Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute teaching, Venerable Thubten Dondrub explores the nature of mind as a fundamental Buddhist principle. He begins by establishing the importance of motivation in spiritual practice, guiding listeners through a brief breathing meditation to cultivate a virtuous intention for learning. He then addresses the materialist view that mind is merely the brain—a conclusion he argues is philosophically disastrous and contrary to lived experience. Drawing on Buddhist philosophy, he defines mind as “that which is clear and knowing,” formless and indestructible, using the analogy of space to explain its intangible yet real existence. Dondrub argues that mind’s natural function is to know perfectly, and that every sentient being shares an innate wish for happiness rooted in this knowing nature. He explores the connection between complete knowledge and the arising of compassion, wisdom, and love—qualities he identifies as Buddha nature. He concludes by illustrating the concept through Lama Yeshe’s magician metaphor: three kinds of happiness, with perfect happiness—free from all suffering—as the ultimate potential available to human beings. Suitable for practitioners new to Buddhist philosophy and experienced students alike.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01.mp3
UUID: aa517728-724c-48af-b4b2-846f4d8e71a9
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: z done but no sheet no info (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.4 minutes
Words: ~5,077
So one thing that is really emphasized in the Buddhist tradition, particularly by the teachers I’ve had, is that for any actions that we do to have a worthwhile effect or any effect depends on the strength of the motivation that we have. So if we have a very strong motivation for something, then the effect, the result that comes from it is very strong. If there’s a very weak motivation, then the result is going to be very weak. And if we have a positive motivation, a good motivation, some kind of wise, skillful, virtuous type of motivation, then the result is of the same nature that is happiness. And so when we listen to the Buddhadharma, the idea is to try as much as possible to have a really strong and virtuous motivation for listening.
Maybe in some more detail, when we first approach the Buddhist teaching, of course, the idea is to check the teachings from the point of view whether this teaching has some validity, something that I could practice in my life to to bring some happiness in my life. This is the basic approach that we have. Is is is it something that I can really trust? This is what we need to think about when we’re trying to follow a spiritual path because following spiritual paths are it’s quite a tricky thing, quite complicated, can be quite dangerous because we have to give our whole heart and soul, generally speaking, to this process. We have to give everything to it.
So therefore, in order to give ourselves completely to a path, then we have to really trust that. We have to really know that it’s something that we can work with and that will benefit us. It won’t cause us harm in any way if we follow it correctly. Right. So this is what we have to do at the very beginning.
And then having checked out the teachings for some time and then gained some conviction that the teachings are something beneficial for myself and others. Then when we listen to the teachings, the idea is that we listen to the teachings again and again in order to understand them more and more so that we can practice them more and more. That’s the basic reason, the final reason why we listen to the teachings in order to practice them. So our motivation for practice should be not just for some temporary benefit, some temporary pleasure, some temporary benefit, or to gain some interesting information that one can impress other people with or entertain ourselves with. But the idea of listening to the teachings is in order to practice them in order to transform one’s mind, one’s heart, one’s whole being away from all the whatever, harmful qualities that we may have to completely, let go of those and develop all the positive qualities that we definitely all have.
And the motivation is to do that not just for this life, because there’s more than this life, but for all time. And, and more even more than that, we can try and generate a motivation, which may be something new for many people. Even the thought to work for happiness for many lives is something maybe a new idea, but, anyway, I’ll just mention it. But more than that we can have the motivation trying to work for the happiness of all living beings to develop our mind, our life, our heart for the benefit of everyone, not just ourself, because that’s our our true nature. That is the nature of our mind which we’re going to discuss.
So we try to have that motivation at listening now, wanting to listen in order to develop one’s mind perfectly, not just for one’s own sake, but for the benefit of everyone. Because this is the reason the Buddha also gave the teachings. He appeared on this earth in order to show people that they had an amazing potential within them, within themselves, within their mind, that very few people know about. Because we don’t know about it, we don’t develop that potential. So, in order to develop this motivation which this pure motivation wishing to benefit all people is very difficult, but even admiring that aspiration and trying to work towards it is something very powerful.
So to act as a basis for trying to generate that kind of thought, what we can do now for a few minutes is just to sit quietly and do a few minutes of one or two minutes of breathing meditation where we just try to place our mind, our awareness on the breath coming in and going out, just trying to feel, be aware of the sensation of the the breath at the nostrils, sensation of the nostrils as the breath breathe the breath comes in and out. And by doing that, trying to concentrate on that in a relaxed way, we can establish a neutral mind, neither positive nor negative, and on the basis of that we can try and generate a really positive motivation for listening. So, we can just sit quietly now. I won’t go into all the details of how to sit if you don’t know. Don’t worry about it, but just try to have the body relaxed.
Try to keep the the back straight. That’s the main thing. But relaxed. And just observe the breathing of the body. Don’t try and change it in in any way.
Just observe it, and observe it particularly by being aware of the sensation that the breath creates as it enters through the nostrils and leaves. Just try to focus on that sensation. Try to take interest in that to the exclusion of everything else, not forcing everything away with a kind of tight mind, but just not taking interest in anything else, not taking interest in external sounds or thoughts going on in the mind or any other sensations in the body. Just allow the mind to be aware of the breath coming in and going out. So then with this more calm, peaceful mind, use that mind to to generate this thought that I wish to be really free of all my disturbing thoughts, all confusion in my life, and be able to develop all the my good qualities, and not just temporarily, but to develop them perfectly so that I can achieve lasting happiness.
And achieve that happiness not at the expense of other people, but in a way that doesn’t cause harm to anyone else. And even more than that, to achieve a a perfect peace within me that can radiate out towards others and actually benefit them and benefit them not in a just a temporary, superficial way, but can benefit them in a perfect, long lasting way. And with that wish, then I’ll listen to this this talk, check its value, analyze it. And if it makes sense, then I need to apply it in my daily life for my own benefit, the benefit of all living beings. So for those people who have some refuge in the Buddha’s teachings already, then to help that thought we can imagine in front of us Śākyamūni Buddha as our object of refuge, refuge, our source of inspiration and guidance.
Think of ourselves surrounded by all living beings who only want happiness but, in fact, only experience dissatisfaction. And we can try and generate the thought of refuge in So the subject of tonight’s talk is the nature of the mind. So to talk about the mind is is extremely difficult topic. It’s one of the most subtle subjects in existence. But it is it is a fundamental it is probably the most fundamental assumption of all the Buddhist teachings that there is mind.
We all talk about the fact that we have a mind. Right? Everyone says, I have a mind. But we don’t know what our mind is. And in our culture, generally speaking, if the existence of mind is acknowledged, usually the mind is considered to be something connected with the brain, that it either is the brain or it’s somehow a product of the brain.
So if this is the case, then and this is, like, the materialistic view that is existing and is developing more and more in this world and taking over. Then this view, I think, personally, is the most disastrous view, the most horrific view in existence, the most dangerous view existing in the world today. It’s much worse than any other thing happening on the planet, including all the threats of wars, pollution, AIDS, cancer, cancer, all these things. Because if one has this view and if it develops more and more that the mind is just simply the brain or a product of the brain, then this is the ultimate materialistic materialistic view. That means that we are just things, that human beings are just things that produce some kind of electrical impulses and blips.
And the thing that produce these electrical impulses that make us move around and have various thoughts, that thing wears away after some time because the brain is part of the body and the body definitely dies. There’s no doubt about that. So the the conclusion is, if mind is just the brain or a product of the brain, then there is nothing else. There is just this life, and there’s just looking after this body. That’s all.
And there’s no real meaning to life whatsoever, and it means that there is no sense of responsibility whatsoever. If one takes this view to its logical conclusion, because in fact it is really quite a new view, or at least it has existed a long time, but it’s always been the view of a very, very small group of people wherever it appeared. But now it’s becoming on this earth the dominant view more and more. And if you take it to its logical conclusion, then there is no reason to to be kind to people at all because they’re just things, and there’s just this life, and there’s just me, and I’m just a thing, and all I can experience is a little bit of some kind of physical pleasure, so I might as well get as much as I can, you know, in any way I possibly can by using people in any way I possibly can because there’s just this life, and we’re basically just soft robots, squashy robots. With robots, at least, you can fix robots up.
You can put new arms and machine you know, bits and pieces, computer chips in them, and they’ll go longer and longer. They’re quite useful. But a human robot, blah. It dies useless. What’s the point?
So, actually, if you if you think about all if you really think about this this view that is being perpetuated more and more, it it is really the most pessimistic view that has ever been developed by human humanity. It’s a very inhuman view. The vast majority of human beings at all times, in all places, in all cultures did not hold this view. All other cultures at all times, including our own culture, most of the time up until very recently held the view that life has meaning, that there is more than just this life. And because there’s more than this life, our actions we are responsible for our actions because they have effects that go beyond just this life.
And that human beings aren’t just robots. They actually have feelings, which are not just electrical impulses. So there is the basic assumption in Buddhism that the mind is not the brain. It is something completely else. But what the mind is is very difficult to prove.
So all I can try and say is a few points about the nature of the mind. Many of you have heard these before, old Dharma students. All I can do is remind you about them and to think about them. But I really urge people here, particularly those who haven’t thought about this point before, that there is great meaning in in how what in the nature of life and and our own individual life in deciding what what mind is. Is it just the brain?
Is it just a function of the brain? Or is it something more? Is it something quite different? Because that really determines the whole nature of life and the meaning of one’s life. If there’s just the brain, then there’s just this life, and you don’t really have to worry about anything.
You can just go around, kill, rape, steal, whatever you like, and get as much as you can. What the heck doesn’t really matter? That’s the logical conclusion of that view. And many people would say that’s not the logical conclusion because there are many people who don’t believe in religion. They have a humanistic view.
But this humanistic view, where has it come from? I would argue that it’s basically come from all religious views that have existed before. But if all the religious views of the world were to die out and there was only the materialistic view, you would end up with this robot view. So Buddha the Buddha said that I don’t know if he actually said this, that the mind is not the brain. But the mind does exist and is not something physical whatsoever.
It has none of the characteristics of physical matter, but it does exist. So physical matter is something that you can either see, hear, taste, smell, or touch. It’s something that can be perceived in some way by one of the five senses. But mind is not something physical according to the view of the Buddha. It is something formless.
It is without shape, color, touch. You can’t see it. You can’t weigh it. It has no dimensions. It has no real location because it is formless, but it does exist.
So how does it exist, and what is mind? So the definition of mind in Buddhism is it is that which is clear and knowing. That’s all. Mind is what is clear and knowing. Clear in a sense that the mind is something formless, and it has the yeah.
It is it’s something formless with it is not solid, and it it and its function is to know. And there are many ways to know. Right? And at the moment, our our mind knows in a very, very limited way. And so when we know something and and the way we know now is is mainly in a very intellectual way through concepts.
But when we know something, real knowing has the quality of experiencing. Knowing and experiencing are the same thing. And in every moment of experience, there is feeling. The nature of experience is to feel something. You either feel pleasure or pain.
Happiness or unhappiness is the feeling quality of experiencing. When you know something, you feel something. This is what the mind is. Only mind knows. So mind is not, from the Buddhist point of view, is not a physical thing.
It is an activity. It’s an ongoing activity. But it does exist, And it’s a little bit like space. So I’d like to talk about space for a little minute, short time, which may seem very abstract and intellectual and confusing. But if one can understand what space is, then one can get some feeling for the mind I feel.
So the the definition of of of space in Buddhism is the the mere lack of obstruction. The mere lack of obstruction. Now because there is a mere lack of obstruction, things can occupy space. Physical matter can be where space is, where there’s a lack of obstruction. Physical matter is obstructing.
So where there is wherever there is is physical matter, there is no more space there. There’s that obstruction. But the fact that some physical matter can occupy a particular place is because there is space there. There is a lack of obstruction there. The fact that this wall can be here, this obstructing wall can be here is because there is space, the lack of obstruction where this obstructing material can exist.
And because that obstructing material is existing there called a wall, then you can’t put anything else there because there’s no space left there. So the point is also that space is not something you can see or touch, smell, carry somewhere. You can’t take some space somewhere, move it around. It’s just everywhere. It’s all pervading.
The mere lack of obstruction is all pervading. It’s everywhere. It has no dimensions, no limitations, and it’s something uncreated. You can’t create space. It’s just there.
It’s just existing. It’s just the mere lack of obstruction. You can’t create that. It’s just there, and it has always been there. And it’s not just an an intellectual concept as anyone who keeps rabbits, chickens, or cows would know because cows, chickens, and rabbits know about space.
When they find a lack of obstruction in a fence, they’re out. They’re out of there. They’re out of there quicker as possible. Yeah. So space exists.
It’s not just an abstract concept of human beings. It’s something known and experienced by animals because it exists. It’s there. It’s just there everywhere. But sometimes it’s occupied by this obstructing stuff.
But when the wall is there, the wall hasn’t destroyed the space. It’s just occupied it, utilizing it. If you destroy the wall, the space is there. Not new space, just space. So it’s there.
It’s a real thing. Now so the mind is like that. That. It’s totally intangible. And like space, it’s something uncreated.
It was never created originally. It’s just always existed. And like space, you can’t destroy space. It’s just utterly impossible. It’s not something physical that you can destroy.
And so mind is also like that. You can’t destroy mind because it’s formless. But the thing the wonderful thing about the nature of mind is that mind knows. Space doesn’t know, it doesn’t experience, doesn’t feel. But mind is like space, but it knows, it feels, experiences things.
So, for example, this table is made of organic matter, I hope, I think, probably. And this body is made of organic matter, this one here. Basically, there’s no difference between this body and table. Right? Scientifically, no real difference.
It’s just organic stuff. Yeah. But if I hit this table, it doesn’t know it doesn’t know it’s being hit. It doesn’t experience being hit, and it has no feeling. Yeah.
But if I hit this body, there is a knowing going on. There is an experience of being hit, and there’s a feeling about that. Many feelings. Yeah. So that that knowing, experiencing, and feeling isn’t done by the body because the body is just no really no different than this.
What knows and experiences and feels that is the mind, one’s mind. The mind that is connected with this body, dependent on this body, operating through this body, but is not the body and is not any part of the body such as the brain. It is not the brain. At the moment, it works through the brain dependent on it, but it is not that. It has a completely different nature, and it didn’t originate with this body and this mind.
It came before. It’s the cause of this body, in fact. And when this body fades away, the mind goes on because it’s just using this body. It’s just temporary housing, just temporary accommodation. So the body doesn’t know anything.
Not a thing. But the mind working through this body know can know knows, experiences, and feels. That is the nature of mind. Nothing else knows. Computers have lots of information in them and can regurgitate it, but they don’t know anything.
They don’t know a single thing. They don’t experience a single thing, and they don’t feel anything because only mind does that, and you can’t create mind. It’s just existing, and each of us has got one. And then the trouble is we don’t know about it. We hardly know anything about our mind.
We don’t know its nature. So why should we know about our mind? Because it’s the source of everything. It is the very source of everything. As you’ve probably all heard before, if you’ve been coming to Buddha House, I’m probably, the Tibetan lama who teaches here probably says this regularly, and I always say it regularly because all my teachers say this regularly.
So I’ll say it once more. Oneself, myself, and every living being just wants to be happy. Right? We just want happiness, and we don’t want any kind of unhappiness, dissatisfaction, pain, worry, fear, boredom, guilt, depression, depression, agitation, all these things. We just do not any of that.
Yeah. And we just want something called happiness, this very mysterious thing, as mysterious as the mind, which we call happiness, which is something to do with peace, inner peace, inner contentment, for sentient beings. It’s not about smiling and giggling and having wild parties. That’s not happiness. Happiness is about contentment, inner contentment.
Yeah. Right? That actually comes from freedom from suffering, freedom from confusion, freedom from worry, and a sense a deep sense of connection with things, that one has meaning, that one’s life has meaning. Yeah. That one has purpose.
That life has purpose, and everyone else has a purpose. So we’re all seeking that, that experience, all the time. What is seeking that is, in fact, the mind. There’s a and one of the one aspect of the mind, its its fundamental nature is to seek happiness and not to seek suffering. It is just natural for the mind to want to know and experience and feel happiness and not to want to know experience and feel suffering or confusion.
If you think about it, how could it be any other way? Why would there be any wish to to to experience suffering? To know suffering. Since it’s the mind which knows and feels and experiences, how could the mind possibly want to feel and experience suffering, dissatisfaction, pain, worry, fear, and all those endless negative things. There is no way knowing mind wants to know that.
It’s it it seems obvious that the nature of the mind is only wishing to experience happiness, contentment, inner peace. That is fundamental quality of the mind, an inborn quality of the mind, inescapable. Every living being has that wish because every living being, sentient being, has mind. And mind is that which knows and feels and experiences. Sorry if I keep repeating this, but this is my technique.
Sorry. I can’t get away from it. Stuck. Yeah. And so there’s there’s only one way although there’s many levels of knowing, but there’s only one way of knowing.
You just know. There’s just knowing. There’s just experiencing and feeling. There’s only one mind in one’s oh, no. There’s not just one.
But there’s only one nature of mind. Every being has a mind, and the nature of every being’s mind is exactly, exactly, exactly the same. Now mind just knows. That’s all. It has that nature.
Pure, simple, just that. And in just every sentient every being who has a mind, every sentient being has mind, and that mind of every sentient being just wants happiness and doesn’t want suffering. And it wants exactly the same thing. Every living being innately, inbornly, for all time has always wanted the same thing. Right.
This because this is the nature of mind, just wanting to experience happiness, knowing happiness, knowing perfection. So I can’t prove this, and maybe this is not very logical, but it works for my simple mind. But if you think about it, and this is how I think about it, maybe you can pull pull this argument apart, but mind is what knows. And if you let the mind know something, this that which knows, if you let it do that function function without any interference, it just knows. That’s its function.
So if you let it do it, if you let it perform its function without any interference whatsoever, then the mind knows and knows and knows and knows and knows more and more and more. So it seems to me logical that mind has, as its very nature, the potential to know everything perfectly if we just let it do its job, which is to know. Not to unknow, not to be confused, but mind is what knows. Yeah. For example, if you if you come into a room and you look at something newly for the first time and you only look at it very quickly, then you can only know a very little about that thing.
Therefore you have a very limited, limited experience of that and a very kind of unfulfilling feeling related to that tiny little bit of knowing. But if one looked at that thing for more, for a longer period of time carefully with concentration, you would know it more. You would know more about it. Any any mind would would know more. Alright.
If you look at something and allow you you allow the mind to perform its function of knowing, there’s no want there’s no way if you allow the mind to perform that function by looking at it something, experiencing something more, you would know less. Right? The more you experience, the more you know of the thing. The more you experience it, you don’t know less, you know more. Right?
Yes? Yes? That’s the way the mind works. That is its nature. That is the the pure nature of mind is to know things perfectly, completely, and that is the potential for perfect happiness.
Because when we know things completely, how can there be any fear, worry? You know things perfectly, completely, how they actually are. One knows oneself completely. One knows every person completely, all phenomena completely. How could there possibly be any hate, jealousy, pride, doubts, fear, worry, confusion, depression, agitation in a mind that knows things perfectly all the time, experiences everything completely as they are all the time, and therefore has a complete deep feeling with that knowing all the time.
Yeah. So it is actually of the nature of the mind to have the qualities of love, compassion, equanimity, wisdom. Alright. That is the actual nature of our mind. These potentials are there all the time.
They haven’t been created by anybody. They just exist as the very nature of mind. When mind knows things perfectly, which it has the potential to do, it knows it in a state of love, compassion, and wisdom. There’s no way the mind couldn’t could know things in any other way. Because hate, fear, worry, jealousy, and pride are false ways, confused ways of knowing, incomplete, fractured, distorted ways of knowing.
In fact, they’re not real knowing at all. So this potential of our mind to know things perfectly, completely as they really are is called our Buddha nature, our Buddha potential. Our potential for omniscience, actual omniscience, to know everything perfectly all the time without mistake because mind simply knows. And if you if it is free to know, it knows perfectly. So this this wish of the mind for perfect happiness is is something natural that goes with the nature of the mind, and it’s something that can be accomplished because of the nature of the mind.
When the mind is allowed to perform its function without any hindrance, it can know perfectly. And when that knowing is established within the mind perfectly, since the mind continues forever because it’s indestructible, it’s formless and indestructible. Once that that perfect knowing is established, the mind continues to know things perfectly with perfect wisdom, perfect compassion, perfect love, equanimity continuously. So maybe to go back a bit. So this is perfect happiness that we want.
Yeah. I I just many years ago, Lama Yeshe gave a talk. I I don’t remember where it was, but when I first met him somewhere, where he said to imagine him as a great magician. So I’ll just repeat this, what he did, because it’s very simple, but I do this all the time. And all but I found it very effective for my mind.
Just going back to this point about wanting happiness and not wanting suffering. So he said to imagine him as a great magician, so I would like to ask you to imagine that I am a great magician. The greatest magician in the world, the magician. Yeah. The greatest magician in the world that can bring you anything you want.
So you just have to tell me what you want, then I give it to you. Right? Just like that. So to make things simple, I know that you want happiness. Right?
I’m not gonna beat around the bush too long. So then okay. So what kind of happiness do you want? Because there are many kinds of happiness, so you have to let me know what kind of happiness you want. Again, so to simplify this, I’ll let you know that I have three main kinds of happiness you could have.
So the first kind is a happiness that has some problems in it. That from time to time, there will be some problems, some physical pain, some mental pain. Sometimes it will last for some time. Sometimes it will just be for a short time. But there will be these problems, pain, worry, little bit of fear, sometimes some big fears, some little fears, things like that in it.
But it’s basically happiness, and it’s really very good, so you can have that one if you like. Or if you don’t like that, I have another kind of happiness which only has just occasional just occasional problems, flaws, An occasional worry, an occasional fear, an occasional physical pain, an occasional mental pain, twinge of fear, regret, doubt, worry, guilt, a few things like that from time to time. But don’t worry, they’re just just occasional, don’t last very long. So you’re either that kind of happiness. Or I have perfect happiness.
Yeah. The real thing. Not at the slightest flaw whatsoever.