Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Imagine dying surrounded by everyone who loves you — not one of them able to follow. Khensur Rinpoche uses this image to open this 47-minute commentary on the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, anchoring the third point of death contemplation: friends, possessions, and the body are all left behind, and only dharma carries forward. He explains the mechanism — the mind migrates carrying its accumulation of skillful and unskillful actions, and whichever dominates determines the next destination, illustrated with Nāgārjuna’s verse on the six realms. The second half turns to Buddhist epistemology: why teachings must be analyzed like a jeweler assaying gold, through direct perception, inference from observable facts, and — for the subtlest karmic laws, such as wealth arising from generosity — inference grounded in verified scriptural authority. Suited to practitioners working through a Lamrim curriculum.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 20 3PA 1993 08 17.mp3
UUID: 818488de-dbdf-4ec4-860a-c5b13c15ae32
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principal Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-08-17
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 47.5 minutes
Words: ~2,651
So firstly, the time of death is definite. Secondly, the time of our death is uncertain. And now thirdly, well, we ask the question, I am definitely going to die and I am not sure when I am going to die. At at my death, what will be of any benefit? Some might think, well, at the time time of my death I I I’m going to have a lot of friends who care about me around me.
I’m going to have my parents, my relatives. They can help me. They can be of use to me at the time of my death. If, you know, No matter how many friends we may have, if we were to imagine ourselves in our homes and we are lying on our deathbed ready to die, we are not able to rise again, and that we are completely encircled by those who care about us. Even if the whole world were our friends and they were there for us, not one of them could go with us.
We’re going to have to go alone. So our friends and those who care for us will be of no benefit at the time of our death. Again, even if we had all of the wealth of the world, all the material goodies that the world has to offer, and if we complete material well-being, we cannot take one sliver, speck of a material with us when we die. Even if we had stored up food and drink for a hundred years, we go from this life hungry. And even if we had clothes to last a hundred years, we go from this life naked.
Material possessions are of no benefit at the time of our death. But additionally, even this body which we were born with, which has accompanied us over the course of our life, We have taken such good care of, you know, when it’s cold that we have tried to warm it. When it was warm we tried to cool it. It too will be left behind. It is like removing a hair from butter.
It it nothing clings to it when it’s pulled out. So, quoting from a verse by Śāntideva, where he said, We simply don’t understand that all of what is around us is going to have to be left behind, all our various material possessions, our loved ones, everything is going to be lost at the time of death. And because not understanding that, under the influence of these various things about us, both the people and materials, we generate attachment to our loved ones and friends and our possessions. We develop harmful attitudes toward those we conceive of as enemies and have aversion for them, thinking that we and they are going to remain forever. But we but in the meanwhile, our loved ones die or we die or or even our enemies die.
That life is like a dream. What the So we all must go alone. And nothing outside of ourselves will be benefit to ourselves at the time of our death. And all but not understanding it, we create a great deal of negativity with respect to our loved ones, with respect to our enemies. And this is all that we carry with us at the time of our death, carrying this bundle of negativity into future lives.
It’s that all this negativity that we’ve created, those who we’re leaving behind will not share in it, that we will carry it alone for ourselves and we alone will experience its results. So there is a word which is generally translated as ordinary person as opposed to a superior, an ārya. And in the word the etymology it says an individual or alone. A lone being is usually translated as ordinary person and this has the connotation that we are born alone, that we will die alone, that with companionless we will have to experience the course of our life and in our our future existence even those that we will go into the bad migrations alone. So the conclusion that we are to come to is that you know asking, well what is of any benefit at the time of our death?
And it is only the dharma which can help us. That our loved ones, our material possessions and even our own body will not be of any benefit at the time of death. It is the dharma alone which can be of use to us. So we have to analyze what does it mean that the dharma can benefit us at the time of death. We have to consider, well in what way does the dharma benefit us?
So we are constituted of two factors, the body and mind. And the body will be left at the time of our death. So it is the mind which migrates to future rebirths in in the constitute the continuity an unbroken continuity of mind will go on to future life. And because it is the mind which migrates, whatever the quality, whatever the characteristics of the mind, whether it has faults or excellent qualities, will continue along with the mind. If it were the body which migrated to then the various characteristics of the body would continue on to future lives, whether it’s a strong or healthy body or whatnot, that these characteristics would continue on into future lives.
So likewise, with respect to the mind, in in its migration to future lives, it is the faults and the qualities, the excellent qualities of the mind which will continue. So the characteristics of the mind are both in terms of the excellent qualities, the healthy factors, constructive factors of mind, but also in terms of faults, unhealthy factors or destructive factors of mind. So the mind contains both healthy and unhealthy factors within it in its form of latencies or potentials, bringing about salutary and unsalutary effects. So these are what remains with the mind. So these healthy factors of mind, such as altruism and love and compassion, the awakening heart, and also such skillful states as generosity, ethics, tolerance, wisdom, these all will lead to a healthy state of rebirth.
On the other hand, unhealthy factors of mind, such as anger and attachment, ignorance, the latencies of lying, sexual improprieties and divisive speech, these unskillful factors of mind will lead to unhealthy or negative states of rebirth. The mind has no control. It cannot say, I’m going to go there. I’m not going to go there. So the mind has no control of its own.
It is led by skillful and unskillful actions that we have created. If the power of our skillful actions is dominant, then this will lead us to a happy migration. On the other hand, if unskillful actions are dominant, this will lead us to an unfortunate migration. So it is these, not the mind, which control where we are led to. The mind itself has no control.
So if it’s if it’s if we it is whatever is heaviest on the on the balance beam, on the scale, that is the direction that we will move, that we will be led to. So we have to consider for ourselves which of these are predominant: our skillful actions or our unskillful actions. Knowing this, then we will know where we are going to go in the future. If we have created a predominance of skillful actions, then we will be led to a fortunate state of rebirth. On the other hand, if it’s unskillful, an unfortunate state of rebirth, it is the degree of dominance of these two factors of unskillfulness and skillful actions.
So quoting from a verse by Nāgārjuna, where he says, in dependence upon unskillful actions one experiences suffering and all the unfortunate migrations such as those of a hell being, hungry ghost and animal. In dependence upon skillful actions we experience the result in happiness and such fortunate migrations as those of human, demigods and the celestial beings and gods. This is definite. If we look for ourselves, we can understand where we are going to go.
So if we have created a predominance of skillful actions and few negative actions, then we can feel assured that we will go to a positive state of rebirth. On the other hand, if we have created a predominance of unskillful actions and few skillful actions, then again we can feel assured that we are going to, experience an unfortunate migration in the future. If we look, we can understand this for ourselves, which of these we will experience. So if we have, by way of analogy, we have in creating some article, if begin with high quality materials and we are expert craftspersons, then we can be assured that the final results will be of a high quality. Or if we’re simply cooking a meal and we begin with the excellent raw materials and we are a good chef, then we can feel assured that we’re going to end up with a delicious food.
But on the other hand, if we begin with poor quality raw materials and we don’t know how to cook, then we’re going to end up with a mess. That is to say, the quality of the result is proportionate to the quality of the cause or directly corresponds to the quality of the cause. So, you know, Buddhism is very much akin to the scientific method and its use of reasoning, that we simply do not accept even the word the Buddha simply because the Buddha said A Buddha thought in accordance with what would be of benefit to a particular student that just like a doctor gives medicine in accordance with the illness of the patient in order to benefit the patient, he or she would never think, Well, this is the best medicine I have and therefore I’m going to give it to this person simply because it was the best medicine. The medicine would always be tailored to the needs of the sick person, not just because of the quality of the medicine itself, but always in connection with who is seeking the benefit. And the Dharma was taught the same way, that the Buddha understood what were the needs of the particular student and taught that whatever Dharma was of benefit to that particular student.
According to a verse by Śākyamūni Buddha, he says, I taught Buddha, I taught the Dharma as a means to benefit my disciples. Just simply because I taught it does not mean that one is to believe it. One should analyze it as to whether it is of use to you or not. So the Buddha, in admonishing his disciples to analyze his teachings, gave the analogy of that his teachings are to be analyzed as one would analyze gold or assay gold. That just when a buyer is when a jeweler is buying gold, there is a threefold assay made.
First, it is burnt and this will detect any gross flaws or faults in the gold. If it passes that test, then it is cut. This will detect any more subtle types of flaws in the gold. And finally, having passed that test, there is the rubbing of a black stone which if it leaves, determine whether it leaves a mark on the gold, and this is the way that he can test for the most subtle types of flaws or faults of the gold. And having seen if the gold in fact passes this threefold test, then the gold is pure and the jeweler will buy the gold.
Likewise, we should analyze assay the Buddhist teachings through this through analysis. So likewise, with the Buddhist teachings that we are to make use of a threefold analysis in our testing of it to see whether it is to be accepted or not, that we simply aren’t to accept it simply because it was taught by the Buddha. And this threefold analysis that we are to make use of begins again at the gross level, using our direct perception to see if the teaching is defective or not. If it passes that test, then we are to see whether it is, we can detect any defects by means of inference through the power of fact. And if it passes that more subtle test, then the most subtle test is inference through the power of belief and see if there is any defects in terms of that level of analysis.
If it passes this threefold analysis, then one can accept it. This is very much akin to a scientific method of proceeding by means of established methodology or reasoning before one accepts any proposition or a statement. To me? So the there are many have followed this method of analysis down through time and have looked and analyzed the teachings of the Buddha. Great masters such as Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Candrakīrti, Dharmakīrti, they all made use of this method of analysis to before accepting the teachings.
Okay. So here we’re in this threefold analysis of the teachings of the Buddha that were just mentioned. The first was direct perception. The second was inference through the power of fact. And the third was inference through the power of belief.
The first of these two types of inference, inference through the power of fact, are the way that we can establish such phenomena which are subtle phenomena such as the impermanence of sound. We use a line of reasoning, for example, saying sound is impermanent because it is a product. Or we can understand that the aggregates do not inherently exist because they are dependent arising. So subtle types of phenomena are established through inference through the power of fact that would be many of the facts of the four noble truths, the existence of past and future lives, are proven through inference, through the power of fact. But there is another level of phenomena called extremely subtle phenomena.
And For example, that in dependence upon generosity one experiences wealth. As a result of the practice of ethics, one will experience high status. Here, that is the very subtle operations of the law of cause and effect. These are said to be incontrovertible, but we cannot establish them through the power of fact. We have to establish them through the power of belief.
And it would be, for example, saying wealth comes from generosity, high status from ethics, because the scripture which teaches wealth arises from generosity, high status from ethics is true because it is a scriptural authority is scriptural which is able to be sustained by a threefold analysis. Wealth comes from generosity. The scripture which states that wealth comes from generosity, high status from ethics is incontrovertible with respect to what is being taught because it is scriptural authority which is able to bear a threefold analysis. So the threefold analysis which supports this scriptural citation is that in the case of obvious phenomena, it is not harmed by direct perception. In the case of slightly hidden phenomena, it is not harmed by inference through the power of fact.
In the case of extremely subtle phenomena, it is not harmed by another inference through the power of belief. So what is being translated as ārya or translated as superior is someone who has direct perception of selflessness. Who has the exalted wisdom which directly perceives selflessness. So not only it is due to this quality of mind will of course accompany them, this exalted wisdom. But having become a superior, they are able to take control over their death and their rebirth.
So for them, dying is like going to a park. And if they wish, they have the control to die with others. And they have the control to take rebirth with others. I