Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 34-minute talk, Ven Lobsang Namgyel covers foundational Buddhist practices and doctrinal topics from the Lamrim, using the lens of thought transformation. He begins with impermanence—investigating the changeable nature of all phenomena (buildings, possessions, relationships) to loosen attachment and develop realistic perception. He moves through death meditation, exploring three points: certainty of death, uncertainty of timing, and that only accumulated karma helps at death, not accumulated possessions. He then addresses rebirth as moment-to-moment arising and dying, using the body as a temporary guest house; viewing negative emotions in light of rebirth consequences can reduce their intensity. He explains refuge as actualizing renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness; karma as the law of cause and effect; and the importance of choosing a root guru wisely rather than shopping for practices that suit personal preference. Throughout, he emphasizes spiritual practice as redirecting energy from material concerns toward inner transformation and collective responsibility for the world.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 27 Teaching 3.mp3
UUID: 0352b836-d32d-49b9-844f-a230fa130944
Teacher: Ven Lobsang Namgyel
Collection: VenNamgyel Thought Transformation (Ven Lobsang Namgyel)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 33.8 minutes
Words: ~4,383
You think this ball that this building is solid and real, but this building wasn’t always here. If you’ve been visiting here over twenty odd years, every time you come back you think, gosh, it seems so different. You know, another building, something gone, changed. Then you get some feeling of impermanence. So changeability of phenomena.
Phenomena means everything. Means people, buildings, trees, grass, stupas, everything. Everything has the nature of being impermanent. So what I’m asking you to do is investigate the nature of everything that exists around you. Everything that you see is impermanent.
Right? So you’re sitting at the dining table, dining table, solid, real. Is it permanent or impermanent? If it was permanent, it couldn’t have been made. Right?
No. Okay. Then you say, okay. It was made. Now it’s a table.
Now it’s permanent. Permanently table. Do you believe in that? Do you really think that table is permanent? Well, if it’s permanently like that, unchanging, then it means it can’t become an antique.
Right? So the consequence of aging is it becomes an antique and you say it’s over a hundred years old and it’s incredibly expensive now and I can make lots of money on it. So if it’s permanently like this as it is now, it means it cannot become an antique. You wouldn’t believe in that. You wouldn’t agree with that.
That would be an absurd consequence. Right? Something that doesn’t work. This building, is it changing moment to moment? The scientists agree with Buddha.
Buddha said two thousand five hundred years ago, this building is just molecules whizzing around, mostly space and some molecules. So this building is every minute, every second, every moment changing. So just to get that feeling of everything changing, to be more realistic about everything rather than than fixating, you know, this is permanent, my friend is permanent, my enemy is permanent. That sort of thinking creates suffering. But to become a bit more flexible.
For the dharma practitioners, you know about precious human rebirth, you know about death, and so thinking every day, precious human rebirth, I’m going to die. And then throughout the day, investigating the changeability of phenomena. Why it’s very important now is because when you get to the teachings on emptiness, on wisdom, it builds on impermanence. The foundation is impermanence. This moment to moment change.
I’m trying to think of an example. Impermanence is like shifting sands. You know when you go to the beach and the sands keep moving? Impermanence is shifting sands. Emptiness, wisdom says, there is no sand.
The sand doesn’t exist the way you think. So if you didn’t go to the shifting sands, when you get to it doesn’t exist, you think this is ridiculous. I know sand exists, and it’s permanent and real, fixed and unchanging. So we need to challenge these ideas one by one. Okay.
So moving on. Death impermanence. Then the certainty of death, if you’re meditating on death, meditate on the certainty of death, is there anybody who hasn’t died? So you think of great poets, great leaders, anybody over the years, is there anybody who hasn’t died? So therefore there’s a certainty of death.
The second point is, but the time is uncertain. Okay? So the the death is certain, but the time is uncertain. That’s the second point. And then the third point, then what is actually going to help you at the time of death?
If you spent your whole life accumulating dolls, and I just mentioned this because I read the other day about, I can’t remember, one film star who’s accumulated, I think, thirty thousand dolls. You know who this is? It’s somebody famous and her boyfriend is freaked out by these very lifelike faces of these dolls and has now persuaded her that she needs to put them in a museum so that they’re not looking at him all the time. So you could spend your whole life thinking of just accumulating these dolls, or cars, or houses, or money, or whatever it is. But at the time of death is any of that going to benefit you?
So the only thing going with you at the time of death is your actions positive, negative and neutral. Positive, negative, neutral that you have accumulated from beginningless time. So I’m going to stop very soon so that you can ask me questions about any of this. So then you’ve got those three meditations which are important to do around certainty, uncertain time, and what is actually going to help you at the time of death. This is in order to turn you on spiritually.
We’re already turned on materially. Please don’t say to me, but what about material things? You already know about it. You’re already there. Know?
Clutching your credit card, wildly going through the the shop. You know about that. What’s more difficult is to get enthusiasm for spiritual practice. Right? And spiritual practice is something more intangible.
What are the benefits? Why should I do it? Why should I meditate every day? Why? Why?
Why? Why? You know? So these meditations really help you with the why. You’re doing it for a particular reason.
So that you’ve got You want to look at it that way? You bought death insurance. At the time of death, you’re gonna be okay. Because you were thinking every day, what am I doing? Am I hurting anybody?
Am making any problems for anybody? Etcetera, etcetera. So at the time of death, you don’t have all that regret. You only have happiness. Then the next life, no problem.
So then, the next meditation is what type of rebirth do you think you’re going to take? So rebirth. Now this is a hairy subject, isn’t it? Is the rebirth? Isn’t the rebirth?
Blah blah blah. Every moment’s a rebirth. Isn’t it? This moment arises into the next moment, arises into the next moment. If you think of it that way, each moment is death of that moment and a rebirth.
A death, another rebirth. A death, another rebirth. This is happening second by second, moment by moment. Then we leave this body behind, and I like to think of it as a guest house, just a hotel. Yeah?
So you moved into this not very nice guest house, which has got some some parts falling apart and some things need decorating. You move into the guest house, and you get into that room and you think, wow, look at this room. Look at the color. I need to paint. So you buy the paint and you paint it.
And then you think, the carpet doesn’t go with that paint. You need to buy the carpet. Needs some lamps and need some curtains. You spend your whole time on holiday redecorating the guest house, and then you leave. Well, this body is just like a guest house.
You check-in, you check out. For Buddhism, that’s all it is. You check-in, you check out. Another body, another guest house, another hotel, check-in, check out. So rebirth is that interesting I think really thinking about if I died in this moment with this negative state of mind, where would I be reborn?
That can help to reduce the very strong emotions. If I have a very strong anger, you know, if I died in this moment, where would I be reborn? What would I be reborn as? So you can think tiger, lion, you know, that sort of thing. If you’re very, very angry.
I often give people the example of the film, The Alien. You know Sigourney Weaver, where she’s on this spaceship and there’s an alien in the spaceship and it gets into one of the people. So when these very negative emotions are arising, it’s like you’ve got an alien inside you. And then when the anger’s getting so bad, it’s like chest splits out, splits and you know these tentacles are coming, you know? It’s a bit like that, isn’t it?
So you could think of yourself being reborn as an alien, or having an alien inside of you. I think if you can also just have a sense of humor, if you can just laugh at yourself when you’re being so serious and so self righteous about your anger and how you are right and they are obviously wrong? It’s always like that, isn’t it? I’m right. You’re wrong.
And they’re thinking, I’m right. You’re wrong. And so there’s no resolution. How do you change the situation? Somebody has to give up.
Somebody has to say, okay, I give in. It’s alright. That’s thought transformation. But it’s so difficult to do, isn’t it? So hard to say, I give up.
I let go. So thinking I’m going to die today, precious human rebirth, I’m gonna die today. Is it so important to to cling to my position of being right, my rightness, you know? And then when I die, put me on a cross, you know, death, put me on a cross. I’m so incredible.
I’m always right. If you could just laugh about it, you think, oh, look what I’m doing. Look what I’m projecting to the world. I’m always right. You’re always wrong.
Let go of that position, and then just in each situation, try to have a feeling of impermanence. The situation arose, the situation will go away because of impermanence. I could die today. Do I want to die like this? And if that hasn’t worked, look at the negative state of mind.
What type of rebirth do you think you’re going to get if you died in this moment, in this negative state of mind? Would it be positive? Would it be happy? That helps to reduce these negative emotions. Then the next one, and we’re still going through the Lamrim.
The next one is refuge. And refuge in a Buddhist context is you’ve studied Buddhism, you’ve decided you want to be a Buddhist, you want to belong to the club, like the country club, you know, but we have the Buddhist club. And so you want to join the Buddhist club. And what does it mean for you? So it means you want to actualize the qualities of a Buddha.
And what are those qualities? I’ll give you three. Renunciation, bodhicitta, emptiness. Renunciation means you’re not concerned about the happiness of this life. There’s the definition for you.
Renunciation means, doesn’t mean be poor, doesn’t mean give up your house, your relationship, etc, etc. It means not being concerned or grasping at the happiness of this life. A Dharma practitioner, a Buddhist practitioner is concerned about happiness of future lives. This life is already programmed by past karma. Not a permanent program, not unchanging, but it’s already been done in the past, and you’re experiencing it now.
You should say thank you very much. You know, Fred, Jenny, whoever you were in the past. Whoever you were in the past did something pretty incredible. Right? Because you’ve got a precious human rebirth, sitting here, you’re thinking about your mind, your future, what to do, how to help others.
You say, wow, thank you very much. But what are you now taking refuge in? If you’re taking refuge in dolls, you know, thirty thousand dolls, you take refuge in that, is that going to help you? To not harm? To be of help?
So refuge means actualizing the qualities of renunciation. bodhicitta, I want to liberate all sentient beings from their suffering, and wisdom, the emptiness of that. I’m such an incredible person because I’m a bodhisattva. You know, where would that get you? What sort of trouble would that get you into?
So wisdom, emptiness says, oh yes, you’re doing these good actions, but they’re empty. They don’t exist. Tangible, real, permanent, self existent. You’re so fortunate that that being in front of you needs help. So if I’m a bodhisattva, I need beings to help.
We rely on each other, don’t we? So it takes away the the ego of the compassion. It takes away the ego of the love, of the kindness because otherwise you get all puffed up and you think, I am compassionate. Then you’re in big trouble. Refuge, renunciation, bodhicitta, emptiness, wisdom, these are the three very main things that we’re trying to actualize.
And then the next one is karma, and karma is the law of cause. Now in most places it’s defined as the law of cause and effect, but actually karma means action. If you look at the word karma, it actually means cause. It means you’re planting a seed. But of course, from the seed comes a result.
So usually the definition is karma means the law of cause and effect. Okay? The law of cause and effect. Questions? I haven’t got to him yet.
Just leave him hanging around. Just leave him there. I’m terrible. I’m all over the place. I’m supposed to be talking about thought transformation.
I’m on Lamrim. I should be sacked from my job. Yeah, no concentration at all. I just felt that you needed a background for those of you who haven’t particularly heard this before, or those of you who have, sometimes you need the succinct this is what you’re trying to get at. Instead of lots and lots of teachings on one subject and you sort of, you know, you slump and you hear all these technical terms and you think I don’t quite know what I’m supposed to do with this.
So it sometimes helps when it’s a Westerner who’s had the same problem, who also, you know, has to find the shortest possible way of describing it. Gurus. Not kangaroo, just guru. Okay. Can one have several gurus?
Some great minds have a hundred and thirty Gurus. Some people only have one. I, when I couldn’t sleep one night, started to write down all the Gurus I had. I think I got to thirty. I think I’ve got more now, but that time it was thirty.
You have a root guru and then you have other gurus. So the root guru is like the very foundation of your practice, like the root of the tree and everything else comes from that. So when you have a root guru, you mainly refer to that person for guidance. The other gurus give you teachings, tantric practices, whatever. But, okay, I’ll tell you something I’ve learned.
Don’t go to one guru and say, what should I do? And that guru says, I really think you should do a hundred thousand prostrations. Don’t think this is wild, this is very possible. Hundred thousand prostrations. You go away and you think, that’s ridiculous.
I’m not going to do a hundred thousand prostrations. So you go to another Guru. What do you think I should do? Oh, I think you should do four hundred thousand water bowls. Oh, this getting worse.
You go to another guru. What you’re looking for is what you want to hear. That’s not a guru. A guru is giving you practices to get you to enlightenment. Right?
So if a guru has given you practices, don’t go to another Guru and try and get another practice that you would like. What you’re doing is accumulating practices that have to be done. So what you should do is you go to Guru number one, prostrations. You think about it and you think about it, I just don’t know how to do it. How would I do it?
This is so difficult. You go to another Guru and you say, Guru number one gave me this practice, I just don’t know how to do it. I don’t even know how to get started. And Guru number two helps you to get started. Or says, well maybe it’s too difficult at the moment, relax, just try this.
But don’t sort of keep each guru in the dark because you’ll get different practices. Does that help? Yeah. Is that okay? Okay.
Yeah. Oh, charming. I could be your really nice dream. I mean, if you’ve got negative karma, I’m your nightmare, I’m your worst nightmare. You know?
And the worst part about it is, I’ll be back. And I’ll be back. And I’ll be back. And life after life, I’ll be back. And you keep thinking, this is a nightmare.
What sort of nightmare am I in? Right? So at the moment, you’re in this situation and you’re being challenged. And the challenge is not just to see the negativity, but to see the goodness in what you’ve done. And to see the goodness also in what other people do.
Right? So you’ve done good actions. You did one with the mosquito. Right? Your mind changed like that.
So we can change some things quite quickly and other things are difficult to change. But we don’t just have this life. We have countless lives. And so it’s to have that feeling of moving forward, but accepting that we have many, many lives to come and we can complete whatever we need to do in the future if we can’t complete it in this life. Does that help?
Oh, okay. I thought it was being very optimistic, but anyway. Oh, is it better? It’s sort of on and off, isn’t it? I think for somebody like you, if you’re seeing things in a negative way, and this morning I thought I was actually being quite positive so it worries me that you’re hearing it in a negative way.
I would look at rejoicing. You rejoice in the good deeds you’ve done, the good thoughts that you have. Just keep rejoicing. I think that if you’re not attached to any moment, that the next moment is an evolution, and the evolution continues. And you look back on the old you, and you think, well, that’s what it was at that time.
I mean, think back. Do you want to go back to the, say, 1920s where the record players were wind up? Some people might say yes, and some people love having iPods. Right? So materially, we’ve changed so much, but spiritually how much have we changed?
Because we don’t put very much effort into the spiritual. And the spiritual means becoming a more positive person, a better person. I don’t think if you’re more positive, more compassionate, kinder, more loving, you would ever regret the old person who was angry, hateful, resentful. I don’t think you’d regret it. Moving from that person to this person.
You’d see the progression, and you’d think, wow, iPods are great. Old record players with a seventy eight, and having to wind up all the time, and it goes, and you wind up, and the only volume control was the doors on the front, would you want to go back to that? Would you want to go back to the old you, much anger or resentment or hatred? I think you allow the progression, And you look back and you think, because my mind has changed, the world has changed. The world keeps up with you.
Why we’re having so many problems in the world now is not because we have such incredibly nice minds, it’s because of greed and attachment. Right? Greedy companies, greedy people, cut the trees, pollute the environment, that’s where it’s coming from. So I think we need to change. Collectively, we need to change.
And we accept that. We are, our minds are producing our world. And is this what you want to offer your children, your grandchildren? Not much of a legacy, is it? All this pollution, change of climate, hatred, anger, you know.
Is this what you want to offer the future? I don’t think anybody says yes. We want to offer better. That means we need to be better. Individually, better heart, in order to have a better world.
Don’t blame the world, blame you. When you’re greedy, angry, hatred, blame that. And because you blame it, you want to cut it. Not support it, not defend it. Yeah?
Any other questions? Yeah? Well the definition of a dharma practitioner is somebody who is interested in the happiness of future lives. If you’re interested in the happiness of this life, you’re defined as a non dharma practitioner. So this is drawing the line.
It’s saying, if you’re interested in the happiness of this life, you don’t have renunciation. What’s wrong with the one that’s happening? It’s not saying there’s anything wrong with it, but it’s saying, if you’re interested in a Dharma practice as opposed to a present life practice. So there’s a difference. We start with our present life practice.
We want happiness now. We don’t want to experience suffering now. That’s where we’re at. And then we progress to not just wanting that in this life, but future lives. Yeah?
So what we’re concerned about is right now, this life. A dharma practitioner broadens that into all future lives. So you mean that you don’t want to do that, but you we want both. But you know, the definition of dharma practitioner means only interested in future lives. Accepting that this life, as I said, is pre programmed.
Whatever you’ve done in in your past is forcing you to experience whatever you’re experiencing in this life. Right? Happiness, suffering, wherever it’s coming from, it’s coming from the past. What you can do in this life is use it and transform it as a fuel, as an energy to make happiness. So even situations where you might think, oh, that’s a problem.
I don’t like that, can become a source of happiness. It’s just the view that changes. Do you understand? Yeah. In actual fact, the aim is to try and get people interested in future lives.
The aim is not just for this life. Yeah. If it was just for this life, then it’s a very short span. If you think about countless lifetimes, it’s a very short life, it’s a very short time. If you think of seventy years, eighty years, in comparison to billions of years, which should you take more care of?
The billions of years or the seventy years? You know? But we have to start with the seventy years. You start where you are, and then you develop that and you grow it, to the point where you start becoming more interested in the future. It’s sort of, I think, I guess the idea of spending your money now or putting it in a pension plan.
Right? Many people would spend their money now rather than putting it in a pension plan. But later you might think, well actually I want to spend some money now and some money in the pension plan. And later, I want to only put it in the pension plan. No, not now.
There’ll be a change of perspective. Now, I think we want happiness right now, isn’t it? We want to experience happiness, we don’t want to experience suffering. These are the books His Holiness writes. We don’t want to experience suffering.
If we need to experience suffering, make it the future. Don’t make it now. Give me happiness now. But you have to know how to transform every situation in order to be happy now. And then why are you doing that?
Because of the future. Difficult. Yeah. I mean that’s the trick is that if you’re creating happiness now, then that should lead to a mind that keeps creating happiness. So the continuity should be there.
So you start with the shorter term goal and then it becomes a longer term and then it encompasses not just you but all others. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s a sort of bit simplistic because it assumes that all you need is money, For instance, you know.
That say you’re a millionaire now, but you get really sick. Yeah? You have a lot of pain in your body. Would you enjoy the money now? So you could you could be really rich in the way of positive karma, but there’s also negative karma, which is where the problems come from.
So then what do you do when you’ve got all this positive karma? You’ve got the ability to have incredible happiness, but on the other hand you’ve got all this negative karma and it’s creating much suffering, many problems around you. So what do you do? So, you know, these examples, it sort of becomes a bit simplistic because it seems like if we just have lots of money now and buy whatever we want and we get all our happiness now, the future should also be okay. I think this has to become an ongoing question.
Maybe don’t sort of solidify into a position right now. I think you have to keep talking about this one. Maybe in the discussion group you can talk about this one. In the sense of getting better? Yeah.
Well, in Buddhism it says that you Not directed like a worm. But in Buddhism it says that you’ve been countless rebirths. You’ve been a dog. You’ve been a human. You’ve been everything.
But it’s not in the way of a progression. It’s not in the way of constantly going up and up and up. So you were a worm and then you became, I don’t know, a bird, and then you became a cat, and then you became a dog, and then you became a human, and then you and you keep going up. It’s karma’s not described in that way. It’s more what we call Samsāra, uncontrolled birth and death, and rebirth.
Uncontrolled means you are not in control of where you go. And so, just like the wind blowing you, you go this way, next rebirth you go that way, it just depends on the karma that’s created. Okay, so we should stop there. We still have to organize the discussion groups and we still have to dedicate. So in order to offer all this positive energy, not just for us but for all sentient beings.
If you can turn to page ninety eight, we will dedicate.