Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 61-minute guided meditation, Ven Thubten Dondrub leads practitioners through a foundational Buddhist reflection on impermanence—why everything that arises depending on causes and conditions must inevitably decay and fade moment by moment. He begins with detailed posture and breath-settling instructions, then establishes motivation by reflecting on human rebirth as a precious opportunity and our dependence on all sentient beings. The core teaching unfolds through systematic reasoning: investigating obvious examples of impermanence (cities, civilizations), then moving to subtle impermanence—the moment-by-moment decay that underpins all change—using the sound of a bell as the key illustration. He explains why grasping at permanence fuels anger, attachment, and jealousy, then concludes with a strong determination to remember this truth especially when disturbing emotions arise, and to redirect energy toward caring for one’s mind as the one thing that will endure. Suitable for practitioners new to Buddhist meditation or those deepening their understanding of impermanence as a protection against suffering.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2013 08 11 DB-Death&RebirthRetreat 11082013Med1.mp3
UUID: b3b64197-b159-48bc-9d08-38d223b4a16e
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: DB Death & Rebirth (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2013-08-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 61.4 minutes
Words: ~2,817
This morning we’ll think about impermanence. So this is one of the vital subjects to think about in the Buddhist tradition. If we’re are interested in following the spiritual path in any way at all. So we begin by sitting comfortably in a cracked posture as much as possible. Most people are sitting in chairs.
It’s good just to have your feet flat on the ground. It’s best not to lie against the back of the chair unless you have some physical problem. If you’re sitting on a cushion, you just place your legs in whatever way is comfortable. The other thing for whether one’s in a chair or on a cushion is to try and have the spine really straight, the vertebrae balance one above the other, and the upper body positioned well so that you’re not leaning forwards or backwards or to either side. And place the right hand on top of the left with the thumbs lightly touching close to your body resting in your lap, but so that your elbows and upper arms are just a little bit away from the sides of your body.
So then it can be helpful to lift your shoulders up and back a little bit, then relax them, Straighten your head. Tuck your chin in slightly so that your head is not tilted down or lifted too high. So relax your jaw. Well, firstly, one can place the tip of the tongue at the back of the top row of teeth at the palate. Then relax the jaw.
Have your mouth just lightly closed. And although it’s okay to meditate with your eyes closed. It’s much better to allow yourself to meditate with your eyes just very slightly open, just so a little light comes in and directing your gaze just a short distance down in front of you, but without actively looking, having instead a passive unfocused gaze. So then, we’re going spend just a very short time checking the posture, fine tuning it in a sense by moving your awareness from the crown of your head down through the full length of your body. And as you do that you may notice different points of tension and you may become aware that that tension tends to exist or is maintained because we are unconsciously pulling inwards and holding on.
So by being aware of that process, one can gently let go. So having prepared the body, it is important to prepare the mind by generating the right motivation. And we can do this by firstly having that strong awareness right now that it is our own mind that is the source of all our experience, and particularly the experiences of happiness and suffering. The more I understand and are aware of that simple point, that vital point, it becomes obvious that if we want less confusion, suffering and difficulties in our life, more peace, contentment, happiness, well-being, then it is absolutely essential, vital to take care of our mind, to protect our mind from the disturbing thoughts which are the actual source of all suffering, and to awaken and cultivate the positive potentials of our mind which are the genuine source of real, lasting happiness. And if we understand that our mind is something that is not doesn’t simply exist in this life but has always existed, will continue to exist forever, always giving rise to experience.
Then it becomes vital, obvious that we need to have a a a really perfect method, a complete perfect method to take care of our mind, a method that is unfailing. So such a perfect method can only come from a perfect source. And in the Buddhist tradition, of course, we recognize that perfect source as the enlightened mind of the Buddha. That’s why we entrust ourselves to the Buddha, the Buddha’s teachings, and the realized practitioners of those teachings. And so that’s why right now as a way of entrusting ourselves to the triple gem, we can think of the Buddha present in front of us, visualizing the Buddha as having a hollow body of golden light, seated on a magnificent lion throne, lotus sun and moon, all in the aspect of transparent radiating light, thinking of the Buddha adorned with the saffron robes of a monk, holding a deep blue begging bowl in his left hand, filled with wisdom nectar.
So we think of the Buddha as the embodiment of all qualities of the triple gem, the embodiment of all perfect qualities. So as we think of the Buddha in front of us to inspire us, to motivate us, we can also be motivated by an awareness of our connection with all sentient beings. Our existence in every moment depends directly, indirectly on all sentient beings. We simply couldn’t survive without them. In addition, the good experiences we have, ordinary, spiritual, all the good qualities we develop, ordinary and spiritual, can only come about depending directly or indirectly on all other sentient beings.
So they are immensely kind. And yet, all these beings are suffering, trapped in cyclic existence. Most of them right now experiencing far more suffering than ourselves with far less ability to do anything about it. So try and have a sense of all these beings surrounding you, starting with your mother of this life on your left, father on your right. Imagine the rest of your family, all your friends and helpers behind you, those who have harmed you in front, and then as much as possible, opening one’s heart and mind to an awareness and concern for all other beings.
And thinking that no matter what, I must use this and my future lives to eliminate all my negative qualities that harm myself and others, awaken all positive qualities to benefit myself and enable me to benefit others repaying their immense kindness. So try to see this meditation as part of that process. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly.
By practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly. By our practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. So the thought that in response to our motivation, the Buddha now comes to the crown of our head, seated just on the lotus sun and moon, and turns around facing the same direction as ourselves. So for the rest of the meditation we can imagine that the Buddha remains above the crown of our head, creating a protective environment in which we can meditate and constantly blessing our mind.
So having prepared our body and mind to meditate, we now direct our mind to the object of meditation, which is our our breath. So just focus on an awareness of your breath coming in, going out, especially allowing your mind to to be more and more aware of the subtle sensation in and around your nostrils as breath comes and goes. Just let your mind rest in that simple experience. Don’t create it. Just observe it.
And let everything else, good, bad, past, future, fade away. Try to remain in the present moment of completely, fully, totally experiencing just your breath, nothing else, as much as possible. To do that, it’s really important to be mindful in order to detect all the things that prevent that full awareness, such as the mind becoming dull and sleepy, or getting distracted by sounds, different sensations in the body, and particularly one’s own thoughts. So as soon as any of those things occur, see them as a hindrance, let go of them, bring the mind back to the breath. To help do that, can count each in and out breath as one breath, and try and follow eleven consecutive breaths.
But every time one of the hindrances occurs, need to start the count from the beginning and keep doing that without any sense of disappointment or expectation. So we can begin again by reestablishing a comfortable posture, a posture that we feel that we can maintain for the rest of the session without having to move too much. Also re establishing and reaffirming our motivation, doing this not only for our sake but for the benefit of all living beings. And we can also recall the Buddha on the crown of our head. So we can begin by just firstly reflecting why we need to meditate on impermanence.
We have a precious human rebirth, the optimal chance to not only free our mind of all suffering and confusion, but to realize our Buddha potential, achieve enlightenment that spontaneously benefits all living beings without exception. So we have this amazing opportunity, and yet we waste it. We waste it looking for happiness in the external world, getting attached to ordinary things. And one of the reasons for this is because we’ve we somehow perceive and experience external things as permanent and lasting. And all the things that upset us upset us so much more, become so unbearable, because we also experience them as permanent.
We see ourselves as permanent. And yet, the truth that the Buddha discovered is that everything in this ordinary world is impermanent. It’s changing, decaying, nothing lasts. Denying this fact is the basis for all suffering. We have to allow ourselves to see the truth of impermanence.
It’s an incredible protection for the mind, but it also frees us to discover what is really important, what is really meaningful. So let me just spend a little time reflecting on all the things that one accepts as obviously being impermanent. Things that change, don’t last, decay, die, come to an end. As you think of these things, reflect on them, things that one can see obviously don’t last, change in various ways. Also investigate how these things that are impermanent come into existence depending on causes and conditions.
There’s the natural things of the world that come into existence depending on causes and conditions. There are things that are produced, manufactured. These also are impermanent. So then we check the truth of the fact that all the things that so we see some things as impermanent, but so many things we grasp at as being permanent, fixed, unchanging, and we want them to be that way. But if we check, those things too have come into existence depending on causes and conditions.
And we’ve discovered that anything and everything that comes into existence, depending on causes and conditions, is impermanent. It does change. It decays. It doesn’t last. It cannot last.
It fades away. No matter how solid and permanent it appears, it isn’t like that if it depends on causes and conditions. Just reflect that the world itself has come into existence depending on causes and conditions. So this world itself will not exist forever. So suddenly everything on it is also impermanent, won’t last.
Thriving civilizations have eventually come to an end. Whole cities have disappeared. One day, the cities that we are living in will also disappear. It may also reflect how we as ordinary people grasp at permanence. We do we are able to observe, to notice obvious impermanence, gross impermanence when there is major changes.
But we tend to ask ourselves why these major changes occur. But if we check why these obvious changes, declines, aging occurs is because of subtle impermanence. The things are actually changing moment by moment. Everything that comes into existence depending on causes and conditions changes moment by moment. Every moment things change.
Every moment they decay, they decline, they age. Only with passing of time do we begin to notice things are impermanent, that things have people and things have started to look old, and they begin to break down. But that process has always been occurring in a very subtle way, moment by moment. We can investigate and ask ourselves why is it that things that come into existence depending on causes and conditions are impermanent, change and fade away moment by moment? Why is this?
What’s the reason? And I’ve already explained that there’s a very simple reason that things that depend on causes and conditions are impermanent simply because they depend on causes and conditions. There’s no other reason. Nothing else comes along to make that object, that person impermanent. Everything arises depending on causes and conditions.
The causes and conditions themselves depend on other causes and conditions. And so no thing has any power from its own side to stay the same. Everything is under the power of something else, which is under the power of something else, and so it changes moment by moment. We can take an example to illustrate that truth. If you take the example of the sound of a bell, the sound of a bell comes into existence depending on the causes and conditions of the bell itself, the the clapper inside the bell, the movement of that bell, someone moving the bell, and other factors.
Depending on all of those things, all those causes and conditions, a sound which didn’t exist before, comes into existence. But it fades away moment by moment, irreversibly. Nothing comes along to make it fade away. The sound simply cannot sustain itself because its existence arose depending on causes and conditions. And if you check with the sound of a bell, when did that impermanence start?
It didn’t start after some time. It starts straight away. The sound is created in one moment, and in the next moment, it starts declining, fading away, aging. If you check once that process starts, something is created and it starts to decline, decay, age, be impermanent in the very next moment and that process is completely irreversible. There’s nothing to be done to stop it being impermanent.
So try to understand, realize that absolutely everything in this world is like the sound of the bell. Everything, the world itself, all the natural features of the world, everything that human beings have created, human beings themselves. We’ve all come into existence depending on causes and conditions like the sound of a bell. And like the sound of a bell, everything is decaying and fading and aging moment by moment irreversibly. So then, since this is the truth, the reality, why waste my life chasing after trying to hold on to things which are fading away every moment.
Why get so upset, disturbed, angry, proud, or jealous? when the objects of my anger, pride, jealousy are changing, fading, aging, decaying moment by moment, irreversibly. So bring your meditation to a conclusion by trying to make a very strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life that everything is, in fact, impermanent, changing. This is the natural way of things. It can’t be changed.
Even the Buddha can’t change this. And so to make that determination to be especially mindful of this truth when attachment and desire arises, when anger arises, and to be mindful that what does last, what doesn’t fade away, what will always exist is my mind. That’s what I should put energy into, taking care of the mind. What I do with my mind, that will last forever. So now recall the Buddha on the crown of your head.
Imagine the Buddha is very pleased with your meditation and shows this by now dissolving into a massive blissful golden light. And imagine that that light pours down into you, blessing your mind to gain an authentic, lasting, transformative realization of the truth of impermanence, a realization that frees the mind to be able to do what is really meaningful, to make this precious life really worthwhile. So, dedication prayers, if you would like to join in.
Due to the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of a guru Buddha and lead all sentient beings without exception into that enlightened state. May this spiritual bodhicitta that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen not decline but increase more and more.
Got an error there. Okay. Thank you very much. Hope that wasn’t too depressing. You don’t want to arrive at Discovering Buddhism, there is a Thursday night teaching.
Also, yes, okay. So if you’re going home to repair your house, just remember it’s not gonna last forever. Still not to do it, but okay. Thank you. Alright.
Sorry. But since I’m a bit of a traditionalist, we do try and finish with three prostrations for those people who