Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 49-minute talk, Kyabje Rinpoche explores why Śākyamūni Buddha is a reliable refuge person, drawing on Dharmakīrti’s logical analysis. Working through the Four Noble Truths framework, he establishes four reasons for Buddha’s reliability: he has abandoned all faults and developed all excellent qualities; possesses skill in guiding disciples to liberation; and extends impartial compassion equally to all beings. The teaching’s centerpiece is the metaphor of ripening an unripe mango—how sentient beings, like unripe fruit, cannot achieve awakening through the Buddha’s power alone but must gradually mature through the teachings and the practice of the six perfections. Rinpoche concludes by explaining why understanding both the faults of cyclic existence and the qualities of liberation is essential for motivating sincere practice. Suited to practitioners with some background in Buddhist philosophy.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1993-11-05 – 22A – KR.mp3
UUID: 12898ebf-2184-4c58-b321-4be7b99b435f
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Compendium of Valid Cognition
Date: 1993-11-05
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,894
They they don’t want to suffer. But though we all want though all of these living beings want happiness, they are bereft of happiness, they have no happiness. And though they do not want to suffer, they are troubled with suffering. So the situation is in which we are which they’re in is extremely difficult. Human life and we possess intelligence.
And if we can make use of this wonderful opportunity to eliminate both our own and other suffering, then this would be an excellent occasion. So these living beings have all benefited us, and it’s necessary that we return their great benefit to ourselves. And the way that we can do this is by developing the attitudes of wishing to free them from suffering and to lead them to complete happiness. So developing these kind hearted attitudes of love and compassion. But though we have such a kind hearted attitude which wishes to free these other living beings from suffering and to lead them to happiness.
How are we going to go about that since at present we simply don’t have the ability? If each of ourselves could eliminate our various faults and bring to consummation our excellent qualities, that way we could in fact lead all of these sentient beings to a state where they’re free of their suffering, they find ultimate happiness. So how are we to bring about this state where we have eliminated all our various faults and brought the consummation in all our excellent qualities? It is by means of our practice in terms of transforming our own minds. Through the transformation of our minds, can eliminate our various faults and we can bring to consummation our excellent qualities.
And in order to do that, one develops the motivation that I am involving myself in these various practices which constitute the essence of the universal vehicle so that ultimately I can be a vast benefit to all living being. According to a verse by Dharmakīrti where it establishes that Śākyamūni Buddha is a reliable person or a valid person. And we said that it it establish es his reliability in terms of a in a forward procedure and a reverse procedure. And we’ve established it in terms of the forward procedure, and we’re going to establish it in terms of the reverse procedure. So we want to establish that Śākyamūni Buddha is a reliable person.
And this is done by establishing the fact that he is a refuge. And how do we establish that Śākyamūni Buddha is a refuge? By by through his teachings on the four noble truths. So that by establishing that these teachings on the four noble truths are unerring, unmistaken, ultimate in their meaning. Liberation, those who have have been seeing the defects of cyclic existence and strive for the bliss of liberation, Śākyamūni Buddha taught the four noble truths and abbreviate fashion as a means for finding a refuge from from cyclic existence.
That the Four Noble Truths represent in a very brief manner what is to be adopted and what is to be avoided. So it is said that Śākyamūni Buddha is a a a proper refuge or suitable refuge which can be established on the basis of four reasons. First, all factors of unknowing obscurations, ignorance, having abandoned all these, that he is free of of all of these defects. So firstly, that Śākyamūni Buddha has abandoned all the various faults. And arising from this comes the second reason, establishing that he is a proper, suitable object of refuge.
Having abandoned these various faults, he has developed all excellent qualities in the sense that he has realized the nature of all phenomena in an unerring, unmistaken way. So having realized the nature of all phenomena, then and that is, say, having eliminated all factors of unknowing from his own mind, then he becomes extremely skilled in means in leading his disciples along the path to liberation. So this is the third reason, the skill in means in leading the disciples along a path of liberation. So without skill and means, then we would be like a child who had lost his arms and he saw his mother fall into the water. And he had he’s very courageous, and he wants to free her, save her from from the from the water.
But he simply doesn’t have the means. He he’s lost his arms, and he can’t there’s no way that he can. On the other hand, having this caring for his mother who’s fallen in the water, but additionally having arms, then he can go on to save her from the water. And but additionally, he he has the quality of not holding some distant and others close. The the he has the quality of great compassion which extends equally to all living beings whether they’re humans or animals whether even to insects whether they’re loved ones or or strangers or enemies, that whosoever they may be, he does not hold he does not hold them at an equal at an unequal distance from him.
So if if someone fell If someone fell in the water and one the one had the ability to save them and that is they had some skill and means. So if someone were to have fallen in the water and the one had ability to save them, had the skill and means, but but lack compassion, then though one simply would not go into the water to to free them from this situation, though one would simply leave them there, though one had the ability. On the other end even if and it simply wouldn’t be enough to to stand on the shore and say, that’s a shame. That’s that’s really sad that that person is drowning in the water. One must actually go into the water have not only the abilities but also the compassion not only the compassion but also the abilities.
Then this so this quality of not holding some at a distance and others close extends to all living beings equally whoever the person might be if they’re in any way troubled then this the Buddha’s compassion extends toward them without differentiation wishing to free whoever the being may be, not holding some close and others at a distance. If we would hold some close and others at a distance, then we would help those we liked, and we would simply leave those we didn’t like to their own devices. We wouldn’t act as a refuge for all equally, whatever the quality of the individual, whether they were good or bad. So then the the fourth reason is making the Buddha a suitable object of refuge is that he he acts for the the welfare of all equally. And that is to say that whether someone benefits Buddha, whether they don’t benefit them, or even to the extent where they harm a Buddha, still he acts to to bring about their welfare.
He doesn’t differentiate in terms of he doesn’t have attachment or aversion. Attachment, you know, for those we have attachment, we have a liking for, and we will help them. On the other hand, those we have some aversion or indifference, then we simply, you know, for strangers or enemies, we will simply leave them aside. We wouldn’t go to their aid. But on the contrary, a Buddha, no matter whether they’re being benefited or not benefited or even the enemies who harm them, they still act to bring about their welfare.
So a Buddha works equally to bring about the welfare of of individuals whether they are of benefit to him or they do not benefit or in fact or indeed harm him. But what type of benefit or what type of welfare does he seek to bring about? It’s not a matter of simply, you know, giving giving them food or or some kind of physical helping him out physically or speaking sweetly to them, then in what way does a Buddha act to bring about the welfare of others? These individuals who are seeking a Buddha’s help have want to be freed from their fear of cyclic existence. And as a means to bring about the welfare of these individuals that leading them to guiding them into the means of abandoning cyclic existence and attaining liberation.
And that is through his teachings of the four noble truths on what is to be adopted and what is to be avoided. First, these these disciples generate their faith in the Dharma. They go on to study and meditate on it, gain realizations, abandon their various faults, bring to consummation their excellent qualities. And then it is by this means that a Buddha is able to lead an individual to liberation and bring about their welfare. So by way of a metaphor in terms of the nature of these various disciples.
It can be likened to whether a ripened or an unripened fruit. If we take for example, a mango, you know, when a a mango is is not ripe, it’s extremely tough. It’s very hard. And it it can’t it can’t be eaten. It doesn’t have any flavor.
And so this is very much like ourselves, an an an unripened mango That in terms of our the nature of our minds are very tough, and they’re full of afflictive we’re they’re bound up tight by afflictive emotions. And there’s a you know, we’re we have we have no compassion or no love. We don’t we’re full of attachments and angers and we have jealousy. And in terms of the six perfections for example, instead of generosity we have miserliness, instead of ethics we have a violent nature, instead of patience we are full of anger, instead of effort we have lots of laziness. Instead of meditative stabilizations, our minds are very unsteady.
Instead of wisdom, we have distorted views. So we are as like an unripe mango, which is very tough. But you can take this this unripened mango, and you can put it in hot water or wrapped in a warm cloth, and it will cause it it will ripen the mango. And once the mango is ripe, then it when you eat it, it’s extremely it has a very good taste. So the living beings, these sentient beings being like an unripened fruit, Buddhas and the bodhisattvas seek to ripen what is unripened.
So initially, the way they proceed is by the Buddha’s themselves practicing generosity toward these these sentient beings. And this makes them this makes them very happy. They they like being given things. And then they speak very sweetly in very kind ways. And again, the the minds of the living beings are pleased.
And this this brings the the the the disciples begin to gather around the Buddhas, and then then the Buddhas proceed to teach, telling them the the benefits of the practice of Dharma and the disadvantages of not practicing. And then and then explaining well what what is to be practiced. And in terms of the various the six perfections that in order to overcome their miserliness then they have to begin to they explain the faults of miserliness and the virtues of generosity and then going on to explain that through their harmful acts through harming others they are simply creating the prospects of a future bad migrations and and telling them the virtues of practicing ethics and the the negativities of anger and and harmful ways of being. And teaching them in terms of the perfection of joyous effort. And then teaching them the means of developing meditative stabilization, the means of developing wisdom, especially with respect to emptiness, the necessity to develop the wisdom of realizing emptiness.
Then so it is in this way that through these practice through these teachings on and the practice of the six perfections of generosity, ethics, tolerance, joyous effort, meditative stabilization and wisdom that the Buddhas ripened what was previously unripened like a fruit. And the ripening of this fruit is the liberation from cyclic existence, bringing the elimination of all various faults and bringing the consummation all the excellent qualities. And this is done by the means of the Four Noble Truths, the teachings on the Four Noble Truths. So it is by this means that the Buddhas are able to act as a refuge to their disciples by assisting them and gradually eliminating the faults from their mind generating excellent qualities. Leading them to a state where they have eliminated all their various faults, where they have brought to consummation all their excellent qualities.
That is this is is how they act as a refuge from suffering by by establishing the disciples in ultimate happiness. So the Buddhas have themselves removed all their various own faults and brought to consummation their own excellent qualities, and it is out of this that they’re able to lead others to that same state. Whereas the the bodhisattvas, they have not eliminated all their faults. They have not brought to consummation all their excellent qualities. So they are unable to bring their disciples to a state where this the disciples have eliminated all their various faults and brought to consummation all their excellent qualities.
One can only bring the disciples to the state of the same degree of qualities that oneself has. So our text that we’re looking at the commentary on valid cognition is a text which is common to both vehicles, common to both the individual vehicle that is to say the or the lesser vehicle the Hīnayāna and the universal vehicle, the great vehicle or the Mahāyāna. For example, contains elements of both the Sūtra school and the Mind Only school, and the Sūtra school being classified within the individual vehicle, the Mind Only school being classified in the universal vehicle. The second chapter of the commentary emphasizes the the former of these two, the the Sūtra School interpretation. But essentially, the commentary is setting up in terms of the Four Noble Truths what is to be adopted and what is to be avoided.
And therefore it is, this is the method whereby one can achieve liberation where one can eliminate one’s own suffering. So the Four Noble Truths contains all the important points. It is the the essence of practice in a in a abbreviated form. One who has seen the faults of cyclic existence who sees the suffering nature, develops an attitude longing to be free from cyclic existence. So such an individual who has generated this attitude in their mind is is an individual who who is striving for liberation.
For one who is striving for liberation, what what does that individual need to know? They must understand what is cyclic existence and what is the abandonment of cyclic existence being the nirvana or beyond sorrow. So why do we have to understand these two? It’s because we must we must see the faults of cyclic existence. That is say, identify what are the faults of cyclic existence if we’re going to develop a longing to be free from cyclic existence.
But on the other hand, we have to see that the qualities of liberation, seeing that seeing its nature as complete happiness, if we’re if on the other hand, we’re going to develop a striving, a longing for for liberation. So we have to see identify the faults of cyclic existence and the excellent qualities of of liberation. So these are extremely important. And why is that? If we understand what are the faults of cyclic existence, then we will be moved to implement the means, the methods to abandon cyclic existence to abandon these faults on the one hand.
And on the other if we see the the really excellent qualities of liberation, then we’re going to be moved to to make effort in practicing the means to achieve liberation. So without these two identifications, the faults of cyclic existence and the excellent qualities of liberation, we’re not going to without identifying them well, we are not going to be moved to put into practice the means to abandon one and attain the other. So, you know, this is applicable to any type of work that we involve ourselves in whether we we we run a business or we a restaurant, whatever. If if we see that there’s gonna be some profit, and we see what what kind of benefit can we derive, then we’re going to make a great deal of effort in the means to to achieve that that benefit, that profit. And on the other hand, if we see that in fact there’s nothing good to be gained from involving ourselves in this venture and we’re just going to drop it.
So this this same way of proceeding that we in which we operate in the world operates just equally within the sphere of Dharma. In the sense that if we