Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 96-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche begins by establishing refuge and bodhicitta motivation, then introduces His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Opening the Eye of Wisdom as a guide to mental happiness. He systematically traces how mental afflictions—ignorance, pride, avarice, envy, desire, and anger—generate suffering, with concrete examples: the proud person’s distress at criticism, the wealthy person’s fear of loss, the lover’s anguish at harsh words. He then presents the antidotes: contentment, shame, embarrassment, heedfulness. Midway through, he refutes the materialist view denying past lives, arguing that non-perception is not proof of non-existence. The Eight Verses of Mind Training anchor the ethical framework. Pitched at practitioners with basic Buddhist training ready to examine the mental roots of their own suffering.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2013-02-03 – KR.mp3
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Unclassified
Date: 2003-02-13
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~5,273
Initially, before listening to Dharma teaching, it is important to generate the twin motivations for taking refuge and giving rise to bodhicitta. Even though the first two verses of the refuge prayer, which mention the supreme Buddhadharma and Sangha, do not mention anything more than refuge, nonetheless, implicitly, they teach the totality of the path. Therefore, these two first verses, I take refuge until full enlightenment in the Supreme Buddha and Dharma and Sangha teach refuge. May I attain full enlightenment for the sake of all beings through the practice of generosity and so forth, teach the practice of the six perfections and of bodhicitta. Therefore, the first verse of this stanza in Tibetan to the supreme Buddhadharma in Sangha teaches the objects of refuge. The second verse, until I attain full enlightenment, teaches the reason for taking refuge, which is to take refuge until oneself has actualized all the qualities of the objects of enlightenment.
The first object of refuge, the Buddha in Tibetan is. These two syllables have a very specific meaning. To dispel or to cleanse means to cleanse the twin obstructions of the afflictions and the obstructions to omniscience, whereas to enhance or to increase means to enhance all qualities. Therefore, when taking refuge, one must give give rise to the discrimination which recognizes the Buddha jewel as the teacher of refuge. And this is the case because we ourselves wish to destroy these sufferings which afflict us, both the general and the specific sufferings of samsaric existence.
Buddha teaches, therefore, the means to eliminate both the contingent sufferings of this life and all of the sufferings of future lives. I explained the last time why the Buddha can be seen as a teacher of refuge in the light of his having the three qualities, which are the qualities of wisdom, of power, and of empathy. He has the first quality, the quality of wisdom, because he is omniscient in knowing all phenomena. And in addition, he fully understands the disposition, the nature, and the goals of trainees. He is endowed with equality of empathy because within his continuum is present are present both an empathy and a compassion which cannot stand the thought of the suffering of sentient beings.
He has, therefore, a powerful, unbiased, and nonpartial empathy which wishes to free all sentient beings from suffering. In addition to these two preliminary qualities of wisdom and empathy, the Buddha also has the quality of power or capacity, the power or the capacity to free sentient beings from their sufferings. Therefore, we need the conviction that he, the Buddha, has this capacity to free us from the sufferings of cyclic existence. Likewise, in worldly affairs, for a mother to behave correctly to her child, She needs the wisdom to know what is good for her child. She needs the power or the capacity to help her child, and she needs the empathy or love to wish to do so.
If a child follows the advice of such a mother which has wisdom, which has empathy, which wishes to help her child, and which has the capacity to help him, this child will turn out well. So it is in keeping with this example. However, the actual refuge which we posit is the Dharma jewel. The actual jewel is the Dharma jewel because the actual antidote, the direct antidote to the afflictions within our mind stream is none other than the fourth noble truth, the noble truth of the path. The noble truth of the path, the fourth noble truth acts as a direct antidote to the afflictions such as desire and anger, eliminating them from our mind stream and this elimination of the afflictions from our mind stream.
The impossibility for them to arise again is the third noble truth, the noble truth of cessation. In brief, the actual cause for the elimination of the afflictions such as desire and anger from our mind stream is the fourth noble truth, the noble truth of the path. And the result thereof is the third noble truth, the noble truth of cessation. Since the cause of our sufferings are none other than afflictions such as desire and anger, and the actual antidote to these afflictions is the noble truth of the path, the actual refuge is none other than the noble truth of the path. The Buddha jewel is the unmistaken means to give rise to such an unmistaken Dharma which is the ultimate refuge within our mind stream.
We must practice this unmistaken means to give rise to liberation from suffering, is taught to us by the Buddha. And to do this, we need helpers. These are the third object of refuge, the Sangha jewel. To be able to be freed from the fear of the sufferings of the of cyclic existence in general, it is critical to generate the conviction that the triple gem actually exists. And therefore, we must think until the end of cyclic existence.
I will put my faith, my trust in the triple gem and generate strong conviction in them. And therefore, we must generate this strong faith, this strong conviction in the triple gem through an understanding of the qualities of the triple gem of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. And to do this, we shall now meditate on taking refuge for two or three minutes. And therefore, what we should meditate upon is the features of the three objects of refuge in the light of the qualities which Geshe-la explained and do this for two or three minutes. Today, to eliminate all of the afflictions which are the cause of suffering within our minds, we will try to generate a kind and benevolent mind.
And with this as a goal, we will start studying the treatise by his holiness, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, the worthy speech opening the eye of wisdom. From within the two categories of suffering, physical and mental suffering, the one which affects us foremost is mental suffering. This treatise explains the means to give rise to a kind, a benevolent state of mind, which is the foremost antidote, which enables us to eliminate the unsuitable, the inappropriate states of mind, which cause suffering for us such as desire, anger, envy, jealousy, and so forth. All living beings without exception from the smallest insect upwards wish to be free from suffering and wish to be happy. Since we wish to be happy, we must create the cause for happiness.
And since we wish not to be unhappy, we must eliminate the cause for unhappiness. However, our goal should not be to give rise to a transient ephemeral happiness, but instead, we should try to give rise to a stable long-lasting happiness. It is in this context that we will analyze what causes could give rise to such a durable and stable happiness. There are numerous contingent sources of happiness such as the happiness which arises from good health, from wealth, or for that matter, from good food. Even these contingent sufferings such as a suffering even these contingent happinesses such as the happiness which arises from good health, from wealth, or from friendship actually have a strong connection with kind states of mind.
The core focus of the Buddha Dharma is teaching the means to attain such a stable state of happiness. And even if oneself is not a Buddhist, nonetheless, it behooves one to try to understand the causes for happiness. And therefore, from today onwards, Geshe-la will explain the means to give rise to such a happiness and to eliminate unhappiness based on his Holiness Dalai Lama’s treatise opening the eye of new awareness. So there are 11 chapters within opening the eye of new awareness. The first of these chapters is what we have been talking about the reason for which one must engage in Dharma practice.
Well, it is not necessary for us to accept that the reasons given in the first chapter of this treatise on the necessity to practice Dharma are valid. It is necessary for us to examine analytically whether they are valid or not. If these reasons are valid, in other words, if they are in accordance with reality, if they are true, then it behooves us to engage in this practice. On the other hand, if they are invalid, if they do not represent reality, then we can abandon them. Buddha Śākyamūni himself clearly taught that there was benefit in engaging in his practice on the basis of analysis and reason.
Likewise, the foremost practitioners and scholars of the glorious Nālānda monastery, Ārya Nāgārjuna and the glorious Candrakīrti, Sri Candrakīrti, engaged in the practice and became the followers of Buddhadharma in accordance with reason. And therefore, we should practice in accordance with Ārya Nāgārjuna examining the teachings in the light of analysis, logic, and reasoning and seeing whether there is benefit or not for us. If there is benefit, we should practice them. On this basis, I will at present start to explain the treatise. So the first verse of the treatise, and we have an English translation by Don Lopez, which will be available soon, is homage to the final exalted wisdom that thoroughly differentiates phenomena on page 21.
This is the preliminary homage. Prostration is made to wisdom, not just ordinary wisdom, but that ultimate wisdom which examines, which discriminates carefully the nature of Dharma and phenomena. I personally have the feeling that although there are numerous qualities within the mind stream of the Buddha, nonetheless, the reason for this homage by the author of the treatise, his holiness the Dalai Lama, is to pay homage to what he sees as the foremost quality, which is that wisdom of omniscience which discriminates and differentiates well both phenomena and Dharma. It is said that the distinction between beings of sharp and of dull acumen or sharp and dull faculties depends on whether their studies and practice are rooted in following logic and reason, which is the case for the beings of sharp faculty, or whether they rely merely on other beings, in other words, teachers and words, which is the case for the beings of dull faculties.
And His Holiness the Dalai Lama is obviously a practitioner of the sharpest faculties who focuses on engaging and following his Dharma practice in keeping with what is contingent with reasoning and analysis. It is because he himself has great admiration and affection for this ultimate discriminating wisdom that he pays homage to it. Moving onwards with the treatise, at this time of the twentieth century, an era of chemicals and weaponry, during the phase of ethics among the 10 periods of 500 in the teachings of the fourth leader, the teacher Buddha Śākyamūni. Śākyamūni Buddha is the fourth universal teacher.
Before Buddha Śākyamūni, there were three universal teachers including Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kāśyapa. These were the first three universal teachers. Buddha Śākyamūni was the fourth universal teacher. We at present are born in the age of the fourth universal teacher. This period is subdivided into 10 periods of five hundred years.
This is a period in which ethics degenerates. It is also, as his holiness says, an era in which chemical and nuclear weapons have greatly developed. It is also an age in which there has been a great spread of the teachings. For this reason, His Holiness says it is critical to conciliate the presentation of the Buddhist teachings with that of material development. The development of the Buddha’s teachings will occur in dependence on the spread of these And since this occurs in dependence on the inner development of the teachings, one must practice within one self correctly the teachings.
There are, however, numerous beings who, because the Dharma is both profound and vast, are unable to study it in dependence on the great treatises. And it is precisely for those beings who are not able to dedicate themselves to the study of these profound treatises that His Holiness has composed opening the eye of new awareness, which is a presentation of these profound topics in few words in an easy fashion. All beings are similar in wishing for happiness and not wishing for unhappiness. Let alone human beings such as ourselves who have discriminating wisdom and can understand the causes which lead to suffering and the causes which lead to happiness, All beings, including those who are bereft of such discriminating wisdom, likewise wish for happiness and likewise wish to avoid unhappiness, and this from the smallest of insects upwards. And therefore, both oneself and others, irrespective of who we are, must try to find the means to actualize this happiness and the means to eliminate this suffering.
It is, however, difficult for happiness to be actualized and for suffering to be eliminated exclusively through wishing for the actualization of happiness and the elimination of suffering. And therefore, it is critical that we examine carefully what the causes which give rise to happiness are and what the causes which give rise to suffering are. And then actualize the causes giving rise to happiness and abandon the causes giving rise to suffering. There are no other methods akin to the Buddhist Dharma for actualizing happiness and for eliminating suffering. The other means do not have the capacity to both give rise to happiness and to lead to the abandonment of suffering.
in dependence on the practice of Buddha Dharma, let alone actualizing happiness in this life, we will be able to actualize happiness in a multitude of future lives. And therefore, through understanding correctly the teachings of the Buddha, the Buddha Dharma, one will be able to eliminate, to dispel suffering within this life, within the next life, and within all future lives. For that matter, there is no means for eliminating suffering in this life and giving rise to happiness in this life which is superior to the Buddha Dharma. To give an example. Let us take for instance the case of someone who is suffering from a serious disease.
There is a major difference between two people suffering from the same disease in which one has a pacified mind and the other does not have a pacified mind. In opposition to a being suffering from a serious disease who understands the key points of the Buddha’s teachings, someone who suffers from a serious disease and who has no connection at all with the Buddha’s teachings will, in addition to the physical suffering of the disease, experience great mental anguish. For such a being, someone who is afflicted with a serious, perhaps a critical disease and who has no connection with the Buddhist teachings at all, the suffering of the disease itself will give give rise to unbearable mental suffering. On the other hand, someone who understands the key points of the Buddhist teachings should he or she be afflicted with a terminal disease will be able to counter the mental suffering which would arise from that through thinking this is after all the result of my own past non virtuous karma and for that matter, this is the nature of cyclic existence. Irrespective of whether this mental suffering arises from the experience of a terminal disease or from the experience of financial collapse.
In either case, through reflecting on the fact that these sufferings, whether it is disease or financial problems arise from our own past non virtuous karma, which we have accumulated in previous lives, it is then possible to eliminate the mental component of suffering. To give an example which is not mentioned in his holiness’s text, should someone insult us or berate us upon thinking that this arises because I myself in previous lives have insulted or berated this person, the mental suffering will be diminished. Within the mind and the body complex, it is the mind which is foremost. And therefore, even though the body might experience suffering, if the mind is subdued, then the overall suffering will be very low. And this is the case because the mind is the controller or the master of the body or the body is what is mastered or controlled by the mind.
And for this reason, between mental and physical suffering, we focus on the elimination of mental suffering. If the mind is correctly trained and correctly subdued, then even should suffering arise physically, this will not affect mental equanimity. For instance, there are those who wishing to be rich, wishing to be wealthy, put great effort at accumulating money and are burdened with having to protect their wealth. However, in dependence on this great suffering arises. The first suffering is that to become rich, one must undergo great physical and mental hardship, and there is no happiness in this.
Then in the middle, one experiences the fear that one’s riches, one’s wealth will be stolen from us by others. And at end the of life, there is a great suffering of realizing that one will be unable to protect one’s wealth, it will be taken from one and it will go to complete waste after our death. Irrespective of how much money we have, this experience will be shared by all of us. And these are the sufferings of wealth and prosperity, which is why we should not view them as refuges. Once one understands the key points of Dharma, one sees wealth and money as as meaningless as the tips of straw or chaff.
And in this case, one will not put great effort in accumulating it nor will one experience any suffering when it is taken away from one. Likewise, for someone who does not understand the key points of dharma when he or she is insulted, berated and criticized by others, the suffering experienced can be akin to that of a thorn piercing the heart. However, once one understands the key points of dharma, whether one is scolded or criticized by another, this becomes completely meaningless and irrelevant to one. And in these cases, the most subtle of sufferings does not arise in the mind. Numerous sufferings, are experienced by those who do not understand the key points of dharma, such as having enemies and being unable to counter them, having friends and being unable to be close to them, for that matter, being unable to accomplish one’s goals.
Likewise, those who do not understand the key points of dharma experience the fear of invasion, the fear of war, the fear of terrorism. These are all the thoughts of those who either do not understand the key points of Dharma or who, although understanding these key points, do not practice the Dharma. The Buddhadharma has the capacity to sever the continuum of all of these sufferings. How is this so? Because all suffering without exception arises from causes and conditions.
Suffering arises from its causes such as pride, cupidity, envy, desire, and hatred. Pride is that mental state which thinks I am far superior to others. For one who suffers from pride, if his or her house is not up to expectations, great suffering arises. Likewise, mental suffering arises when a proud person is criticized about his or her lack of qualities. So pride is a mental affliction which creates great suffering from very small causes.
There are numerous forms of pride. And Geshe-la will not explain them all. One rather interesting one is that pride which arises through very small depreciation. This is a pride which arises when one observes someone who has very great qualities and one thinks to to oneself, I have only just a little bit less qualities than he does. Wrong pride is the pride which is inflated at the wrong or the erroneous thought of one’s status or one’s qualities.
Most pride is bad pride. This third category of pride, bad pride, is a pride which arises through observing one’s very few good qualities and inflating them immeasurably. Then for someone who is very proud or arrogant, even if he or she hears of the qualities of others, that does not even penetrate into his consciousness. And when strong pride is present in the continuum, there is not only great suffering, but it is almost impossible for this person to experience happiness. These are just some of the faults of pride.
Cupidity or avarice in Tibetan is literally the love of gold. Is that fascination and that clinging to whatever one possesses? Then great suffering arises from cupidity and avarice, the fear of giving anything to others because one will have less, the fear of losing everything one has, for that matter, the fear of losing money on investments. Envy or jealousy is that state of mind which resents the true qualities which are present in another person. When strong envy is present within one’s mind, merely seeing the object of one’s envy is sufficient to give rise to great suffering within the mind.
The main thought of envy is that merely through seeing the person one is envious of or merely through hearing about that person, instantaneously great suffering arises within the mind. This is a thought of envy or jealousy. Regarding the affliction of desire, desire is an affliction which superimposes an unrealistic assessment of its object on its object. We therefore have extreme desire for our friends and relatives. And because we project an excessive love and affection on our friends and relatives, which is in no way related to the actual state of affair of things, the slightest harsh word they utter to towards us causes immediately great pain and suffering.
To give an example, we have all experienced the fact that when we have great desire for an object, merely another person’s taking this object within their hands is sufficient to give rise to anger within our minds. And this is a case because the thought of desire for the object in question gives rise instantaneously to suffering within our mind. Anger is the wish to harm another. When anger arises within our mind, instantaneously great suffering and unhappiness accompany it within our minds. For instance, to give my own experience, when I was at CERA, I used to take a short nap of one or two hours after lunch.
Then if I ever got irritated with somebody, it immediately destroyed any capacity on my side to take a nap. I am giving myself as an example here. And therefore, if one is not the master of one’s own mind and one is unable to control one’s anger, then there are numerous faults which arise, first of which is being unable to sleep. In this case, we have presented the relationship between desire and anger with desire being the cause and anger being the result. And this is the case because if we take the example of friends or relatives, when we have strong desire or affection for friends or relatives and harsh words are uttered, immediately anger arises.
Therefore, the main cause of anger is desire. The foremost cause of desire is the benighted ignorance. Benighted ignorance is that state of mind which misapprehends the collection of outer phenomena which are illusion like. Therefore, ignorance gives rise to desire and desire gives rise to anger. And it is therefore in dependence on desire and anger that our minds are unstable, they are not at peace, and they are not happy.
Therefore, we must eliminate from our minds benighted ignorance, desire, and anger. The means to eliminate or to tame ignorance, desire, and anger are explained in the Buddhist Dharma. And therefore, apart from the Buddha Dharma, there is no hope for true happiness in wealth, in friends, or in prosperity. It is therefore in dependence on the Buddha Dharma that mental happiness will arise. It is in dependence on Buddhadharma that we will be able to relinquish these thoughts and to give rise to a sense of shame and of embarrassment.
The foremost factor for happiness is contentment. What do we mean by contentment? Let us say that all of us in this room have a thousand dollars. Contentment means to think that is enough. That’s okay.
I don’t need more than that. Apologizes. His is a monastic viewpoint. Perhaps with a thousand dollars, you can’t live and travel. So to represent the example, we should contentment means to be satisfied, for instance, with the house and the furniture which which we have and not to think I need a better house or better furniture.
It is through generating a contentment which does not wish for a better house or a contentment which does not wish for a fancier car but which is satisfied with the car that we have that happiness can be found. Then being unable to to do this and wishing constantly for very fancy and flash things is a source of The following quality to be developed is shame. Shame here refers to the sense that whatever inappropriate behavior we engage in is wrong and to feel ashamed of this in front of the tribunal of oneself. The following quality, embarrassment, refers to that sense of shame which arises at the thought of the reaction of others when one behaves badly or one speaks wrongly. Heedfulness refers to that quality whereby when inappropriate states of mind such as desire or anger arise, one immediately becomes aware of them, encounters them.
These are all these are all well explained in the Buddhist treatises, and therefore, through studying the Buddhist treatises, we will be able to put them into practice. Through training in this way, both our body and our mind will experience something akin to pliancy. Training in this way, in shame, in embarrassment, in contentment, and in heedfulness, we will experience happiness in this life itself. It is extremely important for us to practice in first countering the afflictions which are present within our mind stream and generating then the qualities such as a sense of shame, a sense of embarrassment, a sense of contentment, and heedfulness within our mind stream. As is said in the eight verses of mind training, it is critical whatever behavior we engage in to examine that behavior.
In other words, it is critical to examine any behavior we engage in whether it involves walking someplace, lying down, or eating to see whether it is mixed with the afflictions or not. Then should they be contaminated by the afflictions, instantaneously one must apply the antidote with effort. The reason one must counter them is because if afflictions have arisen within our mind, let alone suffering for oneself, they will cause suffering for others. This is why it is said in the eight verses of mind training, whomsoever you associate with, view always yourself as inferior to him. If whomsoever we associate with, we view as superior to us, this is a supreme way to counter pride.
In addition, one must cherish others from the depth of one’s heart. This is most important. Then it is not sufficient to be satisfied with the happiness of this life. One should, however, reflect that in addition to oneself, all sentient beings, our kind mother sentient beings, should be happy. So mere happiness for this life is neither stable nor long-lasting happiness.
Irrespective of how long we live, a human life, life after life can never exceed a 100 years of age. Therefore, the happiness of this life is bounded by that. Future lives are therefore more important than this life. We must therefore actualize the happiness of future lives. And put effort in actualizing the happiness of future lives and eliminating the suffering of future lives.
The foremost means to actualize the happiness of future lives and eliminate the suffering of future lives is none other than the Buddhadharma as explained in the great treatises, there is no other means. There are many who are unable to actualize the happiness of future lives and abandon the suffering of future lives through not understanding the teachings. For this reason, it is critically important to understand the Buddhadharma as it is explained in the Buddhist treatises. There are, however, those who either do not understand these key points or although understanding them are not able to put them into practice. They tend to believe that there are no past and future lives and that the mind is merely a byproduct of the body.
This viewpoint arises from the notion that whatever exists can necessarily be directly perceived. For instance, the Hindu sect of the materialists, the Lokayatas, accept neither past nor future lives. The reason they advance is that they cannot perceive these past and future lives. The great Nālānda scholar, the glorious Dharmakīrti countered the materialist view by saying, you’re not perceiving something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It’s a very dangerous line of reasoning to say something doesn’t exist because I don’t see it.
For instance, it would be inappropriate to say I do not believe that the beginnings of the universe exist existed because I did not perceive them. We cannot perceive previous universes directly. It is therefore inappropriate to say because I cannot perceive something, it does not exist. There’s another viewpoint which asserts that the mind arises from the body and the body arises from the four elements of matter. This is also inappropriate.
And in dependence on this line of reasoning, they assert that when the body ceases to exist, in other words, the brain ceases to exist, so does the mind. Therefore, the mind becomes like space nonexistent and there are neither past nor future lives. These Cārvākas assert a dependency of the mind on the body of three different types. The first mode of dependency is akin to that of beer and its intoxicating potency. In other words, it is akin to that of a substance and its quality.
In the self same way as the intoxicating potency of beer cannot be differentiated from the nature of beer in the self same way from this viewpoint, the nature of the mind cannot be differentiated from the nature of the body. A second understanding of this dependency is that it is akin to that of the that of the light of a lamp on a lamp. The relation of the mind to the body is akin to that of the light of a lamp to a lamp. A third mode of dependency is akin to that of a fresco on the wall which supports the fresco. The fresco is a feature of the wall in the self same mind way.
Mind would be a feature of the body or the brain. Proponents of this view assert that mind arises in dependence on a cause of a discordant type from it. In other words, that mind arises in dependence on matter. They assert that the mind of the child at the very instant of birth arises in dependence on the body of the child. Likewise, they assert some of the dialecticians assert that the mind arises from no specific cause.
And therefore assert that it is causeless or arises from no cause. We’ve gone over time. Understand clearly? Do you understand what was taught? Thank you very much.
You recite the prayers. Thank you. Just to draw your attention to the newsletter and to the program, we have Losar, a Guru Puja at 6:30, which is the