Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche opens this 48-minute commentary on Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path by unpacking a vivid metaphor: all living beings are like passengers swept down four raging rivers at night, hands and feet bound in iron chains, too blind in the darkness to call for help. He works through each element in turn — the four rivers are the afflictive emotions (desire, wrong views, afflicted existence, and ignorance); the iron chains are karma; the thick darkness is ignorance that blocks any understanding of what to cultivate or abandon; the three sufferings are pain, fluctuation, and pervasive conditionality. From this he builds the case for bodhicitta: since our mothers have no hope of freeing themselves and look only to us, we are obliged to achieve enlightenment first — just as a fallen child must stand before lifting their mother from the ground.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 33 3PA 1993 10 26.mp3
UUID: b491529d-017c-4e49-9252-20b503481a51
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principal Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-10-26
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 47.8 minutes
Words: ~2,892
Okay. Quoting from Tsongkhapa’s three fundamentals of the path, he says, all ordinary beings are carried by the continuum of the four powerful currents, are tied with tight bonds of actions difficult to oppose, have entered into the iron cage of apprehending self, inherent existence, are completely beclouded with thick darkness of ignorance, are born into cyclic existence limitlessly, and in their birth are tortured ceaselessly by the three sufferings, thinking thus of the condition of mothers who have come to such a state generate the complete altruistic intention to become enlightened. So in our discussion of the awakening heart, the second of the three fundamentals of the path, have, we have, we’re going to discuss it in terms of the reasons for its development, the way of developing it, and the measure of having once developed it. And we have completed the first of these, the reasons why we should seek to develop it. So if we were to question, well, in how In reflecting upon the way in which the the awakening heart is developed, you know, what what is the method?
How can I actually develop the awakening heart? And in answer to this question, it is given these two verses or these eight lines which we have just given. So this is explained in terms of an analogy and the meaning of that analogy. So the the metaphor, the way a metaphor is being presented, and it’s it’s explained explained in terms of we we think of of four raging rivers, four vast rivers. And there is a boat which is being swept along by the current of these within these four raging rivers.
It’s extremely vast rivers. And within these boats are those beings who are like our mothers, but those beings who have shown us tremendous compassion for ourselves, it could be a father. But those very compassionate beings have shown us great compassion in the past, have shown us great caring in the past, whether father or mother. And moreover, they’re in this boat, and their their legs and hands are bound. And their their their their their their bodies are chained with iron chains.
Bond are are secured by iron chains. And it’s it’s it’s it’s the thick darkness of night. And they’ve traveling they’ve been traveling a long distance. And moreover, they’re experiencing great the tortures of various sufferings, the sufferings of pain, the sufferings of fluctuation, and the sufferings of universal conditionality in an uninterrupted and violent manner. So that’s the metaphor which is being described.
So we should understand in in describing this metaphor that in these four raging rivers, that this these are simply not streams, but they’re extremely wide, vast, raging rivers, these four vast currents. And and and they are they are being carried away by the current of these these four raging rivers. That is they they are it’s compulsive. Are and they have not chosen to be sailing on this river, but are being carried away. And moreover, if if if their legs and hands were free, then they could swim to the shore.
But they’re but they can’t because their legs and hands are bound. And moreover, that these these bindings are not thin. If they were thin, they could they could break them. But in fact, they’re iron chains, unbreakable. And and it but if and also, if it were daylight, then they could call out to people.
They could see people along the shore and they could call out and ask, please help me. Please help me. But it’s it’s completely dark, thick darkness where they they can see no one that can help them. Like, there’s no one who they feel they can call out to. And moreover, they are experiencing immeasurable suffering.
So given this this situation that these individuals who are being carried away are our mothers and fathers, that those individuals who have cared for us such a great deal, and that from their side, there is no way that they can free themselves. There is no way that because they cannot break their bonds and therefore swim, there is no hope from their side. That from their side there is no way that they can free themselves from that situation. That they all their hope is completely pinned upon their children, the ourselves. The the and it’s necessary that we we enact the means to free them.
So we I have to understand that from their own side, our mothers have no hope. That is to say, there are no hope from their being able to free themselves from their own side. And if but in their minds, understanding, thinking, who who who can I hope that will set me free? And in their minds, they only have hope that their child that their child will set them free. There’s there’s no one else that they can look to.
There’s no other hope than that their that their only child will will set them free. From their own side, they have no means of liberating themselves. You know, there are children understanding how their aged mothers are being carried away by these raging rivers. You know, it is only them who are able to help. It is only them who should feel there should be some certainty.
If anyone going to help, it should be their child. So but if if their children, upon knowing the plight of their mother, were not to come to their aid but lacked a sense of compassion even for their own mother and were simply were to leave them to their own devices, what a sad situation that such a person would be without any redeeming qualities. But on the other hand, if if these individuals’ children had great compassion, powerful compassion, then there would they would there would be no difficulty which would be too great. There would be no effort which they would not spare in helping their mother. Whatever was necessary and whoever they had to enlist in helping, they would make that effort.
So in this metaphor that we’ve explained, that seeing how our mothers are suffering, then there’s no there’s there’s nothing there is no effort that we should not make in trying to free them from their suffering, to liberate them from their plight. So we’ve presented a metaphor. And now we’re going to discuss the meaning of each of the elements of that metaphor. And first, the four rivers. These are the four types of afflictive emotions.
The first one is the afflictive emotion of desire. And within the three realms of existence, there is the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. And here, we’re talking about the afflictive emotion of desire in the desire realm in terms of the desires of humans, the lesser celestial beings, and the celestial beings. So those types of desires within the desire realm. And secondly, there is the afflicted view.
These are types of negative views, such as view of the transitory, perverted views. These types of views are afflicted views. Then there’s the the third affliction, the afflicted existence. And these afflicted existence in terms of existence within the the upper realms, the the realms of the, form and formless realms. And then fourthly, ignorance.
So it is under the influence of these four types of afflictive emotions that one continues to circle within cyclic existence. So in terms of these currents, these rivers, can talk of them in terms of causal and resultant currents or rivers. And what we’ve just described thus far is causal, and that the causal rivers being the current of the afflictive emotions. It’s like, you know, we’re we’re sitting in a Ferris wheel and the the Ferris wheel keeps circling up and coming back down again. We, you know, we we we are in it.
We exist within the hell realms, and we come up into the human realms, and the celestial realms, and we go back down the human realms, and down to the hell realms, and then up to human realms and the celestial realms and we keep circling in this fashion under the influence of the afflictive emotions. So the causal current, the afflictive emotion, the causal results of the afflictive, not the causal results, the resultant current, the river in which we are being swept up in, the continual reoccurring process of having taken rebirth. Then we go through a process of aging, various diseases, and then death. And we are circling on the wheel of rebirth, aging, disease and death. Rebirth is recurring cycles of rebirth, aging, disease and death.
This is the resultant current in which we’re caught up in. Trouble. There’s no way that we can free ourselves from these reoccurring cycles because we are bound by the bonds of karma, just like the iron chains which bound our mothers. These chains are symbolic of the the bonds of karma. And the element in the metaphor this thick, you know, the aged mothers are enveloped in thick darkness.
And this is symbolic of our own ignorance that the our old mothers are obstructed or by by ignorance, blinds prevents them from seeing what is to be adopted and what is to be avoided. And what is they do simply do because of the ignorance, that’s the obscuring factor of ignorance. They are not they do not understand what is to be cultivated, what is to be abandoned. They don’t understand emptiness. They don’t know how to carry out their carry on their practice.
And they are experiencing suffering and the the various types of suffering. You know, the suffering of dissatisfaction is simply suffering of suffering or pain. And even when they have happiness, this happiness fluctuates. Fluctuates. It changes into suffering.
They undergo the the suffering of fluctuation. And because they’re continually under the they are conditioned by the factors of karma and afflictive emotions, they undergo the tortures of the suffering of conditioned universal conditionality or pervasive conditionality. And just as the these individuals who are being swept away in this current from their own side, they they simply have no hope of freeing themselves. And each within their mind thinks that their child looks to their child and hopes that their child will find a way to free them. Likewise, all living beings from their own side simply don’t have the ability to free themselves and they are all looking to us.
They all hope that we are going to aid them in liberating them from their sufferings. So we, from our side, we have this golden opportunity that we have achieved a human life and that we have come in contact with the Dharma and we can carry on our practice of Dharma. We understand the ways of practice and we have companions who assist us in practicing the Dharma. So, the our mother living beings have, from their own side, no way to free themselves. And having through our development of compassion, looking upon their plight, then it’s up to us achieve the means by which we can free all the our mother our mothers from their suffering and lead them to complete happiness.
Just like if in in the metaphor, if if the child of, this mother who was being swept away in this current were simply to, overlook, had no compassion, and simply were to be indifferent to their plight and leave them. Then likewise, if we, having the ability, the potential to free mother living beings when they have no hope for their own side. If we were simply to leave them it to their own devices, then we are This would be a terribly sad situation and we ourselves could not think of ourselves as having any really redeeming qualities. So, you know, we have to ask the question, if it were the case that a child’s mother was being carried away in a river and that the only hope of her safety was the child making effort to try to help her. But the child simply had no compassion for caring what happened to her plight, and simply left her to her own devices.
What would we think of that child? Would we think well of him, or would we think negatively of him? Would he be a good person or a bad person? Question. What do do you think?
Yes. Yes or no? I think So you know, if we if we were to look at a situation where, you know, a mother and her child, the mother had shown tremendous kindness to the child, had been of great benefit in giving birth and raising the child. And now this child had grown up and was well and comfortable. And and then seeing her his mother or her mother in this plight.
And that the mother had no hope other than if the child helped, and the child didn’t, then from the point of view of dharma, you know, this this individual would be very tremendous. They would have no redeeming qualities, would be rather be a despicable person. When we if someone has been of great benefit to ourselves, has made a lot of effort from their their side to help us. And having been benefited by them, if if we don’t return that welfare that they have shown to us, then we we we are not involving ourselves in a practice of karma as actions and the results. And not practicing karma as action or results, the law of cause and effect, then we are not practicing Dharma at all.
The bodhisattva helps those who who harm them. You know, even those beings who harm them, the the bodhisattva still returns that harm help for harm. What to say of those who benefit the bodhisattva? So though we may not return benefit for harm to others, if we don’t even return benefit for benefit, then we are simply not creating the causes of our own happiness. If we don’t return benefit for benefit, then we really have no practice.
We have no love or compassion. We, in fact, have no We have nothing in terms of redeeming qualities. We are really quite despicable in that way. That having been treated well by others, having been shown benefit by others, then when others are in trouble, out of compassion, it’s necessary that we return benefit for benefit. And this is the practice of karma as actions and the results.
Bring about the welfare of others out of a sense of caring, seek to lead others out of their suffering. So all all living beings, living beings who have all been our mothers, they’ve been our fathers, numberless times. They’ve been our children. They’ve been our sisters. They’ve been our brothers, and have shown us tremendous kindness.
All of these living beings are tortured within cyclic existence. In order to, out of our compassion, you know, seeking to return to this great kindness, if we want to free them from and establish them in happiness, then we have to eliminate all our various faults and bring the consummation of our own excellent qualities. If we don’t eliminate our faults and we if we don’t develop our all our excellent qualities, then there’s no way that we can really free them from their suffering. There’s no way that we can lead them to an ultimate happiness. So therefore, when in seeing this and wishing to free them from their suffering and to lead them to happiness, one thinks that I must achieve a state where I have eliminated all my faults and I brought to consummation all my excellent qualities.
And this is the awakening heart. So in order to to free all living beings from their suffering and to establish them in complete happiness, I first must free myself from suffering and establish myself in complete happiness. If I don’t attain this end, there’s no no way that I can achieve my my end for others. It’s just analogous situation would be if myself and my mother, we we fell down on the ground walking walk walking along the road. And I wanted to give her a hell being hand up, but as long as I’m lying down on the road, there’s no way that I can help her.
So first I have to stand up and get up, then I can give her a hand up. Otherwise, there’s no way we’re both simply gonna remain lying on the road. So this is this is an analogy where, you know, one’s mother and and oneself having fallen down and wishing to lift her up, give her hand up, oneself has to rise up first and and then one is has the ability to give her a hand up. Likewise, if one wants to free all living beings from their suffering and to establish them in complete happiness, oneself first must free, oneself of all faults. One one’s self must, develop one all of one’s excellent qualities.
One must achieve complete happiness and freedom from suffering through one’s practice. And then when when one develops the longing, the aspiration to achieve that end, then this is mind generation, the awakening heart.