Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 81-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche addresses a foundational confusion in Buddhist practice: the difference between physical and mental suffering. He opens by challenging the habit of reciting mantras for headaches and stomachaches, insisting that physical ailments require medicine, not prayers. Setting physical suffering aside, he focuses on mental suffering, which arises from afflictions—anger, desire, jealousy—not external circumstances. He traces these afflictions back to self-grasping (the sense of “I”) and explains that only by realizing emptiness and selflessness can we eliminate afflictions and attain liberation. Throughout the talk, he applies this framework to the Four Noble Truths, emphasizing that understanding suffering and its causes opens the path to genuine freedom. The session includes extended Q&A on calm abiding, pure lands, and fear of selflessness.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2015-09-16 – KR.mp3
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Four Noble Truths
Date: 2016-09-15
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,657
This differentiation between physical and mental suffering is a critical one for us to make. Now setting aside physical suffering, as far as mental suffering is concerned, we can understand clearly what mental suffering is when we see that even though we have the best of material conditions, all the food we required, we require good lodging, good facilities. Nonetheless, it is possible for durable mental fear, suffering and anxiety to be present. These are instances of mental suffering. So this is clear now.
The importance of the distinction between physical and mental suffering. Do you understand? Okay. This is extremely important. We are systematically infected by the confusion between physical and mental suffering.
This definitely was my case when I was younger before I had studied the great treatises. I just naively thought that physical and suffering, mental suffering were one and the same. And then when I was sick, let’s say I had a headache, I would recite Manis or when I had a stomachache, I would recite Manis. This is extremely stupid behavior. How exactly are Manis recitation of Om Mani Padme Hum going to help a stomachache or a headache?
Now this is a confusion which has infected all of the traditional Buddhist countries, all of the Asian countries in which people believe that physical and mental suffering are one and the same and when you have health problems, you go to the temple and you make prayers or you recite mantras. This is silly. When you have health problems, take medicine. So therefore, it is critical to differentiate in this way between physical and mental suffering. Physical suffering is not addressed through mantras and through prayers but through ingesting medicine or receiving an injection or whatever.
Let us therefore set physical suffering aside. Now mental suffering, what is the cause of mental suffering? The cause of mental suffering is the afflictions. It is within the mind. It is in state of mind mixed with the afflictions.
Now everyone without any doubt understands that physical suffering is suffering. This is something which does not need to be belabored. However, many people are unable to make the distinction between physical and mental suffering and to identify physical suffering as physical suffering. Let us set aside physical suffering at present and focus on mental suffering. As we said, mental suffering is the result of the afflictions.
Afflictions such as anger, coarse desire, envy, jealousy and so forth. If we take the case for instance of envy or jealousy, when we have, we are dealing with someone with whom we are at odds and everyone in this room has someone with whom they are at odds in disharmony and that person achieves their goal, their purpose, clearly we become unhappy, we become uncomfortable, they have achieved their goal, we are envious, we are jealous. This jealousy or this envy gives rise to suffering. That sensation of suffering is a sensation which is of the nature of suffering. The very same thing occurs when desire or anger arise within our mind stream.
They give rise to a sensation of suffering. Now, when these feelings or these sensations of mental suffering arise, we have to identify their ground, the cause where they arise and they arise from the afflictions. Since the afflictions are mental as well, they must be eliminated through mental means, through changing our way of thinking and the goal of the Lamrim of the graduated stages of the path is just this, to change our way of thinking so as to eliminate mental suffering. You will not abandon mental suffering through reciting countless reams of Manis or making long and elaborate prayers. You can only abandon them through changing your way of thinking.
Through reciting Manis, you will accumulate merit. That’s it. So prayer and faith, you will be unable to abandon your sufferings. Prayer and faith are easy, aren’t they? Now, the origin, the source of, this mental suffering is none other than the afflictions.
Through effort, through resolution, we can abandon these afflictions within this life and we can abandon suffering in this life. This is called the attainment of the state of an Arhat. Now when we become an Arhat, probably we will retain these contaminated aggregates and this contaminated body of ours. The source of the afflictions is none other than ignorance. The ignorance which misconstrues the nature of phenomena and the antidote of this ignorance is the wisdom realizing selflessness, the wisdom realizing emptiness.
In this life, to put in great effort repeatedly at understanding emptiness, we will gain this understanding and then gradually incrementally, we will attain the state of an Arhat. Once we have attained the state of an Arhat, we do not abandon this contaminated body of ours. It is still there and it will be there until our death. At the time of our death as an Arhat, we relinquish this body and because of the fundamental mental transformation which occurs when one becomes an Arhat. In the future, one will not have such a body as this one but one will instead have a body which is constituted in dependence on a very subtle form of mind.
Now the positions of the various schools of Buddhist tenets regarding what happens at the time at which an Arhat relinquishes his physical body differs. The lower schools of tenets Vaibhāṣika and Sautrāntika consider that the continuum of the Arhat is severed and literally he or she ceases to exist. The Mahāyāna schools, Cittamātra and Mādhyamika, since they assert the existence of pure lands, assert that the subtle mind of the Arhat is manifested once again in the Pure Lands. Now whether or not Pure Lands exist, this is something for oneself to examine. So at present, I’ve explained the distinction between physical and mental suffering.
Then I’d like to answer some questions. What is physical suffering? Short answer. And? Yeah, yeah.
That’s it. So we said physical suffering aside, what about mental suffering? And another. So it’s approximately correct but you’ve not been able to make the distinction between mental suffering and the source of mental suffering.
Jealousy is not mental suffering nor is anger nor is desire. These are afflictions. It is the suffering which arises from jealousy, the discomfort which arises from jealousy which is mental suffering. You What is mental suffering? Quickly what is mental suffering?
Do you understand? How do you understand? How do you understand all? Really? So when I ask you what mental suffering was, you answered by giving its causes jealousy, anger and so forth.
But these are the causes of mental suffering. Mental suffering is a discomfort which arises from jealousy, the discomfort which arises from anger, not just anger or jealousy. It’s extremely important to differentiate between the physical and the mental, between physical suffering and mental suffering. Then one will have great clarity in one’s analysis. So when the states of mind which think, may I be separated from suffering?
May I be associated and have happiness arise? Why is it inappropriate for me to be bereft of suffering? Why is it inappropriate for me to be happiness to have happiness arise? In your opinions, which arises first and which arises second? They arise simultaneously?
Do they arise sequentially? So when you think may I be happy and you think may I not suffer, do these two thoughts occur at the same time or in sequence?
In reality, they are simultaneous. When the thought arises, may I not suffer? That thought is accompanied by the thought, may I be happy. These are of one nature but different isolates we say in Buddhist philosophy. This is why when Je Tsongkhapa says in his concise Lam Rim, the condensed Lam Rim realizations, if one does not strive at thinking about suffering, how will the mind wishing for liberation arise?
Clearly, the sadness at the thought of cyclic existence occurs at the same time as the wish for liberation. They are of one nature. So now with respect to the presentation of the four noble truths in sequence, the noble truth of suffering, of the origin of suffering, of cessation and of the path. We shall take the first noble truth, noble truth of suffering. As we said, suffering is subdivided into two, physical and mental suffering.
We set physical suffering aside and focus on mental suffering. Now if you have to give an instance of the noble truth of suffering, that instance should be mental suffering. Do you understand? And therefore, specifically, you should give as examples or instances of the Noble Truth of suffering, the mental discomfort which has arisen from anger, the mental discomfort which has arisen from desire and so forth. Now regarding the second noble truth, the noble truth of the origin of suffering, this is quite easy.
Origin is literally the origin of everything and this refers to the afflictions such as anger for instance. The Noble Truth of Suffering and the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering are in a causal relationship. The second Noble Truth, the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering is the cause of the first noble truth, the noble truth of suffering. Therefore, when desire or anger arise within one’s mind stream, they are the cause of the discomfort arisen from desire or anger. Now when we reflect on the thoughts of suffering and the origin of suffering, it becomes evident that their faults are precisely this un pacified nature of the mind when the mind is beset by the afflictions such as anger and ignorance.
Anger and excuse me, anger and desire. Anger and desire are the cause of this un pacified nature of the mind that is evident. Then at present if we ask what the cause of anger and desire is, it is obvious that it is none other than the self grasping which says I, I. When the powerful predilection, the powerful conception which thinks I arises within the mind, there is a very powerful separation between what is on one’s own side and what is against oneself. We have in dependence on this desire for what is on one’s own side, what helps one and anger or hatred for what is on the other side.
This is how in dependence on the ignorance which grasps at an I, desire and anger arise. For so long as we have not abandoned the predilection, the conception which grasps at an I, for so long, we will not have eliminated desire and anger and in dependence on them, we will not have eliminated the karma which will lead us to be reborn over and again experiencing suffering. For so long as we have not abandoned the coarse afflictions, there will exist a base for these coarse afflictions and this base is none other than our contaminated aggregates, our body and the mental aggregates. in dependence on which when we experience hunger, that hunger is insupportable and when we experience a thirst, that thirst is insupportable. When we experience pain, that pain is insupportable.
For so long as we have not abandoned the coarse afflictions, in other words desire and anger for so long will we have to rely on this body of contaminated aggregates. So if you have understood correctly the sequence in which the noble truth of suffering and the noble truth of the origin are presented, then at present, let me ask you a question. Could you give an instance of the noble truth of suffering, an example? In short, in short, quick, please. So having differentiated in suffering between physical and mental suffering and set physical suffering aside, it is extremely important that we be able to identify what mental suffering is.
So that’s for the noble truth of suffering. What about the noble truth of the origin of suffering? Examples. So this is not difficult since we have direct experience of these states of mind within our mind stream. If we didn’t, it would be another story but we have direct experience of anger and so forth within our mind stream.
So once we have clearly understood the faults of the noble truth of suffering, we will clearly understand that the noble truth of the origin of suffering must be abandoned and we have good hope to abandon it and in so doing to eliminate suffering through meditating on the antidote to the noble truth of the origin of suffering which is none other than the wisdom realizing selflessness. This has no relation whatsoever to the abandonment of physical suffering. If you want to abandon physical suffering, you take some medicine or you receive an injection. Very important, very important. Therefore, once one has carefully observed the faults of the noble truths of suffering and of the origin of suffering, one will as is said, realize that the noble truth of suffering is to be understood.
That the noble truth of the origin of suffering is to be abandoned. Now how precisely does one abandon the noble truth of the origin of suffering, in other words the afflictions? Through understanding their root cause which is none other than the ignorance which grasps at a self and through applying the antidote to this ignorance which is the wisdom realizing selflessness. Let us therefore generate the following motivation intending to after understanding the faults of the noble truth of suffering, abandon the noble truth of the origin of suffering and understanding that its source is ignorance which grasps at a self and that the antidote to this ignorance is none other than the wisdom realizing emptiness and selflessness. I shall put great effort at studying emptiness and selflessness.
Yeah. And let’s generate this motivation. So the main topic of the path of the being of the middling scope is the four noble truths. Now within the four noble truths, the first two noble truths, the truth of suffering and the truth of the origin of suffering are actually present within our mind stream. Suffering is present within our mind stream and so are the afflictions.
Then we have to ask ourselves if this is a pleasant state of affairs or not. If it is a pleasant state of affairs, we can stop here and now and do something else with our lives. If it isn’t a pleasant state of affairs, we have to find a way to eliminate these two first truths and the way to eliminate them is to understand their source which is the ignorance apprehending a self and then to realize that the antidote to this ignorance is none other than the wisdom realizing selflessness. Then the wisdom realizing selflessness, I think is probably present in the mind of no one in this room. So these two truths, the noble truth of suffering and the origin of suffering are present within our mind stream and their source as was said is the ignorance apprehending a self.
That which dispels or expels these two truths is none other than the wisdom realizing selflessness. Now before engaging in this examination, we have to ask ourselves whether the two truths can be eliminated or not. Clearly, if they cannot be eliminated, we stop here. So therefore the first two truths, the truth of suffering and the origin of suffering are present within our mind stream. There is however a state of permanent happiness which is a liberation from these two truths that is none other than the state of liberation.
How we attain it is as was said through an understanding of the wisdom realizing selflessness or more fundamentally through an understanding of the 12 limbs of dependent origination. Now there are elaborate explanations of the 12 limbs of dependent origination. How relevant they are to us here is open to question. What matters is the understanding that the first limb ignorance gives rise to the second limb karma and through eliminating ignorance, we eliminate in turn the second and third limbs. In brief, what should be our target?
It should be this powerful predilection or conception within our mind. So the target therefore is the origin of suffering which is none other than the ignorance, the afflictions rooted in ignorance and suffering which arises from this. What is the antidote to these? The wisdom realizing selflessness. I will stop here today, otherwise we’d all get very confused.
If you have questions at present, please ask your questions. Short and concise questions, please. Really. Yeah. If one asks the question, does the state of liberation exist?
Is there another answer besides based on scriptural authority? I’m thinking how would you convince somebody who is not a Buddhist that such a state existed? Scripture is of no use in such cases to establish the existence of liberation since the other party does not accept them. So one must with them investigate their state of mind and ask them, are there afflictions such as anger and desire within your mind? Yes or no?
Do they give rise to suffering? Yes or no? What is the cause of this suffering? Then what is the cause of these afflictions which are the cause of that suffering? Is there such a thing as an ignorance grasping at the self?
Can this ignorance grasping at the self be eliminated or not? And that’s explaining to him the causal relation between these which achieves that goal. So these introductions to the existence of liberation must be given through relying on reasoning mixed with one’s own experience. Scriptural quotes are only relevant to other Buddhists. Yep.
And another question. I just had a question about last week’s teaching. How does calm abiding help us achieve the middle scope? So the reason for which calm abiding is necessary to attain the object or the goal of attainment of the path of the middling scope is that to attain nirvana, the goal of the path of the middling scope, one needs a union of calm abiding and insight and these two must be fused. It is impossible to gain such a union of calm abiding and insight without calm abiding first.
Thank you. Geshe-la, Geshe-la taught us that whether the pure lands exist or not is something that we should examine. I’m not really sure what a pure land is. Could Geshe-la explain? So the lower schools of tenets, Sautratnika and Vaibhāṣika do not assert the existence of the Pure Lands.
It’s only the higher schools of tenets Cittamātra and Mādhyamika which do. Now, the reason they do is that once an Arhat has attained Arhathood, he or she remain within the contaminated aggregates they had before they attained arhathood all the way until their death. At their death, they abandon these aggregates and gain pure aggregates. The pure lands are locations which are concordant with these pure aggregates. However, these questions are irrelevant.
What matters is to focus on the fact that we have the truth of suffering and of the origin of suffering within our mind stream and what the antidote to this is, which is the wisdom realizing emptiness, what emptiness is, how one can realize emptiness and so forth. Then in the future when you become an Arhat, I’d be glad to take questions about where you’ll be going later. Exactly. No. Yeah.
Another. So, calm abiding is a state of mind arisen from meditation and to really summarize and make it simple, calm abiding means that when the mind is focused on whatever object of observation, it can be the body of a deity, it can be a butter lamp, an offering lamp or whatever. The mind remains focused clearly on this object for as long as one wishes months or years. So when you have attained calm abiding, you might wonder what happens if you meditate for months or years. How do you eat?
How do you drink? It is no longer necessary to either eat or drink during calm abiding since one no longer depends on the coarse aggregates but one nourishes oneself by what is known as the food of Samādhi, the food of concentration. So at present, we are under the sway of our minds and our mind are under the sway of the afflictions. As a result, we are unable to remain focused on an object of observation, whether it is a butter lamp or the body of a deity for even one minute. See for yourself whether you are able to focus single pointedly on an object of observation for one minute, You will not be able to.
However, when you attain calm abiding, you will be able to. Yeah.
You. You mentioned antidote is to obtain the wisdom of realizing emptiness. Can you elaborate? So I’m happy to do that. You have to stay until midnight.
Will you stay? So I will do this quietly over time. You have to wait a bit. If you are interested in studying emptiness, I will be delighted to teach about emptiness. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. In the future, you know? Yeah. I think next week.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think.
What’s an antidote to a fear of selflessness? Because if I don’t speak up and be heard, I may not get the promotion. You know, the ego just sorry. It’s hard to explain. Yes, I’ll leave it there.
Such fear comes from the extreme of annihilation. The antidote is reflecting on dependent arising. When you reflect on emptiness, you must understand the mode of existence of your eye. Does your eye exist or not? Through experience, we know it exists.
But what is its mode of existence? Okay. Stop here tonight. Thank you.
Key terms in this teaching
- arhat dra chom pa (Tib)
- The Tibetan translates as "foe destroyer." A person who has destroyed their inner enemy, the delusions, and attained liberation from cyclic existence. LYWA
- Cittamatra sem tsam pa (Tib)
- The Mind Only school, one of the two Mahayana (Great Vehicle) philosophical schools. The Mind Only school does not accept external objects but does assert truly established self-knowers. LYWA
- 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
- dependent origination pratityasamutpada (Skt); ten drel (Tib)
- Also called dependent arising. The way that the self and phenomena exist conventionally as relative and interdependent. LYWA
- four noble truths denpa zhi (Tib)
- The subject of the Buddha's first turning of the wheel of Dharma. The truths of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path to the cessation of suffering as seen by an arya. LYWA
- self-grasping dag dzin (Tib)
- The mind that apprehends the self as inherently existent. This refers to both the self of persons and the self of phenomena. LYWA
- shamatha zhi nä (Tib)
- Calm abiding; a state of concentration in which the mind is able to abide steadily, without effort and for as long as desired, on an object of meditation. There are nine stages in its development. LYWA
- two truths den pa nyi (Tib)
- The two ways of relating to phenomena, as conventional or all-obscuring truth, the truth to a worldly mind, and ultimate truth, the truth to a mind engaged in ultimate analysis. LYWA
Definitions adapted from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive glossary, as taught in the Gelug tradition.