Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A food metaphor opens this 23-minute introductory session: Khensur Rinpoche argues that having access to the Dharma is like having a meal placed before you — only actually eating makes you fortunate. He then introduces Tsongkhapa’s brief verse text on the three principal aspects of the path — determination to awaken, the awakening heart, and the view of emptiness — framing the author’s pledge to condense eighty-four thousand antidotes into a few concentrated lines. The view of emptiness, Rinpoche explains, is the one essential doorway into liberation. A Q&A rounds out the session, including a sunlight-melting-snow metaphor for how a student’s faith and respect allow blessings to flow from teacher to student.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 3PA 1993 06 01.mp3
UUID: 42c18859-89f0-4bfc-94ff-cb3e5e38a19d
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principal Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-06-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 23.1 minutes
Words: ~1,028
It’s like presenting you an opportunity to eat well. But if you were to not eat that food, then the opportunity — if you were not to take advantage of it — then you would not be a fortunate person. So likewise, with respect, we have an opportunity, or the time, to practice the Dharma, and we also have the ability to practice the Dharma. So though the Dharma may be a fortune in itself, if we do not — we have to have the ability to practice. That is, we have to enter into the practice, and that makes us fortunate.
Not just having — not just that the Dharma is present — but actually being able to and entering into the practice makes us a fortunate person, as it says here, the fortunate. And it says wishing liberation, or longing, longing for liberation. So through seeing the faults of cyclic existence, seeing that cyclic existence is just a lousy place, and the cyclic is to be abandoned, one develops a longing to be free of cyclic existence, to attain liberation. Okay. So it is necessary — just in seeing the faults of cyclic existence and indeed developing determination to be rid of it.
One develops a longing for liberation. And in order to achieve that end, it is necessary to travel a path. And this path is the development of the view of emptiness or the awakening mind. Just as in the case of a house, in order to enter into the house there’s one way that we can enter into it. The door.
So the doorway into the path of liberation is the view of emptiness. Achieving liberation without the view of emptiness — that is to say, the awakening mind — there’s no way that we can enter into it. So this is an interesting way, by means of which we can travel the path. It is a means of traveling the path or crossing over to liberation. So as we’ve mentioned — can you hear me?
As we mentioned, there are eighty-four thousand afflictive emotions and thus there are eighty-four thousand antidotes to those afflictive emotions. And the various texts which set out an explanation of these eighty-four thousand antidotes are necessarily extremely extensive. It would be difficult to condense all of these down to a few words, but we can take the meaning of what is being gotten at in terms of these vast texts. And though the meaning can still be vast, we can make use of a few words. Tsongkhapa is saying that just though the meaning is extremely vast, I’m going to try, as best as I am able — I’m going to try to explain something, the meaning of which is very vast, in a few words.
So in these four lines, Tsongkhapa is pledging to compose. He’s also setting up the three topics that he’s going to explain, the three fundamentals of the path and the order of their presentation. So today we’ve discussed the offering of praise and the pledge to compose. If you have any — so we’re going to stop there, but if you have any questions, we’ll take time for those. Yes.
How do you define it? So there’s no exact definition of superstition. The word which is being translated can also be translated as preconception. It’s simply the thinking of the mind. The thinking of the mind can be both positive, it can be negative.
So there’s no specific definition for it. Yes. Yes, Pamela. So there is a method other than merely receiving teachings. So if we present a metaphor in order to explain what is necessary to receive the blessings — just as in the case, if the sun does not shine upon the snow upon the mountain, it does not melt and the water does not flow into the valley.
Likewise, if we compare the Lama to the snow, the water — the runoff — it’s a blessing. Blessings. The sunshine is the faith and respect. So, without faith and respect, without the sunlight of faith and respect shining upon the Lama of the snow, the blessings do not flow forth. I confused that.
It’s necessary that the faith and respect shine upon the Lama, whereby the blessings flow like water. Just like the sun shining upon the snow on the mountain, and the snow melts and flows — like the water flows. So it requires faith and respect. Another metaphor: in the maturing of a crop, it is necessary that it be exposed to the warmth of the sun. The sun is the Lama.
The sunlight shining upon the maturing crop — these are the blessings. And through the sunlight bringing warmth to the shoots which are growing, it matures into a crop, into a harvest. So I — I mixed that up a little bit. The warmth is the blessing. I think I said the sunlight.
The warmth of the sunlight is the blessing. So today we’ve covered the topics. We’ve set out the topics that will be covered: determination to awaken, the awakening heart, and the awakening mind. Next week we’re going to discuss the way of listening — that is to say, the way in which the student is to listen to these topics, the teachings on these topics.
And then, having completed that, then we’ll begin the topics themselves: the topic of the determination to awaken, the awakening heart, and the awakening mind. What are we to do initially? What are we to do in the interval? What is the measurement of having actually achieved, developed that particular quality? What are the benefits of achieving it?
So this is all explained in great detail. So though this text is but a few words, its meaning is extremely extensive. It sets out in condensed form all of the subjects which are the essentials of the Buddhadharma. And if we listen well, then we can develop these excellent qualities within our mind. And we can implant latencies for their future development.
And therefore, it is extremely — it’s of tremendous benefit to listen to these teachings.