Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 40-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche teaches the core practice of thought transformation: when pain arises, substitute your suffering for that of all beings experiencing similar pain. He anchors this in a vivid example: someone strikes you during meditation. The untrained mind sees an enemy and broken practice; the transformed mind recognizes a spiritual friend whose blow accelerates your compassion. Rinpoche shows how this practice turns every circumstance—illness, wealth, praise, blame—into fuel for practice. He roots this in karma, explaining that past merit created present conditions and your present mind shapes your future rebirth. The result for the trained practitioner is unwavering happiness no matter what life brings. For practitioners with basic Buddhist familiarity.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1990-02-20 – 3B – KR.mp3
UUID: 31521059-751e-4a13-beed-8c103f7a45e5
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Sun Radiance – Thought Transformation
Date: 1990-02-20
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,112
So in such a situation, for example, you know, we take an example of when we’re having some slight suffering and how we are to reflect upon it. If we have some a mild headache at such a time we should reflect that of all of the innumerable sentient beings in the world who are experiencing a headache just like mine and experiencing the same type of suffering, may my, the suffering which I am experiencing substitute for all of their suffering. So this is the attitude that we should seek to develop in such a situation that when we’re having, when we’re experiencing some type of suffering, for example, the suffering of a headache, the pain of a headache, you know, taking this situation and developing the sincere thought, may all sentient beings who are suffering at a similar time, having a similar experience of suffering. may my suffering be substituted for theirs, and may they have no suffering whatsoever and have complete happiness. This practice is brought about through previously having meditated on great compassion.
You know, this is the practitioner of thought transformation, of mind training, having accustomed or habituated him or herself to the quality of great compassion which is constituted of the wish may all sentient beings be separated from their suffering and the cause of their suffering. When they’re in such a situation they they are able to use their previous training of having developed compassion in all situations such that they may, may, what do we mean when we say compassion? Essentially, that we say that this, may all sentient beings be separated from their suffering and the cause of their suffering. We don’t want them to have suffering. That’s what we mean by compassion.
And therefore I’m going to take on their suffering. I’m going to substitute for their experience of pain. Therefore there has to be this previous training or cultivation of great compassion. And therefore, in having, when one does experience some pain, may this substitute for the pain of all sentient beings who are experiencing similar suffering. And when you do feel the pain, you think, ah, I’ve achieved my purpose.
This is the purpose of compassion. I’ve achieved the results of this wish, and therefore there’s an opportunity to rejoice, to take joy in having accomplished the purpose of your compassion. So developing the attitude of substituting one’s own suffering, one’s own experience of suffering for the experience of suffering of all sentient beings. This comes about through the previous meditation on compassion. We then, with such an attitude and the experience and consequent to our experience of that suffering, we can take the position my prayer has been answered because this suffering is substituting for the suffering of all others.
Are now separated from their suffering. We can develop that attitude of mind. And because our prayer has been answered, we’ve accomplished our purpose, there’s no possibility for our own mind to experience suffering, but in fact it will experience joy. Because one has accomplished one purpose, one takes and finds joy and not suffering within one’s own mind. So, let’s take this situation, you’re sitting there in meditation compassion and you’re wishing very sincerely may all sentient beings be separated from their suffering.
And then someone comes up to you and hits you in the head and it hurts and you experience some pain. And then you go on to take that experience of pain to think, may this pain which I am now experiencing, may it be the substitute for the pain of all sentient beings who are experiencing a similar type of pain. And that, and, and, and you feel the pain, you think, ah, I’ve accomplished my prayer, my prayer has been answered. And therefore, how can you get angry when all your prayers are being fulfilled? And therefore, your mind remains happy.
So you have to proceed in this phase. So we’re meditating and during the course of our meditation in the context of the developing the attitude of compassion thinking may all sentient beings be separated from the suffering. That others may attack us physically, may attack us both in body and mind. They might say harmful words to us. They might hurt us physically.
But we can we take that harm, that adverse condition, and we make it part of we transform it through the attitude of may this what I’m experiencing now, this substitute for the similar type of suffering of all sentient beings. And we make this very heartfelt prayer. And then when we feel the pain with, ah, my prayer has been answered, that all the sentient beings are being separated from such a type of suffering similar to myself. And I’ve substituted. And this is the way through such a type of attitude that we can transform adverse circumstances into those conducive to practice.
So for those in the situation we make up a situation where someone is meditating and another person comes up and hits them very hard on the head and it’s very painful, it hurts them. Now for those who are not, have not trained their mind, who do not reflect upon what’s happening, then this being hit in the head and the consequent pain are an adverse condition to practice Dharma. They can’t carry on their meditation, it’s an obstacle to their practice. And they’re probably going to hit the person back. So the person who hit them becomes their enemy. So this is the situation for an untrained mind.
Now, but as we explained previously, for someone who is training their mind, who is practicing transformation, then they have the complete opposite effect. Someone hits them, then they are able to transform that adverse condition into a conducive condition. They’re able to, not only is this hitting, they’re being hit, not only is it not an obstacle to their practice, but it assists their practice and not only is the person who hits them not their enemy, but they’re looked on as a spiritual friend. Because they have been of great benefit to one. They’ve increased one’s compassion and they have, because of them, one has increased one’s skillful actions.
Therefore, in practice, if one can practice in this way, then whatever harm may come becomes a conducive condition, becomes an assistant to one’s practice, becomes a spiritual teacher, and our mind always remains happy. So if if one can reflect in this way and carry on one’s practice, then whatever may harm may arise, it is it will be a benefit. When everything becomes a means of increasing one’s practice. Everything and nothing is able to harm you and everything because of this, because we see everything as helping us in our practice, then we don’t develop any negative minds and our mind is only happy. This is the quality of a proficient practitioner of mind training, that their mind is always happy, that everything is always assisting and helping them in their increasing their practice of Dharma.
So one can This is the way we can reflect on the one hand. Another way, additionally, we can think for the person who is practicing the Dharma that all of these harms, sicknesses, etcetera, are in fact no obstacles to one’s practice, having trained one’s mind due to the force of thought transformation. That they’re all conducive conditions. And we can think that in a due that now that the decline of the Buddhist teachings, they are declining presently, still I am able to carry on this precious practice of Great Vehicle and this is a result of my previously having collected great positive potential, merit, that my mind always remains happy in all these various situations. And thinking that this is a result of my previous positive potential, skillful actions created in the past, one can have conviction that this is in fact so and take joy in that, rejoice in that.
We can understand it if we think about the fact of though we’re facing very degenerate times, still we have all of the conducive conditions to practice the Dharma and we have little sickness and obstacles and not only just the Dharma but the Great Vehicle Dharma. And this type of reasoning is the way to establish that we must have created a great deal of positive potential in the past. All the positive conditions and situation that we are able to enjoy now came about as a result of the positive potential created in previous rebirths. If we have to ensure that we’re going to not only if we we have to make provision such that the future that our positive situation that we find is will not only not decrease but we should try to create the causes for its increase. And therefore if we don’t create the causes for its increase then we are good the result is not going to rise.
Then the, there will be, there will come about that in the future we are going to have not the positive conditions that we have now, but very poor conditions. And therefore in order to create the causes for this increase of positive conditions in the future we have to engage in the causes such as ethics, meditating on patience, practicing generosity, meditating on the awakening heart through the practices of giving and taking love and compassion. So a previous very holy spiritual teacher in Tibet, he said that if you you wish to know what you did in the past, look at your body. If you want to know what is going to happen to you in the future, look at your mind. This is a very profound statement.
If we that things do not arise from no cause. And if we look about ourselves at our at all our various possessions and our body, that they being very positive, then we can be assured that in a previous rebirth we created a very positive cause to have these things now. But, but if when we want to, when we look to the future it would, the future condition will depend upon the quality of our present mind. If we want to know what quality, what type of quality of future existence we will have, then look at the quality of your present mind. If it’s of a skillful type, you will have a happy migration.
If you have unskillful, you will have a bad migration. So for those who have not trained their mind and those who actually don’t make use of mind training, the situation could arise where you get a lot of money or you get some kind of high status and your Dharma slips away from you. Or on the other hand there are some who because they get sick they say, oh I’ve been practicing the Dharma and look I get sick. What use is it? And they throw away their practice.
But for those who actually train their mind, then they carry on their practice whether they’re happy whether they’re happy or sad. So again, some people they do get a great, they become rich, they develop a great name, and as a consequence their Dharma practice slips away from them. On the other hand, those who become sick and they think to themselves here I’ve been practicing Dharma, look at me now, I’m sick, what use is this carrying on a practice? And they give it up, they throw it away. Others, but so as a consequence of these various attitudes they’re not able to bring their practice to fulfillment, to a culmination, but those who are trained in mind, no matter what happens, good or bad, they bring their practice to completion.
So to the practice of mind training, thought transformation, it doesn’t matter what conditions may arise. If adverse conditions, then they help our practice. If they’re good conditions, then they help our practice. Whether if they’re bad if they’re bad, then they So if for those who have trained their mind, when a a bad situation arises they simply don’t give up. They’re able to take this as a means of practice.
And of course what to say about good situations as a time for to engage in practice. So in this way they are able to continue throughout good and bad situations and they will they will eventually develop the awakening heart and thereby generate the peerless perfect complete enlightenment. So today, we had a long offering. So you might be tired, we won’t have any questions today.