Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 50-minute session, Venerable Lobsang Namgyel teaches the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, a classic Tibetan Buddhist practice for cultivating compassion and reversing self-centered habits. He walks practitioners through each verse and its accompanying Chenrezig visualization, in which white nectar purifies obscurations that block bodhicitta—the wish to benefit all beings equally. The teaching opens with detailed visualization instructions: white nectar, honey-like in consistency, descends from Chenrezig above the crown of the head, transforming the body and mind while black smoke of negative karma and delusion flows downward out of the feet. Namgyel then guides the recitation of the seven-limb prayer, mandala offering, and mantra, before setting up small-group discussion for the afternoon. He emphasizes a central theme: removing self-cherishing and replacing it with cherishing others, even enemies—a radical shift that must happen internally and secretly, not imposed on ordinary social settings. The talk is suited to practitioners with some familiarity with Chenrezig practice.
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File: 2011 10 01 Ven Namgyel – 05 – Sat 1st Oct.mp3
UUID: 6cea03e2-8a11-42b8-8bd0-eb21d5f60d3c
Teacher: Ven Lobsang Namgyel
Collection: 8 Verses Thought Transformation (Ven Lobsang Namgyel)
Date: 2011-10-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 50.6 minutes
Words: ~4,134
It’s Tibetan. Avalokiteśvara is Sanskrit. I think very difficult to say, so easier to say Chenrezig. You can visualize HRIH. Don’t worry about the the Sanskrit.
Okay? Anything else I need to explain to you before we start? Most of the verses, it’s just the same, removing the obscurations with the nectar. The nectar, if you haven’t done this sort of visualization before, the nectar is the consistency of honey. Okay?
So as the nectar’s coming down, it’s a white color, and you can visualize each drop of nectar is a Chenrezig, so is the Buddha of compassion, so that nectar is actually full of compassion. And as it comes down, it’s pushing all the negativities downwards. So the negativities, you can think, are in the in the form of black smoke in your heart. So pushing downwards. If you have a sickness, then you can think the nectar particularly goes to that part of your body which is sick, experiencing problems, and then, bringing blissful, compassionate, healing energy to that place.
For our minds, we’re wanting to remove the obstacles for this particular verse, so also the nectar goes into your mind and provides a blissful energy in your mind so that you can actualize this verse. So it benefits your body, your speech, and your mind. Is it okay? Does anybody not understand? I keep asking, and I really don’t mind if you tell me you don’t understand.
So it’s better you tell me before we start than after we start. Yeah. So you have the nectar, which is like honey. Each drop of the nectar is Chenrezig with a thousand arms. So really wanting to benefit you and all sentient beings.
Chenrezig said I want to benefit all sentient beings. He didn’t say I want to benefit all sentient beings and not you. So be careful. Right? Because often we think, well, why would Chenrezig want to help me?
I’m not worth helping. I’m nobody. But we are because we’re the jewel. Right? We’re the ones that Chenrezig would really want to help because we want to become enlightened to benefit others.
So, of course, Chenrezig is wants to help you. But the way to help you is through the visualization, through the nectar purifying, and so you feeling that you’re removing all the obstacles. And then once the obstacles are removed, you actualize the practice. You become one with the practice. Okay?
Is it is it clear for everybody? Okay. Jack? Okay. So then, we start with the seven-limb prayer.
Reverently, I prostrate to guru Avalokiteśvara with my body, speech, and mind. I present clouds of every type of offering, actual and imagined. I declare all my negative actions accumulated since beginningless time and rejoice in the merit of all holy and ordinary beings. Please remain until the end of cyclic existence and turn the wheel of dharma for living beings. Because of the merits of myself and others, may the two bodhicittas ripen, and may I receive the great enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.
And then the mandala offering, which is basically transforming everything around us into something perfect, because a perfect mind creates a perfect place. So in order to indicate that our minds have become perfect, we visually, mentally create a perfect place around us. So instead of saying, oh, why is that there? Or what why is that there? Or that’s a bit dusty.
We’re looking for the perfection instead of the imperfection. So the mandala is the transformation of the place into a Buddha’s perfect place. If you are a Buddha, you will experience perfection. So by us transforming the place into perfection, you’re experiencing what a Buddha would experience. Okay?
So that’s what we’re doing. This ground, anointed with perfume, strewn with flowers, adorned with Mount Meru, four continents, the sun, and the moon, I imagine this as a Buddha field and offer it. May all living beings enjoy this pure land. May the guru’s life be long. May all beings equal to space receive happiness and comfort.
May I and all others without exception accumulate merit, purify obscurations, and quickly receive enlightenment. And then we make a request. Precious guru, please grant me all realizations of the path from guru devotion to the completion of training, the unified vajra state. Please grant me blessings that my mind will become Dharma, that Dharma will become the path, that hindrances in the path may not occur, that I may cease all wrong conceptions and receive immediately the two precious bodhicittas. Idam guru ratna mandalakam niryatayami.
So then we’ve made this request to guru Chenrezig, and then he descends to the crown of your head, and he’s on a moon disc and a lotus. His body is white, radiating white light. In his heart is the seed syllable, and from that seed syllable radiates light in every direction. Determined to obtain the greatest possible benefit from all sentient beings who are more precious than a wish fulfilling jewel, I shall hold them most dear at all times. And then the blissful white nectar, which purifies all obscurations, especially those that prevent you from holding others most dear.
And it brings all realizations, especially the loving, compassionate bodhicitta, which holds others most dear, comes down through the crown of your head, removing the obscurations from your mind, transforming your body into blissful nectar, pushing all the negativities out through the lower part of your body. Your body and your mind are full of blissful Chenrezig nectar, full of blissful bodhicitta. When in the company of others, I shall always consider myself the lowest of all. From the depths of my heart hold others dear and supreme. And the blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations, especially those that prevent you from considering yourself the lowest of all and from holding others dear and supreme.
It brings all realizations, especially the loving, compassionate bodhicitta by which you consider yourself the lowest of all and hold others dear and supreme. And so, again, from Chenrezig, above the crown of your head, this blissful white nectar comes through the crown of your head. Transforming every organ, the bones, the muscles. Everything transforms into blissful, white, Chenrezig nectar. Vigilant, the moment a delusion appears in my mind, endangering myself and others, I shall confront and avert it without delay.
And, again, the blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations, especially removing the delusions that appear in our minds. And it brings all realizations, especially the loving, compassionate bodhicitta and the wisdom of shunyata emptiness, which automatically distinguishes extinguishes all delusions. The nectar flow slowly down all the way into the fingertips, all the way down into the toes, pushing out the black smoke of negative karma and delusions. Whenever I see beings who are wicked in nature and overwhelmed by violent negative actions and suffering, I shall hold such rare ones dear as if I’d found a precious treasure. The blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations and brings all realizations.
Your body and mind are full of blissful, Chenrezig white nectar. Have a strong feeling that you’ve removed all negative karma, all delusions, all obscurations to omniscience. When, out of envy, others mistreat me with abuse, insults, or the like, I shall accept defeat and offer the victory to others. From Chenrezig, the blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations and brings all realizations, especially the loving, compassionate bodhicitta, which accepts defeat and offers the victory to others. When someone whom I benefited and in whom I have great hopes gives me terrible harm, I shall regard that person as my holy guru.
And the blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations, brings all realizations, especially the loving, compassionate bodhicitta, which enables you to see harmful beings as your holy guru. In short, both directly and indirectly, do I offer every happiness and benefit to all my mothers? I shall secretly take upon myself all their harmful actions and suffering. The blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations and brings all realizations, especially the loving, compassionate bodhicitta, which offers every happiness and benefit to others and accepts all their harmful actions and suffering. Undefiled by the stains of the superstitions of the eight worldly concerns, may I, by perceiving all phenomena as illusory, be released from the bondage of attachment.
And the blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations, brings all realizations, especially the wisdom of shunyata, which perceives all phenomena as illusory and by which you are released from the bondage of delusion and karma. So please try to think very strongly. I have purified all negativities. I have removed all obstacles to bodhicitta. My mind is bodhicitta.
And then there’s a request to Chenrezig, that most compassionate one, please extend your holy hand and lead me and all other sentient beings into your blissful pure realm after this life. Be our virtuous friend forever and quickly lead us to Buddhahood. And because Chenrezig is so pleased with your request, then he descends through the crown of your head and enters your heart chakra. So now you visualize that Chenrezig is in your heart. And from the, in Chenrezig’s heart, he’s radiating light in every direction to you and to all sentient beings.
There are beams of light radiating from your body, each one bearing a guru Chenrezig at its tip. And Chenrezig comes to sit in the heart of every sentient being. Every sentient being becomes Chenrezig. So while we continue to visualize that we and all sentient beings are, we recite the mantra. Chant together twenty one times, and then we can chant or recite quietly to ourselves for another few minutes.
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. And then while thinking, I’m Chenrezig, all sentient beings are Chenrezig, we continue to recite the mantra quietly. Three more minutes. So now we dedicate the merit together.
Think about your family, your friends, and then all suffering sentient beings, wanting them only to be happy and not to experience suffering. So we offer this merit, whatever we’ve achieved today, this morning, for the benefit of all sentient beings. So we use the dedication on the bottom of page a hundred and sixty three. May all the suffering and the causes of suffering of all sentient beings ripen upon me right now, and may all sentient beings receive all my happiness and virtue. May the precious bodhicitta that has not yet arisen grow, and may that which has been generated never degenerate, but increase forevermore.
May I never be discouraged, even for a moment, from practicing the deeds of the Bodhisattvas for the sake of others, by completely renouncing anything done for my own sake, and by engaging in the holy actions of the kind founder, Guru Śākyamūni Buddha. Through these merits, may I quickly attain the state of the great compassionate one, and without exception, lead all mother sentient beings who are most high and noble to that enlightened state. And then if you can turn to page thirty two, we’ll finish with Śāntideva’s dedication. Page thirty two. May all beings everywhere, plagued by sufferings of body and mind, obtain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits.
May no living creature suffer, commit evil, or ever fall ill. May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and the deaf hear sounds. May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored and finding repose. May the naked find clothing, the hungry find food, may the thirsty find water and delicious drinks.
May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy, May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness, and prosperity. May there be timely rains and bountiful harvests. May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments. Whatever diseases there are in the world, may they never occur again.
May the frightened cease to be afraid and those bound be freed. May the powerless find power, and may people think of benefiting each other for as long as space remains, for as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world. So the Chenrezig practice, I simplified a little bit. But, basically, that’s how it’s done. It’s with each verse, thinking about the meaning of the verse, and then the nectar removes the the the obscurations or the obstacles to being able to actualize the positive and the obstacles to removing the negative.
So we’re using the visualization and the nectar to, bring in that feeling of the compassionate bodhicitta energy. And then visualizing at the end, all sentient beings become Chenrezig. So this is understanding their potential, the jewel, that they’ve actualized their potential, and so then they all become enlightened. So in your view, they’re enlightened. From their side, we don’t know whether they’re enlightened or not.
But from our side, we’re saying they’re enlightened. So they become completely enlightened only with qualities, not with any negativities. No delusions. And it’s important when you’re doing purification practice to believe you have purified. It’s the mind that creates the negativity.
Where does the negativity come from? self-cherishing. So you remove the self-cherishing. You remove the negative karma and the delusions by believing you’ve purified. If you don’t believe you’ve purified, you haven’t purified.
The only person who knows whether you’ve purified is you. So when you have a strong belief, I have purified, you have. But watch how the mind says, I’ve totally purified. Maybe not. You know?
Every time we purify and we go back to it again, you find there’s always a feeling there’s something more to purify. And so that’s why we need to do it many, many times. You keep going back to it and back to it and back to it because we don’t have the habit of believing we’re pure. We have the habit of believing we’re impure. And so through the purification practice, we’re convincing ourselves we’re not impure, we’re pure.
We’ve actualized our Buddha nature, our potential. That’s who we are. So we’re, at the moment, we’re pure pretending to be impure. So now let’s be pure and pretend to be pure instead of being pure and pretending to be impure. Okay?
There’s a a nice change in there. So, we have lunch until two o’clock, and then at two o’clock, there’s a discussion group. So, I think in threes. And then in the discussion group, what I want you to discuss is not just that one verse, but the idea of the self-cherishing and transforming the self-cherishing from self-cherishing into cherishing others. How difficult or easy would it be to do in your own situation?
It’s always better to personalize it and think, well, how would I do it? What would I do? Are there obstacles to doing it? And then in each group, please have a reporter. So somebody who writes down the questions.
Otherwise, it gets into big big conversations, and we never get finished. So, it’s good to have a reporter in each group, and then write down the questions if you have any questions or any points you want to make, and then each group will be able to ask its questions or make your own points. So that’s between two and three, you have discussion group, then you have a break, and then from three thirty till five, we’ll discuss what you have found. And then if you didn’t find anything, we’ll continue with the teachings. If you found questions, I’m very happy We can discuss the questions.
Okay? Any questions? I doubt it, but you never know. Ah, Magda. Thank you.
I haven’t yet. I’m considering it. Oh, no. No. No.
No. That’s never a good idea. You’ll pick the people you like. I’ll choose the people you don’t like. Who don’t you like?
Tell me in confidence. I won’t use the information against you, maybe. Simon, are you going to be here for discussion groups? Yeah. You will?
Okay. Can you talk a bit more about your, the people you’re struggling with being your group? Yeah. Well, this is the the later verse, isn’t it? So, yeah, it’s in it’s in the eight, you know?
But one of the verses is, you find that really difficult person in your life, what do you do with them? In Mexico, because they’re very dramatic, I talk about you get to a fork in the road. There’s a signpost. Okay? One side says drama, the other says dharma.
You know, there’s a room next door, the drama room. You know, I’ve seen the girls with their singing and dancing. They asked me to join them. They thought I was so good. But, you know, you can have the drama or you can have the Dharma.
It’s not the same path. You can’t simultaneously have both. So you get to the crossroads and you think, well, you know, the Dharma or the drama? Which way are you gonna go? So you’ve got this difficult person.
Is it an opportunity or is it a problem? If it’s an opportunity, you think, oh, this is incredible. You know, I’ve been praying for a guru. This person is going to teach you qualities. If you’re a spiritual person, there’s got to be a proviso, if you’re a spiritual person.
If you’re not, this person is a pain in the neck, and you want to get them out of your life. Right? That’s why I keep saying spiritual or not, Dharma or drama. You’ve got to decide your path. So if you’re on the spiritual path, you’re definitely behaving differently to ordinary people.
Ordinary people would say, this is too much. Out of my life. I’ve often heard people scheme, and they tell lies, and they manipulate to get the person out of the office they don’t like. They remove that person. What appears?
The same. And you think, but how’s it possible? It’s your karma that keeps writing the story. Right? So doing more negative actions to get rid of this person is not going to produce a better person.
What produces a better person is removing the self-cherishing, cherishing even the enemy. And not, as I said, oh, by the way, you’re the enemy. You know? You’re my guru. And people have written to me and said, you know, I told the person in the office that she was my enemy, my guru.
It didn’t go down very well. I said, well, how would it go down well? You know? You can’t go around saying things like that. This is something that we do secretly, because inside, we want to transform.
The outside, in response to the inside, will transform. Isn’t it? That must change because this is changing. But what we’re expecting to do in ordinary society is manipulate the outside, and then we expect the inside to change in response. If I change that, this will be happier.
It doesn’t actually happen. That’s what we found. Okay? So but we we will talk more about that. I mean, at the rate I’m going, it’s one verse a day.
So in eight days, this retreat will finish. You know? It’s just going to go on and on and on. But, I hope I don’t think so. But we had to set up the basis, You know?
Once you understand why you’re doing this, it makes sense. But if you don’t understand why you’re doing it, it sounds crazy. It doesn’t sound like it’s a sensible thing to do. What are we annihilating? What are we removing?
What are we cutting? It’s the self-cherishing ego. Not the good ego, the positive, but the negative. Yep? Okay?
Okay. Any other? Ganesh. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. It’s difficult, isn’t it? Because we have this feeling, well, I don’t know her, and I don’t know her, and I don’t know her. So why should I feel anything? I don’t know the story.
Right? So the feeling of compassion and love is based on the story. You’re suffering, you know. So if you talk to Magda, and she tells you she’s really suffering, you know, in some way. And then Magda says, but I’m really rich.
Suddenly, compassion might go out the window because she’s suffering but rich. So real compassion is towards the rich and the poor. They’re all equally suffering. Doesn’t matter how much people have, doesn’t matter the big house, the car, all of that is just the conditions. Their mind can have unbelievable suffering.
So if you understand that human being means karma and delusion, that means definitely suffering. The first noble truth, the truth of suffering. So if you start to investigate more how people are existing through their karma and their delusion, therefore creating more causes of suffering, then your compassion would arise in relation to somebody that you see, that you think, oh, this person must be suffering because of karma and delusion. But you see, we’re working on two levels. One’s the conventional level where we want to see the suffering and generate the compassion towards the suffering.
And then the other level is where we say, this is a perfect being. This is Chimrasik. Right? So we’ve got two different practices. One is I see all beings as perfect, and the other is I see all beings as imperfect.
And through their imperfection, they’re creating more causes of suffering. Therefore, I have compassion for them. And the perfect ones, I’m seeing their potential, and they’ve actualized their potential. So instead of becoming too bleak about the whole situation, we’ve got the two ways of working. The the Lamrim way, which is I see the problem, and I need to antidote the problem.
And then the the tantric way, immediately, it’s happened. We’re all perfect. It’s two different ways of working. But you have to involve your mind in more sentient beings rather than less. This is the only way to develop great compassion, great love, great compassion.
If all sentient beings have been your mother, why wouldn’t you save your mother from her suffering? And on the other hand, all sentient beings deserve happiness and not to suffer, same as me, therefore, why not use my life in order to benefit others? There are logical ways of doing it. You know? And this is in the teachings on, Tonglen and seeing all beings as your mother.
So we’re we’re coming to Tonglen. The culmination of all of this is number seven, Tonglen. And Tonglen, like very much, because this is a logical way of, working with your love and your compassion for all sentient beings, including the stranger. So when we got to number seven, maybe it makes more sense. Maybe we’ll make the groups now since, Simon’s here.
Okay. I think groups of three, and then it means you get lots of opportunity to to talk to each other. The bigger the group, the less time you get to speak. So you’re going to say one, two, three, four. Whichever number you say, you have to remember.
Don’t come to me after and say what number was I. Okay? So one, two, three, or four. So, first, we’re going to number the ladies and then the men. Okay?
So that means you get an equal number of men and women in the group. So you’re one oh, you’re not here. Oh, well, that really messes me up, doesn’t it? Okay. So One.
Then you’re two, and then we go to the men’s, and now you’re one, two, three, four, and one. Okay? So then just all meet in here and say I’m group, like, group one, group two, group three, group four, separate yourselves, and then wherever you want to sit, some of you can be in here, some out there, some out there, wherever you want to sit, just talk about what we’ve discussed, but in your own way. You know? I’m not looking to brainwash you into doing this.
I would much rather you come back and say, gosh, we’ve realized this is really difficult in our own lives, and we have difficulties with it, rather than just saying everything’s fine, no problem, because each level, you know, the first verse is providing a foundation for the second, for the third, for the fourth. So if you’re having problems at the first verse, tell me. No problem. Okay? Have a delicious lunch, I hope.
Let us pray. And, two o’clock, the discussion groups start.