Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche opens this 48-minute session — the first of his 3 Principal Aspects of the Path series — with a striking comparison: losing a hundred dollars ruins a day, yet squandering an entire day without spiritual practice goes unnoticed. He then works through two essential Lamrim preliminaries: recognising the precious human life, with its freedoms from unfavourable rebirths and its full set of supportive conditions, and learning to listen correctly. Three bowl analogies illustrate the faults to avoid — a poisoned bowl (biased mind), an upside-down bowl (distracted mind), and a leaking bowl (forgetting what was heard). He closes by introducing the physician-medicine-patient frame: teacher as skilled doctor, Dharma as medicine, student as someone who needs curing. Suited to practitioners beginning a structured Lamrim study.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 3PA 1993 05 18.mp3
UUID: 564ed152-7934-41cf-b9ad-437f013de8d2
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principal Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-05-18
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 48.0 minutes
Words: ~3,124
And then the development of exceptional resolve, whereas we’ve developed love and compassion as a preliminary, going on to develop the resolve that I myself will free all living beings from suffering. I myself will bring them happiness. In order to lead all of these beings to a state where they experience the freedom from suffering and complete happiness, I myself must first attain such a state that I myself must free myself from all of my sufferings and attain ultimate happiness. If I don’t do that then there is no way that I can lead others to such a state. Therefore, we should meditate in developing the attitude that in order to liberate all living beings from their suffering to lead them to happiness, that I myself must rid myself of all my various faults and bring to consummation all my aspects and qualities.
In order to achieve that, I am going to listen to, reflect well, and meditate on the present teaching. Quoting from a verse by Je Tsongkhapa where he says the preliminary to the teachings in the Dharma which begin with an appreciation of our leisure and fortune is how are we to listen to the Dharma itself and certain mistaken ways of listening to the teachings. Within the world, there are a variety of beings and amongst these humans are supreme. So we have to understand why it is that humans are considered so highly.
All living beings have the same attitude, whosoever they might be, whatever types of being they may be, in the fact that they wish to rid themselves of undesired suffering and they wish to bring upon themselves desired happiness, that we’re all alike with respect to that. But it is only humans who have the ability and intelligence whereby to implement the methods which enable them to bring this about. It is because of this ability, their potentiality, and their intelligence that they are unlike other types of living beings, and therefore they can find their meaning has great benefit, use, and meaning. Even within humanity, there are different qualities with respect to their abilities whereby to implement methods to bring about the goodness of life and to remove that which we conceive as negative. That in terms of this embodiment we can implement the methods that we have in ability, but there are different degrees of ability.
So what kind of circumstances is it necessary where we can achieve these ends of implementing the methods, we have to have a freedom from inhibitory conditions and a complete situation of conducive or supportive conditions. So the most important of these inhibitory conditions in general is the fact that we have not been born as a non human, for example that of an animal. That it because we have a freedom from having been born in such a state that whereby we can carry on a practice. We have a freedom from such a state where we would not be able to carry on a practice which is central of these freedoms of inhibitory conditions. But additionally, even having been born as a human, we enjoy certain freedoms from inhibitory conditions such as not being born in a place where Dharma doesn’t exist or not living at a time when the Dharma does not exist, the spiritual teachings or not accepting spiritual practices.
But even were we to be free from these inhibitory conditions and we accepted the validity of spiritual practice and we had an inclination toward them, if we were born intellectually handicapped or we were deaf or had some mental impairments, this would also be an inhibitory condition. So it’s really wonderful that we’re free of these inhibitory conditions. Additionally, we have all the various necessary conducive conditions. We have a liking for the Dharma. We have a Dharma teacher.
We have the Dharma, a profound Dharma itself, we have companions who assist us in our practice of Dharma, we have all our material necessities met. It’s really wonderful that we have all of this situation of complete conditions. So we’re coming to appreciate what we in fact do have, this freedom from inhibitory conditions, this possession of all the necessary conditions that our human embodiment possesses. Understanding its great importance and great potential, we should rejoice in what it is that we do have. If we don’t reflect in this way, then we simply will not come to appreciate our human embodiment and all its great importance that it deserves.
That we will simply treat it rather in a leisurely fashion, as if not appreciating its wonderful qualities. We want to appreciate it that we can find all the resultant happiness, that we can remove all of the undesired suffering. Not appreciating it, we would not make use of it and this would be a great loss. So it would be that we would continue to live in an unknowing confusion. To illustrate the nature of our situation, if one day you lost a hundred dollars, you would be you’d be all torn up about it.
You’d be very sad, you know, thinking about all that you could have bought with that hundred dollars. And your whole day would be ruined. You would think how much you had lost. But it’s very strange that when we lose an entire day in not implementing the methods to bring ourselves happiness, not taking advantage of the means to eliminate our suffering, we don’t get upset about that. That’s very strange.
It’s not a great problem to have lost a hundred dollars and one might have to go without food for a short time compared to the great loss if we didn’t make use of a day of which our human embodiment has the potential of bringing about. That by making use of our human embodiment and implementing the various methods which it possesses to make use of. We can ensure that we don’t take a negative rebirth in the future. We can assure ourselves of a positive rebirth. But even over and above that we can choose to go where we wish in the future.
We can seek, we can choose to be reborn in the pure land of Tārā or Avalokiteśvara or Mañjuśrī or Kālacakra. Wherever we want to be reborn, we have that ability to choose, to take that control. That we can implement the methods whereby we can actually achieve a state of complete happiness, divorced of all suffering, that we can bring about the ultimate welfare of ourselves and others, that is to say we have the potential to achieve Buddhahood. If we threw away this opportunity and this potential, that would be extremely sad. That would be a tremendous loss and fault.
So perhaps previously we had never appreciated what in fact we do have. But now that we have come to know about what in fact we do have, our potential, that we shouldn’t throw it away, that we must use it well. We might question, well, can I actually carry out a practice? Though I might have the potential to, am I able to carry out the practice? Well, in fact we can.
We can carry out such a practice whereby we can bring about elimination of all our various faults and that we can bring into consummation all our excellent qualities, that we have that seed, that we have that potentiality. You know, just like a seed has the potential to grow a sprout and the sprout has the potential to grow into a crop, likewise within our mind of all of us there is the potential to remove all our various faults and to bring to consummation all our excellent qualities. I would say that we all have the seed of Buddha within ourselves. So though we have the seed, just like in the case of growing a crop, it’s necessary that this seed be combined with conditions such as water and earth in order that it might grow. And likewise with the seed inside of ourselves, though we have the potential to bring about resultant happiness and we have the potential to remove all suffering, we have to implement the methods.
We have to practice. The practice is like the condition of the soil and water. Through our practice we can abandon all our suffering. Through our practice it is like planting the seed. We can remove all our various faults.
We can bring to consummation all our excellent qualities that we can achieve a state of complete happiness, divorced of any suffering. But if we don’t implement these practices, it’s as if we had the seed and we didn’t combine that seed with the soil and water. The seed will simply never grow. So the practice embodied in simply cultivating positive states, ceasing negative states, is the way that we combine the seed of our potentiality with the conditions necessary whereby that we can eventually achieve a state of complete happiness, divorced of suffering. But if we don’t try, the state will never arrive.
But we might go on to ask, well, can I actually implement these various methods? And again the answer is yes. As we’ve explained, that we have an absence or a freedom of various inhibitory conditions and we have the necessary conducive conditions. So it is in the nature of the situation that upon giving all the necessary conditions, the result will arise of itself. This is the dependent arising nature.
It is the nature of reality. It is definite that it will occur. Once the conditions and the cause are present come together, the result must arise. So we have to appreciate our potentiality, that each of us has this ability, which our human life affords us. It’s extremely beneficial and has great meaning and potentiality.
But we have to make use of it. We have that ability. If we don’t make use of it, it has gone to waste. For as an illustration, if we had some precious article such that this article could actually help us to find happiness, it could eliminate our problems. If we want to make use of it, if we just left it aside, this would be a great waste.
It would be a great fault. But not only must we make use of our human life, but we must make use of it soon. Because our human life is impermanent. It’s not going to last a long time. It’s disintegrating moment by moment.
If we don’t make use of it soon, again this would be a great fault. So in order to rid ourselves of undesired sufferings, in order to find the desired happiness that we wish for, we have to practice. We have to implement the various methods by means to bring this about. But in order to do this, then we must necessarily know what the practices consist of. In the case of any type of work, in order to do the work well we must know the ways of the work, the nature of how it’s done.
If you work in a factory you have to know how to operate everything such that you can do the work properly. The same applies to these ways of practice. We don’t come to these ways of practice haphazardly. We have to actually listen to the teachings which explain the ways of practice. So by way of illustration, if we wanted to learn how to write, learn how to do some sewing, a type of craft, then we would go to a teacher and watch the teacher that we would have the methods, means to do this particular craft or work explained to us.
And likewise, we are seeking to engage in a practice of eliminating our problems and finding happiness. And we have to learn the methods whereby to bring this about. How do we go about doing this? What are the practices? And likewise, it’s necessary to listen to a teacher in explaining these means to us.
If we don’t have these means explained to us, how can we ever know? So in general, our motivation for listening to the teachings is a beneficial intention, a sense of altruism, kind heart, love, compassion, the awakening heart. And generally this is the way that we listen to the teaching. But more specifically, regarding the way of listening to the teaching, there are certain qualities which should be present. Quoting Śākyamūni Buddha in giving advice.
There are three categories with respect to listening, I think. There is one category is excellent, the other is superb listening, and the other is holding in mind. So we’ll see what these mean. Excellent, superb listening, and holding in mind. So what is meant by excellent is the way of listening in terms of that we should when we listen it should be divorced of attachment or hatred.
It should be single mindedly placed in an unbiased state. So what would be the fault if we were to listen to a Dharma teaching in the state of either hatred or attachment, it is said that in such a state that the teaching would be of no use, it would be of no benefit. Therefore, we should listen to it in a straightforward fashion divorced of either of these two attitudes. To illustrate, if we had a bowl and it had a little bit of poison in it, though we put delicious food in that bowl, the food, no matter how delicious it might be, it becomes inedible. It is wasted.
And likewise, no matter how delicious the Dharma teaching may be, if we have the poison of attachment or hatred within our minds, it becomes unusable. It’s of no benefit. So then the second category, I said superb listening, perhaps best listening, superb best whatever. But this is another way in which we are to listen and this is in terms of that we should listen well and not allow our mind to be distracted to other objects. That we should place our mind single pointedly on what is being said.
If we do that, then what is being said is able to penetrate our mind, is able to come into our mind. To illustrate this way of listening, the opposite of this way of listening, would be if we turned our bowl upside down and no matter how much food we may pour on top, we’re only going to be able to get a crumb of it. And so this the same if our mind is continually distracted. We’re only gonna get crumbs of the teaching. Then the third category, probably a better word than category, is what was said to be holding in one’s mind.
That is to say we should try to hold what is being said, the teaching, within one’s mind using one’s intelligence, using mindfulness. That is to say we shouldn’t forget what is being said. The way that this is illustrated, if the bowl that we’re making use of in this illustration had a hole in the bottom, then no matter how much delicious food we may put in that bowl, it’s all going to simply fall out the bottom. None of it is going to be held. And likewise, though we have the first two categories of ways of listening, though our mind is straightforward, it’s in an unbiased state, it’s neither having attachment or hatred, and though we are listening well, our mind is single mindedly placed upon the teaching, if we don’t have the factor of remembering or recollection or mindfulness, then we’re simply going to lose what it is that’s been going into us.
If we don’t hold the teachings with our factor of mindfulness, if we don’t remember what has been said, and though we may have listened to the teaching, when we go outside and we meet our friends, girlfriends and boyfriends, they say, Oh, what was the teaching about? What kind of meaning was spoken of? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.
So if it’s not there in one’s mind, when one goes to practice, there’s nothing there to make use of. So it’s said if we listen in these ways of proper listening, that is to say, in terms of an unbiased attitude of mind which is neither under the force or influence of attachment or hatred, that we listen well single pointedly and we try to hold the meaning of what is being said and not allowing it to be forgotten, then even a little teaching can be of tremendous benefit. So this is one way of listening, one explanation of ways of listening. There are three different explanations of ways of listening. Then another way of explaining the way of proper listening is in terms of the three recognitions.
We should try to recognize that the person who is teaching the Dharma, that is to say the teacher, is like a skilled physician, recognizing the teacher as a skilled physician. The Dharma is like medicine and we ourselves are like a sick person. Just as when we go to a hospital there are many patience in the hospital who are being attended to by doctors and they, in order to help them to be well, make use of medicine. So we should listen to the teaching with these three recognitions. You know, these three recognitions in the sense of that we look upon ourselves as having some problems, therefore as a sick person, that in order to be well we recognize the fact that perhaps we need to take some kind of medicine, and therefore we seek the advice of a skilled physician.
And the skilled physician prescribes the medicine, and by taking that medicine we completely cure ourselves. If we are able to listen in terms of these three recognitions, then of oneself as a sick person, the Dharma is the medicine, the teacher as the skilled physician, we can generate a powerful faith. And this will lead us to an enthusiastic practice implementing the means which are being explained by the Lama. The Lama being looked on as a skilled physician, that we will explain in presenting the medicine, which is the means by which we will be able to eliminate our undesired suffering, that we will be able to attain happiness that we wish, that is to say the various means, the practices, that we will enthusiastically implement these practices in seeking to cure ourselves. But it’s possible some people will think to themselves, I am not a sick person.
Such an attitude is a sign that we don’t understand our situation.