KECHARA

FEATURES • TSONGKHAPA TEACHING
65
Dear all,
I gave a Dharma talk for a few of my students at my residence a while ago and I
thought I’d share this on my blog for the benefit of everyone else. In this video, I talk a
little about the vastness of our mind, how our mind shapes our present condition and
how it’s interlinked with our spiritual practice.
I hope that this short teaching will help you understand more about the true nature
of our minds and how we can transform our minds to be more stable and understand
the Dharma clearer through Lama Tsongkhapa’s practice. I received these teachings
from my gurus, and I hope it will benefit you as it did me.
Do watch this short video and let me know your feelings. Thank you.
Tsem Rinpoche
A transcribed excerpt from the teaching:
In Buddhism, we call the
consciousness or mind, sempa.
And what happens is this:
our mind is connected to our
body, but it’s not a part of it. It
is separate but it temporarily
abides in the body. Now, there
are two levels of our mind: there
is the gross mind and there is the
subtle mind. The gross mind is an
extension of the subtle mind. The
subtle mind is the ultimate mind,
which is you.
Now, the subtle mind is what
travels from one life to another. It
is you but you are not defined by
it. But it creates who you are. So
when the subtle mind is clouded
by ignorance, it creates actions
that further the ignorance. It
creates the body, the speech,
the functions, the environment
and the people to increase the
ignorance.
The subtle mind appears three
times; it appears to you when
you are in the deepest part of
sleep, it appears to you when
you are having an orgasm and
usually when people are having
an orgasm, it is very quick and
they don’t focus on the subtle
mind but instead, they focus on
the physical pleasure. The third
time is at the time of death.
When the subtle mind appears at
the height of an orgasm, you’ll see
some darkness or some redness
and then you black out. People
often say, “Oh, because it blew
my mind and it was so good”. It’s
actually not that, it is you. Your
physical constituents are forcing
you to go back to your real mind
through orgasm. That’s why
ancient tantric practitioners of
Hinduism, Tantra and Buddhism,
don’t use sex as a measure or
a vehicle for pleasure. Instead,
they use it as a vehicle to get to
the mind.
When you are dreaming, you can
see, hear, feel, taste and touch,
and it’s so real. You are not using
your eyes but you can still see.
This ability to taste, touch, see
and feel without your physical
aggregates proves that your
mind is separate from your body.
This was written by the great
Indian pandits of the past in the
Buddhist monasteries of India. It
was spoken and taught by fully
enlightened great Indian masters
such as Dharmakirti, Nagarjuna,
Chandrakirti, Shantideva, Aryadeva
and Arya Asangha. The Tibetans
went to India and sat at their feet
to learn and bring the Dharma
back to Tibet.
Now, the Indian masters said
that this subtle mind works on
a secondary basis, meaning it is
very fast. If you have a moment,
you have a prior moment and
you have a following moment.
Without the following moment,
you can’t have the next moment.
So it’s like a film reel. Let’s say
you are 25 years old now and the
fact that you exist right now at 25
means that you existed at 24.