Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 47-minute teaching, Khensur Rinpoche presents Nāgārjuna’s meditation on death and impermanence through concrete examples: someone dying before finishing a cup of tea, earnings never spent. He develops three contemplations—that death is inevitable, its timing uncertain, and that only Dharma helps at death—each with three supporting reasons. The fragile body, worthless possessions, and companions who cannot follow all must be abandoned. Rinpoche explains what continues: the mind, propelled by positive and negative karma like a traveler taking provisions for a long journey. He stresses that contemplating death is not meant to depress but to inspire urgent Dharma practice now rather than endless deferral. Pitched at those beginning serious practice or seeking motivation for the spiritual path.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-06-13 – Side 1 – Sun' Radiance – KR.MP3
UUID: 355837b0-e7c9-412b-977c-1095e6837fac
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Sun Radiance – Thought Transformation
Date: 1989-06-13
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,601
Not only not don’t support our life, but they can actually bring about our death. It could happen tomorrow, it could even happen today. So, you know, it’s not sure when this moment of death is going to come. Some people, you know, they brew a cup of tea and they’re not able to finish it. Some people, they go about creating the they do some work and they’re just about to get their money but they’re never able to spend it.
So, whatever type of activity we may be engaged in presently, it’s not sure if we’ll be able to finish it. So Nāgārjuna is talking, we’re now discussing the third reason. The human body is extremely fragile. In the verse Nāgārjuna is discussing the nature of our world. He’s talking about even such things as the earth itself and the king of mountains and the great ocean, which for example surrounds Australia.
That even in seven days by the burning of the sun, all of these can be lost. The whole world can be emptied. They can be burnt to where the world is empty. So if even within seven days due to the burning of the sun that these great things, even the king of mountains and the greatest of oceans can be completely made non existent, And what to say of our human body which has no power, is extremely fragile, that we don’t even need to talk about it being destroyed? The human body is compared to a bubble.
Though we tend to think of it as being very tough, that in fact just like a bubble which upon a slight touch bursts and is gone. Likewise our body is extremely fragile and can be gone. Even by the slight touch of being hit by a small stone in the head or just a pin, a needle. Something as small as a needle. It could actually take your life.
That our body doesn’t have very much power. We can’t even go without food for say today. And that when death comes, then it’s just like blowing on a bubble. It’s gone. So, supported by these three reasons, the three reasons that human life expectancy is uncertain, There are many factors leading to death and few favorable ones for supporting life.
And that the human body is extremely fragile. And by contemplating these, one comes to the conclusion of the uncertainty of the time of death. It comes to this conclusion or determination. So then the third root, at the time of death, nothing is of benefit except Dharma. And this is supported by three reasons.
The first is that your possessions cannot help you. The second reason, your loved ones cannot help you. And the third, your own body cannot help you at the time of death. So you know at the time of death then none of these three can be of any benefit to us. So the first the first reason your possessions cannot be of help you at the time of your death.
No matter what you may have been during your life. Even if you were a rich king with great wealth, with power over many subjects. That at the time of your death, then there’s no difference between you and a beggar who only has a stick. In Tibet, the beggars travel around. The dogs used to always chase them, so the beggars would always carry a stick to beat the dogs off.
And that’s all that the beggar had was the stick. And at the time of death, the king who had power over many subjects and great wealth, the beggar who only had a stick. There’s no difference between them. They must all go empty handed into the future existence. And likewise, clothing and food will not be able to benefit you.
Though you may have a great wardrobe that you’ve accumulated over a hundred years, upon your death you will have to go forth naked. And though you may have a great larder full of food built up. Over one hundred years, upon your death, your stomach will be empty. That just as as we are born alone, so too we die alone.
If we die, no one can accompany us after our death. Those people who have gathered around us during the course of our life, whether our parents, relatives, husband, wife, children, that none of them So this is the supporting reason of your loved ones cannot help you. That upon our death, even one person cannot accompany us. And then the third supporting reason is your own body cannot help you at the time of your death. We spend during the course of our life a great deal of time and energy to the benefit of our body.
We hold it more precious than almost anything. We go to a lot of trouble for it. We give it the finest of food, the best of clothing. If someone were to in any way harm it, would quickly fight them. We treat this body like a precious servant.
But even this, this body which we have expended so much trouble, so much effort and energy to enhance, to benefit, even it must be left behind at the moment of death. So, thinking that at the time of death, that all my various possessions, that all my companions and even this body cannot help me, cannot benefit me at the moment of my death. And therefore, all the work that I go through to benefit these three is of no benefit to me at the time of my death. So no matter what possessions, no matter what companions that we may have gathered about us, no matter what type of body, whether it’s a beautiful body or a body full of faults, that all of them are going to have to be left behind. So of all of these various things that we’ve gathered together, even this body of the two, the body and mind, it is the mind which will go on into the future, and the body will separate and be left behind.
So because the mind is going to continue on the various qualities of the mind, whether they’re excellent qualities or whether they’re various faults within the mind, these will go on to future into future existences. So all that can accompany us into the future are the various faults and excellent qualities of our own mind. And by faults, we mean such factors as the afflictive emotions and negative karma that we’ve created. And by excellent qualities, the various positive states of mind and positive karma that we create. These are going to follow us.
Just as the shadow follows the body, these negative and positive factors are going to follow us as the shadow does our body, are going to follow us to follow the mind. So the mind is going to continue on, and it’s going to be accompanied by these negative and positive factors that the mind itself has no control of what direction it may take in the future as if it doesn’t it’s not it’s not it’s it’s not under its own control. If, in fact, that the the negative factors are are are predominant, then it’s going to go it’s going to move in a downward direction. On the other hand, if the positive factors within the mind are predominant, it’s going to move in an upward direction. And therefore, the mind in itself is under the control of the positive and negative factors.
So the mind is at the moment of death setting out on a great journey. And just as a traveler, when traveling on a great journey, to take provisions because there are not places where he may there may not be places. It’s an uncharted territory where there may not be places to take on food, such things as food along the way. So the traveler has to take provisions, make preparations for his long journey. Likewise, the mind, when it sets out on its journey, must take on provisions that the food which it must carry with it Along its journey, there may not be an opportunity to purchase it, and therefore, it’s necessary that it in the beginning, that it carry it along with it.
And this this food is the food of Dharma or the various positive actions that we create, the various positive factors of mind. And likewise, we’re going through an uncharted land on our journey, and we need a skillful guide, and this skillful guide is the Dharma. And likewise, we may have difficult paths to maneuver so we need someone to ease our way along this journey to make the path easier. And this too is the Dharma. So the Dharma is our provision, which the mind must take with it on its long journey into the future.
So if we take an example of the situation that previously we existed in a previous life, and then in that life, we died. And we took rebirth with this very fortunate human life. And what provided us with that life, the So, what led us to having to take rebirth as a human? It was the positive karma which threw us into rebirth, which propelled us into rebirth as a human being. And likewise, during our human life, we are able to experience various types of happiness by means of material things such as food and clothing and all the various enjoyments that we’re able to experience.
And these are all brought about by the by our positive karma, the positive factors. So a simple example, there are two factors which are determining the situation that we find ourselves in. Just like in the case of a dog or a cat, that due to having created negative factors in the past, negative karma, that the being is propelled to take rebirth as a dog or a cat. And even during the life as a dog or a cat, they may be such that they don’t have a good place to live. They have poor food and no food at all, and various miserable conditions that they may have to experience.
This too is a result of negative karma, negative factors which they created in the past. So, Nāgārjuna says that suffering and the bad migrations arise from negative factors and that happiness and happy migrations arise from positive factors. So this is the reason that we have to practice the Dharma, because it’s the very nature of the negative factors that they have as their effect as a consequence of suffering. And it’s the very nature of positive factors that they have as their consequence, as a result, happiness. That even the Buddhas who have tremendous powers and can perform all types of miracles, cannot change this infallibility of positive factors bringing happiness, negative factors bringing suffering.
Therefore, is the reason that we have to practice the Dharma. So we have we should think about the fact that what we want what we want in a future life. If we want, for example, to have a rebirth with a human life, if we want all the various conducive conditions, supporting conditions, and we want to practice the Dharma in the future life, then there is no other method to achieve this than to practice the Dharma in this life. To think only of this life is to think only in terms of a very small purpose or a meaning of such a type of life, of the possibilities of a human life. That everyone in here may not live for maybe thirty, forty, maybe fifty years more.
And that to expend one’s all of one’s energies and simply using that remaining period to gather together more to to for for the sake of food, drink, clothing, and such things, it would be as making very small use, insignificant use of a human life. So we have an extremely long road ahead of us that the future states, future lives are immeasurable. They are without number. And that we begin to gain some perspective and begin to consider not only this life, but begin to look to the great extent of immeasurable lives ahead, and that begin to direct our attention to simply to creating the conditions where the next life we carry on in our practice, where that we can improve gradually one life to another, gradually improving, raising ourselves along the path until actually entering into the great path of the great vehicle and then ultimately attaining Buddhahood. This life of ours can end within the time of a flash of lightning.
It can end that suddenly, that there’s no certainty of how long we’re going to live. That, you know, we can’t even amongst the people in this room, we don’t know if we’re going to be alive a month from now or who’s going to be the first among us to die. That we have a tendency to think that, oh, I’ll do this next year, and then I’m going to do that the year after that, and then the year after that, and then I’m going to do that the year after that, and that we carry on in this way thinking that we’re going to live one year after another without any end. But if we are mindful of death, then we could say, oh, I might, you know, we can think it might even be difficult for me to make it through this year. And therefore, it’s extremely important that we develop the mindfulness of death.
Have you become depressed? So in actually cultivating, meditating the impermanence in death, one goes through these three roots that we’ve talked about, the inevitability of death, the uncertainty of the time of death, and the time of death, nothing is of benefit except the Dharma. And going through each of these roots and contemplating the three supporting reasons for each one. Then with the, for example, with respect to the first, the inevitability of death, that having contemplated one comes to a determination or that one has to practice the Dharma because I’m definitely going to die. Then going on that because of the uncertainty of the time of death, supporting that by contemplating the three reasons, that one comes to the conclusion, because I’m not sure, it’s uncertain when I’m going to die, I have to begin my practice of Dharma now, immediately.
And then going on and understanding that this, that all my possessions, my enjoyments, my companions, my friends, my, even this body, at the time of death none of them are going to be of any benefit. The only thing which can benefit me at the time of death is the Dharma itself and therefore determining to practice the Dharma purely. And understanding that what is the essence of Dharma? That making determination to engage in the great vehicle Dharma, and therefore the essence of which is the awakening heart, and making effort at generating an awakening heart. That in this way, by being mindful of death, we won’t waste our life.
We won’t waste our time. That we can we’ll make good use of this life in general, but even more so, we’re going to make use of our time day by day. We can make use of our time hour by hour. And therefore, be mindful of death. We do not waste our time or our life.