Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using a vivid machine analogy — ignorance as the electricity powering a device, attachment as the machine itself doing the actual work — Khensur Rinpoche anchors this 49-minute commentary on Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path around why the determination to be free is difficult yet indispensable. He begins with the purpose of paying homage to the lama: all realizations depend on a qualified teacher, not study alone. He then introduces Tsongkhapa’s pledge to compose with a butter-churning image — the text extracts the essence, butter, from the vast milk of the Buddha’s teachings, and that essence is the determination to be free. A second analogy, farmer and seed and water, shows how craving germinates karmic seeds into rebirth and suffering. The session ends by briefly naming the awakening heart and the view of emptiness as the next two principal aspects to come.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 3PA 1993 06 01.mp3
UUID: d95e90ef-e536-4dee-9809-af8d31a817bb
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principal Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-06-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 49.0 minutes
Words: ~2,691
So what is the need to pay homage? It is as we have just mentioned — one factor is in order to eliminate obstacles. The second is in terms of practice, in order not to forget that which is not to be forgotten, in order to remember that which is not to be forgotten in terms of our practice of Dharma. That what is to be remembered is that the realizations of all the paths and grounds comes about in dependence upon the lama, and therefore remembering to pay homage — remembering that it is in reliance upon the lama by means of which we gain the various realizations of the paths and grounds. So an analogy would be in the case of students who go to school, that they progress in their education in dependence upon the instruction of the teacher.
Likewise with respect to ourselves, that it is in dependence upon the lama and the teachings, and not forgetting those teachings, and not forgetting that we rely upon those teachings of the lama, that we develop in wisdom. Unlike the case of the student in the school where we gain understanding of the subjects, we progress in our education and develop our intelligence in terms of the instructions of the teacher. But in that situation there are no realizations through meditation and cultivating the practices. It is in this situation that, by means of the blessings of the lama entering into one’s mind — that is to say, by inducing a healthy state of mind — we are able to gain realization. The various realizations such as developing the determination to be free, the awakening heart and the awakening mind, all the various paths and grounds.
That it is through relying upon the blessings of the lama entering into one’s mind that we gain these types of realizations. With respect to lama and guru, the words lama and guru are synonyms. I use the word Lama. There are three types. There is that of Vinaya, or moral discipline, the Lama of the lesser vehicle.
There is the lama of the universal vehicle, the perfection vehicle. And then there is the lama of secret mantra. So in our practice of Dharma it’s necessary that we rely upon the lama, but this lama should not be just any lama. It should be one who is qualified, who has wisdom, who understands the various stages of the path, has compassion, practices according to what he or she teaches, and is able to teach others — able to teach in terms of sūtra and also mantra. So it should be a fully qualified Lama.
That if the Lama does not have excellent qualities, then to rely upon such a person, the student cannot gain excellent qualities. That without the Lama having excellent qualities there is no way that in reliance upon such a person the student can generate excellent qualities. So we have to rely upon an excellent Lama. In addition to the lama necessarily having had to have certain excellent qualities, so too must the student. That the student should be of stable mindedness, steadfast, not be blown around by attachments and very superstitious thoughts.
That they should have a steadiness of effort making enthusiastic perseverance. And they need intelligence. So these are the qualities that a student from their side needs. If these two come together, a qualified Lama and a qualified student, then it is said that we can shape Buddhahood just like shaping dough with a hand. We can shape Buddhahood in such a situation.
If the qualified student comes into contact with the qualified lama and listens to such teachings as given, then it’s definite that there will be tremendous benefit throughout. So having completed the offering of praise, the next verse is the pledge to compose. It’s in your red book, the actual translation of this present text, where it says, Whoever are not attached to the pleasures of mundane existence, whoever strive in order to make leisure and fortune worthwhile, whoever are inclined to the path pleasing the conqueror and Buddha, those fortunate ones should listen with a clear mind. So this constitutes the pledge to compose. Oh, I’m sorry. I will explain as well as I can the essential meaning of all the conqueror’s scriptures, the path praised by the excellent conqueror’s children, the crossing for the fortunate wishing liberation. So that’s the verse which is the pledge to compose.
So what we mean by pledge is that one makes a promise. And here the promise is that I will compose the text in order to benefit others. I commit myself to composing this text. So what is the purpose of making this pledge to compose? When great beings make a commitment to bring about a great work, then the commitment is never set aside until it is brought to fruition, until it’s brought to conclusion, it’s brought to consummation. They’re not like ourselves. You know, when we say, Well I promise to do this, and then immediately we just forget about it.
We just set it aside quite readily. Great beings, when they make a commitment or promise to do something, they do not — the commitment never ends until it’s brought to conclusion. So the line says, The essential meaning of all the conqueror’s teachings or all the conqueror’s scriptures. So conqueror here refers to the Buddha. So all of the Buddha’s scriptures, or let us say all of his various teachings.
That includes teachings on sūtra, teachings on mantra. All of those teachings that he set forth in order to benefit living beings, in order to lead them to happiness. And these were extremely extensive. I am going to explain the meaning, the essence of these teachings. By essence it means I am going to condense them and take the main points of this teaching.
What is the main point of the teaching, the essence of the meaning of the teachings here? He’s referring to the determination to be free. So as a metaphor — just as in the case of when we churn butter, we are able to extract the essence of the milk, which is butter. So when we churn milk, we extract the essence of the milk, which is butter. And the milk here is the teachings of the conqueror, the teachings of the Buddha. Tsongkhapa is extracting the essence, the butter of the milk of the conqueror’s teachings.
That is to say, the essence is the determination to be free. So the determination to be free is extremely important. It’s one of the highest qualities that we can have. You know, it’s a quality, a possession, that we can have for ourselves which no amount of money can buy for us. You know, whether hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions of dollars, we simply can’t buy it anywhere.
Even in the most affluent materialistic country like America, you can’t — there’s no way you can buy it even in America. So all the qualities of the path are rooted in the determination to be free. It is the root or the essence of the practice of Dharma. If Dharma practice is going to be of benefit, it must be founded upon, it must be based upon the foundation of the determination to be free. If there’s no determination to be free, then there’s no real practice of the Buddha Dharma.
On the other hand, if there is determination to be free, then our practice will gain success. We will be able to develop all of the various qualities. It is the very foundation of both the individual vehicle and the universal vehicle. It is like the ground. So this way of looking at the benefits of determination to be free is in terms of the establishment of excellent qualities.
But if we look at it in terms of the benefit, in terms of the cessation of faults — from the other side, that is to say, in looking at what is the root of our continual suffering — that our rebirth within cyclic existence comes about through karma and afflictive emotions. Of these two, the root is afflictive emotions. The main afflictive emotions are attachment, hatred, and confusion. Though there are many, there is a vast variety of afflictive emotions, these are the three main afflictive emotions: attachment, hatred, and confusion. And though of these three the root is ignorance, in operational terms it is attachment which is of the greatest influence.
So it is the determination to be free which acts as an antidote to this most potent fundamental afflictive emotion which is affecting our lives. If we make use of a metaphor to show the relationship between attachment and ignorance and show how attachment and ignorance are expressed in our life, we could look at some type of manufacturing equipment. Some type of machinery which is able to perform some kind of function, produce an object, act in order to operate and to make products. The machine itself is what is actually producing the objects. It is what is performing the operation and forming the products, shaping the products.
Though, the machine is run on electricity. So it is necessary to have electricity. So it’s a combination of electricity with the actual operation of the machinery for its various functions. So the electricity is analogous to ignorance. It’s what’s running the show.
The power behind. But still, in operational terms, that which is actually doing the shaping, performing the various functions, is the machine itself, all of its various gears and all of its various parts. This is analogous to attachment. So, though the fundamental driving force may in fact be ignorance, in operational terms it is attachment which is actually doing the shaping, the actual manufacturing. I was quoting from a verse by Dharmakīrti and in this verse Dharmakīrti explains that though our suffering and rebirth and cyclic existence in general come about mainly through ignorance, still we are most directly influenced not by ignorance but by karma and afflictive emotions, and of the afflictive emotions, craving. So though it is mainly ignorance which is causing us to continue within cyclic existence and causing us to experience suffering.
In operational terms we are directly under the influence of attachment which is bringing this about. It is like a seed. The seed is like karma and if we water the seed it causes germination and the sprout grows. The water is craving, grasping, desire. This is what brings about the result of cyclic existence most directly.
It causes us to take rebirth in cyclic existence. It causes us to experience suffering. So it is these — karma conditioned by craving and desire, attachment — which are the most direct influences bringing about the experiences of suffering. So to extend this metaphor analogy, ignorance can be likened to the farmer who sows the seeds in the field. The ignorance is the farmer sowing seeds in the field.
The seeds themselves are karma. But without water, even though the seeds have been planted, no sprouts arise. Plants do not grow. So it is necessary that the added condition of water be applied in order for there to arise a result. This added condition of water is attachment, is craving.
It is actually the most directly influencing factor — in operational terms — of bringing about the result. Though we plant the seed, if that seed is not watered, that seed can remain in the ground for hundreds of years, and still there will be no sprout arising. And through cultivating the determination to be free, it acts as an antidote, bringing about a cessation of desire, and without desire then the karma cannot be re-germinated and therefore no suffering is experienced. So it’s really difficult to begin to lessen and cease our desires, our cravings. Why?
Because in fact the methods for increasing desires and attachments are quite famous. They’re extremely popular. In fact, a lot of what is seen and heard is simply a means to increase our desires. The various clothes that we see, the newest styles are simply there to help us to develop more desire for new clothes. The songs, the music that we hear, the various ways, the beautiful bodies that we see are simply more and more means to help us to increase our desires.
So without enthusiasm for the practice of the determination to be free, things will always be difficult. In this situation it is necessary that we increase the forcefulness of the antidote to the developments of these various desires. That is, developing a very forceful determination to be free. But we can do this in the sense that all of the various states of desire and craving, attachment — they are all distorted cognitions. They are all distorted awarenesses.
That they are viewing their objects in a perverted manner, in a wrong way. The determination to be free, on the other hand, is valid cognition. It is a valid cognition. It is actually seeing the actual true nature of the various objects. So in this way, understanding this, then craving, attachment etc., are not stable consciousnesses and they cannot be developed completely because their foundation is distorted.
They are misconceiving the object of their awareness. Therefore, on the one hand, the determination to be free can be developed without limit because it has a very stable foundation. It is a non-distorted awareness. Therefore we can develop it without limits — unlike attachment. So we just covered this single line today: the essential meaning of all the conqueror’s scriptures — where we were just pointing out, enumerating first the determination to be free, and then we will cover as we proceed down through the text the actual means of developing these antidotes, the ways of developing the determination to be free, and the other fundamentals of the path.
The next line says, The path praised by the excellent conqueror’s children. So what is meant by a conqueror’s child is someone who has generated the awakening heart, but is not a Buddha. So they are a practitioner of the universal vehicle, and the Buddha is compared to a father and those who have generated the awakening heart, his children. So the Buddha taught the Dharma as a means of practice which acts as a path, and through practicing this path, then these individuals have generated the awakening heart and have become a bodhisattva. So they are as if born from the Buddha.
Therefore they are compared to a child of the Buddha. So these children of the conqueror are said to be holy, or here excellent, and that is because they have developed the awakening heart — the awakening heart is the foundation of all excellent qualities — and therefore they are considered excellent, having generated this quality. And this path, by means of which they are able to generate this excellent quality, is being praised. That it is showing its excellence, that it is held of the highest quality, being an unerring, unmistaken path by means of which one can go to the grounds and paths of the Buddha. And that one can remove all of one’s various negativities, developing all excellent qualities, removing all negativities in oneself.
Therefore it is a path praised by these holy children of the conqueror. So the first line expresses the first fundamental of the path, the determination to be free. This line that we’ve just mentioned expresses the second fundamental of the path, the awakening heart. And then finally the third line where it says the crossing for the fortunate wishing liberation. This is setting out the third fundamental of the path, the awakening mind, the view of emptiness.
This line, as was mentioned — the crossing for the fortunate wishing liberation — it says the word fortunate. So what does it mean? Having fortune, having opportunity. An analogy would be if you’re with some people and you decide to go out to eat. The food is, in a way, like