too. Hi.

Key terms in this teaching

contaminated aggregates zagchä kyi phung po (Tib)

The aggregates of an ordinary being that are contaminated by the seeds of delusion and therefore pervaded by suffering because they are controlled by delusion and karma. LYWA

grounds and paths sa lam (Tib)

Various advanced mental states that are achieved through meditation and practice. LYWA

inner offering nang chö (Tib)

A tantric offering whose basis of transformation is one’s five aggregates visualized as the five meats and the five nectars. 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

lorig

Awareness and knowledge, the study of mind and mental factors, in order to understand and control the delusions. LYWA

mental factors chaita (Skt); sem jung (Tib)

Literally arising from the mind, a mental factor is a cognition that apprehends an attribute of its object and accompanies any principal consciousness that is concordant with it. LYWA

self-cherishing dag che par dzin pa (Tib)

The self-centered attitude of considering one’s own happiness to be more important than that of others. 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.