Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. HH Sakya Trizin presents the second day of a weekend teaching on Freedom from the Known, in this 45.5-minute session emphasizing the foundational role of devotion to the spiritual lineage in Dharma practice. He opens by explaining why lineage blessings matter—intellectual understanding alone cannot bring lasting transformation—before walking through a prayer that outlines the entire path: taking refuge, generating the enlightenment thought, meditating on the preciousness and impermanence of human life, and recognizing the all-pervasive suffering of saṃsāra across all three realms. He then unpacks the three types of suffering in detail: the suffering of suffering (exemplified by eight cold and eight hot hells), the suffering of change (constant instability across high and low rebirths), and the conditional suffering of existence itself—showing how this meditation on saṃsāra naturally gives rise to genuine renunciation and the determination to seek liberation. The teaching is dense and technical, requiring some familiarity with Buddhist cosmology, suited for serious practitioners.
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File: 12 FfK.mp3
UUID: aec8f1d6-4026-459e-bc4c-300ec3269fb2
Teacher: HH Sakya Trizin
Collection: Freedom from the Known (HH Sakya Trizin)
Date: 1988 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.5 minutes
Words: ~3,299
Everyone, and welcome to our second day of the weekend course. In continuation of our teaching and the meditation session, always begin with the recitation of homage prayers to the lineage gurus as through the kindness of the lineage gurus that today we can learn and study and meditate on the holy Dharma. Without their blessings, without the the teaching continued, that one will not be able to do today. And beside the transmission of blessings, the unbroken transmission of blessings, which continued from Lord Buddha himself to disciples until now, the unbroken lineage of blessings is very important. One can learn from books and from other ways.
But without this transmission of blessings, that there is no spiritual blessings. So without this, it is difficult to to learn. Even one learns intellectually understands, but one do not succeed in practice. So always to remember the kindness of the lineage guru is very important. And that’s why that we whenever we have a teachings teachings, particularly teachings profound teaching, the practical, more practice teachings like this.
We emphasize lot on devotion to the lineage gurus and that we pray to them. At the end of the prayer has the all the subject that we are discussing and the teaching were combined together. And in a form of prayer in a form of prayer that it says that by praying to the lineage gurus that blessed me to to see the present life this life as a essenceless and to bless me to renounce and then also bless me to see that the whole Samsāra as full of sufferings. There’s another single place where there is real happiness. So to bless me to arise the proper renunciation and also bless me to give up attachment to the one’s own purpose as one see that all sentient beings are one’s own mother.
And so that by creating the enlightenment thought with the equal meditation and the exchange meditation, etcetera, that one will be able to proceed further on the path of Buddhas. And then the last one says that bless me so that one could follow the middle middle way path, the middle way philosophy that to see all illusory vision, all the the present relative truth as a illusion or dream as well as as to realize the ultimate truth. So and then the very last line which says that to through the practice of this, that one’s mind will be merged with with Dharma, and the Dharma will be successful. And so that all this illusory vision will be dispersed and all the illusory vision will turn into the the great transcendental wisdom and so that we will succeed in attaining the ultimate enlightenment. So by reciting the lineage guru’s prayer, in one way, also one receives the blessings.
In another way, also, it has the the brief outline of the whole subjects that are going to study and meditations are combined, compiled together at the end of the prayer so that the rough meaning, the rough the outline of all the subjects were included. So the draft idea that one could have by reciting this again. So with deep devotion that you recite the lineage guru prayers. So as always, the first thing is to create the right motivation for the sake of all sentient beings that one must attain ultimate enlightenment. And in order to get enlightenment that you are receiving this teaching, and then whatever that that one learns, that one will diligently practice.
And, also, with the right behaviors, as I have said in detail yesterday, compared to those enormous number of sentient beings who never have a chance to hear Dharma, that we are very fortunate to be able to listen to Dharma so that one should have a complete interest, devotion, and patience to listen this. The teaching which was directly received by the great Sakya Pandita from the lord Mañjuśrī who is the manifestation of all the Buddha’s wisdom. So to explain this as a preliminary path, main path, conclusion path. Preliminary path has in order to switch from worldly path to a spiritual path and taking refuge, with the five precepts. And then in order to set from lower path to switch from lower path to a higher path, the creation of enlightenment thought.
The relative enlightenment thought which also has two paths, wishing enlightenment thought and entering enlightenment thought. So all this is completed. And then for the main part, which has four part. The first part is the root verse which says that if you desire to this life, you are not a religious person, which explains directly the right practice and the wrong way of doing things and so that one should perform the right way and discard the wrong way. And then indirectly, it factors the need to practice Dharma by meditating on the difficulties of obtaining the precious human birth.
The precious human birth with all the eighteen prerequisites from many point of view, from cause, number, example, and its nature point of view. And then the second part is not only need to practice Dharma but in order to speed up the practice to meditate on the impermanent and that has the three parts. The certainty of death and the uncertainty that when one will die. And the third is that when one dies, that nothing can help you. Only the Dharma practice will to help you.
So all this part is completed. So the first line is completed, which is the path. In a way, it is the explanation of the path of the small person’s path. And then the second is now the root text which says that if you have attachment to the realm to the world of existence, you do not have renunciation. And this one is the root text and the which explains by the later commentaries that in order to get the nirvana that it is important to give up attachment to the realm of existence.
And in order to give up the attachment to the realm of existence, that it is important to remember the faults of saṃsāra. And there are saṃsāra is, of course, all are full of suffering. And the first is the suffering of suffering, which is mainly in the lower realms, which means namely the hell realm, hungry ghost realm, and animals realm. And if that, even by just by thinking that one shakes, if that such suffering is fall on you, then there’s no way to bear the such suffering. And so without so in order to if one realizes that it is absolutely impossible to bear such suffering, then without in order to avoid such suffering, one who is not practicing virtues and one is still trying to although one’s aim is happiness, but the work that we are doing and the cause that we are creating is more sufferings.
So, therefore, we must work hard in abstaining from the non-virtuous states. And then after that is The the second suffering is called the suffering of change. After being born in the higher realms, one will fall down in the lower realms. After being born as the even the lord Indra, the lord of the devas devas realms, again, that one will be born as a very ordinary person. The servant is a servant.
And after being born as a sun, the gods of sun and moon who can give light to the whole universe, then after that, again, one will be born in complete darkness where one could not see even one’s own palms, one’s own hands. And after being born as a the universal emperor, one will again born a very ordinary person, beggars or very the very, very poor and very like serfs. So all these things that we can learn from the authentic teaching, from the authentic sutras and that one can learn this, but for ordinary person, of course, it’s it is difficult to conceive, difficult to to to see. So one can see from one’s own the human realm, which is so much changing. The rich people becoming poor people.
The powerful men become very weak people. The families that have many family members become very few, etcetera, that so many things are changing. So this is called the suffering of change. And then the the suffering of conditional nature of all all things means that there is no end. No matter how men how much you work, there’s never finishes.
And whatever you do, it is a suffering. Whether there’s a more people or lesser people, wealthy or poor, powerful or weak, etcetera. Whatever you do, there’s no happiness that we can gain. All life is spent busy with working things. And no matter how much you work, that there’s no such thing as the end of one’s work.
Even we end this life, we start again in the next life, busy working with the next life. And so, therefore, the saṃsāra is actually a pile of suffering that not worthy of having attachment. So this explains directly the suffering of saṃsāra and indirectly explains the the cause and effect of the law of karma. So this is the the these are the words that mentioned commentary mentioned by Jetsün Drakpa Gyaltsen who was son as well as the spiritual son who is the the holder of all the secret teaching of the Buddha, all the teachings of the Buddha. And so now to explain this little detail.
So the in the root text, it says that if you have attachment to the world of existence, then it is not a proper renunciation. One do not have the proper renunciation. So in order to if you do if you still have attachment to the world of existence, even practice you do, it will not become a path of liberation. So therefore, in order to be your spiritual practice to be a path of liberation, that one must give up attachment to the world of existence. And through this, to give up one’s attachment to the world of existence that it is important to to learn the suffering of saṃsāra.
And after realizing that the saṃsāra is all nature of suffering, that then one wish to skip, one wish to discard this, and then arise the renunciation, the wish to attain the liberation. So in order to to arise this, that it need to explain the suffering of Samsāra and why we are born here is the cause and effect, the law of karma. Because by not knowing the what is the right and what is the wrong and what is the virtuous deeds and what is the non-virtuous deeds, what is the cause of happiness and what is the cause of suffering. By not knowing this, by doing the wrong ways, that we continue to be born in saṃsāra again and again and experience the sufferings. So first to explain the suffering of saṃsāra, as in this it says that in the sutras, Kamadhatu is all faulty.
So as so is the Rupadhatu and so is the Arupadhatu. Only the nirvana is the the faultless. So place wherever one is born, whether it is in higher realm or lower realm, as long as in the it is in the realm of existence, the world of existence, it is with the faults. Wherever one is, whatever one do, but it is all suffering as the nature of the fire is hot, whether it is in a big fire or the small fire. Similarly, the nature of the saṃsāra is suffering whether it is in the higher realm or in the lower realm.
So by realizing that by realizing this, that one should make a strong will that in order to get liberation, that one must get rid of this this realm of existence, which is actually nothing but suffering. To to explain this, the first, the suffering of suffering, which is has the hell realms, hungry ghost realm, and the animal’s realm. And the hell realm has the cold hell, hot hell, and neighboring or adjacent hells. And the first cold hell. There are eight different types of cold hell.
They are basically all same that all are completely surrounded with the snow and ice on the big icy ground. Very cold wind blows up, and there’s not a single light even as tiny as a star. And that there’s another single piece of cloth to to keep warm and complete naked. A person with a complete naked and one is born there due to one’s karma miraculously born there. And so it is so called that everything, whole his body is covers with the blister.
So the first one is called blister. And then the second one is call called the bursting frostbite. That is so called even these blisters burst. And that they’re twenty times colder than the first. And so that the the the first the frostbite and the pus and the blood, etcetera, will come out.
And the third one is called, in Tibetan, called achu, which means that it is so called there’s nothing to do except to, sort of, like, to cry. And fourth one is called unutterably agonizing, which means that it is so cold that there’s no nothing else to do except to cry. And then the fifth one is called teeth freezing that it is much colder than the the previous the the earlier ones so that one’s body becomes completely blue with cracks. And sixth one is called So sixth one is called, again, like, completely becomes blue and with a crack. So it’s like a utpala flower.
So it’s called utpala. And the seventh one is called lotus that it cracks and and the flesh comes out. The red flesh comes out. So there with the many cracks. So it looks like a lotus.
And the eighth one is called big lotus that it cracks more that internal organs are also cracks as and comes out of the body. So in such a suffering that they have to suffer for very long period of time, and their lifespans are as one remains as long as to empty one container. The one container with the five one container is a very big one. I think it’s actually, we could not tell you exact size, but it’s a very big container. This container is filled with sesame seed, and they remove one sesame seed after every hundred years time.
And so one should one remains as long as to empty one container by removing one seed in every hundred years. So this is the first one, and the remainder ones are all twenty times longer. For example, the second one is twenty containers, and third one is twenty times twenty is four hundred, and then fourth one’s eight thousand and so forth. And so all all by twenty times more so that it becomes very, very long. And then the the hot hells, also, there are eight places.
And the first one is called reviving. One is born in the burning burning iron ground. Due to one’s karma, one is born there miraculously with very big body, one who who couldn’t bear any heat, and who was very afraid. And immediately when he is born there, that many terrible hell hell workers will come, and just like the butchers or the hunters doing on the animals that this hell being cut into pieces and that he dies there. Then again from the sky sound which says, may he be revived.
So due to the cool wind, again, his body revives again and and have to suffer like this. And the second one is called the black lines. In the same kind of place, but just like the the carpenters cutting the wood on the hell being’s body, they put black lines and then with the burning iron saws and burning iron axe cut into the pieces. And the third one is called crashing on the burning iron iron ground that he saw it is so burning, could not bear and try to run away, and then he sees big mountains that are face of animals, burning iron mountains in the form of animal faces. And the hell being is crushed between these two mountains.
And just like the sesame seed were crushed crushed crushed, that his body is crushed, and much blood comes out. And the fourth one is called crying, that when he try to to run, he sees a house, and then he goes into this house wishing to escape from the suffering. Then this house becomes a burning iron house without any doors, and there he have to suffer and no way to escape, so except to cry. And then the fifth one is called great cry, but same kind of thing, but there’s a double house. Even he could escape from the inner house, inner burning iron house.
He could not escape from the outer burning iron burning iron house. So he has a double suffering. And sixth one is called the burning, which means burning iron spear that is put from the bottom through the body and right on top and burns all his internal organs. And seventh one is called the great burning. Same kind of thing but instead of one spear, three spears put from the the soles of the feet or or the from the bottom three three burning iron steel through put it all through the body and burns all internal organs and the fires and blood comes out from the mouth and eyes.
And then the the eighth one is called nonstop, which means that in a very huge burning iron cauldron that the hell being is burned into this cauldron that his body is completely burned with the fire, that there’s no way of knowing except the the sound of cry. From the sound of cry that one can learn that there’s a hell being. Otherwise, the his body and fire were completely inseparable and and without any kind of without any moment stopping that constantly suffer. This is the greatest suffer, suffering of all the suffering of saṃsāra. So it’s called nonstop.
So these are the eight hot hells that are very great suffering. And not only it is a great suffering, but such a long lifespan. Just an example, one example. The first one is called the reviving hell. And in the reviving hell, the length of their life is to the length of their life is fifty human year.
Fifty human year is one day in the four great kings. The heaven the Kamadatu, heaven realms, there’s the lowest one is called four great kings. And there one day, fifty human years is one day in four great kings, heavens realm. And that counting in their own day, like, thirty of these as a one month and twelve of these as a one year. Counting this way, they live five hundred years.
And that is one day, counting that as one day in the reviving hell, they live in their own calculation, in their own day calculating calculating the thirty days as a month and twelve month as a year. Encountering this way, they live five hundred their own years. And then the black lines are double. All these others sort of double much longer than this. For example, the black lines, one hundred.
One hundred human year is one day in the thirty three god’s realm, And counting this way, they live their own year one one thousand times, and that’s counting that as a one day in the