Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute session, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen launches the actual Lamrim teaching by introducing the three levels of virtuous motivation: protection from the lower realms, personal liberation, and bodhicitta (the altruistic mind). He emphasizes setting genuine Mahāyāna motivation before arriving for teachings, illustrated through the example of two travelers to India with vastly different intentions. The bulk of the session traces the biography of Atisha, the 11th-century master who later composed the foundational Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment—his encounter at eleven with a Dakini emanation of Tārā, studies under successive masters, exceptional knowledge of tantric teachings, ordination, journey to Indonesia, and eventual invitation to Tibet by King Jangchub Ö.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 LR 1995 02 26.mp3
UUID: 2cf53a60-8224-46fc-91d3-ac13570ca040
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995-02-26
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.8 minutes
Words: ~3,067
So quoting from the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa, the text called the three principal paths. What Lama Tsongkhapa explains there is that he will give clear explanations of the teachings of the Buddha, and that what he will explain there is that of the three principal paths. That is renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness. The renunciation practice, Lama Tsongkhapa explains according to the three levels. According to the smallest level, that’s what should be renounced—the lowest state. And then secondly, to the medium scope or medium beings of medium capacity, for them, Lama Tsongkhapa explains how one should renounce saṃsāra. Then he taught also the supreme path. That is the teachings on bodhicitta or the altruistic mind.
And then later on the teachings on the ultimate view or the right view—both these teachings are taught and all these teachings are possible, all these different realizations are possible through the Lamrim practice or the practice on the graduated path to enlightenment. So in order to achieve these different qualities or these different realizations, one must practice Lamrim teachings. And Lamrim teachings, which is like the abbreviated one, is known as the three principal paths. And that is what I want you to train in to gain these different realizations. So then before one engages in these different practices, the very important part from the very beginning is that of our own motivation. What kind of motivation one does these practices.
And according to the teachings there are three levels of motivation that one can generate and the highest level of motivation is bodhicitta motivation, the altruistic mind. That is what is the highest level of motivation and which is also praised by all those past enlightened beings. And then lower than that, the second level of motivation is of wishing to become free from cyclic existence for oneself. That is the second level of motivation. And then the least motivation, the smallest motivation is that known as just wishing not to be born into lower realms—one of these three lower realms. Not to get reborn in those lower realms and for that purpose I’m going to practice these. So that type of motivation is known as the lowest level or the smallest level of motivation. And all these three different levels of motivation are known as virtuous motivation.
So here, particularly today, the topic that we will be discussing or talking about is Mahāyāna teachings. And because of that, the person who explains these teachings and the person who is listening to this teaching should have Mahāyāna motivation. Whether one is Mahāyānist or not mainly depends on one’s thoughts and attitudes. What kind of motivation one has. So it depends on that whether one is Mahāyānist or not. So when one listens to the teachings, one should have a Mahāyāna motivation—that is like seeing those suffering sentient beings, suffering mother sentient beings and generating a wish to free them from the state of suffering. And for that purpose, now listen to these teachings. So generate that kind of motivation within yourself.
So generating or setting up this kind of motivation shouldn’t be like when you every time when you come to teachings and you sit here and then you set up the motivation. It shouldn’t be like that. If it’s very good, if you can generate this kind of motivation before you leave your house or before that. And then if you could do that, set this kind of motivation, then it is regarded very good. With an example: if two people travel—go to India, let’s say—suppose one has this motivation, “I wish very much to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and then also visit all the holy places.” And the other one sort of leaves together from here, but has a different motivation, wanting to go to India and do some business, like sell something and buy some things.
So they leave from here together and they reach India. And then at the first one they what happens to them is both of them meet His Holiness. And then in this case, because of the motivation, the person who has a good motivation from here to meet him—all these steps that he takes from here to India becomes something virtuous. And for the other person, the other one doesn’t have all the merits from here, going up to there. But then there is the merit that he or she can accumulate just by seeing His Holiness there. So there’s this difference, like a person with a motivation starting from here and just at the very time when he or she meets the person there. So set up the best motivation you can, like the motivation of the superior beings, like the altruistic motivation. Set that up within yourself and listen to the teachings.
And if you just look into the text from the very beginning it says that those who listen to this text are known as the very fortunate ones. And the very fortunate ones here means those beings with this great motivation, that is the motivation of altruistic mind. Those having that kind of motivation are known as, what do you say, the fortunate ones. And those with motivation just to free themselves from cyclic existence are known as not the very fortunate ones.
So this particular Lamrim text, the great Lamrim text is originated from the text which is composed by Atisha, the great master Atisha. That is what the text—it covers all the essential teaching that Buddha gave. So the text is what the great Lamrim is originated from. So if you look to the teachings of the Buddha, then there are eighty-four thousand sets of teachings which Buddha gave. Eighty-four thousand sets of teachings. And all these—the essence are combined and brought into one text by Atisha which is known as the Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment. That text covers all the essential part of the eighty-four thousand sets of teachings. And this teaching, the Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment, is set there for one person to achieve the fully enlightened state from the very beginning to the very last. It shows all the path, complete path.
So there have been few classes before this, but all of those explanations are general explanations. And the actual Lamrim begins from here today. So then from here it goes into the actual part of the text. And here how it explains is it explains in order which is like how a person should meditate on certain subjects, how he should do or how she should do and what—the text explains how he or she should practice the meditations on these different subjects and also given different examples there. So then these texts, the Lamrim text explains into four contexts.
The first part of the explanations explains the quality or the greatness of the person who composed this. And then the second part is the greatness or the qualities of the teachings. How the quality or the greatness of the teachings, how it is beneficial to one. And then thirdly, it explains how one should listen to these kinds of teachings. The way how one should listen to the teachings. And then the fourth part is the actual way of leading the disciples. The actual way of leading the disciples.
So in these four different subject contexts, I’m just explaining the quality or the greatness of the teacher, the composer. Whoever has composed the text or all the teachings, it should be—the text or the teaching should be related to the topic that what Buddha has taught. It should be authentic like Buddha’s teachings. And secondly, it should be also well clarified by those different masters or pandits. And then thirdly, those texts should have some signs of gaining different realizations. So it should be applied by those great meditators and gain realization out of that. So this teaching should be—the composer’s text should be like that.
So traditionally when these teachings are explained, then the master or the teacher explains all the qualities and the greatness of those lineage masters who hold these teachings. Starting from Buddha Śākyamūni and then coming to all the present masters. Like those who composed this particular text. And then here we won’t be going in all that detail. Mainly what Geshe-la will be explaining is giving a short biography or quality of the master Atisha.
So looking to the biography of Atisha, Atisha was born in the northern part of India, a place called Bengali. It’s a place called Bangala. Probably it’s Bangala. It’s on the east side. On the east of India, a place called—probably it’s Bengal. I’m not sure which the place is. So the birthplace is in Bangala, that’s east of India. And then he was born in the royal family. He was like a prince. Up to the age of eleven, he lived in the royal palace and then up to there he—
So then when he was eleven, from that very time—there are many other princesses that came to him. So then at that time, among the many princesses, there’s one princess which is known as emanation of Tārā. She also came and then she said to Atisha four lines. Don’t get attached, do ascetic practice. Four lines which she told him. So “don’t get attached”—she repeated this line twice. And the meaning of first “don’t get attached” is not get attached to this life and the second “not get attached,” the second line again means that not get attached to saṃsāra, to cyclic existence. So that is the meaning of two lines. So the princess told in the second lines they’re saying, for an ordinary person to get attached or to fall into saṃsāra, then it’s not of a great damage. It doesn’t get that much destroyed. It doesn’t destroy that much. But to the teachings—here “destroy” means to the teachings. But if a holy being falls into saṃsāra or gets attached to samsaric things, then it can create damage to the teachings in order to spread the teachings.
So then when Atisha heard these lines from the princess, then he was very pleased. And then right away he went out together with three hundred guards together and went out around the village. Then he went out. The reason why he went out was he was now searching for a master, for a teacher. So then while he was traveling, he came to a cave where he met a lama or a guru from—the guru’s name was Jetari. And that master or the lama, he received the refuge precepts and also teachings on bodhicitta. And then that first master told him that Atisha had a connection with another master from his past lives and should go and meet that master named—to go and meet him. And he went there and met this teacher and received again more instructions or teachings on bodhicitta.
So then that lama introduced Atisha to another lama, which is known as Ratnakara, that’s another lama. And he received some teaching again from him. And then again that lama introduced Atisha to different master or different lama called Avadhūtī. And again from that master he received teachings. So then this master Avadhūtī, he—the master told Atisha to go back to the royal family and actually see what are the faults of cyclic existence or what are the faults of saṃsāra and what are the faults of being in the family. The master told Atisha to go and experience or check himself.
So then Atisha went back to the palace and the queen or the mother—they were all very pleased to see him again and the queen or the mother told Atisha that you should take over the kingdom but still you can practice. You should practice what you have learned like make offerings to the Triple Gem and also be generous or practice generosity to the poor ones and so on. And if you like to build different holy objects like statues or stupas, may do so. That’s what the mother explained to Atisha. So while he was there, he did this practice and never got distracted or attracted to those old life. And again, he went back to the same master known as Avadhūtī.
So then till the age of twenty-nine, Atisha stayed together with this master called Avadhūtī, and then after that he received from the master many teachings on bodhicitta. Then he sent him again to another teacher called Rahula. So then when Atisha met Lama Rahula, from Lama Rahula he received different tantric initiations, and together with that from other lamas also. He received many different instructions on—actually mainly on tantric teachings. Received many initiations also.
So then he studied extensively on tantric texts where he became very proud that he is the only one who is expert in this part of the teachings. He got a strong pride in him at being the most supreme one. And then because of that many dakinis came around and again gave him different volumes of teachings, like teachings in the form of volumes dakinis brought to him. While he read those teachings again, they helped—the teachings helped remove or take away his pride. So then he removed his pride by reading those different texts. And then if he continued and practiced the tantric teachings, then at that very time he could achieve the highest state. Could gain the highest realizations of tantric practice. And then he was thinking of doing that and suddenly at that very moment his master, Lama Rahula, just came to him, appeared to him and told him “you shouldn’t go into that and instead you should again—instead you should take ordination and then be an example to the others, then it will be of more benefit than right away going there and gaining these different qualities.” That’s what he told him.
So and then at that very moment, he also had the visions of different deities like Heruka and Buddha Śākyamūni and other Buddhas and they were requesting or telling him to take the ordination. So because of their request, Atisha took the ordination from this abbot named Shilarakshita. So after the ordination, he went to Bodh Gaya, and then there he had to debate with many other different non-Buddhist masters. So then he again went to—another island called, I think it’s Indonesia. He went to Indonesia and where he again met with a lama called Lama Serlingpa. And from Lama Serlingpa, again Atisha received teachings on both lineages, the extensive lineages and the profound lineages. Both these different lineages—lineage of teachings Atisha received from Lama Serlingpa.
So then he received lots of teachings on bodhicitta from Lama Serlingpa. And then also gained lots of realizations on bodhicitta, in particular the exchanging and equalizing self with others. That is one type of teaching, that is the type of teaching which comes when—instructions of bodhicitta. So that he received again from him and he also received different teachings on how one should purify—different teachings on purifications and also different ritual practices, like for the dead ones, how one should perform different rituals for the dead ones. So he received these different teachings from him, and then afterwards after that, he went to Tibet. So he was requested to come visit Tibet and he went to Tibet. And at the time the king of Tibet at that time was called Jangchub Ö, that was the king of Tibet. And then Atisha arrived there and the king requested him to give teachings which are helpful to the mind. So when they requested these teachings, Atisha first taught this particular teaching called the Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment. That is what he taught first. From that time onwards the name Lamrim became quite known. It came into existence.
So at that time in Tibet, the early spreading of the teachings was almost disappearing. It was coming into degeneration. And while there was still some practice done, but then the practice they do is not completely clear which is like—most of the practice on the teachings on discipline and the tantric teachings—they see some contradiction like two different teachings and they don’t know how to combine these two teachings together. So then when Atisha taught these teachings on Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment it became very helpful in Tibet which helped a lot to practice. So then when Atisha was traveling going to Tibet—