Dependent Origination

Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. On day two of a three-day teaching for young Tibetans, the Dalai Lama explores the philosophical and practical foundations of happiness through ethics, reasoning, and dependent origination. He begins by examining why humans suffer more than animals—our hopes and fears drive us to create endless problems—and argues that genuine happiness depends on knowing the causes of our unhappiness and systematically reducing them through understanding and moral training. He emphasizes secular ethics rooted in honesty and warm-heartedness, illustrating how integrity builds self-confidence while hypocrisy breeds fear and suspicion. Drawing on the text Drops for Nurturing Beings, he shows how developing knowledge, compassion, and altruism leads to peace of mind in this life and beyond, contrasting those who merely perform religious rituals without reasoning against those who examine teachings critically. He then introduces the Buddha’s central insight: dependent origination. Things exist only in dependence on causes, conditions, and conceptual designation—they have no independent, intrinsic nature. This understanding, which forms the heart of Nāgārjuna’s praise and Je Tsongkhapa’s commentary, undercuts both ignorance and selfish motivation, making compassion inevitable once we see how all beings are interconnected. The Dalai Lama closes by fielding questions on the lama as refuge and the relationship between Buddhist practice and worldly affairs, emphasizing that Buddhism rightly understood strengthens ethics in politics and economics.

File metadata (for organising)

File: Teachings on Buddhism for Young Tibetans at TCV; June 2, 2012 (Day 2 of 3) Vi….mp3

UUID: 59e4868f-e6d9-461d-aaf4-9ca36b420d24

Teacher: HH Dalai Lama

Collection: Dependent Origination

Date: 2012 (exact day not recorded)

Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide

Words: ~13,395

So today, the teaching will be, as I said yesterday, with praise to the Buddha for teaching dependent origination. The text that we went through yesterday Drops for Nurturing Beings. Any sentient being wishes for happiness, And in order to achieve, everyone has the right to achieve happiness. So everyone has the right to live a happy life. And as humans, we should use our the purpose of having this human intelligence is to solve problems in life and to achieve happiness.

But then this intelligence that we have as humans sometimes gives lots of hopes and fears within us. Because of our hopes and fears, people are unhappy. So people this is this because of this, people have the more number of suffering. The animals don’t have that much. Animals are satisfied when they get their food, and then this once they are satisfied with the food, then they they just live idly.

But and then when there’s no danger to their life but humans, because of our hopes and fears, we tend to create lots of problems to ourselves. So nurturing beings in the title doesn’t mean only nurturing the body, but the mind as well. So healing or, nurturing the mind means having a very peaceful mind, happy mind. So what you have to know here is what causes us unhappiness and then try to find the means by which you can achieve happiness. So when you take a medicine, for example, you have to first know what you are suffering from, kind of the disease or the sickness.

So without knowing the disease, just taking the medicine or just or when you are sick, if you without taking medicine and hoping to be cured, then this will not happen. So when you are unhappy, you have to find the causes and conditions which give rise to those states of mind. And then you try to reduce those causes and reduce unhappiness. So that less your unhappiness, you are unhappy, the happier you will be. So it’s not necessary that you have to have a blissful experience as such, but you can also have a neutral sort of experience whereby you are also very peaceful, calm.

So when you are happy, peace of you have peace of mind, and if you live your life, in this way, your your life will be meaningful. And this is the meaning of the purpose of the healing or nurturing. So recently when I was going from India to England, so perhaps it wasn’t that plane from India to in England. There was a passenger on the plane, a lady, and she showed me a picture of her son and a daughter. And she told me that this boy, her son was very unhappy helpless.

He was she said that the boy was helpless, feeling helpless and without any friends, so she asked me to pray for him. I told her it’s not going to help merely by praying for him. So the reason why he feels lonely and helpless is he should have self confidence. So when you lose your self confidence, then you feel helpless. You have no way to turn, nobody to turn to and put your hope in.

So you should have self confidence. You should have self confidence, I thought. So what the the main reason for that, the main method to for having self confidence is to be honest, not be critical, not not to be hypocritical doing something in front and saying something in front and doing something else at the back of others. So you have to be very honest, truthful Yes. And just.

And then you will be self confident. So if you are rather hypocritical, then you would somehow be concerned and worried. So the self confidence is the means by which you should develop. So honesty is the means to develop self confidence. So the we have to base our behavior and attitudes on secular ethics.

So which is, you say, to have warm heartedness. So whenever I tell people, the practice of Buddhism is that, ideally, you should help others. Even if you cannot help others, you should at least not harm them. So if you have a warm heart and an altruistic attitude, even though there may be some things or people, which may cause us fear or suspicion and so forth. These happen in relation to others.

So if you have warm heartedness, altruism, altruism, and feeling of closeness with them, then there is no reason why you should feel suspicious about them and fear them. So honesty, you should have, pride within yourself and, confidence. So if you’re honest, you have confidence, self confidence. So the root of this is to think of helping others. Of course, it will not happen automatically to us, but you have to, put effort and direct your minds towards that because we have this intelligence.

Yeah. And therefore, you have to see what is the advantage of being, altruistic and what is the disadvantage of being selfish and having so this is not something that the animals have. Śāntideva says all happiness in the world comes from helping others, thinking of wishing helping others, wishing to help others, and all suffering comes because of selfish motive. And therefore, warm heartedness to think of benefiting others. You have to have the confidence that this is the source of our happiness.

So when you harm others, it is actually with selfish motive that you want some happiness or something good. But if you think carefully, if you have you’ll know that you if you harm others, you’ll have the negative consequences. You’ll suffer them. Then you will have more enemies. Then you’ll have to you will have to suspect them.

So whatever others do to you from your side, if you think of helping others, then you will not regret. And without any regret, then you will have confidence within yourself to yourself. So you can be transparent, and you can be honest. So in the authoritarian societies like China, the authoritarian system like China, and they always tell lie wherever they go. At all times, they tell lie.

Many years ago, In the early years, I met some, Chinese students in Delhi, and they told me thAt this stage in China, we can’t actually express what we want want to say. So we have to suspect everybody. And then I have a friend, a Taiwanese friend. I asked him. So there may be tourists.

There are tourists, from the Mainland China coming to Taiwan and also business people coming to Taiwan. And so what do they feel? What is their impression of Taiwan? And the friend told me that these people from the Mainland China, when they have spent some time in Taiwan, they they tell me that they don’t have to fear anybody in this country. And so this is really good.

They feel very happy. And so they they say that in eventually, they may they will shift to move to Taiwan. So then most of the people who have wealth in China are people who are in the politburo members, like the leaders and who have authority. So people who are poor cannot really become wealthy. So many of these rich people send their money to foreign countries.

So what they what this shows is that China is not so stable for them in the future in the long run. Therefore, they are not They they send their money outside. So it is very important in human society to to have honesty, to to be honest. So that corruption and also the bullying, the higher ones bullying with the people with authority and so forth, bullying the the poorer ones is really sad. And so human happiness, the root of it I mean, it’s rooted in our mind, which is the peace of mind.

And you should have no suspicion and fear. And the the cause main cause for that is to have, the wish to help others, benefit others. And when you have this, then you will not have to suspect anybody. So the meaning of the Drops for Nurturing Beings, the the essence of the meaning in this text is this one. So it says in the text that you you should develop knowledge and good qualities and develop the a bit of altruistic attitude.

If you have this, then you will be happy in this life, and you will also be happy in this next lives. So you’ll be happy. Your friends, families, the society, communities will be happy. So if you have covetousness or malicious thoughts, then they will not be happy happiness in within yourself or family or or kins within a family. So if that happens, then, yeah, the family will not be happy.

So if you don’t have trust with each other, even if you take the same food from the same kitchen and so forth and live in the same house, they’ll without trust, there’s no happiness. I have friends who say they have they’re I mean, they who are very wealthy, but then in within their family, they don’t have happiness. So it’s important to have honesty, transparency, and truthful, then you’ll be happy. Individually, you’ll be happy, and then you’ll you will there’ll be happiness in the family and society. So this is not only me who’s talking about it, but to today in the world, there are many scientists and brain scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists and so forth.

They are talking about a moral crisis, the lack of morale moral ethics in society, and that’s creating moral crisis. So if you have to find the means to resolve this problem through based on religion, then it’s become becomes rather narrow approach. So we are talking about we are talking about a universal problem in the whole world. So you cannot solve this problem with just the by base basing yourself on some religion. So therefore, there is no other way of the but secular ethics.

And so when you talk about secular ethics, you don’t have to preach people like you preach religion. And so in the the Drops for Nurturing Beings, it says you have to develop knowledge. And therefore, you have to do something in the education system. So we talk a lot about hygiene, physical hygiene, and how to keep healthy physically. So there’s no reason why we should not also teach about healthy minds.

And So just as we educate people about how the keeping a healthy body, likewise, we can educate people about healthy minds. We had recently this conference with scientists with the the topic of the conference was healthy body, healthy mind. So in order to have healthy body, you should have healthy minds. This is the main the theme. So when your mind is totally disturbed, then you will not have physical health as well.

So there’s strong this makes a great different big difference. Healthy minds makes a big difference for healthy bodies. So we are not talking about reaching enlightenment with the hood, but we are talking about how to live a good life. So so from kindergarten, just as we have education, from kindergarten to university level, we have to have a curriculum for finding peace of mind. So we have I’ve talked about this with many people and there are people who are taking initiative in this.

And so for developing peace of mind, you cannot just say you have to pray, meditate on or cultivate, love and compassion. And so all the religions have been saying this for thousands of years. But the reason why we should develop love and compassion, this has to be introduced. The reason for developing this has to be taught to people. For Christians, of course, they have the they have created god.

So if you do that, like, in order to serve the the will of god, I mean, you have to practice love and compassion. That’s not very universal. But there are many people who who say who who claim to be religious, but then they’re in their day to day life. They are bullying others wherever they can and they are they indulge in corruption and so forth. So so what this shows is that you have not used reasoning to to practice love and compassion, but just left it at some kind of superficial level, what he said in the religion.

And How long their lives are? I’ve said to some Indians that in in their families, in their homes. They pray to Ganesh or Saraswati the Shiva, Brahma, and so forth. And so every morning, they make offerings of flowers and lamps and then sing praises and shlokas. But then many of them who do these things in the right in the morning at home indulge in corruption.

They indulge in this practice of dishonesty. So I jokingly tell them that when you perhaps those who are indulging corrupt those who are corrupted, I tell them that maybe when you in the morning when you make it, say, your prayers, you may be praying to your god in order to have success in your corruption. So how can this happen? Because gods that you believe in is the essence of god is love and compassion. How can so it’s not it’s going to happen for the peace of mind cannot just happen there by praying and doing some religious practice, but you have to use reasoning.

So this is what the Nālānda tradition of Buddhism does. If you look at Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra, of course, the the the different scholars

To say that such and such things are said by the Buddha, but then they base on the explanations on their reasoning and logic. So when I go to Delhi or some other places in Delhi and meet the Indian. So we I have discussed about, starting a curriculum for secular ethics, to develop, to cultivate love and compassion. So first of all, you have to know, I tell them, the the workings of the mind, the whole structure of the mind, like a map of mind. The the what the different what kind of different states of mind there are, the primary mind, mental factors, and then the conceptual mind and the sensory consciousness and so forth.

So these are actually found in our classical texts. So this is where we study about the the science of mind. And we can also find these things in Pramānavārttika. So we have to have first of all, have a map of minds, I usually tell them. So if we have to go from here to from India to America, then we have to know the route.

We have to have the map of the route. And then similarly, if you go on pilgrimage, you have to have a map that you can use to go to different places from one place to the next. So the goal is to have a society which is full of love and compassion, a loving and compassionate society. So in order to achieve that goal, we have to have to know the means by which, we can lead ourselves to that. Therefore, you have to have the, the map of mind For academics, this becomes an academic study.

So you have to have this map of mind. And then Then the various mental factors and the different emotions, conceptual thoughts, and sort of how they work. For example, anger is brought about by unhappiness. And how to overcome that, you have to know. So we are not talking about some kind of what we should adopt and religious idea about what what we should discard and what we should adopt.

So these are taught in the Pramānavārttika. And so in Tibetan Buddhism, we talk about the various degrees of subtlety of mind. And then in the Tantric text also, we have the states of mind at sleep, dream, waking state, and deep sleep, and so forth. So these can be used as subjects for research. So recently, was in, Austria, and meeting with meeting with some scientists.

So it would be it’s easy to check about the sensory perceptions. But then, if you check if you wish to check about mental consciousness, then perhaps it’ll be good to use this the dream state mind. Because at that stage, the sensory perceptions are no more working. And therefore, the brain parts which are related to sensory perceptions may be not working at the time. And therefore, during dream state, only the mind’s mental state is there.

So if you can check what changes are happening, when someone’s dreaming in the the brain, what changes are happening. And when somebody is actually experiencing smell or smelling and tasting some food and so forth in dream, what changes are going on in the brain should be checked. So so far, the scientists don’t make difference between distinction between the conceptual mind and non conceptual mind. So I say to them that it’s very important to make this distinction, to know the distinction. So I had this discussion with some Austrian scientists.

I know them from long time. I know one German professor scientist I know, very formula. He’s really a huge man with a huge nose. So we are very good friends, very close friends. So he was also there in the meeting.

So he said one time when we had a meeting in Dharmasala here, he drew a map of the my brain. And he told me that this the Christians and, of course, it’s not just the Christians, but also all the Hindus. They’re in in in the Sanskrit or Hindi, they use the term Atma. In Tibetan, we call it itself, which is separate, distinct from the five aggregates. So in other words, which has the characteristic of being permanent and changing unitary and autonomous.

So except Buddhism, other Buddhist religious traditions believe in this atma or soul in English. So this scientist, the German scientist, who, had who brought this map of brain, he said, when the my brain works, all the different parts of the brain work together on but there is nothing which is like a governor in the center of the brain at all, he said, which controls everything. So he said the the the idea of of the concept of the teaching of selflessness that is taught in Buddhism is really relevant here. So he said all the all parts of the brain work together. Of course, the brain there are different parts of the body like the visual cortex and so forth, and then there are the parts which work for, hearing and so forth.

But then when the brain works, he said, the brain whole brain works together. So recently when he was there, he was trying So he made the distinction between what appears to your, to your mind and how, someone can, bring up an ascertainment of a thing. So so he said, we are still not able to make a decisive conclusion there here, but we have to develop it further and further and do more research on it. So he said that we cannot explain. We only know a very small part of the workings of brain, and we it’s very difficult to know the working of the whole brain.

So yesterday, because of the question by some, one student, it reminded me of the Japanese, journalist. He said that the scientists have proved that there is no past and future lives. Decisively, they’ve proved. But then, I said, I have not really heard this, that the scientists have, decisively even proved that there is no past in future lives. But because it is something a topic which is hidden from them, which is, obscure to them yet, and therefore, to to someone who to whom for someone to whom the certain topic is not within the purview of research and you can they cannot actually prove it’s nonexistent.

Nonexistence. So this it’s, very difficult for the scientists to decide that there’s no past and future lives. As I said yesterday, I I know very famous, renowned scientists in, in the world, scientists who are renowned in the world who are rather unbiased, impartial. They don’t until they find a 100% certainty about something through their experiment and through search, they don’t make any decisions. But then there are some scientists who make decisions rather bitterly sometimes without really having the complete full knowledge.

So I was once in Russia. I met some Russian scientists and with there were some journalists also. And I also explained about the sensory perceptions and also sixth mind or the, mental consciousness. So those, scientists scientists the sign the Russian scientists said there’s no such thing as sixth mind. So what they were thinking of was they were thinking that when I said sixth mind, it meant soul.

So they were brought up under the communist regime. So when you put the on on on the eyes of the horse, this the So the real good scientists always are open to research. They don’t make decisions right away. No. So yesterday, his Holiness quoted the Buddha’s verse, oh, monks and scholars, just as a gold is tested by rubbing, cutting, and, burning, you should, test my teaching and not accept it out of your devotion to me.

So so whatever I have said, the Buddha has said that you should accept them after you find it, stand to the test of reasoning and your experience and experiments. And if something that I’ve said is not in accordance with reasoning and experience, then you should reject them. So even masters like Nāgārjuna and so forth have done this, taken this quote quotation that’s saying from the Buddha literally and have checked and examined the Buddha’s teaching. And if something is not standing up to test of reasoning, they rejected them, and they actually interpreted them as being interpretable. So I get up in the morning around 03:00, and then around until around seven or eight, I do lots of analysis in my mind.

So even though I am a Buddhist, I don’t accept the Mount Meru. So it is said in the text that the shadow of Mount Meru is something that we we experience. But then while we are said to be experiencing this shadow of it, then where the the what where the shadow comes from, the object itself is not seen, and that’s very difficult to accept. So otherwise, you would be just torturing yourself by accepting something which doesn’t test to the test test of reasoning. So in Tibetan, there’s a saying that do not argue with and do not bang your hand against a pillar.

So the question that somebody put yesterday about what I had said in the opening the eye of wisdom, I don’t I’m not accepting that now as being a reason to prove past life as such. Of course, there are imprints from the past life because of which people have all kinds of experiences in this life. So what I’ve said in the opening line of wisdom, actually, the source is Bhāvaviveka’s Essence of the Middle Way. So when scientists I knew, he is now dead. So he he said that the at that time, there were about 6,000,000,000 people on this earth.

And he said that just as there there are 6,000,000,000 human beings on earth, there will be diff 6,000,000,000 viewpoints on on one object from 6,000,000,000 people. So because when you go into the subtle levels of workings of the neurons and so forth, they are they are very different from individual to individual. So many of these things that scientists explain, which are considered to be mysterious. So perhaps they may be, because of because of our past imprints from the past lives. But when I talk with the scientists, I’m not talking about, I’m not mentioning to them that, about the power influence from the past life and such.

So whatever we can discuss, at the level of the scientists, the the field of, their research, I tell them. So we when I have discussions with scientists, I say that we are not discussing between Buddhism and science, but we are discussing something which is science taught in Buddhism and modern science. So they go into the past and future lives and so forth. This doesn’t come under the purview of scientific research yet, I tell them. So perhaps we are right now in the at a very beginning stage of doing some research on the mind, scientifically.

And, perhaps it’ll develop further in this century. And as they find more and more information, through their experiments and research, they may be able to find more and more information again. So we in Buddhism, there is there are four different reasonings or principles, such as the principle of reality or nature and principle of functioning and principle of logical reasoning. So the scientists are actually doing using the third one, the principle of logical reasoning. So we have to base our explanations on the teaching of the Buddha, and and the explication of the teaching of the Buddha should be based on the the writings of Nālānda masters.

Of course, it’s if you can’t actually take and study them, it’s your problem. But if you can, it really helps to open up your mind, your vision. So I when I give people presents of Buddha’s picture of a Buddha or the picture of the 17 Nālānda masters, I explain to them from the Buddhist point of view, of course, these great beings are are objects of reverence. But from generally speaking, you are still then that Buddha was a great philosopher and great thinker of India. And he bases his teachings on reasoning.

Mainly, he emphasizes on reasoning, and therefore, he was an an ancient Indian scientist as well. I tell them. We can call him. And Nāgārjuna was a great professor of Nālānda University. He was a great educated thinker.

So he never based himself on blind faith, but always tested the teachings of Buddha. And so, as I said, I talked about having moral principle, and the root of that the source of that is warm heartedness. And if you do if you act morally, then you will be at advantage. You’ll have profit. And if you do acting immorally, you’ll suffer.

So whoever we are, if we live a very moral and principled life, then you’ll be able to live a very happy life, a good life. Otherwise, not. If you live an immoral life, there’s no way you can actually be, live a very good life. So even if you think about one life, it’s important to live with morally. So for this, mainly what you need is education, knowledge.

So you have to build up moral principles through reasoning, not just blind faith. And therefore, in the text on logic and epistemology, there’s some mention of afflicted compassion, which is present even in the animals. So the animal, compassion, in the animals come from, the view of us, us clinging to a self and thinking about oneself. But usually, when I explain about compassion, there’s a level of compassion which extends to

On family members, relatives. So this is something which is oriented towards the others’ behavior. So when you have someone who actually is you you find them to be helpful to you, doing good, something nice to you, then you have love and compassion to them. So this is also biased and doesn’t extend it’s biased and doesn’t extend to others who are you consider to be your adversaries. So this is the other oriented, like, based on the action of the others.

So this is now even in the animals. So this is afflictive afflicted compassion and love. And similarly, you can have afflicted faith and afflicted loving kindness or affection. So these are biased and partial. So these are rooted in our self, grasping attitude.

Now the unbiased kind of, love and compassion is not based on biological factors. So there is a seed in us biologically. We have a seed for compassion and love. But then this has to be nurtured with the help of our wisdom and discernment. And we have to develop it into that universal kind of impartial love and compassion.

So this comes through training your mind, and you will be able to develop through by using your reasoning this kind of impartial love and compassion. So this doesn’t depend on what others how others react to you or how what others do to you as such. So although somebody may be doing something that’s maybe doing something to, like, try to harm you or something. But then because everyone like yourself don’t want suffering but wants happiness, and therefore you can extend this kind of impartial love to them as well who try to harm you. So this kind of love and compassion is very, advantageous in the long run as well.

And so this can be done, not by animals but humans alone. So, of course, we can talk about deities, demi-gods, and spirits and so forth, but those are different cases. So the the part the partial love and compassion is oriented towards other others’ behavior to you, whereas the universal one is not so. So whether you are religious or not, doesn’t matter. You can develop this kind of impartial universal love and compassion.

So we talk about world peace. How do we actually bring about bring it about? So how can you how can you actually develop the universe world peace just by having some function and releasing some doves like in they do in North Korea. So we did this this one time also. It seems like we are actually torturing the doves when you do this.

So when you release these doves amongst a big crowd, I mean, they are actually so anxious that they can’t they they can’t fly. And so one time this was done in a function and one act one of the doves actually landed on my shoulder. So we want world happiness, but then we are disturbing the peace of the mind of these doves. So that’s very silly to do. So we have to bring about peace within our mind.

So I have a story to tell. During the Soviet Union times, and I met some journalists in Moscow. So they they were actually putting this word in my mouth, peace loving country. Be before nineteen fifth seventy nine it was. I had visited other western countries and I knew by then of many things.

And none of the Western countries were not preparing to to actually launch a war against the Soviet Union. But the Soviet Union was actually preparing to have a war against the other countries. So the the journalist tried to put this word in my mouth, peace loving country. They he wanted to the me to say that Russia, Soviet Union was a peace loving country. He tried so many times to put this word in my mouth, I never uttered that.

And so he became angry. So I it’s I mean, if he became angry, it’s his problem. And I was going to come back to India. So if we talk about if we it it will not help just by talking about peace in the world, even if we may say it hundreds of times. So what we have to do is develop love and compassion.

If you have this, then nobody will dislike it. So if you have love and compassion, you will not react brutally when someone says something against your opinion. So in China, they talk about, really punishing very gravely when somebody does something, that they consider to be negative. So they use very brutal languages, harsh languages. And so they are, of course, they are object of our compassion if you really think carefully.

And they also tell lies a lot. They they want to present them to, present themselves to be really nice in front of others, but then they tell lots of lie. So they have to actually hide. So it’s like the cats doing poo poo somewhere and then covering it with earth. They have to hide their lies and so forth.

So we have to build world peace through by building up love and compassion. Maybe this is not related to what I want to say now, but I it doesn’t matter. Now in 1935, I was born. I was born and and at that time in China, China was all already China had suffered the Japanese invasion. And then around 1930 1938 or so forth, 1939, then there was the World War, Second World War.

And then around ’45 in 1945, the two atomic atom bombs were used on Japan. So one atom bomb killed hundreds of thousand people. So once I visited the museum of the atomic bomb in here Hiroshi Hiroshima or some way, So there was a clock, a wristwatch. So it was it had stopped at 10:00. So the clock the the watch got burnt completely and stopped working.

At that time, it was 10:00 then when the bomb was thrown. And then there were many needles which had already melted and bundled together. So it’s it’s really amazing. And I also met some victims, survivors of the second bullet bomb, so it was really sad. And then later on, after the second World War, there was the Korean War, then Vietnamese War happened.

And then beginning of this is the beginning of this twenty first century, there was the Iraq war and then in Afghanistan. And then you have this talk about terrorism. So it’s almost the whole of my life, there I saw all these terrible things happening in the world, violence. So the twentieth century was a century of great, prosperity in science and, development in science and technology and education. But then these have advancements have been directed or diverted towards destruction building of destructive weapons.

So September 11 incidents in the New York, two airplanes were used to as weapons. So to destroy two two buildings. So while there has been technology and and science advancement in them, but and to our human intelligence also have been have really developed so much. I mean, you people used passenger airplanes, commercial airplanes to which have which are full of, with, fuel. So they they actually calculated very well all these things that these planes, if they’re used at such and such time, they, it’s full of fuel, and they they they were not the people who used them were not fools foolish, but they are really intelligent people.

But then what they did was without having any kind of compassion towards anybody. They they were angry at America and the American doings in Iran and Iraq and France and so forth. And so the but then what they, actually did was destroy two buildings, and many people also died. They couldn’t think about those, harming so many people. So I usually say that the twenty first twentieth century is a century of great, advancements in science and technology.

But then it has become a century of bloodshed warfare. And some historians say that in the twentieth century, there two two hundred million people were killed through war and battles. So having done that, if there had been, if we have if we have been able to bring about a peaceful world by doing all these violent, things, then, of course, it may be justified, but this is not the case. So the turn the twentieth century, people have resorted to using weapons when there was some trouble immediately using weapons. So I usually say that this century, the twenty first century, has to be we have to make it at 20 this century a peaceful century, nonviolent century.

Of course, there will be problems and but then we have to we should not use force to overcome the problems and thinking I of winning and having victory for yourself but defeating others. So we should also have dialogue to resolve the problems. So this twenty first century century should be a century of dialogue. I usually tell this. Many people like this idea.

So this is something if we put effort, this is something we can actually achieve. So for to achieve this goal, we need the it is rooted in thinking of benefiting others. So this is the essence what I’ve been saying so far is about the essence of is the essence of Drops for Nurturing Beings to build morality, honesty. And for that, you have to use our intelligence or discernment and wisdom. So now we have come to the point of in introducing the teaching of the Buddha based on the in praise to the Buddha for teaching dependent origination.

So there are four vehicles which are mentioned in the sutras, the vehicle of the, humans and gods, the vehicle of Brahma, the vehicle of Shravakas, the Pratyekabuddhas, and the vehicle of bodhisattvas. So most of the religious traditions in the world come under the first category, how people can live a good life in this life in this world and how people can reach heaven and so forth. So these have to do with the vehicle of humans and gods. And then the Brahma vehicle is is about the hin the tradition of the Hindu where they have teachings or the practice of Shamatha and Vipashyana. And then the Śrāvakayāna and Pratyekabuddhayāna have to do with those who wish to reach the enlightenment or or nirvana for their own sake.

And then the the fourth vehicle, the bodhisattva vehicle or Bodhisattvayāna, is to do with basing oneself on the altruistic intention to help all of the sentient beings and doing the practice of the six perfections. So within this, there are the sūtra and tantra traditions or systems. So these so this is like a summary, the summation of the for the whole of the religious traditions from which the Buddha has done. So with regards to the teaching of the Buddha, which teaches selflessness. The Buddha first gave teaching on the four noble truths, which shows that suffering comes from causes.

So in order to overcome it, you have to show a result to the means by which is overcome. The Buddha said, the, the great sages, the mighty sages, do not wash away the sins of sentient beings, and they do not, take away the sins, the suffering of sentient beings. So the suffering which have come, which are, caused by, the, common afflictive emotions And the Buddhas do not transpose their own realizations into others. So this is not the way Buddhas can help sentient beings to reach liberation. So there’s no way Buddhas can gift it to them, the essential things.

Buddhas cannot give the nirvana or liberation or cessation true cessation and the path that leads us to to cessation that are within themselves into others’ mind. But how do Buddha’s help sentient beings is by showing the path, which in the beginning he himself learned by reading texts and also by listening to other’s teachings. And this is not so stable knowledge. Your your knowledge that you gained by reading some book or by listening to other’s teaching it’s not so stable. But then what you have to use is your reflection.

So as I mentioned earlier, the four principles of the the reasoning of nature and the logical argument and so forth. So you have to use reasoning to have the inferential cognitions that you develop through reasoning. Finally, has to reach intuitive knowledge. So this what scientists do is they they try and x check what is obvious to the sensory perceptions and then they try to infer things which are beyond the senses. In Buddhism, we use our experience.

So this shows that we are actually using our own experience, the intuition. So by using our reasoning logic, and when you gain some certitude about some points, that is what we call inferential cognition. So in your school, you do you study different text, the different subjects. And then the the teachers, of course, teach you and you read your book. And then that knowledge that you get have gained is just knowledge gained through hearing or or studying.

But then you read more books and you try to gain certitude about the different points of the subjects. And that is when you gain some certitude about them, when you find, oh, this is this. This should be this and through reasoning, then you use

Your reflection or contemplation. So merely remaining at the first level of hearing will not be so stable because when somebody else says something else, you’ll be diverted towards that kind of belief. And you’ll not be able to stand to your own ground. Whereas, if you use your reflection reasoning and then gain certitude, then you will not be swayed by others’ reasonings because you are sure that this is this way. And then having developed this kind of wisdom or the the developed through reflection, then you have the inferential cognition.

So for example, if I think about emptiness, first I hear, teaching on emptiness, and then I, think about it to reflect on it, the teachings. So I’m not being audacious here, but I began to take interest in emptiness around the time when I was about 16 or something. Amongst my assistants in debate, there was Nguto Sönam, who was a Mongolian scholar, really good scholar. So between him and me, we had some agreement after the So we made an agreement to study in detail, Tsongkhapa’s Essence of Fine Sayings. On the text on interpretable ends, the provisional meanings of the teaching of Buddha.

So I but after my after my examination Geshe examination, the the situation in Tibet completely changed, of course. And then I told this monk to go to Sera. And then there was Minya Lobsang also, who also was in the same Geshe examination as me. So if he had been able to escape into India, he would have been great. So so his name was Lobsang from the Minya Khangtsen.

Loseling from Loseling, Je Loseling. Is there anyone from Loseling Minya Council? So Setrap was the protector, dharma protector of this continent, Damchen Dorje Legpa. And so, He from Budje did some divination test, in front of Setrap, this dharma protector, whether he should escape to flee to India or flee to Tibet or not. And, in front of this, Setrap, a protector, the Oracle, and the the the divination came that he should not flee to India.

But then, a Tārā divination actually decided otherwise. So it had been better that he escaped to, into exile. So this this great master scholar, I really feel, sorry for having lost all these great, scholars from Minya Khangtsen of Loseling. So since the age of 16, I really took, some interest in, emptiness. And then at the age of 24, I reached India in exile.

And then around the, late twenties and thirties, I really, reflected on emptiness. So perhaps I can, presume that I, I can, kind of, say that, I may have realized the gross level of the personal selflessness. But then with regards to the subtle one, I’m I think that I may be tending towards the their insight into the subtle selflessness of persons. Unless I do not do some analysis. But if I do analysis, when I think whenever there’s this word, I made a lama sit on my or, on the lotus at my heart and so forth.

I well, I tend to think about this I. I can kind of come to some kind of understanding of selflessness of this I. So yesterday, there was a question about self. So you have to develop this experience through by by contemplating on these kind of things over and over again. So around my forties, I could kind of gain some kind of understanding or insight into the selflessness, and I could see that this this through this understanding and insight into emptiness, one would be able to reach nirvana.

And so I thought that, in around that time that if I reach nirvana, then I would really take a long rest. But then in 1967, I received teachings on the Bodhicaryāvatāra by Śāntideva from Khunu Lama Rinpoche Tenzin Gyaltsen. And this after this teaching then, I could really make some feel some change in my mind about bodhicitta. And then I could actually feel, the courage to develop it and And this prayer which says, as long as space endures, as long as sentient beings remain, may I do remain to the and to dispel the suffering of beings. I mean, when I say this prayer, it really gives me inspiration, great inspiration.

And also, I really like this prayer in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, which intelligent one would feel despondent thinking about bodhisattva. I recently received some message about a lama who has said that he he had said that he was going to thinking of taking rebirth in Sukhāvati or some paradise. And I thought, what use is that? The reincarnation of the lama is supposed to be helping other sentient beings who are suffering. So why think about being born in some pure land?

And in the life story of the first Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub, there is this mention that, some students told him that, you have prophecies that you will be born in some, in some, pure land, Sukhāvati, and, you may have lots of signs and indications for that. And then Gendun Drub’s response for that was, don’t expect to be. I’m not thinking of the of being born in Sukhāvati or some pure land. My intention is to be able to help other suffering sentient beings as much as I can. I’m not thinking about.

So I’m not boasting about it. So what I’m trying to say here to you is that I can I have found that there are many different experiences can actually happen to oneself in my own life? Man, for example, about the the experience of emptiness and also about bodhicitta, this altruistic intention to become a buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings. If you have to think about what you are studying and you have to actually reflect on them, think of them over and over again. So what happens is we have this because of our selfish motive, think only about one’s own welfare and well-being, we have all kinds of problems.

And therefore, you have to see the disadvantage of this selfish motive. So may my body and to all the resources that I’ve gained in the three realms, may I dedicate them for the for the benefit of all sentient beings. So this is in that prayer, which is called the Lama Choepa. And when I when I’m when I was when I’m unable to recite these lines, don’t think that I don’t do the Lama Choepa guru yoga every day. I do it.

So maybe some of my friends here may would think that his holiness maybe not doing the six-session guru yoga every day. So your body, speech, mind are dedicated for the well-being of others. So this helps to build your courage, determination to help others. And so with this, it helps to be transparent, to be truthful. So if you really could give thoughts to what you study, you can build experience.

Of course, meditation regarding meditation, I do not have so I can actually take make excuse that I have no time to meditate. Otherwise, I would be in trouble. I have a friend, American. So for the last thirty to forty thirty or forty years, he has been meditating. And some years ago, he was he does a deity yoga practice, and he said that he was he’s able to stay on one focus single pointedly for three hours or so without distraction.

So when he actually focuses his mind on one point in the body, he could also experience the dissolution processes of the the earth, water, fire, and wind energies dissolving one into the other. So he well, he has this kind of experience as as it is mentioned in the Guhyasamāja Tantra. And Je Rinpoche’s Rim Ngabpa and Rim Selton and all these commentaries that on the five stages of the the with how much completion stage make these experiences rather fresh if you look read them. So I have an American friend who helps people to meditate single pointed. And he meditates on the seven 37 factors leading to enlightenment.

Some, of them have experience of being able to stay on one focus without distraction for four hours. So I have told some scientists that they should actually check these people with the permission of of the practitioners themselves, of course. So if you meditate, it is possible to build a single pointed concentration. So as this American guy has said, I mean, you can actually have the experiences which are given in the text. And then with regard to bodhicitta, you can see how this holding others more dear than oneself, will you be able to, win the battle against selfish motive, self-cherishing attitude.

I’m telling you this is from my experience, not that, these these things have happened in the past. Some and then all of us have Buddha potential to become a Buddha, buddha nature. And we also have this self-cherishing attitude. So we have to develop this cherishing others further and further. And we also have to develop this critical mind which checks about the reality of things further and further.

It’s we should not leave. We should think that there’s things that are taught in the text are just not real experiences, but words. So some Tibetan who had come from Tibet recently, When they when he saw some monks debating, he said that, oh, you’re always talking about some things that are not really there. You’re talking about things that are nonexistent. And then a story goes that one lama was giving a teaching, and one of the peep people in the audience asked, where is the Buddha whom you consider to be very sacred sacred?

And then the lama who was on the throne giving to teaching, where is the Buddha when this question was asked? And he had no answer because he was not really well educated. If he were educated, he would be able to give answer to this like it is taught in this Prajñāpāramitā Sutras where it says that the mind is not within the mind itself, but the nature of mind is clear light. And so when the audience asked the question, perhaps the lama didn’t know. Perhaps he knew but he didn’t actually answer give the answer, the correct answer.

But perhaps, most probably, he didn’t know. So the answer he gave us, up there in the azure heaven in a crystal palace that Buddha resides there. So many of us actually pray, I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, but we don’t really know the meaning. One time I went to Spiti. We had to pass this Rohtang La, this high mountain pass, and then we took a rest in a village.

I think it’s Sisu or something. And then I met the villagers there. I told them we are all Buddhist, aren’t we? They said, yes. I said, what is Buddhism?

They said, taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. I said, yes. That’s right. But then what is Buddha? They said they don’t didn’t know.

In that case, Buddha is the Buddha and Brahma, Shiva, are they all same? They said, yes. This shows lack of knowledge, their ignorance. But they have faith. Although they they have faith, they don’t actually study about what the Buddha is, who the Buddha is, who the Dharma is, and so forth.

Even the although there are monks, even though there may be monks in some villages, and those monks actually do this, all kinds of rituals and not try to explain to other people. So people go to some teachers, some lamas or monks. We have these texts for more divination, throwing dice or something. And, the text themselves don’t mention about, according to the number of the dice, the holes and the dice, The there’s no mention of meditating on love, compassion, emptiness, and so forth, but, the lamas talk about doing all kinds of, prayers to overcome this and that spirit and so forth. So what I was saying earlier was the four noble truths.

So there’s a two set of causality. One is the the causality in terms of how we are let into saṃsāra and have we have suffering. And the other causality is how we are let out of saṃsāra to the part of the true path. And then the with regard to the working of these, causality of, the how we are let into saṃsāra and how we are let out of saṃsāra, a more detailed explanation is given through the teaching of the four 12 links of dependent origination where you have the the the first link as ignorance, which gives rise to the second link, the condition the formations and then this consciousness and so forth. And then in order to overcome this chain, break the chain of suffering, you have to meditate on selfless and so forth, thereby, you actually reverse the whole order.

And you overcome ignorance, which will cut the next chain and the rest. So this teaching on the dependent origination is also found in the Pāli tradition. But then when you go deeper into this

Causality. The dependence in terms of causality, you come to the most subtle one. So using this as the reasoning, the causality dependence of causality, then you come to the conclusion that things are only dependent arising to each other, and therefore nothing can be possible without relation to others. So the, dependence by designation is the final point where, everything comes down to. And Buddha has said what comes through conditions whatever comes through conditions, there’s no, birth in it.

Nature of birth is not there in it. And whoever understands this conditionality is, wise. And Master Nāgārjuna says what is dependent is said to be empty, and that itself is to tend to be designated. And this is the path, the the middle path. And Āryadeva also says the same thing.

And then Shāntarakshita has written the Tattvasangraha. And to this, Kamalaśīla has written a commentary. But he says, by understanding the dependent origination, one actually engages in the practices which leads to a higher rebirth. And then understanding the dependence in terms of designation, one develops the understanding of how things are only dependent and therefore one can overcome, the ignorance about the reality of things and lead oneself to liberation. So by thinking about and, reflecting on and practicing doing practices based on understanding of law of causality, you create a causes for higher rebirth, Whereas by, thinking about and studying and thinking or reflecting on and meditating on the, the dependence in terms of how things are only related, merely designated, then it helps to, go out of saṃsāra reaching nirvana.

And with the help of bodhicitta, that understanding itself can lead you to omniscient state of buddhahood. So if you are asked what buddhism is about, you can answer by saying that, buddhism is, teaches, as its philosophical view, there is dependent origination and then as its ethical practice, it has a practice it teaches the practice of non violence. So this non violence practice of non violence is based on the understanding of dependence nature of things. So it’s not just that because if you harm others, then, yeah, it’ll hurt the buddha. Not like that.

But because by harming others, you have you will have the negative consequences from that. And therefore, because you don’t want suffering, and therefore you should harm others and you should have, avoid, harming others. So if you wish to help others, whatever problems and challenges you may face, you should have this courage which is helped by bodhicitta. So this should maybe it can be helped by the understanding of emptiness. This is very clear in Nāgārjuna’s Bodhicitta Vivarana, commentary on the bodhicitta.

So he says that, once you understand how things really exist, that they do not have any intrinsic nature, that everything is empty of intrinsic nature, then they will naturally, you will naturally, there will be an upsurge of compassion towards, the sentient beings. This is, of course, in relation to, disciples who are of sharp faculty. So what you have to to understand is that the ignorance should be overcome by developing the understanding of emptiness. And then, therefore, you have to understand emptiness and then, finds the possibility, find that the nirvana and omniscient state of buddhahood and so forth are possible because you have the antidote against the root of all these problems, the saṃsāra and the cognitive obscuration, which is ignorance. Ignorance about the reality of things.

And this can be overcome through the understanding of emptiness. So ignorance also gives rise to attachment and aversion. So how do you overcome ignorance? So Āryadeva says that one should put all one’s effort in understanding emptiness, gaining insight into emptiness because but if you understand the dependent nature of things, how things arise, in dependence on other factors, then you will be, the the ignorance will not arise. In the sixties, one lama, Geshe Jampa Gyatso, was, went to France.

And at that time, when he was going to before he went to France, I had met him. And he told me later that in the sixties, he told me that, I had told him that to teach the Lam Rim from the end, from the, the the the insight part of, beginning with the insight part. So it seems I I was quite intelligent even at those times. So we saw this quoting from Shāntarakshita’s Tattvasangraha where he talks about how the the followers within the amongst the Buddha’s teachings. There are two different kinds of followers, one with sharp intelligence, one with dull intelligence.

Those with sharp intelligence first find out the reality of the teaching the the truth about the teaching of the buddha through reasoning and try to understand emptiness and then develop bodhicitta based on the understanding of emptiness and then go forwards in their path. Whereas the those with dull faculty do otherwise. They first develop bodhicitta and then try to develop the understanding of emptiness and then progress on the path. So with regard to Je Rinpoche, of course, he received his upasaka vows of precepts from Karmapa Rolpe Dorje, the fourth Karmapa in Amdo. And he took refuge in the Buddha, of course, he’s he had been seen.

Said in this text That until he really understood the, the, deep meaning of, dependent origination, emptiness, he had not seen the qualities of the Buddha. So his his faith reason based faith in the Buddha must have come through his understanding of emptiness. So he didn’t actually write this text, the praise to the Buddha for teaching dependent origination, like composing some text purposely, but it’s just was an extemporaneous kind of composition after gaining insight into emptiness on that morning. So in the Nyingma tradition, we have the great master, Longchen Rabjampa. His writings are marvelous.

But then when it comes to teaching on the suchness or the reality of how things arise through dependence is not so elaborate and not so clear. And similarly, with regard to Sakya Pandita and to other Sakya masters, there have been so many of them. So, it’s very difficult to find texts which, written by them where you find very clear, presentation of how, things are dependently originated. But Je Tsongkhapa’s texts are very, very unique in terms of this kind of explanation on this dependent origination of things. And Mipam Rinpoche has made a praise of Je Rinpoche Tsongkhapa, and he has written a praise of Tsongkhapa based on his teaching on the teaching on dependence origination.

So this shows how, of course, Mipam Rinpoche himself has some criticism of the Tsongkhapa. But then, yeah, he also found great qualities in Tsongkhapa in terms of his teaching on dependent origination. And from the point of view of teaching this, he praised Tsongkhapa. So I have received the teaching on this text by Tsongkhapa. I received the oral teaching from Gendun Chophel Thubten, one of the Khenpo masters from Khenpo.

So he had heard it from Kangsar Dorje Chang. I’m not very clear, but perhaps he this I’m not certain how many transmissions removed? So in this text, there is one there there are two verses, which are the verses of salutation from of Nāgārjuna. So which is the the verses for homage of homage to the Buddha for teaching the dependent origination free from the eight extremes. So he was praising the Buddha, paying homage to the Buddha.

Then he who here, shows. In Tibetan, it’s a generic term. So the meaning could be explained by context. So here, what it says is that someone who has seen the meaning or the the the the the that of dependent origination and taught it accordingly from according to his own experience from his own experience without relying on others autonomously. So someone who has taught this, it shows that.

Alright. Both to him, oh, conqueror, you who saw dependent origination taught it. So I find the wording means is better because the reality of dependent origination the suchness of dependent origination because it’s the connotation would is that that of understanding of emptiness from the point of view of the Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka. Saying that if you don’t have the understanding of the real nature of things, even if you may train yourself in bodhicitta and renunciation, you will not be able to, overcome, to cut the root of saṃsāra. And therefore, says he advises us to develop this insight into the dependent origination of things, dependent arising.

So the understanding of So emptiness and dependent origination complement each other, but this complementarity doesn’t mean that one is the meaning and the one is the object nor it’s it’s like when you understand emptiness that the dependent origination is implicitly kind of understood. It’s not like that. But when you understand that things are dependently originated, then that destroys the objectification of things and thereby you come to the conclusion that things are empty. So it’s a very, very difficult thing. If I could push myself, it’s very difficult to gain insight into what Tsongkhapa has said about without alternating between the dependent the origination and the causality of things and and emptiness, you know, when one when it comes to when one sees the dependent origination, if one is able to gain and the insight into emptiness, then one has actually completed the analysis into emptiness or dependent origination.

So with regard to emptiness, Nāgārjuna didn’t write his book as a PhD kind of thesis when he wrote about emptiness. And Buddha also didn’t teach. Form is empty. Emptiness is form. Form is not other than emptiness.

Emptiness is not other than form without any meaning. Why he taught this is because of the root of suffer or delusions, which is the total confusion about the reality of things or ignorance, the fundamental ignorance, which give rise to other afflictions and emotion disturbing conceptions, emotions, and which give rise to creation of karma and through which we suffer. So in Buddhism, when it says and it’s that the root of suffering is ignorance. It’s something great. No other religious tradition says this.

So this is true. So we all don’t want suffering. We all want happiness. But we have suffering. Why?

Because of our ignorance. So with regard to ignorance, there’s ignorance about law of causality, which is further rooted in the ignorance about the reality of things. So even if you understand the law of causality and you may be able to overcome ignorance about the law of causality, you you are still left with the understand the ignorance about the reality of things as they are. And therefore, if you are able to overcome the later ignorance, which is ignorance about reality, then you will be able to overcome the real ignorance about causality as well. So we are on verse number three.

So the reason why the Buddha is the knower the supreme and teacher supreme or an excelled teacher and knower is because of his understanding of emptiness, teaching on emptiness. Of course, in order to reach omniscient state of buddhahood, you have to have bodhicitta, but this helps to be helped with by understanding of emptiness. So what is the meaning of dependent origination is shown by verse number five. What whatsoever depends on conditions that is devoid of intrinsic existence. What excellent instruction can there be more amazing than this proclamation?

So our suffering and happiness come from causes and conditions. Even animals are aware of this. So this kind of gross level of the working of causality is even known the animals are aware. So when you are hungry, you know that it has to be overcome by eating food. So you can’t meditate on food in order to overcome hunger.

And by making some prayer

You cannot get rid of it. Hunger. So in the the sixties, some Chinese jail guards have told some Tibetans that you don’t have to eat food. You can just make your prayers to your Buddha and so forth. So so this is something that even animals know.

It’s something that even animals know that to to overcome their hunger, they have to eat some food. So effects are dependent on the causes. We make this decision between cause and effect. And when we look at them, how do they appear to us? When we think about something as being, like, you have a a fruit, you you will say, oh, this is a result.

So when when this fruit appears as a fruit or the result and effect of something, We there is this appearance that the the fruit is out there as an as an entity which is not dependent on others. But the fruit is dependent on other conditions. And then you can talk about the different the the the fruit as a whole and having its different parts. It’s peeled, the the inside, the pits, the the seed, and everything together. If you break up this fruit into pieces, then you will not have anything to point to as that pinpoint as that fruit.

You see me. You hear me. You see my body form. So if you ask whose voice is this, you’ll see it’s it’s all in this Dalai Lama’s, big shoes and khatag, voice, and body. But which is that, the big shoes, Is it the body or the mind or what?

And then with regard to his body, all the different parts of the body put together makes somebody’s body. So if you take apart the limbs, the head, and then break these parts into smaller parts and so forth, you will not be have anything that you can point as being the body of the person as such. So we we can talk about a valid bases of designation of something, but that has to do that validity has to do with a language or a concept that actually validates it. So things that the the body is designated on on the basis on and dependence upon many different parts of it. So when things have come together to make something an entity, and then you have, at that point, a basis for designating such and such.

So you have only that way of existence of things, conventionality of things. So apart from this conventional way of existing things, there’s nothing which exists, I mean, solidly from their own side as such objectively. And so whatever is dependent on causes and conditions, what it shows is that it’s dependent it’s contingent upon others. Because it’s contingent, therefore, we can talk about its dependence on causes and conditions. And therefore because it’s dependent, it is it lacks independence independent existence.

And therefore, they are merely designated, merely nominal. And so but then when things appear to us, they don’t appear as being merely nominal or designated. We tend to believe there is this appearance of things having some kind of a solid existence from their own side. And then we have the sense of I. And then we think of my body, my then further you extend it towards your my relatives, family, my friends, and so forth.

And so in this way, you create causes for karma. Verse number six, by grasping at at the childish strength in bondage to extreme views. For the wise, the the very face, where the fact is the doorway to cut free the nets of creed aberrations. Verse number eight. Finished.

So there are philosophical systems schools which believe that things have true existence, objective existence. So things have some essence in them because they say that we can talk about the causes and conditions. Each and everything has their own causes and conditions. And because of this, they say, it’s not merely conceptually designated or imputed, but the causes themselves give rise to their effects. And so they say so they say that it’s things don’t exist merely because of our thought, our conception.

But, of course, when PraPrasangika Madhyamaka says that everything is merely conceptually designated, they don’t mean that we whatever things can be there, whatever we think of them as such. So our thoughts don’t make things as such. So because the lower schools of TENET understand what the but for Prāsaṇgika people say wrongly, they say they say that if things are merely imputed, then we could have anything by thinking about anything. So what the reasoning that the other schools use to prove that there is some objective existence and true existence of things, that very reasoning, the Prāsaṇgika uses to prove that there is no intrinsic existence. So this is what the Buddha has taught, and only the Buddha has sent the true meaning of dependence arising.

While things are empty of dependent empty of intrinsic nature, they are also dependent on other factors. So because they are dependent, they are they lack any intrinsic existence. And therefore, when you you can say that they are like illusion. So in the in verse number eight, it says that one Buddha was a wondrous teacher, and he is the wondrous refuge because he has given teachings. He has introduced us to the causes which lead us to this the fearsome saṃsāra and the antidote to go out of the saṃsāra.

So he is the wondrous wondrous refuge because he has he leads us out of both the extreme of saṃsāra and nirvana. Some in the extreme of nirvana here means that you are not left only in the peaceful state of nirvana as those of the but he leads you even out of that and leads you to buddhahood. And Buddha Nāgārjuna and so forth have not just taken the teaching of the Buddha on faith alone, but they say you have to use reasoning. And therefore, the Buddha is a wondrous speaker because of teaching us to analyze things. And the understanding of dependent arising of dependent origination also through this understanding, we can see that it’s related to our own experience, the environment, and others.

We talk about happiness, well-being, and so forth. But this has to also come in dependence on external factors as well. Therefore, we have to take care of the environment as well. The global economy also, we can explain it in terms of dependent interdependent origination and health also likewise. So everything is related, connected, and dependent on on each other.

So, of course, this concept of dependent origination comes from Buddhism, but then you can apply it in any kind of field of study, whether it’s economy, societal societal problems, or global climate and so forth. So many, scientists, my friend scientists really like this idea of dependent origination. This is really great, they say. So one scientist, a very renowned one I asked him, do you use this term dependent origination in science? So he says it’s not there, but it has actually come to be used in science science.

And it actually he said that this term dependent origination has won a seat in the scientific world. So I have to meet some other people there. And then tomorrow, we’ll have Mañjuśrī blessing of Mañjuśrī, Wrathful Mañjuśrī. So we’ll before leaving, we’ll have one question. I’ll take one question.

In Buddhism, we believe in three objects of refuge. But when we say the prayer of refuge, we say, I take refuge in the lama also. There’s fourth refuge. What what is the reason for that? So Buddha is someone who has overcome both the obscurations or defilements.

And then the Sangha is someone who has the experience of experience of emptiness, direct emptiness, experience direct experience of emptiness. Someone who has the direct experience of emptiness is called a Sangha jewel. So Buddha and Ārya beings, the Sanghas, come through the practice of the Dharma. So for us also, this has to be the case. We have to become a Sangha and a buddha finally by applying the teaching and practicing it.

So you have to practice it before you are on the path of accumulation and then progressing on, onwards from there. So in order for us to practice the Dharma and to, to study about it and to know the teachings, we have to have somebody to show us. So for us, the lama is our source of the teachings. He introduces he or she introduces the path, the teaching to us. So within the lamas, there may be Buddhas or highly realized, Sangha beings or Ārya beings or ordinary sentient beings and so forth.

In Thailand, in Theravāda traditions, take Buddha and Dhamma and Sangha, they take refuge take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and there’s no mention of taking refuge in the lama. But in Tibetan Buddhism, we have this because we have tantra. And in tantra, there’s so much emphasis on the the guru. And we have to receive initiation tantric initiation, which has to come in an unbroken lineage from the buddha down to the lama. And we also take the tantric vows And the this has to be received from a a person, someone who is alive.

And with regards to bodhisattva vows, you can actually take it from a representation of the Buddha, like statue of a Buddha in doing the ritual in front of it. And then also with regards to Vinaya, the Prātimokṣa vows, individual liberation vows, have to take the vows from a living person. So in Vinaya, there are many different qualifications of a lama, such as being the or or the master of the preceptor and so forth. And therefore, because of this, the emphasis on the lama being so important for us in tantra, we have this, line, in our prayer, take I take refuge in the lama. So within the lama, there could be, those who are enlightened, fully enlightened Buddhas or ordinary beings.

So with regard to the ordinary, Lamas, they are not Buddha. They are not and nor are they Sangha. But which category do we put him? Supposing myself, I am really a lama, but I’m not a Buddha nor a Sangha, a true Sangha. So I am a human being, so I can’t cannot be a Dharma.

So generally, we can say a lama may be considered or included within the the three objects of refuge. But lamas like myself who still inspire to become a Sangha and buddha and so forth. But then, Milarepa says that the blessing of the lama doesn’t depend on your offering. But if you have a big offering, you don’t get a big blessing. If you have small offering, you don’t receive small offerings as blessing of the Buddha.

But all is dependent on your faith. So I think the the special mention of taking refuge in the Lama is because of tantra. May we may have another question, a second one. If you study Buddhism, will it harm your economy economy and and politics? Of course.

If you if you don’t know Buddhism well, then there could be harm to economy economy and politics. But then if you know Buddhism well, it will not be of harm to them. For example, if you if you take some vegetable which is not well cooked, then you may have diarrhea. But if you cook it well, you will not have. So with regard to politics, of course, There are so many people who are corrupt in the poll amongst the politicians.

So this is because of lack of moral principles within those individuals. Clean politics has to come about by building a moral principles from within. It cannot come from UN charters or religion and so forth. So I went to a conference. So I was invited by people who said they are not involved in politics.

They told me I told them they are wrong. They’re Indians. You have to clean up politics in India. And it’s your responsibility, I told them, in order to clean up politics, you have to involve yourself in politics and you not otherwise. Otherwise, you cannot do So in economics also, there are so many people who are really hypocritical and corrupt.

People who are greedy and have big mouth, they seem to win the words election. So, of course, not all, but most of them have self motive selfish motives. So this is because of lack of moral principles that are taught in the religions. So religion helps to individuals as well as having a clean politics, good economics. And I’m a Buddhist monk, but with regard to socioeconomic theory, I find some merit in Marxism.

I find it really good. So with regard to economics, what Marxism actually finds for the rights and privileges of the people who are downtrodden. And they talk about equal distribution in terms of economics. So there is economics in there. In capitalist theory, on the other hand, you only think about making profit.

They don’t talk about equal distribution at all. And the the rich ones get richer and richer Where during the times of Ronald Reagan, the American president, and missus Thatcher, they actually went on the path of capitalism. In China, they are authoritarian. They they have gone on the capitalist path. So I’m it’s important to for a peaceful world and a happy world to have the to to, inculcate the messages that are give, found in the different religious traditions.

Yesterday, mentioned about white, politics. The white, red, and mixed, color politics. So black refers to these kind of, dirty politics. So these come people, they use their power in order to abuse others. So this is because of their on, being unable to, tame their minds.

Key terms in this teaching

Bodhisattvayana

The Bodhisattva's Vehicle, another name for Paramitayana or Sutrayana; the non-tantric Mahayana path. LYWA

dependent origination pratityasamutpada (Skt); ten drel (Tib)

Also called dependent arising. The way that the self and phenomena exist conventionally as relative and interdependent. LYWA

Mount Meru

The mythical center of the universe in Buddhist cosmology. LYWA

pratimoksha vows pratimokshasamvara (Skt); so thar gyi dompa (Tib)

The various levels of individual liberation vows for lay and ordained, including the five lay vows, and the novice vows and full ordination that monks and nuns take. LYWA

Pratyekabuddhayana rang sang gyä kyi thegpa, rang gyälwäi thegpa (Tib)

The Solitary Realizer Vehicle. One of the branches of the Hinayana. The path of solitary realizers (pratyekabuddhas), practitioners who attain liberation from cyclic existence autonomously without relying on an external teacher or teachings. LYWA

pure land kshetra-zhuddhi (Skt); zhingdag (Tib)

A pure land of a buddha is a place where there is no suffering. LYWA

Sukhavati Dewachen (Tib)

The pure realm of the Buddha Amitabha. Literally Land of Bliss, it is located in the western direction. LYWA

upasaka genyen (Tib)

A male lay follower of Buddhism. LYWA

Definitions adapted from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive glossary, as taught in the Gelug tradition.

Questions answered in this teaching

If you study Buddhism, will it harm your economy and politics?

Not if Buddhism is understood well. Harm can come from knowing it poorly, like eating badly cooked vegetables, which can cause diarrhea, while well-cooked ones do not. Many politicians and people in economics are corrupt or hypocritical because they lack moral principles, and clean politics has to be built from moral principles within individuals, not from UN charters. Those who say they are not involved in politics should involve themselves in order to clean it up. Religion helps individuals and supports clean politics and good economics.