Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute session, Ven Sanghy Khandro explores the Buddhist understanding of emptiness and no-self through direct inquiry. She guides listeners to investigate what constitutes the real person, discovering only constantly changing processes — thoughts, feelings, atoms — nothing static or permanent. This realization of emptiness marks ultimate truth, contrasting with how we habitually perceive solid, permanent things. She then covers the three stages of the spiritual path: ethical conduct, bodhicitta (compassion overcoming hatred), and wisdom (overcoming ignorance). The latter half features a guided loving-kindness meditation where light radiates from the heart outward to all beings, followed by discussion of creative visualization as a tool for generating positive mental states and counteracting fear and helplessness. Suitable for those new to these concepts.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 09 Basic.mp3
UUID: 9c4f5ba7-a836-43f5-9911-840a4677cfc5
Teacher: Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald
Collection: Basic Buddhism (Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald)
Date: 1985 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~2,658
This person, then you can see, you know, that that I can’t really see, I must say. But just the fact that there isn’t anything which is you know, like if you say, well, where is the real Cathy McDonald? You know, what or where or how is the real Cathy McDonald? What can you find? What can you point to?
All you can point to is this process, this constantly changing composite collection of cells, atoms, molecules, thoughts, feelings. You can’t find anything, you can’t point to anything and say, That is the real thing. And that thing that you point to is there the next moment, the next moment, the next moment. There is nothing in this person, in this being, that is static, that is always there, that is unchanging, permanent, real, in any kind of ultimate sense. That’s what I mean when I say the whole thing is, in a way, unreal and illusory.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not there, doesn’t mean I’m not here. I am here, but the fact that when you investigate and you look and you check and you try to find something that’s real, something that is constant and static and always there, you can’t find anything. You know? That is the ultimate truth. That is the ultimate reality.
It’s the unfindability of any kind of inherent real thing. Now, for me, that’s just up here. I don’t really understand it, but that’s as much as I understand, having thought about it and meditated on it. But it’s more than just knowing it up here it’s a question of coming to realize that, coming to perceive things in that way. Because normally we don’t perceive things in that way.
We look at things as if they’re there. You walk into this room when you walk in here, you see me sitting here, and you kind of think, Ah, as if I’ve always been here, as if there’s some kind of real, static, constant Cathy McDonald that’s always been around and that always will be around, and that it some kind of permanent feature of this world or of this room or this house. We don’t really think that consciously, but this is how we assume things to be. You walk into this room and whatever you see in here, whatever we see in here, it’s as though it’s always been here, it’s always been like this. We don’t see the process of the fact that this room wasn’t always here.
It was built at some point in the century, built out of mud and cement and bricks plaster and so on, and then paint. The shelves were moved in, the books were put on the shelf. The whole thing is just part of a process. And even now it’s changing. It’s not the same from moment to moment.
It’s changing very slowly, suddenly everything is disintegrating, and eventually it’s not going to be here at all. At some point in the future, none of this is going to be here. We don’t see things in that way, but we see things as if they have some kind of real, concrete, solid existence, permanent, like they’re always there. That’s how we see ourselves. That’s how we see other people.
That’s how we see everything that we see, everything that we hear, everything we come into touch with. It’s as though it’s always there, as though everything has this sort of permanent, concrete, solid way of existing. We don’t see the flow. We don’t see the spaces between the atoms or between the the quarks. You know?
We don’t see that changing process. We think everything is real. So when we do this sort of investigation and we come to understanding, not more than an understanding, but a realization, an actual perception of things as just being processes, constantly changing flux and flow of atoms and molecules and thoughts and feelings and impulses and so on. That’s when a person comes to an understanding of ultimate truth, the ultimate level of things. Like I say, the ultimate level is really just the other side of the coin, to the conventional level.
So on one level things have this existence where they’re composed of thoughts and feelings and atoms and cells and changing all the time. That’s okay, that’s true, that’s existing. But on the other side there’s nothing real there. There’s nothing real, static or permanent to anything. That’s the real wisdom, coming to an understanding of that, coming to see how things exist in that way.
It’s quite a long, hard slog reaching that wisdom, that understanding. It’s more than just sitting down, thinking about it, meditating on it, but you really have to work. You have to ripen your mind. You have to develop yourself spiritually beyond attachment, beyond your prejudices, beyond hatred, beyond all the hang ups that we have, problems that we have, and so on. The aspects of the path practicing ethics, practicing mindfulness, developing concentration, working on our problems and our delusions all of that is part of the development of wisdom.
It’s not like overnight you suddenly develop wisdom, suddenly be able to see things as they are. But it’s the culmination of a lot of work in other areas as well, becoming really ripe and mature spiritually, psychologically, to be able to see things for what they are, to see the reality of things. Those are the three main stages of the path, and they’re really realizations. They’re things that we have to develop in ourselves. Having done that, when one does that, when one develops those three things, then one can become enlightened.
Those are the three main components of the enlightened state: renunciation, overcoming attachment then bodhicitta, bodhicitta, which is like overcoming hatred and unkindness and selfishness, and then wisdom, which overcomes ignorance. In a way, can say those three things, those three stages, are the opposite to the three poisons, you know, attachment, hatred, and ignorance. Well, I’ve been talking an awful lot. Any questions? How about if we just go and have a cup of tea?
If there are any During this last session, we’ll do a meditation, starting off with a mindfulness meditation to calm the mind, to clear out the mind. And then I’ll lead you through another kind of meditation on love and compassion, and this would be an analytical type of meditation that we think about and sort of use the more creative faculties of the mind so you can get a taste of how that type of meditation works. So sit comfortably with a straight back, relaxed shoulders. Keeping the body straight and the mind alert, let all of the muscles in the body relax. Let go of any tension you may have.
And concentrate your awareness on the breathing. Spend some time focusing on the breath to tie the mind down, to get the mind to some sort of control. So now imagine that in the space above your head, suspended in space, is a sphere of light. Not like a light bulb, but just pure light, transparent, white light, very radiant and beautiful. Just pretend that it’s there.
Don’t worry about seeing something. Just have a sense that it’s there. And feel that this sphere of light is the essence of all the positive energy in the universe, wisdom, love, compassion. And now imagine that the sphere of light comes down through the top of your head and comes to your heart. If you’re comfortable, you can leave it the size it is, or you might like to imagine it decreasing in size, becoming very small, and then coming through the top of your head and down to the center of your chest.
And in the center of your chest, it merges with your mind, your awareness. Feel that your mind opens up, melts. And this light of wisdom, love, and compassion envelops your mind. And imagine that this light itself begins to melt and expand so that it flows into every part of your body. First, it fills your your body.
It flows upwards into your head, Down your arms, down through the trunk of your body, into your legs, all the way down to the toes. So feel that your entire body and mind are permeated by this experience, wisdom, universal love, and compassion. You’re vibrating with it, completely full of it. And if you can, imagine that your body loses its solidity. The physical properties of the body dissolve and become this light, become pure, transparent white light so that your body is a body of light.
Now the natural thing to do when we feel really good, open, and loving is to wanna share this with others. So now imagine that you send out this light to the other people in the room. It’s as if your body was a sun or a star and rays of light going out, touching the people in the room, a sense of love, acceptance, caring, and wishing them to fulfill their highest potential and become fully enlightened. And then let your awareness open out even further outside to other people and beings in the neighborhood. And imagine you’re sending out rays of this light, this wisdom and love to them.
Let your awareness expand even further throughout the entire city, thinking especially of people that you know who are in need of help, who are in need of special attention, who are sick, or unhappy, or suffering from some problem rather. Think of those people especially and send them this light, loving, And send your thoughts and this loving energy out yet further to people, living beings throughout the state, the country. And as far as you can go, see if you can encompass the entire world with your love, your wisdom, your energy. So that meditation is like a basic recipe, and it could be used in different ways. Like, for example, if you if you’re with someone or you know someone who is sick or in pain or lonely or depressed or, you know, really upset and find you can’t really do much.
You can’t say much. You know? It’s the person’s it went beyond your ability to really reach them. This is something you can do instead of just feeling helpless. You can imagine, you know, generate positive energy in yourself, in your heart, and imagine light going out, comforting, soothing light going out to that person and filling their heart, filling their body, making them feel feel more more happy, more relieved, more peaceful.
And it may not solve the problem. We shouldn’t expect that that’s gonna solve a person’s problem, but it provides some some space and some peace and some nice feelings so that perhaps the person is more able to work out the problem, whatever they need to do. Or if you’re with somebody who’s sick, you know, there’s really nothing you can do physically to relieve you know, you’ve done everything you can to relieve their discomfort or their pain, still, you know, still in a bad way. This is something else you can do, sending out nice energy, positive energy. Or if somebody’s angry, say, in a very bad state of mind, very angry, very negative, and, again, there isn’t much you can do physically, verbally.
You can do this kind of meditation. Just just imagining light coming out from your heart, positive energy going into their heart. Another thing that can be done would be, say, if there’s you hear about problems in some part of the world, people are suffering in some way, hungry or sick, there’s an epidemic, or there’s a flood, there’s a war, instead of feeling despair, you know, like, in a way, we’re so helpless when it comes to things like that. There’s so so little we can do, and we tend to just feel depressed about about that sort of thing and and, like, helpless and maybe even guilty. You know?
Like, what am I doing here enjoying myself and all those people are suffering. We can use this meditation to sit down and generate some positive thoughts, positive energy, the wish to be able to help them. Expect too much. We can’t expect the impossible, like expecting that we actually will be able to solve their problems and put an end to their misery. That’s too much to expect.
But even having the wish to do something is itself positive, very helpful, and nourishes and strengthens the positive potential that we have. So we can sit down and imagine that we generate this light, this positive and send it out. Imagine sending it out to them, and that energy transforming into whatever they need. Like if they’re hungry and they need food, imagine your energy becoming food. You can imagine yourself, you know, passing out food to the to the people, or if they need medicine, becoming medicine.
If they need say, if they’re people who are in a maybe there’s been a natural disaster, you know, transporting the people out of the danger area and and somewhere safe and providing them with whatever they need. If there’s a war going on, sending them sending them peace somehow, you know, an end to the war. And whatever whatever it is that’s needed, you know, just the fact that you’re wishing to do whatever you can you’re wishing to do something, imagining that you’re doing something. According to the Buddhist teachers of the path, they say this itself is helping you, it’s helping your mind, and in a way it is helping them as well, because you’re creating the causes to be able to do that in the future. Right now you can’t do it physically.
But in the future, developing that in your mind, wishing to do that in your mind, you’re setting it up so that in the future, you will be able to do those things. You will find yourself in a position where you have the means, you have the ability to do help people in that way. And and like I say, it’s it’s certainly better than just sitting here feeling depressed and helpless and and confused, you know, by the whole thing. Why why is it many people suffering? Why is there so much suffering?
And what can I do? Nothing. There is something we can do with this kind of meditation. So this is actually really very, very good for your own mind. You’re creating.
You’re accumulating incredible positive energy, positive potential, and and creating the causes that you’ll be able to do something in the future to actually relieve and alleviate the suffering of others. And you don’t even have to go anywhere. You just sit in your room and do it. So you can use that basic meditation and and, you know, creative be creative with it, change it in in whatever way is needed to suit whatever situation, whatever occasion. Positive.
Yeah. There’s a whole kind of meditation called creative visualization where, you know, you visualize things in your mind, positive things, because we do visualization anyway, Much of the visualization we do is negative. We visualize problems and disasters. The reason we feel afraid or nervous about things is because we’re kind of imagining that that something awful is going to happen, you know, like if you you have to go and go to the dentist. You know, we’re afraid to go to the dentist because we imagine that something’s gonna happen.
It’s gonna be painful. I’m gonna experience pain. So in a way, we imagine that happening, and then we tend to believe that it will happen, and then we feel fear, apprehension about it, or apprehension about going for a job interview, or giving a lecture, or having to do something.