Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute talk, Ven Robina Courtin opens with a core insight: we perceive the world as frozen and separate, unaware that everything we experience—every person, circumstance, gain, loss—is our karmic creation. Freedom comes not from rejecting the world but renouncing our wrong view of it. She explores impermanence and emptiness, showing how misconceptions about permanence fuel grasping and suffering. The extended Q&A forms the teaching’s heart: someone struggling with inner negativity learns that acknowledging problems is the first step, not a failure. Robina uses the car-repair analogy—recognize broken brakes and fix them, don’t pretend they work—and emphasizes that transformation comes through small, repeated efforts and genuine self-compassion. She closes with guided meditation on the present mind.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 1988 09 09 HEL.mp3
UUID: 2fa29d36-44cd-43b3-bdab-4bff86e405c4
Teacher: Ven Robina Courtin
Collection: y Happiness in Everyday Life (Ven Robina Courtin)
Date: 1988-09-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.5 minutes
Words: ~8,640
I think we find incredibly difficult, you know, because we’re so addicted to this outside world, we see this world out there, somehow separate from me, you know? This world frozen in space, out there, things happen to me. People come along and they do things to me, and this happens to me, and disasters occur, and money doesn’t come, and this car did that, and that person said this. We see it as kind of frozen in space, out there, separate, independent of me, like I’m some poor little victim walking along and all these things happen to me with no cause. That’s how we think, that’s our instinct.
So getting some feeling, you know, first of all of the mind in this way that I’m talking, of how it’s a continuity of experience from moment to moment, and nothing in that sense is to be wasted. Nothing goes astray. But at the same time, a feeling of the real kind of experientially of what karma means, you know? It just means cause and effect. That the nature of the mind is that it’s cause and effect.
What I am now is a product of what I’ve done before, and what I do now is the cause of what will happen to me later. In that sense, having the sense of control. And at the same time, having a sense, which is much more hard, the feeling, experientially, that whatever I am, whatever I look like, whatever I experience, whatever I think, whatever I need, whatever I want, whatever happens to me, whatever I see, whatever I smell, taste, wherever I go, everything, without exception, is like created by my actions. That’s my karmic appearance, quite literally. The whole world I live in, all the thoughts and feelings and objects and people and things and experiences and money and this and that, and lack of things and bad things and good things.
Everything I have, which is, if you like, the object of my mind, is in fact created by my mind. That doesn’t mean that a person walking along, my mind suddenly made that person pop up in the sky, not like that. But in a sense, that the relation How I view things, how I experience things, how I experience life, being it having no money, or having this, or people dying on me, or people leaving me, or whatever it is, that is what I created. I have created experience. There’s no independent experience.
Everything is interdependent. It’s an interdependent phenomenon. I have created it by my actions from the past. So if don’t have now, it’s because I haven’t given before. If people are mean to me now, it’s because I’ve been unkind before.
If I’m paranoid now and misconceive things strongly, it’s because I’ve harmed others before. If people don’t trust me, it’s because I’ve lied before. If people don’t like to be with me and listen to me, it’s because I’ve been impatient before. There’s no independent phenomenon out there. There’s no object out there in that very real sense.
In this sense, everything is my karmic appearance, and in that sense, I created it. In that sense, it’s my experience, and therefore, I can transform it. Nothing to do with the other person changing at all. That’s their business. Somehow to see the world in this way, completely changes our lives, you know, because suddenly there’s more joy, there’s more kind of accepting of what happens, because I created it.
So what the hell am I complaining about, you know? Kind of kind of like, there it is, pops up. Okay. Opportunity, use it, transform it, be brave, have confidence. There’s no concept of blame any longer.
And then having a view of having the understanding that things are impermanent, the experience of that combined with something. I mean, experientially talking about karma, experientially talking about the mind, experientially talking about emptiness, letting go, experientially talking about impermanence, even that one, you know, which is less subtle than the emptiness thing. The very fact that things pass and grow, and pass, and moment by moment changing, like trying to grasp at a cloud, we know it’s impossible. We can’t do it because we can see clearly it’s changing. But we grasp at other things because we see them as concrete, you know?
So we the instinct wants things to be frozen in space, so we grasp at a sense of me that I think I’m like this, you know, my body being a certain and wrinkles come, I freak out. When things break, I freak out, as if they shouldn’t have broken. When things fade, I freak out, as if they shouldn’t have faded, because we have an instinct that says they should be permanent. Because my sense of me, which is fragile, needs these things frozen in space to grasp at, to think this is my life, this is my world. We spend a lot of energy doing that, manipulating matter to make it sit there frozen in space.
Not possible because everything in its nature is impermanent. All objects of the senses in their nature are impermanent. That means changing moment by moment, moment by moment, coming and going, disintegrating, being born, dying. In that sense, complete hallucination. The hallucination is a permanent phenomenon, that’s the hallucination.
The cup isn’t a hallucination in its nature, not hallucination, just my conception of it, it’s hallucination. So all these, you know, all these things we just talked about We’re just sort of giving a whole kind of talk about the Lam Rim now. We’ve talked about impermanence, and emptiness, and compassion. We’ve talked about these things. And somehow, it’s to taste them below the head, you know, below the intellect, to taste them, experience, to touch them, because it’s real and there’s an application in the mind that sees, learns by applying these things.
We literally change our whole universe without changing a single thing out there. It’s just changing our own mind, shifting our view slowly, slowly. That’s liberation. That’s the meaning of renunciation too. Renunciation means not renouncing the object, but actually renouncing the wrong view of the object.
Renouncing one’s renouncing, well maybe more specifically, renouncing one’s dependence upon this external object that I think will yet again make me happy. It’s like being so totally fed up that you know, okay, I really just gotta change this, you know. That’s renunciation. Then learning to realize, to know, to start to taste the change in one’s mind. Renouncing the belief in the potential of the external object to give me satisfaction.
That’s renunciation. Don’t have to renounce money, or objects, or lovers, or beautiful things, whatever you want. Don’t ever renounce any of that. It’s the view towards it that we have to renounce. And that’s that’s the meaning of spiritual.
So you can have complete kind of garbage and still think you’re practicing a spiritual path, you know. It’s not true. It’s just changing the action that we’re doing, but with the same view, it’s just another bit of so called saṃsāra, exactly the same. Won’t get anywhere. Maybe I’ve got nothing more to say.
If anybody wants to ask questions, I’m very happy. Just talk about something else maybe and have more discussion about something. Just think for a minute, tell me what will come. Maybe something will come from me too, I don’t know. Anything, not even related to what we’re talking about, maybe something particular people wanna bring up or discuss or kind of anything, any dilemmas or we can all discuss.
I’m very happy. I have to think of some more things to say then. Shall I think of more things to say or what? We had enough? I’ve kind of something I want to Go on.
But you know it’s like I identified strongly at the beginning — what was that? — bringing up the things you don’t like, developing, chipping away at them. Yeah. And then it’s showing up.
I have a particular friend in my life who tends to bring up all those things. In you? In me. Oh yes, absolutely. Know all about that one.
Absolutely. Oh yes, we know about that one. Oh wow. You’d love what? Yes.
Yes. Isn’t subject, if you like, to what’s going on? Say that last bit. Subject what? Subject to what’s going on.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes, Okay, Excellent. Yeah, of course. Yes, yes.
What I’m hearing too, and this is maybe not meant to be mean to you, but it’s like the rest of us, like we are. What we’re kind of more than anything, what we’re sort of saying is that you recognise this person brings up all the stuff in you. But in a way, perhaps, what you’re saying is, I wish I could not react. I wish I could be But it’s like, that’s fine. But that is God again, it’s just like what you’re really saying is, I wish I didn’t have these qualities.
That what you’re saying? That’s fine, but that’s desperate. It is desperate. Do you understand? No, and why you’re desperate is because you’re too scared to acknowledge that you have them, because it’s too painful.
It’s like having a car that doesn’t work, and pretending it does work. And every time the brakes don’t work, we think, oh, they do really, you know. And then the car comes along that presses all the buttons and the car’s brakes don’t work, because it gets too close to it. And we think, oh, it just doesn’t work. How can I do something about it?
What we’re really saying is not What we’re really saying is, I wish I could not see these brakes not working. In other words, you don’t want anything to threaten you, because you don’t want to see the problems. That’s what our pain is. It’s too painful. So what I’m saying is, why we need immense courage, is to slowly, slowly change the view to the point where actually, you’re welcome.
Wow, I’ve still got anger. Okay. It’s painful when it happens, but then go away with it, and then be brave enough just not to think, I wish I didn’t have it. That is a fantasy. It’s like saying, I wish my car worked properly.
That is not getting anywhere. That’s kind of paralyzed, you know? In other words, the view is, if you know that whenever you If you have the vision of what your car can become I mean, I have to use an old example to myself, it really works, you know? You have this car that doesn’t work, and then there’s a process. First, you you refuse to acknowledge it doesn’t work.
And you hide it. Then something comes and you cover it up quickly. A bit of rust comes, you quickly cover it with a bit of paint, you know? And the brakes are working, you pretend they do work. You kind of manipulate things and act as if they work.
The first step in changing your car is first of all, knowing that it can be a great car again. Right? Then, it’s okay, the brakes don’t work. Not thinking, I wish they worked. But then what do you do?
You look at it and you think, okay. You’re kind of There’s an acceptance. You’re giving up. Okay. The brakes don’t work.
So what do you do? You go and fix the brakes. Of course you wish they didn’t work, but the fact is they don’t work. So the fact is you have buttons that your friend presses. The fact is you have misery inside you.
And of course, you don’t want to be there, but that’s not the right words to say. That’s fine. But if you then go to the next step, which is acknowledging that it is in you, and to not have hate of yourself because you’re an ordinary human being like the rest of us in this universe. Yeah, I know, but what I’m saying to you is maybe to hear the desperateness. Because once you’ve acknowledged it, once we’ve acknowledged it Okay, then once we’ve acknowledged it, and we have confidence that we can change it, then we’re no longer desperate.
That’s what I’m saying. That’s what I’m saying. Okay, that’s what I’m hearing too. That’s my point. Well how can I How can you have confidence that you can do anything, okay?
What’s the starting point? My mosquito wants to eat me. But what’s the starting point? You just said the words, you said I haven’t got confidence. So what’s the starting point to change that?
Okay. So saying say the words. I mean, me, it’s really corny, I know. But it’s like it starts at this level. I know but But.
Yes, but. Okay. So you’ve already said that the car works. Yes. And I can do that so well.
Can say that, yeah, I can do this, I can do this well. Do what well? Yes. No, no, I’m not saying that. No, you missed my point.
No, you have confidence to know that you can change the junk in you. Recognize you’ve got junk. It’s okay to have junk. We’re human beings. There’s nothing wrong with it.
That is what we are. I’m not saying have confidence, next time I will be perfect. That’s a fantasy. It’s like saying the brakes are absolutely wrecked, next time they will not, won’t work. It’s a fantasy.
What I’m saying is to have confidence in seeing that you have problems, and then having confidence that you can change it. That’s different. That’s profoundly different. And that only comes slowly. So the first step is to believe you have the confidence.
First of all, to even acknowledge. You say you acknowledge, we all say we acknowledge, but what I think is, it’s like too painful for us, because we wished so desperately it wasn’t there, you know? Because that’s the function of attachment. That’s the function of attachment. I know it’s all going on, and I’m aware of all that, you know.
So what’s missing if you’re if you’re aware of it? Yeah. It’s like you you really it’s also like seeing your good qualities. You’re you’re a good human being, know. You’re very you’re beautiful.
You’re nice to look at. You’re nice to hear. You’ve good quality. You’ve got a good mind, obviously. You’ve a good heart.
Do you say all these things to yourself very much? Do you see your good qualities sometimes? I bet you don’t, you know. We’re obsessed with our misery, we’re obsessed with our negativity. At the same time as being obsessed by it, what we’re doing is we’re obsessed with covering it up.
So all our energy is in kind of hiding what we’ve got, because actually, we’re scared to show it. The real reason that we want to not show our feelings is because we’re scared stiff, the other person will reject us. That’s why we’re trying to hide it, you know. Right, so what are you saying? Yes, you’re right.
That’s right. Yes, absolutely you’re right. Exactly. It’s painful. I agree with you.
But what? But I’d like to deal with it. And you’re not you think you’re not dealing with it? I’m not dealing with it. At all.
Hundred percent permanently, inherently not dealing with it. I’m serious, you know? No. I know. I remember that.
You’re trying hard? Are you trying hard? I have not been trying hard. No. Not maybe.
You try a little bit. Sort of forgotten how to. Alright. Well, you know what’s happening there, don’t you? I mean, we kind of all know, don’t we?
But what I’m trying to get at is that there’s nothing else I can tell you. That’s the whole point because that’s what we are. We sort of think, then then what do I do? That’s what we’re saying, all of us. I mean, I hear you loud and clear, you know?
Slowly, slowly, have patience. Just, I mean, if you meditate, then meditate. If you do certain practices, keep doing them. And every time, my feeling is, every time we feel this kind of wave of negativity coming, the belief that I can’t do it, and the belief that I’m not doing it, and the belief that I wish this and Just kind of counter it with the opposite words. It’s the starting point.
The gross mind, the intellectual mind is the starting point. You know? That’s the starting point. So just that’s where we even need effort. Is every time you hear yourself saying, I don’t have confidence, just say, I have the confidence.
And even though it’s like it’s like what? It’s like when you smoke cigarettes. I mean, for me, it’s an ordinary external habit we can relate to. We know that the point where we start to make the change is when we start way back, you know, weeks and weeks and before we give up cigarettes, we start to say, maybe I should give up cigarettes. The first moment we say that is the beginning of the chipping away of the smoking cigarette habit.
It might take quite a while. And even when we actually give up the object, there’s still the residue there. We still want the cigarette, don’t we? The habit comes up, you know, comes up, comes up. But we know that just repeating and repeating and repeating, I don’t wanna smoke And even though we’re saying, I don’t really wanna smoke, we know it’s kind of like a lie, because underneath we really do, but we know that’s the way to break the habit.
So don’t It’s kind of like what we want, we want perfection already. We want, I’m so monstrous. I wanna be better. Then we immediately want to be better instantly without any effort, because we think we’re cheating ourselves if we’re not better yet and we say, I wanna be better. So somehow it’s a process of chipping away at it, you know, slowly, slowly.
It’s like you can’t do anything perfectly the first time. Okay. Right, exactly. So, so Yes. That’s right.
Okay, do you welcome your problems? Are you glad to see them? Are you glad to see you’ve got, you know, rubbish in you? I can work with that. No, you’re glad to see it.
Welcome it when it comes. So when you have the fight with your friend, you walk away and you feel, wow, I’m so happy. No, okay, okay. There’s a story, this kind of this one, a teacher or something, I know what the story is. I first heard it, it was so corny, you know?
But he had this person, this servant or this cook, was a real mother, who’d swear at him and abused him, was rude to him. Absolutely drive him nuts, and people couldn’t understand why he kept this cook around. And he said, the only reason How else do I know when I have so good anger? In other words, and that’s the whole thing, I mean, must know if you’ve been hearing teachings and things here, get to a point, and that’s where the bravery comes, and it comes slowly. I Give yourself a break, sweetheart.
Give yourself a break, you know? You’re not perfect yet, it’s okay. But keep chipping away, keep saying good things to yourself, keep doing your practices, whatever you do, know, whatever you do, because that’s all part of the deal. That’s all part of the positive process, all part of the purification. And the stronger you can feel about it, the more strong you can feel about seeing the rubbish.
And then slowly, slowly welcoming what happens to us in our life, because you created the cause. So whoever this person is, you pressed all your buttons, you created this thing. It’s your karmic appearance. It’s yours. You did it.
Yeah. So in that sense, you can change it. Because it’s logic, you know. So it’s again becoming familiar with all these ideas and seeing the logic of them all. And slowly, our mind becomes imbued with that logic, I mean, at an emotional level, you know, that we start to actually develop confidence.
That this is how things work, that it’s slow. And every time you feel this panic event wave, you know, this wave of anxiety, which we all have, just kind of notice it, be aware of it, be brave enough to sit there and have it. Don’t wish it wasn’t there. It’s like if a pimple pops out, you get cold or something, a cold, you would get sick, you know? Our first instinct is to try and wish it wasn’t there, because it’s a blemish.
We’re less than perfect. Just welcome it and learn from it. Learn, uh-uh, less Mars bars. Whatever. I mean, you know what I’m trying to say.
Really, instead of wishing it wasn’t there and trying to cover it up and push it and, oh, yuck, and it’s awful, hiding it. That’s what we do, because we have this fantasy that we ought to be perfect. But learn from it, it’s the only thing we can do. We created the cause to have it in the first place. So in that sense, learn from it.
Don’t make the same as It’s like putting your finger in the fire and cursing yourself continually. But just don’t put your finger in the fire again, that’s all. That’s the answer. We did it already, it’s too late, you know? It’s like having confidence that this is how things work, so you use it and use it and use it, like grist for the mill.
But that, of course, it means having confidence, you know? And this does come slowly, because we’re so addicted to having this negative view of me, and so addicted to hiding it and being scared of it because we so desperately crave. And since we popped out of the womb because we don’t remember anything else, since we popped out of the womb, we’ve been completely responding to everything around us. We know that, you know, if someone was mean to us, we immediately felt it was me doing something wrong. So since we popped out of the womb, we’ve been trying to please everybody, trying to make people happy, and that’s our instinct, and it’s so deep, you know.
And it’s this way we kind of see ourselves. So slowly, it’s chipping away at very ingrained habits, you know. But then we can give ourselves a break, you know. There’s nowhere else in it. What I’m trying to say, there is nothing else.
There is nothing else. That’s it. There’s nothing else. And we can do it, you know. That’s the point.
We can do it. You can do it. But see your good qualities. And if you have any friends who do love you and who you do trust, then nurture that, you know? Nurture that, and nourish that, and make it nourish your heart, and and use it.
Don’t just think, oh, they’re just being saying these words that we tend to think. We don’t think we’re worthy of being loved, you know. Use that. The responsibility is ours, to use that. And keep out of the way of people who hurt you.
Not to avoid watching your problems, but just we’re human beings, you know. We can’t live in a storm all the bloody time. We get pneumonia and die, you know. We need to have a good environment and friends who love us and look after us and be kind to us. But it’s up to us to know what we need, and in that sense, nurture ourselves.
If you’re tired, go and have a sleep. Don’t think I shouldn’t sleep on being lazy. You beat yourself, you know. It’s like seeing you are just a product of conditions. You need people to love you.
You need to keep away from people who hurt you. This is normal human behavior. Be kind to yourself. Just get out of the storm for God’s sake. You’re not perfect yet.
You can’t do it yet, you know. Don’t demand too much of yourself. You’re an ordinary human being. I mean, yeah, somehow. Earlier when you were talking Yeah.
And I feel as I’ve been coming properly. Are you suggesting that it would be good then to try to foster the opposite, a positive? I don’t mean a funny. No, that’s right. But as we see little good bits of ourselves Mhmm.
To try and develop Mhmm. A positive image Mhmm. A real, genuine positive image of ourselves. So if the Buddhist notion is that And so wouldn’t it be then that the positive isn’t permanent as well? When you’re talking about how we have a when we’re in our most destructive activities that we sort of twenty descriptive, positive things.
I see what you’re saying, yeah. Because I’ve been Yeah, hear you. Occasionally when I’ve got a bit opposite to negative, I’ve found that it hasn’t been all that sort of solid. Okay, I hear you. You.
Okay, I hear you. But is there a fragility in that? Is that a bit of an illusion that it’s not more substantial than Okay. There are lots of different things you’re saying, are different levels we can talk about, from what I’m getting from what you’re saying. First of all, what’s meant in general, this word permanent, means that things in their nature are changing moment by moment, not that they last forever.
Because the mind lasts forever according to Buddhism. It’s beginningless and endless, but it’s not permanent in its nature. Something has to do with nature. So if something is changing moment by moment, which is the nature of all the things that we know, like a flower or a person or an object or a table or an idea, that it’s changing, it’s moving, it’s like the waves, it’s changing and moving, it’s not frozen in space, nothing happening. If you’ve even got a microscope, whatever, these days, can see this constant, this massive, this frozen table which looks very solid, is in fact not solid at all.
It’s just masses of energy, you know? In that sense then, things are changing moment by moment. And our instinct, if we look at it, wants and acts as if things are permanent. Hence, when we try to grasp at them, we don’t get satisfaction because we’re grasping at it. It’s like sort of having five cents and thinking it’s a thousand dollars or a coin, you know.
So you act as if it’s more than it really is. But then you’re disappointed when you find it’s just only five cents. Sort of like that, really. So we mistake it for being as if it were permanent. So that’s why we get dissatisfaction.
So in the sense of the mind, one way to learn to see that the misery, one way of chipping away at the misery is by acknowledging that its nature is impermanent, it won’t last forever. No matter how much distress we ever had. We know the distress we have when we were five, six, nine, twenty, forty. It’s not the distress we have now. Things are constantly changing in that sense.
It’s not the same distress that we had that’s permanent forever. Things move, and no matter how distressing, how grief, how much grief we experience, it changes, you know. So things go, they move, they change. Like the day and the night comes, the clouds come and go, the wave goes back and forth. It’s in their nature, everything is changing.
Including the good, indeed, in that sense. Including the good. So even if we grasp at, well I’ve got to stop feeling all the negativity, now I feel all the positivity. But if we grasp at it as being permanent, we’ll still be unhappy. You see what I mean?
Yeah, I’m talking about is that when you’re talking about that we want to pull things in because we feel empty, and that we need to find emptiness that’s the other point you were saying, isn’t it? Then that is probably of another quality. Okay, I hear you. And with this impermanence, do you suggest then that the mind is also changing? Changing?
Of course, oh itself is in nature, is impermanent, absolutely. Yes, yes. Because it’s the mind that is perceiving suffering and Sure, that’s right. The mind is nothing other the suffering and the joy, at the gross level. Okay, but the mind, just the words Buddhism would use for the nature, for the pure nature of our mind.
They would say that until we actually reach a level of mind known as what they call nirvana, it’s just a word applying to a state of mind in you or me or anyone else when we achieve it. It’s a way of seeing things. When we’ve achieved that level, then we no longer experience things in a deluded way, okay? Up until then, everything we experience, including all the really good positive actions, they’re all contaminated in a way by this inherent grasping we have. But the good qualities that we do have and the virtue that we do create, even though it’s contaminated, is sowing positive seeds that will eventually ripen as positive.
And when we’ve got such a strong mass of the positive, it will overwhelm the negative. That’s kind of just talking about it in a kind of conventional way. But the way they talk about the state of the mind that’s completely purified, that’s completely beyond suffering, or like a Buddha mind, whatever you want to call it, okay, an enlightened mind. It’s one’s own mind. It’s one’s way of perceiving things.
It’s totally non dualistic. That’s a word for it, okay? But it no longer has a mistake about the permanence of things or the inherent existence of things or the frozen out there kind of, all the mistakes, the words we use are the mistakes we make at the moment. All the kind of, yeah. So one no longer makes those mistakes.
So one in that sense completely experiences contentment all the time, bliss or kind of strong emotions. So a person who, let’s say, is a Buddha who’s in a human form, who’s taken a human form again to benefit others and teach and things, they’d still experience ordinary human things, looks like. But there’s something fundamentally different in their mind, that they experience everything at a kind of like, sort of like they talk about how, kind of way that magicians at one point, particular kind of Indian magicians, would actually conjure up horses and objects. So the difference is the people who don’t know about that magic believe there’s a real horse there. The magician can see the horse, but because he knows he conjured it up, he knows it’s an illusion.
So he’ll act as if there’s a horse there, but he doesn’t believe in the horse. That’s sort of one way they describe that, how we learn to let go of the hallucination of what we think the world is, and then we learn to be more blissful about everything. I mean, there’s just ways of describing. But the mind that you eventually uncover One way they talk about the mind too is that we all we have the potential now to be completely blissful and clear and perfect and wise and compassionate and all the rest. But it’s like all the garbage is covering it.
So almost the job is to uncover. And by simply by every time we uncover a bit of junk or let go a bit of junk, we immediately allow one bit of the good side to pop up. So in that sense, it’s one way of just purifying the garbage so that the good can already be just evident. As long as you find a big space of nothing, then you think, well now I’ve got to find a good one. Where is it, you know?
There’s no sort of separation. Because the mind, another way of talking about it too, is that in an ordinary way we can talk about how You look at the negative qualities we have. It’s almost as if the positive mind that we have is really just the purified aspect of that negative mind. Does that make any sense to you? So even if you, let’s just say, think of a person who I don’t know, think of a person who’s angry.
Now if you try and get a feeling, if you didn’t understand the word they were saying, just watch them. What you would describe would be strong energy, let’s put it like that, wouldn’t you? Do see what I’m saying? Okay, now the negative side is when the intention in that person is to harm, and is angry, and is meanness, and is hurtful to others and to oneself. That’s anger, in that sense, negative mind.
Now, same person, when they’ve transformed that anger, meaning when they’ve transformed their motivation, they only wanna benefit others, that same person, let’s say that person became a Buddha in that life, that kind of personality, they wouldn’t sort of become like a veggie, and become all kind of weak and wishy-washy, you know? They would be still a strong person, and you’d still look at their action, they’d still be doing something strong, but because their mind is completely different, their attitude is different, that same act looks like the same kind of action. Loud, noisy energy. In fact, fundamentally different. So in that sense, you can see that there’s no sort of, well, where’s the good in me?
Where is it? All this misery. It’s like just transform the energy of what we are, and make that itself good. Mean, according to Tantra, they say, there’s no inherent good or bad action at all. It’s it’s it’s kind of It’s like, I mean, you can sort of see what I’m saying.
I mean, it’s interesting. It’s kind of more encouraging that view. Because if I look at the junk that we are, we can see the potential of what the good is, you know? It’s like the car, the good car, the bad car. It doesn’t suddenly become into a truck, or suddenly turn into a human being when it becomes good.
It doesn’t change its nature. It’s still a car, but it suddenly, it works. So the potential of good car is in the bad car. Do see what I’m trying to say? It’s got all the parts, and the brakes, and the wheels, but it’s all kind of crooked and not working.
You simply transform it, and the bad car becomes the good car. It doesn’t become something else. It doesn’t become a dog or something. Do you know what I mean? Sort of like that, you know?
So we are the very grist for the mill that can be transformed into the good me. By looking at what we are, all the junk of what we are. And in that sense, it’s very liberating to see what we are, cause we start to see the good in us. Cause it’s all there, just hidden. Just kind of we’re just acting the wrong way, you know?
We’re sort of like, I don’t know, doesn’t matter. Nothing. That’s enough. A little bit, we can get a feeling. And it’s kind of encouraging, that’s the point.
To get kind of encouraged by it, kind of get confidence. That’s all, really. When we have confidence, we can do. You can do anything if we have confidence. It’s like one of the things you really, really need, you know.
I mean, they talk about the various things we need to achieve Buddhahood. I mean, there are all these different ways of listing, the various, you know, the various ways of teaching the different the different methods to do. And one of them is this thing of the six, what they call the six, what do you call it? The six perfections, right? The end where they talk about wisdom being There are six of them.
The last one is wisdom, right? Why am I saying all this? Confidence. Confidence. Confidence.
Oh yeah. And one of the yeah, right, right, confidence. Thank you. You need all those things, it’s like a stepping stone. In order to develop wisdom, which is the profound view that actually sees there’s no more sees in a non mistaken way, and that’s Buddhahood if you wish, that’s the non mistaken view that sees things as they are.
The mind that’s changed, transformed. But in order to do that, need concentration. The mind, in order to go deeply into meditation where it can really learn at a very subtle level about this stuff, not to mention all the work from day to day, one needs concentration. But in order to need concentration, you need what they call enthusiastic perseverance and patience. And without those two, it’s like you can have all the wisdom in the universe in here.
Unless you’ve got the patience and the perseverance to keep working at it. It’s like It’s like being a car, it doesn’t work. It’s effortless. The potential’s all there. What makes it go is the determination.
Know, what makes us work, keep chipping away, is the patience and the determination. Patience and enthusiastic perseverance. I mean we all know people who’ve got incredible potential, but they’re kind of lazy or lack confidence in something, so they don’t get anywhere, you know? So in a way, effort is the thing that really determines, makes stuff happen. Many people put incredible effort in something, but it might not have nearly as much wisdom as someone else, but they get a lot further because they’ve the effort to keep going, keep going, keep going.
And effort, in a way, it kind of determines the quality of the seed that we plant on our mind that will grow in the future. Great effort. In that sense too, where’s the person who’s this whole thing about not bearing to see all the misery, you know? You can have a person who maybe doesn’t have any very strong delusions in their life, who’s quite kind of peaceful, they don’t get into hassles, don’t fight, and they kind of duck out of the way, and sort of go with the punches and like that, you know? And maybe they’re not making that much effort.
But they look like, oh that person, practiced. Oh, they look such a nice person, they’re so peaceful, don’t have any problems. Yet, somebody else is constantly getting into problems, having hassles, dramas, and gets angry, and miserable, but maybe that person is working ten times harder on their mind than the other person. But because we can’t bear problems, we think that person’s a bloody monster, know, can’t bear them. They’re such a difficulty, they’re so hassle, they can’t complain, they fight, they’re no Dharma.
And we think that person’s practicing Dharma, but it’s just absolute nonsense. It’s the effort that determines what you’re doing, you know. This person, if they’re making more effort, that person’s practicing Dharma, and I’d rather have that person any day, thank you. I mean, it’s just the extent to which we can’t really bear to see the negativity in us, therefore in anybody else. But actually if the effort is there, and if we can see the mind of the person, then it ultimately changes our view too.
You feeling what you think I’m saying? Yes. Right. Okay, well, kind of, I don’t know, really answers that question, but it’s like, maybe to talk about different kinds. First of all, see what also what laziness is, you know.
And maybe in laziness, there are different kinds of laziness. Even people, even if we’re now thinking in terms of the spiritual path, acting in terms of, you know, we’re talking now about the process of purifying the mind. So laziness in terms of doing or not doing that. That can be, for example, a person who never stops running around doing things, and does look like they’ve got lots of energy. But actually, they’re being incredibly lazy because they’re resisting doing the very job they really need to do, which is look at their own mind.
And we know that’s one very strongly. That’s a form of laziness. We all have that. That we almost can’t bear just to be with our mind, to watch it and look at it, and just sit there for five minutes. We have to constantly fill up our life with masses of other things.
And we think that’s kind of being busy. So that’s one actually, that’s one form of laziness. In a way, that’s exactly the same as the person who sort of kind of looks like they’re lazy, kind of can’t be bothered. Doesn’t confront anything, doesn’t look good at all, finds the easy way out, in terms now we’re talking about the spiritual path, and that’s working on our mind. So I mean, just karmically, means you just stay stuck, don’t you?
I mean, we know. If you don’t make effort to do something that needs effort, then you don’t get it done. So you don’t get satisfied. The end, you just you don’t get satisfied. Isn’t it?
Oh, think most of us. I think. Goodness. Talking now in terms of changing the mind, I mean not many of us want to change our mind, do we? We don’t see that as the answer at all, do we?
Do we? Most of the world. We’re trying to be sort of arrogant and think we’re so special or anything, but I don’t think really anybody really sees that as very valuable. Is it? Most of us are trying to change the outside, aren’t we?
Thinking that’s the way. We all want be happy, isn’t it? We all want to be happy, right? And we’re all desperately trying to find ways to be happy. Even when we kill somebody, the desire is because this person’s driving me so crazy, I’ve got to get rid of So you want, oh, still trying to be happy.
But it’s like, not being moralistic, there’s no moralistic thing about being, know, we just try the wrong methods. It’s sort of like going in the wrong directions. I’m not criticizing people for being materialistic. It’s not a question of being moralistic about it, it’s a question of seeing what are the methods that will actually give me the happiness that in fact I want. And what we’re positing here is that the method, the only way it’ll do is by looking inside.
So what are you getting at actually? I can’t quite hear. There’s something in there. I wanna hear it. Did I say all that?
I don’t deny that for a minute. Yeah, of course. Totally, I agree. Yeah. Oh, I see what you’re saying.
I have no idea. If you create the causes for it, it’ll be shifted out. It’s not an accident. It doesn’t happen from its own side. Whatever happens is if we create the cause.
Yes. Sure. Sure. Yes. I hear you.
So then? Say it again. What’s disturbing you? Yeah, I hear you. Yep.
Yep. Yep. Yep. Agree. Hundred percent agree.
Why are you afraid of that? Why does it concern you? Mean, we can talk about it, but why are you sort of afraid of it? What’s the problem with that? What’s your Why are you concerned with that?
Why is it an interesting question for you? In your own mind? Oh, in a person? Another person. I see, I see, I see.
Okay, okay. I hear you. Okay. Well, it seems if we kinda get a feeling that whatever we do is because we’ve created a cause to do it. So in that sense, you know, I mean according to Buddhism, this is just talking now, according to Buddhism, our mind, each of us, our own mind, our continuity of our mental experience, our mental continuity, whatever you want to call it, mind, consciousness, whatever, is beginningless.
So in that sense, already it’s mind boggling. We’ve already created infinite seeds for infinite experiences, and infinite forms, and infinite realms, infinite existences, So it’s kind of likely that within those infinite things, we’ve created plenty of seeds for every spectrum of experience, including profound seeds for enlightenment. Right? As well as all the garbage. So from that point of view, in the infinite time of time, if we’ve already planted all the seeds in our mind, then they will ripen eventually.
So in that sense, there is kind of hope, in the sense that nothing is permanent, nothing is definite, nothing is fixed, and that we have created infinite numbers of seeds. It’s just a question of the right Like you can plant a million seeds in the ground, but unless you give it the right amount of water, right amount of the right soil, the right sunshine, they’ll just say they’re latent, won’t they? Same on our mind, all the seeds are there. But what needs them to ripen is the right conditions. And so, all we can do is know that one day eventually, if we even The right conditions will come, and so the seeds will ripen, you know?
Oh, no matter what. There’s hope in all of us. Including a scorpion, an ant, Hitler, you name it. Yes, definitely. I hear you getting at you.
It’s alright. You know what you’re saying about confidence? Yeah. How do you draw the line? Between ego and confidence.
Yeah. I know. It’s kind of I hear you. Sure. I hear you.
Okay. If we know, just again, just know that technically, until we reach the level called nirvana, whatever we do is contaminated. Given that, then there are good actions and bad actions. That’s all. I mean, it’s like that in a way.
In other words, it’s to be brave enough to see that I did try. I did do my best. And then if we start thinking about it for five minutes, then I think we’re getting into ego. Then we’re kinda holding onto it and kind of stroking ourselves with it, and oh yes, and then somebody disagrees with and we we defend ourselves. That’s when it goes into ego.
In other words, to see that the good we do, then just let go. And be happy, rejoice, and then let go. As soon as we start to think about things and go over and over, that’s the function of the ego. The ego kind of dwells on things, and wants them to stay, and be permanent, and last forever and think about it all the time, and have people tell us all the time. That’s when it becomes poison.
So indeed, we do do the things good all the time, but let go. Just let go then. Don’t ponder on it. But be happy for it, be glad, rejoice, and know that it’s a seed gone into our mind. And then let go of the pride and the ego of it, you know?
So one has to One becomes familiar with how the way one minds work. That’s right. Precisely. Precisely. And the point is, when the bad things happen, you get the grief, but you let go.
When the good thing happens, you get the bliss and the pleasure, but you also let go. It doesn’t mean you’re gonna let go of the pleasure. You let go So what happens is the first moment, even, of something, like the first moment of the first mouthful of the drink, gives us a bit of the pleasure we want. But what happens is we keep drinking and drinking, because we want more of it more of it until we come blind, drunk, and on the floor with a big headache. Forget about pleasure.
That’s really the way attachment works. Almost the first moment of it is like that moment of bliss, of anything, but then we build on it, and we grasp on it, we want more of it, completely more of it, more, more, more, with food, with sex, with anything. We kind of completely OD, because we’re so wanting it so bad. But we miss the actual pleasure. We miss the opportunity to have the bliss, have the moment, and then go keep going from moment to moment.
Because we kind of want to grasp onto it, and have more, have more, give me more, we say. Then we suffocate it. Then we drown ourselves in it, then it’s too late. So the same with grief. Grief is very real.
Pain is very real. All these things are very real. But allowing it to pass is something in the mind that we have to train ourselves to do. Because what holds onto things is the thoughts. Isn’t it?
It’s thoughts. I want this. We think, you know. The instinct is there, but we think things about. We think things to death.
Why do we always want to go about? What’s the nature of the ego? I don’t know why. It’s beginningless in time. Why, you know.
It’s why because you’ve done it before, dear. Why are you angry? Because you’ve done it before. That’s all. That’s the only reason. There’s no capital Y, you know?
Capital W. Use it because you’ve done it before. That’s all. I’m sorry, it’s very depressing, but the only reason there is for anything is because we’ve done it before. With one big fat habit.
That’s all. And good is exactly the same. So enlightenment is kind of reassuring in that sense. There’s no kind of, it’s just kind of building up habits, that’s all. Really is one way of talking about it, isn’t it?
Maybe we just do a few minutes of meditation just looking at our mind for a second just to finish off. Comfortable, close our eyes which is sort of immediate, as we said, know, completely prevents the bombardment of that particular sense. Therefore giving us that much more awareness of what’s happening on the inside, know, makes us more aware of what’s going on there, forces us to be with that part of us which is the inside. The thoughts and the feelings, the random kind of set of sensations all over the place, no kind of focus to it. There it is, it’s me, know?
This is it. At this minute, whatever I’m feeling, thinking, doing, worrying, pain, sensation, boredom, whatever it is, know, that’s me at this moment, it’s my mind. This is my mind, this is it. This is my starting point, this is where I’m at now, this is what I’ve got to deal with, there is nothing more. At this moment there is nothing more.
This is it. Just relax and accept it and be happy with that. Feel, try to feel the dissatisfaction, somehow this nagging feeling that somehow something isn’t right, that pervades us all the time. Feel that and then just think, this is what I am, it’s okay. As I am, this moment is okay.
Nothing wrong, it’s just how I am.