DB Samsara & Nirvana — Samsara and nirvana retreat

Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. Venerable Thubten Dondrub leads a four-hour retreat on saṃsāra and nirvana, structured around the Buddha’s foundational teachings. He begins with guided meditations on the Four Noble Truths, walking participants through suffering, its causes, cessation, and the path to liberation. He then moves into detailed analytical meditations on the eight kinds of suffering—birth, aging, sickness, death, separation from loved ones, meeting unwanted circumstances, unmet desires, and the subtle suffering of saṃsāra itself. Later segments address the three kinds of suffering, the twelve links of dependent origination including detailed exploration of the bardo state and rebirth, and practical meditations on how delusions arise and what activates them. He concludes with reflections on antidotes to afflictions and the three higher trainings (morality, concentration, and wisdom) as the path to freedom. Throughout, Dondrub emphasizes rigorous examination of one’s own mind and consistent determination to recognize suffering and cultivate virtue. The retreat is pitched at serious practitioners seeking a grounded, step-by-step understanding of core Buddhist doctrine.

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File: Samsāra and nirvana retreat.mp3

UUID: d5ca6550-bc5d-4949-b4e2-efabe9cbe78d

Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub

Collection: DB Samsāra & Nirvāṇa (Ven Thubten Dondrub)

Date: 2018 (exact day not recorded)

Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide

Duration: 270.9 minutes

Words: ~14,782

It’s on where our positive qualities can manifest, especially when we cultivate them. And we precede that with doing some traditional prayers. And then I’ll ring the bell and then we can take a silent three minute break where people can stand up and relax a bit. And then in the second segment we do a little bit of analytical or checking meditation on a particular topic, subject. So this morning we’ll just do a simple reflection on the four noble truths, is the very first teaching of the Buddha.

So we’re going to cover the entire four noble truths in fifteen minutes. No, half an hour. It’s a very simple reflection on it. So we begin by sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible, paying particular attention to the positioning of our spine and having it really straight, also positioning our upper body so that we’re not leaning forwards or backwards or to either side. Placing the right hand on just place your legs in whatever way is comfortable, especially having your left leg closest to your body at least.

And we place the right hand on top of the left with the thumbs lightly touching, our hands resting in our lap so that our upper arms are just a little bit away from the sides of our body. It’s also really important to try to position your head correctly so that it’s not tilted down too much, which tends to make the mind dull and sleepy, or to have the head lifted too high which tends to create a distracted mind. So just very briefly check your posture by moving your awareness from the crown of your head down through your body. So having prepared the body, it’s really important to prepare the mind by checking one’s motivation and trying to make one’s motivation as really strong, genuine as possible, and also trying to make one’s motivation the best possible. And we base this on also having refuge in the Buddha, the Buddha’s teachings, and the great practitioners of those teachings.

So in relation to our motivation, we particularly reflect how our mind is the source of all our suffering and all our experience of happiness. So if we want less suffering, more happiness, then we need to take care of our mind. And that’s why we rely and we need a perfect source to do that, a perfect method from a perfect source. This is why we rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And the more we recognise that our mind is controlled by delusion and karma at the moment, then we can understand that all living beings are also in the same position.

All these beings who have been immensely kind to me in so many ways, life after life, Their minds are also controlled by delusion and karma, experiencing suffering as a result uncontrollably. And the vast majority of sentient beings are experiencing the very worst kinds of suffering in cyclic existence, completely helpless, not knowing how to protect themselves. So the more we understand these things, allow ourselves to be aware of them, we can generate this motivation, the bodhicitta motivation, wanting to work with our mind, not just for some superficial superficial benefit in this life, not just to get a good rebirth in the future, not even to become free of cyclic existence ourselves, but recognising our interconnection with all beings, we can generate this incredibly powerful thought wanting to achieve enlightenment, to realise the full potential of our mind so that we can help every sentient being become free of suffering and all its causes and to help them to eventually achieve peerless, everlasting happiness. So to achieve that enlightened state we really have to work with our minds, subduing all our disturbing thoughts, awakening and cultivating all our positive potentials. So think that this practice this morning is part of that ongoing process of purifying the mind and cultivating our positive qualities.

So to help us generate this motivation, we can think of Śākyamūni Buddha appearing directly in front of us as our possible source of refuge, inspiration and guidance, and also at the same time thinking of all sentient beings surrounding us, starting with our mother of this life on our left, our father on our right, family, friends and helpers behind us, harmers in front, and then as much as possible all other living beings, all other sentient beings. Having that awareness that they are only kind but only suffering. So we can do the prayer of refuge and generating bodhicitta one time in Tibet and twice in English if you’d like to join in. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings.

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. So now I think that the Buddha is very pleased with our motivation and because of that the Buddha now comes to the crown of our head.

When directly above our crown the Buddha turns to face the same direction as ourself. And then we can think that the Buddha remains on our crown for the rest of the session, creating a protective environment in which to meditate and constantly blessing our mind. We don’t have to actively visualise the Buddha anymore, just have a sense that the Buddha is present. So having prepared our body and the mind in this way, we can now direct our mind to the object of meditation which is our breath. So just allow the mind to focus really strongly on your breath, not changing it in any way, just observing the normal process of breathing.

And just trying to allow the mind to rest totally in that experience and let everything else, which is not the experience of the breath, fade away. And just dwell in that present moment of experiencing the breath completely, just following the complete in breath and then complete out breath. Particularly one can focus on that subtle sensation that arises in and around the nostrils as the breath comes and goes. And also to help focus the mind, one can count one in breath and one out breath as one complete breath and try and follow twenty one consecutive breaths. But if the various distractions arise, the obstacles to meditation arise, then one should begin the count again and just keep doing this throughout the session without any sense of disappointment or expectation.

And it’s really important to make strong determination, to be really mindful during the session to detect the different obstacles where the mind becomes dull or sleepy or distracted by sounds, different sensations in the body and especially our own thoughts. So as soon as those things occur, immediately let go of them, bring the mind back to the breath, start the count from the beginning again. So we can begin again by re establishing a comfortable sitting position. Then reaffirming our motivation, or just checking our motivation again. And we can also recall the Buddha on the crown of our head.

Also making that strong determination to be continuously mindful in order to detect any of the hindrances that arise in meditation, particularly dullness on the one hand or the scattering mind being distracted by sounds or sensations in the body and particularly our own thoughts. So be really determined to be mindful to detect those in order to let go of them or, if necessary, apply the antidotes. So the Four Noble Truths is the very first teaching that the Buddha ever gave, that was given to encourage sentient beings to follow the path to become free of suffering. So the very first of the noble truths taught by the Buddha is the truth of suffering, that ordinary existence is in its very nature suffering, That ordinary existence not simply has suffering occurring within it from time to time, but the very nature, the very fabric of ordinary existence is pervaded by suffering. And what is ordinary existence?

That’s what we’re experiencing. Ordinary experience Ordinary existence is having a mind controlled by delusion and karma. So simply because of that, our existence is pervaded by suffering. And reflect that there are different kinds of suffering. There is obvious suffering of physical and mental pain, so many different kinds of physical and mental pain that we experience.

Being controlled by delusion and karma, we have to experience the suffering, the obvious suffering of rebirth, ageing, sickness and death over and over again. And because everything that we do, we as sentient beings with our minds controlled by because our minds are controlled by delusion and karma, nothing we do is ever perfect, complete. Things always go wrong to some extent. Nothing is perfect in cyclic existence. Something about it is always unsatisfying.

If you check, virtually every good thing that has been invented by human beings has had some unintended negative consequences. So we suffer because we have to deal with our own delusions and karma. But we live in a world where everyone is controlled by delusion and karma. So there’s always suffering, always problems, always difficulties. But also reflect apart from the obvious suffering of physical and mental pain, there is a much more subtle kind of suffering that we call happiness.

Because our happiness, the things we label happiness, are just the illusion of happiness. They never last. Those experiences never last. They’re just temporary distractions, temporary entertainment for the mind, temporary escapes from more obvious suffering. And we, in our confusion, we label it happiness.

So why did the Buddha emphasize this first Noble Truth? That ordinary existence is pervaded by suffering. And remember, there’s not just the suffering of human existence, but because our mind’s controlled by delusion and karma, our mind can be projected into the suffering of being reborn as an animal, as a hungry ghost in the hell realms. Our good karma can give us rebirth in the god realms, but then that doesn’t last, and we reborn once again as a human or an animal over and over and over again. So the Buddha emphasized the suffering nature of ordinary existence to encourage us to look for the causes.

What are the causes of all this suffering? And the second noble truth that the Buddha taught is that there are definite causes for our suffering, for all of this suffering and dissatisfaction. Whereas we believe the causes of our suffering lie in the external world, the Buddha taught that these are just the conditions. The real cause lies within our own mind. It is our delusions and the karmic imprints that come from following those delusions that is the real cause of our suffering.

Just consider that despite, well, even if there are apparently many external causes for suffering, if we don’t have within our mind the inner potential to suffer. How can we possibly suffer? How can these external things make us suffer if we have no potential for suffering? And that potential for suffering always exists in our mind because our mind is controlled by ignorance, by disturbing thoughts, and negative karmic imprints. If you check your mind, one has so many different kinds of disturbing thoughts that arise uncontrollably, of pride, jealousy, anger, resentment, bitterness, disappointment, craving, desire, attachment.

And check how each one of those states of mind is painful. It’s unpleasant. It disturbs the true nature of our mind. How can we expect to be happy trying to control the external world when the inner world of our mind is controlled by delusion and karma. The third noble truth that the Buddha taught is that all of this suffering can be completely ceased.

There can be a true cessation of suffering because the causes of our suffering can be definitely eliminated from the mind. And once eliminated from the mind, they can never return. If we check the immediate cause of all our suffering is the ripening of negative karmic imprints. The cause of those negative imprints in our mind is our disturbing thoughts, following our disturbing thoughts. And all our disturbing thoughts exist because of ignorance, because of this mental factor of ignorance which obscures our mind, so that we experience ourself and all things in a false way.

But we believe that that false appearance is actually true, is reality. We never check it, we blindly believe it. Whatever appears to our mind, we blindly grasp that it’s real, it’s true. We believe things are truly beautiful, truly ugly, truly good, truly bad. And because of that, our disturbing thoughts of aversion and attachment arise and disturb the mind.

Ignorance creates the illusion that everything exists as though it’s completely independent, not dependent on anything. But the reality is, as the Buddha discovered, everything arises dependently on many factors, especially our own mind. When we change our mind, the world changes. We have suffered endlessly in saṃsāra because of ignorance and because we have never doubted what ignorance has told us. We’ve always blindly grasped that whatever appears to our mind is true.

But when we begin to check up, check up what appears to our mind, especially using the wisdom teachings of the Buddha to help us check up, we can begin to see that there’s another way that things exist, that what we grasp at and believe is false. And then we can begin to undermine ignorance. And then finally the Buddha taught that there is a true path that we can follow whereby we can gradually, step by step, eliminate ignorance from our mind, which eliminates all delusions, all negative karma, and therefore all suffering. So there is a path that we can follow to develop the wisdom that is the antidote to ignorance. And we all have the ability to follow that path.

By using our innate wisdom, we can eventually cultivate the highest wisdom. We develop gradually develop an intellectual understanding of the wisdom teachings of the Buddha, but to use those to completely destroy ignorance, we have to develop a powerful, concentrated mind. So we have to train in meditation. But for our meditation to succeed, the basis of that is to live a moral life based on the law of cause and effect, avoiding negative actions, cultivating virtuous ones. By living a moral life, we begin to subdue our disturbing thoughts.

This makes it easier to develop a concentrated mind. And with a concentrated mind, it’s easier to develop wisdom. And that wisdom can undermine our ignorance, free us from all suffering. So we can bring the meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life of the Four Noble Truths, especially to be mindful that when we’re experiencing suffering and problems and difficulties, that there is a cause for it. The real cause lies within my own mind, that I can do something about it, there is a method, a path I can follow to change my mind.

So then recall the Buddha on the crown of one’s head thinking the Buddha is very pleased with your practice. And the Buddha shows this by now dissolving into blissful golden light so that that light can then pour down into us, blessing our mind to be able to gain a deep understanding, a realisation of the Four Noble Truths. So then we can 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. May the precious right view not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline but increase forevermore. So suffering, so we’ll look at the eight kinds of suffering. So if you’ve got the list of them that can be helpful to have in front of you, but I’ll go through them.

I’ll do a little guided meditation on this. So we can begin by sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible. So then just briefly checking our posture by moving the awareness from the crown down through the body. And as you do that you might notice different points of tension and you might notice that that tension tends to exist because or was maintained because one is unconsciously holding on and sort of pulling inwards in those directions, in those points. So just by being aware of that process one can begin to gently let go.

So then it’s really important having prepared the body to prepare the mind to meditate firstly as much as possible, cultivating the mind of refuge and entrusting one’s mind to the triple gem of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, having that strong faith in the teachings, that one can trust those because they come from that pure source, that perfect source, the enlightened mind of the Buddha. And particularly trying to have the bodhicitta motivation as much as possible, wishing to achieve enlightenment, recognising not only by achieving enlightenment do I achieve what I’ve always wanted, which is complete freedom from suffering and peerless everlasting happiness. But in this state of enlightenment, I’m in the perfect situation to repay the kindness of mother sentient beings. So trying to have an awareness of the suffering of sentient beings and how one is intimately connected with every one of them, that they’ve all been my mother, my father, brother, sister, best friend, greatest helper countless times. Every sentient being has saved my life many times.

Every sentient being has sacrificed their life for me many times in the past, will do so in the future. So how can I just waste this life following the eight worldly concerns or use the Dharma just to get a good rebirth or even to free myself from saṃsāra and leave all these kind beings to continue to suffer? So no matter what I must achieve enlightenment, use this and all future lives to achieve enlightenment for the sake of Mother sentient beings. And what will motivate me to do this more and more is realising my own potential for suffering, my own actual suffering now and the potential for suffering if I just remain in saṃsāra, don’t take care of my mind. So for this reason I will meditate on the eight sufferings of a cyclic existence.

So we visualize the Buddha in front of us, all sentient beings surrounding us, as we say the prayer. Dro la kyab su chi o Sangye Chö dang Tsog kyi chog nam la I go for refuge until I am enlightened To the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly By my practice of giving and other perfections may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. So now I think the Buddha is very pleased with your motivation to practice the bodhicitta motivation. And so now the Buddha comes to the crown of one’s head, turning in the facing the same direction as oneself, remains above the crown of your head for the rest of the session, creating that protective environment in which to meditate and constantly blessing one’s mind. So we can reflect that the nature of my own cyclic existence, having a mind controlled by delusion and karma, is that While delusion and karma remains in my mind, controlling my mind, I have to take rebirth over and over again, saṃsāra will go on endlessly, which means I will have to experience so many different types of suffering over and over again.

So think that even if I am able to be reborn as a human being again and again, even if I never fall into the lower realms ever again, still, even if I keep getting reborn as a human being, I won’t escape suffering. There’s the simple fact that I will have to experience the suffering of birth itself over and over again. So that starts with being confined to my mother’s womb, And then the suffering, the possible suffering of the pain of birth itself. And birth involves the suffering of being born into a suffering environment and with new suffering aggregates, the body, the new body and mind controlled by delusion and karma once again. So all of those sufferings come with birth.

And if I remain in saṃsāra, I will take rebirth over and over and over again. And of course we can have a romantic view of being born and maybe it’s true that sometimes there’s very little suffering involved in taking birth, but if I remain in saṃsāra, endless saṃsāra, there is time to experience all the different sufferings of birth over and over again. So then check up that in addition to that suffering, if I remain in saṃsāra, meaning if I don’t do anything to subdue and eliminate my disturbing thoughts, then it is definite, if I’m able to achieve human rebirths over and over again, which is highly unlikely, but even if it was possible, I wouldn’t escape suffering. I would have to experience the suffering of sickness over and over again. There is time in endless saṃsāra, there would be time to experience every kind of sickness of body, from the simplest, like a common cold, to the most horrible kinds of physical sickness.

But not only would I experience the different kinds of bodily physical sicknesses, there would be time to experience every kind of mental sickness over and over again. And then in addition to that, if I remain in saṃsāra, if I don’t work to free my mind of delusion, ignorance and delusion, then I will have to experience all the sufferings of ageing, not just one time but countless times and endless saṃsāra. So some of the sufferings of growing old are the loss of one’s health and strength and the difficulties that go with that, the loss of whatever pleasant appearance one may have, the decline of one’s sense powers, the sense of taste declines, sight weakens and so on. One’s mental power, one’s mind weakens, one becomes more forgetful, unclear and so on. And so there’s a loss of many enjoyments.

And then consider that one of the great sufferings of growing older and older is the loss of one’s friends and relatives. One outlives them and one becomes, as one gets older, one becomes dependent on strangers. And so there’s a great suffering of loneliness. And also because one’s body and mind are becoming weaker and weaker, one loses control of one’s life, environment and so much fear can arise. And of course, one can think that there are people who grow old and don’t have so much suffering, and that that’s true.

But in endless saṃsāra there will be time to eventually experience all the worst sufferings of aging many times, in many, many lives. And then of course there is the suffering of death itself, which one would have to which we will if we remain in saṃsāra, we will have to experience countless times. There can be the physical pain of dying, but especially the mental suffering, being separated from everything one’s attached to, everything that one’s familiar with, everything that one is dependent on in every possible way, it all goes. So then in addition reflect that there is, as a human being I experience the suffering I will have to experience in this and future lives, suffering of being separated from all the things, the people and things I don’t want to be separated from. And throughout this life and future lives, even if I’m able to be reborn a human being again and again, I can’t escape the suffering of meeting with people and things that I don’t want to meet with, don’t want to come into contact with, don’t want to experience.

But because of my mind’s still controlled by delusion, I engage in negative actions and the karmic result is to meet things and people I don’t want to meet, contact things and situations I don’t want to be in. But this will happen again and again because the delusions are there, life after life after life. And again in this life and in future lives, I will have to, even if I’m a human being, I will have to experience the suffering of not experiencing what I want to experience, not being able to meet the people I want to meet, not being able to enjoy the things I want to enjoy. And this will definitely happen because I allow my mind to be controlled by the delusions, so I don’t engage in the virtuous actions that lead to the result of being able to meet the things I want to meet with. So we bring this segment of the meditation to a conclusion by making strong determination, to be more and more mindful in daily life of all these different sufferings that one is subject to in this life, but that I will have to experience in the future if I don’t begin to work with my mind, subduing the disturbing thoughts and avoiding negative actions.

I have to use this precious human rebirth to avoid negative actions, put energy into this basic practice and working to subdue my disturbing thoughts. So take a couple of minutes break, start again re establishing a comfortable position in which to meditate. And then reaffirming our motivation for doing it. And then recalling the Buddha on the crown of our head and making that strong determination to practice continuous mindfulness throughout the session, sort of keeping the mind focused on the topic of meditation and avoiding as much as possible the distract the hindrances of a dull sleepy mind or a distracted mind. Trying to let go of those hindrances as soon as they occur, as soon as you notice them, or if necessary and you know how, applying the antidotes.

If don’t know the antidote, at least one can recall the Buddha on the crown of your head and think that Buddha sends this very powerful blissful white light and nectar down into you that completely eliminates whatever hindrance is occurring. So in this segment we’ll reflect a little bit on the, within the topic of the three kinds of suffering that exist in saṃsāra, there is the suffering of change, which we think of as happiness. So firstly just spend a little time reflecting as strongly as you can in trying to be aware that deep down within ourselves and actually all sentient beings there is this innate spontaneously arising, ever arising wish to be free of suffering. We all naturally wish to be free of suffering. And with that, there is that natural wish to experience happiness.

Just reflect how that wish for happiness is in its nature, whether we’ve consciously thought about it or not, deep down what we all want when we think of happiness is an experience that is complete and perfect, totally free of all suffering, that is completely satisfying and joyful, undeclining, everlasting. We don’t want, we’re not satisfied with a happiness that is partial or short lived. We want something that is complete, perfect and everlasting, undeclining. And consider how only that type of experience deserves to be called happiness. Anything less is not real happiness.

So then in that context, reflect how everything that I have in the past believed to be happiness, everything that I think of as happiness now, everything that occupies my time, I’m trying to achieve certain things, experiences, situations, believing they will bring about happiness. All of those things that in the past, present and future I’m calling happiness isn’t this perfect lasting undeclining state at all. None of it lasts. None of it has lasted. None of it will last.

Why do I waste my time on it? Or so much time? And just check how everything that in the past, the present and probably in the future that considered to be happiness or something that will bring about happiness. All of those things and situations have arisen dependent on causes and conditions. I’m attached, you know, I crave all sorts of possessions, get attached to them believing this will bring some kind of happiness.

But all those things come into existence depending on causes and conditions. My relationships with people depend on causes and conditions. One of the fundamental teachings of the Buddha that distinguishes it from other teachings is that everything, depending on causes and conditions, is impermanent. Changing decaying. It can’t last.

So the happiness that arises depending on impermanent things and people also can’t last. It’s just an illusion. Of course there’s nothing wrong in enjoying these pleasant things, but the trouble is our desire exaggerates how good it is. We grasp that it’s going to be permanent. We get attached to it.

Our disturbing thoughts cheat us in making us believe this is real happiness. Just think how much time I’ve wasted in even just this life, apart from all previous lives, trying to experience this illusory happiness. I think, if only I’d used all that time and energy to look after my mind, which is the source of genuine, lasting happiness. So then consider that from another perspective what we, with our confused mind who believe to be happiness is not what we really want, not only because it’s, it doesn’t last, But these experiences that we label happiness are only labeled this way because we have such a limited idea of what we can actually experience. The Buddhist teachings point out that the so called pleasure or happiness that a human being can experience is nothing compared to the bliss of the god realms.

But even the bliss of the god realms is nothing compared to the bliss that the mind experiences when it’s free of cyclic existence. Even as a human being, if we train our mind, we can develop single pointed concentration or Samādhi. A state where the mind experiences incredible bliss and physical ecstasy. And that state can go on for an incredibly long time, far longer than any of the experiences that we have labelled as happiness in the past. But even the bliss of Samādhi again is nothing compared to the bliss the mind experiences when it’s free of cyclic existence.

But at a deeper level what we need to check up on is how everything that we as ordinary beings think of as happiness is just a subtle kind of suffering. It only appears to be happiness compared to a more obvious kind of suffering. So if we reflect on the traditional example that after standing for some time it becomes painful, there is the obvious suffering of pain. So we sit down and there seems to be the obvious pleasure of sitting. But the longer we sit, it becomes uncomfortable, and the pleasure of sitting seems to change into the suffering of sitting.

But the law of cause and effect says the nature of the cause determines the nature of the effect. And this is definite. A suffering cause always produces a suffering result. A pleasurable cause always produces a pleasurable result. So if the cause, sitting down, actually produced happiness, the pleasure of sitting, it would, if that was valid, continuing to sit would continue the pleasure of sitting.

But in reality, this doesn’t happen. So in fact, sitting down doesn’t produce the pleasure of sitting down straight away. What sitting down causes is the suffering of sitting. But it only appears to be pleasure, happiness, in contrast to the obvious suffering of standing. The subtle suffering of sitting appears, it only appears to be pleasure compared to obvious suffering.

The longer we sit, the obvious suffering of standing is forgotten and the suffering of sitting becomes more obvious. But it was there all the time. So everything that we label happiness or have labeled happiness so far in our existence is like that example. It’s just the illusion of happiness. So bring the meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life that all the things I desire and get attached to believing their happiness, it’s not the real happiness that I want.

It’s just illusory, it’s just temporary, it’s just a distraction from obvious suffering. And to be mindful that rather than putting my energy into those things, if I put energy into taking care of my mind, I can free my mind of the disturbing thoughts, Begin to experience the natural bliss of the mind. And since the mind is something that goes on forever, I can experience this bliss forever. That is not an illusion. That is not something that will come to an end.

So then recall the Buddha on the crown of one’s head thinking the Buddha is very pleased with one’s practice. And the Buddha shows this by dissolving into blissful golden light so that that light can then pour down into us, blessing our mind to understand the suffering nature of our own cyclic existence and how even the things we label happiness are just a subtle kind of suffering. 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. May the precious right view not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline, but increase forevermore. Okay, so as you should know according to your because the schedule for today is in your student material on page something or other. Page nine.

So it’s kind of we are conditioned since beginningless time to associate our existence with a lump of stuff, you know. Because what reincarnation means, re is to go, you know, to return or to go back and carne means flesh, you know. So we want to go back into the flesh again, we want to go into a lump of this stuff because this is reality and it’s like, you know, well maybe it’s like being in public and suddenly you’ve not got any clothes on and so you’re desperate to put some clothes on, find a new, you know, some clothes somewhere, any clothes because it’s very embarrassing and cold and creepy and scary, you know, you know. So here it’s even worse because you don’t have a body, know, somehow you’ve got some sense that something very vital is missing and you’ve got to get it. You probably don’t even have consciousness, I don’t have a body, it’s just like, it’s like something super vital is missing and I’ve got to get it no matter what.

And so you just, you know, zapping your brain. No, no, no, no, no, no. It’s a very subtle, mean, you know, it’s a very subtle body of, yeah, whatever that means. So would that still be linked to that, the sense of I? Of course.

Yes, absolutely. That affliction has come through even though there’s no form or advocacy. Absolutely. Definitely that’s what it’s all about. But like for a practitioner with good karma you can be more relaxed in the bardo and spend time shopping for, you know, And like the more advanced ones like Lama Yeshe, he knew who his parents were going to be.

He told them before well, you know, he gave hints. It’s recorded, you can listen. The last meeting he had when he was in Spain he said, I’ll be back with you soon. He said this to his future mother and father who were Spanish, his students in Spanish. And of course, you know, everyone interpreted that was that Lama Yeshe would come back to Spain, but he was saying I’m dying soon, because he was, you know, he passed away a few months, not that much longer, after.

So yeah. Anyway. So yeah. Okay. So the other thing I was I was reading was, like, with a little footnote.

I mean, sorry. There’s a bit here. Like, then then you’re in the Bardo, and you have an appearance of your parents engaged in union. Yes. And you’re drawn towards that.

Yes. Of course you don’t see two human beings. Don’t see them actually, yeah, I was a bit confused about that when you have a vision. You only see the bits. You see their sexual organs together, that’s all.

But I’m not sure if it doesn’t make it clear in the teachings whether you actually know what they are. And does it coincide with a tiny thing or is it With a what? At that same moment? Moment? That moment of union and the moment of Yes, well then the consciousness goes there, is attracted to that, and that’s how conception A delay of that?

A what? I don’t know. A delay. Think there’s a little bit of about how you don’t actually see the actual thing. It’s like a vision.

Yeah, yeah. And of course you don’t think this is my parents’ or anything like that, but they will be. They end up because you get attracted there and you go zoom and you enter the yeah. And then you have an aversion. Yeah, for mum, yeah, yeah.

I mean I find that the one you see? Yeah. Aversion for one and attraction to the other. Yes. Why?

I don’t know, just it is. And how it works because you’re in that state, that state. Yeah, so the aversion causes the death of the Bardo being and the attraction sort of brings to life there. So you’re very afflicted in that Bardo state. Yeah.

Well the average being is, yeah, because it’s talking about how the average being, you know, ordinary human being takes, yeah. What happened when he’s artificial? Oh, Christina, don’t make life too complicated for me. But you might be happy to know that this kind of stuff apparently has been written, is in the sutras it mentions, because I remember years ago, must have been nineteen seventy eight possibly, there happened in Australia one of the first something in the wouldn’t have been the first artificial insemination but what’s the next stage? Something it happened in Australia in the first was it something like that and I told the Geshe at Chenrezig you know I was living at Chenrezig Institute where Geshe Lhundup was the resident teacher at the time, so I told him this great news and also just to see what his, you know, was.

And he said, Oh, that’s nothing. That’s all written about in the sutras. And it says that there will be a lot this will cause lots of conflicts and legal disputes because of, you know, who’s the dad and mother and all this stuff. So this is in he never said, I don’t know which Sūtra it’s in, but apparently it is. But it’s also His Holiness has said if robots, you know, artificial intelligence, you know, robots get sophisticated enough, maybe consciousness will be able to take rebirth in them.

He said that a few years ago, which is a truly horrible thought. Was good. She didn’t even be in there forever. No, no, don’t think that. Anyway, let’s forget that anyway.

Back to the twelve links. So one’s now in the Bardo state and you know the birth has occurred and that also includes up to, what do you call it, you know, the first moment of fertilisation, so and that’s where that’s the next link called name and form, right. And because of that, then you have the next link which is the sixth sense powers, which is, you know, the sense, senses organs developing in the foetus and because of that then the consciousnesses, you know, the sixth sense consciousnesses can start functioning and that’s when you get the link of contact and once they, once the consciousnesses start operating you get the link of feeling because with every experience of every, you know, each consciousness knowing something there is a feeling, pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. So actually between, in life number two, between five and six, actually in there is where you actually pop out. You get actually born, right?

There’s actual physical birth. And then once one’s born, then of course ageing is occurring which is the twelfth link which leads to death. But of course once one’s popped out then one can start, you know, a whole another set of twelve links can be started because one pops out with ignorance, yeah, and so on. So this is explaining just how one set of links is operating, but as that set of links is operating, other sets of links are also operating. That’s where it gets kind of, you know, sets of links are being created and others are also operating.

I don’t know if that How do start ignorance? Their mother wants to make something How do the new set of links start? Pauline with ignorance, link number one. Because if there was only one cycle that would be it. You’d be dead and that’s it There wouldn’t be continuous lives But is what you’re saying is that during one life you’re creating causes, but you’re not experiencing a second set of results?

No, no, but you’re starting a set of links. This, yeah, sorry, I mean this is what it’s saying, once basically, you know, you’ve got ignorance and you follow it, then link number two starts, it has, will come about and so, and that means a whole new set of links will, all the others will eventually eventuate, yeah. It’s not that they all come together at the same time, that’s the whole point, they come but once you start the next one comes, you know. Well, I mean it is a very complicated thing, know. I mean the dharma, yeah, it’s like, you know, what is it, Mr, who is he?

What’s his name? Einstein’s theory of relativity, which is probably is, you know, old fashioned now, I don’t know. But who, you know, he’s that’s trying to explain some part of the how the universe works. And, like, you just can’t sit down and understand the theory of relativity, you know, in one class or something like that. You have to and it’s the same, you know, this is a Buddhist way of presenting to us something that is immensely complicated to understand.

And even this takes, I mean, you know, a long time to and you have to put the effort into really thinking about it and what does this mean and, you know. So through purification and training, so then each subsequent life will come through with less afflictions? So we’ll learn differently. Less afflictions, more of our positive qualities, more control over our mind. So also when we die we will have more control over the death process or at least more awareness of what is happening and we will be able to enter the Bardo state with, Oh, this is the Bardo state.

Oh, I should shop around carefully, you know. I should be a careful shopper here. Are you only just searching for in desire or is like, you know, like you’ve got seven goes? Seven goes, seven days. So is it just a desirous thing that you’re being attracted or is it like a Well, again, depends.

At a basic level it would be, but for very high level practitioners it wouldn’t be. It’s like, you know, I’m assuming, what would be the best parents to take rebirth so I can achieve what I want to achieve, I have all these plans of what I’m going to do, you know. So what country, you know, and all these kinds of things. Where does that being blind? Yeah, it’s completely blind, it’s just completely, you know, desperate.

It’s like those people, you know, they have these shopping, what do you call them, sales, where people like charge into the thing, trample over everybody and grab whatever they can just because it’s cheap. So that’s like the average Bardo being’s experience. It’s like a sale. So if you go through seven days, it would mean that you haven’t found anything suitable? Yeah, or yeah.

What do you work with them for and the other? No, no, no, it’s very no. I don’t know, it’s just It could be that, it could be you’re a careful shopper and it takes you seven days or it just simply means that, you know, you’re one of the very desperate people but you still can’t get anything. You don’t have the karma to be able to because you’re just about to jump there and someone gets in front of you, you know. It’s a free for all up there.

No, but that’s true, because it’s very, you know, it’s just it’s like I mean, that’s what they say in the teachings that there are billions of Bardo beings trying you know, desperate to take rebirth. So wherever the conditions come, bingo. It’s like, you know, I could give gross examples, but like when there’s a situation then like blowflies will suddenly appear because they you know, you might have had the karma to be a human being, but you’re sort of desperate and there’s a chance to be born there. But you have to have had the karma too. Yeah, yeah.

Or, you know, all your good karma, like by the see, it’s more likely by the end of your good karma would be its strongest the first day. By the end of the seventh, you’re really, you know, run out of good choices, you know. Most of the stuff has been in the shop has been taken. You’ve just got what no one else wants. So if you’ve trained enough to be able to deal with everything that’s happening.

And then you come to the end of seven days. Like some people might meditate or whatever, and then that state for longer. And then you go, we go through that birth process. Yeah. That death process.

Yeah, they say that that Bardo being dies and then you’re reborn as another Bardo being. And that could be a completely, would that still be from that becoming Yeah. Potential? Yeah. No, it’s the same set.

I think, oh, that’s a good question actually. I don’t know. And my conclusion is we should really try and work with our mind while we’ve got the chance and we’ve got the best chance remember, we have the optimum chance, the precious human rebirth to work with our mind. Actually this can be quite a good exercise just to really think about what kind of rebirth you want, you know, because we’re encouraged to take a to try and get a precious human rebirth. But then where do you want to be reborn?

What sort of parents do you actually want? Because it would be good to make strong prayers. You know, there’s famous stories. I mean, actually there’s been movies about this where people make, you know, wishes for the devil, there’s about what they would like to be and the devil keeps cheating them and they get reborn and you know, anyway. But there’s a Tibetan story about once upon a time in Tibet, I think this is in Ganden Monastery which is the seat of the Gelugpa tradition that was actually built by Lama Tsongkhapa.

And so there’s the throne in the main hall there. And one day a cow walked into the while all the monks are doing puja, in the main hall of Ganden monastery which has golden roofs and everything, this cow walked in, walked down the aisle and sat on Je Tsongkhapa’s throne. He wasn’t there at the time. This is much after him but, and of course everyone was amazed that a cow did this. And of course in those days some of the lamas there were clairvoyant and so that one clairvoyant lama had said, how this had come about is because in the past some devout woman had made a prayer that one day may I be able to sit on the throne of Lama Tsongkhapa.

Meaning the person who sits on the throne of Lama Tsongkhapa is actually the head of the Gelug tradition but she didn’t specify and she didn’t have that much good karma enough to do that but she had enough karma to be born as a cow that could walk in and sit on the throne. So you know in us wanting to be human beings we should really think about know, do I want to be reborn in Australia or where? New Zealand or America or China or Japan or Tibet? Or where do I want to be born? What parents do I want to have?

What sort of parents would I like? Do I want to be born really rich so I can use the money to practice the Dharma? Or could that be a bit dangerous because I might get, you know, sidetracked and spend all the money and just buy a Lamborghini or something instead? Or there’s a new car now that’s only five point five million dollars Only is the richest. Anyway, yeah, all those things, it’s very interesting.

So one can dedicate specifically, because the more you dedicate correctly, the more your merit, if you’ve got the merit and you dedicate, then you will get that. Because the other thing is to pray to be born in a pure land, which seems to be I always thought the main thing was to get a precious human rebirth, but precious human rebirths as one studies you can see are actually extremely difficult to get. So going for a be reborn in a pure land is probably the goer. So one has to pray for that of course, dedicate. And of course Amitābha’s Pure Land is the easiest one to get into.

There are many Pure Lands but some are very difficult to get into, like Tuśita, that’s pretty exclusive. That’s where Lama Tsongkhapa is and Lama Yeshe is there. So to join them, that’s quite difficult. But Amitābha Buddha is very kind and so he lets anyone in, more or less, almost. No, I think Pure Lands you go straight.

Yeah, you have to go yeah, you go straight there. Because there’s a practice called POA where you shoot your consciousness straight into Amitābha’s Pure Land. So what sort of being are you in there? Where As the Pure Lands? Are you not a I don’t know.

That’s a good question. I don’t know what you would call yourself there. What would you be? Well you have to leave the pure land, but normally once you go into a pure land you stay there until you become a Buddha usually But you float around on lotuses, remember? Well also you do that in the God realms but in, I think I mentioned before if you get reborn in Amitābha’s Pure Land it says in the sutras you’re born inside a lotus but it’s closed.

Right. It’s a very nice lotus, it’s beautiful. No, it’s very beautiful. Everything’s blissful and there’s no suffering there, you can’t, so you can’t see Lord Amitābha, but depending on your karma that you’ve created in the path, then the lotus slowly opens and then you’re able to see and hear Amitābha Buddha teaching the Dharma until you’re enlightened. That sounds beautiful.

That’s the place to go. Yes. But right now lunch, lunch. Thank you very much. On the delusions.

Okay, so we begin by sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible. And then just briefly checking our posture. Then calming the mind by doing the nine round breathing exercise just for a short time. So then on the basis of that calm neutral mind we cultivate the virtuous mind of refuge and the triple gem as much as possible. And to help do that we can visualise Śākyamūni Buddha appearing directly in front of us, seated on the magnificent Lion Throne, above it the Lotus Sun and Moon, and the Buddha seated directly above the center of the moon disc.

So then cultivating as strongly as one can the bodhicitta motivation, having that strong awareness of one’s connection with all sentient beings, how immensely kind and helpful they are, but also that understanding that they are suffering in saṃsāra, subject to all the different kinds of suffering that we’ve reflected on, And in fact the vast majority of sentient beings are experiencing the worst sufferings of the lower realms right now, helplessly. Even those in good rebirths right now as humans or in the god realms, these rebirths aren’t going to last. They also will eventually fall into the lower realms, circling over and over again helplessly, constantly creating the causes of more saṃsāra. So we think of all these kind suffering beings surrounding us. So in general the thought, no matter what I must use this in all my future lives to achieve enlightenment, to be in a position to repay their kindness.

But to achieve enlightenment I myself must first free myself from saṃsāra, recognising how its very nature is suffering and its causes for it all lie within my own mind, in my own delusions, negative actions and the karmic imprints resulting from them. So for those reasons I’ll meditate on this subject. Dro la kyab su chi o Sangye Chö dang Tsog kyi chog nam la I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma and the Supreme Assembly By my practice of giving and other perfections may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. So thinking Buddha is very pleased with one’s motivation to benefit others, the Buddha now comes to the crown of our head and then when directly above our crown the Buddha turns facing the same direction as our self and remains on our crown creating a protective environment in which to meditate and constantly blessing our mind. So we can begin by reflecting, just checking for ourselves that even if there are causes for suffering in the external world, in harmful people and so on, If we didn’t have the inner potential for suffering, how could these external causes bring suffering?

A Buddha is free to act in the world because the Buddha isn’t affected by any negative conditions existing in the world, because the Buddha has no potential for suffering. Buddha mind has no potential for suffering. But we do. We suffer because we have the potential for it. This really shows that the real cause of suffering doesn’t lie in the external world.

These are just conditions. The real cause of our suffering lies within our own mind. If the real cause for suffering existed in the world, then even the Buddha would suffer. Also, long before achieving Buddhahood, the real practitioners purify their mind, strengthen their mind, gain mastery of their mind, and because of that, the external conditions for suffering have less and less effect on their minds. Because the inner potential for suffering has become less and less.

So they consider what are the potentials for suffering existing in my mind. So these first layer of potentials are our negative karmic imprints, those karmic potentials. Potentials. When they ripen, there is suffering. What causes those negative karmic potentials to exist in our mind?

These are the disturbing thoughts. The Buddha says that the effect depends, the nature of the effect is determined by the nature of the cause. Negative, disturbing thoughts generate negative karmic potentials which ripen as suffering. So then consider the nature of one’s own disturbing thought of anger. Just try to recall an incident in the past, either the recent past or distant past, when one became very angry, very upset.

Try and develop a clear awareness of how disturbing that state of mind is, how painful it is. Whether that anger arises from what we conventionally may believe to be justified reasons or whether our anger arises for completely unjustified reasons, the experience is the same. Check the experience of anger as disturbing the mind, as being painful, as destroying whatever peace of mind existed up until the moment the anger took over. Particularly try to check up to see that when the anger arises, there is no longer this kind, peaceful, gentle, tolerant, patient me who has some anger. That kind, peaceful I, me, is destroyed, doesn’t exist anymore.

There is just an angry me. The me and the anger become the same. Also, see if you can check up and see that the nature of one’s own anger is to exaggerate how bad something or someone is. The longer the anger arises, the more it tends to do that. And the nature of anger, aversion and so on is to only focus on the negative and to block out any good qualities that the person or situation may have.

And at the same time the mind grasps that this situation, this unbearable situation, is permanent, which makes it all the more unbearable. So the Buddha perceived with his unmistaken mind, omniscient unmistaken mind, that a negative cause can only have a negative effect. Whether we react with anger because of something justified or unjustified, the effect on ourselves is the same. We are disturbing our mind, generating negative imprints that can only affect the mind when they ripen in a painful way. And then investigate what is the basis or cause for getting angry.

I mean, are the specific examples in each situation, but underlying that, just check, there always tends to be the dissatisfied mind. And that mind takes offence so easily. And that dissatisfied mind is associated with being attached to things and our expectations due to those attachments. We’re attached to ourself, our opinion of ourself, we’re attached to how we think we should be treated, we’re attached to our ideas, our suggestions, our status, our possessions, our family, friends, all the things which we think guarantee support our happiness and security. And if they’re threatened in any way, anger arises.

And then check how attachment is an inevitable offshoot or result of afflicted desire, which exaggerates how good things are, how pleasant, how attractive, how beautiful. Again grasping that these things are permanent, unchanging. I just check how it’s relatively easy in most cases for ourselves to recognise anger as harmful to ourselves. We really grasp that desire and attachment isn’t harmful to ourselves, it’s necessary. But again, check up from your own experience that, of course, when we meet the objects of our desire, there seems to be happiness, which is in reality only the suffering of change.

But at least to our deluded mind it seems like happiness. But we can only discover the harmful nature of desire when we don’t meet the object of what we desire. The desire is there, but we don’t get what we want. So check up how painful that experience is. The Buddha said following that painful experience, that thought which is in its nature disturbing, can never bring real happiness.

And when desire does meet its object and there’s that illusion of happiness, then attachment comes. And that attachment makes us dependent, it weakens us. And becomes the basis for anger. And then consider that the only reason these disturbing thoughts anger, attachment and all the other disturbing thoughts exist is because of the principal disturbing thought, the very root of all suffering, the very root cause of saṃsāra, which is ignorance, that creates the illusion that things somehow exist as though they’re completely independent of everything else, arising not depending on anything. And all their qualities are just there from their own side.

It’s only because of that fundamental illusion that we believe is real do we desire what appears to be independently, truly existing, beautiful things, that we have fear and aversion and dislike and anger towards what appears to be from their own side independently bad people and things. And what causes ignorance? A previous moment of ignorance, going back and back. Why does ignorance perpetuate itself? Because until we meet the Buddha’s teachings, we never doubt what appears to our mind.

Everything that appears to our mind appears because of ignorance. And we believe it. We never question it. We never doubt it. We never check.

So we can bring this segment of the meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more mindful in daily life, not to grasp immediately at what appears to our mind as being absolutely true. This is definitely good, definitely bad. But try to have a more open, spacious mind that gives us freedom to check our reality. So I’ll just take a short break. A couple of minutes, that’s all.

So this time we’ll go through the meditation on the different factors that activate our disturbing thoughts. I think this is a very practical, very helpful meditation to do. Of they all are, but this one is particularly good, I think. So again we begin by sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible. And then just briefly doing the nine round breathing exercise.

So then reaffirming our motivation for doing the practice, also recalling the Buddha on our crown and making that strong determination to be really mindful throughout the session, to avoid the hindrances as much as possible of dullness and sleepiness on the one hand and distraction on the other. Being determined to let go of these hindrances as soon as one detects them or if possible, if necessary, applying the appropriate antidote. So then begin by reflecting how when we react to our disturbing thoughts and act on them, then we create karmic imprints, either very strong ones which become throwing karmas or weaker negative imprints, which are the completing karmas that ripen throughout our lives. But also, in addition to the negative karmic imprints we generate every time our disturbing thoughts arise and cause suffering while they are arising, they are generating imprints of that same delusion. Every time we get angry, we create an imprint, a potential to get angry in the future.

Every time we follow a desire, we generate a potential to follow desire again in the future. Same with jealousy and pride and all the disturbing thoughts. So then what activates so these imprints are new, in a sense, not active in our consciousness. They’re there as just in a passive potential form. So what activates them?

What are the conditions in our life that activate them? So just consider how the most obvious one is when we meet the object of our disturbing thoughts, when we meet the object of our desires, when we meet the object of our aversions, when we meet the objects of our jealousy and pride and so on. So for each of us, you know, what any individual considers desirable or bad, it varies from individual to individual. And even within an individual our tastes and interests change with time or can do so. So we have to individually check from our own experience what are our particular objects of desire, aversion, pride, jealousy.

And if we’re wise, if we don’t want to harm ourselves, if we don’t want to create more obstacles to following the spiritual path, the skilful thing is to avoid those conditions, those objects, whether they’re people or things or situations. We try to avoid them until we have the ability to apply the antidotes. So spend some time just thinking about either in relation just to one particular delusion you have, disturbing thought, maybe the strongest one, whether it’s anger or desire or jealousy or whatever. And particularly investigate what are the main objects, people, situations, things, that if I contact those objects, objects then the delusion becomes active. How can I skilfully avoid those objects?

Check your mind, do I even want to? So then consider another factor that activates those potentials of our delusions is even if we don’t meet the object, if we think about the object, the person, the situation, the thing that is the object of our desire or aversion, pride or jealousy or so on, if we think about it, if we indulge in this unrealistic thinking, then the more we do so, the delusion arises. So this is where the practice of mindfulness in our daily life is so important, to be able to catch that mind that starts indulging in this unrealistic thinking realises that it is harmful. And then one has to have the courage, the skill to let go. One has to have the compassion to let go, compassion for oneself.

So then consider another factor in your life is the people that one associates with. So if one chooses to associate with or is in situations where one has to associate with particular kind of people, then because our mind is not very strong, not stable, we don’t have such mastery over it. Then if we mix with people who themselves have a lot of desire or attachment, live a life following that with no awareness, then we will tend to be like that. And similarly with all the other delusions, if we mix with people who give free rein to all disturbing thoughts, see nothing wrong with them, indulge in them, this will affect us in a negative way. If we follow our self-cherishing thought, then we will prefer to be with such people because we’re taking the easy way out.

But if we listen to our wisdom, we have to be skilful in avoiding such people as much as possible. Not rejecting them out of compassion, out of a lack of compassion, but just protecting our own mind. And on the other hand realising how important it is to have dharma friends. So then check another factor to consider that awakens our disturbing thoughts, activates them is what we can consider distraction. So we need to check, you know, what we choose to talk about.

We should be careful in what we choose to distract our mind with, what we talk about, the movies we watch, the books we read. Because all these things either directly, indirectly influence our mind, can activate our disturbing thoughts. So again, we need to rely on the practice of mindfulness. Because mindfulness has two aspects of not only being aware of what we’re doing, but being aware of what we’re doing, thinking, saying, whether it’s skillful, virtuous, beneficial or otherwise. From an ordinary conventional point of view, what we may be reading, discussing is perfectly normal, acceptable, but we need to use our dharma wisdom to check up, to be mindful whether it is really skillful or not.

And then the final factor, condition, which is in a sense the result of all the others, is just the habit or familiarity with our afflictions. The afflictions we’re most familiar with, that we follow most frequently, are also the ones that are more likely to arise more quickly, more easily. So we have to develop the, again, the courage, the skill, the compassion, the wisdom to recognise that we’re courting these negative habits, to try and break those habits, understanding how harmful the disturbing thoughts are. So now we bring the meditation to a conclusion by making this strong determination to be more and more mindful in our daily life, to be able to recognise the different conditions that activate our disturbing thoughts. So that by recognising them we can have we can then put effort into avoiding those conditions as much as possible.

As much as we develop the understanding of how harmful our disturbing thoughts are to ourselves, to our Dharma practice. Practice. So then recall the Buddha on one’s crown, imagining the Buddha very pleased with your meditation. And the Buddha shows this by now dissolving into blissful golden light so that that light can pour down into us, blessing our mind to be able to clearly recognise, to have that realisation that clearly recognises all the factors that activate one’s own delusions, a realisation that gives us the courage to avoid them. 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. May the precious right view not yet born arise and grow May that born have no decline but increase forevermore Okay, thank you very much. We’ll take a tea break until three o’clock.

One hour session, which will again break up into two segments. So on this one we’ll do a little bit of meditation on the antidotes to our lovely delusions. Okay. Oh, what? Sorry.

Yeah, the brown one. I can’t I don’t remember taking it. I’ll just so quickly maybe well, to save some time we’ll have our certificate ceremony. Remember, this is just a certificate of participation. It doesn’t mean you’ve understood a word or anything, but it is a very nice certificate though, isn’t it?

This was designed by Miffy Maximilian from the Langley Centre in Queensland, many years. So I swiped it from her. So Sharon? There are rounds of applause didn’t I?

I don’t know, mate, the book. Oh, good. The brown book. I don’t know where it went, I didn’t remember taking it out. Pauline.

Margaret. Wendy. John. Graham. So to give the certificate you have to have done all the homework and attended the retreat.

Graham, that’s another one of your from past yeah. So if you’d like to get the certificate, you have to do all the homework. You can hand the homework in late, but great, thanks, thank you. Thanks. So again, can begin by sitting comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible.

And then calming the mind with the nine round breathing exercise. So then recognising that it is one’s own mind that is giving rise to all one’s experiences right now. So the more we recognise that, the more we can see how if we want less suffering, more happiness now and in the future, we really have to take care of our mind. And to do that we need to rely on a perfect method. And that’s why we can entrust our mind to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly.

So we visualise Śākyamūni Buddha as the embodiment of the Three Jewels of refuge, appearing in the clear space in front of us, and at the same time we try and generate as strongly and sincerely as possible the bodhicitta motivation, recognising the kindness of mother sentient beings, but also that they are suffering helplessly in saṃsāra, recognising our own Buddha potential, generate the thought that no matter what I must use this in all future lives to achieve enlightenment in order to repay the kindness of other sentient beings. Because if don’t do this, who will? If I, the child of my mother, doesn’t take care of my mother, who will? So we think of all these kind mother sentient beings surrounding us, starting with our mother of this life on our left and Father on our right. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly.

By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. So now the Buddha happily comes to the crown of our head, turning to face the same direction, and remains above our crown for the rest of the session, creating a protective environment in which to meditate and continuously blessing our mind. So make a strong determination to be really mindful, continuously mindful for the rest of the session in order to detect any hindrances of dullness and sleepiness or distraction, and being determined to let go of those hindrances as soon as one recognises them, and if necessary applying the if the hindrance gets stronger, then being determined to apply the antidote as much as one can. So just consider that in this very life if we want less suffering and more happiness and contentment and so on, it’s really vital that we learn to reduce the power of our disturbing thoughts. Of course the main aim reason to do this is so that we’re able to eventually, by pacifying our disturbing thoughts, we’ll be in a position to eliminate them completely so that we can become free of cyclic existence and continue the path to enlightenment.

So there are very specific antidotes to each delusion, but there are also some general antidotes to all of them that we can consider. So one of the most simple essential things to reinforce in our mind is this strong mindfulness that each and every one of our delusions is it disturbing the mind. As soon as it arises, it’s in its very nature harmful, it’s in its very nature a byproduct of ignorance. It’s further distorting, ignorance distorts reality, then each and every one of the delusions further distorts reality in its own way. And since each delusion is disturbing, painful, when we experience it, the result of each and every one of the delusions can only be more suffering.

So not only do I end up creating negative karmic imprints from following my disturbing thoughts. But every time I follow my disturbing thoughts, I create the imprint of that very same delusion that guarantees I will suffer from that delusion again in the future. And also reflect that the negative imprints generated, the negative karmic imprints, or both kinds of imprints, the imprints of the delusion themselves and the negative karmic imprints generated from following the delusions, both of these imprints, before they ripen, they are having the effect of obscuring my mind. So, the more my mind is obscured, more suffering, even from an ordinary point of view. But especially the more obscured my mind is, the more difficult it is to be able to meet the dharma in the future.

Even if I come in contact with it, with a more obscured mind, it’s difficult to understand it. Even if I understand it, it’s still with an obscured mind, it’s more difficult to develop faith in it. Even if I develop that faith, if my mind becomes more obscured, it’s difficult to practice. And the more obscured the mind is, even if I practice, the more difficult to gain the realisations. So why follow the delusions?

And of course we need to reflect that following my delusions, my disturbing thoughts only harms me. The worst effect is on my own mind. It brings me suffering, it obscures my mind, making it more and more difficult to do virtuous, meaningful, beneficial things for myself. But of course, the disturbing thoughts also lead me to harm others. The more disturbed my mind is, the less I’m inclined to help others.

The more obscured my mind is because of the delusions, the more difficult it is for all my positive qualities to function. And it is those positive qualities that are the very source of genuine happiness. And of course the more obscured my mind is because of following the disturbing thoughts, the more difficult it will be to eventually develop single pointed concentration, which is necessary to gain all the higher realisations. The more I follow my disturbing thoughts, the more I reinforce my ignorance, the very source of all suffering. So in addition to thinking of the general harm of the disturbing thoughts as an antidote, then one can reflect on the benefits of subduing the afflictions.

The more we see the benefits of not following the disturbing thoughts, the more we will, when they arise, there will be so much energy to oppose them. So consider that one of the great benefits of having subdued or having gained mastery of one’s disturbing thoughts is that one will experience a very peaceful, calm, clear mind even in this life. And with a calmer, clearer, peaceful mind it’s so much easier to make the right decisions, the wise, skilful decisions in life. It means I won’t be creating the causes of suffering for myself, and there’ll be the benefit that I won’t harm others. I’ll be able to be start to be of genuine benefit to them.

And this in turn will bring satisfaction into my mind. The more I subdue the delusions, the more easy it will be to concentrate the mind, to develop single pointed concentration, And then all the realisations will come so much more easily after that. The more I’ve subdued the delusions, the more easy to have a good death and therefore a good rebirth. So then reflect that a very powerful antidote to all the different delusions, the one antidote that works for all of them is one’s understanding experience of impermanence and death. So the more we have some real experience of impermanence and death, the more powerful this acts as an antidote to the delusions.

Why be so attached to something, someone, if we really understand, really know that it’s impermanent, it’s changing, can’t remain the same. If we were genuinely mindful of that, afflicted desire and attachment wouldn’t be so strong. Also the things that upset us, if we could remember, these two are impermanent, they don’t last. If we had some genuine experience of that, we wouldn’t get so upset. Anger arises and becomes stronger because we feel that this unwanted situation is going to go on forever.

We grasp at its permanence, but if we experienced its impermanence, we wouldn’t be so upset. And this is true for all the other delusions as well. And particularly, if we’ve really worked on meditating on our own mortality, especially the fact that we could die at any time. This becomes a very powerful antidote to delusions. Why waste this precious human rebirth following the disturbing thoughts?

When I’m going to die, this life is so short. The opportunity to practice is so short. Why waste it on the delusions? And especially since I could die at any time, I don’t want to die when my mind is caught up in strong desire or anger or any of the delusions. Because to die in that state makes it very difficult to have a good rebirth.

So bring this segment of the meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful, to apply these general antidotes when the delusions arise. And in particular to be more and more mindful to use this precious human rebirth to cultivate the antidotes. I need to remember that the disturbing thoughts, the delusions, they just spontaneously arise. I don’t have to cultivate any of the delusions, but I do have to cultivate the antidotes. If I don’t create the cause for the antidotes, they won’t exist in my mind.

And now I have the precious human rebirth, the optimum chance, the greatest freedom to cultivate them. So then recall the Buddha in one’s crown, imagining the Buddha very pleased with your practice. And the Buddha then dissolves into light, blissful golden light, that pours down into us, blessing our mind to be able to gain the realisation of developing the antidotes, at least the general antidotes, to all the delusions. So again we’ll just take a few minutes now. Very last segment we’ll just do a little meditation, simple meditation on the three higher trainings, which are, remember, the higher training in morality, concentration and wisdom.

So these are the this is the main path of achieving freedom from saṃsāra. If one doesn’t want to become enlightened and just wants to get out of saṃsāra, then one practises the three higher trainings of morality, concentration and wisdom. But also in following the Mahāyāna path we also have to follow the three higher trainings, but especially we have to generate bodhicitta as well. Okay, we can start again, again establishing just a comfortable position. And then calming the mind with a nine round breathing exercise.

And then reaffirming our motivation as strongly as possible. And then recalling the Buddha on the crown of our head. And generate that strong determination to practice continuous mindfulness throughout the session in order to immediately detect the different hindrances of the mind of dullness, sleepiness or the mind getting distracted by external sounds, different sensations in our body and especially our own thoughts. Thoughts unrelated to the meditation topic. So with continuous mindfulness we should, as soon as we detect those, we should immediately let them go or if necessary apply the antidote.

So if one doesn’t know how to do that, at least one can remember the Buddha on one’s crown and think the Buddha sends this blissful, powerful, blissful white light and nectar down into us, whatever kind of hindrance is occurring. Having done that, one brings the mind back to the meditation topic. So if we can begin by reflecting that, as the Buddha taught in the Four Noble Truths, then the way to achieve freedom from all suffering, The only way to achieve freedom from all suffering is to eliminate the causes. And the only way to eliminate the causes of suffering is to eliminate the root cause, which is ignorance. And the only way to eliminate ignorance from the mind is to cultivate, to develop that aspect of the mind that is able to directly perceive the way oneself and all phenomena actually exist.

So this is the wisdom that directly perceives the empty nature of oneself and all phenomena. So then just briefly reflect that The precious human rebirth has three great meanings or three great purposes. And the main great meaning or purpose of having a precious human rebirth is that it gives us the optimum chance to achieve freedom from cyclic existence and then to be able to progress to enlightenment. We have this optimum chance right now. We may never have such an opportunity again for a very, very long time.

In all probability it will be very difficult to be free of cyclic existence in this one lifetime. But with this precious human rebirth, we have the optimum chance to create the cause, to have a good rebirth again, to achieve a precious human rebirth in our very next life, so that we can continue to practice the Dharma and eventually develop the wisdom that will liberate us. So this whole process starts with observing moral discipline, basing our life on the law of cause and effect, developing strong faith in it and then living our life in accordance with the law of cause and effect. If you check by avoiding negative actions of body, speech and mind as much as possible, we are beginning to subdue our disturbing thoughts. We’re not following them so often.

We’re not activating them so much, so strongly, because all our negative actions are motivated by our disturbing thoughts. If we stop, cut off those negative actions, the only way to do it is not to listen to, not to follow, not to be cheated by our disturbing thoughts. By avoiding negative actions, we are no longer creating the causes for a lower rebirth. And by engaging in virtuous actions of body, speech and mind, we are creating the causes for a good rebirth. So in addition to all those benefits, by observing moral discipline in our life, following the law of cause and effect.

By avoiding negative actions, we are no longer obscuring our mind or adding to the obscurations in our mind, which makes it easier to work with the mind, easier to meditate, less obstacles to developing a concentrated mind. By avoiding negative actions, we’re not activating our disturbing thoughts so much, And therefore it makes it easier to meditate, to develop concentration, because developing concentration involves subduing the disturbing thoughts. By engaging in virtuous actions, we are creating merit that empowers our mind, making it easier to develop single pointed concentration. So then consider the importance of developing a concentrated mind, especially single pointed concentration. By developing a concentrated mind, especially a mind of single pointed concentration, then when we listen to the teachings, our mind is able to effortlessly focus on them without distraction.

So it’s much easier to understand the teachings and more importantly or equally importantly perhaps to remember them. And by remembering them, we’re able to practice them more. And with our with a concentrated mind with a concentrated mind, our mind is clear, able to understand things more easily, quickly. So this is especially necessary in studying the very profound wisdom teachings of the Buddha. We need a really calm, clear, concentrated mind.

So in destroying ignorance, we not only need to understand what ignorance, how ignorance manifests, what it is, what their wrong view is, we have to understand the right view, but we also have to be able to identify the wrong view of self that we have. And to do that, we need to have a very clear, calm, concentrated mind. Because to destroy the enemy, you have to be able to recognize it exactly. Someone needs that concentrated mind to be able to clearly, exactly, precisely identify the wrong view. And then at the same time, one needs to have a clear, correct understanding of the wisdom teachings to use that to destroy the wrong view.

So there are three levels of wisdom. There is the wisdom that arises from understanding the teachings. There is then a deeper level of wisdom arises from doing analytical meditation on those teachings, whereby we gain a correct conceptual understanding. And then the highest level of wisdom arises when one is able to combine that conceptual understanding with the mind of single pointed concentration. And that powerful mind is then able to eliminate ignorance.

So we can bring this meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life, to use this precious human rebirth to live a life of moral discipline based on the law of cause and effect, to use this precious human rebirth to train the mind in developing concentration and to use this precious human rebirth to study the wisdom teachings of the Buddha as much as possible. Because we have the optimum chance now. We have the greatest freedom to do it. We have the rarest freedom of all to train in the three higher trainings right now. So then recall the Buddha on one’s crown, imagining the Buddha very pleased not only with this meditation but the effort one’s put into the practice throughout the day and also throughout the course.

So now think that the Buddha happily dissolves into blissful golden light so light can then pour down into us, blessing our mind to be able to gain the realization of the three higher trainings. And then we can 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.

May the precious right view not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline but increase forevermore.