Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 119-minute commentary on mind training, Venerable Thubten Dondrub explores a classical Buddhist text on taming the mind. He opens with the metaphor of a skilled rider staying mounted even when a horse bolts, illustrating how trained awareness maintains stability amid distraction. The teaching moves through signs of genuine practice, then focuses on the five irreversible commitments, particularly the first: training in three general points of integrity. Dondrub unpacks what it means never to contradict the basic Buddhist precepts common to all vehicles, and addresses practical questions from students on how discipline, compassion without discrimination, and moral conduct integrate into the path. The session weaves doctrinal explanation with direct questioning, pitched toward serious practitioners already familiar with foundational Buddhist terminology.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2013 11 28 Mind Training.mp3
UUID: bbee78f9-f25b-49a5-9723-d27195c7b58f
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: Mind Training (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2013-11-28
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 119.0 minutes
Words: ~640
You, whose vajra thunder proclamation of the Dharma arouses us from the sleep of our delusions and frees us from the iron chains of our karma, whose powerful sword of wisdom cuts down suffering wherever its sprouts appear, So as we said, prayer of refuge in bodhicitta, to make this as effective for our lives as possible, So we’re on page ninety one. So the the text we’ve just only just begun to know. So we’re covering this text. I’m commenting on this book, just comment page, which is that first paragraph, the last line, the first paragraph, which says the trained mind retains control even when distracted. It.
So and even when when it’s talking about the training mind, it’s it’s referring to the mind that it’s training in developing. We need to train our mind in in any stage, like a good horse rider, even if the horse bolts, they don’t fall off. They stay on the horse. So remember, we’re in the section, we’re talking about the signs of having practiced Because even if we are doing good things, So in there, it has a couple of verses of of a similar nature. For example, it says And then another of the line verses says, when out of envy, others mistreat me with the piercing words of slander, I shall accept the defeat and offer the victory to the other.
So in other words, But even if we can say the words that somehow does undermine the energy of our negative stuff. It does. So that concludes the third of the five five factors. So these are what I said to be irreversible. Anyway, so the first of these irreversible commitments, Chekawa in verse, says, always train in the three general points.
So the three general points Mind training that one, not contradicting the commitments. Two, mind training which is not being boastful. And three, mind training, which is. So in relation to the first point, always train in what is not contradictory commitments explains we should never act in contradiction to the practices common to all. So that’s pretty obvious.
So the old vehicles is returned to the Buddhist teachings or practices divided up into three vehicles. Yeah. That’s one vehicle. The. Actually, yeah.
Yeah. That’s. Actually, the other means vehicle, but it’s not really a vehicle. It’s a subsection. Yeah.
I so there are two other vehicles. Well, actually, the Hidiana is made up, actually, two vehicles. One of which is the tip what the the technically called the. Oh, yes. So so So it says we should never act in contradiction to the common or basic commitments.
There’s no harm in this because I’m a change in mind when the black Shamana community claimed that nothing else was required to follow the path. And his almost often says that I I this is a good question and I’ve never really got a very satisfactory answer. Know? But I mean, this, you know, like, when we talk about the six realms, there’s the realm of the hungry ghosts. But then in in other situations, they talk about there are all kinds of spiritual things.
There’s quite a few pieces. What and there’s the. So once you be careful because it will harm not oneself, but also Well, I mean, like, just upsetting their environment, like, dig digging the earth or Falling a tree. Chopping down the tree or Are they actually harmful spirits in trees? Because trees will symbolize such What’s different?
I’m like, no. What what would that karma have been to be So also by associating with people who are morally corrupt or also Isn’t that kind of popular demand because it would have been yeah. The majority of it’s it’s what people want and So this is because we should practice compassion without distinction