Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 30-minute teaching, Choegye Trichen Rinpoche introduces the four attachments that must be abandoned in the path to enlightenment, foundational to Tibetan Buddhist mind training. He contextualizes the teaching within the Sakya school tradition by recounting how the young master Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, first of five founding masters, received these instructions directly from Mañjuśrī during meditation. The deity revealed four lines: if you cling to this life, you lack spiritual commitment; clinging to saṃsāra means lacking renunciation; attachment to personal gain means lacking bodhichitta; and grasping and fixation obscure correct view. Sachen recognized these four lines as distilling the essence of all Buddhist teachings and transmitted them through his successors, including the great scholar Sakya Pandita. This session opens the teaching for serious practitioners already engaged with Buddhist study and practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 4A.mp3
UUID: fb4521d5-a486-4486-98b3-81284ccbe665
Teacher: Choegye Trichen Rinpoche
Collection: Parting from the 4 Attachments (Choegye Trichen Rinpoche)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 30.0 minutes
Words: ~1,523
So first of all, in order to achieve the greatest benefit from attending these teachings, everyone is requested to cultivate a state of mind that is appropriate in receiving these teachings on parting from the four attachments. That is to resolve with the intention that I am going to listen to these profound teachings of the Mahāyāna Buddhist teachings in order to benefit numberless sentient beings. It is for this reason I am attending this session. With such motivation, you are all requested to attend tonight’s teachings. Amongst various topics of teachings at hand, tonight’s topic is training of the mind.
The training of the mind and regarded as Lojong in Tibetan has many different sources and scriptures written in all different traditions of the Tibetan Buddhism. You can see firstly the early Kadampa masters of the of the eleventh century had written number of Lojong or mind training texts followed by Kagyupa school belonging to that of the early great meditators of Tibet called Jewel Ornament of Liberation by Gampopa, and also the great teachings of the the graduated path of enlightenment by Lama Tsongkhapa in the Gelukpa tradition. In the Sakyapa tradition, this parting from the four attachment is held in great esteem. So, it is for this reason that I have been asked by the organizers to give teachings on parting from the four attachments based on the realization of early Master of the Sakya tradition. So that is the topic that we will be discussing tonight.
To explain a little bit of background of these teachings and the parting from four attachment, as I said before, there are four, five great schools in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Kadampa, Kagyu, Nyingma, Gelugpa, and Sakya. Each of these produce five great founding masters known as the twenty-five pillars of Tibetan Buddhism. And so each of this lineage having five very famous founding masters. The tonight’s teaching the origin of tonight’s teaching is referred is connected with the the first of the five founding masters of the Sakya school known as Sachen Kunga Nyingpo. Sachen Kunga Nyingpo as a twelve year old child was engaged in a deep study of Buddhist teachings in a particular seminary And and since having come hailed from the blessed family of Khon lineage of Sakya, and so so he has been assigned to engage in deep study.
But nevertheless, he nevertheless, he having engaged in study, he he he he had some obstacles in his study. He had become having been the most important son of his father, Khon Konchog Gyalpo, the founder of the Sakya Monastery. And having passed away having passed away his father, his mother took great responsibility for his training. And the origin of this Khon family, the reason why his mother had to put great emphasis in future study and training of his son was this the origin of this family is regarded as a descendant of the clear light god. The clear light god who have descended in Tibet in early many many thousands of years ago engaged in some kind of battle or fight conflict with a certain Yaksha spirit.
And while this long drawn out fighting continued between the dissension of the clear light god and the and the Yaksha spirits. And a matrimonial relationship between one of the clear light descendant of the clear light god and Yaksha girl named Yatuk Selma, a love affair engaged. And that from that, the family known as Kon originated. Khon really means some some kind of a conflict between conflict between exist between the two, but out of conflict, they’ve also ensured love. And so hereditary lineage that that that produced as a result of that, therefore, earned the name Khon family.
And the early masters of this Khon family were very were very instrumental in establishing Buddhism in Tibet. First of all, the great founding fathers of Tibetan Buddhism, the Padma Sambhava Padma Sambhava. Of his twenty five great disciples, the most celebrated one was Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje. He happened to also be also be one of the first to be ordained under Shāntarakshita. Early masters of the Kun family, therefore, practiced Vajrakilaya and mainly mainly practiced the teachings of the early old translation or Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.
So in this way, the Khon family, first of all, were descendant of the clear light god, and later on having built the found Sakya monastery, that that that name Sakya was more associated with the family than with its original name. So in this way, the Khon Konchog Gyalpo was father, and Sachen Kunga Nyingpo had a very blessed mother. She sent him to study at a very important seminary. After a number of years of study, one of the very famous Sakya protectors. The two protectors are Kardu and Ghenyen.
The two protectors are invoked in the practice. Although the main protectors of the tradition are these, And these two protectors of vajra Kalaia announced what was happening to young Sachin who was studying at the Khonpor seminary that saying, come, you people of Sakya, dare to stay unaware of what terrible illness has strike your young son in the seminary. So the manifestation of these protectors announced that in Sakya. And very shocked and troubled to know this information and Sakya’s mother and many people from Sakya traveled to Phodrang Nermig to rescue the young Sachen who has struck a terrible illness. And
His mother consoled him that you need not to shed tears. Even if you were to die studying with ten thousand monks, there’s no reason for you to regret since your life is spent in study. His mother was very skillful in consoling and encouraging him even at when he was strike with a severe illness. So, however, it was them to bring young Sachin back to Sakya.
And Sachen Kunga Nyingpo was enthroned. And Bari Lotsawa was appointed as the tutor to Sachen Kunga Nyingpo. So that there was very interesting anniversary of the passing away of his father, Khon Konchog Gyalpo. So enthroned him as as a successor and also appointment of the tutor and anniversary of his father, all these three very important occasion coincided. The mother organized a skillful way to coincide these three important events, appointment of the as a teacher, important duties.
The teacher, having acted as a personal tutor to Sachen, gave instruction to young Sachin. And since you are the young, future leader of family, you might be very born intelligent as a natural inheritance of your blessed family. Nevertheless, it is important for you to study, contemplate and meditate and further your practices by engaging on In order to do this, you need to resort to the help of a wisdom deity. A special wisdom deity has to be used to practice your meditation upon. It is Arapacana Mañjuśrī is excellent as a as a wisdom deity and having given him the empowerment.
Bari Lotsawa having given this chance to twelve year old Sachin who then went into retreat on the practice of Arapacana Mañjuśrī. According to the instructions, young Sachen spend six continuous months in meditation retreat. So he spent six continuous months in meditation retreat of Mañjuśrī, the Bodhisattva of wisdom. At that time, at one time, in the middle of his meditation, witnessed the vision of Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī seated on a Sitting throne in a preaching gesture, Mañjuśrī is surrounded by many enlightened beings. And he was rather sitting on a chair posture, not seated cross legged.
He was shown on the throne in front of him. So there were two Bodhisattvas. Two bodhisattvas. Two bodhisattvas. On right and one on left.
Bodhisattvas appear in his meditation. And then Mañjuśrī, the main bodhisattva who appeared in his meditation spoke the following four lines. If you’re attached to this life, you’re not a religious person. If you’re attached to this life, you’re not a religious person. If you’re attached to the worldly existence, you do not have renunciation. If you have attachment to your own purpose, you do not have the thought of enlightenment.
If grasping, fixation, you do not have the correct view. And you should contemplate on the meaning of these four lines. Sachin, the young intelligent monk, reflected that these four lines contained quintessence of all the sūtra and tantra, meaning exoteric and esoteric teachings of the Buddha. Specifically, all the teachings of the Pāramitāyāna or causal perfection vehicle contained in these four lines. And Sachen gained a definite conviction and realization the profundity that was contained in these four line instructions.
Sachen gave this instruction to his son, Sonam Tsemo. Sonam Tsemo gave this to his younger brother, Dragpa Gyaltsen. Dragpa Gyaltsen gave this Particularly, Dragpa Gyaltsen gave this to Śākyapandita, the most excellent great scholar of Tibet, who is reputed to be emanation of Mañjuśrī himself who is known for one who excelled in ten fields of studies, ten fields of sciences, five outer and five inner. Sakya Pandita himself wrote a commentary on this four four line instructions.