Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 43-minute talk for practitioners, Kyabje Rinpoche examines how attachment and aversion drive us to harm both those we like and dislike—and why viewing people as dream-like characters helps dissolve that impulse. He walks through the consequences of self-centeredness, then turns to the practical Buddhist antidote: the Four Opponent Powers for purifying negative karma through sincere regret, commitment to change, applying spiritual antidotes like meditation on emptiness or Vajrasattva mantra, and taking refuge in the Three Jewels. The discussion addresses distinguishing genuine love from attachment, tackles anger and its destructive effects, and concludes with three key determinations for confronting mortality: recognizing the uselessness of possessions at death, the impermanence of relationships, and making spiritual development the guiding principle of life.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1990-05-08 – 3B – Public Talk – KR.mp3
UUID: 09337f73-d0a4-412c-b3a3-a74d66fe756e
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Public Talks
Date: 1990-05-08
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,701
We quite willingly in order to to keep them from us to to harm them, engage in various types of negative actions. So and toward those we like, we willingly engage in various negative actions. For those we don’t like, we quite willingly engage in various types towards those we like, we engage in various types of positive actions. We create positive karma. For those engage in various types of negative actions for those for their sake.
For those we don’t like, we again, because of that non liking or wishing to harm, we engage in various types of negative actions. So as a consequence of our aversion and attachment, we create a great deal of negative actions. We should look at both of these types of people as if they were in fact a dream. This character is in a dream since they’re all impermanent. Whether we like them or whether we don’t like them, they’re all impermanent and someday they’re not going to exist.
And then what is the use of all of the negative actions that you created as a consequence of your attitude toward them? This life to a dream and all the various characters that arise in a dream when we go to sleep. That there will arise people who we like, that we care a great deal for, and just seeing them, like them. Are those who just upon seeing them we develop a great deal of aversion. We develop hatred.
And but so even in a dream with respect to these various appearances there arise hatred and attachment. But upon awakening we say, Oh, that was just a dream. There really weren’t any loved ones in that dream. There really weren’t any enemies in that dream. And likewise through the course of this life there will appear many individuals and some you will develop attachment for, some you develop hatred for, but even they are to be looked upon as a dream because at the end of this life what will have been the use of all of the actions resulting from the hatred and attachment that they will they too are going to you’re going to have to separate from them also.
So, you know, what we’re talking about are some of the faults of self centeredness and this was why the Buddha said that we should cease harming others by out of the influence of self centeredness that we harm others and thereby bring about our own future suffering. So today we’ve discussed a little bit about the the detriments, detriments of self centeredness. And in the future, we’ll talk about the benefits, the positive qualities of other centeredness as opposed to self centeredness. So if you have maybe we can if you have some questions, we can have some discussion. Anybody like to ask a question?
Yes. So as a consequence of bringing harm to others you created negative karma and the sickness that you experienced previously was the result of that negative karma? In what way doesn’t it make sense? So just in the case of a field, when you plant a seed, the crop doesn’t instantly arise. There is a period of waiting ripening.
It may take a few months before the crop grows. And likewise with the result of various actions that we create. That this particular sickness was a result of a karma, but that karma was created during that period in which you were experiencing it. It was created previously. So maybe in the past life it was created.
Yes. So now you’re asking two questions. What do want? Yeah. No.
I just wanna just make you yeah. So your first question okay. And they are So So, you know, there could be this repetitive cycle of returning harm again and again toward one another. And Though one individual may refrain from harming, returning the harm, still the karma is there in your continuum and it will remain there unless it’s destroyed in some other means such as by acknowledging by purification methods. That karma, that latency will remain.
So even though the person refrains, the karma is there, though it’s not ripening, it’s not experiencing the effect of it. Do you have a question? Question? You don’t I don’t appear too satisfied. Do So are there any experiences in which are which are not the result of So all happiness is a result of positive karma.
All of suffering is a result of negative karma. There is no suffering which is not the result of karma. So there’s a method which is called the Four Opponent Powers. If you apply these Four Opponent Powers, then you can eliminate the latencies of the karma, the seeds of the karma. So, four opponent powers.
The first is to develop a sincere regret, understanding the harmful effects of that negative action that you created, and developing the thought, I wish I hadn’t done that very sincerely, is the first. Then, the committing oneself as best as possible, determining determining not to repeat that action again in the future, reversing from that way of acting to cut the continuum of that habitual pattern. The third is to apply some specific type of antidote. This could be any type of there are specific types of antidotes such as one particular mantra is Vajrasattva, but just in general, meditating on love, meditating on emptiness. There’s some type of positive action which serves as a counterbalance to that negative action which you created previously.
And the fourth would be the taking of a direction toward, in this case, the Three Jewels of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha within the Buddhist context. Committing going for refuge, taking that direction. And by means of these four, the negativity is purified. If you again and again apply these four, then you can eliminate the negativity from the very root and you will not have to experience any suffering consequence. Oh, yeah.
I like an example of some positive things that I could put this body to. The and the So, essentially putting to abandoning, making use of this body to harm others and put it in service to benefit others. And this is done through, you know, beginning to put it by means of one’s spiritual practice, means of Dharma, for example. So, you know, you should your mind should say to your body, you know, shaking its finger at your body saying, you you got no more killing. You’re not going to steal anymore.
You’re not going to fight anymore. You’re not going trick anybody anymore anymore. You’re not going to lie to anybody. You’re not going to, you know, use anguished words to others and harm others and directing, you know, gaining directing your control of your mind over your body. If you do any of these, I’m not gonna give you any more food.
So, simply by refraining from these negativities is a positive use of one’s body. But additionally, that we can and we can we could, for example, engage in various types of meditation meditation on emptiness, awakening heart, developing loving kindness, developing love. These are very positive types of conduct. Yeah. And how might I avert anger next time it wells up inside of me?
So first we have to reflect upon all of the various faults or detriments of anger. Anger is such a dissatisfactory attitude to express, and what are its various faults? What are its various detriments? How does it harm oneself? When you may be when there’s no anger, then the mind is at peace.
You know, you can experience happiness. But when the moment anger arises, you’ve lost your peace of mind. There’s no happiness. The mind is in conflict. You are experiencing suffering.
You are are unhappy. You experience all types of so your mind is unhappy. You experience all types of various physical pains. Your eyes get very red. You can’t sleep at night.
Even if you have some delicious food, you can’t taste its flavor. You can’t get along with other people. People see you and you give off this bad vibration. They don’t want to be around you. So there are always these negative consequences of anger.
You know, under the power of anger, we can oftentimes lose control that we say things we hurt people through example with our speech. Even our best friends we say something which will hurt them very deeply our parents, our children. This is all under the force of anger. If people some people actually lose complete control when they become angry, and they even kill people. The the Chinese Chinese have a very strange mannerisms when they become angry.
They stamp their feet, and they slam their hands up and down. So when somebody becomes angry, they get all red in the face and nobody and nobody even wants to look at you when you appear like that. You get this contorted expression on your face. So understanding the the unhealthy quality of anger that it and all its suffering consequences which it brings both to yourself and others and how unskillful it is that through anger that we all of the positive karma that we’ve created is destroyed. And we not only destroy the positive karma, we go on to create unskillful karma.
And therefore, you know, lose our present happiness and we lose the happiness that we the causes that we’ve created in the past. And understanding, you know, reflecting upon all the various faults that anger brings to you, and it doesn’t bring any benefits whatsoever, you will begin to naturally cease and to, in the continuum, cease becoming angry. That not only is oneself unhappy and robbed of peace and your peace, but others around you are made unhappy, and you steal their peace. And that’s on one side. On the other side, we should, you know, look closely at the person we become angry at them, that we become angry at, and try to cultivate love and compassion toward them.
Yes? Laughter? If you if you have non attachment Where does laughter arise? Not of love. No love, no hate.
So I began with the first part of your question because it seemed that maybe some clarification was necessary. That even though one possessed the state of non attachment, they could still have the quality of love, that they’re not exclusive. So you want to go on from there? Though one has non attachment, you could love. You could still have the quality of love.
So, you know, two people can stay together not out of attachment but out of love. So they can have non attachment but still have love for one another. On the other hand, two people, especially young people, they come together not out of love but out of attachment. And the sign that this is probably the case is that even a slight difference will cause them to separate. They become they’re quite quickly divorced.
And that they aren’t able to have a harmonious relationship is a sign that there’s a lack of caring for one another, that they in fact are together out of a sense of attachment. Yes. These qualities of love, compassion, and caring that we’re talking about, they are always accompanied with the attitude of wishing to benefit, to help the other person. Whereas in the case of attachment, this is not the case. There’s no thought to benefit the other person.
The other person simply looks extremely attractive to one and there’s a confused state. And this is the reason that you wish to maintain a relationship, not out of a sense of caring, but a sense of attraction, a sense of the other person brings pleasant appears pleasant and is able to bring pleasure to yourself. There’s no sense of benefiting the other. For example, these For example, the the Buddha has is said to have a caring, a love, compassion for all sentient beings just like that of a mother for for a child. Child.
In this love and compassion there is no attachment whatsoever. So ask mother and father, they have caring, compassion for their child. Do they have attachment toward their child? Anybody want to answer? Okay.
Okay. If we know the particular negativity that we created, then we can apply the Four Opponent Powers in specifically regretting that action. The fact is that we don’t know all of the various negativities that we created. The that we do have a great deal of negativity is, for example, when we try to meditate and our mind goes everywhere. It’s difficult for us to gain any type of realizations, understanding that when we train our mind, we seek to train our mind, it’s very difficult for it go in a positive direction.
It keeps going quite naturally. It’s an uphill battle to keep it from going in a negative direction. So that when we try to think about something very deeply, especially about spiritual matters, our mind becomes blank or it just becomes dark. These are all signs that we have various negative karmas or latencies in our mind. And so toward those negativities which we cannot enumerate specifically, we develop a general sense of regret that I know that I have created many negativities in the past which I cannot remember specifically, and developing a sense of regret for having those which I cannot remember specifically, a general sense of regret for those negative actions.
It’s not necessary that you if possible that you can determine not to repeat the the specific action again when you remember it. But again it can be just a general sense of not turning away from unskillful actions in general. If for example that if you when you have a headache you think well this is a consequence of some unskillful action that I’ve done in the past. I don’t know which one. But and I don’t want to experience this again.
Therefore, I’m not going to — I’m going to try my best not to create the causes for this this suffering again by creating negative actions, and therefore, a general turning away from unskillful actions. Oh, yeah. You’re paying it back and it takes a few years, and you’re doing that quite beautifully. Is that is there is there I mean, is there a point where naturally that karma exhausts itself and then, you know, you feel, well, that’s finished? I mean, should you have that sense that you wanna sort of hurry up and sort of purify it beforehand or should you just cheerfully work through it, you know, sort of with the with the idea that it’s got it’s you know, that you are repaying it and that it’s going to be, you know, exhausting itself — you should apply the Four Opponent Powers because then you don’t wouldn’t have to go through the experience of of suffering.
Though the suffering consequences that you experience would be the sign that you are purifying the past negative karma that you created. But this might have to be done in a gradual manner. But if you were to apply the Four Opponent Powers, then you wouldn’t have to experience the suffering of that and it would be purified. So the application of Four Opponent Powers is a better way to purify karma than to go through the experience of it. Beautify it constantly.
Everyone takes such good care. We give it the best of everything. Even at the moment of death, it is useless. It’s useless. So thinking in this way, we develop a third determination.
It is determination to integrate the people and things in our lives around the central principle or the guiding principle of developing our mind. Right? The central principle, the guiding principle of our lives becomes the development of our mind, and we integrate, you know, with our loved ones, our possessions, are all relating to the central guiding principle. So these are the three determinations. This is the way we can begin to confront death and begin to energize our mind through change.