Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 100-minute teaching, Venerable Thubten Dondrub leads a retreat day structured around two core meditations on the graduated path. The first is death meditation, where he guides practitioners through recognizing that death is certain, can occur at any time, and that only genuine Dharma practice will help when it arrives. He uses concrete examples—ancient civilizations, the deaths of great historical figures—to build conviction that postponing practice is futile. The second half covers the law of cause and effect, focusing on four fundamental aspects: karma is definite, imprints never fade until purified or ripened, results expand vastly beyond the initial action, and the potency of karmic seeds depends on four determining factors including mental motivation, the object, the manner of action, and completion of mind at the end. The teaching concludes with an extended Q&A on applying these teachings to anger, compassion, and daily practice priorities. Suited to practitioners familiar with Gelug Tibetan Buddhism framework.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2016 04 10 DB Retreat Day Part 2 10042016.mp3
UUID: fdbf916e-a3c7-4e71-a5a4-69c43fe14e9b
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: DB Presenting the Path (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2016-04-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 100.3 minutes
Words: ~6,876
So we have two sessions now, two segments. The first one, we’re going to meditate on death. Sorry about that. No, you shouldn’t say. Important, death.
Meditate on it and the actual thing. So why do we meditate on death? Not just terrify ourselves, but on the basis of starting to get some sense that we have a precious human rebirth, the greatest but an incredibly rare opportunity to begin to free ourselves from suffering and be of great benefit to others. So that should start motivating us to practice the Dharma, taking care of our mind, and beginning to renounce this life. Put it in perspective, stop obsessing with the meaningless things and the negative things and really putting more emphasis on what is beneficial for ourselves and others.
And then what will increase that attitude, that outlook, is recognising that this precious human rebirth that we have is going to come to an end. It’s not going to last and it could happen at any time. And When this life — oh, we’ve got all these people on the side, that’s very good. When you’re old and close to death, neck doesn’t turn around so very well anymore. No, no, no, it’s okay.
So also what we need to recognise is that when death comes, what is going to benefit us? The only thing that’s really going to benefit as we’re dying is the results of our Dharma practice, the results of genuine Dharma practice. So this is what we’ll meditate on briefly now. Then we’ll take a short break and then do just a simple meditation on the law of cause and effect. So again, if you have either the student material or the Buddha House prayer book open at the refuge section is good.
We begin by sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible. And then we can do the nine round breathing exercise just to calm our mind. Just do that for a short time. So then, as we visualize the Buddha in front of us, all sentient beings surrounding us, we can try and generate the bodhicitta motivation for doing this practice as we say the prayer. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly.
By my merit of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings? So then we can think that the Buddha, being pleased with our motivation, comes to the crown of our head, seated just on the lotus sun and moon. Directly above our crown, the Buddha turns to face the same direction as ourself and remains above our crown for the rest of the session. So before we start, just make a strong determination to be really mindful for the rest of the session, in order to be able to detect the different hindrances to meditation of sinking, where the mind becomes dull and sleepy, or what is called scattering, where the mind gets distracted by sounds or different sensations in the body, and particularly your own thoughts. So be really determined to practice mindfulness, to detect those hindrances so that one can immediately let go and bring the mind back to the topic.
So firstly, can begin by reflecting that one of the great benefits of thinking about death is that by thinking about it, it will encourage us to practice the Dharma, and it will mean we won’t waste our life on meaningless and negative things. And when death actually comes, we won’t be shocked by it, we won’t be so afraid. Whereas the great disadvantage of not thinking about our death is that we will waste this life on meaningless and negative things. And when death actually comes, it will be a great shock. We won’t be prepared in any way.
So then we can try and get a sense of how our own death is definite or certain by reflecting that no one who has taken birth on this earth, all human beings, all animals, have died. No one has the power to remain in this body on this earth. One can try and get a sense of this by thinking of all the past civilizations that have existed, the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome and Egypt. The Mayans and so on, the the Aztecs, all these civilizations that produced all this amazing art and monuments and so on. And for the people living in those times, everything would seem so permanent, concrete, and yet all the people who created those civilizations have gone, and there’s just a few remains left.
And what we should try and realise is that this will happen to our civilization one day. So there’s no question that we ourselves will die. Especially one can think that it’s not just ordinary beings, but even the greatest, the most powerful beings, human beings that have ever existed on this earth have all died. The richest have died, the most powerful, all the kings and queens and rulers and so on. But not only that, even all the great religious leaders of the world have all died, including the Buddha manifested dying.
The Buddha himself said that showing death was his final teaching, showing that we ourselves will have to die. We can also get a sense of how our death is definite by reflecting that this life that we’re experiencing now is the karmic result of causes created in past lives. So the causes for this life have ceased, and now the result is being experienced. And each day of our life brings us closer to death, as the energy of the result runs out day by day. So by thinking like this, we should come to the conclusion, the determination that since I’m definitely going to die, I really need to practice the Dharma.
I really need to take care of my mind. And in particular, we can reflect on trying to get a sense that not only am I definitely going to die, but my death could occur really at any time. There is no certainty to the time of death. human beings die at all different ages, from very young to very old. So this means human beings can die at any time, and this means that I can die at any time.
Just because it feels like I’m not going to die doesn’t mean it won’t happen. And particularly reflect that because there are just so many ways to die, so many causes of death, and I’m not immune to any of them, then it means that any one of these causes could occur for me, happen to me. I have no idea what actions I’ve done in the past, what karma could ripen now to bring one of these causes of death. They’re all the common causes of death, of sickness and disease, accidents, wars, violence between human beings, all sorts of poisonous animals, dangerous animals, but also many even though there are many uncommon forms of dying, very bizarre ways that happen rarely. But they do happen.
They could happen to me at any time. And we can reflect that even the things that normally sustain our life, such as food and medicine, even those things can become a cause of death. And then just realize how fragile the human body really is. So thinking like this, try and come to that determination that not only do I need to practice the Dharma, but because death could come at any time, I really have to practice it now. I have to stop postponing and procrastinating.
I have to practice it now. So then try and get a sense of what dying would actually be like. That when it comes, whether it’s a very quick somewhat slow process, I’m going to be separated from everything I know, everything I depend on, every single thing I’m attached to. Without any control, I will be separated from them, completely forever. And while I’m separating from everything I’m familiar with and dependent on, I will start experiencing something that I have no familiarity with.
At least I can’t remember it from past lives, the death process itself, and the beginning of a new life. So that’s definitely going to happen. Definitely. And it could happen at any time. So what’s going to help?
Of all the things I’m doing now in this life that are using up the time and energy of this precious human rebirth, what of those things is going to help at the time of death? Just think of all the time that is spent chasing after money, possessions. Is that going to help at the time of death? All the time spent due to attachment to friends and family. All the time spent looking after this body, our reputation, is that gonna help at the time of death?
Just consider that in fact our attachment to those things will actually be an obstacle at the time of death. So then consider that what really will help at the time of death is having a calm, peaceful, stable mind, having the ability to control one’s mind. That what will help at the time of death is to be able to die with a mind of faith, with a mind pervaded by kindness, love, compassion. A mind that is free of attachment, anger, pride, and jealousy. So bring the meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life, that one is going to die, therefore I need to practice the Dharma, that I could die at any time, I really need to practice it now, stop postponing it.
But most important, since it’s only genuine Dharma practice is going to help the results of genuine Dharma practice that are going to help at the time of death, then I really need to practice the Dharma purely, sincerely. So I’ll take a three minute silent break. So subject. I’m gonna do a half hour meditation on the most complicated just on something very basic. We’re just gonna, I think, mainly just look at the four, what I call the four aspects of karma and the four determining factors.
So my teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, says, just meditating on the four aspects of karma, that karma is definite, if you haven’t created the cause you don’t get the effect, once an action is karma is created, then the the imprint will last. It won’t fade away. It it endures, and it will bring its result unless, you know, we purify the negative ones and or we harm the positive ones with anger. But once the imprint, good or bad, is generated, it stays in the mind until the result comes. And the fourth factor fourth aspect is that when the result comes, it’s big.
It’s much it expands. There’s this expanding effect of karmic imprints that the the yeah. All the time, the potential for a result is increasing. My teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, says, just meditating on that is incredibly important and helpful. It will encourage us to engage in virtuous actions and I mean, we believe this, of course, if we don’t believe in it, it won’t have any effect at all.
But if we begin to believe these things, if we have some faith in the Buddha, then this will encourage us to engage in virtuous actions actions because even a little virtuous action will produce a huge result. And I I find one thing I always remember, I I read from Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey, was this great teacher, the Dalai Lama. I never received any teachings from him, I did meet him, but he was appointed to be the main teacher at the Tibetan Library of Works and Archives in Dharamsala, which His Holiness started. So he appointed Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey to be the main teacher there, which he was for many, many years. And some of his teachings were put into a book called The Tibetan Tradition of Mental Development.
Very nice, simple little book, very nice. And in there he says something like what does he say? Anyway, along the lines of how especially Western people tend to want big results straight away and everything, he said, but you need to have faith that even if you don’t get much result from your Dharma practice in this life, what you’re doing is creating karmic imprints in your mind. So these definitely have big results in the future, in future lives. That’s that’s definite.
Yeah. And that’s what we should be more concerned about rather than trying to expect some great result from our Dharma practice now. Although that can happen to some extent for sure, but the main thing is to put positive imprints in our mind. As many positive imprints as possible and as few negative ones as possible. Reduce the negatives and put in positive ones.
Because every positive imprint is connecting us to the Dharma, is itself creating the cause to meet the Dharma again, have some faith in it and for it to have an ever increasing effect on our mind. We’re going to meditate on that briefly and also the four determining factors. There are the four factors that determine the potency of the imprint, good or bad, that we create. So we can try and play with those four factors to avoid creating really heavy negative karmas and to try and make the positive karmic imprints as strong as possible. So again we can begin by sitting comfortably in the correct posture.
And then just briefly calming the mind with nine round breathing exercise. Then recalling the Buddha on the crown of one’s head, if one has that connection, generate the feeling, sense of refuge in the triple gem, but particularly try to reaffirm one’s motivation for doing this practice. So we can begin by reflecting that when we consider the law of cause and effect, we’re not considering so much the law of cause and effect, as taught by the Buddha, is not talking so much about the effect of our actions in this life, but the effects that come long after the cause is created. Of course, everything we do in this life, good and bad, has some effect in this life. But what the law of cause and effect is particularly talking about is that every time we engage in an action of body, speech and mind, good or bad, a karmic imprint, a karmic potency is generated.
So along with the effect in this life, this karmic potency is generated. And those karmic potencies or karmic seeds or imprints usually don’t ripen in the life they’re created in, they ripen in a later life. We can also reflect on when in considering the law of cause and effect we talk about virtuous actions, non virtuous actions, good karma, bad karma. Good and negative karma and so on. So it’s important to understand that there is a valid basis, an unchanging valid basis for labeling actions as good or bad, and that is in relation to the mind.
Negative actions are labeled on actions motivated by thoughts which are reflections of our ignorance. Have an obscuring effect on the true nature of our mind, a negating effect on the true nature of our mind. Or the expression of the true nature, they negate the expression of the true nature of our mind. So they bring suffering. Virtuous actions are motivated by mental factors that are expressions of the true nature of our mind.
So they bring happiness. So then one can consider the the four aspects of of the law of cause and effect, the four basic aspects of the law of cause and effect. One of which is that for there to be an effect, for us to have any kind of experience, good or bad. There has to be a cause. Since the effect is experienced by our mind, then the cause has to come, the root cause has to come from our mind.
If we don’t create the cause, we don’t get the effect. If we are experiencing the effect, it’s because we created the cause. And again, we have to understand the effects, good and bad, that we experience in this life are mainly due to the fact that we created the cause in a previous life. And if we haven’t created the causes in previous lives, we don’t get the effect in this life. In association with that first point, it’s also important to understand that to experience the effect, there has to be the root cause, but there also have to be the conditions.
So we can create the conditions in this life, but if we haven’t created the root cause in past lives, there won’t be the And And if we’ve created the cause in past lives, but we don’t create the conditions in this life, then there won’t be the effect. Another aspect of the law of cause and effect, a fundamental aspect, is that there is a definite relationship between cause and effect, that the nature of the cause determines the nature of the effect. If we engage in a negative action of body, speech and mind, is definite that it will always bring a suffering result. If we engage in virtuous actions of body, speech and mind, it is definite that a positive karmic seed is generated that when it ripens will definitely bring a positive result. Of course, we may think or believe something is that we’re doing is good, but if it is in reality coming from a a naturally negative state of mind, then it will definitely have a suffering result.
So then consider the third fundamental aspect of the law of cause and effect is that once an action has been engaged in, whether it’s of the body, speech or mind, once the imprint has been generated, that never fades away, that imprint. It remains with the mind until the result comes, until it ripens to bring its result, its effect. So the imprint may remain with the consciousness for thousands of lifetimes, millions of lifetimes. But eventually, when all the conditions come together, the imprint ripens. So the Buddha teaches that there are two exceptions, that our positive imprints, our virtuous imprints, can be destroyed or harmed, negated by strong negative emotions, particularly anger.
So every time we get really angry, this can harm our positive imprints. But also we can consciously purify, reduce the negative imprints by engaging in the four opponent powers. So to prevent the negative imprints ripening, we do And then consider that the fourth of the fundamental aspects of the law of cause and effect is that when an imprint, a karmic imprint, good or bad, ripens, the result is far, far greater than the energy that goes into creating the cause. A thought or physical action or words spoken, which can occur very quickly, creating an imprint that can, when it ripens, can bring a whole lifetime’s experience. So then consider that the strength of the karmic imprints that are generated, virtuous or non virtuous, in turn depend on four factors.
One is the impulse, which refers to where the mind is consciously directed towards a particular object. And that impulse is combined with, in the case of a virtuous action, one of the positive mental factors such as love, compassion, generosity and so on. Or in the case of a negative imprint, it’s motivated by one of the non virtuous mental factors of afflicted desire, attachment, anger and so on. And the potency of the imprint also depends on how strong that positive or negative mental factor is. So if we act out of a small amount of anger, then the imprint is not so great.
If the action is done out of it with great anger, of course, the karmic imprint is much greater. And then another factor that determines the potency is the object that we direct our behaviour towards, our thoughts or words or physical actions. Because human beings have greater potential to experience happiness and suffering than animals, then actions towards human beings create stronger imprints, generally speaking. And then among human holy beings creates far greater negative imprints, and benefiting such people also creates much stronger positive imprints. Then a third factor is the way the act of body, speech or mind is engaged in.
So if we do a negative action in a particularly torturous way, painful way, then it creates a stronger negative imprint. If we do a virtuous action in a particularly kind way, then it creates a stronger positive imprint. So the more suffering our actions cause, the greater the negative imprint, the greater the benefit our actions bring to others, the stronger the positive imprint. And the final factor is whether we actually complete the action or not. We may start doing something, but we don’t actually complete it.
But also the state of our mind on the completion of the action is important. So if we’re satisfied, we’ve done something negative, there’s no regret, then that makes a very strong negative imprint. If we rejoice in the positive things we do, we’re happy that we’ve done this positive thing, then that makes the imprint stronger. If we immediately regret doing something positive, that reduces the positive imprint. If we regret immediately regret, or as we’re doing something negative, we start to regret it, that decreases the negative imprint.
So bring the meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life of the four aspects of karma and the four determining factors in order to be able to avoid engaging in negative actions of body, speech and mind as much as possible. And particularly doing this, being mindful of avoiding the negative, engaging in the positive, not just for one’s own benefit, but especially for the benefit of all kind mother sentient beings. So recalling the Buddha on our crown, we imagine the Buddha pleased with our practice. And because of that, the Buddha dissolves into blissful golden light so that that can pour down into us, blessing our mind to be able to gain a deep understanding of all the aspects of the law of cause and effect. And then we can dedicate the merit.
Through the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of the 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. So we have a few minutes for discussion time. Question answers.
All your question, maybe I answer if I can. Yes. When we got the little handout for the precious human rebirth Yeah. Yeah. One of the sections, it was recognizing the rarity of the precious human rebirth in regards to its causes, comparing it to say how many animals Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And then there was the way of analogies, and then there was something about a blind tortoise. Could you explain that analogy? Oh.
Who hasn’t heard the blind tortoise analogy? No? Yes you have. It wasn’t imprinted. Okay.
Oh, it’s a great story. One spot. No. Well, the Buddha himself has said to him, don’t know what sūtra, but it is according to the Pali canon, the Buddha gave this analogy himself. He says, you imagine this gigantic ocean.
Right? And on the top of this ocean is a golden ring floating. So the ocean symbolizes oh, actually, start with a no. Forget that. There’s giant ocean extremely deep.
So that’s saṃsāra. Right? And living in this ocean is a blind tortoise. Yeah? So it’s blinded by ignorance.
Yeah? So that’s us. Right? And most of the time, most of its life, the blind tortoise lives at the bottom of the ocean, which is symbolic that most of the time we’re in the lower realms. But the Buddha said imagine that this blind tortoise tortoise, tortoise, anything, Every one hundred years is able to get to the surface of the ocean.
And just very briefly, for like a few moments, it comes to the surface. So that’s like achieving a human rebirth. And then the Buddha said, imagine that on this vast vast ocean, there is this tiny golden ring floating. So it’s floating all over. So this symbolizes the Dharma which always moves from place to place.
So the Buddha said, imagine what are the chances are that when this blind tortoise, when it sticks its head above the water, what are the chances are that it would stick its head through the golden ring? So not wouldn’t be very high at all. So the Buddha the Buddha who does not lie said that it is rarer to have a precious human rebirth than for a blind that blind tortoise to stick its head through that golden ring. Rarer, it is rarer to have a precious human rebirth. And we’ve got one.
So that is kind of amazing. And another analogy is like if you imagine, like, if you have a needle and you were to throw up a handful of sesame seeds, what are the chances you could catch one on the tip of the needle? How many how many handfuls of sesame seeds would you have to throw up before you could catch one and it would stay on the tip of the needle? Yeah. Quite a lot.
Quite a lot. Be there for quite a few thousand years throwing handfuls of sesame seeds. They’re the two I I can’t That also I yeah. Yeah. Can I just add something to that?
Somebody I met a few years ago, we were talking about Buddhism this is before I truly, I think, met the Dharma. And he claimed to be an armchair Buddhist that, you know, he he believed in Buddhism, but he didn’t really practice. And I thought the other day, day. That’s like you’re talking about a precious human rebirth, but there are also people that have met the Dharma but then turn away from it. Yeah.
Or don’t use it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would think that that would happen to quite a few people.
Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Most people don’t meet it, but then people who meet it, but they don’t connect at all. Your last chance to ask some questions on the whole path to enlightenment. Okay. Yeah. Well, there is a meditation on patience.
There is a specific meditation on the yeah. Yes, the fundamental way. When I published my great masterpiece, I have a meditation on patience, which is basically based on so what you need to study is Śāntideva’s chapter on patience. But basically, the the basic meditation is to think about the faults of anger. Yeah.
Of one’s own anger, of anger in general, one’s own anger. And the main faults are that even if because even if even if we get angry to save our life, that that anger is still harming us. It’s not valid to get angry even if we are trying to save our life from someone killing us for no reason. Because that anger is is it is a negative. It, you know, it is a disturbing state of mind.
So it can only have this negative create a negative karmic imprint and therefore a negative result. So all or our anger, whether it seems to be justified or not, is just harming our mind. It’s creating the cause of suffering to ourself. Right? So someone killing us, know, the most someone who is trying to kill us can do is kill us.
No one can make us go into the lower realms, but our anger will, our own anger will. Even if we’re angry because someone has, you know, lied about us or harmed us for no reason, that that can put us in the hells, whereas someone killing us can’t. Alright? So so that’s the you know, that’s what we have to really think about. And our anger is destroying our positive imprints.
So our anger is creating us creating the cause for suffering, and it’s destroying our causes of happiness. And in addition, the negative imprints you know, so the negative imprints when they ripen are gonna bring bring suffering to me, but before they ripen, they are obscuring my mind. Making it difficult to meet the Dharma, have faith in it, understand it, practice it, realize it. So these are the three this is a very basic meditation you can do to reflect on those things. Every time I get angry, those three things are happening.
And then, you know, in addition one can think, you know, whatever is we say such and such a person or such and such a situation or such and such a thing is making me angry, but they aren’t. I am making me angry. It is my way of thinking about me and it that is making me angry. It is my anger that is the real harm, not the you know? And why is that so that’s another thing to think about.
Because we have to think about these things many times because even if we hear them one time we can think, oh, I’ve never thought about that, but that’s true. I believe that. But then it’s so superficial because the habit of getting angry is ancient and powerful, and having one thought that, oh, anger is not good for me, is not gonna work. You know? We have to deeply imprint that in our mind with lots of, you know, not just based on the thought anger is bad, but having this gut feeling, reasoning behind it, why it’s bad in every possible way.
What about those who want to inflict their own anger onto you because they they can’t handle their own anger. They wanna pass it on. Yeah. Of course. You know, that’s really a difficult one.
Difficult one. Oh, it’s all difficult, but that doesn’t that doesn’t matter. That’s irrelevant. Yeah. But then does how does that not become your anger?
Yeah. You get angry, but it’s all the same. It’s all the same. You you get angry because you think, oh, they shouldn’t do that to me. Of course, they shouldn’t, but they do anyway.
But, you know, I don’t deserve this, but but this leads into the next point I was gonna make was which is that the very fact fact that one is in such a situation where there are people who dislike us even though we look wonderful, charming, lovely, you know, saintly, good looking. All these wonderful things we are and that people somehow still fail to appreciate this about us and dislike us and do things and and or something happens to us is this is also part of our karma that we have created the cause to to meet these these conditions, these situations. Not necessarily and probably not in this life, but at some point in the past. And we’ve created the cause for that person to be angry about. No.
We hadn’t no. It’s not quite as gross as that. But it kinda feels that way sometimes, you know, when in that situation and someone is directing you at you, you kinda feel like, what have I done to that person? It in the past life I’ve done that or created that Yeah. Yeah.
Possibly. Yeah. Yeah. In a sense. Just try and analyze it, but every situation like that becomes quite No.
No. No. No. It’s it’s not necessary no. Wait.
It’s kind of a generic thing one has to do that when when it’s not happening, right, this is what you think about when all this stuff is not happening, when you quietly sit down, calm your mind, and you think that any situation where I get angry, unpleasant thing, I’ve created the cause for that. So it’s pointless getting angry. Yeah? This is what we have to think. Yeah?
There’s no point in it because, you know, we use our anger to try and protect us and preserve our happiness, but actually and to preserve protect us from harm, but our anger is harming us far more than anything anyone or anything can do to us. This is what we have to try and understand. Yeah. So we have to think about that. So then when some particular situation comes along, you don’t have to analyze it.
You just think, oh, this is it, you know, this is it, you know, or what did I do three hundred years ago to, you know, with and, you know, was I a man, woman, or a dog, a pig, or what was he, she, you know, what color hair were they? All that’s totally irrelevant. It’s just this is another thing. I created all you all we have to know is I created the cause for that, more or less. And not think, oh, I’m a terrible person because I created the cause, but just my self-cherishing in the past has created the cause for this, don’t no point to get angry.
You know? That’s all we have to do. We don’t have to go into complicated stuff. Was it in this life, past lives? What about frustration?
Is frustration anger Yeah. Yeah. Irritation, irritation, frustration, annoyance. What about fear? Is fear?
Is that another symptom of anger? It can be. I’m not sure always, but yes, definitely. Yeah. So my fear of something is not necessarily real, it’s just how I’m perceiving it?
I guess it depends on a specific sense of is real. One’s fear of something is not necessarily anger, It may not be anger at all, but it can lead to it because I’m afraid of this. Then you think, oh, yeah. How dare you make me afraid? Oh, you’re bad for, you know, this little spider.
Squish it. You know? The way people react to people in headscarves and stuff like Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Yes. Conflict arises too, you know, when nations are Yeah. Yeah. Because you have this abstract fear, then you get angry with a particular person who is related to that abstract fear or something. And the habit’s the big thing, isn’t it?
Getting into the habit of just doing the wrong things all the time. Yes. Yes. And then you only realise afterwards, oh, that’s that habit again I’ve gone into. Afterwards, you realize.
Yeah. Realize before. By meditating, that’s the whole point. You know, we meditate when we’re not in the habit, when we’re not angry, not deluded, or you’re relatively not. And yeah.
So that that imprint, you know, will somehow just — the way the mind works is that when you start getting angry, if you’ve meditated on the harm of anger, the more one’s done that and the more strongly, it will just naturally start to arise. You know? I mean, we will still get angry and, I mean, it’s not gonna go away, but, you know, with time and effort, you know, it’ll happen. We’ll be able to weaken the anger, we’ll also notice it more quickly and so on. And then the other aspect is so these are all aspects really related to having compassion for myself.
I don’t want to suffer. So what we have to realize is that my anger in every situation is causing me is the direct cause of my suffering. Everything out there is just a secondary condition and even those secondary conditions are a karmic result of my actions. So no point being angry. And then the other point is to develop compassion, especially in relation to people, the enemy.
That why is this person harming me? Why are they being so difficult and contradictory and blah blah blah? And it’s because they’re suffering. Because, you know, with our anger we focus on I am suffering and therefore then we can harm the person, but if we try and focus on the other, that the other is suffering, then we the anger won’t arise. I mean, to be able to actually do that is very difficult.
It takes a lot of work, but we can do it. You just train the mind. I mean, I can’t do it, but It’s also like a person angry as well, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah.
Can. Well, if you like them. Yeah. He’s right. No.
But even if you don’t, this comes into can you have can you like can you love people you don’t like? Can you love people you don’t like? Can you? Can we? Yes.
Yes. I do. You can. Yeah. If you look at the bigger picture and you think this is just who they are.
This is who they are now. Yeah. And they are suffering. They are suffering for some reason and they may not even know they’re suffering. And if you were to tell them they were suffering, they’d get even more angry.
But we too tend to mix both usually people with their behaviour. But if we could separate that would be very good, that would be terrific. There’s so many things we should meditate on every day and we don’t get time to do them all. How do we prioritise? Think about death.
It’s time for lunch, so that reminds me to say one thing to all the people who’ve done this course, which is on the path. So if you have any interest in following Buddhism, particularly Mahāyāna Buddhism, specifically Tibetan Buddhism, specifically Gelug Tibetan Mahāyāna Buddhism, which is what we do here at this centre. Especially FPMT Gelug, Tibetan Mahāyāna Buddhism coming from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, real essence of Gelug Buddhism are the teachings on the lam rim teachings on the graduated path. That is the very core essence, unique, wonderful feature of the Gelug tradition, and meditating on the lam rim is the main practice. Now, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, you know, the most important thing to do is to try to meditate on the lam rim, the graduated path, every day.
You start at the beginning, you meditate on the first topic, like guru devotion, then next day precious human rebirth, up to emptiness, and then you start again and you just keep doing this. There are different ways so that you can go deeper and deeper into each topic, so you spend longer on one topic and then the next one and then but a good way is just to for beginners is to start doing a simple you know, overall meditation on, you know, the first topic, then the next day, the second topic, third day, like that. And so that would be terrific if you can do that. And as part of that, Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises this is Rinpoche’s personal advice encouragement is to, at the beginning of the meditation session, to read what is called a glance meditation on the whole lam rim. So in your student material, there are several of these.
There’s one called the foundation of all good qualities by Lama Tsongkhapa, which in Tibetan is called Yonten Zhigyurma because that’s the first words in Tibetan, the foundation of all good qualities. And then there’s one called Glance Meditation on all the important points of the Lam Rim. Much more complicated one is the Three Principles of the Path by Lama Tsongkhapa. So it’s really good to read something like that at the beginning of the session. Because this helps to put the particular topic you’re meditating on in the context of the whole path and also by reading the prayer which covers the path, you put the imprint of the whole path in your mind every day.
So Rinpoche says it’s really good to do that. So even if you can’t actually meditate, you do analytical meditation on the different topics each day. Even if you just read one of those prayers each day, it’s great. Because it puts the imprint in your mind. A little bit better instead of just reading it, is to reflect a little bit on each verse.
So that’s what I would encourage people to try and do as much as they can. Thank you very much. So we have lunch break until 1:25, 1:30. If you can fill out those two forms that are in your student material one is the student satisfaction survey and the other is the sort of showing that you’ve completed the course. So give the satisfaction survey to Judy and the completion one to me or just leave it here on the desk.
Thanks. And the satisfaction ones can go over here, if you like, and I’ll print out some more for those of you that have asked. Thank you.