Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The counterintuitive claim that Lamrim outranks Tantra — Atisha reportedly told his disciple Dromtönpa that students fit for tantric teaching were plentiful, but a true Lamrim student was rare — anchors this 95-minute commentary by Khensur Rinpoche on Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path. Working verse by verse through the text’s opening, Rinpoche establishes renunciation, bodhicitta, and correct view as the condensed essence of all Buddhist teaching. Renunciation is explained through the image of beings tossed by waves in an ocean of suffering, kept in saṃsāra by craving for contaminated pleasure; bodhicitta as the root that gathers all accumulated virtue and directs it toward enlightenment; correct view as the door out of cyclic existence through understanding emptiness. He closes by likening the three aspects to burning a seed: they destroy karma’s potency to produce further suffering entirely. Suited to practitioners with some Lamrim background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 3PA 2001 06 27.mp3
UUID: 57c5f286-42f9-449d-9bd2-2dff1e441755
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 3 Principle Aspects of the Path (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 2001-06-27
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 95.3 minutes
Words: ~6,971
Now, in the previous teachings, Rinpoche in the beginning would give a transmission of the text, but since this has proven to take up some time and since we have limited time now, we will let go of that. Also it seems that we will not go into great detail in everything. So we will have just a brief explanation of the most crucial points just getting the essence of the meaning of the text. So we’re going to speed up a bit. Now, remember that very famous quotation that says that all the Buddhas of the past, of the present and of the future, all of them, they travel down the same path.
There is only one great path to be traversed by all the Buddhas of the past, the present and the future. There is no other path separate than this. And it is said that all the teachings that we find here are eventually traced back into the Buddha. The teachings that were given by the Buddha the same way that the water that we have can actually be traced back into snow and ice. The same way you have snow and ice on top of the mountains and eventually that is melted by the sun and comes down to us as water.
In a similar way the Buddha gave teachings and those teachings came back to us. It can all be traced back to the Buddha the same way all water can be traced back into ice. And they say that the teachings that we are to practice, they actually have to be examined, they have to be analyzed through the three modes of examination. Initially the Buddha gave teachings in Varanasi, as we know, but then there were a number of things, a number of events that happened that actually constitute different types of examination, of analysis of these teachings. So we know that those teachings were examined by many great scholars and it was a lot of reason that was used in order to prove all the points that were taught.
And only after the points were proved by logic and reason to stand, after that we see that different practitioners and different yogis took out the practices and by relying on these practices they developed realisations on their minds. So this also proves that the teachings that were given valid. So whatever teachings we rely upon, we have to make sure that they have been tested and analyzed. So if we actually are capable of coming across such a Dharma that has been tested and analyzed and if you engage in that and you practice sincerely, there should be no doubt that you will achieve the desired result. Otherwise, if you just take along everything comes into your way and has the label of Dharma, then it is questionable as to what you will achieve.
Rinpoche was saying, I’m sure there are many examples of things that are called Dharma but they are not the actual thing. And also the great practitioner Milarepa has said that if you do not meditate on renunciation, even if you were to isolate yourself in the midst of the different mountains, that would go to waste. What is stressed here is that if your Dharma is lacking the pure practice of developing renunciation, then what you’re doing is actually empty of any essence. It doesn’t have the potency to bring about results. So whatever you do, whatever you set yourself and no matter what you say about your practice of Dharma, it will not bear results.
So we know that in order to achieve the final result of the state of Buddhahood with the two bodies, need to rely on the path that has both method and wisdom. And when we talk about method, we need to understand that this has to include bodhicitta, it has to include the practices of the six perfections, it has to include love, compassion and so forth. And when we talk about wisdom, really we talk about developing some understanding of emptiness and when we talk about emptiness there are many different types of emptiness that we can talk about but the most important one is to generate some comprehension of the most subtle type of emptiness. And in order to do that you have to generate an understanding and a wisdom of the most subtle object of negation that is only presented in the middle way consequence school. So when we talk about wisdom, we talk about understanding the view, understanding emptiness through the very subtle object of that negation.
And then by relying on the union of these two, the method and the wisdom and combining these two in your practices, only then you can bring about the benefit of yourself and the benefit of others. Last time we also presented the first verse where it says, The heart meaning of all the discourses of the conquerors, the path praised by the immaculate conqueror’s sons, that thought for the fortunate who desire emancipation I will explain in whatever way I can. And we talked about the hard meaning of all the discourses of the conquerors being renunciation, bodhicitta and correct view And we explained how these three principal aspects are indispensable in all the teachings and for all those who desire liberation and emancipation. So last time we gave an explanation where we gave an explanation of the verse in whole and now we can start breaking down the lines. The first line talks about the heart meaning of all the discourses of the conquerors.
Now, we have a quotation here of a text that is called The Expression of Names and in that it says that we see that there is a presentation of three vehicles: the vehicle of hearers, the vehicle of solitary realisers and the vehicle of bodhisattvas. But this presentation of the vehicles in three is only the interpretative meaning. If we look for the definitive meaning we see that in reality there is only one vehicle. The three vehicles are condensed into one. So something similar would be applied here.
Now, we use the term vehicle and it’s good to give some explanation of what a vehicle is or how it is understood. Vehicle is something that can accomplish the two purposes. When we talk about the two purposes we talk about the purpose of myself and the purpose of others. And it does so by allowing the qualities of the grounds and paths to develop. So in a sense you can say that the vehicle is a path as well.
It’s a thing that allows realizations and qualities. And you know we have this division between the lesser vehicle and the greater vehicle. And when we talk about the lesser vehicle, it is a vehicle in which we see that the main thing that is accomplished is one’s own benefit, one’s own liberation. If we talk about the great vehicle, we’re talking about a path that takes as its main focus the benefit of others and eventually can establish one’s own benefit as well. So we can get to the point to this first line where it says the essence of all the discourses of the Buddha and these are many discourses in Sūtra and Tantra and so forth.
The essence of all these teachings comes down to be renunciation. So what this actually implies is that all the teachings that were given by the Buddha were given with ultimately one aim, right, with one thing in mind. And that thing was to help the disciples generate the mind of renunciation. So all the teachings, the aim of all the teachings, want to generate renunciation. And they say that it’s important for us to generate renunciation in the continuum of disciples because once you generate renunciation in your mind, you look at Sam saṃsāra in a completely different way.
In a sense, you turn your back into saṃsāra and you start looking for different means and ways to attain liberation. So if you lack renunciation, as a matter of fact, you’re lacking the method for attaining Now also we have a quotation from other great master, Āryadeva, who said that unless you’re capable of seeing the faults of saṃsāra, how could you possibly generate the mind that is seeking liberation? What it says by that is unless you are capable of seeing the faults of saṃsāra and that implies that unless you have renunciation, how could you possibly generate the mind that wishes for something else, who wishes to get out of saṃsāra and reach liberation. So it says in the beginning the most important thing is renunciation. So that completes the explanation of the first line.
We start now with the second line that says the path praised by the immaculate conqueror’s sons. In the first one we talked about the conquerors and now we are talking about conqueror’s sons. The conqueror here is to be understood as the Buddha and the son of the Buddha is to be understood as a bodhisattva. What we have to understand is that once you reach the state of Buddhahood, this state of perfect and complete qualities, perfectly developed qualities, all this has come about through relying on bodhicitta. Also when you are a bodhisattva, all the qualities of the great vehicle that you develop, again they come about through relying on bodhicitta.
It seems that bodhicitta is the very important thing that we have to rely on in the beginning, in the middle and all the way up to the very end of our practices. Because without bodhicitta one has not even entered the great vehicle. So forget about reaching enlightenment, you won’t even start with the path. When we talk about traversing the path we need to know that there are five paths and you don’t even enter the first path, you don’t even start on the path of accumulation of the great vehicle unless you have bodhicitta. Now also the great Jetsün Tsongkhapa has praised bodhicitta and he says bodhicitta really is the root of the path.
And if we look at the different types of virtue that you can accumulate, we can talk about virtue that you have prior to generating bodhicitta and virtue that you generate after generating bodhicitta. Now it is said that if you do generate bodhicitta, all this virtue that you have accumulated prior to that time, all of it automatically will start becoming a cause for reaching your enlightenment. And of course all the virtue that is accumulated after the generation of bodhicitta goes towards that direction. So in a sense it says you can see how bodhicitta acts as the main focus for the accumulation. It brings together all the accumulation and it directs it towards a single purpose.
And also you can see that all the qualities, they stem out of bodhicitta. So bodhicitta is a very central point. Accumulation comes towards it and qualities, in a sense, spread out of it. So this is why it is praised. They say that really they if we look at the different practices that we can do, the most important one, the most fundamental one, the most the root of all the practices is bodhicitta and this is why it is praised.
So this is how we explain the second line and we start now with the third one who talks about that thought of the fortunate who desire emancipation. And here what look at is all these people so the fortunate has to be understood as being a plural, right? So all these people, all these beings who desire liberation, what do they do? They desire to be emancipated from cyclic existence. Why?
Because again and again they have experienced the suffering of cyclic existence and there comes a point where they become completely fed up, completely disappointed and they say I had enough of that. I’m now looking to be liberated, to escape, to come out of this situation. All those fortunate ones, they need to have a foothold, they need to have an entrance into this path that leads to emancipation. Now what is it that holds us within cyclic existence? What is it that stops us from liberation?
What is there is the ignorance of self grasping. So if you decide that you want to reach liberation you have to be one hundred percent sure that you need to abandon this fundamental ignorance. So a person who is looking for the entrance, for the thought to the path of liberation must be somebody who has a very strong desire to eradicate and abandon this ignorance. It must be somebody who is determined to meditate and destroy this self grasping. And it’s somebody who wants to have a very stable realization, develop stable realization of that.
So this is how we say the thought for entering the path of liberation for all those who wish to do that eventually is to develop the correct view. So the third line talks about the correct view. So really what we’re talking about here is the correct view that comprehends emptiness and this correct view is the entrance, the door for all those who wish to attain liberation and liberation is described as a state of peace, of pacification. So we can see that actually in a very brief way, indirectly we have a reference on the three principal aspects of the path: renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. And again in that verse it is clear that the premise of the composition of engaging in those three principal aspects is made.
Now, they say that when you analyze a text, when you look at the text, you should look at this pledge of composition because in the pledge of composition you should have the entire subject matter of that text. It should be presented there. Now, Jetsün Tsongkhapa has already made the pledge to engage in the composition explaining these three points. So after the pledge of composition is made, we come into the third subdivision which talks about urging the disciples to listen in the proper way. So in a sense, the great Lama Tsongkhapa says, From my side, I have made the pledge to present those matters and now you have to listen in a proper way, in a good way.
So you’ll have to listen in a proper way, okay? So you have the handouts, so keep an eye on the words there. We’re about to start with the second. We start with the second verse which says, Without being attached to the bliss of existence and by making effort to establish the purpose of leisure and endowment with confidence in the path pleasing to the conquerors, The fortunate should listen with clear mind. The way the verse is translated actually implies that we talk about some people.
Now, in Tibetan, two words actually appear and two syllables appear. These two syllables indicate that we are talking that this verse refers to more than one person. So again, it’s a plural situation that we have. It’s a plural situation because the advice is actually given to a number of people, not only those who have sharp faculties but also those who have less sharp faculties. Having made prior the distinction that those who are sharper than others, it is important to talk here in terms of plural in order to include everybody.
This is all those in a sense who should not be attached to the bliss of existence. When we talk about existence we talk about cyclic existence and when we talk about the bliss of existence we have to be very clear that any pleasure that we experience within cyclic existence is contaminated. There is no such a thing as uncontaminated bliss, uncontaminated pleasure within existence. And because uncontaminated does not exist, you don’t need to be attached to it. Right?
And instead, you should try to make effort to establish the purpose of leisure and endowment. Having understood the great qualities, the great opportunities that come together with this set of leisure and endowments, then you should try to take the essence best out of this great opportunity. You should try to do that by following a path that is pleasing the conquerors and a path you should have confidence in this path and that means that the path should be the correct path, should be a complete path, should be lacking nothing the parts should be there without missing anything and if it is such a path then you should have confidence and follow that thing. So all those who are fortunate in that way should listen in a clear mind. We actually have a quotation here from the four hundred verses and is actually describing the qualities of the disciple.
The first one that is mentioned here is that the disciple should have a mind that is honest and straight, should not have a mind that is influenced by attachment and other afflictions, should be straight and forward. Now, this first point is very important because by stating that the mind of the disciple should be straight and honest, As we say, it implies that it should not be under the influence of attachment because if you do have attachment, even if you come in contact with dharma, it just doesn’t have any benefit for you. You use it in the wrong way. So attachment causes the dharma information to go astray. So the most important thing is to be free from the influence of attachment.
Now the second quality of a disciple that is mentioned is intelligence. The disciple should have enough intelligence to be able to discriminate between what is good and what is bad. A lot of information is coming towards the disciple and they should be able to discern, to make a distinction and say, This is correct. And if it is correct, then I should engage in this practice. Whilst this other practice seems to be wrong, it seems to be leading me astray and this is something that I will avoid, I will abandon.
There is a certain amount of intelligence that is needed in order to make this discrimination and make the correct decisions. So this is the second of the qualities, the necessary qualities of a disciple. Now the third quality that is mentioned here is that the disciple should be seeking for Dharma, should have interest in other words. Now there is a lot of Dharma advice that can be found in different texts, it can be found in books or you can come into different Dharma lectures and teachings and listen to those things. But unless you are seeking for Dharma, unless you have this interest, these things in a sense will go by and you will not make any notice, you will not take anything in.
It is very important for us to listen and then to reflect and further on meditate in the Dharma that we hear. But unless you have this initial interest, unless you are seeking for Dharma, you will never spend any time contemplating and meditating. You won’t even go and listen to any Dharma teachings. And if you don’t do those things, of course, you will not attain the result. So it is understood that a certain amount of seeking, of interest should exist within the mind of the student if there is any hope for them to achieve any result.
So it is important as we say that the disciple also is listening in the correct way And we talked about the three folds of the pot that should be abandoned and we talked about the attitude that the disciples should have at the time that the teachings are given. So those things should be followed and observed. Now again, if we look at the first three lines of this verse, it says that the first one who says without being attached to the bliss of existence refers to renunciation. The second one, who is talking about making effort to establish the purpose of leisure and endowment, talks about bodhicitta. And the third one, who talks about following with confidence in the path pleasing the conquerors, this one refers to the correct view.
And we can see actually how it has been what we said before that all the different teachings they come down, they boil down into renunciation, right? So remember that the importance of the renunciation in the beginning. So, having come to this point, having completed the second verse, we have actually completed the preliminaries. If you remember, there were three in the preliminaries. The first one was the expression of homage or reverence which is expressed by the first line that says I pay homage to my Lord Venerable Gurus.
Then we have the Pledge of Composition which is the first actual verse where it starts by saying the heart meaning of all the discourses of the conquerors and then with the second actual verse we have urging the disciples to listen in the proper way But also it is said that these three preliminaries in a way, they can reflect the way that the Lamrim texts begin. Lamrim texts such as the liberation in the BAM of your hand. So in the first one where we have the expression of reverence, what we do is that we express the greatness of the author and we do that by also indicating the authenticity of the dharma that is presented here. Now with the second of the preliminaries which is the pledger of the composition we actually express the greatness of the Dharma and with the third of the preliminaries urging the students to listen, what is explained is the proper way of listening to the teachings and these are outlines that we find in the Lamrim and we find those, if you want, subdivisions reflected in the beginning also of these texts. What we follow after the preliminaries is the main body of the text.
Now remember what we said in the beginning that although the outlines between this text and the Lamrim might be different, the actual essence of what is presented is the same. Now, there is this tendency actually to look at the lam rim and compare it with secret tantra And there is a tendency to say that Lamrim is small or lesser if you compare it with secret tantra. Tantra is secret, tantra is high practice. But whether that is true or not, it’s worthwhile considering. Now, there was this conversation that took place between the great master Atisha and his main disciple, Dromtönpa.
Dromtönpa turned one day and said to Atisha, How come I only get the Lamrim? Everybody asks us the tantric teachings and initiation and I’m only left with the Lamrim, why? And the great master Atisha turned to him and said, Well, the reason why I teach Lamrim is that I have not found any other disciple who is a proper disciple to listen to Lamrim. For the Tantra, there are many. For the Lamrim, you are the only one.
The thing with Lam Rim is that actually it is something very precious because Lam Rim is the only method that can change your mind. Our minds since beginningless time have been associated with afflictions and that means that our minds have been under the influence of afflictions. Now, a mind that has been under the influence of afflictions is not capable of bringing about any results. The mind has to be separated from afflictions if there is going to be ever a state where the mind gains its own independence, its own individuality. So in order to do that you have to separate the two.
You have to be able to say, Here are the afflictions and here is my mind. The only thing that has the power to do that is the Lam Rim. The Lam Rim is the only method. If you put aside the Lam Rim you don’t have any method for separating the two. Right?
And for that reason we say it’s so important to study the three principal aspects renunciation, bodhicitta, emptiness. Lamurin is the only method to bring about this independence of the mind and unless the mind is independent, it cannot attain the goals and the results that it sets. Now, we talk a lot about the rights of people in the earth, in the world, and we talk about attaining independence and we talk about those people who lack their freedom independence. And every time we see examples of people who lack their freedom and independence, we sympathize with their suffering. And we recognize that this state where you lack your independence is a state where a lot of suffering is experienced and for that reason there is a lot of effort in it and there is great movement and sympathy for all those who like their independence.
Well, if we can recognize so easily that it is worthwhile to attain physical independence, why is it that we cannot strive for mental independence? Independence of the mind. Independence of the mind can come about through relying on renunciation, on bodhicitta, on correct view, on ethics, on concentration and wisdom. And those things are presented in the Lamrim. If you want to attain this independence of the mind, you have to rely on the lam rim.
Now the thing is that all of us, we go around and we live our lives and we are under the impression that we have our independence and we have our freedom. But the thing is that we are mistaken because if we examine the state of our mind, find that our mind is under the influence of afflictions. And if afflictions are the ones who govern the mind, that means that the mind does not have independence. And because the body is governed by the mind, if the mind is governed by afflictions, it means that the body as well is not independent. If you want to gain this state of independence, you really have to put up this fight, this struggle to be separated from afflictions because afflictions are never going to decide to bestow independence for you.
Right? They’re never gonna give it to you. This is something that you have to attain. So moving on from here, having completed the preliminaries, is the actual body, the general body of the treatise and this presents different practices that have to be done. So if you look at our text, it says the second and the second comes after the first.
The first was the preliminaries. So the second one is the explanation of the actual body of the treatise. In that we have four divisions: first one is the explanation of renunciation, the second one is explanation of bodhicitta, the third one is explanation of correct view and the fourth one is urging the disciples to practice after having conviction. So first one you come to understand well, these three, and then after you have grounded understanding, you engage yourself in practices. Now, we continue here with more subdivisions, more outlines and Rinpoche was actually praising the text for being so clear and giving such useful outlines.
So as we say, the second part which is the action part, is divided into four. The first of those is the explanation of renunciation and within the explanation of renunciation we also have three parts. The first one is the reason for needing to generate renunciation. The second one is the way to generate it. And the third one is the measure of having generated.
And once again, I mean these are the three most useful things that you need to know. Why do we need to generate renunciation? So, a reason is going to be given. And then how do we generate that? A method is going to be given.
And finally, what is the measure? So, what is the yardstick of having generated that renunciation? Very clear, very useful outlines. It is genuine that in the beginning you would have this question, like, why do I need to generate renunciation? In other words, you’re asking what are the benefits of generating that renunciation?
Why should I meditate on this? And actually, was commenting on Westerners actually, they are quite well known for asking a lot of questions. And why is this and why is that and what’s the reason for doing that? Why do I need to meditate on that? So, if you were to ask the question, why do I need to meditate on renunciation?
The answer you would get is found in verse three where it says, Without pure renunciation there is no means of pacifying the search of resultant bliss within the ocean of existence and also because embodied beings are completely bound by longing for existence. First, we should seek renunciation. Now, we start with the first line, so the first line where it talks about pure renunciation. Rinpoche was explaining the first word, the word pure. Now when we talk about purity, we have to understand that there are two types of purity.
There is, let’s say, partial purity and complete purity. Partial purity is purity that can be found at different stages of the path where it’s understood that if it is partial, it’s not complete. Complete purity is only found at the state of Buddhahood. Now here we talk about pure renunciation, right? So there should be a certain type of purity that characterises this wish to be liberated or to escape from cyclic existence, Right?
So, if that pure renunciation is lacking, without it, as it says, there is something that will not happen and in order to explain what will not happen we need to talk about the ocean of existence. Here again, when we talk about existence we talk about saṃsāra cyclic existence and the cyclic existence has come about through actions and afflictions and when we talk about existence cyclic existence, really we talk about the derived aggregates. Derived aggregates come through contaminated actions and afflictions. Now, we also talk about the ocean of cyclic existence, right? Now, conventionally we use the word ocean for a great collection of waters.
You can have different streams of water coming from different directions and if all of them fall in the same area then you have the formation of an ocean, the same way that Australia is surrounded by large bodies of waters and we talk about the oceans around Australia. In a similar way, we can talk about the ocean of cyclic existence. The ocean of cyclic existence is an ocean of suffering. Alright, now when we talk about ocean of suffering we talk about a great collection of different types of suffering such as being born, getting old, getting sick, dying, experiencing suffering of being thirsty, of being hungry and so forth. There’s a great collection of suffering in this ocean of existence.
So we talk about this ocean of existence and in reality what we talk about is the derived aggregates and all the suffering that we experience because we have these derived aggregates. These derived aggregates have come to us through actions, contaminated actions and afflictions. So, what happens is that due to that it is very difficult for us to accumulate the causes, let’s say, to have a fortunate migration. But once we have a fortunate migration, we might experience some sort of bliss, some sort of happiness. Now, how that can come about?
It comes about through engaging in virtuous activities. But these virtuous activities are contaminated virtuous activities. They are contaminated because they are influenced by afflictions. Alright? By definition, what is contaminated is the thing that is influenced by affliction.
So influenced by affliction, we engage in some actions that happen to be virtuous actions. There is a result that comes from those virtuous and the result is a pleasant result, is the result of bliss. Right? Now, this bliss can be experienced as bliss in our body, can be experienced as bliss in our body or bliss in the different things that we experience. So, we can experience bliss in different aspects: in our body, in our resources, or the different things that we use and utilise.
When we talk about bliss, we talk about a certain type of feeling and when the feeling of bliss arises, our usual reaction is to generate craving. Craving is a type of attachment and this type of craving and attachment towards bliss that is a result of contaminated virtuous actions is the one that does not allow us to come out of cyclic existence. It does not allow us to look further than saṃsāra and aim towards liberation. So we were at the point where we talked about contaminating bliss and as long as this is experience, what we generate is we generate a lot of craving and attachment towards that. It’s exactly this craving and attachment that keeps us rotating within cyclic existence.
It’s this craving and attachment that does not allow us to reach for liberation. Now, it is important to understand that we have a number of terms here that all of them come down to describe the same fundamental thing attachment. So we have craving, we have attachment and also in the third verse we have, in the last line, have longing, right? Longing for existence. And again, this longing is this craving, this attachment.
And it is said that all sentient beings, all embodied beings here were all completely bound by this longing, this craving because everybody wants to experience more and more of this contaminated bliss. We are all bound to this experience, we are tied up in this experience and this is the thing that makes us remain within cyclic existence. Over and over again it’s this craving that attaches us to cyclic existence. And if your main focus, if your main desire is to remain with this type of bliss, it means you will automatically remain within cyclic existence. You cannot go any further than that.
So it is very important to understand that it’s exactly that craving, that longing, that attachment that keeps us in the state that we are. And it’s a common instinct for all sentient beings. We’re all looking for that sort of pleasure. We’re all trapped into that situation. And it is exactly for that reason that we need to generate some understanding of renunciation because renunciation is the only thing that can act as an antidote to this condition.
Renunciation is the only thing that can block, in a sense it can reverse this great attachment, this longing. And if you can start opposing it, if you can stop it, then you can say that there is some hope from getting unbound, getting out of this tight situation and then you can say that there is some hope for attaining liberation. And this is why renunciation it says, you know, first we should seek renunciation. This is why we need to meditate on that. There’s a particular verse that Rinpoche would not exactly remember the rhyme of the verse but we can still talk about the meaning of that.
We find ourselves immersed within the ocean of cyclic existence and if you are in the ocean you see how you are carried by the waves sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left, sometimes you are carried away and then you are carried back again. So in a similar way we found ourselves immersed in this suffering of cyclic existence. And sometimes we are carried by these waves of the ocean towards the lower migrations, sometimes we are thrown towards the higher migrations and then fall down again. So there is this movement of up and down within this ocean of suffering. And it is said that it is amazing how we are not still aware of it.
If you are in a situation and it’s a new situation and you haven’t really set the doubt, it’s okay to have, let’s say, a new ignorance or the ignorance of the new person or the ignorance of a child. Those things are in a sense expected. They can be explained. But if you have stayed for eons in that situation, experiencing suffering up and down, carried back and forth, and still you’re not aware of it, this is described as ignorance beyond ignorance, the biggest ignorance. And as you know, in deep waters there’s deep travel as well, the sea monsters, the crocodiles, right?
So you remain in the ocean, the more you remain in the ocean, the bigger your chances are to be eaten up by these monsters, monsters, right? Rinpoche was describing this situation, the vastness of the ocean. When we talk about the ocean and you are one individual in it, it’s a limitless thing. It expands for kilometers on end. Also, if you look at the depth of the ocean compared to your own size, right, It goes down forever.
It’s huge. And this is why we get this sense of being within this ocean of cyclic existence and saying there is no end, there is no limit to this situation. And why do we say that? It’s because actually all this is a situation that has come about through our own actions, own karma. And in a sense you can say there is no limit to these actions that we do.
You see that right now we have attained a human rebirth, a human body. This is the result of, you you can say one particular karma. And as humans, we will remain in this life for a number of years. And every day we engage in a huge number of actions and most of those activities are non virtues. So multiply all these actions of one day to the number of years that you remain as a human and then try to imagine the results that would come from each one of this individual action.
Action. So this is what we say, there is no limit to the actions. The actions are unlimited. And in that sense, saṃsāra also is unlimited. We cannot see any end.
Now, once you start feeling completely overwhelmed, of course it’s good to ask the question like, is there anything to put an end to this? And you have to say that if you can stop these actions, if you can reverse these activities, the non virtuous activities, then you can see an end to saṃsāra. If you cannot put an end to action, there’s no end to saṃsāra. So how can we see an end into this situation? At least we can say that we have renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness.
If you rely on renunciation, this is going to act as an antidote to craving. If you develop bodhicitta, this will act as an antidote to anger. And if you develop correct view, this acts as an antidote to ignorance. When we talk about experiencing results, the results will come about through a combination of causes and conditions. The main cause is performing a certain action.
But the condition is all these different types of afflictions. Now, if through relying on renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness, we apply these to our afflictions, what we do is we stop the conditions. If the causes cannot meet with the conditions, the results will not be experienced. So you can be in a situation where you have unlimited actions but you stop all the conditions and therefore you have no results to experience. We see that there are certain things that have potency to produce results but there are means and ways to manipulate, to change that potency, to reduce the potency.
Now you see for example, you can have a seed, right, and the seed has the potency to bring about a sprout. But if you were to burn the seed, what you do is that we are destroying or you are eliminating this potency that it has to germinate, right? And then, no matter how much fertilizer and earth and water you can provide to this seed, it doesn’t have the potential anymore, it doesn’t have the potency anymore, so it’s not going to produce anything. Now, we’re doing a very similar thing here. By relying on the three principal aspects, what we do is we eliminate the potency of these actions we have done to bring about results.
If you completely eliminate their potency, it means that there will be no result to follow. So this is what we try to do. So having gone a little bit of time, we would not have any questions tonight but if you do have questions from these sessions you can bring them over in the next session. The next session is going to be on Friday but from the next week we are going to change the schedule where they will be. And there are two reasons for that.
One reason is that the school holidays start and there always seems to be some influence of the school holidays with the programme of the centre and also because it was noticed that last Friday the attendance was a bit scarce so there is the idea maybe more people will come towards the beginning of the week rather than the end of the week. So next week we will halt the teachings on Tuesday and Wednesday alright? So we meet on Friday and then Tuesday and Wednesday