Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this extended morning session from a Discovering Buddhism retreat, Venerable Thubten Dondrub guides practitioners through three complementary meditations on the nature of mind, beginning with detailed instruction on generating proper motivation rooted in bodhicitta before moving into breath-focused settling practice. He then leads participants through meditation on the knowing nature of mind—learning to distinguish between physical objects and the formless, non-physical awareness that experiences them—followed by investigation of mind’s space-like clarity, where practitioners examine how thoughts, emotions, and sensory experiences, though they exist and function, possess no shape, color, or dimension. A second session focuses on the continuity of consciousness across lifetimes, tracing awareness backward through memories to birth, then conceptually to previous lives, and forward into future rebirths as a continuous stream uninterrupted by bodily death. The teaching includes extensive Q&A addressing common questions about the relationship between mind and body, the seeming contradiction between formless mind and its location in the heart chakra, and compelling anecdotes illustrating past-life recognition and the clairvoyant abilities of realized teachers. Suited to both newcomers and practitioners with some familiarity of Buddhist meditation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Mind and its potential Retreat AM.mp3
UUID: fcea9241-a562-44fb-bf47-801eb5848fea
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: DB Mind and its Potential 2017-18 (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2017 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 149.2 minutes
Words: ~8,490
Sunday morning meditators are getting incorporated into our Discovering Buddhism retreat. So think normally you’re following for the people doing the Sunday morning meditation one is following through the outlines of the lam rim, the graduated path meditation teachings. But so we’re going to go back and do in the second part of the session this morning we’ll do a simple meditation on looking at the knowing nature of the mind. So if those people are not familiar, what we do in this session, we divide the session into two segments. So the first segment is some breathing meditation to help us develop a calmer, clearer, more concentrated mind.
And then in the second section, what is normally done is some analytical meditation. So we’re going to do some kind of analytical meditation on, won’t be quite analytical meditation this time, but just trying to look at the knowing nature of the mind. I’ll try and explain that when we get to that point and we’ll take a short break in between those two sessions. So we begin by firstly generating the right motivation for doing the practice. So this is something that is so we do some traditional prayers starting on page two.
So in the Tibetan tradition what is emphasised in meditation practice is how important our motivation for doing the practice is. This will really determine how beneficial it will be, how effective it will be. So we try to cultivate the best motivation possible on the basis of having some refuge in or faith and trust in the existence of the enlightened mind and therefore a trust in the validity of the teachings coming from that enlightened mind and trusting in the ability of the great practitioners of those teachings, the realised practitioners of those teachings, the Sangha, the Ārya Sangha, to be able to guide us in practice. So these are the three triple Three Jewels of refuge that we base our practice on. And on the basis of that we try and generate this wish to work with our mind not just for some benefit in this life or not just to become free of suffering, Not just for the benefit of this life, not just for the benefit of future lives, not even for the benefit of becoming free of suffering completely, but especially what we’re encouraged to develop is the motivation wishing to work with our mind, to free our mind of all limitations and negativities and awaken all our positive potentials in order to achieve the enlightened state so that we can be in a position not only to stop harming other living beings but to be in a perfect position to be of vast benefit for them.
Recognising that we have a huge debt to every sentient being because we totally depend life after life on all sentient beings either directly or indirectly for our mere existence but especially for our happiness and for all our good experiences and for whatever qualities we develop, ordinary and spiritual. So this is the bodhicitta motivation wishing to achieve enlightenment in order to enlighten all sentient beings. So as we recite that prayer to make it more effective, we can try and visualize the Buddha in front of us as the very embodiment of everything we wish to achieve and at the same time to help motivate us to achieve that perfect result, we think of all sentient beings surrounding us, starting with our mother on our left, father on our right, then behind us the rest of our family, friends and helpers, in front those who may have harmed us or whom we dislike. We put them there to try to help us realise that these beings have been kind to me, I depend on them, they are suffering like everyone else, they deserve my compassion rather than my aversion. So at least we try and think of those beings surrounding us, but as much as possible we try and open our hearts and minds to an awareness and concern for all sentient beings.
I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma, the Supreme Assembly by the merit of giving and other perfections. May I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings be inseparable from the happiness that is free from suffering.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for friends and hatred for enemies. Thinking the Buddha is very pleased with our motivation, we can imagine that the Buddha now comes to the crown of our head and then when directly above our crown, we imagine that the Buddha dissolves into blissful golden light and that light pours down into us, blessing our mind to be able to do the practice correctly and blessing our mind to be able to gain the very best result from the practice. So having prepared our mind in this way, we can now direct our mind to the object of meditation, which is our breath. So we just simply observe our breath. We don’t change it in any way, we observe the breath coming in and going out.
Just letting the mind rest in that simple experience, letting go of everything else as much as possible, all thoughts of the past and future, just trying to remain simply in the present moment, just fully observing, letting the mind completely absorb into the experience of knowing the breath coming in and going out. And to help us do that, can particularly focus on the sensation of the breath as it comes in and goes out. And to help us do that, to keep the mind a little concentrated, if you find it effective, one can count the breaths. So breathing in, breathing out, counting that as one breath, trying to follow twenty one consecutive breaths. But every time the mind gets distracted in any way, either by becoming dull and sleepy or wandering to some other object, then one needs to begin to start the count from the beginning again.
And just keep doing that for the rest of this segment, trying to really allow the mind to fully observe the breath coming in and going out. And trying to do that without any sense of expectation or any sense of disappointment. So what we’re going to do in this next segment is just try to get some sense of the knowing nature of the mind. So as some of you may know, the definition of the mind is that which is clear and knowing. So only our mind or consciousness knows or experiences.
Nothing else is capable of doing that. So this meditation is just trying to look at that to catch some sense of the of what the mind is, that the mind is that which knows things, that experience things, that actually gives rise to the knowing and experiencing of things. And that with each moment of knowing there is some kind of feeling that is occurring as well. But we’re just going to try and get a sense of the knowing nature of the mind. So this is in one way simple but also tricky to do.
So what we’re going to do is just try and get a sense of the firstly of our physical body as a physical thing. And as we’re doing that, we’re then going to try to catch a sense that there is the body and then there is the knowing of the body. So these are two different things. The body is just a physical lump of stuff, It is not consciousness. But then there is the knowing or the experiencing of the body.
And the knowing and experiencing of the body, that is our mind. That knowing is the mind or our consciousness arising moment by moment. So this is what we’re going to try and do. So the idea is to try and focus firstly on the body just as a physical thing and then try and catch a sense of the knowing of the body and focus on that. And when one can’t do that any longer, one goes back to the body and then after some time, just try and catch a sense of the knowing of the body.
And also while we’re trying to do that, what usually happens is we get distracted by other things. So we can get distracted, for example, by the whooshing of the cars going by. So also, instead of just getting distracted by that, you can use that as part of the meditation whereby the whooshing of the car or any other noise is a noise. It is something physical, it is a noise. But then there is the knowing, the experiencing of the noise, and that is our consciousness.
So we can try and focus on that. Or one may get distracted by some thought. So one’s thoughts are also consciousness, but there is the thought and then there is the knowing of the thought. So one can try and rather than get distracted by the thought, one can just be aware that there is something knowing that a thought is arising, that that knowing that a thought is occurring, that knowing is our consciousness. So we can try and do that.
Okay. So again, we begin by sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible, particularly paying attention to having the spine really straight, holding our body upright. And also positioning the head correctly so it’s not tilted down or lifted too high. Also having the eyes, you can keep your eyes closed, it’s much better to learn to meditate with your eyes just a little bit open, just directing your gaze just a short distance down in front of you without actively looking. Again, just quickly refreshing one’s motivation, wishing to do this to get a sense of the mind, to understand the mind and how important it is to work with this mind that is which is what gives rise to all experience of every kind, good and bad, happiness and suffering.
We really need to understand our mind in order to be able to work with it, to subdue the negative tendencies, to awaken the positive ones, not only for our own benefit, but especially for the benefit of all sentient beings. So then start by just focusing on getting a sense of the body as this physical presence that has a shape, a location in space and time. There is the sense of the heaviness of the body and so on. All these, the warmth or coldness of the body, all these physical aspects. So just focus on that for some time and then try to in a sense stand back a little bit or just catch that knowing there is the knowing, the experiencing of the body that is arising moment by moment.
So firstly focusing on the body and then trying to focus not on the body but on what is knowing the body. There is this non physical, formless, space like awareness that is knowing the body. There is this knowing, experiencing, arising moment by moment. So then reflect that as we sit here, that we know, everything we experience is coming from our mind. It’s completely dependent on our mind.
The only way we experience our body is dependent on our mind. All the different aspects of our mind give rise to all our different experiences. There are sounds and then our mind experiences those sounds, gives rise to those sounds. And all the different objects in the external world that can be seen are known by the mind, experienced by the mind. That cannot exist without depending on the mind.
And also consider that not only just the mere existence of things in our world depend on our mind, but the way we experience them depends on our mind. The sound depends on our mind, but the way we experience it depends on our own unique mind. Sometimes the same sound is pleasant, sometimes it’s unpleasant, sometimes we’re indifferent to it. Because it all depends on our mind. And our mind is changing moment by moment.
So we can bring the meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in our daily life that everything that we experience is arising depending on our mind. And particularly to be mindful that the way we experience things, as good or bad, this or that, beautiful or ugly, right or wrong, it all depends on our mind. And then we can finish with the dedication prayers on page three. Through the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of a Guru Buddha and lead all living beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the precious bodhimind not yet born arise and grow.
May that born have no decline but increase forevermore. May the precious right view not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline, but increase forevermore. Thank you very much. Yes, okay.
Alright, so Tuesday. So this coming Tuesday is set out as the first of the topics in Discovering Buddhism program because I think it is so important. It’s the basis of everything in the Buddhadharma. Actually meditating on the mind is quite difficult. It’s very tricky.
So I don’t know if I have a plan for today but I was just wondering before we start, does anyone have any suggestions of a particular meditation that they would like to go through today on the mind. At some point, we can fit in. Oh, yes. Oh, that’s what we’re doing now. Oh, beginningless mind.
Yeah. Oh, what do oh. But understanding that’s beginningless. It seems everyone does. Maybe we could talk about that rather than because there’s a question and answer.
Anything else? Okay. Right. So what we’re going to do now so we’ve got an hour and we’ll do two segments and we’ll take a three minute silent break. In the middle, I’ll ring the bell and everyone then we’ll take a break.
So the idea is, I should have said that in the first session, but the idea is to sort of stand up and relax and stretch a little bit rather than, yeah. So we’re going to do a little meditation now on the continuity of the mind, the continuity of the consciousness, right? So we’ll do that. Yeah. Okay.
So we can have our books open at the well, actually, we’ve got the the prayer book here, so we can use this. Page two and three. So firstly we can begin by sitting comfortably in the the correct posture as much as possible. So so most people sitting in chairs. So if you’re sitting in a chair, it’s good to have both feet flat on the ground and not leaning against the back of the chair if you can avoid that as much as possible.
For those sitting on a cushion, place your legs in whatever way is comfortable. It’s best to at least have your left leg closest to your body. And we place our right hand on top of the left, the thumbs lightly touching, resting in the lap so that your elbows are just a little bit away from the sides of your body. And then you straighten your body, lift your shoulders up a little bit and then relax them. And also check so that your upper body is centered so that you’re not leaning forwards or backwards or to either side.
And then also just checking the positioning of your head so that you’re not your head is not tilted down too much lifted too high. And having your mouth lightly closed, your the tip of your tongue resting at the back of the top row of teeth at the palate. And then having your eyes just a little bit open, just slightly, directing your gaze just a short distance down in front of you, but without actively looking, having like a passive gaze. So then just briefly move your awareness down from the crown of your head through your body, just checking any points of tension. And just by being aware of that tension that can help to let go of it.
So then having prepared prepare our mind firstly by trying to generate the right motivation, just trying to let go of any negative motivations we might have or really trying to have that clear idea that I have a mind, my mind is the source of all my suffering, but also the true source of all happiness. So I really need to take care of my mind, to work with it, to cultivate it. But not just for some benefit in this life, because this life is so short, the mind is going to go on. But I need to take care of my mind, not just to have continuous good rebirths, but to get out of saṃsāra, I need to be able to become free of suffering completely. But more than that, since everyone is suffering in the same way as myself, we all in cyclic existence and all the beings in cyclic existence have been my mother, have been immensely kind to me, I totally depend on them, then I need to take care of my mind in such a way that I don’t cause harm to others, but eventually I can be of lasting benefit to them.
So that I can repay their kindness genuinely, completely. So to do that I need to achieve enlightenment, and to achieve enlightenment, I really have to understand my mind. So this is why I’ll do this practice. So thinking of the Buddha in front of you, seated on a beautiful lotus that symbolizes the mind of renunciation. On the lotus is a golden sun disc symbolizing wisdom that liberates us from all suffering.
And then above that, the white moon disc symbolic of the greatly compassionate mind of bodhicitta. And then seated just above the center of that moon disc, in an incredibly beautiful magnificent form of Śākyamūni Buddha with a hollow body of golden light, adorned with the saffron robes of a monk, holding a deep blue begging bowl in his left hand full of wisdom nectar. And at the same time we think of all the kind suffering sentient beings surrounding us. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma, the Supreme Assembly. By my merit of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings.
So thinking the Buddha is very pleased with one’s motivation to benefit sentient beings, imagine that the Buddha now comes to the crown of your head, and when directly above the crown of your head, the Buddha turns to face the same direction as yourself, and then remains above the crown of your head for the rest of the session, blessing your mind to be able to meditate correctly undistractedly. So for the rest of the session, it’s not necessary to constantly visualize the Buddha on the crown of your head, but just to have the sense that the Buddha is there. So now, for the rest of the session, what we try to do is gain a sense of the continuity of our mind. That this formless awareness, this giving rise to experience is occurring moment by moment. Our mind is changing moment by moment.
And this moment or today, the consciousness of today, is existing as the result of yesterday’s consciousness. And yesterday’s consciousness is the result of the consciousness existing the day before. So just try and take your mind back step by step. Try to see the link between today and yesterday’s mind and last week’s last month, last year, going back as much as possible. So of course one doesn’t have to remember all the details but just some link that moves your mind back and back.
Without getting caught up in the details of different memories from the past, but just remembering something from last year and then the year before and so on. Just use those memories to take the mind back. Also, you do that, try to get a sense that although there may be changes in the way one thinks and feels about oneself, about the world from now compared to in the past, there are these differences of how one may think and feel and what one’s interests are and so on. But there is that continuity linking differences. There is that continuity of consciousness.
It’s changing moment by moment. But there is that stream of consciousness that links all those changes, all those different experiences. So if you reach a point where you’ve taken your mind back as far as you can remember in this life to when you were just very young and you can’t remember anything before. Still one can understand that I was a tiny baby, consciousness was still existing. So even though you can’t actually directly have any of those memories, just imagine how your mind did exist earlier and earlier in this life.
And then without making up any memories, to take your mind back to realize at one point, my mind was in this fetus in the womb, in my mother’s womb. But it wasn’t created there. Before that, the mind was existing in another body, in another life. Going back and back without any beginning. So then bring your mind back to the present moment.
And then reflect how The mind now, this moment, gives rise to a future moment of consciousness, a future moment of knowing, experiencing. And that continues throughout the rest of this life. All the while, the body is uncontrollably aging and death comes, but the mind experiences that. The mind experiences that process. The mind experiences separating from the body, And it just keeps going on, arising moment by moment.
In each moment, there is knowing, there is experiencing, there is feeling. There is the new life. And then another, and another, and another. So we can bring this meditation to conclusion by making strong determination to be more and more mindful in our daily life, especially from the moment we wake up, that our mind is this beginningless, endless continuum. The mind is always giving rise to experience.
But we have the choice whether to allow our mind to remain uncontrolled, and so it will always give rise to suffering and confusion, or we can make the choice to take care of our mind, to cultivate our mind, so that we, the mind continues in a path away from suffering, towards greater and greater happiness, where we no longer have to take suffering rebirths, but we achieve the deathless state of enlightenment. We’re going to do a little meditation on the space like clarity of the mind. So this is kind of similar to the first one we did, which was just looking at the mind as a knower. There’s the object, the solid physical object, but then there’s this something which is knowing that. So in the previous one we were just focusing on there is that difference between the physical object and then the knower.
Now we will try to look at the fact that this knower is this experiencing, that which knows, that which is experiencing is formless, is like space. So don’t space out doing this as much as possible. Okay. So we begin by again sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible. Comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible.
And generating good motivation for doing the practice, trying to have that bodhicitta thought. And also recalling the Buddha on the crown of one’s head. Making strong determination to try and keep the mind focused on the topic as much as possible, not letting the mind wander, get distracted, or not letting the mind become dull and sleepy, but really trying to keep the mind clear and alert and focused on the topic as much as one can. And if one’s having problems, difficulty doing that, one thing one can try to do is recall the Buddha on the crown of your head and imagine the Buddha sending this very powerful stream of blissful white light down into you and imagine that eliminates whatever obstacle you have, whether it’s dullness and sleepiness or a distracted mind. But it’s important at the beginning of the session to make consciously make that strong determination to be mindful throughout the session.
So then we can begin by reflecting and how our mind is made up of many ways of knowing. We know through seeing. There’s the objects of sight, but then there’s the knowing of those objects, the knowing shapes and colors, the experiencing of shapes and colors. And there are sounds, but the knowing of those sounds, the experiencing of them. And there are different kinds of odors and the knowing and experiencing of them, different tastes, but there’s the knowing and experiencing of them.
And the different bodily set of physical sensations and the knowing and experiencing of them. And then the mental consciousness itself gives rise to different thoughts and feelings and there’s the knowing of those. So then take one example of knowing such as the knowing of sounds, the experiencing of sounds. There is that consciousness that consciousness that is knowing experiencing sounds. So try and focus on that knowing or experiencing of the sound.
It’s not the sound of itself, but the knowing of the sound. And then investigate that knowing, the knowing of the sound. Try and see how it is not anything physical. Does it have any shape? Does it have any color?
It’s existing, but how does it exist? Does it it have shape, color? Does it have a location? Try and get a sense how that knowing doesn’t have any of those characteristics. But instead it’s like space, completely insubstantial but existing arising moment by moment.
So try and do that with each of the different consciousnesses. Just analyzing. Check your eye consciousness. So does it give rise to those shapes? Does the eye consciousness itself give rise to those shapes and colors? Does it itself have a shape or color?
Does it have a location? Does your eye consciousness have a size? Does it have dimensions? Does it have weight? Or is it like space?
Existing, but like space. So check each of your consciousnesses just carefully, like that. Particularly spend some time checking one’s thoughts, positive and negative, negative, to see how all of these different thoughts that arise are all have the quality of being clear and knowing. They’re all ways of knowing things. Some are false ways of knowing, some are correct ways of knowing, but they are all clear in the sense of being formless, like space.
So check how thoughts of love and compassion, kindness and patience and generosity. They definitely exist. They are ways of knowing and experiencing. They have no shape, just check. No color, no dimension, no weight.
They exist like space. And similarly check one’s negative thoughts of aversion and anger and pride and jealousy, craving. They all exist, but they’re all clear and knowing. All our disturbing thoughts know things in a false way. They exist, but they have no shape, no color, no dimension, no location.
They’re like space. Space. Check up. Or are they just electrical impulses in the brain, chemical reactions in the brain. So now recall the Buddha on the crown of one’s head, imagining the Buddha pleased with your practice.
And the Buddha shows this by now dissolving into blissful golden light. And that light then pours down into you. That light symbolizing symbolizing the formless mind of the Buddha. Imagine that merges with your own mind. Imagine you experience your own mind directly.
No longer identifying it, just trapped in this body, but having being formless, it has no boundaries, no limitations, vast as space, pervaded by its incredible qualities of great love and compassion. And then we can dedicate the merit to be able to actually experience that vast, omniscient space like mind for the benefit of all sentient beings. Through the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of a Guru Buddha and lead all living beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the precious body mind not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline, but increase forevermore.
May the precious right view not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline, but increase forevermore. We have a half hour before lunch. So do you have any questions? Oh.
Yes. Right. I’ve had difficulty I I know expressing myself, but through that whole invitation, it kept coming up for me of of why do I even have a body? Do I even have a body in this lifetime? You know, the mind being one of theirs.
What’s the purpose of having a body? And then I thought, is it because I know it sounds very weird, but having a body is a real drag from a body. Well, mean, ultimately, I mean, having a precious human rebirth, a human body where we can practice Dharma is good, but ultimately, the mind doesn’t need bodies. But we reincarnate because we have the habit we we foolishly identify. You know, we have many, many wrong views.
That’s why we pray to get the right view. But one, like we have this wrong view, like the source of all our suffering is our wrong view of what we are, we exist, how everything exists. So there’s the there is the very subtle wrong view which is actually the very root of all saṃsāra, the one very gross view we have, which is we identify that I am this body and we’ve done that since beginningless time. And so because of that instinct, that grasping, that very we the mind grasps for a body again and again, we die. We lose a body, but we are so desperate to have one, we create the karma, our mind gives rise to another one, then another one, and we get stuck in this lump of stuff.
Is there any purpose to the body in this lifetime in a sense of what you’re talking about? You can give it a purpose. Yeah. You give it a purpose. Right?
Incorrectly. No. No. We can give it a good purpose. Mhmm.
In what way? By using it in a good way. Yeah. Yeah. And be just, yeah, help use our body to help people and, you know, study the Dharma and, yeah, and meditate and do prostrations and this and that.
Well, at the moment we need the body. Well, we’ve got one. Whether we need it or not, we’ve got it. We Yeah. Yes.
Yes. And I was just thinking as we were doing meditation, and I was thinking about the different, you know, like, senses like the sight and the hearing, you really wanted to come back to this area. Yeah. And I just remember going back to the Friday meditation Yes and no, I think. I think that that is a very complicated question.
I would like to ask some lamas this myself, especially when they yeah. Because, obviously, it’s not residing in the past. Yeah. The teachings, it does talk about, especially in the tantric teachings, it talks about the mind or the very subtle mind residing in right in the heart chakra, which is not the same as the heart. But that seems to contradict the fact that the mind, you know, if the mind is formless, you can’t say it’s just in this body because that would mean it has a size, you know?
Does that mean it has got capability of sort of changing states? Yeah. But I’ll really the mind has no dimensions at all. But our somehow this is my understanding, which is probably completely wrong, but it’s my very, you know, confused understanding. But somehow I think because our mind is so obscured, we give rise, our obscured mind gives rise to the experience of being limited to this body.
Yeah. So it seems as though the mind is in this body, but it’s just limited to experiencing, yeah, this stuff. That’s all. So at one level you can say that because, yeah, but it’s not really. And like, says at the time of death, body, sorry, the mind leaves the body, but in a sense I think what is more accurate is to say the mind stops identifying with this body and this, the experiences that come from identifying with this body, which is like, you know, I can, with this this body, I can see this world.
So the mind stops that, runs out, that run that karma runs out, and then the mind starts giving rise to another experience, which is the Bardo state. And then it gives rise to being in another body, another limited body, which could be anything, you know, something like that. Yeah. Hopefully good. Yeah.
Sorry? Yeah. Or things that, you know. Yeah. Could could you make your question clearer?
Well, think just generally they say that one small part of the mind observes the mind, you know. I don’t really know how to explain that, to be honest. But I’m just happy that the mind is not yeah. Yes, please. Angry mind.
Yes. Now is he shortcutting that? What do you mean? Well, instead of saying compassion arises Mhmm. Why why is that a compassionate mind?
Well, when compassion might arises, you’ve got a compassionate mind. At that Yes. Well, are many different minds. There are many different minds. Yeah.
Well, I mean, here, you could also say, look, I mean, as you and all of us use mind instead of mental factor because mental factor sounds very complicated and technical. Yeah. Because technically, compassion is a mental factor. So when the mental, you know, the the mental factor of compassion arises, but you can say when the compassionate mind arises, it’s just a nicer, more way of putting it, more poetic way of putting it. Don’t make this too concrete.
It’s very simple. It’s really very simple. Many mental factors in different states of mind are arising, you know, one after the other. That’s all that yeah. But at one point, like with the Buddha mind, all of those virtuous mental factors are all arising fully all the time, and no are no negative mental factors to arise.
Yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Alright. Remember, there’s the primary minds, there are well, so there’s the primary mental consciousness, and then there are the mental factors. So there there’s always the primary mental consciousness functioning, but then it gets colored by all these mental factors.
So if the if compassionate mind arises, then the primary mental consciousness is compassionate. And at our level, we can’t maintain those states for very long. Yeah? But also as one practices, one can manifest them more quickly, more strongly, more continuously. But for us, unfortunately, we can have a compassionate mind for a while and then it collapses and something else takes place.
Is what you said? Well, the mind is the knower. Yeah, that is the knower. Mind is what is knowing. Actually, I think it’s better to say knowing than knower because knower sounds like a person, whereas there’s the knowing.
Yeah. Well, it’s it’s trying to be able to identify the mind in a very simple way. Because right now, I don’t know how to put it. Like, if you meditate on the breath, the breath is there. We don’t have to create it.
If we want to meditate on the Buddha, we have to we have to create the image of the Buddha and that’s quite difficult. There are there is also a whole system of meditation which is directly on the mind itself, which is called Mahāmudrā, and there are different kind, there’s Sūtra Mahāmudrā and there’s Tantric Mahāmudrā and whatever. But but so that that meditation is extremely difficult to do because if we were to, you know, sit down and meditate on the mind, the mind is not directly, you know, although it’s existing and it’s the most important thing that exists, we don’t directly are able to directly contact our mind at this point. Right? So this was just a simple exercise to try and get a sense of what that there is this something going on, that we are knowing things all the time, such as the body, right, or sounds, and to try and catch that, that there is that process, that whatever is the mind.
So when you’ve got a clear and loving mind, I bet you know you No, what Every mind is clear and knowing. Even the confused mind is clear and knowing because clear here doesn’t mean clear clear you know, a clear day. It just clear is referring to well, that has many meanings when you study Alex Berzin’s article. But the the the simplest one is that it is it is formless. That’s all it’s well, it’s meaning that, but it’s also the meaning that it is it is this ability to give rise to something.
There’s nothing obstructing but giving rise to an experience because it’s all formless like space. Yeah? Every time And it’s not right. I mean, it’s not that’s not it, is it? It’s not.
Yeah. That It’s that me going me looking more separation. That’s true. Yeah. But we we have to start somewhere.
Yes. That’s right. And so it’s okay. Good enough, dear Islami, as you would say, good enough, dear. Yeah.
So about beginningless mind, Kathy is of course not here now, but just quickly beginningless mind. Why? If if the mind isn’t beginningless, you have to have it you have to say it started. Right? So then you have to say what caused it to start?
Yeah. There has to be a cause. Yeah. So then what what is the cause? So, the obvious, what appears to be the obvious cause to our mind is that we were born, that our parents created us.
Well, there there’s no doubt that our parents created our body. So did our parents create, you know, when the body was created, was the mind created? But then there’s there’s many, what’s the word, strange, you know, consequences if you say that our parents created our mind. Parents created our mind. So did they did they our mind come from our because our body came from our parents’ body, so does that mean our mind came from our parents’ mind?
So if that is the case, did our mind, you know, does the problem arise — did our mind come just from our mother, or just from our father, or a bit of both? But in all of those cases, if it came from our mother, we would have all the knowledge and experience and memories of our mother, but we don’t. Or if it came from our father, we would have the memories and characteristics of our father, but we don’t. Yeah. So it just doesn’t really make sense.
But also, if the mind is formless, how can did we get a bit of our mother’s mind, a bit of our father’s mind, but which is not really possible? Because if you say the mind came from our parents, you would it comes down to saying that the mind is the brain. And if the mind is the brain, then there’s only this life. There’s nothing else. So then that also gets into it, which I never had time to talk about, which I have mentioned in past courses on this, is the whole thing of there are people who and and then you would have to dismiss all all examples of people saying they remember past lives.
And, of course, scientific materialists say it’s all rubbish and, you know, it’s just kind of, I don’t know, whatever. But then you meet some of the people who say they have recalled past lives, and these are very amazing beings who have taken vows not to lie, and of course people can break vows, but, you know, and cynical people believe anyone would do this, but there are I think there are people who don’t do that. And they but also there’s not only, you know, high lamas, you know, who remember past lives, and there are stories of people remembering past lives and also having clairvoyance because it, you know, if the it doesn’t seem to follow if the mind was the brain, clairvoyance could oh, that’s actually not the correct term, but being able to see the future and whatever. But there are people who seem to be able to do that among lamas, although they don’t, you know, make it obvious most of the time, but there is there are some examples. And certainly, Lama Zopa Rinpoche — Rinpoche never says he can do anything, but every now and again he will do things and say things with people.
Unfortunately, don’t have any well, I’ve got one in front, maybe one still with myself, but I don’t wanna go into that one. But I have friends, other students of Rinpoche who have had experiences of Rinpoche making it pretty clear that he has clairvoyance. And also predicting things that are going to happen in the future. But apart from that, there are also stories of and and investigations of just ordinary kids who remember things, which, of course, have been dismissed in our culture because our culture doesn’t accept future lives or past lives and any of that. So it’s just dismissed as kids making up stories.
But there has been investigation of some of these stories that have been verified of kids saying, I was born in this place, know, a long way away from where they’re born, and my mum’s name was this, my dad’s name was this, and blah blah blah. And people have gone and found out that these people exist and the house that the child describes exists. And I mean how is that possible? That they’ve never been there, these kids and so on. And these are just ordinary kids, not, yeah, and they’re including in the West there are kids who have this, you know, many of these stories are from people who come from cultures where reincarnation is believed in and so on, but still they’re just ordinary kids.
But also when I was first a monk living at Chenrezig Institute, one of my many duties, I used to be the shopper, I used to do all the shopping and also go down and collect the mail from the local post office at Eudlo, which is a tiny little village. And I remember at one point the village, the shop, the post office lady saying to me that her grandson would tell her that he, you know, some I can’t remember the stories now, but about his past life. He never said past life, but he would tell stories about being someone else, you know, a grown person doing things. And there are many of these now recorded of people, you know, stuff like that. But also, when Lama Yeshe passed away, the small Spanish boy was recognised as his incarnation, recognised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and officially His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
Anyway there’s lots of things So I was this little boy’s first attendant, he was recognised when he was something like seventeen months old, nineteen months old, is very, very, very young. And there was an enthronement ceremony for him which is a tradition where a child is officially recognised as the incarnation of a particular lama. So there’s all sorts of these rituals. So I’ve told this story many times before, but I was there and it’s filmed, I think you can watch it on YouTube, it’s somewhere on YouTube, the enthronement of Lama Osel. And this was not rehearsed at all, it was done in front of several hundred people including about twenty international photographers and reporters who behaved very badly, because it was very international news, this thing.
And there’s a ceremony where you offer a mandala, which is this round thing piled up that symbolizes the universe, and then a statue of the Buddha is offered to the child, text and then a stupa, and what happens is that, you know, like the child is sitting there, someone comes up and offers the mandala and the child takes it, or the person this is also done for lamas in other ceremonies, long life ceremonies for lamas. They take it, they give it to the attendant, and then the stupa of the statue is offered to the person and the lama puts it to their forehead and gives it to the attendant. Same with the text and the stupa. The ceremony was held, I was the attendant standing next to the child, he was about less than, no more than two years old. And I have taught this to adults, right, what to do when they offer to lamas and they always bought anyway, so this little boy, this tiny little boy in front of several hundred people took the mandala and gave it to me.
And then he was offered the statue and he took it and then he put it to his forehead, yeah, and gave it to me. And this text he put to his forehead and gave to me and he took the, and I never said give it to me or anything, this was not rehearsed for one second, nothing was said to him by anyone about what was going to happen at all, ever. This was a two year old Spanish boy, And then he took the stupa, stupa stupa, do you know that? Can you please explain that, how that’s possible? In front of several hundred people.
Also before that, when he was in Dharmasala, when he was first recognised, because Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked his mother to bring him from Spain to India, no explanation why. So the mother brought him and he came to Dharamsala where Rinpoche was staying and then he left and he caught a bus in Dharamsala down to Delhi. So by this time all the Tibetan community had heard about this, so about fifty Tibetan ladies rushed up to the bus with a kata, you know these white bits of cloth you offer, symbolic offering, and this long queue of I wasn’t there, I was up in the house staying because I was Rinpoche’s attendant but many of those students staying with Rinpoche saw this happen. The tradition is you offer a kata to a lama, the lama takes it and then pats you on the head for a blessing. So this two year old, less than two year old boy, never been in India or anything before and he’s like came from little Spanish village, you know, took the kata, put it around the neck of the lady, patted her on the head and did it for about fifty people.
You try and teach a two year old kid to do that. Yeah? There’s fifty strangers, you know, at the bus stop. Yeah? Happy birthday.
And did, this small child did many other amazing things, there’s many stories. So how would the child, or who would you recognise in a child that young? Oh, because Lama Zopa Rinpoche has clairvoyance, you see — he had dreams of what would happen and various things. So this has happened for hundreds of years in Tibet, this kind of thing. So this indicates something.
But if the mind is the brain, none of that is possible. There’s just this life. But there’s many indications there’s not just this life and that the mind can do all sorts of amazing things that the brain can’t do. One of my friends who had been a monk who disrobed, he was living in France, he received a letter from Rinpoche saying, Be really careful that you’re in some great danger. And about three days later, he got beaten up.
He got some bottles smashed over his head by some drunken soldiers in Le Havre in France. Just very quickly, at least one of my friends, a nun, she went shopping with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and at the so they had this trolley that got to the counter and just as they got to the counter Rinpoche leaned, what did he do? He because you know at the counter they always have little chocolates and all this rubbish you can buy at the last minute. So Rinpoche leaned over to her and said something like, And what would you like dear? And she said that this is exactly what when she was a little girl, her grandmother would do when she went shopping with her grandmother.
When they got to the counter, the granny would lean over to her and say, and what would you like, dear? Also the same nun, when she first met Rinpoche, had an interview with him, she asked him what would be the best way to repay the kindness of her family. And so she asked this and Rinpoche closed his eyes and appeared to go to sleep for quite a long time. And so while she was while Rinpoche was kind of out of it, she was sort of thinking because she’d had this thought you know many times in the past that she would if she could only win a million dollars, then she could give this to her family to repay their kindness. She’d never thought she wasn’t a Buddhist or anything but that’s what she’d always thought.
So while Rinpoche had space that what she thought was spacing out, she was thinking about, well if I had a million dollars I could do this and that and this and that. And suddenly Rinpoche opened his eyes and leaned over and just said to her, but giving a million dollars wouldn’t repay the kindness, would it? So of course scientific materialists would say that was just pure accident that he said that. Maybe. Maybe.
Lunchtime