Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 100-minute session, Kyabje Rinpoche teaches the Heart Sūtra by moving from bodhisattva motivation toward detailed meditation on the selflessness of the person. He outlines the five Mahāyāna paths and explains how bodhisattvas cultivate method—altruistic intention—and wisdom, the realization of emptiness. The core instruction focuses on realizing the self as not inherently existent but merely a label imputed on the five aggregates. Through vivid examples—a rope mistaken for a snake in darkness, and the moment a newborn receives the name Tashi—Rinpoche reveals how we falsely grasp ourselves as independent. He then supplies the logical proof: because the self depends on aggregates, name, and conceptual designation, it cannot exist independently. The teaching combines rigorous philosophical analysis with step-by-step meditation guidance.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992 – T1 – Tape 1 of 2 – KR.mp3
UUID: 81e9b76e-87ea-491c-8651-88458714545b
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Heart Sūtra
Date: 1992 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~4,715
If our practice of listening and giving teachings has been done along with the motivation of altruistic intention, then the practice will become very effective. We also cultivate a great store of merit and we’ll have good results out of our practice. Shall free both oneself and others from all the sufferings and bring them to bring them towards the great happiness. And to develop a mind motivation here that in order to do so for that purpose, I shall here train and perform the practices to remove all the bad state of mind, disturbing emotions, and the sufferings, and cultivate entire good qualities through I fulfill both the purpose of self and others. For that sake, I shall here practice the Heart Sūtra, essence with the Heart Sūtra, which is the essence of Mahāyāna teaching.
So I shall listen to this essence of Mahāyāna teaching Heart Sūtra and bring all the hearings into contemplation and meditation and fulfil both wishes of self and others. We shall do a short meditation on this. So, we have explained the teaching on how, explained about the, regarding to the text has been set forth, the brief explanation of the emptiness and the detailed or more profound, yeah, the detailed explanation explanation of the emptiness. So all this explanation are set forth with regard to how bodhisattvas, they train or practice in the path. So the explanation of the five paths are set forth in two types: one, according to the two types of bodhisattvas with the faculties, we call the Bodhisattvas with the sharp faculty and with the dull faculty.
The first one is set forth the individual explanation of the five aggregates are set forth to the first one, which is bodhisattva with the lower faculty. In general, there are five paths, but the five paths are also set forth in 15 parts with the regards three different schools, called the five paths of the hearer schools, five paths of the solitary realizers, and the five paths of Mahayanists. So the path here means the path is like a path, the way or a road. And what here the path, it has the same connotation or the same meaning of the way or a road, but the part is after having trained in the small and the middling scope and one develops a renunciation or a wish to free from cyclic existence by seeing the faults or disadvantages of the cyclic existence or saṃsāra, and so and the quality which conjoins with the renunciation is the path here. So here we explain the five paths of the Mahāyāna.
And so the first path is that one reaches the first path of the Mahāyāna, five paths, after having trained, after training in the small and the middling scope, or doing meditation on a small and middling scope, And whenever one develops innately or without any effort, the desire or wish to attain enlightenment just by seeing a sentient being. Is a sentient being. So whenever one had such a whenever one generates such wish, it’s a sign one is reaching the first path of the Mahāyāna. So, the first path of the five Mahāyāna paths is the path of accumulation, and it’s called the path of accumulation of the Mahāyāna. It’s that one needs to attain enlightenment, and to become enlightened, one has to develop cultivate a number of virtues or good positive actions.
Therefore, the first part is the path where one it’s been called the path of accumulation. And the second path is called the path of preparation. The reason why it’s called the path of preparation is because when one reaches the third path, where one the third path is the path where one realizes, one directly realizes the selflessness of the person and the emptiness. And the second path is the path where one prepares to, one does the preparation to attain all those, directly realize the selflessness and the emptiness during the third path. So this is why it’s called the preparation, which is preparation for the third path.
And the third path is the path of seeing. The reason why it’s called the path of seeing is because at the third path one directly sees the emptiness, and the four truths. So at the third path, when one reaches the third path, one newly realizes or directly realizes the emptiness, selflessness and so forth. And the fourth path is called the path of meditation, which is where at the fourth path one familiarizes with and so forth. And during the fourth path, the path of meditation, one familiarizes with all the attainments or all the realizations through meditation.
So this is how it’s called the path of meditation. And the last, the fifth path is called the path of no more training or no more learning, or it’s the state of Buddhahood. It’s because after having done all this meditation, familiarizing with that realization through meditation, and one purifies all the negativities, attains entire qualities where one reaches the fifth path. At the fifth path, there is nothing more to learn because one has perfected all the good qualities and has purified the negativities, and it is the state of Buddhahood. So, therefore, because there is no more change or nothing to train or learn, and this is how it’s called the path of no more learning.
Well, one can have big holiday. So, these are called the five paths, and in an ordinary path or a roadway we walk through, we walk, but here the way of walking in those paths are not the way we walked in an ordinary road. Here the one should walk through the attaining or through developing the qualities, or attaining, improving one’s quality or knowledge through training, or with the combination of wisdom and method. So wisdom and method are like our legs. So, method is the bodhicitta, or altruistic intention, and the method is bodhicitta, or altruistic intention, and wisdom is wisdom realizing emptiness.
So these two are like our legs, and the way one walks from the first part, path of accumulation and through the training in the combination of those two, one reaches the second and finally towards the end. So, during the time of path of accumulation, and for those, the bodhisattva with the lower or weak faculty, trains in cultivate or trains in the emptiness, in the wisdom part, but they have already generated the method part, is the bodhicitta. And as here called faculty, and in terms of faculty, there are five. We call the eye, nose, ear, tongue, and body. The five faculties.
And in terms of internal qualities, there are also five faculties as well. And so, are the five internal, yes, called the five determining minds, which are called the mind of aspiration, and effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. So, those bodhisattvas, those who have these five faculties very forcefully, or very strong are called the bodhisattva with the sharp faculty, and those who have not that strong are called the bodhisattva with the low or weak faculties now. So, . Yeah.
So, during the time of path of accumulation, the bodhisattva with the low faculty cultivates the wisdom to wisdom, cultivates the wisdom. As for the wisdom, because they have to analyze or cultivate wisdom realizing emptiness. So as for the wisdom, there are three types of wisdoms. And the wisdom derived from hearing, from concentration or contemplation, and from the meditation. So, during the time, Bodhisattva with the low faculty, they cultivate those wisdoms during the path of accumulation.
So, the wisdom derived from hearing, which is after, yeah, it’s derived by listening towards the word of emptiness through teaching again and again, reading books on emptiness, and receiving teachings from the teacher or the lama. And after having heard that word of emptiness, often or again and again, and finally whenever one realizes or understands the meaning of emptiness by thinking that, alright, the emptiness means such and such, or this is how the emptiness is being called. During that stage one understands emptiness, does not mean that one realizes emptiness, but the such a wisdom of knowing emptiness or understanding emptiness is called the wisdom which derives from hearing. So, we’re on during the path of accumulation. First one cultivates the wisdom derived from hearing, and after having developed that wisdom, then one cultivates the second, which is wisdom derived from concentration or contemplation.
About emptiness, in general there are numbers of emptiness, but one can also combine all the emptiness into two categories and meditate on two topics. So which are the great master Candrakīrti has set forth that one should meditate on the two emptinesses or two selflessnesses, the selflessness of phenomena and the selflessness of the person. So, we have explained the emptiness of the last previous class, the last Tuesday class, the text said once you see all the five aggregates are the absence of inherent existence. And so here, the five aggregates are called the phenomena, and the non inherent existence of the phenomena are Yes. Yes.
So, the non-inherent existence of the phenomena, those five aggregates is the first selflessness which we have set forth before, the selflessness of the phenomena and the selflessness of the person. So, the selflessness, non existent, absence of inherent existence of the five aggregates are the first one, which is selflessness of phenomena. And the person or self or I here is referred to as the I or a self which was labelled or which comes out from the basis of the five aggregates. So the five aggregates are basis of imputation, where one labels the I on those. So the eye which comes or which is labeled to the five aggregates is called the I, person, or self here.
So, the person or the self here refers towards all the beings like the humans, cat, horse, dog, and so forth. So all the names, the human, cat, horse, and dogs, are the basis, or labelled on their forms or aggregates. For example, as a human, because of the the five aggregates of the human, the human has been labelled on the aggregates aggregates of the human, and so therefore the human is based, the title or the name human comes out or is the label of the five aggregates of the human. And likewise, cat, dog and horse are also the same. So, So all the emptiness are categorized into two, are the selflessness of phenomena and the selflessness of the person.
So according to, in terms of teaching from the text, the teaching of the selflessness of phenomena comes first. But in terms of meditation, the meditation on selflessness of person is being meditated before the selflessness of the phenomena. So therefore we have to meditate on selflessness of person first. And so where one does the meditation of selflessness of person, is the person itself. So the people in the West like to meditate.
So here today we will talk about how to do meditation on selflessness of a person. So, to meditate on selflessness of a person, one can either meditate on self, oneself, or in other beings like cat, horse, and so forth. But it is better to, first, it is better to meditate on oneself, and when one realizes the selflessness of a person within oneself, then it’s easy to understand the selflessness of the cat and so forth. So when one does the meditation on the selflessness of the person upon oneself, first one and the object of meditation here is the self, or is the I, which is yourself, and that I which was labeled or imputed towards the five aggregates of oneself. And, for example, like myself, I was first being called Lobsang Tupten, and then later comes the Geshe Lobsang Tupten, and comes the Khenpo, and then comes the Khensur.
The one which we hold very strong, we grasp very strongly the eye, which was labeled towards the five aggregates of oneself. So, that is or should should let that eye as the object of meditation or It is not easy to meditate here now. Just by doing this doesn’t mean you are meditating. So, now, so how one meditates here is the ah which was labeled, labelled labelled towards or towards the five aggregates is the basis of the meditation. We are here, we are doing the meditation on selflessness of a person.
So that I which was labeled toward the five aggregates. And second, then, so by recalling that I which was labeled toward the five aggregates again and again in one’s meditation or in one’s mind, then one should see that that I does not exist inherently or is free of inherent existence, or it doesn’t exist by its own accord, which was the second meditation. And the third, then once you see the reasons why it does not exist inherently, or why it is free of inherent existence, it is because first, it needs basis of labelling where it should be labelled. And second, it has to depend on the mind which labels, for example, Lobsang Tupten towards that aggregate. It is not enough here as well, one also needs a third reason by seeing that it should have a mind which grasps that this is, or this person is Lobsang Tupten.
So, they need the three. The first is the object of labeling, the basis of imputation, and the second one is the mind which labelled Lobsang Tupten’s name, and the third one is the mind which accepts that this is Lobsang Tupten. So because of these reasons, these three reasons, so because the Lobsang Tupten, or I, comes out of the, I came out, I’ve been produced. Therefore, it does not exist inherently. So this is how one meditates on the selflessness of a person.
So, if we demonstrate an example here, for example here, example like a rope with the white and black color and just rolled it on the floor. Right now it’s okay, we can see clearly, it’s very bright here. But suppose it’s like four or 5AM in the morning, it’s a little bit foggy and pretty dark there, one can’t see clearly. And at that stage, somebody walks in and suddenly mistakes and sees the rope as a snake. So at that time, the rope, the black and white, the rounded rope is like the basis of labeling, where one labels.
So this is the basis. And then one walks in and one suddenly, because it’s not clear and it’s not clear and very foggy, one mistakes it as a snake. And at that moment one suddenly says, from the mouth, one says, Snake. And then, along with that sound of snake, inside one develops a conception, or your conceptual thought. It’s thinking, Oh, yeah, he’s a snake.
And with the combination of those two, with the sound of snake and the misconception or conceptual thought inside of thinking it’s a snake, and then finally the mind, the produced, the snake has been produced and labeled, and the second thought which says, Ah, there is a snake, which grasps the rope as a snake. So, all these three, the basis of the labeling and the sound and the conceptual thought, which thinks it’s a snake, and finally the mind which produces, finally labels snake completely towards the rope. So, these three, and through these three, one produced the snake. So likewise, for the aggregates, first the aggregates are the object of labeling. And then secondly, thought, like say, from the mouth we say Lopsang, and misconceptual thought said, This is the Lobsang Tupten.
And then finally, the mind produces the eye of Lobsang Tupten completely. Through this how the eye has been produced, you know? So, although there is not a snake on the floor or on the table early in the morning at 04:00, But for that person, within his mind he has produced one snake on the table, and that snake in his mind has been produced by depending on the basis of labeling and what is being labeled, the name snake and so forth. So, likewise, the name and aggregates are the basis of labeling, and where the name Lobsang Tupten and the misconceptional thought, which labels Lobsang Tupten on the aggregates, and the mind which grasps that this is Lobsang Tupten. So, the combination, but through these three faults or misconceptions, the Lobsang Tupten is produced.
So, for example, like a Dale, aggregates of the Dale is the basis, and the name Dale and the conceptual thought, which thinks this is Dale, are the one which labels. And that conceptual thought labels Dale towards his five aggregates. And through this, by depending, because of that conceptual thought which labeled Dale, finally produced or newly produced in his form on his five aggregates. So before that misconceptional thought which labeled towards its five aggregates, the name dal for its aggregate doesn’t exist. So the on the table, by seeing the rope on the table, and for that person the rope is a snake, and because by depending on his misconceptual thought, he perceives the rope as a snake, he feels scared or terrified by seeing a snake.
But the fact is there is no snake on the table. And then, at the very first moment, the person sees the rope as a snake, and the first moment the person labels the name or names the snake to that rope. But the very second moment, the person never thinks that or perceives that the snake was was labeled by him or herself, at the very second moment how that person perceived the snake is thinking that the snake was just produced by itself. Itself. So likewise, the name Tupten was labeled on my body And because of that, the name Lobsang Tupten and the misconception, conception, and thinking this is Lobsang Tupten.
So those two, conception and the name Lobsang Tupten labeled Lobsang Tupten on my five aggregates, from the beginning on, from the very first moment, and this is through this how the Lobsang Tupten has been produced. But the very second moment of that, then one forgets about how one labels Lobsang Tupten towards five aggregates. And one acknowledges or perceives that the Lobsang Tupten was produced or exists now by itself or by its own accord upon these five aggregates. So, one should one should understand or know the difference between these two I. The first, The first moment that the ‘I’ which was labelled, or how one perceives two ‘I’s within one’s thought, or within one’s self.
The first one, by depending, by seeing the five aggregates or taking the five aggregates of the Lobsang Tupten as a basis, and they were one labelled the name Lobsang Tupten by the misconception, conception, thinking this is Lobsang Tupten. So that I, the I was called the I merely labeled on the five aggregates, is called, does exist, that labeled I does exist. But the second one, at the very second moment once forget about the labeled I, and thinking that Lobsang Tupten was, the Lobsang Tupten is just produced or exists by its own accord, it comes from its own entity or its own on its side. So that I, which does not exist inherently, which does not exist by its own thinking that the I which was, which accords, which exists by its own accord or which inherently exists is the I which does not exist, then that I is the one, the object of negation, which we call the emptiness. And if that I does exist, that I is called the true existence.
Because we say there is no, nothing exists by its own accord or there is no true existence, so that second I, the I which is produced by its own accord, is the I which does not exist. So, first ‘I’, which ‘I’ labeled towards the five aggregates, is the ‘I’ that does exist, but the second one, the thinking that the ‘I’ which of Lobsang Tupten or ‘I’ that exists by its own accord or by its own characteristic is the eye which doesn’t exist. And that eye is called the I, because it does not exist, this is how it comes to selflessness of the person or So here the logical proof is that Lobsang Lobsang Tupten or eye, which does not exist inherently or it doesn’t exist by its own accord because it is dependent arising, Because without depending on the basis of the five aggregates on the name and the conception, the conceptual, the Lobsang Tupten or R does not exist. So therefore, because it is dependent arising, it does not exist by its own accord or inherently exist. And then, should so this is how and one can also now meditate on the selflessness of the person upon oneself.
On, yeah, by yourself, by thinking that I do not exist inherently or I do not exist by my own accord, it is because I am dependent arising, because I depend on the name, the conceptual, and the basis of the basis, which are the five aggregates. So therefore, because I myself is produced by depending on my names and so and so forth, I does not exist inherently or by its own accord. This is how one meditates on the I, on the individual eyes. For example, like a little child, a baby was born today, and at the very stage, when the baby was born, just baby, we but there was no name at all. So at that time, the eye, the basis of the labeling was just produced at the time the baby was born.
And also, and the name baby was labeled already from that part because the baby is the general name which has been used for other babies as well. So for that reason, at that stage, the baby and the basis of the labeling was produced. But hasn’t got name yet. So, yeah, and the baby’s name was not labeled or not produced at that time. And then the people discussed what would we call or give name to the baby or child.
And in Tibetan, some names are labeled through the seven days, depends on which day the child was born. It’s been called pempa, pasang, Saturday, Friday, so forth. And sometimes it’s called the different names like Tashi, Dolma and so forth. And then finally they say that they agree with the name Tashi, among those, the one person has an idea, the name Tashi comes into someone’s mind. And then develop a conception, thinking what and the name Tashi is good.
And because of that conceptual and the name Tashi, these two labels, and which label Tashi to the little baby, They said, Alright, we’ll call Tashi to little child. And then everyone calls Tashi, and this is how the Tashi is produced or born. So, the person’s conception of thinking the name Tashi is good to that child. And the sound which produced from the person’s mouth called Tashi, and through this the name Tashi was labeled to baby. And through this the new Tashi was produced on the five aggregates of the baby.
And so, because the person labeled name Tashi to the little child, and the child becomes Tashi, and then everyone started to call Tashi to the baby and start saying Tashi comes and goes and Tashi is happy and so forth. And the child itself will think, yeah, I am Tashi. So, the Tashi was projected or labeled on the child, but it doesn’t come by itself because when the child was born the tashi wasn’t born at that time. And then, so the Tashi wasn’t born along with the baby from the very first stage. And then the baby was born and then Tashi labeled towards the baby.
And this is how, and after, because of the labeling, the tashi was produced. But later on everyone started calling baby a tashi to that baby. And then after a while when the baby walks in, always think the Tashi comes, and Tashi goes and comes and so forth. But we never think that the Tashi was labeled on the person, on the little baby’s five aggregates. Always have within our mind it appears to us that the Tashi, the baby, just the Tashi comes or produces, just comes or exists by itself, by its own accord.
So, and without depending on anything, and this is what we think, and such is called the true grasping attitude, which is ignorance. So when one meditates on the selflessness of the Tashi, how according proof that tashi does not exist inherently or independently, then how the debaters prove through the logical approach is there, saying the tashi, which is the basis of debate, saying tashi, the tashi does not exist inherently and independently because dashi is produced by depending on its five aggregates, the name, and the conceptual which project the name Tashi to the aggregates. And because, therefore, it doesn’t exist independently because it is interdependent. So this is how it proves. So the but the fault of Tashi being independently existent or inherently existent is: if Tashi exists independently or inherently, then the mistake is, then Tashi can never be old, will never become older.
Er, old And so likewise, we all do not exist inherently. We all do not exist independently or inherently. And the fault is that if we do exist independently or inherently, then we will never become old and we will never die. Sometimes it’s good when you don’t get older. What you can’t become Buddha or enlightened?
You don’t need to go to hell. And then if the seed exists independently or inherently, then it can’t give any sprout. It it it it it won’t give any sprout. Grow. If the virtuous action exists inherently, then there is no happiness.
If non-virtuous action exists inherently, then there is no result of suffering. Yeah. So if there is truly if we exist independently or inherently, then we won’t be taking, or we do not need to take any rebirths, and then there is no happiness, there is no suffering, and we remain just like permanent and with no feeling or sense of happiness or suffering. It’s just more or less, or it’s like just a stone, no feelings at all. Because the things, all phenomena or things, do not exist inherently, the happiness, sufferings comes, the taking rebirth comes, the cause and effect comes, the actions of going and staying and leaving and so forth comes.
If the things exist inherently, then all these actions of all the feelings of happiness, suffering, taking rebirths, cause and effects do not exist at all, yeah, do not exist. So So all this, the good and bad, happy and suffering, or unhappy, good rebirth and bad rebirth, Buddha, hell and so forth are dependent arising and are the results of the causes and conditions. So because they are the production of the causes and conditions, or are produced by depending on the causes and condition, they all do not exist, they are all free of inherent existence, or do not exist inherently. And so, which means, because they are dependent arising, they do not exist inherently, and so for this is the reason the teaching of dependent arising is the basis and how it’s been considered very important and how it is considered very important. So, therefore, the great master Candrakīrti has set forth that this logic of dependent arising eradicates all the wrong views.
And as a result, the result of abandoning all wrong views is that one can remove or abandon, eliminate all the bad actions. And the benefit of removing all the negative action is one not need to suffer, instead one will have happiness. Yeah, happiness. So we’ll take a couple of questions. Yes, please.
Sorry? I can’t hear you clearly. What does that mean? Probably the repetition of the word khorwa within the meditation.. That what you mean?