Lam Rim, 29 June 1991

Beginning by cultivating as a motivation the awakening heart. So we should begin by rejoicing in the fact that I have found this human life by which means I can practice the Dharma And it possesses all the various supportive conditions and has an absence of inhibiting conditions. While I have this opportunity, having all the various conducive conditions, I should make use of it. And that would be by bringing about what myself and all others want. That is to bring ourselves happiness and to eliminate our suffering.

And if we are to make use of our life this opportunity, it can’t be next year or next month because we simply don’t know when we’re going to die because of impermanence. Before the transitory quality of our life arises, we must, out of a healthy attitude, engage in various types of healthy behavior and bring about very vast results. What do we mean by healthy attitude? That is, there is none higher than the awakening heart in which we determine to establish both ourselves and all other sentient beings in a state which has completely eliminated all the various sufferings where they experience complete happiness. In order to achieve that end, then I must begin to cease all my various types of negative behavior and begin to practice various types of positive, healthy types of behavior.

In order that I might be able to carry out an unerring practice, that it might go well, I am presently going to listen to the essence of the great vehicle, the graduated path to enlightenment, and upon listening to it, to again and again reflect upon its meaning and thereby integrate it through the process of meditation. And towards that end, we’re going to cultivate such a motivation for the next three minutes. Previously we had been discussing the Four Noble Truths, which was the first teaching in the Dharma that the Buddha taught. And in it he is pointing out the various faults of cyclic existence and the methods whereby to be liberated from cyclic existence. And with respect to the first noble truth, the true sufferings, that It’s necessary that we reflect well upon true sufferings to understand the nature of cyclic existence.

If we understand well the nature of cyclic existence through understanding the first truth, noble truth, the truth of suffering, we will develop a longing to be liberated from cyclic existence. Without understanding the nature of our suffering, then we will never develop a longing to be liberated. So with respect to the first noble truth of true sufferings, it is true sufferings are the contaminated aggregates within our individual continuum. This represents cyclic existence. And true sufferings have four characteristics, and the four being impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and selflessness.

And by understanding these characteristics well, then we will begin to understand the suffering nature of cyclic existence and develop a longing to be liberated from it. Beginning with these characteristics of the Four Noble Truths, the first being impermanence, and this is the essence of the Buddhist Dharma. And when we talked about in our teaching of the being of narrow capacity or narrow perspective and the teachings on the Lamrim, we said that it is the mindfulness of impermanence which is the doorway into practice. It is also important in the middling and intermediate of our practice, and mindfulness of impermanence is important at the end in order to bring our practice to fulfillment. So mindfulness of impermanence is of great importance both in the three beginning, middle, end.

So it’s necessary that we meditate on the impermanence of the aggregates. And we have a conception that our aggregates are unchanging, that they’re very stable, that they’re permanent. That the body that I have today will remain the same through tomorrow and so forth. But in fact, our body is changing from moment to moment. That it is never the same from one minute to the next.

It doesn’t remain the same. It’s not stable. It’s constantly undergoing change. Our relationship to our body, it can be analogous to having first met a friend and we make a new friend. But as our friendship progresses, we begin to see that this person is very fickle.

They’re not very stable. They’re constantly changing in how they relate with you. And out of this, we slowly begin to think, well we lose our liking for this person. We begin to think, well we trust them, we can’t depend upon them because they’re so fickle, they’re constantly changing. And likewise with respect to our body, it’s undergoing momentary arising and disintegration.

It’s constantly changing, it’s not stable. And therefore, out of this, thinking in this way will serve as a method whereby to cease our liking or that is to say, we will begin to cease our attachment toward it. In order to energize this sense of distress with respect to our aggregate, our body, simply thinking of it as impermanent is not sufficient because though it’s not stable, though it is impermanent, so is the Buddha, so is omniscience. These are also impermanent. So it’s necessary to look at the causes additionally of our present body.

Our body is brought about through its other power in the sense that it’s under the control of karma and afflictive emotions. And therefore, these causes are extremely negative in quality, and therefore the resultant aggregate is in the nature of suffering. So not only is the body unstable and impermanent, but its very nature is suffering in that its causes have a negative quality. Therefore this will energize a sense of dislike or non attachment toward the body. So, the body is impermanent in that it arises in dependence upon causes and conditions, but not only is it impermanent and therefore unstable, it is also in the nature of suffering because it is under the control of karma and afflictive emotions.

The doubt might arise in our mind that, okay, the body is impermanent, and it’s in the nature of suffering, but that really doesn’t matter because the I or the self is in fact permanent. And such a then it doesn’t matter what the problems of the body are because the I, who I am, the self is permanent and not in the nature of suffering. And therefore this type of doubt might arise with respect to non Buddhists. This wrong conception may arise, thinking that the aggregates are impermanent but the self is permanent. If this in fact were the case, then there would exist no relationship between the aggregates and the self, the I, since one is permanent and the other is impermanent.

But in fact, the self is imputed in dependence upon the aggregates. There does exist a relationship between the two. The self is impermanent and this represents the third characteristic of true suffering. That is to say that the self or the I and the body are empty of being different natures. That in fact, or that they have the same entity.

That not only is both the self and the I, both the self and the body impermanent, but in fact they are the same entity. They are empty of being different entities. The self is merely imputed to the aggregates, and if we were to question does the self in some way exist in dependence upon the aggregates? But there is no self which exists independently without relying upon the aggregates. Such a type of self does not exist.

There is no self which exists independently without relying upon the aggregates. And this is the fourth characteristic of true suffering is selflessness, that there is no self which exists independently without relying upon the aggregates. Meditating well on these four characteristics is extremely beneficial in that through this cultivation of these understandings a longing to be liberated from suffering will arise. In order to develop a longing to be liberated from cyclic existence, we have looked at the general qualities of cyclic existence in that the cyclic existence is equated with the appropriated contaminated aggregates. This is the general way of looking at suffering, but now we can begin to look at suffering at a more specific level.

So with respect to the general sufferings of cyclic existence, that is to say types of suffering which are universal within cyclic existence, there are six types. In general, we don’t like suffering, but it’s quite useful to reflect upon our suffering because out of our suffering, out of our reflecting upon our suffering will come the benefit of developing a long way to be liberated from cyclic existence. The first of the six general types of suffering of cyclic existence is the indefinite of abode, of level. And there’s a story which exemplifies this, which I’ve mentioned previously, in which there is a home and behind the home is a pond. And in this pond a being had been reborn.

The father of the home had recently died and had taken birth as a fish in the pond. Then the And the mother of the home had died and taken rebirth as a dog in the home. And the wife’s ex lover who had been killed by her spouse had taken Rebirth as her child. So the situation is such that the fish who was the previous father of the home had been caught and was killed and had been prepared, and the daughter of that former father who is the fish is sitting there eating the fish and she’s nursing her ex lover at her breast and beneath the table begging for food is the dog who was her mother, and she’s beating the dog. And one of the two of the Buddha’s main disciples he had two main disciples.

One was Maudgalyayāna and Śāriputra. And Śāriputra was out on his alms round, and he came to this home and he had clairvoyance and he saw the situation which existed and he said, Here is a situation where the daughter eats the flesh of her father and beats her mother and nurses her ex lover at her breast. cyclic existence is laughable. So within cyclic existence there is no definiteness as to the level at which we will remain. Even in this example that those who are kind to us become our enemy, we beat them, and those who are in fact our enemy, we treat with great care.

There is a verse from Nāgārjuna in which he points out that upon the death of the father, the father who has died takes rebirth as one’s son. One’s mother takes rebirth and becomes one’s spouse. Your enemies become your friends, your friends become your enemies. There’s no definite level of cyclic existence. So this indefiniteness as to level of, for example, friends and enemies is in terms of past and future lives, but additionally there is nothing definite in remaining within terms of this life.

So even during the course of this life, there’s no definite remaining, no definite in our way of relating with others. For example, you may have a friend who you can’t bear to be without for one moment. Just to be without them for one moment is almost unbearable. But even with respect to that friend, just a few little words can pass between you and they quickly become your enemy. You can’t stand to see them, be near them.

And the same happens with our enemies. Somebody you can’t even stand to see, that something can occur in the course of your relationship and they become your best friend and you can’t stand to be without them. And again, a few words, and they become your worst enemy. And this is the quality of, fluctuating quality of our relationship. This quality over the course of our life, this changeability of our ways of relating, this fluctuation between relating with a single person in terms of friend and enemy and continually going through these cycles is not our individual faults, it’s the faults of cyclic existence.

And so the first of these general qualities is the quality of the fluctuations of relationships that we don’t remain at the same level in relationships. The second is the quality of dissatisfaction or discontentment. And this is, for example, if we had ten dollars we’d want one hundred dollars If we had one hundred dollars we’d win one thousand dollars We’re never content with what we have. We Everybody wants more, better. If we have some delicious food, tomorrow we’ll want something even more delicious.

If we have nice clothes, we’re going to want more clothes which are nicer. If we have a nice place to live, we’re going to want something which is nicer. That we’re always striving for something better than what we have. There’s always this discontentment with what we have at present. So there’s a story about in a previous life of Buddha Śākyamūni when he was a small child.

There came into the world the previous Buddha Vipashyin, and Buddha Vipashyin was holding an alms bowl, and the small child took a handful of dust and threw it at Buddha Vipashyin, and one particle of the dust fell on Buddha Vipashyin’s head and four particles fell in his alms bowl. And then subsequent to that particular occasion, having died, the small child took rebirth as King Naminga. So, this taking of rebirth as this King Manenga was a result of one of those particles of dust having fallen into Buddha Initially, the small child took rebirth as King Nalinga as a result of one of these particles which had fallen into the alms bowl of Buddha Vipashyin. But he was not content to be the King Nalinga of this world. He said, I want to be king of the four continents.

He had taken rebirth as king of one of the continents. He said, I want to take rebirth as king of another continent. And so as a result of the second particle which had fallen into the alms bowl, he took rebirth there. But he said, I’m not content with this, I want to be the king of another realm. He took rebirth there, result of the third particle.

And finally he said this, I’m not content with this, and he took rebirth as a result of the fourth particle in yet another realm. So out of this discontentment, he kept taking these various rebirths as kings as a result of these particles in the alms bowl. The future Buddha in previous lives was not content with these various rebirths as the king of even the various four continents. He said, I want to be born as Brahma, the king of Mount Meru. And so, because he had not fulfilled his longings, he was still not satisfied.

And out of the result of this one particle of dust, which had been offered and landed on the Buddha Vipashyin’s head, he was able to achieve half of the throne. He took over half the throne of Brahma. But he still wasn’t content. He said, I want the whole throne. I don’t want to have only the half of the throne.

But by this time, he had exhausted all his creative potential that he had created in the past, and he then fell back into the world. And he fell into the king Nalina’s garden. He died. And this is what arises out of having too great a desire. So this is the drawback of having great desire.

So we shouldn’t think of these great desires as being the faults of the individual. These are the faults of cyclic existence. Third general suffering is that of having to abandon the body again and again. We have taken a human life in our present existence, but previously we have taken rebirth as, for example, a celestial being in the abodes of Indra or Brahma where we had delicious foods, wonderful place to live. We only experienced pleasure.

According to the verse by Nāgārjuna in the Friendly Letter, in which he points out that first we are born into a state of celestial being where we undergo all our various pleasures, and then when that karma is exhausted, we then die and fall into hell, where we experience the torments of fire and cold. When that karma is exhausted, then we rise up again and experience various pleasures, and when that is exhausted, again we fall back down. And this process of cycling through these various states, it goes on, occurs again and again and again. The sun and the moon and stars are considered to be celestial beings, and that beings actually take a rebirth in these various forms. They are able to radiate light and illuminate the entire world.

But upon death, upon dying from their states, then even these beings who have at one time illuminated the world are born into darkness such that they can’t even see their own feet and hands. It’s that dark. So, this is the scriptural viewpoint that has been pointed out, that the sun is fire, the moon is just earth. But what we see is not the celestial being. This is just the place in which, this is the outer shell, the place in which they live.

Actually inside there’s a vast mansion, there’s parks, there’s gardens, they have their children, they have their spouses, there’s lakes. We just see like a room, the outside of it. Beneath the surface of the sun is a fire crystal, which is hot. Beneath the surface of the moon is water crystal, which is cold. So we’re continually going through these cycles of rebirths again and again, taking good and bad rebirths, and this is the fault of cyclic existence.

So this third quality of cyclic existence is the fault of having to again and again abandon your body. Your previous body must be left behind, that is to say it becomes nonexistent and one has to take a new body. So again and again, to take new bodies. So again and again abandoning one’s old body, and therefore again and again having to take on a new embodiment. So having to take on a new embodiment again and again, this embodiment has various good and bad qualities.

We’ve taken on the bodies of insects, snakes, cats, horses, birds. In fact, there’s no embodiment which we have not taken at some time or other. Not only have we taken upon every embodiment, but we have taken on those embodiments many times. We have taken rebirth as insects, grass eating insects many many times. If we were able to amass all the times the embodiments that we’ve taken rebirth as such a type of insects, would be as high as a mountain.

The bones from all of those rebirths would make a great mountain. And the next fault of cyclic existence is that we are companionless. That we are born alone, we must suffer our ills alone, and we die alone. That we come into this world by ourselves without a companion, and even at those times when we’re undergoing sickness, no one can share in that sickness, no one can take it on, we have to bear it alone, and then we must each depart alone. We come in the world and go out of the world without companions.

So this is the general sufferings of cyclic existence because it’s universal to all sentient beings within it. So one of the main sufferings that we experience is that of never knowing satisfaction, that we’re never content. All of these various other faults come about through this discontentment with what we’re never satisfied with what we have. So it’s extremely beneficial to seek to become satisfied with whatever you may have at present. So, we should consider these various faults of cyclic existence, that cyclic existence has no redeeming qualities, that there’s no happiness within cyclic existence, and reflecting them in this way, we will develop our longing to be liberated from it, and this is the benefit upon reflecting upon the faults of cyclic existence.

The benefit out of developing longing to be liberated from cyclic existence is once we have that longing, then we will begin to implement methods to be liberated from it, and it’s this which is the ultimate benefit. In order to generate the intention to be liberated from cyclic existence, we must, prior to that, have a longing to be liberated from cyclic existence. In order to develop a longing to be liberated from cyclic existence, we must see the various faults of cyclic existence. Śāntideva points out the many benefits which arise through the contemplation of suffering. He says that if we again and again meditate on suffering, that we will first develop a compassion for those within cyclic existence, that we will abandon creating negative actions, and that we will develop a longing to be liberated.

And we will develop an inclination toward skillful actions and out of this we will begin to implement various types of skillful actions and finally achieve liberation. Stop there, but if you have questions. So if we don’t have any questions, we can meditate on these various types of suffering, these six types of the general sufferings of cyclic existence. The first being indefiniteness as to remaining at the same level. The changeability of our relationships for example.

The second is that never knowing satisfaction. The third is that again and again having to abandon our body. The fourth is again and again having to take rebirth. The fifth is the cyclic quality of rising up and then falling down and rising up again. And then the sixth is companionlessness.

Longing for liberation. And can wait that we can go on from there and extend this understanding of our own troubles, that all sentient beings are likewise in the same condition, and that in developing the longing that they be freed from their suffering and the causes of their suffering, that is they developing compassion, and that they are without happiness just like ourselves, and that developing and the longing that they have happiness and the causes of happiness, that is they developing love. And all of these various varieties of suffering from what do they arise? They arise from not having abandoned various types of unskillful actions and not having implemented various types of skillful actions. So they’re developing the determination that I’m going to as much as possible abandon the negative actions and implement various types of positive actions.

And that through practicing well, that I will free all sentient beings of their suffering and place them in complete happiness. In order to achieve that, I myself will achieve the level of Buddhahood, cultivating, developing the awakening heart. Meditating on the nature of the self, that the self does not naturally exist, meditating on emptiness in order to achieve that end.