Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 35-minute teaching, Venerable Thubten Dondrub addresses attachment as the primary obstacle to both ordinary happiness and spiritual progress on the Buddhist path. He explains that understanding attachment’s harmful nature is essential, but equally important is developing inner satisfaction to replace the external gratification that attachment seeks. Dondrub introduces the framework of taking refuge in the Triple Gem—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—and emphasizes cultivating positive qualities through the six perfections, starting with generosity. He then guides participants through detailed meditation posture instructions and leads a breathing meditation practice, explaining how concentration on the breath subdues disturbing thoughts and creates the mental clarity needed to access deeper wisdom. The teaching balances philosophical exposition with practical training, accessible to both newcomers and those with some practice experience.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 Letting go of Attachment 1998 02 21.mp3
UUID: 4af3f992-00fa-4bca-84a5-1f8536a8d014
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: Retreat (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 1998-02-21
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 35.9 minutes
Words: ~3,830
A Buddhist perspective, what what attachment is, and why it is unhelpful in following a spiritual path, particularly the Buddhist path, why we need to overcome attachment, to let go of it and somehow begin to transform it, because it actually is a great obstacle. It’s an obstacle to ordinary happiness, and it’s especially a great obstacle to following a spiritual path. So we really need to understand what attachment is and how we can slowly let go of it. What I thought we would do in the first session is basically make the point that when one understands the nature of it, desire attachment, then the point is that one tries to overcome it, to let go of it, to reduce this way of thinking that exists in our mind and obscures our mind. In fact, it has the function of obscuring our mind.
On the one hand, we have to try to let go of our attachment by understanding its nature, harmful nature. And on the other hand, as part of the process that enables us to let go of our attachment, we need to build up some kind of inner happiness at the same time. So it is really essential to do these two things together, to harmonize these two things. As one tries to overcome one’s attachment, one needs to develop some practice that enables one to get some inner satisfaction, because attachment seeks outer satisfaction, happiness in the external world. So if you just let go of that and you don’t replace that with something else, then there’s a great conflict.
So anyway, I’ll try to explain that today. But basically, what we need to do in the way of achieving some inner satisfaction is to work with our mind, and there are many, many meditation methods that enable us to experience and develop the positive qualities in our mind, which, when we develop them, bring some inner satisfaction. Not just some, but as we develop them, more and more inner satisfaction. In fact, the point is, from a spiritual point of view, from the point of view of the Buddhadharma, the satisfaction that one can gain from developing the inner qualities of the mind is far, far greater than any kind of happiness that you can gain from following attachment. This is the basic point.
So we need to develop some kind of meditation practice. What we’ll do for the first session is just a simple breathing practice. Already we’re over time. Running late. Since we are at a Buddhist center, am a Buddhist monk, even though many of you have not taken refuge and some of you are completely new to it, we’ll follow the traditional Buddhist way of doing things, because presumably you are interested in these things.
Hopefully, won’t upset you if we do it this way. Firstly, before we do the meditation, I’ll just remind you of something that I always say, because this is what my teachers have always emphasized. When we start out doing something, we really need to have a good motivation, especially when we’re trying to follow a spiritual path, a path of mental development, then we need to have a good motivation. Otherwise, the results that we get won’t be very successful or very satisfactory. So we need a very clear, strong and positive motivation for what we do.
The basic motivation that we need is really wishing to develop our mind, to transform our mind, to overcome the disturbing thoughts, the negative qualities of our mind or heart, however you want to look at it, or just the negative aspects of my personality. We want overcome those and develop all the positive qualities that we have and the potential for positive qualities. But from a religious point of view — some people are upset by this term religious. Some people like to think that Buddhism isn’t a religion. I think it is most absolutely definitely a religion because the from my understanding, the what a religion is, what defines any real religion is that it is a way of perceiving the world and a way of relating to the world and living in the world that has an understanding, a belief that this life is not all that there is, that there is more than this life.
That’s what religion is about. Understanding that there is more than this life, and because there is more than this life, we have to lead our life in a particular way because our mind, our life goes on, and what we do in this life affects what we experience in future lives. So there’s more to do in this life than just taking care of the the little physical details and trying to get some pleasure in this life. There’s much more to do than that. We have a much bigger and much more important and meaningful job than just going to work, keeping ourselves alive, and trying to have a little bit of happiness.
There’s much more to life than that. So in this process of developing a good motivation and wishing to develop our mind, our qualities, a genuine religious motivation is to do this not just for some temporary benefit in this life, but for a very long term benefit, to ensure that not just in this life but in future lives one has the basis for real happiness continuously, again and again, and an inner happiness that also comes without causing harm to others. Because if we look around the way we lead our life or if and the way most people lead their lives in this world, it is at the expense of others in some way. The selfish attitude of life that dominates most people chasing after a little bit of happiness for me right now, that little bit of happiness is usually bought at the expense of others in some way. For example, the incredible luxury of the the the wealth of the developed world is at the expense of the third world.
That’s why we have such good fortune, because other people suffer for it in one way, in one ordinary way of looking at things. So we are trying to develop a motivation where we achieve happiness, deep inner satisfaction that comes without causing harm in any way to any living being at all. More than that, we can try the highest motivation that we can develop, which is the motivation that the Buddha tried to lead people to aspire to in this world, is the motivation to develop one’s qualities, not just for one’s own sake, but for the benefit of others. Not just for their temporary benefit, but for their lasting benefit. And not just for the benefit of a few people, a few nice people, one’s friends and relatives, countrymen or fellow, race, religion or whatever, but to use one’s life to benefit every living being.
Because this is the potential of our mind, the Buddha taught. We have this potential not only to bring inner satisfaction to ourselves, but we have a potential to be able to benefit others continuously. This is what is called our Buddha nature, our Buddha potential, which lies within the very nature of our mind, not our brain or anything in this physical body, but lies within our mind, this mysterious, formless process of knowing and experiencing. When we listen to these teachings today and do the meditations, try to have this motivation, try to have this awareness that I’m doing this not just for my own sake but for the benefit of everyone. By developing my mind, I will be able to help all living beings eventually.
And especially what is one of the greatest obstacles to bringing all this about, one’s own inner satisfaction and the benefit of others, is one’s own attachment. So we need to have the wish to really want to overcome our attachment, to minimize it, to reduce it more and more, and to eventually completely eliminate it, not just for our own benefit but for the benefit of all others. Others. So in the Buddhist tradition, what we need to rely on, we need to basically rely on our inner qualities to understand that we have this potential potential within us. We have that.
We need to rely on that or take refuge in it, trust in it, that it’s there. Not trust in our ordinary mind as it is now, which is quite confused. Not completely confused, but it has a certain amount of confusion there that arises again and again. Below that, metaphorically speaking, below that confused mind, there is this wisdom, this purity that is always there, is indestructible, that can never be removed. And that that pure mind can be developed more and more.
So we need to develop refuge in that, a trust in that, a confidence in that. And the way to do that and the way to develop that potential is by developing an outer refuge, a refuge in the Buddha because the Buddha is a being who had started out with a confused mind like our own, but overcame that confusion and developed all the positive potentials within the mind and became awakened, awakened to his own true nature and became Buddha, developed Buddha mind. We we take refuge in the Buddha because we have this Buddha nature ourselves. We all have the potential to become Buddha. When we take refuge in the Buddha, we’re not taking refuge as such in in the historical Buddha.
But the mind that the historical Buddha developed, the countless other beings before that historical Buddha developed, and countless beings after that historical Buddha have also developed. Because every being has mind, and mind has the same potential, the same nature, the same potential. So by relying on the taking refuge in the external Buddha, and particularly this means to rely on when we take refuge in the Buddha, we take refuge in the Buddha’s teachings, the teachings that enable us to lead ourselves to experience the true nature of our mind, to experience real happiness. And also, we take refuge in the Sangha, the Ārya Sangha. These are the the great spiritual practitioners who are really advancing on the path to enlightenment, on the path to a true experience of their pure mind.
We need to rely on these people as well. So by relying on what is called the triple gem, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, then, one is able to develop one’s mind, follow the path with confidence, and develop the potentials of one’s mind. So traditionally, when we start a teaching or a meditation practice, there is the formula of taking refuge. So we can do this. Some of you may know it.
There is a prayer book that maybe you handed out. Yeah. It’s on page one of this book. If if you if you want to join in, don’t don’t do so if you don’t feel comfortable with it. So this is just a formula.
We’ll we’ll recite it or I will do it in Tibetan because it’s somehow a little bit more inspiring chanting it than saying it in English. But the the words are translated just below. So it says, go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha assembly. And from the the merit I collect from practicing giving and the other perfections, may I attain the state of a Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings. I won’t explain what the giving and the perfections are yet.
That’s but, anyway, just one point is by practicing giving, this is a way of overcoming attachment. So by there are what are called the six perfections and these are very fundamental practices that one can practice in one’s daily life and they lead there are six. I’ll just mention them briefly here. And they lead psychologically from the first to the to the sixth one. So you practice generosity.
This leads to what is called the perfection of generosity or you try and perfect this practice by perfecting that, this leads to the perfection of morality, and this leads to the perfection of patience, this leads to the perfection of perseverance, this leads to the perfection of developing single pointed concentration, and when you perfect single pointed concentration you are able to develop and perfect wisdom. And it is wisdom that destroys all the obstacles within our mind that prevent the development of our Buddha nature. So when this wisdom is perfected, it also develop it leads to the perfection of all our potential qualities within the mind because it destroys the things that hinder the growth of those potentials. So you can see it starts with practicing generosity. And while you have attachment, you can’t practice generosity.
So you can see just there that how while there is attachment, there is no wisdom. Until there is wisdom, there is no happiness. So the biggest obstacle to the spiritual path is our attachment to things. So, anyway, so we can take refuge. So for those who have already generated refuge or are thinking to try to wishing to do so, then it’s very helpful to think of Śākyamūni Buddha as the embodiment of all the Buddhas and the symbol of our refuge, the source of our inspiration and guidance.
So we try to imagine Śākyamūni Buddha in space in front of us, having a body of very beautiful, transparent golden light. And we think of ourselves surrounded by all the different living beings, all wanting happiness but only experiencing dissatisfaction. So then, being aware of this, we can generate the wish that I must develop my own mind to free my Buddha nature, not just for my own sake, not for not just to experience happiness for myself, but so I can free all other living beings from their confusion and lead them to the highest happiness. What what time was the daybreak? Eleven fourteen.
Eleven fifteen. Okay. So, what we can do now for a short time, maybe fifteen minutes or so, we’ll have to explain this a little bit, so maybe, we’ll do a short meditation, breathing meditation, which is a way of of it’s actually a type of concentration meditation where we take a simp one simple object and try to concentrate on that, in this case, the breath. By developing concentration, as we develop this step by step, it enables our it creates the condition for our our disturbing thoughts, all the different things going on in our mind to become subdued, less active, less and less active, less and less powerful, and so the mind becomes calmer and clearer. So the more we can develop this practice, it it brings some peace in our mind straight away.
And this mind also is more flexible, more usable, and we can use this mind to, this more subtle mind to penetrate into the depths of our mind and to experience deeper and deeper layers of our mind that bring greater and greater satisfaction. And it’s particularly this more subtle mind with which we are able to develop the wisdom that frees us from all confusion. So it’s a practice like this that we need to develop as part of the process of overcoming our attachment. Something like this we need to do. Because it itself, if we work at it, becomes itself some brings some should bring some satisfaction into the mind.
So, in meditation, the main thing is trying to keep the back straight, but at the same time to keep the body relaxed, not tense. So, also when you sit, if you’re sitting in a chair, it’s best that when you’re meditating at least, unless you have some serious back problem, not to lean against the back of the chair, but to sit up straight because this kind of energizes the body. And So try to check that your body is not leaning to the left or right or forwards or backwards, but is balanced. And you place your right hand on top of the left with the thumbs lightly touching, just resting in your lap comfortably. If you’re sitting then you can at least put your left leg closest to your body and then your right leg in front or if you can do the half lotus position where you put your right foot on top of your left thigh, you can try to do that one or at least on top of your so you can start with putting on your left, what do you call it, calf, and you can slowly, with the days and weeks, move it onto your left thigh.
So this is quite a good way to be able to it may be difficult at first, but when you get used to it, it actually is a very comfortable way of sitting. It’s more comfortable than sitting in chairs, in fact. Also, you sit, try to keep your elbows just bit out from the body because if you hold your arms against your body, your body heats up and then this acts as a condition for the mind to become dull and sleepy, which is a big obstacle to meditation because meditation is not going into some warm, dull, sleepy state. In fact, when you meditate, mind is supposed to becoming more alert than normal, more alert than when one is even awake. This is what we’re trying to do.
Know, the Buddha was the awakened one, so we’re trying to awaken our mind more and more. And also so it’s best when you also to to when you’re meditating is to sort of tuck your chin in just a little bit and and tilt your head, not your neck, keep your neck straight, but to tuck your to tilt your head just a little bit forward, not to not not hang your head down like that because, again, that makes your mind dull, sleepy, and you don’t hold your chin up because this tends to distract the mind. If there’s that tendency arising in the mind, then just these physical things because the way you move your body also affects the subtle energies in the body which which the the mind is affected by. Mean, this is why nothing in the meditation posture is arbitrary. It has very, very special reasons for putting the body in this posture.
And Lama Yeshe used to say — one of my teachers who was the inspiring force for the Buddha House to begin in nineteen what was it? Nineteen eighty nineteen eighty one. I think he came. I was here with him in Adelaide, and he called this place let’s call this place Buddha house. So he was saying that if you just put your body in this posture, even without trying to meditate, your mind will become more clear, more virtuous, just by itself, even without trying to meditate.
Just having a good posture will help because the subtle energies of the body start to flow more smoothly, and then the mind itself starts to become calmer and clearer. If you’ve heard of the great meditator, Milarepa, his master was Marpa, and Marpa used to boast that I have the best meditation posture in Tibet. Therefore, just by that fact, I am the greatest yogi in Tibet. So then the next point is the best way to meditate is to keep your eyes a little bit open, not to close your eyes, but to keep them just a little bit open and to focus at a point and this is something you have to check for yourself with time, but to focus at a point maybe two feet in front of yourself, but not really looking at it, just kind of staring without really seeing. Place the tip of your tongue at the back of your top teeth, at the palate.
Just check, be aware of any tension in the body. When you’re meditating by yourself, you can take quite some time to do this, but just be aware now of any any tension maybe in the shoulders, in the neck, in your arms and legs, and just being aware of it, just allow that tension to to ease away. Try and have the thought to keep the body as still as possible during the session. But if you have to move, then do it carefully, mindfully, and then immediately bring your mind back to the object of meditation. So just become aware of the breathing of your body, the breath coming in and going out just naturally.
Don’t change the breathing. Just be aware of it. So then be particularly aware of your breath at the nostrils, just the sensation caused at the nostrils by the breath coming in and going out. So this will be our object of meditation, just trying to be aware of that sensation, trying to fill the mind with that awareness, and let everything else fade away. Just don’t take an interest in anything else.
So if a sound arises, you can’t stop the sound, but don’t take any interest in it. Don’t force it away. Just don’t take any interest in it. If some other sensations in the body arise, don’t try and force them away, but just don’t take any interest in them. And all the thoughts that arise in the mind, don’t try and suppress them or get involved in them.
Just simply don’t take any interest in them. Just let them go. Just try to take interest in the breath coming in and going out. Just that. Just in a very relaxed way.
Allow that sensation to fill the mind as much as possible. If it doesn’t succeed, also don’t worry. Just try to do it. And particularly, as the breath comes in and goes out, you can count one. That’s one whole breath.
It comes in and goes out. That’s two. So try to follow eleven consecutive breaths if you can. And if you become distracted, then don’t keep counting, but go back to the count of one. Start again.
And do this with the awareness that it’s really beginning to tame the mind, transform the mind. So I can just relax from posture. So we can, just take a couple of minutes break. People who are sitting may like to sitting, sitting, may like to stand up and stretch their legs for a while just for a minute or so, then I’ll talk a little bit about attachment, what it actually is. No one needs a break.
It’s okay? Oh, okay. Most of you were here for the talks I gave the last two. Yes. Some people not?
No? Right. Okay. Maybe I’d just like to go over a couple of points.