Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 20-minute session, Kyabje Rinpoche teaches the Eightfold Path using the Dharma wheel as a precise structural map. He breaks down the geometry: the hub represents ethics—correct speech, action, and livelihood—as the foundation; the rim represents meditative concentration, which confines the mind to a single object without wandering; and the eight spokes represent wisdom, the force that removes afflictive emotions and ignorance. He weaves in the symbolic two deer flanking the wheel, representing the tender-hearted quality of Buddhist teachings, and distinguishes between the “word wheel Dharma”—the Buddha’s verbal transmission—and the “meaning wheel Dharma,” each student’s direct realization of the three trainings. Includes questions from practitioners. Pitched at those already familiar with the three trainings framework.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992-10-25 – 1B – 8 Fold Path – KR.mp3
UUID: 8d142712-6272-42c9-9005-39e8ea351337
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Grounds and Paths
Date: 1992-10-25
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~904
And finally the eighth the Eightfold Path of Superiors is correct meditative stabilization. In dependence upon the observance of ethics and as a basis, and in order to develop the four types of quick paths which are subsumed under the higher training and wisdom, we have need to engage in meditation. And we said that the higher training and wisdom involves the discriminating analysis of an object in order to understand its nature. In order to pursue that in a skillful manner, it’s necessary that the mind be such that it is able to abide single pointedly upon a single object without any types of mental fault, without any types of wandering or excitement, that the mind is able to abide single pointedly and depend upon that then one can engage in the higher training and wisdom. So here we’re speaking of the correct meditative stabilization.
I was requested to talk about the Dharma chakra or the wheel of Dharma, and the eight spokes are these eight paths of the superiors. And these eight paths, as I have just explained, are subsumed within the three higher trainings. The first four of the eightfold path are subsumed within higher training in wisdom. Then the next three are subsumed within the higher training in ethics. And finally, last path of superior correct mental stabilization is included within the higher training and meditative concentration.
We’re going to get a drawing. So the hub is the higher training in ethics. So the hub of the wheel is symbolic of higher training in ethics, and higher training in ethics was made up of correct speech, correct actions, and correct livelihood. The latter two higher trainings, that is a meditative concentration and wisdom arise from the higher training ethics, they’re dependent upon higher training ethics. So as it’s displayed in this illustration, that they extend out from the hub, which is ethics.
Ethics is like the center, the hub from which everything else extends out from. Then the rim of the wheel is symbolic of the higher training in meditative concentration, which the correct meditative stabilization, because meditative concentration confines the mind internally and does not allow it to go to negative objects, but brings it within and confines it to a specific object. Whatever we wish the mind to meditate on due to the force of our meditative concentration, the mind will abide. So it acts as a confining means, a confining force, like the rim of the wheel. Then within the wheel are the eight spokes and the eight spokes are symbolic of the higher training in wisdom.
The spokes bring about, support the function of the wheel as a whole and it is it is the higher training wisdom which brings about, which acts as the function to bring about the goal of removing all our various faults, the various afflictive emotions, the various knowledge obstructions. And though we have listed four correct paths which are subsumed in higher training and wisdom, in fact all eight of the correct paths can be termed higher training wisdom which act to actually bring about the function of the wheel supporting the rest. So the hub of the wheel is symbolic of the higher training in ethics, the rim of the wheel is symbolic of the higher training in meditative stabilization, and the spokes are symbolic of the higher training in in wisdom. So if you notice in this illustration, and it’s quite often illustrated in this way, there are two wild deer to each side of the wheel of Dharma. And when the Buddha Śākyamūni first taught the Dharma, he taught it at a place called Varanasi, which at that time there was a large forest, and it was inhabited by many deers.
Deers are extremely tender hearted animals, the showing of these two deers is symbolic of the tender hearted quality of these teachings. The teachings of the Buddha are often termed a wheel Dharma. And there are two types of wheels of Dharma. There is the word wheel Dharma and meaning wheel Dharma. The word wheel Dharma, when the Buddha first taught the Dharma, his spiritual teachings, he communicated verbally and this verbal teaching is termed the word wheel of Dharma.
Then the students heard this teaching and realized the meaning of these teachings, that is to say within their own mind they generated these three higher trainings. The higher trainings in ethics, meditative stabilization, and wisdom. And this realization of the meaning of the words is what is meant by the meaning wheel of Dharma. So upon Buddha turning the wheel of Dharma, giving the teachings, the students listen to the teachings and realize the meaning of the teaching. That is to say, they actually within their own minds generated the eightfold path of the superiors, and all of the various beings who were present at that time, whether they were celestial beings or human beings, became superiors by means of realizing their meaning. Okay.
So we’re going to stop there, but if you have some questions, we’ll take some time for those. Anybody have any questions? The fourth what? The fourth? The So as we in terms of the presentation that was given today, the fourth was correct wisdom.
So there are some concluding prayers, which welcome to join in. The first one is on page 10. In verses eight to nine on page ten.