Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 23-minute session, Khensur Rinpoche examines the four mindful establishments, a foundational Theravadin insight meditation practice. He describes how practitioners at Kopan cultivate awareness by narrating their movements—raising the foot, the foot rising, placing it down—anchoring mindfulness in direct sensation throughout daily activity. He explores how this approach develops continuous mindfulness of body, feelings, and mental states without relying on single-pointed focus, then contrasts it with the Tibetan Buddhist emphasis on sustained concentration on a single object. Useful for practitioners interested in comparing meditation methods across Buddhist traditions.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-08-05 – Side 3 – KR.MP3
UUID: a08abc80-e654-4ed2-bbf2-aa39e5d13d7b
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Ornament of Clear Realization
Date: 1989-08-05
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~227
This transcript was generated using AI speech recognition and has been reviewed for Buddhist terminology accuracy. Some inaccuracies may remain. Please refer to the original audio recording as the authoritative source.
# Khensur Rinpoche 19890805 Ornament Side 3 **Collection:** Rinpoche Recordings — Ornament of Clear Realisation (1989-90) **Duration:** 23.5 minutes **Words:** 227 **Model:** Deepgram Nova-3 **Corrections applied:** 0 **Transcribed:** 2026-02-28 21:49 — So this, the four mindful establishments is one of the main meditations in Theravadin tradition. This is what they usually call insight meditation. Rinpoche was at Kopan they were…
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# Khensur Rinpoche 19890805 Ornament Side 3
**Collection:** Rinpoche Recordings — Ornament of Clear Realisation (1989-90)
**Duration:** 23.5 minutes
**Words:** 227
**Model:** Deepgram Nova-3
**Corrections applied:** 0
**Transcribed:** 2026-02-28 21:49
—
So this, the four mindful establishments is one of the main meditations in Theravadin tradition. This is what they usually call insight meditation. Rinpoche was at Kopan they were meditating in this way and they would for example be very mindful of the movements of their body. The way they would note how their foot would think to themselves, I’m raising my foot, my foot is rising and it’s moving, now I’m putting it down, now my left foot is rising and I’m moving and now I’m putting it down. They would be mindful of the body, they would be mindful of the feelings in the mind.
This is the four establishments, mindful establishments. So they would keep the mind on the, for example, the rise and the fall of the foot. I wish I did think this is a good way to keep the mind inside. To keep to just, you know, I’m raising my foot, I’m lowering my foot, and to be very mindful of whatever they were doing. So they don’t put much emphasis on developing single-minded placement which is emphasized more in the way we are meditating.
That they are trying to keep the develop the mind being able to place it, to be able to keep their mindfulness going constantly but not in a single-minded way. Single-minded placement upon a single object.