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 presents a method Mañjuśrī taught Tsongkhapa for loosening attachment to this life’s pleasures: pairing recognition of “leisure and fortune” with mindfulness of impermanence and death. He first maps the damage strong attachment causes — fuelling the ten unskillful actions, blocking compassion and wisdom, and making stable ethical practice impossible. He then unpacks three dimensions of a precious human life: its temporal value (ethics, patience, and generosity now secure future good rebirths), its ultimate value (liberation and Buddhahood are within reach through the three higher trainings), and its moment-by-moment value — even five minutes of practice motivated by renunciation or the awakening heart plants causes for full enlightenment. The session closes with Śāntideva’s image of a golden yoke adrift on the ocean of saṃsāra to drive home just how rare such a human life is.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 13 3PA 1993 07 27.mp3
UUID: 956978dd-fb11-4be4-91bb-9b963fbbac26
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principal Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-07-27
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 49.2 minutes
Words: ~2,814
So, in our discussion of the three fundamentals of the path — the three fundamentals being the developing of the determination to be free, the awakening heart, and the awakening mind — we have been discussing the first of these three fundamentals, the determination to be free. And with respect to that, there were three divisions: the reason for meditating or cultivating the determination to be free or awaken; the second division section was the way of generating the determination to awaken; and the third, the measure of having generated the determination to awaken and grow. And we have completed the first of these three sections, the reason for cultivating the determination to be free. And with respect to the second section, the way of actually generating the determination to be free, there were two subsections: reversing the emphasis on — reversing our priorities in this life — and the second being reversing our priorities in future lives.
And now we’re presently discussing the first of these two subsections. So, the text actually says this life, meaning our present life. And the text literally says the emphasis on the appearance — that is, and I’m translating as our priorities. That is, the appearances or our priorities of this life which we are to reverse or reprioritize are the various objects of enjoyment, our various pleasurable possessions, and our clinging to them. So we are trying to reverse from the appearances or the clinging to the various objects of enjoyment, which are placed within the emphasis of this life, which are emphasized in the course of this life.
So the text says, through the familiarity with this — the emphasis on appearances of this life is reversed. That is to say, there will be a reprioritizing with respect to our emphasis of this life. And what the appearance connotes is the various objects toward which we have a natural clinging toward — the various samsaric objects or objects of pleasurable possessions of cyclic existence. And that we now have a sense of clinging to these objects. We have attachment to them or desire for them.
And we are trying to reverse this tendency — that is to lessen our desires for the pleasurable objects of cyclic existence. We are trying to see the faults of such attachment. So what we mean by the pleasures of cyclic existence of this life are such objects of pleasure as food, clothing, but also the drive toward fame and glory, the various objects of pleasure that we have great desire toward. So we’re trying to lessen the power of our attachment toward these various objects of pleasure of cyclic existence. We are not at this point discussing their elimination or the elimination of our attachment to them.
In order to eliminate attachment, we have to realize emptiness. So at this point we’re not discussing emptiness, but we’re talking about the antidote which can be applied whereby to lessen the power of our attachment. So we are seeking to see the faults of strong attachment. The way that we can begin to do this is to see the detrimental effects of powerful attachment or strong attachment.
How, under the influence of powerful attachment, we enter into various negative activities, various unskillful actions such as stealing, killing, lying, sexual improprieties — all of the various ten unskillful actions that involve creating negative karma. And under the influence of this negative karma, we experience suffering both in this life and in future lives. And seeing this, we will begin to lessen the force of our attachment. There are not only these various detrimental results of suffering in the future, but additionally all the various possible excellent qualities that we might develop — the qualities of developing determination to awaken or to grow, compassion, the awakening heart, and wisdom realizing emptiness — are all inhibited by the force of this attachment.
And until we lessen the power of our attachment, we can’t generate these other highly desirable qualities. Additionally, we will not be able to develop a practice of ethics under the force of our attachment. We will be continually involving ourselves in ten unskillful actions. We will not be able to develop the quality of patience. And not developing these qualities, we will not develop the causes for happiness in the future, but on the contrary will only create the causes for suffering, and therefore there’s the great danger that we will in the future experience only continual suffering — and therefore seeing this, developing the determination to cease our attachment.
In order to lessen our attachment, as we’ve been taught in the past teachings, various methods — the method set out by Nāgārjuna was in terms of foregoing the eight primary preoccupations of ego-oriented existence, or let us say, eight worldly dharmas. In terms of the Kadampa teachings, the past teachings which have also been explained, the way that we can lessen our attachment was in putting into practice the ten innermost jewels of the Kadampa. And these all act as a means by which we can develop the determination to awaken and the awakening heart. Today, we’re going to discuss a method which was taught by Mañjuśrī to Tsongkhapa as a means to reprioritize or to reverse our appearance — the emphasis on the appearances of this life — to lessen our attachment. The method which is being set out here is a combination which is set out in the lines: leisure and fortune are difficult to find and life has no duration.
That is to say, the cultivating in a complementary fashion these two practices of coming to recognize our leisures and fortunes and the remembrance of impermanence of death. Fortunes — it has three divisions. That is to say, recognizing our leisures and fortunes, the great meaning of these leisures and fortunes, and their difficulty in finding them. With respect to recognizing our leisures and fortunes, there is a recognition of our eight leisures and ten fortunes. There are a total of eighteen characteristics of human life endowed with these leisures and fortunes.
The eight represent freedom from inhibitory conditions whereby we are not able to carry on a practice of Dharma on the one hand, and the fortunes are set out in terms of five personal endowments and five circumstantial endowments. By means of these we are able to reverse the emphasis on the appearance of this life or to reprioritize our values, and whereby we deemphasize our attachment toward the pleasurable possessions of this life. A person possessing these eighteen leisures and fortunes has tremendous power and ability whereby to eliminate their individual suffering and the cause of their suffering, to bring about happiness and the causes of their happiness. This is what is inferred by the second division.
And when we said that such a type of human possessing these eighteen leisures and fortunes is extremely meaningful, that a human life possessing these eighteen characteristics is extremely powerful and has great potential, and therefore is extremely meaningful or of great purpose. The characteristics of leisures and fortunes being extremely meaningful — what we mean is that such a human life can bring about tremendous ends; that is, it has tremendous purpose in their life. It is tremendously meaningful possibilities. Whatever it is that we want, we can achieve it. And it is meaningful — that is to say, it has this potentiality, it has this great purpose — in three different ways.
In terms of temporally, ultimately, and moment by moment, such a human embodiment can bring about great ends. It has that ability both temporally, ultimately, and momentarily or moment by moment. So when we say that this human life is temporally meaningful, it is from the point of view that a life possessing these eighteen characteristics can bring about a human life in the future whereby to eliminate one’s suffering and to bring happiness. So the temporal possibilities — bring happiness — the possibilities which such a life affords us is in terms of again possessing another type of human embodiment in the future whereby we can continue on to eliminate our sufferings, to establish the causes of happiness.
And how is this temporal meaningfulness of our present human existence expressed? In the course of this life, we can observe ethics. This we can put into practice through abandoning the various seven unskillful actions of body and speech, for example. We can by abandoning killing, by abandoning stealing, sexual improprieties, by abandoning those verbal unskillful actions of lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, idle chatter — we are observing ethics.
Additionally, we can cease harming others through our cultivation of patience. Additionally, in the context of the practice of altruism, we can practice generosity. So it is by means of these practices — the observance of ethics, the cultivation of patience, and the practice of generosity — that we can ensure that we will again have a human embodiment in the future. And it’s in terms of such a type of human embodiment that we can ultimately eliminate all our various faults, that we can bring to consummation our excellent qualities, that it has this unimaginable potential to establish ultimate happiness. So as far as the temporal meaningfulness of our present human embodiment, it is in terms of it can establish rebirth as a human or celestial being.
So that is the way in which our human embodiment is temporally meaningful in terms of the future attainment of a human life or the state of a celestial being. In terms of its ultimate meaningfulness, on the basis of the practice of the three higher trainings — observing the higher trainings of ethics, meditative stabilization, and wisdom — we can free ourselves from cyclic existence, we can abandon cyclic existence. And on the basis of this human embodiment, we can achieve liberation. But not only that. If we go on, on the basis of the practice of the three higher trainings, to develop the awakening heart and the awakening mind, that we enter into the universal vehicle and we carry out the practices of the bodhisattva —
we can, on the basis of a present human embodiment such as ours, eliminate all our various faults. We can bring to consummation all excellent qualities. That is to say that we can attain the state of a Buddha. And this is the powerful potential of such a type of human life with these characteristics of the eighteen Leisures and Fortunes — that we can attain these ends ultimately. And then thirdly, in terms of the momentary meaningfulness of our present human embodiment — that is to say, its meaningfulness which can be established even from moment to moment — even within five minutes time, if we were to meditate making use of our human embodiment without attachment, meditating without attachment to this life, concerning ourselves with future lives, if we were to observe ethics, then on the basis of this we could attain a human life in the future.
But additionally, if we were to, in terms of a motivation of renunciation or the determination to awaken, meditate five minutes on such subjects as impermanence or selflessness, then these would become causes for our freedom from cyclic existence. That is to say, that five minutes would establish causes for our eventual liberation. But additionally, if we were to develop as our motivation the awakening heart, then if we were, on the basis of such a type of human embodiment which we possess, to meditate only five minutes — cultivate compassion, for example — then that five minutes would establish causes whereby we would eventually eliminate all our various faults. We would bring to consummation all our excellent qualities. That is to say that five minutes would act as bringing about the causes for our eventual attainment of Buddhahood.
So this is the tremendous potential which such a type of human embodiment which we now possess affords us. So this is the tremendous potential which a human embodiment such as ours possesses — a human embodiment possessing these eighteen characteristics of leisure and fortune. No other type of embodiment possesses these qualities. Not even other types of human embodiments. What to say of the six other types of migrators such as animals or celestial beings — none of these other types of embodiments possess this potential.
So therefore this is the reason that our human embodiment is so very precious. So, it is for this reason that we say that our present human body has such great meaning or is so very meaningful. Why? Because, in dependence upon such a human embodiment, we can establish great results, we can bring about tremendous causes in terms of such a human embodiment. Therefore, it is extremely meaningful.
And then the third section: we asked the question, well, is such a precious human embodiment easily found? And the answer is no, that such a human embodiment is extremely difficult to find. And this is analogous with whatever is held of value in the world. That which is valuable or a prize within the world is extremely rare. It’s difficult to find.
And likewise, our human embodiment, which is so very valuable, is also extremely difficult to find. It’s very rare. So as a worldly analogy, something like platinum, which is extremely precious and extremely rare in the world — only a few people have it, and it’s difficult to find. And likewise, a human embodiment, a precious human embodiment possessing these eighteen characteristics is extremely difficult to find.
And I’m going to explain an analogy of the difficulty in finding such a human embodiment which is set out by Śāntideva. So in terms of difficulties, we have explained this in terms of its cause — the difficulty of attaining such a human embodiment in terms of cause. What we have now just explained is the difficulty of finding such a human embodiment in terms of its nature or entity. That is to say, you know, amongst all the various types of living beings, few of them inhabit the earth. And amongst all of those that inhabit the earth, only a few are human beings.
And amongst all the human beings inhabiting the earth, only a very few possess these eighteen characteristics. So in terms of number, the rarity of such a human embodiment possessing these eighteen characteristics is the difficulty of finding such a human embodiment in terms of nature. Now it’s going to be presented in terms of an analogy — the difficulty of finding such a type of human embodiment in terms of an analogy or a metaphor. Quoting from a verse by Śāntideva in which he is setting out an analogy of the rarity of such a human embodiment and how difficult it is to find. And the analogy begins with that we are to imagine that there is a tremendous vast ocean.
And upon this ocean is a golden yoke, that is to say some kind of a golden object which is floating upon the surface of the water which has a hole in the middle. And it is continually being moved about by the waves. It goes — sometimes it’s here, it’s there — continually on the move. So thus far in explaining the symbolism of this analogy, the great ocean is the great ocean of cyclic existence. That is to say, a rebirth which is taken under the influence of karma and afflictive emotions.
And therefore, the great ocean is analogous to the ocean of cyclic existence. And the yoke, the golden yoke which is continually moving about this great ocean — the yoke itself is likened to, analogous to, the Buddhadharma. And its movement and the fact that it’s gold is that it is extremely valuable or precious — just as in the case of the world, that gold can be sold and one can meet all of one’s material necessities, one can have food, etcetera. Here it is valuable in the sense that through the Dharma one can achieve happiness and peace. Therefore it is like gold, analogous to gold.
The fact that it has a hole in it — the yoke has a hole in it — is the doorway into the practice of Dharma. One is able to engage in the practice. It’s an opening into the practice of the teachings of the Dharma. And that it’s moving about, it’s continually not staying in one place, is analogous to the fact that the Dharma itself, the teachings themselves, do not stay in one place. First they arose, then they degenerate in that place and they moved on to other areas.
They moved into China, to Tibet. They did not remain in one place but the teachings are continually on the move.