Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche opens this 118-minute session at Buddha House with Candrakīrti’s cliff-edge image: while we hold a precious human rebirth, we can choose our causes and step back from danger — but once we fall, everything drives us deeper. The session then focuses almost entirely on renunciation, the first of the three principal aspects of the path. A doctrinal point anchors the whole discussion: without renunciation, even meritorious practices — ethics, generosity, meditation — remain causes for cycling in saṃsāra rather than for liberation. Rinpoche covers the two stages of renunciation (turning away from the lower realms, then from saṃsāra entirely), Lama Tsongkhapa’s measure of genuine renunciation, and four contemplations for cultivating it: impermanence, the precious human rebirth, karma, and saṃsāra’s faults. A substantial Q&A addresses whether motivation outweighs action, how long renunciation takes to develop, and whether sensory pleasures must be abandoned.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 3PA 2003 07 23.mp3
UUID: 1c41cfda-18b8-4b6f-800b-b50387b7da02
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principle Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 2003-07-23
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 118.2 minutes
Words: ~7,001
So before we start the teachings, before we start anything in fact, then we should set our motivation properly. The best motivation for us to have is bodhicitta, the thought to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. If we have bodhicitta as our motivation, then whatever we do becomes highly meaningful, and not only that, then whatever we do is result becomes very vast and very important. Before we do anything, we should try and set our motivation as bodhicitta. If we ask what bodhicitta is, then bodhicitta is by definition the thought that we understand that all sentient beings, without exception, at some stage have been our mother or our father, and because of this they have shown us great kindness.
In order for us to try and establish them in happiness and to try and free them from suffering or establish them in a state that is free from suffering, then we have to achieve the most excellent, the best result, which is the achievement of Buddhahood. This thought is what we call bodhicitta. In order for us to be able to achieve this for our mother and father sentient beings, then we should think that we are going to study these three principal aspects of the path with a Mahāyāna motivation as part of a Mahāyāna titi. We are going to study the three principal aspects, contemplate on the three principal aspects, and meditate on those with the best motivation that we have so we can have the best result. We should think that for our own benefit and for the benefit of all others, we are going to do this in order to achieve the highest goal.
This should be our motivation for doing this. With this thought in mind, we should try and concentrate on this thought in mind for for three minutes. David, you are the appointed chant master. Verse numbers three and then two, and then page four we offer the outer mandala, inner mandala, and the mandala offering requesting teachings. The Indian pandit, Candrakīrti, he talks about how in this life we have the power to choose our causes, and if we apply the causes then we won’t fall off the cliff, and then after we fall off the cliff everything becomes a cause for falling.
What he’s talking about then is that this opportunity that we have at the moment, because we have a human rebirth which is difficult to find and a very special thing to have, and not only do we have a human rebirth, but we have a teacher who can explain the Dharma to us. We have a situation which we can practice Dharma in. We have friends that can help us practice the Dharma. We have circumstances which engender our ability to be able to practice as well. All of these things come together in what’s called the opportunities and endowments of a precious human rebirth.
Because we have this, then we have to take the most advantage of this situation. We have to use it to the best of our ability. Because we have this opportunity, that means that we have autonomy, we have independence, we have the ability to choose our actions. Because we have the ability to choose our actions, that means that our future is in our own hands, it’s in our own hands. This means that we can engage in good ethics, we can practice the ten virtuous actions and abandon the ten non virtuous actions, and by practicing in this way, we can save ourselves from falling into the lower realms, falling into or tripping into the lower realms.
We have this ability because of the circumstances we have been born into. The main cause for us to achieve a good rebirth is based on ethics. If we want to stop ourselves from going to the lower realms and achieve a good rebirth, then that depends on our ethical conduct. In fact, there’s these three main things that establish the conditions for our next rebirth, that being ethics, generosity, and patience. For example, if we conduct ourselves in an ethical way in this life, then in the next life we will get reborn in a positive rebirth.
If in this life we are generous and we give to people, then in our next life we won’t be short of any physical physical or monetary needs. We will have wealth and we won’t have to worry about that in our next life. Likewise, if we practice patience in this life, in our next life, we will have good friends and a good retinue around us because we have practiced patience in this life and the outcome of that is to have friends and a retinue in our next life that’s positive So in this way Candrakīrti is explaining the same as explaining the Buddha’s teachings, and he’s talking about the first three of the six perfections, that being generosity, ethics, and patience as being the cause for us to attain a good rebirth in our next life. Now the other three, effort, meditation, and wisdom are the causes for us to achieve liberation. Now effort actually goes inherently with the first three perfections that we were talking about in terms of in order to practice generosity, in order to practice patience, and in order to practice ethics, we need to have this effort.
The effort goes inherently with those to make us have a good rebirth in the future. The last two of the six perfections, that being meditation and wisdom, are mainly the practices we need to engage in in order to attain liberation. Liberation is main practice is these two perfections. So all up in terms of gaining a new rebirth, a good rebirth sorry, and attaining liberation that depends on our practice of the six perfections. Because we have this opportunity of a precious human rebirth and we need to use this human rebirth as a basis for doing these practices.
If we don’t use this precious human rebirth as an opportunity to do these practices and we just enjoy ourselves and fritter it away, then we have faced the danger of falling into the lower realms. Now if we’re going to ask what the lower realms are, the lower realms are the hell realms, the craving spirit realm, or the hungry ghost realm, and the animal realms. Now having fallen into these realms, then it is very difficult for us to create the causes to get out of these realms. We spend a lot of time in these realms once we’ve fallen into them because the things that we do in these realms just create the causes for us to stay in these realms. We also should remember that the sufferings of these realms are very difficult.
They’re very painful and horrible experiences, so we should try and remember that as well. The other thing is once we’ve fallen into the lower realms, that it is very difficult for us to get out of the lower realms. If we ask who is going to help us out of the lower realms, then we have to say, Nobody can. We have got there ourselves, we have to get out. Even if we’re in the lower realms, even if we hear the dharma, we can’t understand it, and even if we come into contact with people as kind as we don’t understand so it’s very difficult for us to find someone to help us out of the lower realm.
So, in the lower realms, the the sufferings that we have to experience there are incredibly, difficult for us to understand. So the other thing that we have understand is that while we’re in the lower realms, because of the results of our negative actions, then it’s very difficult for us to find this It’s almost impossible for us to find the circumstances to practice the Dharma, and even though the Buddhas want to help us when we’re in the lower realms, they can’t actually help us because they show us the Dharma we can’t understand it. We can’t remember it even if we tried to understand it in the first place, and therefore it’s very difficult for us to practice it. Because there’s no way out, because we can’t practice the Dharma to get out of these situations, then we’re continually experiencing the suffering of those situations, whether it’s fire or water or being cut or whatever, then continually have to experience those suffering, and there’s nobody that can help us out of those situations because even though the Buddhas want to teach us the Dharma or show us how to practice to get out of there, we can’t understand it when they do.
So now that we have this precious human resource, now we have the opportunity to practice, then we have to take advantage of that opportunity. We have to do as much as we can. We have to concentrate and focus on what we’re doing, because at the moment because of our circumstances we actually have the ability to separate ourselves from suffering by doing these practices so we must take advantage of that situation. If we think about the essence or the summary of all of the Buddhist teachings, that is contained within the Lam Rim or the graduated path teachings. In turn, the essence or the summary of all of those teachings, of all of the Lam Rim teachings, is contained within what’s called the three principal aspects of the path.
The three principal aspects of the path are renunciation, bodhicitta, and right view, or understanding emptiness. If we’re able to do those practices, if we’re able to practice the three principal aspects of the path, then obviously that is going to create a very good result for us. These three principal aspects of the path, when we’re referring to those, then we can say that the central focus for the smaller scope and the middling scope of beings is renunciation, and the central focus for the greater scope of beings is bodhicitta. But in order for us to achieve liberation, then not only do we need renunciation, but we also need to have in combination with this renunciation wisdom, because if we don’t have this wisdom, there’s no way of achieving renunciation. Likewise, when we are trying to achieve Buddhahood, in combination with bodhicitta, or in order to help bodhicitta, we need wisdom, understanding, emptiness.
Even though bodhicitta is the main focus for achieving enlightenment. If we don’t have wisdom, understanding, emptiness along with this, then we can’t achieve enlightenment. Likewise, although renunciation is the main cause for achieving liberation, if we don’t have wisdom coming along with that, then there is no way we can achieve liberation. In order for us to achieve Buddhahood, we actually need all three of these in fact. Because in order for us to achieve Buddhahood, we need both method and wisdom.
Now, in terms of the wisdom, this is wisdom understanding emptiness. In terms of the method, we need bodhicitta. In order for us, though, to establish bodhicitta, then we need to develop before this great compassion. In order for us to develop great compassion, we in turn need to develop renunciation. By this then we can see that in order to develop the method and wisdom we need in order to attain Buddhahood, then we need these three things.
We need renunciation, we need bodhicitta, and we need wisdom understanding emptiness. So in order for us to achieve liberation, we don’t need bodhicitta. Liberation, it comes about because of method and wisdom, but in this case, the method aspect is renunciation, and the wisdom aspect is wisdom, understanding, emptiness. We don’t need bodhicitta in this instance, but we still need to have both method and wisdom. If we only have method, that is we only have renunciation, and we don’t have an understanding of emptiness, we can’t achieve liberation.
And likewise, if we have an understanding of emptiness and we don’t have renunciation, then we can’t achieve liberation either. So it’s like this in saṃsāra we experience a lot of different types of suffering. We sometimes talk about the eight types of suffering. We experience birth, experience sickness, we experience old age and death. We also have the negative experience of being separated from what’s pleasurable, to meet with unpleasantness, to look for what you desire and not find it, and even the experience of the five aggregates.
We have all these experiences of suffering, and they’re sometimes referred to as six different types of suffering as well. There’s all these different types of suffering that we can experience by being in saṃsāra. Now, if we were practicing, as we said before, first three of the six perfections namely ethics, generosity, and patience, then that only acts as a cause for liberating us from the lower realms. Even by being liberated from the lower realms, we still have to experience suffering. Although we may have practiced these three things and end up in the pleasurable realms of saṃsāra, at some stage we still have to fall back into the lower realms and continue cycling in saṃsāra.
In order to get out of this cycle of saṃsāra, we have to develop renunciation. We have to develop the wish to achieve liberation, to get out of suffering completely. It’s not enough just to do these three practices and end up in the higher realms. We have to develop a renunciation to get out of the wish to get out of saṃsāra completely and attain liberation. Because there are some new people that didn’t come last time, then we’re going to explain a bit about what renunciation is.
Renunciation is the first thing that we need in order to do these types of practices. It’s incredibly important. If we don’t have renunciation, we don’t have the other things. We need to explain what renunciation is. So, Because renunciation is this important, then we need to develop a clear idea of what it is.
The way that we develop a clear idea of what it is is by understanding the faults of not having renunciation in our continuum, the positive aspects or the ways that having renunciation in our continuum can be a benefit to us. By understanding these two different aspects of renunciation, then we understand more clearly what it is, because we need to have a clear understanding of what renunciation is so we know how to develop it and how to strive for it how to join our minds with So we have to have some understanding of renunciation. We consider ourselves to be Buddhist, and we do these different practices. We do meditations and teachings and different things, but we have to know why we’re doing these things. Now, what we’re actually striving for, what we’re actually working towards is the stopping of suffering and the attainment of some reliable, some non temporary happiness.
That’s what we’re working towards. This is what’s called liberation. If we want to know why, if we want to know what motivation we need in order to practice Dharma, in order to do meditation, or for what purpose we’re doing it, then we have to look at this as our motivation. We’re doing it in order to stop ourselves suffering and in order to attain a stable happiness that we can rely on. So when we talk about suffering, we can talk about two different types of suffering.
There is the suffering of the lower realms and the suffering of saṃsāra. Now, we can first of all develop a renunciation of the sufferings of the lower realms. How we do this is when we think about the lower realms and we think of the extreme suffering of the lower realms and we develop some kind of fear with regards to the suffering of the lower realms. If with this motivation then we practice Dharma, then we do some kind of practice, then this becomes a cause for us not to experience the lower realms. So we call this renunciation of the lower realms.
This kind of practice, if we have this kind of motivation, then this is the lowest type of motivation we need in order to turn whatever it is we’re doing into a Dharma practice. If we have this motivation, what we are doing becomes a Dharma practice. This is also called the practice of the lower scope or the lower being. This idea of doing whatever we’re doing, practicing whatever we’re practicing in order to stop ourselves from experiencing the sufferings of the lower realms which we see as being unbearable and develop fear towards. So this practice that we do if we don’t have a mind that seeks to be liberated from the lower realms then whatever we do it will be a virtuous action but it won’t be a virtuous action that will necessarily establish us in a realm other than the lower realms.
This is the first type of suffering that we have to develop a mind that wants to be liberated from, that type of suffering. The second type of suffering that we develop a mind to be liberated from is the suffering of saṃsāra in general, not just specifically the lower realms. Now, what this mind is called is the mind of liberation, the mind generating a wish for liberation. What we see in this case is that even if we aren’t in the lower realms, then the nature of saṃsāra is such that we are at some stage will be reborn in the lower realms. The only way that we can stop ourselves cycling in samsaric existence or cycling in a going around in cyclic existence is to develop a mind searching for liberation, striving to get out of saṃsāra completely.
This is what we call renunciation or the wish to be liberated from saṃsāra completely So the Lama Tsongkhapa, he said then that if we don’t have this mind that is searching for liberation, if we don’t have a mind striving to get out of saṃsāra, then whatever positive things we do, whatever merit we accumulate, whether it’s with regards to generosity or ethics or patience or effort or meditation, none of these positive things that we do will become a cause for us to achieve liberation. They will merely become a cause for us to continue cycling in saṃsāra. So we need to have this mind of renunciation in order to be able to work towards saṃsāra. So this is how we understand how important this particular type of thought is. So we may think that the positive things that we do are all a cause for us to achieve liberation or to get out of saṃsāra, but this isn’t actually the case.
We do a lot of positive things that are still a cause for being reborn in saṃsāra. For example, for us to have achieved a human rebirth, we must have done a lot of positive samsaric things because achieving a human rebirth is a positive thing. It’s not a cause for liberation however. What we need to establish is that if we don’t have renunciation, if we don’t do things with a mind of renunciation, then whatever positive thing we do, whether it be ethics or giving or effort or patience or meditation, all of these things will act as a cause for us to be born in saṃsāra they won’t act as a cause for liberation so we will experience being reborn in the human realm or the god realms etc. If we have renunciation, then all of these positive things we do become a cause for us to achieve liberation.
So if we want to know what the positive things about having renunciation in our mind stream are, then they are this. Everything that we do that’s positive becomes a cause for liberation. If we want to know the faults the fault of not having renunciation in our mind stream then it is that every positive thing that we do while it may be a positive saṃsāra thing it will not become a cause for us to achieve liberation from saṃsāra. So if we don’t have renunciation then even the deity meditations and teachings that we do, even the different practices that we do, all of these will become a cause for us to cycle in saṃsāra still. A positive thing, but not a cause for liberation.
So it doesn’t depend actually on what we do necessarily whether it’s a cause for liberation or not but whether we have this idea of renunciation in our mind stream whether something becomes a cause for us to get out of saṃsāra or So we often talk about what’s called the three higher trainings, the three higher trainings of ethics, contemplation or concentration and wisdom as being a cause for us to achieve liberation. But in actual fact, if they are any old type of ethics and concentration and wisdom, then they aren’t a cause for us to achieve liberation. They need to be the ethics of renunciation, concentration of renunciation and the wisdom of renunciation in order for them to become a cause for us to achieve liberation. You can see that these three things, these three higher trainings of ethics, concentration, and wisdom are also in the continuum or also possessed by non Buddhists. They have these things, and yet because they have no focus on liberation, they can’t actually achieve liberation.
Because they don’t have renunciation towards saṃsāra, they can’t achieve liberation. If we want to know how the three higher trainings are going to act as a cause for us to achieve liberation, then we have to understand that these three higher trainings need to be conjoined with renunciation. So we need renunciation along with the three higher trainings in order to establish a cause to be able to get free from saṃsāra or achieve liberation. Didn’t understand English. Okay, so we need to understand that when we have renunciation, then even little things that we do become a cause for us to attain liberation.
And if we don’t have renunciation, then big things that we do, whether it be ethics, contemplation or wisdom, patience, etc, don’t become a cause for us to attain liberation. So if we have this sort of renunciation, even giving a little bit of bread to a dog becomes a cause for us to achieve liberation. But if we don’t have renunciation then our practice of generosity, our practice of patience, practice of ethics will not become a cause for us to achieve liberation. Okay. So now you know what the benefits of having renunciation are and what the faults of not having renunciation So now we need to meditate on renunciation.
If we meditate or familiarize ourselves with renunciation then we will know what renunciation is. So if we want to know a way of looking at what renunciation is then Lama Tsongkhapa said that the measure of renunciation is a mind that is completely turned away from all of the excellent or happy things of saṃsāra, all the pleasures of saṃsāra and is in turn striving towards renunciation. This is what he called the measure or the way that we understand what renunciation is or not. Now if we want to know how to develop this sense of renunciation, then there are certain things that we need to contemplate, that we need to meditate on. To begin with, in order to develop renunciation from the sufferings of the lower realms or renunciation to life, then we need to concentrate on two things.
We need to concentrate on the preciousness of our human rebirth and death and impermanence. By concentrating on the preciousness of this human rebirth, which is difficult to find and is endowed with the ten endowments and the eight leisures, then we need to make the most of this opportunity and not focus on the impermanent pleasures of this life. We understand by focusing on impermanence that we don’t get caught in trying to work towards this life. So those are the first two things that we focus on. Death and impermanence and the precious human rebirth in order to turn our minds away from focusing on this life.
Then after that, in order to turn our minds away from focusing on future lives or focusing on the joys of saṃsāra in general, then we need to do contemplation on the karma and concentration on the sufferings of saṃsāra. By understanding karma and the fact that because of cause and effect we are going to have to experience different types of suffering, by focusing on these two things then we develop a renunciation from saṃsāra in general. So when we have this renunciation, when we have our mind as turned away from the pleasures of this life because of focusing on impermanence and focusing on the preciousness of a precious human rebirth and we have a mind that’s turned away from in general pleasures of saṃsāra by focusing on karma and the sufferings of saṃsāra or the shortcomings of saṃsāra, this mind conjoined with this thought conjoined with the thought that is continually striving towards liberation is how we measure what renunciation is. So if we’re thinking what exactly is renunciation then we should remember these things we should also remember this in we should remember this in well no it’s not, I just feel bad having one when he didn’t.
So if we have renunciation then we can see the positive aspects of renunciation and we can also then focus on the negative things of not having renunciation so if we understand we need to turn our mind away from in order to attain renunciation, then we also need to understand what exactly is liberation, what exactly we are striving towards. We need to understand that as well. So we need to ask ourselves what is liberation. In one hand, we can say that liberation is the complete elimination of suffering and suffering’s causes so that we don’t experience any type of suffering again. But that’s one way of putting it.
The other thing that we can try and explain how great happiness that we have when we have achieved liberation, we can say that liberation’s happiness is this great bliss that’s incredibly stable, that doesn’t wither, that is beyond any experience that we could have in saṃsāra. But any of these sort of things we’re saying is just mouthing words because we can’t actually explain how great a thing liberation is. We can’t put words to it. We can say things, but they don’t really reflect what the experience of liberation is. They can’t do that.
In the same way that we can say we can’t explain the horrors of the lower realms and how much suffering occurs in the lower realms, in the same way we can’t say we understand, we can’t express, we can’t find the words to express the happiness of liberation, the happiness of being completely free from suffering. But what we do need to understand is that it’s a good thing. It’s something that we need to turn our mind towards. It’s something that if we focus on, we will get so impressed by, so happy about that we will strive towards it without second guessing, without thinking about how happy and amazing it would be to experience the type of happiness of liberation which is completely devoid from suffering and completely reliable. So if we look at the lam rim or the graduated path now, in there it’s set out a little differently to the way that it’s set out in the Three Principal Aspects of the path in reference to karma and whether it belongs to the smaller scope motivation or the middling scope motivation.
Now in the Three Principal Aspects of the path, there is this reference to turning our minds away from the suffering of the lower realms or developing renunciation towards the lower realms and then developing renunciation towards all of saṃsāra. In this case, we talk about karma or cause and effect as being part of the motivation of turning our mind away from saṃsāra in general and therefore it falls into the realm of the middling scope of things. Now in the Lamrim or the Graduated Path, it first of all talks about refuge and karma as being part of the meditation or contemplation practice associated with the lower scope. And there’s a little bit of a, it doesn’t line up properly here because in one instance karma is being referred to as a lower scope meditation and in the other instance, namely in the Three Principal Aspects of the path, it’s being referred to as a middling scope contemplation or meditation practice, but in actual fact what we need to look at is the different explanations of cause and effect that are actually given in these cases. In the three principal aspects of the path, the meditation on cause and effect is actually with reference to cause and effect as presented in the Four Noble Truths of the Aryas or the Four Noble Truths in terms of the second Noble Truth which is the truth of the origin of suffering.
This is referring to the cause of self grasping or grasping at true existence which is our root cause for remaining in saṃsāra. Because of this grasping at true existence we have negative emotions and these negative emotions cause us to create karma and that’s how we stay in saṃsāra. So that’s what the three principal aspects of the path is referring to when it talks about karma. In the lam rim or the graduated path on the other hand when they talk about karma they’re talking about the ten black and white deeds or the ten virtues and the ten non virtues. Now by talking about the karma of the ten virtues and the ten non virtues we’re talking about ethics or the reason for us to be either born in a lower realm or to be born in a higher realm.
That’s a different take on karma in that instance. We can see that they don’t actually collide or they don’t actually have any contradiction between them. It’s just that there’s a different interpretation of exactly what karma is in the three principal aspects of the path and in the graduated path or the Lamrim text. Also when we refer to renunciation another way that we can refer to renunciation is as the direct antidote to grasping Now when we talk about the negative emotions that we have, usually these negative emotions or negative thought patterns take it as their root or they have they’re said to have three root negative thought patterns. They being desire, anger and ignorance.
Now in actual fact, the one that we need to get completely rid of is ignorance and if we get completely rid of ignorance then we don’t have any desire coming about at all. But if we talk a bit in another way, renunciation acts as the direct cause to desire because if we have renunciation then we have completely stopped our desires because we’ve turned away from the good aspects or the pleasant aspects of saṃsāra so in this way renunciation acts as the direct antidote to desires as well. So we’ve been talking about renunciation tonight it’s also very important not just to think about how important renunciation is but also to try and put renunciation into practice, try and practice renunciation. We need to remember that renunciation is the key to the two lower scopes, the lower scope and the middling scope. Is the key to these and renunciation is what we need in order to attain liberation.
But at the same time, we also need renunciation in order to attain Buddhahood because if we don’t have renunciation, we don’t have great compassion, and if we don’t have great compassion, we don’t develop bodhicitta, and therefore we can’t attain complete enlightenment or buddhahood. So then we need to see that renunciation is important from both of these perspectives, and we need to try and remember and not forget how important renunciation is. So the way that we can think about it is that renunciation is the way or the method for dealing with our own suffering. If we have renunciation that’s the way we deal with our own suffering. Great compassion is the way that we can deal with all other beings suffering.
So we can understand So because of this first of all we need to develop renunciation for ourselves because if at first we don’t understand our own suffering and develop renunciation, then we can’t develop great compassion for all other beings. So if we think that we can concentrate on great compassion without first understanding renunciation, it’s just not possible. We need to first understand our own suffering and develop renunciation for ourselves because that’s the method or that’s the way to deal with our own suffering. Then, after we’ve done that, then we can develop great compassion and use the cause or develop the method for dealing with other beings or all other beings suffering. Okay.
So we’ll stop there for tonight and if if any of you have any questions please ask them. More important than action. So what is the relationship between mind and intention such that it can be that much more powerful? Sure. Did you guys all hear that?
No? Okay, so the question was how can motivation be more important than action? Because we have a saying in the West that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It seems that from our philosophical point of view we place more emphasis on action than on motivation whereas in Buddhism it seems to be the other way around Okay, so whether something is a good action or not depends on the reason that it was performed. It always depends on the reason or the motivation for performing it.
If that acts as like the base or the root for any action that is performed, They say that if you plant poisonous seeds, get poisonous leaves, and if you plant good seed, then you get good leaves. Follows through like that, and both Rinpoche and Geshe la both seem to think that they didn’t understand the Western idea, that doing something is more important than your motivation because you can’t do something without having a motivation. If you do something without having a motivation, it’s a bit like even having a motivation is doing something. If you do something without motivation it’s like when they speak on television with no purpose behind it. They they are just as confused by the western idea of having something doing something with a motivation and without a motivation and the action being more important than the motivation for example motivation becomes so important because if you don’t have motivation you don’t do anything so for example if you don’t think I’m going to drink tea which is motivation you don’t drink tea if you don’t think I’m going to eat then you don’t eat it depends if you don’t have that thought you don’t actually do anything so all depends on the motivation How long does it take to develop pure renunciation?
That depends on the effort that you put in. If you put in a lot of effort, then you can achieve renunciation in a year. If you don’t have effort, you can try for a hundred years and meditate and do practice and not get anywhere. Everybody hear that? This is coming from the back.
Okay, so there are two different types of beings. Those beings that are free from desire or free from grasping desire, and if they move to a if they go and sit down or if they sleep or if they eat, they do all these things without grasping. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and so forth, have this everything they do, they do without this grasping. If we do it, if we have this idea of I’m not very comfortable, I want to go somewhere that I am comfortable, if we have that idea, then that comes from a sense of desire that we have, that comes from our attachment and our desire, but if we were a Buddha and did that, we wouldn’t be doing it from desire. Bodhisattvas and Buddhas do everything for the benefit of other sentient beings So if bodhisattvas and Buddhas are sitting, eating, or if they’re resting or whatever they’re doing, they’re doing so to protect their body that they’ve taken on in order to be of benefit to sentient beings.
They’re not doing so out of attachment. Other times they take on things or they have objects so that the sentient beings who offered it to them can create merit. The Buddhas don’t need anything, but because the sentient beings need to create merit, so they have things in order for sentient beings to be able to create merit through offerings to them. So for example, a peacock eats poison and the peacock by eating the poison becomes very happy by that. They can walk around and they become very happy about walking around and they’re able to consume the poison, but if a crow eats poison they die so it works in the same way.
So the question we had about how long it takes to achieve renunciation, in order for us to achieve renunciation if we try and develop merit and we try and purify our negative actions and at the same time as doing those we do practice, we do meditation and we ask for blessings from a teacher and rely on a teacher then that becomes a very quick process for us to develop renunciation. If on the other hand we don’t try and create merit or we don’t have any of the other conditions then it can become a very long process, It can take a long time to try and develop renunciation. Okay who’s next? Oh hang on yeah I think he was in yeah We live in a body with six or five senses, and if we achieve renunciation, do we have to get rid of the pleasures of those six senses? Do we need to renounce the pleasures in order to achieve renunciation?
If so, how do do that? There is two different types of feeling or experience that we have with relation to the senses. There is experiences or feelings with relation to the senses that have desire with them and there are feelings or experiences related to the senses that aren’t conjoined with desire. We need to get rid of the feelings that are related to the senses that are conjoined with desire. We need to stop those ones, whether it’s the smells we smell, the things we hear, the things we taste, or the things we see.
If that experience is conjoined with grasping, then we need to get rid of those. But if they’re not conjoined with grasping if we’re just seeing something or we’re just hearing for something then we don’t need to get rid of them so did you want to know how so does that mean that we don’t discriminate if we’re getting rid of the desire aspect to the senses? Yes, we need to get rid of thought that is desiring, for example, black over white. We need to get rid of that idea. That’s the same kind of thought that binds us to some people and pushes us from others.
We need to have that feeling of liking for all sentient beings and not just some and not others. We need to get rid of that idea of because of attachment grasping at one thing and not grasping at another. Because we need to get rid of this because grasping at one thing and having aversion to another is a cause for suffering. So because we want to get rid of the causes for suffering, then we have to get rid of this grasping or this desire for one thing above another. So we need to do this because grasping our desires or attachments are things that chain us to saṃsāra are the things that cause us to keep wandering in saṃsāra that bind us here.
We can say that the main cause for us or the root cause for us to be wandering in saṃsāra is our ignorance, but in actual fact desire is incredibly powerful. Our desires that are so the powerful thing that keep us here that bind us to saṃsāra so to get rid of suffering we need to get rid of our desires. In the Pramānavārttika he said that even though ignorance and even though karma are the things that causes for us to be in saṃsāra they don’t act as quickly as our grasping, they don’t act as quickly as our desires to keep us here. They’re more a slow process because from then we have these desires and it’s the desires that are really the fast thing that keeps us in saṃsāra. Okay, I think Today we focus on renunciation, the main things that you should remember is exactly the faults of not having renunciation, the benefits of having renunciation, and the ways to achieve renunciation, namely meditation or practice or contemplation on impermanence, meditation and contemplation on the precious human rebirth, the false sense saṃsāra and karma.
So these are the ways to develop renunciation. So we should try and remember what they are and try and put those into practice in terms of what renunciation is. Okay. Take care.