Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Lobsang Namgyel explores the eight worldly concerns—gain and loss, praise and blame, pleasure and pain, good and bad reputation—examining how attachment and aversion to these constantly fluctuating conditions destabilize the mind and scatter our practice. Using concrete examples (a salary raise diminished by taxes, criticism that keeps you awake at night, a singing bowl lost in the mail), he shows how we clutch at pleasant outcomes and obsess over unpleasant ones, leaving ourselves powerless, like a boat without oars. He presents graduated approaches to this instability: for beginners, letting harsh words pass like wind; for more advanced practitioners, welcoming criticism as the guru’s teaching in disguise. The core teaching is that genuine practice means maintaining balance and equanimity regardless of whether gain or loss, praise or blame surrounds us—not by rejecting possessions or relationships, but by reducing attachment so we can use them to benefit others. Buddhism, he clarifies, asks us to examine how much suffering attachment brings, and to remember impermanence as an anchor when difficult conditions arise.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 26 Teaching 2.mp3
UUID: f9d43629-f907-421a-baf7-927d721608f9
Teacher: Ven Lobsang Namgyel
Collection: VenNamgyel Thought Transformation (Ven Lobsang Namgyel)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 20.7 minutes
Words: ~2,883
So we’re talking about, the eight worldly concerns, and the first pair are gain and loss. So what we’re looking at is in these pairs, so looking at gain and loss, you’re looking at an attitude that is attached to something and an attitude that has aversion or fear towards something. Okay? So an attitude which is attached or has a pleasant aspect to it and then aversion or fear towards the unpleasant. So for instance, if we’re talking about gain, you’re working in a job and you’re getting fifteen thousand dollars a year and then your boss says, I think you’re incredible.
You need fifty thousand a year more. And you say, you’re right. You know? And you’re thinking, thirty five thousand a year more, what can I do with that? Right?
So you get this thirty five thousand dollars a year more. So then you’re going to be attached to that extra money. The projection of what that extra money is going to do in your life until the tax department come along and say, Guess what? We know you’re getting thirty five thousand dollars a year more, but you only end up with two thousand dollars because we’ve got to take all these taxes. I’m not sure it’s quite like that, but often you don’t get quite what you thought you were going to get.
So when you’re attached to something, and on the left side, we’re talking about attachment. Right? If you draw a line down that board, on the left side, gain, pleasant, praise, good reputation, this all concerns desire and attachment. On the right hand side of the board, then you can put a connotation of aversion, not liking, or fear. These two emotions: one attached, desire and on the other side aversion or fear towards the unpleasant.
So for instance, again to give an example, if you have praise, you know, if somebody is praising you and saying, Oh, that’s incredible, you’re doing so well, you know, you’re very learned or something like that, what happens? Automatically, you feel better. Your mind goes up. And then somebody else comes along and tries to explain something to you, and you don’t get it. And they keep explaining it, they’re saying, Oh, you’re so stupid.
What’s wrong with you? You know? You’re supposed to be clever. And so they criticize you, so there’s the praise and blame. Your mind goes down.
So what we’re looking at is what I think of as the ocean wave. The mind goes up, and then the mind goes down. And then the mind goes up, and then the mind goes down. So think about how in your everyday life, if you’re praised, often your ego expands and if you’re blamed, you can become angry or resentful towards the person who blames you or criticizes you, the person who takes something away from you. When somebody gives to you, you’re really happy.
When somebody takes it away, you’re really unhappy. This is what we’re looking at. What is going on in our ordinary everyday life? How are we pushed around? Unkind words, the mind goes down depressed, unhappy, negative praise, the mind goes up, very happy, I really like you.
So think about that. Is that what really hooks you? Is that what really interests you? Or is it gaining something? Is that what really interests you?
Is it having a good reputation? You know, so as a teacher, you might want to teach because you want a good reputation. So if you’re teaching Dharma, Buddhism, from the point of view of wanting a good reputation or publishing a book wanting a good reputation, This is not, the right attitude. It’s not the right motivation for teaching or for publishing books or doing any activity like this. So one one great Kadampa master, this thought transformation master, said, when you hear unkind words, think it’s just like the wind blowing past your ear.
Right? So when you hear something you don’t like, just think it’s only like the wind blowing past your ear. But what do we do? We reach out, we grab hold of the unkind words, and we analyze them, we think about them. We know single point of concentration when we’re upset.
Right? We go over and over, and you lie awake all night thinking, and why did they say that to me? And in front of all those people, you know, there goes my reputation. And maybe I’m going to lose my job, and depression, and I’m upset, and la la. And the other people have completely forgotten about it.
Didn’t think about it at all. But you really think about it. Yeah. Yeah. It depends on the level of of person, you know, because we’re not talking about one mind.
You’re talking about all different types of mind. So if you find that you’re very affected by criticism, you know, you go bright red, your face, you know, like this, and ‘re really tense and upset, and you think about it all night, you have to start with, it’s just like wind blowing past your ear. It’s just like an echo in a cave. Something like that. If you’re a better level practitioner, and you hear negative words, and you think, so incredible.
I have been praying for a guru. This is my guru. Right? I’ve been praying for somebody to teach me patience, compassion, or to teach me whatever it is. I’ve been praying for a guru.
Now the guru has appeared in the form of this human being who’s criticizing me. So instead of thinking, you know, who do you think you are and why you’re doing this to me? You think this is so beneficial. That’s thought transformation. Right?
So depending on the level you’re at, you have to think what’s the answer for you rather than you go for the too high answer and then you think, oh, this is too difficult. I just can’t do it. You know? In the beginning, it might just be letting it go. Just let it go.
Let it go. Why? When somebody shoots an arrow. This is an example. So somebody shoots an arrow at you and it’s got poison on the end.
This is like the poisonous words. Okay? So they aim it, they shoot it, and it falls just short of you. Right? It falls to the ground.
What do you do? You pick it up and you stab yourself with it all night. Why? How? Which way?
When? And then you start all over again. How? Which way? When?
All night. On and on. All day, the next day, the next day, the next day. And then you start sending SMSs to your friends. You wouldn’t believe what this person said to me.
Or emails. And you’re building and building and building the negativity of it. Instead of just let it go, now it’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger and more real, more powerful. And then in the end, you might confront that person and say, why did you say that? Say what?
You know? They can’t even remember. Why do you expect anybody to be perfect? You know? Actually, the definition of us, sentient beings, not bodhisattvas, not buddhas, the definition of us, how we are born, is from karma and delusion.
karma and delusion. It means we’re not perfect. It’s good news. You know? I’m not perfect.
You’re not perfect. Why are you expecting perfection? Why do you expect people to always speak to you perfectly? To only praise you, to never blame you, to only give to you and not take away from you, to only give you a good reputation and not gossip behind your back, To only have pleasant conditions and then you think, and when I have pleasant conditions, then I’ll do some meditation. And when it’s unpleasant, I won’t.
Right? Think about that. Like the morning you wake up and you’re grumpy and irritable. I’m not meditating today. The day you wake up and it’s sunny, shining, I’m off to the beach.
So when the conditions are good, you don’t meditate. When the conditions are bad, you don’t meditate. Which day are you waiting for? An average day. But then the average day, you’ll find some excuse.
So that’s the problem, isn’t it? That’s why we talk about these pairs because we tend to bounce like somebody said love and hate. You know, we tend to bounce from one extreme to the other extreme, waiting for something good, and when it happens, you think, oh, on that day when I get this good thing, I will practice meditation or Dharma. I will study. It doesn’t happen.
Something bad actually that could be transformed into Dharma, you forget because you haven’t done enough of the preparation of the groundwork. You need to prepare before the big problems arise. That’s what the meditation is. It’s preparation. Yeah?
You keep meditating, studying, meditating, studying, and one day a suffering comes along and you’re able to use it and transform it. But if you haven’t done any of the work and suddenly a really bad thing happens, it’s just bad. It’s very difficult to to do the transformation. So, being overly concerned about good and bad things that happen in our life, then you might say, well, what’s wrong with that? I’m really concerned with the good stuff, and I’m really concerned about the bad stuff, but I mean really concerned.
What’s wrong with it? So when we allow our mind to be influenced by the eight worldly concerns, then we’re at the mercy of the conditions that are happening around us. It’s like we have no power. So I guess an analogy, an example would be you’re a boat without any oars, without an engine, and the tide pushes you this way and the wind pushes you that way, but you feel that there’s no control over the situation. So what we want to do is we want to give you control over your mind, control over your life, so that no matter what is happening around you, it’s not affecting you in a very negative way.
And when it’s affecting you in a very positive way, you don’t forget about others. So like I said, when you’re very happy, the gain is happening, the pleasant is happening, you’re being praised at work, your partner really likes you, you’ve got a good reputation, you still meditate. You still do your Dharma practice. Happens when you’ve got the loss? Your house has been burgled.
You get home, there’s nothing there. It’s all gone. Right? Or the house burns down. It’s all gone.
Now the situation is really unpleasant. You’re being blamed because they think you left the gas on or the iron on the ironing board. So now they’re all blaming you, and so you get a bad reputation. It says in the newspaper, you know, crazy person leaves the gas on, house burns down. So you can go from one second, beautiful house, you know, all the nice furniture, furniture.
The neighbors love you. Your partner loves you. Now everybody’s pointing the finger and saying, it was you. You did it. You caused the house to burn down, and we don’t have insurance.
It’s a disaster. Right? Then could you still be happy in the middle of all of that when all these negative things are happening? It doesn’t usually happen like that but bits and pieces of it happen, don’t they? So what we’re asking you to do is look at maybe pairs.
I think it’s easier to look at both sides. The gain and the loss, when you’re really gaining something, how do you feel? When you lose it, how do you feel? Does your mind go up and then does your mind go down? When the situation is very pleasant or very unpleasant, how do you feel?
Can you still do your Dharma practice? Do you still want to do your meditation? Praise and blame? When people are really praising you, are you sort of swallowing it? Pump.
You know, people put a little valve onto your ego and then they pump your ego. Yeah? And your ego goes up like a balloon and then somebody else comes along with a pin and sticks it in and you go bigger and then you go smaller. This is very painful. If you remember it happening, it’s painful.
And then good reputation, bad reputation. So what we’re looking for is just somewhere in the middle, a balance between the two. Now if this is if the gains happening, it’s okay. I’m not getting too attached. And if I lose it, I’m also not becoming too angry, not having too much aversion.
Just that sense of balance between the two. So if we have these eight attitudes and our mind is becoming very involved in the eight attitudes, we can become uptight. You become, you know, wound up, and we can also become fearful because if you want to maintain the group on the left, you can become afraid of losing them. Okay? What we do is we put bars on the windows.
We have electronic burglar systems and all the rest of it because you really want to protect what you have. If it’s reputation, also you try to protect it. So think about the fear that can be involved in the eight worldly dharmas or eight worldly concerns. Then we can get very self centered. You keep thinking about what you want and avoiding what you don’t like.
Bouncing between one and the other. You know, this what I really want, and this is what I really want to avoid. So all these experiences and things are impermanent. If you think about, maybe something that upset you six months ago, you know, say somebody said to you, six months ago, something that upset you, and you think about it today, how does it feel? Can you even remember it?
Often, we have very disturbing experiences that at the time are very disturbing, and six months later, year later, can’t even remember what it was all about. But at the time, you put so much time and energy into it. You got really wrapped up and caught up in it. So one of the things is to look back and think, well, I’ve been upset so many times over so many years, can’t remember it. So therefore, it’s not so important.
It’s impermanent. And remembering impermanence, it will change. The situation will change. Really helps you when you’re experiencing these difficult times. Just to repeat, in Buddhism, we’re not saying you shouldn’t have relationships.
We are not saying you shouldn’t have a house, a car, money or anything else. We’re saying change your attachment to it so that with less attachment you can use it to bring happiness and joy to others. That’s the changeover. Okay? So please don’t mistake what’s being said.
It’s, this whole thing about desire and attachment, Westerners have a big thing about this. We love attachment. You know? If I love somebody, automatically, attachment. Right?
If I have a child, automatically, attachment. So this is it’s a big issue, and you can talk about it in discussion groups. I’ve heard it all before. So you can you can have a talk about attachment, but, you know, think about how much pain attachment brings. Not just people, objects.
You can become really attached to your singing bowl. You know? You went around Boulder. You went to all the singing bowl shops to find the perfect singing bowl for your energies and to align you to the universe, and, you know, it’s amazing what this singing bowl is going to do. And, you know, you go to all that trouble, and you get it, and you buy it, and you think, oh, but I don’t wanna have to carry it all over the place while I’m traveling.
I’ll send it home. So you send it by Nepalese Post, And wait and wait and wait and never turns up, and you could get really angry about it, you know. I went to so much trouble. What’s the problem? It’s not that the bowl doesn’t arrive.
The problem is the attachment to the bowl. Right? So this is what you need to investigate. The attachment to the gain, the pleasant situation, the praise? The good reputation?
Do you have any attachment? And if you do, then what happens when you don’t get what you want is fear, anger. All these negativities can I’m not saying will arise, but can arise. So that’s what happens with attachment. The opposite arises.
Yeah? So for the average person, you know, the sort of non Dharma person, as I said before, impermanence is what you would meditate on. How this is going to change. And then for the Dharma impermanence and death. Particularly thinking, if I die today, is this important?
And often you’ll come up with the answer, no. Whether it’s reputation, money, whatever it is, it’s not so important. Okay? Okay. So we’ll stop there.
Any questions? Clear as mud.