Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 29-minute talk, Venerable Thubten Dondrub explores why attachment to impermanent things causes suffering and how recognition of impermanence liberates us. He opens with a vivid demonstration using a sound created by striking his stick, showing how all conditioned things arise and decay moment by moment, with no power to remain stable. He explains that attachment makes us dependent and weakens the mind, especially as our reliance deepens over time. Dondrub then introduces the precious human rebirth—a rare and optimal situation for developing our Buddha nature—and challenges listeners to examine how they spend their time and energy. He argues that worldly pursuits never bring lasting happiness, whereas inner development of the mind yields results that cannot be lost and can build life after life. The talk concludes with practical reflection: recognising our potential not just for personal well-being but for the benefit of others, since all beings are interconnected. Aimed at retreat practitioners with some familiarity with Buddhist thought.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 Letting go of Attachment 1998 02 21.mp3
UUID: d5a81edc-c55b-4a85-889b-d31877eb00f4
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: Retreat (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 1998-02-21
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 28.9 minutes
Words: ~3,147
Becoming reliant on these things with no awareness of attachment. When we are attached, we have no emotional awareness. We may have some superficial intellectual awareness, which doesn’t help at all, because our emotional state is is much stronger. So when we’re attached, we have no real awareness that things are impermanent and changing and can’t produce what we want. Because we have we contact the object, the thing, their person, thing, whatever it is, and it produces some degree of pleasure, happiness, and so on.
But in the very next moment, that thing has changed. So it can’t produce even in the next moment the same amount of happiness that it did in the first moment. Because it’s changed already. It hasn’t and by the way, it hasn’t changed for the better. It’s decayed.
It’s decayed. This awareness of impermanence is one of the fundamental understandings we need on the spiritual path. It is fundamental to all religious traditions, not just Buddhism, but to understand this is why we shouldn’t be attached in this world, because it’s impermanent. It’s not going to last. So why cling to it?
There’s not one part of it that’s going to last and the whole thing is coming to an end. Right now. The world is dying. It is coming to an end, folks, right now. It is changing all the time.
It is not something to be dependent on, to be attached to. You can’t rely on it. I will demonstrate this. I will try to demonstrate this. I’ve done this before.
But the Buddha said, anything that depends on causes and conditions is in its very nature impermanent. It is decaying moment by moment. Right. For Just for the very reason this is very interesting. For the very reason that something is created, it it gets destroyed.
For the very reason it is created, it decays. For no other reason, the Buddha said. For the very reason that something is created in dependence upon causes and conditions, it has to come to an end just for that reason. This is very interesting. Why is this?
I will try and demonstrate. Because I am a great magician. Sorry. Shouldn’t have said these things. So, for example, you take this.
We have the condition here of this object here and this stick here and me here, all these things coming together. And by bringing this together here, I am going to create something for you. Right? in dependence on causes and conditions. I will now create for the first time a sound.
Alright. You ready? Now, please, when I create the sound, I would like you to pay very special attention to what happens to this sound. Alright. Here we go.
Causes and there’s all the causes and conditions coming together. Oh, well. It stopped. Right? If you looked, if you paid special attention I hope you paid special attention.
I didn’t stop it. Right? No one else there wasn’t some little guy who stopped it, and you didn’t go deaf. It stopped. It didn’t even stop itself.
It just changed moment by moment. It got less moment by moment. Because all the conditions, causes and conditions came together in one moment, then the causes and conditions in the next moment were different. And so it changed. It had to change in the very next moment.
And it kept changing from then onwards. So if this thing was born, this sound was born, it had a lifespan, and then it died. Like everything that depends on causes and conditions. This isn’t Buddhist magic. This is scientific reality.
So one can enjoy this sound, but it’s utterly stupid to be dependent on it, to be attached to it, because it doesn’t last very long at all. So some things last much longer than this sound, but they don’t last. None of these things last. And the point about attachment is one of the horrible things one of the many horrible things about attachment is that the longer we’re attached to something, when when the thing comes to an end, the more suffering because we’ve become more dependent with time. Yeah.
If we haven’t changed our attachment, our attachment just gets bigger. The reliance is stronger, which means our mind is weaker. The more we depend on something, the weaker we become. That is, the more we create through attachment the potential for suffering. I mean, there is dissatisfaction actually why we’re attached.
It’s not perfect happiness, but even more, we’re creating the potential for even more suffering when situation comes to an end, which it has to in one way or another. Right? So impermanent phenomena are also called in Buddhist jargon, other powered. They are powered by something other than themselves, which means they have no power to remain the same. They have no power.
We ourselves, our body, other beings, the whole universe has no power from its own side to remain the same because it is powered by something else. So it can’t stay the same. Because we don’t see that, don’t let ourselves see it, we become attached. And so we have to suffer from attachment. No one makes us suffer.
It’s not a punishment or anything. It’s just the way things work. So it’s an important strategy in our life to protect ourselves from suffering, to be aware of this, that everything we’re experiencing is changing all the time. Everything. There’s only a couple of permanent phenomena that exist, and they’re not things you can hold onto anyway.
Don’t worry. Don’t chase after them. They’re not the be-all and end-all. Everything that we experience is impermanent. It’s like this building right now, it looks solid and permanent, but it’s changing.
It’s decaying right now. We Australians are great believers in having our houses and fixing up our houses and making our houses so wonderful, but we should realize that every time we buy something, it’s going to decay. As you buy it, it’s decaying. When you paint your house, you’re only painting it so it will decay. When you build a house, it’s only going to fall down, sooner or later.
Everything is like that. As soon as you put the paint on the wall, it’s decaying. Everything is like that. Which is not to say we should get depressed. We should just understand that.
We have to accept that because that is reality. It’s not some Buddhist trip. It is reality. And the sooner we understand it and accept it, the more we can relax and get on with what is really meaningful in life. We can enjoy these things.
Right? We can have some space. Actually, when there isn’t when there’s less attachment and more detachment, there is some space to just enjoy things for what they are, to appreciate the momentary arising of this thing, but then to let it go when it can’t arise anymore. And then we have some space in our mind, some time and energy to work on what is really meaningful, something that is lasting, which is the inner experiences of our mind. Śāntideva, if you’ve heard of Śāntideva, the great Indian master who wrote this book, one of the greatest Buddhist Mahāyāna books of all time called Entering the Bodhisattva Way of Life or Engaging in the Bodhisattva Way of Life said something to the effect that we ordinary worldly people, we spend so much time, effort, energy and pain, so much suffering goes in to trying to create the causes of our happiness, our worldly happiness.
But that that work, which takes up so much time and effort, never comes to an end. It never brings the final result. Result. You just go on and on, suffering, sweating away, painting the house, working, and all this stuff, to bring a result that never ever really comes. There is no end to it.
Whereas what the Dharma practice, with far less effort and suffering and pain and worry, with far less effort, you get the result. Because you can’t lose your mind. The mind is always there. It is the source of existence of all phenomena. So if we work with that and we get some good results, those good results can’t be lost.
We can just continuously build on them, life after life until they’re completely established and irreversibly established in our mind. I mean, even the qualities, to be honest, to be an honest salesman for for the Buddhadharma, even the good qualities that we develop now in our mind, they may be lost. They are impermanent. They decay because it’s associated with this ordinary gross mind which is based on this impermanent phenomenon. These good qualities do fade away, but the imprints are there within the more subtle mind.
Eventually, by building up on those good qualities, do reach a point where perfect happiness is established irreversibly. Perfect wisdom, perfect compassion, all the good qualities are irreversibly established in our I shouldn’t say established in our mind because actually they’re there already. The potential is there. But they become irreversibly functioning. They can never decline.
There’s nothing to suppress them anymore. So we should if we’re going to develop attachment, let us develop it for our own inner qualities, our own inner potential. Let’s get dependent on that, rely on that, expect something from that, because that will produce a real result. It can’t betray us. And and it’s our choice we we have to make all the time regularly.
I mean, there’s many things to say about this point, some strategies, but some of you maybe it takes too long time too much time to go into now. But in the in the the graduated path teachings, the lam rim teachings that this center, I’m sure, teaches all the time and which you can learn about and read books on, there is the meditation on the precious human rebirth. Someone who has a human body and mind with all their faculties functioning, having met the Dharma, having the time to practice it, the ability to understand it, faith in it, having met teachers supporters and so on, such a person has what is called the precious human rebirth. This is something incredibly rare in time and space. And it’s the condition, the perfect condition, the optimum situation to develop our Buddha nature.
Many people have a human rebirth. There are six thousand million human beings on this planet, but almost none of these human beings have the precious human rebirth. If you do this kind of mental calculation and you subtract, you take all the people from the six thousand million, you take away all the people who are starving. When you’re starving, you can’t practice Dharma. All the people who live a life if they’re not starving, they are just working their guts out day and night just to get enough food to eat, just enough to eat, they don’t have a precious human rebirth.
You can’t work with your mind when you’re physically exhausted and preoccupied with just the worries of this life. You take away all the people who are living in horrible situations of war, hate, poverty, political repression. You take away all those human beings who are living in countries where religion hardly exists, is suppressed, you take away all the people whose physical faculties aren’t working so well, who are mentally undeveloped. Take then you have all these comfortable, healthy people, intelligent people who’ve got the time to practice. But how many of these people believe in any kind of Dharma?
There are not too many left on this planet. I mean, some among some people, to admit that you believe in some kind of religion is is to admit that you are some kind of hopeless failure and moron and I don’t know what. So you take away all that, there’s not many people left. And even those who have some interest in Dharma, many people don’t even find it, Or they can’t find a teacher. They can’t find support.
We can’t practice by ourselves. We need help from people in all sorts of ways, especially in our society. So if one recognizes that one’s got a precious human rebirth, the chance to develop our Buddha nature. This is something unbelievable. It’s the most precious thing in the world.
It’s called the precious human rebirth because literally it is that. It is the key to all happiness. Like my teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, even if you had a mountain of diamonds, this is nothing this is not precious. You can’t do much with a mountain of diamonds. They will not bring happiness to you.
Actually, you suddenly were someone delivered a mountain of diamonds on your doorstep, you would instead of being hysterically happy, you would suddenly probably be flooded by a mountain of problems. What to do with them? You’d have to hide them so people won’t steal them, and then there’d be all these people trying to take your diamonds away. And although you never had them before, now you want them. Right?
You’re attached to them immediately. And then you have to fight off all the people who want diamonds from you, and then you get depressed because people only love you for your diamonds and not for you, and all this kind of stuff. There’s no happiness. Yeah? But that’s what we’re looking for all the time.
And yet we have something more precious, which is our own human situation right now. But it’s also impermanent. It’s running out. So our time is actually incredibly precious. And so we we should really think, what should I do with the remaining time I’ve got?
And some of you here are young and some are not so young, but we don’t know when we’re going to die because of this impermanent business. We are born and we’re definitely going to die, that’s for sure, with impermanence, but we’re not sure. Even with this thing, you know, you hit it in different ways, and so it lasts longer. But so we don’t know how heavily we’ve been hit, so how long we’re going to last in this life, how much good karma we’ve got, or karma to be alive. So it can come to an end anytime.
So we really need to think, what am I going to do with this precious time? What is really worthwhile to do with this human rebirth I’ve got? Yeah. One should really check, look at what you’re doing with your life. Yeah.
What one’s time goes on, one’s energy. And will these things really bring happiness? Will they even bring me another good rebirth? Because a good rebirth comes from having a good mind. Right?
Not by having a reputation when you die, or having a pile of diamonds when you die. So this is also a basic strategy for overcoming attachment, understanding what we are or what our potential is. We have an amazing, amazing potential. A potential not just for our own well-being, but for the well-being of others. This may sound incredibly egotistical, but it’s not if we look at it in the right way.
To waste our life is to waste all our previous lives. If we waste this life, we waste all our future lives. Difficult to get another good opportunity like this if we waste this one. And if we waste this life, we’re also I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. It’s just a way of thinking.
You know, you have to I don’t know how to put this exactly. But if we waste this life, we also one can think that so many people’s happiness depends on us. If if we succeed on the path, then so many people start to benefit from that. We are connected with everyone actually, but we have strong connections now with so many people, strong karmic connections, good and bad. So if we don’t get enlightened or improve ourselves, all those bad conditions will ripen in more suffering for ourselves than those people, just more garbage.
But if we purify that, develop our mind, then all that negative stuff doesn’t have to ripen. Right? We save ourselves and the other people that we’re going to fight with all that unnecessary stuff. If we change, the whole world changes. The whole configuration, all these complex interrelations change.
If we get worse, the whole thing gets worse. If we get better, the whole thing gets better because we’re all interconnected. So we we have some kind of responsibility for others because we’re in such an incredibly fortunate situation. So look at what we’re doing in our life. What is really going to help me and others?
So this is an important strategy to be aware of, to meditate on regularly, that I have this precious rebirth. And what am I doing with it? Am I wasting it, or am I really taking advantage of it? If we look so many of the things we do, you don’t even need to be a human being to do them. Yep.
Like eating. I’m not saying we shouldn’t eat, but so much goes into that, and our overlays of things. So much ego can even just go into eating food, the type of food you eat. If I eat this, I’m a superior person, sort of sophisticated, elegant, eating this kind of thing. If I just eat a hamburger at low class, and then, you know you eat these you know, becoming more sophisticated, you eat these more sophisticated things with little sophisticated sauces and all this kind of trip goes around it.
Then you have to eat it off sophisticated plates, which are much more expensive. Then because one is doing all this, one is a much more important, superior person, because one is eating this rather than that. So there’s this whole game, but it’s just putting stuff in the mouth which comes out. And cows do this all the time. Yeah?
Just to eat, you don’t have to be a human being. You can be a cow, a dog, a pig. Yeah. And it doesn’t cost them anything. It’s free for them.
Yeah. So we we should really check what we’re doing with our life and what we could do with our life. We can do enormous things with our life, but our attachment doesn’t let us. But our our attachment is also like that. Attachment depends on causes and conditions.
If we perpetuate the causes and conditions, we perpet you get the same thing again and again. But if you don’t perpetuate the causes and conditions, it has no power from its own side. Alright. Sorry. I’ll stop here.
We’ll have a tea break.