Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this two-hour retreat session, Ven Thubten Dondrub guides practitioners through three core meditations on the path to enlightenment. He begins with reflections on the eight and six sufferings—aging, sickness, death, separation from loved ones, and unmet desires—to deepen renunciation of cyclic existence. He then analyzes the root causes of suffering: negative karma, disturbing emotions like anger and attachment, and the underlying ignorance that falsely projects independent existence onto all things. Finally, he introduces the emptiness of self through the four-point analysis, guiding practitioners to recognize that the grasping at a truly existing, independent “I” is illusory, and that the valid “I” exists only in dependence on body and mind. Each meditation includes detailed setup instructions: proper posture, nine-round breathing, visualization of Buddha on the crown as a source of blessing and refuge, and strong determination to maintain mindfulness. Pitched at practitioners with some familiarity with Buddhist terminology and committed to daily practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2016 04 10 DB Retreat Day Part 3 10142016.mp3
UUID: 907a7b50-dc8b-455d-8582-b11354176eb6
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: DB Presenting the Path (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2016-04-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 130.1 minutes
Words: ~5,635
So we’ll do another two segments with a three minute break in the middle. So So we’ve done a couple of the meditations related to developing basic renunciation of this life, so thinking about the precious human rebirth, about death and the law of cause and effect. And so the next stage in the path to enlightenment is developing the mind, renouncing cyclic existence altogether, realizing while we remain stuck in it, we’re going to continue to suffer. So we’ll do a little meditation on suffering, good old suffering. You remember, you picked a good time to stay, didn’t you?
The eight sufferings, there are the six sufferings, the three sufferings. So we’ll look at the eight the eight sufferings, and and then we’ll do some meditation on the causes of suffering. Because, of course, these are the two main things that motivate us to be determined to get out of cyclic existence. So that motivates us to particularly train the mind in developing the wisdom that will liberate us from cyclic existence. So that’s what we’ll meditate on.
So to make this time as effective as possible for our mind, it’s good to prepare properly. So we begin by sitting comfortably in the in the correct posture as much as possible. And then calming the mind with a nine round breathing exercise. So then, as much as one connects with a triple gem, we can generate the thought of refuge, visualizing Śākyamūni Buddha directly in front of us as the embodiment of the Three Jewels of refuge, and as we think of all sentient beings surrounding us trying to generate the bodhicitta motivation, recognizing the kindness of all sentient beings and yet how they’re all trapped in suffering. And the best way I can repay that kindness is to achieve enlightenment so that I have all the skills, necessary abilities, powers, qualities that can enable me to help every sentient being to become free of all causes of suffering and help them to achieve peerless, everlasting happiness.
But to achieve enlightenment, firstly, I myself have to free myself from cyclic existence, and that comes from recognizing more and more the suffering nature of cyclic existence and how all that suffering originates from within my own mind. So for this reason I’ll meditate on these subjects. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly. By the merit of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. So we can think that the Buddha is pleased with our motivation and shows this by now coming to the crown of our head.
When directly above our crown, the Buddha turns to face the same direction as our self, and remains above our crown throughout the session to create that conducive environment in which to meditate and constantly blessing our mind. So again, that strong determination to practice continuous mindfulness throughout the session in order to be able to quickly detect the different hindrances related to sinking and scattering that weaken the power and effectiveness of one’s meditation. So have that determination to immediately let go of any of these hindrances as soon as they occur, and bring the mind back to reflecting on the topic. So we can reflect on the try to get a sense of the suffering nature of cyclic existence, the first noble truth that ordinary existence, existence, is in its nature suffering. So we can get a sense of this by firstly reflecting on the fact that if I don’t eliminate the cause of suffering, ignorance from my mind, then I will be subject to all the different delusions over and over again, and I will have to experience rebirth over and over again, endless rebirths.
I will have to experience the suffering of birth itself, not just once, twice, a thousand times, a million times, but an infinite number of times. I have to experience the suffering of being in the womb, the suffering coming out of the womb, the suffering of being born into a suffering environment. But in addition to that, there is I will have to experience the suffering of growing old, becoming extremely old. Just reflect on the different sufferings that occur to the body and mind as aging occurs. That with aging comes a loss of health and strength of the body, the loss of whatever pleasant appearance one may have, The loss of the sense powers, when it becomes more difficult to hear, to see, to taste, all the powers and pleasures of the senses decline.
The power of the mind also declines. The ability to think clearly, to remember all of this becomes worse and worse, or can do so with increasing age. And so with increasing age comes the suffering of the loss of one’s enjoyments. So one can reflect that, of course, there are people who grow old, and even very old, without necessarily experiencing those problems. But if we remain in saṃsāra, if we don’t end the cause of saṃsāra, saṃsāra will be endless.
So there will be infinite time to experience every aspect of the suffering of aging and old age and extreme old age. And we will experience all of these things not just one time, but countless times in endless saṃsāra. And consider that the longer we live, the more we are likely to outlive our family and friends. So there’s the suffering of having to lose family and friends. So there is the suffering of of loneliness.
And we become dependent on strangers. And one can reflect that what increases suffering of all of those experiences is our attachment. The more attached we are to our health and strength, the more attached we are to our pleasant appearance, to our enjoyments, to our family and friends, then as these are lost, the greater the suffering. But of course, if we remain in saṃsāra, we will have attachment, and therefore we will suffer. And also consider that if we remain in cyclic existence, if we don’t use the opportunity to overcome its causes, then we will have to inevitably experience the suffering of sickness.
There will be time to experience every kind of sickness of body and mind, and not just one time, but countless times and endless saṃsāra. Then there is the suffering of death itself, which we’ll have to endure over and over again. And then in addition to those four very basic inescapable sufferings, we are subject to the suffering that occurs when we are separated from all the things that we’re attached to. But of course, while we remain in saṃsāra, it’s due to ignorance. Due to ignorance, we have delusions such as attachment.
But then, due to karma, we can’t remain with all our objects of attachment, and so we will suffer over and over again. And on the other hand, if we remain in saṃsāra, not having eliminated desire and attachment, we will inevitably have to experience the suffering that comes with craving for things, craving for experiences, craving to be with particular people, but we just cannot meet those objects. We crave to meet them, to experience them, but it just doesn’t happen. And we will also have to face the experience of having to meet with people and situations and objects that we don’t want to meet with, don’t want to experience. Because of not removing ignorance, we are still under the control of anger and aversion, so we and following it, we are constantly creating the causes of meeting with what we don’t want to meet with, coming in contact with the things we have aversion to.
So we bring this segment to conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life of the suffering nature of cyclic existence, that whatever pleasure we experience, somehow, sooner or later, is replaced by obvious suffering, the karmic result of following our disturbing thoughts. So, again, we can reestablish a comfortable posture. And then calming the mind with a nine round breathing exercise. And then recalling the Buddha on the crown of our head, re reaffirming our motivation. Again, that strong determination to practice continuous mindfulness in to detect any of the hindrances related to sinking and scattering so that one can immediately let go of them and keep the mind focused on the topic of meditation.
So I can begin by just checking how we tend to see in the external world so many causes of our suffering. We believe that other people and situations are the cause of our suffering. But we need to check if if we didn’t have within us the potential to suffer, if there was no potential within our mind to experience suffering, then how could we suffer, even if all these so-called causes for suffering were present. So this point itself demonstrates that what we think of as the actual causes, the real causes of our suffering, are simply the conditions or the secondary causes for our suffering. The real cause, the substantial cause, the main cause, lies within our own mind.
So then we can consider what are these potentials within our own mind that lead to suffering. And the Buddha taught that the the first level or immediate level of potential in our mind that brings suffering are our negative karmic imprints. Because of their existence, when they meet the external conditions, they ripen the suffering. And then we can ask ourselves, do these negative imprints exist in our mind? What is it that causes them to exist?
And the Buddha says this is the result of our disturbing thoughts, the existence of our disturbing thoughts. And due to following them, we create these negative imprints that ripen the suffering. So then spend just a little bit of time checking your own experience of your own anger. We continuously habitually follow the mind of anger, the thought of anger throughout our life. And we do it mainly to protect ourselves from suffering, to protect our happiness, to protect what we see as the causes of our happiness.
This is what we do in our ignorance. We use anger to protect our happiness. But just check the very nature of one’s own anger, that when one is under its control, one is suffering. One is out of control. One has lost control.
And since it’s impossible to be happy and suffering at the same time, The very thing we use to protect our happiness actually destroys it. The moment we get angry, we destroy whatever peace of mind we have, and but then we blame others for that. So just check how in our life, in our confusion, we come under the control of anger, follow it, believing it’s going to protect us protect our happiness, become the cause of happiness. But in fact, the the moment we get angry, there is suffering. And and in reality, all we are doing is creating the cause of more suffering to ourself.
So then if we check why does anger exist in our mind, and we can begin to see that it’s partly because of attachment and afflicted desire. If we check the nature of our own afflicted desire, it craves external things. And when under the control of that desire, that person or object situation seems so much more attractive than it conventionally is. The very nature of desire is to project onto something far more than what is there, making it appear more pleasant, more wonderful, simply because it makes me happy. And if you check the nature of desire, it disturbs the mind.
When desire meets its object, there seems to be happiness. But if one looks at the very nature of desire itself when it doesn’t meet the object, All it’s doing is disturbing the mind, creating discontent. So suffering can’t become the cause of happiness. And so because of afflicted desire, we have attachment, we get dependent on the things that we desire. And so whatever threatens what we desire and what we’re attached to, we get angry with.
And then why does it anger, attachment, desire exist? The Buddha says only because of ignorance. Only because we continuously experience ourself, continuously experience everything in a false way. The ignorance obscuring our mind creates the illusion which we believe is real, that everything is existing out there separate from ourself. As though things existed from their own side under their own power, with their own qualities, their own nature, not relying on anything, not depending on anything.
Especially the way we experience our self and all other phenomena, is that they appear as though they don’t depend in any way on our own mind. Beautiful things appear to exist. The beauty of beautiful things appears to exist independently of ourselves. It’s it appears to be really there from its own side. So we desire it, get attached to it.
The ugliness or badness of things appears to exist really there from its own side, unconnected with us, so we develop aversion and hatred and dislike. These minds, these negative minds simply would not exist if we experience things as they are. A piece of fruit from its own side has no power to appear as an apple. It can only appear as a pomegranate if we label it that way. The object itself has no power to make us experience it.
In a particular way. Things appear good and bad, beautiful and ugly, this and that, because we label them that way and believe it a hundred percent. And it’s only because of that that there is desire and aversion, fear and jealousy. So we can bring the meditation to conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in our daily life that all the suffering we experience, although it depends on external conditions, the the real cause lies within our own mind. At some point in the past, our mind has created the cause for this present suffering.
And the sooner we subdue our mind, the sooner our suffering will come to an end. And we need to be mindful that right now, but only briefly, we have the precious human rebirth, the optimum chance to subdue our mind. So that we can recall the Buddha on our crown, imagining the Buddha pleased with our practice and showing this by now dissolving into blissful golden light so that that light so that blessing our mind to be able to gain the realization of the true cause of our suffering, our own disturbing thoughts. And then we dedicate the merit 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. So we’ve got, like, a twenty four minute break. Either. Yeah. Doesn’t matter.
Thanks. So in our last one hour, we’ll spend a little time meditating on the higher scope. So we’ve because we’ve now renounced saṃsāra, right, completely, determined to get out, which means we’ve decided to develop the wisdom that will liberate us from saṃsāra. But now we have to develop the thought we can’t just get out of saṃsāra ourselves because everyone’s in saṃsāra and everyone is my mother. And they’ve been very kind to me, so I can’t escape depending on them and leave them behind.
So I have to dig a bigger hole, not just a little tunnel for me to escape, but a huge hole so that everyone can escape saṃsāra and achieve enlightenment. So I have to become a Buddha. Right. This is what we’re gonna meditate on. A little bit of it.
No time to do it all. Anyway, so whatever we do for it to be as effective as possible, then we we should try to do it with as much concentration as possible, but also with the best motivation. So so firstly, we start by sitting comfortably in the correct posture. And then doing the nine round breathing exercise. So then if one finds it beneficial, visualizing the Buddha in front as one’s source of refuge, inspiration, guidance, embodiment of the Three Jewels of refuge.
At the same time, thinking of all sentient beings surrounding you, starting with your parents on either side, trying to have that strong awareness of how all these beings are, in essence, basically only kind but only suffering. So to help all these beings, I need to achieve enlightenment, and that to to to achieve that, I first have to develop the determination to achieve enlightenment. I have to generate bodhicitta. And I have to that means overcoming completely the self-cherishing thought. And that comes from thinking about opening my heart and mind to an awareness of sentient beings and my connection with them, I’m totally dependent on them, how incredibly kind they are to me, and yet how they are suffering helplessly in saṃsāra.
So for this reason, I’ll meditate on this topic. 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 now the Buddha comes to the crown of our head, turning to face the same direction as ourselves, remains above our crown for the rest of the session in order to create a conducive environment to meditate and to constantly blessing our mind. So then it’s important to make that strong determination to practice continuous mindfulness for the rest of the session in order to be able to quickly detect any of the hindrances related to sinking and scattering so that one can immediately let go of them and keep the mind fully engaged as much as possible with the meditation topic.
So in this session, we can briefly reflect on Asaṇga’s method of generating bodhicitta, beginning with considering how all sentient beings have been my mother. This is because my mind is beginningless. And just as my mind exists in a body now, my mind has always been associated with a body, dependent on a body. This body, of course, is provided by a mother. I’ve had infinite rebirths, infinite bodies, infinite mothers.
So this means that every sentient being, all the infinite mother sentient beings have been my mother at least one time. But since there is no limit to past lives, there has been time for every sentient being to have been my mother many times. So then reflect that in order to generate bodhicitta, the first cause of generating bodhicitta following Asaṇga’s method is not just having that intellectual understanding and acceptance that every sentient being has been one’s mother, but training the mind to recognize that each being is not just a friend, not just a stranger, not just an enemy, but my mother. That this is not a human being or an animal or a hungry ghost or a hell being or a god being. This being is my mother.
Has been my mother, therefore, is my mother. This is what we have to train our mind to to think, to recognize, to remember. So then reflect that the reason to train, to remember, to recognize that each being has been my mother, even is because every sentient being has also been my father, brother, sister and so on. The reason to focus on recalling that they have been my mother is because mothers give unconditional love. So I have received this unconditional love many times from each and every sentient being without exception.
Starting with the fact that if one if one thinks of the mother of this life, then my mother expressed this incredible kindness of giving birth to me, of keeping me in her womb and giving birth to me. Because of that amazing kindness, I now have a precious human rebirth, the optimum chance to achieve enlightenment. So then reflect how, when I was born, I was completely helpless, totally unable to survive by myself. So it’s only due to my mother’s kindness, taking care of me, that I survived. And from the moment I’ve birthed, my mother has taken care of me, protected me, nurtured me, has fed me and washed me and clothed me, sheltered me, day by day, year by year.
And just as the mother of this life has done that, every sentient being has done that when they were my mother. And then reflect how, in addition to just protecting me and taking care of me in in all those basic ways, My mother has also, in this life, raised me to look after myself, to show me the ways of the world so that I can survive and thrive and be happy, is my mother who taught me to walk, to talk, to look after myself. She has done so many things to raise me, to be successful, to be happy, According to her understanding, her limited understanding, she has tried her best. Just like every sentient being has done that for me when they were my mother. And then consider that all of this has been done by my mother of this life.
From from the moment I was conceived, keeping me in her womb, giving birth, caring for me, raising me, All of this has been done, having to experience many difficulties, problems, sufferings, fears, and worries. But it was all done because of my mother’s unconditional love and kindness. Just as all other mother sentient beings when they were my mother had to experience so much suffering because of me, but they endured it because of their unconditional love. So thinking like this, allow the mind wishing to repay that kindness to arise and develop. Especially cultivate their mind that realizes that repaying the kindness of mother sentient beings is not some kind of incredible imposition and burden.
But to do so is the very best thing I can possibly do, the most meaningful, the most rewarding, the most satisfying. I’ve been following the self-cherishing thought during beginningless time, and it’s only brought me suffering. So the chance to think about others, to have the freedom to think about others, to really actually work for the benefit of others for once. I’m so fortunate to be able to do that. So then on that basis, cultivate the mind of of great love, recognizing that the best way to repay the kindness of the mother of this life and all mother sentient beings would be to help them to experience real happiness, genuine, lasting happiness.
So cultivate that mind as much as you can by just recognizing that the mother of this life and all sentient beings in saṃsāra, no matter what good fortune they may be experiencing, is not real happiness. It’s not lasting happiness. It’s not genuine happiness. That all the kind mother sentient beings are completely bereft of real happiness. But I think how wonderful it would be if all sentient beings could have genuine happiness, and how wonderful if they only created the causes for real happiness.
And cultivate their thought that I have to help them do that. This is the best way I can repay the kindness of mother sentient beings, by helping them to understand the causes of genuine happiness, helping them to create those causes. Generate the thought that this is what I will do, this is what I have to do, this is what I will do. And I will do everything necessary so that I can be successful in helping all sentient beings to have happiness and its causes. And then consider that for sentient beings to have perfect happiness, then they have to be free of all suffering and all the causes of suffering.
To think how wonderful that would be. Especially if they could be free not only of just the obvious suffering, but all the subtlest kinds of suffering and all its causes. So I’m going to have to help them understand all the causes of their suffering and help them to eliminate those causes. This is the best way I can repay their kindness. To generate that thought that I will do everything necessary to help them be free of suffering and all its causes, I will eliminate all the negative things in my mind that prevent me doing that.
I will cultivate all the positive qualities in my mind that will enable me to do that. And then try and cultivate that even stronger, more profound thought that not only will I help every sentient being without exception, friend, enemy and stranger, to be free of all suffering and its causes and to achieve peerless, everlasting happiness and its causes. But I will do this by myself alone. This is my responsibility. Only I can repay the kindness I’ve received from each and every sentient being.
I can’t wait and rely on other beings, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, to do this. I have to do it. This is my responsibility. So then think that, as I am now, I’m not even able to repay the kindness of one sentient being. So how can I possibly, perfectly repay the kindness of all sentient beings by myself alone?
How can I possibly do that? The only way it’s possible is by eliminating all obscurations from my mind, all negativities, awaken all positive qualities, and become a Buddha. That’s the only way it’s possible. So that’s what I have to do. I have to become a Buddha.
I will become a Buddha. I will dedicate this and all future lives to achieving enlightenment, to repay the kindness of other sentient beings. So we take a three minute break. So we don’t have much time left. But we said we’re gonna do a little, very brief meditation on the selflessness or emptiness of the person.
We are going to discover that I am empty of inherently existing. So this is called the four point analysis. To do this properly, one has to have studied not that I have, but one has to have studied Mādhyamika philosophy in great detail, but a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. So we’ll start with a single step, small imprint. So, again, we can begin by sitting comfortably in the correct posture.
And then just briefly doing the nine round breathing exercise. And then recall the Buddha on your crown and reaffirm your motivation for doing the practice. Make strong determination to be continuously mindful in order to not get caught up with the different hindrances related to sinking and scattering. And if one does, to immediately let go of them, bring the mind back to fully engaging with the meditation topic. So the Buddha discovered that the very source of all our suffering is the grasping at inherent existence, that we grasp at ourself as inherently existing.
We grasp that all phenomena somehow inherently exist from their own side, under their own power. If things existed that way, it would mean they were independent, not depending on anything. So right now, as we sit here, we have a sense of our self sitting here. But the sense of self that we have sitting here appears to our ignorance to be a truly existing, inherently existing self. So just try and see if you can get a sense of that that false view of the I, that inherently existing I that appears to exist, that seems to really exist.
Just and one could do this even just by silently saying to yourself, I am sitting here. I am sitting here. So when you say that, I am sitting here, do you get a sense of I? What is this I? Not what you intellectually think it could be, what you’re supposed to believe it is, but what does it seem to be right now?
What is this I sitting here? Is it the body? Am I the same as my body? Is that what it feels like, seems like? Am I the mind?
Am I somehow both the body and mind? Or am I something completely different from the body and mind? So if it seems like I am my body, the I sitting here is exactly the same as the body, then just consider we say my body. And when we say my body, there is a sense that there is an I that has a body, an I that possesses a body. So even at a superficial level, we may think I’m the body.
At a deeper level, we feel separate from the body. We feel I have a body. Can you get that sense of the I that you grasp at, that isn’t the body, but it has a body, my body. So this I that appears so strongly, that is not my body but has a body, then is this I the same as my mind? Is it the mind?
And, again, even if superficially we may feel like, think, believe, I am the mind, one and the same thing, again at a deeper level, we think there’s a difference because we say, my mind. And when we say that, again, you can say that in your own mind and just check. Isn’t there a sense that there is a me that has a mind? Two different things, the possession and the possessor. It’s me and my mind.
So then we may grasp what that actually I am a combination, a unity of my body and mind together. That’s me. But if I’m not my body and I’m not my mind, how can I be a combination of two things that I’m not? So this shows that deep down, we are grasping that there is this me, this I, that is not the body and not the mind, and not a combination of the body and mind. We are grasping that there is a real me independent of the body and mind.
But if this real me, which is not the body and not not the mind, actually existed, how would it exist? Where do you find this real me that is not the body and not the mind? If this truly existing, independently existing I did exist, then as the body is sitting here, I could be walking around. But you can’t find such an I that is walking around while the body is sitting. So that sense of a truly existing I, separate from the body and mind, not dependent on it, is just an illusion, a creation of ignorance.
The I that does exist is completely empty, completely empty of existing, separate from the body and mind. The I that does exist is not something separate but existing in dependence upon the body and mind. The ‘I’ that validly exists simply arises depending on the body and mind. It is what is merely labeled by the mind, depending on the body and mind. The I that validly exists is like an illusion, like a rainbow, just existing momentarily, depending on the body and mind.
If the body is sitting, and because the mind is connected to the body, then the mind can conceive the thought, I am sitting. And that’s all ‘I am’. I am merely what is labeled by the mind, depending on the body and mind. The moment I stand up, the I that is sitting doesn’t exist, and instead there is a merely labeled I that is standing, merely labeled by the mind, depending on the body and mind. Like a rainbow, like an illusion.
Nothing fixed, nothing permanent, nothing existing from its own side. So bring the meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life that the I that validly exists is what is merely labeled by the mind depending on the body and the mind. So what I need to be really aware of is that the I is not the mind, but it’s not separate from the mind. So if the mind is suffering, I am suffering. There’s no way I can be happy if the mind is suffering because the I is not separate from the mind.
It arises totally dependent on it. The only way I can be free of suffering and experience happiness is by taking care of the mind. So then recall the Buddha on one’s crown, imagining the Buddha very pleased with your meditation in this session and the whole day and the whole module’s practice. Because of this, the Buddha dissolves into blissful golden light, and that light then pours down into you, blessing your mind to be able to eventually gain all the realizations of the path to enlightenment, especially the realization of the wisdom of emptiness, that all things, oneself, and all phenomena are completely empty of inherent existence. So then we can dedicate the merit, rejoicing in what we’ve done and rejoicing in the efforts of our Dharma friends at this retreat and during the course.
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. Alright. Thank you very much.
Hope to see you in two years’ time. Certificates? Yes.