Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 49-minute commentary, Khensur Rinpoche opens with a striking claim: without the three principal aspects of the path, even celebrated advanced practices such as Mahāmudrā or the completion stage cannot become causes for liberation or Buddhahood. Before naming the three principals, he makes the case that listening is the indispensable foundation of all practice, using the image of being introduced to a stranger to explain how listening dispels confusion and allows a practitioner to correctly identify the causes of happiness and suffering. He then identifies the three principals — renunciation (the determination to be free), bodhicitta (the awakening heart), and the view of emptiness — explaining each in sequence and, for each, spelling out both the benefit of possessing it and the specific loss when it is absent. Suited to practitioners beginning a systematic Lamrim-style study.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 3PA 1993 05 25.mp3
UUID: 2f280f7d-aea3-46a3-a07e-dd62396ca71a
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principal Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-05-25
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 49.0 minutes
Words: ~2,617
So what is this kind hearted motivation that we’re seeking to cultivate? That which is the highest kind hearted motivation is having as a preliminary cultivated love and compassion going on to develop a sense of altruism, a beneficial intention toward others. And what is love? Understanding that just as ourselves want happiness and do not want to suffer, all other living beings are the same in wanting happiness and not wanting to suffer. So developing love which is expressed in the thought, It would be wonderful if myself and all sentient beings had happiness and the causes of happiness.
May myself and all living beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. Cultivation of compassion in the fact that all living beings are the same in not wanting suffering just like ourselves and developing the attitude of mind. It would be wonderful if myself and all living beings were free of suffering and the causes of suffering. May myself and all living beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. Expressing the attitudes of love and compassion, we develop an attitude which wishes that others be free of suffering, that they have complete happiness.
But we seek to increase the potency of that attitude in developing exceptional resolve which is expressed in the thought that I myself will lead them to a state where they are free of all suffering, where they have complete happiness. This attitude that I have developed, that I want to free all living beings from their suffering, that I want to lead them to complete happiness, is only a thought in my present mind. That I, in fact, do not have the ability to bring this about in actuality. And we go on to question, well who has such an ability, who has such power? Upon investigating we understand that it is only an individual who has removed all the various faults, who has brought to consummation all their excellent qualities.
That is to say, only a Buddha has such an ability. And understanding that if we were to do likewise, then we would have that same ability. So developing the attitude of the mind that for the sake of all living beings, that I myself will remove all my various faults, that I myself will bring all my excellent qualities to consummation and that I will achieve this through my practice, through practicing well. And that my practice — in order that my practice may go well — I’m going to listen to this teaching on the universal vehicle. I’m going to reflect upon what I hear and then meditate upon it.
And this all for the sake of myself and all living beings, that I may be of best benefit to them. Seek to develop such a kind hearted attitude. Quoting from a verse by Śākyamūni Buddha, in which he emphasizes the necessity to listen in order to carry on a successful practice. That in carrying out practice, when one is involved in mind training, it is necessary to listen to the teachings — without understanding the meaning, there is no way that we can achieve our goal.
Whatever we seek to achieve, it is necessary to understand, to have the information in order to achieve it. So whatever the activity that we involve ourselves in, whatever work it might be, the quality of the achievement, the progress made, comes about through an understanding of the processes involved. In order to understand that, it’s necessary that we first listen, that we gather together the necessary information and we come to an understanding of the processes through the process of listening. Without listening, then there’s the acute possibility of going in a negative direction, making mistakes, so we may not achieve what we are setting out to accomplish. What is the necessity for listening?
It is in order to come to an understanding. We listen in order to understand the nature of the situation, to facilitate the achievement of the goal. What are we to understand through this process of listening? The situation is that we want happiness and we don’t want to suffer.
So it is necessary that we understand from where does this desired happiness arise and from where does this undesired suffering arise. And then understanding this, we begin to implement those causes which bring about happiness and begin to eliminate those causes which bring about suffering. That is to say, we understand the method to find happiness, to eliminate suffering. And it is through the process of listening and coming to an understanding that we understand the methods which are needed, the processes which are implemented in a non-confused, clear and unmistaken manner. By understanding what are the causes for the desired happiness, then we can actually bring this about.
That in wanting happiness we must understand how it is achieved, and then making use of our intention to achieve this in combination with our wisdom then we can accomplish the happiness that we wish for. Then this applies equally to undesirable results. Understanding from where the causes of our suffering arise, understanding that we can abandon those causes, we can cease creating those causes, we can consistently lessen those causes and commensurately lessen the suffering which is a result of these causes. So one initiates the practice in terms of abandoning physical and verbal negative causes, and cultivating positive causes.
But this all has its foundation within the mind itself, that we’re mainly concerned with the way in which we’re thinking, the processes of the states of mind. Therefore, we are seeking to, in the main, to cease negative ways of thinking and to promote productive states of mind. We are seeking to abandon various negative states of mind to cultivate positive states of mind. Through implementing the methods which achieve this, then we can achieve, we can ultimately bring about a state of complete happiness, a happiness bereft of all suffering. That is to say, we can achieve the happiness of liberation.
But we can go on from there, and through eliminating all our various faults and bringing to consummation all our excellent qualities, we can achieve the state of Buddhahood. And these goals all arise dependent upon first listening. So the process of listening is a pointing out, making distinctions, this is this and this is that. This is negative, this is positive. It is a way of clarifying, introducing.
You know, just as we might introduce a person, or introduce people, say this person is this person, and this person. Therefore one comes to know who is who; without that, there’s confusion in one’s mind. One has made distinctions, and this is a process which arises through the activity of listening. Necessarily, this process begins with an introduction, trying to understand what is and what is not, overcoming some sense of obstruction or confusion, overcoming any sort of misunderstanding that we might have. If we thought there was some person here and we weren’t introduced to that person.
We simply don’t automatically have this knowledge. We have to be introduced to who this person is, and then through that we come to know, we overcome any misunderstandings that we might have had previously. And likewise, here we are being introduced into what are the causes of happiness, what are the causes of suffering, and what are the ways of practicing in order to bring about happiness, what are the ways of practicing in order to abandon suffering. And this presentation is done in an unerring, unmistaken manner, so that if we implement what we have been introduced to and practice it in accordance with the way it has been presented, then we can be sure that it will go well, that we will definitely achieve the desired outcome. So what is it that we are seeking to achieve through the universal vehicle or the Mahāyāna?
Ultimately, it is to benefit others, to abandon harm to others. So this is the main practice that we’re seeking to achieve through the universal vehicle. In bringing about others’ welfare, who is it that brings about the ultimate welfare of others in terms of others’ happiness and the elimination of their suffering? No one else can give it to oneself, from outside of oneself. That it all comes down to our own individual efforts, that we ourselves have to bring about our ultimate welfare.
In order to place others in a state of ultimate happiness bereft of any suffering, if oneself has not achieved that same state, then there’s no way that oneself can lead others to such a state. So how are we to bring about this goal that we have set in terms of bringing others to a state of happiness, divorced of any suffering? In order to achieve that end, each of us must attain the state of having eliminated our individual faults and brought to consummation our individual excellent qualities. Without having done that, then there’s no way we can achieve such a goal. Therefore, it is necessary that we make the effort implementing the practices and seek to journey the path in order to bring about this goal.
Therefore, oneself must eliminate all of one’s various faults, bring to consummation one’s excellent qualities. In order to achieve that, one must practice the path in order to finally eliminate one’s various faults and bring to consummation one’s excellent qualities. So in order to practice this path, we are seeking to understand the practices as set out, seeking to understand the practices set out in the three fundamentals of the path. These three fundamentals of the path are practices which the Buddhas of the past and the Buddhas of the present are now implementing, are now practicing. And this is their way of practice.
And if we ourselves practice accordingly, then we will achieve this same state. So we are going to be introduced, have these paths of practice clarified, and see that these are the practices of the bodhisattvas, and we also can practice in the same way and the way of practice in order to achieve this same end. So initially, Śākyamūni Buddha, for the sake of all living beings, in order to eliminate their suffering, to bring them to a state of happiness, carried on a practice of Dharma. Having brought his own practice to consummation, he then passed on the methods of practice to Maitreya, to Mañjuśrī, through an unbroken lineage of practitioners, a lineage of practice has come down in a gradual manner, an valid and unmistaken manner. So initially, the Śākyamūni Buddha taught many teachings of the Dharma.
And these eventually came down and there are extremely many many practices of Dharma. But here we’re talking about the essence of that Dharma, of all these many teachings of the Dharma. It’s like — if an individual possesses a life energy, then they have life. It is necessary to possess this essence of life, a life energy in order to be alive. And likewise, what is the essence of Dharma?
The life of the Dharma. So mainly we are going to comment upon the practices of the bodhisattva. So of these practices, the condensation of the essence of Dharma comes down to three fundamentals. And these are firstly, renunciation, and I translate this as the determination to be free. Secondly, the awakening heart.
This is bodhicitta. And thirdly, the awakening mind. That’s my translation. It’s the view of emptiness. The view of emptiness, or my translation, the awakening mind.
These are the three fundamentals of the path. There are two areas of practice of the universal vehicle Dharma. There are, on the one hand, the area of practice of sūtra, or the perfections. On the other hand, there is the secret mantra. These three fundamentals of the path are the foundation of the sūtra.
These three fundamentals of the path are the foundation of secret mantra. They are the foundation of both areas of practice of the vajrayana. They are the essence, the root, the life of the Dharma practice. Without them, there is no practice. If we have developed a determination to be free and our meditation is coupled with that attitude, then whatever we meditate on will of itself become a cause for our liberation, a cause by which we can abandon the suffering of cyclic existence — it of itself becomes such a cause.
Analogy would be if in the case of a cake which was made with sugar, it is naturally sweet. That’s its nature. Likewise, if we have the determination to be free, then all our meditations and teachings and teachings become causes for liberation from cyclic existence. It’s naturally that way. And additionally, if we have this second fundamental of the path, that of the awakening heart, then whatever we meditate on, in fact whatever we do, if it’s combined with this attitude of the awakening heart, then it of itself automatically becomes a cause for the attainment of Buddhahood.
Even if we were to give a crumb of food to a dog, that becomes a cause for the attainment of Buddhahood if it’s coupled with the awakening heart. And then finally if our meditation were coupled, combined with this third fundamental of the path, the awakening mind, that is the wisdom realizing emptiness, then whatever we meditated on, it would become an antidote for cyclic existence, a way of reversing from its root our cyclic existence. It would serve as an antidote. It would destroy, eliminate the root of cyclic existence from our mind, that is to say, it would destroy ignorance. And would move in a direction toward a complete elimination of our suffering.
So these are the benefits of these three fundamentals of the path: the determination to be free, the awakening heart, the awakening mind. If we have these, then we will accrue all of these benefits. So these are the benefits of having these three fundamentals of the path. But what if we don’t have them? What are the faults of not having these three fundamentals?
What are the disadvantages of not having the determination to be free, the awakening heart and the awakening mind? We should understand that also. So we said that if one has the determination to be free, then even a minor meditation can become a cause for liberation. So what happens if we don’t have the determination to be free? Then nothing that we do becomes a cause for liberation.
Even if we were to meditate on such exotic practices as the energies and the channels within the body, or such practices as the Great Completion or Mahāmudrā, or the famous generating stage and completion stage. All these famous and exotic practices — without the determination to be free, none of them can become a cause for liberation. So we’ve described what are the benefits of having the determination to be free, what are the profits, and what is the loss of benefits, what are the faults, what is the loss if we don’t have the determination to be free. So there’s understanding what is the profit, what is loss. And the same holds true with respect to the awakening mind.
We’ve talked about the benefits — if we possess the awakening mind, then even an insignificant meditation becomes the cause for the attainment of Buddhahood on the one hand. But on the other, without the awakening heart, then even if we were to engage in meditations and teachings and teachings of such great practices as Mahāmudrā and the Great Completion, they cannot become causes for the attainment of Buddhahood.