Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 50-minute talk, Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen teaches the foundational principles of mind training, the lojong practice central to the Mahāyāna path. He begins with the essential motivation—the awakened heart—and then establishes why all Buddhist teaching ultimately aims to tame the mind by weakening negative states and strengthening positive ones. Using the metaphor of cold water warmed by hot water, he explains how afflictive emotions like anger, attachment, and ignorance gradually diminish as their antidotes grow stronger. For anger, he teaches love and compassion; for attachment, he offers practical contemplations on faults and skeletal forms, and relational perspectives (viewing elders as parents, peers as siblings). He addresses ignorance through meditation on dependent arising. The talk closes with reflections on the preciousness of human life—its rarity, its capacity for Dharma practice, and the stakes of practice: a fortunate or unfortunate rebirth determined by the karmic imprints we leave on our minds. Suitable for newcomers and established practitioners alike.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1997 – Side 1 – #4 – KR.mp3
UUID: 1d675416-52a3-4ece-8051-6a10712c2f7b
Teacher: Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen
Collection: Mind Training
Date: 1997 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,020
So we’ll begin by meditating for a few moments, cultivating the kind hearted attitude of the awakened heart as our motivation. I must establish myself and all living beings in a state completely free of all suffering and where they have complete happiness. And in order to achieve that end, I must rid my mind of all its undesirable faults and bring to consummation all its desirable qualities. The aspiration to achieve such a state is the awakened heart. And in order to achieve such a state, a state which is whereby each of ourselves is rid of our various faults and have brought to consummation all our excellent qualities.
That we develop as our motivation to that end that I am going to listen to this present teaching on the essence of the universal view of doctrine, the Mahāyāna. That teaching which sets out the means for developing the precious awakened heart, the seven point training of the mind. That I am going to listen to this teaching having once listened to it, reflect upon it, meditate, and put it into practice. So quoting from a verse where it says to that that all of the teachings of the Buddha along with the various commentaries which were explaining which were made in to in order to explain the teachings of the Buddha by the various past masters were all set out for the purpose of taming our minds. That is to say, to reduce the negative states of mind and to promote positive states of mind.
So all of the undesired suffering that we experience arises from the mind itself. There we are constituted of two the body and the mind. And it is the mind which leads us into suffering. Due to the rising of various negative states such as the various afflictive emotions, we are led to involve ourselves in negative activities. We create unskillful karma.
And as a result of that unskillful karma, experience suffering. What are to do in such a situation when we want to be rid of suffering and on the contrary wish to experience only happiness? That we have to implement various methods whereby to eliminate the negative states of mind, but not only to eliminate them in a temporal sense, to eliminate them from their very root. If we are able to do this, then we can we can completely eliminate suffering. We can eliminate our undesired experiences from their root.
What do we mean by negative states of mind? We can these are exemplified by such states as attachment, anger, pride, jealousy, and ignorance. These are all these constitutes negative states of mind. So how are we to bring about a cessation of undesired suffering, what the experiences that we don’t want? It is by cultivating an antidote to these negative states of mind.
As the antidotes increase in their forcefulness, their opposing states, that is to say the negative states, will decrease of themselves. The reason that we so many we go through so many undesired experiences in terms of our suffering is that the antidotes are weak in nature, but on the contrary, our negative states are powerful. So by way of analogy, it’s like trying to raise the temperature of cold water by pouring hot water in. Presently, as we increase the amount of hot water slowly the overall temperature rises and soon the cold is completely diminished. It’s gone.
Likewise with these negative states as we increase the forcefulness of the antidote the that those negative states which we’re seeking to be rid of will be will cease of themselves. But it’s obvious from this analogy that it in without adding hot water, then there’s no way that the cold water is gonna warm up. So the hot water which we’re adding to the code is analogous to positive states of mind. And how are we to go about and practice adding this hot water positive states? It’s necessary that we cultivate these positive states of mind.
At first, it’s necessary for us to identify, well, what are positive states of mind? And then to reflect upon them to meditate, that is to say actually cultivate and practice them. And slowly the positive states will increase and the negative will of itself decrease. But so gradually tomorrow we will our mind will be that much more positive. The day after tomorrow, it will be that much more positive, and so forth, and onward, and on and on and on.
So initially, we must recognize for ourselves within our own minds what is the most forceful of these negative states of mind. Perhaps it’s anger attachment or perhaps it’s jealousy or miserliness or pride or whatever it might be to recognize it and once having ascertained what is the most forceful of our particular negative states to begin to oppose that particular state. By way of example, we could take anger, we all experience anger from time to time, and we need to oppose it. And the way that we can oppose it is by cultivating the contrary positive state, those states of mind such as love and compassion. Anger is a desire that the the other person not have happiness, that in fact that they be that they suffer, that they be harmed in some way.
Love and compassion are the complete opposite. Love is the wish that the other person be happy and compassion is a wish that they not suffer, that they not experience any harm. So these act as the contrary states as an act as antidotes to the negative state of anger. Thinking look at the negative state of attachment. Here, in the case of other persons, we see them in an exaggerated fashion.
Either perhaps in terms of their body, their shape, or their color. Though it might be, they may be handsome or beautiful, but we go on to exaggerate that quality about them. We what we we perceive exceeds the actual state of the object itself. And so in order to to oppose that that exaggerated that grasping at the exaggerated qualities, we look at the faults of the object in order to bring it back as an antidote. Today, the teaching that was given is on the meditation on foulness.
Today, bet maybe you wouldn’t enjoy meditating on that. So another good way to work with attachment, especially toward others bodies is to imagine them as having no flesh to to see them only as skeletons. This is really a good one. Again, if you were, you know, completely captivated by someone’s complexion, you thought what a what a wonderful color and complexion they have. Then you could imagine them as having a yellowish complexion or even a black complexion or maybe their body is covered with oozing blisters with blood dripping out.
So continuing with this, it would in terms of antidotes for others whom we have attachment, if in the case of those who are older than ourselves, then we should look upon them in terms of if they are males to see them, to think of them as our father. Or if they were, if they’re females, to think of them as our mother. Generally, don’t have it, have a sexual attachment toward fathers and mothers. Or if they were, you know, of equal of our own age, then we could think of them as our brother or a sister. Or if they were younger than ourselves, think of them as our children.
So there’s a variety of measures that we can make use of in in our meditation as antidotes. But again, another negative state which we which we may seek which we which may be predominant within ourselves is that of ignorance or bewilderment. It can be translated as ignorance. There are three root afflictions. Those of attachment, anger, and ignorance.
And if predominant negative state of our mind is that of ignorance, then we should meditate on dependent arising, especially that phenomena, that products arise in dependence upon causes and conditions, that they’re dependent upon causes and conditions for their existence. The reason that we meditate is to put to an end that which has been continually harming ourselves. And that is to say the afflictive emotions. If we can cease harming ourselves, then we will experience well-being. This is the purpose of the Dharma.
Understanding the purpose of Dharma, though we may understand the purpose of Dharma, there’s we lack an inclination to actually practice it. And so it’s necessary for us to arouse a real longing to to practice the Dharma. And so one of the ways that we can begin is by gaining appreciation for our our human life composed of leisures and fortune. How meaningful what great meaning such a life is and that its difficulty in finding such a life. And once we appreciate its great meaningfulness and its difficult its difficulty in finding such a life, then we won’t allow it to be wasted.
We’ll we’ll we’ll long to actually make use of it. So we have a human life, a life is of a higher rebirth or high status. And this human life of ours is extremely precious. It is it is in dependence upon such a precious embodiment that we’re able to practice the Dharma. And it is by practicing the Dharma that we can eliminate completely our suffering and achieve an ultimate happiness.
This is the great meaningfulness of such a human life. But this human embodiment which we all possess, the means of which we can cultivate the Dharma, is not something that everyone has. That it That it has very specific characteristics, which makes it so very precious. For example, an animal cannot carry on a practice of Dharma. They cannot implement the methods whereby to eliminate their suffering.
And again, even those beings below the state of an animal, those beings such as hungry ghosts who go without food and drink, and beneath them, being the hell beings are unable to carry on a practice of Dharma. But even those beings who are higher in status than ourselves, the celestial beings who have much a much better type of embodiment, greater pleasures than ourselves. Even they have obstacles in their practice of Dharma that most of them don’t even consider practice of Dharma, and many of them are absorbed in pleasure like states very close to sleep, and there’s no practice of Dharma. But even amongst humans, there is not all who have the precious, the type of precious life that we have, who whereby we can carry on a practice of Dharma. There’s many of them who who many amongst humans who simply do not accept religious spiritual practice.
For example, the communist Chinese, they, you know, they Red Chinese. Oh, China. Red. They they don’t they don’t they have don’t accept the the spiritual practice. They don’t accept the existence of, for example, past and future lives.
Therefore, they there’s no inclination to practice the Dharma. But even amongst those who who accept the Dharma, the the practice of spirituality in general, they there there are those who though accepting their practice, have various physical faults, physical problems, disabilities. They lack certain senses which present a great obstacle to them actually practicing the Dharma. And again, there are those who may wish to practice some type of spirituality, but in case of those who abide in places where Buddhism, the Dharma of Buddhism has not reached, where there is not even the existence of books where they can read, they too have an obstacle to their practice. And with regard to those who have created extreme negativities and the amongst these extreme extremes of negativities are such as having killed one’s mother or one’s father or an Arhat, a Destroyer.
They have tremendous obstacles to their practice. So even even where there are there are no inhibitory conditions, it’s necessary that there be supportive conditions present. There must be a must be a place where the Dharma is still extant, where it’s being taught, and where there are practitioners actually trying to implement the teachings. So if we were to reflect upon our individual situations, we would see that this is what we all possess is an extremely wonderful opportunity that we have all of the, all of the supports and conditions necessary to, whereby to carry on a practice. It’s like a golden opportunity for us to practice the Dharma.
So we have such a precious human life, precious human life which is tremendous meaning, which is tremendously meaningful, which is, has been difficult to have found. A life whereby we can rid ourselves of all our suffering whatsoever and find and achieve a final happiness. That this embodiment which we all possess has such a capacity. So, you know, if we were to put the question to you, you know, we we keep saying how precious the the Dharma is and especially that of the Mahāyāna, the universal vehicle. And, you know, if we were, if we were saying, well, why is it so precious?
You know, what exactly is the great purpose of which we can make, to which we can make use of the Dharma and the Mahāyāna? If we were to put that question to you, what would you answer? So we have to we have to reflect. We have to think about this. What do I get out of practicing Dharma?
What do I miss out of if I don’t practice the Dharma? So, yeah, we’re all free individuals that we can do as we wish. We can do as we like. We can practice or not practice according to our wish. But so we have to consider, if I were to practice, what are the benefits?
What are the advantages of practicing? Upon upon our death, we will not be totally annihilated. The body and mind are are distinct. The body upon our death is left behind, but the mind continues on to take rebirth. And where is it going to take rebirth?
Here we, here, while we’re alive, we, we have some freedom. But in the, in the course of taking rebirth, we lack to, we lack freedom in the choice of our rebirth. If we have practiced the Dharma, then we can be assured that we will take a fortunate rebirth. If we have not, then we will take an unfortunate rebirth. There’s no choice in this.
There’s no, that it’s already decided by what we’ve done. It is our mind which will continue on to take rebirth, and it is our mind which carries the latencies of our past actions, what we’ve done and not done, what the negative and positive actions that we’ve created in the course of this life. There, it is what, what will, upon our death, what, what will we incur that is, that is, that will, is decided in terms of these potencies, latencies, these predispositions which have been left upon our minds by our previous actions. It’s like it’s like printing printing upon a page that it’s set. Though our bodies will not continue on, what is printed within our minds will continue on.
And it’s in terms of what what is written there, which will determine the quality of our rebirth. If, if we have practiced the Dharma, we will have imprinted positive latencies within our minds, and due to the force of these positive latencies, we will go on to take a fortunate rebirth. On the other hand, if we haven’t practiced, if we’ve simply gone about creating negativities over the course of our lives, then due to these predispositions within our mind, we will, we will be thrown into unfortunate rebirth. There’s no agent involved in determining this. It is simply the latencies which have been implanted on our minds.
So in discussing what are the benefits, advantages, on the one hand, we can be assured of a fortunate rebirth of having taken it through our practice. But on the contrary, we forego practice and we can be assured of a negative rebirth, an unfortunate rebirth. So that’s on the one hand. But on another on the on another hand, we could we could say, well, why practice the Dharma? It comes down to the fact that we are all the same in wanting happiness and not wanting to suffer.
That is the basic reason for practicing the Dharma, because we don’t want to suffer, we want to be happy. And it is the function of Dharma to accomplish both of these ends. It is by means of our practice of Dharma, we we will eliminate our suffering. We will bring ourselves happiness. This is the main reason.
We practice because we don’t want to suffer, and we want to be happy. Therefore, we implement these methods to achieve that end. Just like if, you know, we’re always after money. We’re, you know, more money, money, money, we want money. Maybe we wanted to feed our our empty stomachs.
Maybe we wanted to clothe our naked body. For whatever reason, that’s what we want. So we we implement methods to get it. But money at best can only be of limited benefit in the course of this life. It can supply us with food and clothing for this life.
But but here we’re talking about something not only for this life, but also for the benefit of future lives. You know, we can’t even take 1¢ with us to a future life. Likewise, we have to leave behind our our own body. Whatever we may have gathered together accumulated over the course of this life, no matter how rich, no matter how many material possessions our house and even our own body will all have to be left behind at the time of our death. That whether one is a rich person, whether or whether one is a beggar, at one’s death one goes forth equally the same.