Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 48-minute public talk, Kyabje Rinpoche teaches that a meaningful life rests on cultivating a noble mind through loving kindness and compassion. He opens with guided meditation wishing happiness for all beings, then contrasts two paths: conventional (financial stability and harmonious relationships) and spiritual (preparing for future lives and liberation). Rinpoche emphasizes that the mind is the engine of all action—a kind, altruistic mind naturally produces beneficial conduct and genuine happiness, while a harmful mind generates suffering. He outlines two principal practices: loving kindness (actively wishing others’ happiness) and compassion (protecting them from harm), both developed first toward oneself before extending outward. Throughout, he challenges the assumption that material wealth solves suffering, observing that the wealthy often carry more problems than those with less.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1994-11-06 – 1A – Public Talk Loving Kindness and Compassion – KR.mp3
UUID: 570264fb-d462-4c43-8195-bf0161402329
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Public Talks
Date: 1994-11-06
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,874
Benefit others. In our case, we want happiness. Similarly there is not any ordinary beings who do not want happiness. In that way, we can relate that all other ordinary beings like myself do equally want happiness. If that’s the case then here I will make the determination wishing all beings to be with happiness.
So as the explanation goes ahead are you kindly please do the meditation together it will be like a guided meditation. Here what we are going So like myself who do want happiness, all ordinary beings equally do want happiness. Therefore, I wish that at any rate somehow they may have happiness. And then at this point, intensify the love or loving kindness by thinking I pray I not only wish but I also pray that all ordinary beings be with happiness and the causes bringing happiness. I alone, if it comes to I’m willing willing to take the responsibility to actually put effort towards bringing happiness and the sources of happiness for myself and for all ordinary beings.
So we do the prayer of going for refuge and developing kind heart unlike usual we only all do it once instead of three times. And that will be followed by a chanting where seven practices are contemplated upon as offering. Yeah. This afternoon the topic of this course is how to make one’s life meaningful by integrating the practice of loving kindness and compassion in everyday life. Yes.
As regards the meaningfulness of life, we can look at it as being of two types. One One type of meaningful life is where you work hard and financially everything is going fine. You have enough to eat enough to wear and in the conventional sense if you have a partner then there’s a harmony and good feeling and friendship with your partner and in that way day goes by and life goes in that way and that can be seen as one way to describe a meaningful life. And then there’s other type which is meaningfulness of life through spiritual integration of practices. What Buddhist would integrating the teaching, the Dharma into one’s daily life.
On the of making life meaningful which in our Buddhist scriptural term is called making life meaningful through Dharma perspective through the perspective of the unflawed teachings. Well in that of course basically one has to have matters of this life going fine financially things are going fine, one’s relation with one’s partner if that’s the case it’s going fine that does count in having a meaningful life but there is something more on top of that and that part is where as a person following the correct and meaningful spiritual path to make one’s life meaningful means one not only gets fully absorbed in thinking only of this life and and on top of going fine of things of this life one prepares about one’s happiness for next life, life after, life after, all throughout what would follow hereafter and as a spiritual person one finds that at least through spiritual means one can make preparation and attain happiness and success so forth in future lives so that’s what we perhaps can be seen as a spiritual way of trying to make life meaningful. Here already, way of making one’s life meaningful through spiritual integration and this always this obviously seem to have a strong foundation where the whole premises of the thinking is based that there is life after that there are future rebirths but for someone who does not accept next life at all they would not accept the second perspective so that’s where the latter part was.
So for for those who don’t accept next life or don’t believe in rebirth and so forth then it is a difficult thing on the face of it to tell them that you have to make life meaningful spiritual way by trying to prepare for life after and so forth. Oh, okay. We have two ways by which one can look about going to make life meaningful one is spiritual where the focus is on top of this life future lives are more important and the other is the perspective only of this life that this life only counts and to work for it is and be successful and happy in this life only is the way to make one’s life meaningful. Now let’s leave that two perspective aside. After all let’s look at a person what is a person?
Well there is a body and a mind and as far as body goes looking after it and so forth is important but compared to looking after the mind of a person it is not that important. So in the essence of a person, we can first say to look after one’s mind is the most important thing to do. We do our actions or activities in most cases through our body and speech so there are physical actions and verbal actions but these two more dominant actions visible ones they themselves are controlled by the workings of one’s mind. So mind is the one where we can say all our activities and actions come from so to describe it more dramatically, we might say, mind is the boss running the whole show. That mind is the one which counts in our in terms of our activities activities and actions can be very easily relatable in our everyday experience.
For example when our mind is happy and is contained then whatever we do physically and verbally they also turn out to be good actions and the times when our mind is unhappy as well let’s say in other cases when our mind thinks unwholesomely then whatever comes out of our mouth by way of speech turns out to be bad and what we do can be destructive and bad actions and that again precisely to go back indicates the mind is the main doer. So now it comes down to mind being the main thing and it is the one which we have to deal with and in dealing with the mind what we aim is we try to make mind a noble mind much better quality. Now after all what is about mind that we have to make it more nobler and a better quality well as far as that goes, if our mind is kind hearted thinking about others welfare mainly then that very focus is the way how to make our mind more noble. Or in another word, if we are altruistic person, kind hearted thinking about others welfare mainly, then it indicates our mind is noble.
What is a bad type of mind, destructive mind? Well, it is a mind which is harmful to others and in that way it may also it also would include a mind which is harmful to oneself as well. For us then to make our life meaningful even practically speaking in terms of mind, it would then mean that we try our best to be kind and altruistic, thinking mainly about benefiting others. If that happens in our mind then what we do by way of physical action and verbal action would be harmonious or helpful source of happiness for oneself and for others that way there will be happiness. Whereas if we have mind thinking about harming or harming or hurting others then out of such mind will come physical and verbal actions which are harmful and destructive to others and that way it’s quite obvious there won’t be any peace for oneself and others whom one deal with.
As far as even one is able to do that bit to have a kind thought and be not with hurting and distracted thoughts towards others, then if one has even that much then it is good enough no matter even if the person does not accept any spiritual path no matter even if the person does not accept about accept rebirth future lives because such a person by having kind thought, kind heart towards others can have a very happy life and that way a person would achieve in this life a very meaningful life. Well then, how can one bring about that noble mind, the altruistic kind thought? Well, there are two principal practices involved one is where one wishes and actively engages in bringing happiness for others and that is called the practice of loving kindness. The other is where one avoids bringing hurt or harm to others and that part of practice is called compassion practice. Compassion and loving kindness, these two altruistic thought can be developed in two ways one where the focus of contemplation and meditation on these two are other beings apart from oneself other beings and the other method of developing these two are compassion and loving kindness is where one focuses on one’s own conditions and situation and through that way develop develop the two.
To develop loving kindness and compassion towards others, it is first necessary to have developed loving kindness and compassion towards oneself first because without having developed loving kindness and compassion towards oneself, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to develop the same towards others. How do one start developing compassion towards oneself? The way to go about with that is where one contemplates on the sufferings and the problems, the failures, all that is unwanted one experiences and by that way of contemplation one really from the depth of one’s heart wishes for oneself in future never to have any sufferings at all and towards that aim one presently through realizing that the impure thoughts the delusions which one has and which are the possible causes for future sufferings for oneself one try to overcome them. The term meaning one try to get rid of these causes of future problems and sufferings. So if one has that feeling and relative towards oneself that one doesn’t want to wish to have sufferings in future and in trying do that presently one attempts to stop the origin, the causes of suffering then that is where one is starting to develop compassion towards ones Now as regards the suffering of future which one wants to avoid not to happen and as well presently one tries to terminate the causes of the future suffering.
There are two types one the immediate future sufferings and the other the trying to terminate the long-term future sufferings and their causes. Well, with the difference in these two approach, one trying to negate the present immediate problems and the other long-term comes about because of the difference in people’s applying of wisdom intelligence and which here in modern time people might relate has difference in the brain activity somewhere up there. And those who have small brain would only think about removing problems of few days, and those who have little bit larger brains would think about removing problems of next few months, and then those little bit bigger than that would think about removing problems of few years down the track and those who have a biggest type of brain would think about removing removing problems of the whole life and then life after. The next part is where one has one develops loving kindness and then loving kindness firstly one develops in relation to oneself that one thinks about present lack of total happiness one is is experiencing and possible and in future how much one do fully wish to have happiness and in that way there is a whole feeling of care towards oneself in the contemplation to bring about loving kindness in relation to oneself where one contemplates on the need to have happiness for oneself personally and in future and in trying to achieve that one realizes one has to apply the right quality of mind, meaning one has to develop those excellent qualities of mind which would bring about the happiness for oneself.
Same just as with compassion, when it comes to loving kindness where the focus is to do with happiness for oneself the same thing could apply. Those who have narrow thinking and small brain size so to speak they would just think about having happiness for oneself only for one day and if there is happiness for oneself only for one day they are just contained with that, they are happy with that and those who are of much broader thinking they will think of wishing happiness happiness for for oneself oneself few days down the track and those with much broader thinking would think about happiness for oneself few months and few years and some who have a much broader way of thinking would wish to have happiness for oneself the whole life and life after. So it’s exactly same as earlier with compassion and problems. So the much broader thinkers would not only be concerned about happiness of this life but more so of next lives and the life after and they also would be concerned about getting rid of all problems and sufferings for all future in that way much broader thinking person would wish to once and for all be freed from all sufferings and attain liberation, nirvana, the sorrow-transcendent state and the very description the person has broad thinking can be described anyway in any alternative ways.
We can say it’s a person of great wisdom or to speak in modern, terms, you you might say a person with the biggest, brains. To remove the sufferings of future lives is only possible through applying Dharma, through applying unmistaken meaningful instructions. For this life’s current happiness to achieve that and this life’s current sufferings to be removed, one doesn’t need that much. In other words as far as this life goes the current presently are suffering problems to be removed and to attain happiness. So one doesn’t need much, they can be achieved through temporary mundane ways such as if financially or say if one has a good job and financial income is good then one can achieve through that way so in that way you might say money can to some degree achieve that so remember she did spell the word money in English.
So money can bring about that and as well in the same groups of the mundane means there can be good communication with partner and harmony with one’s partner as well-being friendly with one’s colleagues and workmates and people one deal with deals with then if these are there there and the place one lives is not broken down and not too noisy then there is a like a removal of suffering of current time and achieving of the current happiness to that degree and that itself is good enough and we might say to achieve those temporary happiness and to remove those temporary problems there really isn’t much need for spiritual instructions. There’s no need for Dharma. People people by thinking that they achieve happiness remove problems through financial means, they sacrifice so much that very early in the morning, have no problems or resentment about leaving early from home and stay late till late in night and when the weather is hot they don’t mind about it still go to work and try to earn and if the weather is too cold they don’t still mind and they’re still happy to work as long as knowing that there is money and financial income being made and through that way problems can be solved so yeah or we can say through this way there’s all sorts of willingness to sacrifice and work hard.
Of course, there are a lot of people who do put so much effort in in wanting to have financial accumulation and have abundance of material things and so forth and we can’t completely deny the importance of money and that how to its own extent can fulfill bring about a lot of fulfillment. For example, if one has enough riches then it gives one in this life a comfortable life and as well one can afford to help friends and relatives and so forth by giving some to them in their time of need and so forth but if we look more deeply then we would find that financial means and material means of solving problem is not everlasting and it’s not in the actual state of fact not the reliable means. From most point of view, it can be said more riches and material things one has, there is bound to be more problems. Oh well, if material riches is really the answer to solve all sufferings, then very rich people shouldn’t have any sufferings at all but we can very fairly describe that they in most cases would have far more problems and sufferings than us. Us who don’t have.
In pre-occupation Tibet, in hometown, yeah, there used to be very observable fact of a high flyer high flyer business people that outwardly they look so glamorous, They have so many servants, about fifty, sixty of them, and they have so many horse packs on which they mount their merchandise, but they don’t they can’t afford to even have have a