Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 40-minute talk, Khensur Rinpoche opens with a prison analogy to make the first noble truth visceral: just as a prisoner must see the full horror of confinement before genuinely wanting to escape, we must clearly recognise the faults of our conditioned body before renunciation can arise. He examines the body as inherently predisposed to suffering — impermanent, unstable, produced by karma and afflictive emotions — and explains why that recognition is a prerequisite for the striving to be liberated. He then works through the second noble truth, identifying karma and attachment as the true sources of rebirth, using a seed-and-water image to show how causes require conditions to ripen. He outlines how cessation is achieved by cultivating the path, specifically the realisation of emptiness, which eliminates ignorance and thereby cuts attachment. The session closes by noting that the four truths constitute lesser or great vehicle practice depending entirely on one’s motivation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 4 NT 1990 07 26.mp3
UUID: 26e597fa-02a3-4b33-9190-b89225f7c8a7
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 4 Noble Truths (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1990-07-26
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 39.9 minutes
Words: ~1,020
Therefore, the aggregates are classified under the suffering of universal conditionality or pervasive compositional suffering. What the have to go through the the suffering of sometimes having to get up. Sometimes get that sit down. If we didn’t have it, it’s aggregate for the body, then we we would experience predisposed to have toothaches. By having an eye, we’re ex we’re predisposed to have is said to be in the nature of suffering.
That the the migrator experiences suffering in accordance with if we take the body, which they take on, which they appropriate. If we didn’t take on, if we didn’t appropriate a body, we body. What we should have to what we’re understanding this situation, we should arrive at the thought So analogy of the situation would be that someone is caught by the police for having committed a crime and they’re put in jail. And while this prisoner, while in jail, begins to to see that the all the various faults of being in prison, how how how horrible it is. And seeing well all the difficulties and we desire.
We’re not we’re not able we get that which we’re forced to undergo that which we don’t desire. And again and again, considering the nature of this body, and that there’s no happiness with such a real happiness with such a type of body. And the nature of it’s impermanent. It’s not stable. It’s momentary.
It but additionally, it rises out of the by the force of karma and afflictive emotions, and it’s also selfless. That these are all the various faults of the body. That and therefore, it is the nature of suffering. That if I did appropriate, that seeking the thought arises not to appropriate this body in the future. And this is the development of renunciation in which there is a striving to be liberated from the body.
It is said that if one does not recognize their suffering, there will never arise the striving to be liberated from it. We take on the aggregate due to karma and attachment. By means of karma and attachment, we establish a relationship with a new suffering set of aggregates. And if we eliminate these causes, then we will not have to we will not be forced to appropriate suffering aggregates again. The how is it that we are forced to appropriate at the suffering aggregates?
It is due to the force of karma and ignorance. But the main cause, not the root, is attachment. Therefore, it is karma and attachment which are the true sources.
So what forces us to, again and again, appropriate these aggregates? It is due to throwing karma, It’s due to the presence of these causes. But just as in the case where though there is a seed, if it does not come in contact with water, there is no growing of the flower. So these two are are the causes of true suffering, karma and and attachment, and therefore, are true sources of suffering. In Tibetan, the word for true sources or source, which is being translated as true sources, is And has the idea of of all or many, and means to arise. And therefore it literally means that all our suffering arises again and again due to these factors, that is karma and attachment, and the way we abandon true sources is through the cultivation of the path.
Cultivation of the path. Specifically, the cultivation of the path, which is the realization of emptiness. Through the realization of emptiness, we are able to eliminate ignorance. Ignorance is the root of attachment. And by eliminating attachment, we we have abandoned true sources.
And through that, will we will not be forced to appropriate aggregates in the future, and we will obtain liberation, which is a true cessation. In this way, we attain liberation, which is the elimination of all suffering and the experience of complete happiness in terms of both physical well-being and mental well-being, whether it’s experiencing no suffering whatsoever. Abandoning that cause, we but we will we can abandon that cause by means of the cultivation of true path, which is the method for the attainment of the happiness of true cessation. So we don’t have much time today. We have more time, and we could go into the four aspects of true sources and the four aspects of true suffering and two four aspects of true sources, four of true cessation, and four of true Each of the four truths has four aspects made in total of sixteen aspects with respect to the four truths.
Used in teaching the four noble truths into these two categories of that which is to be adopted and that which is to be rejected or that which is to be practiced and that which is to be abandoned, each having two fold classification. In terms of the abandonments, there we said there there was the two in terms of cause and result. The cause being true sources and the result being true sufferings. And these are to be abandoned in terms of the practices. And then cause these true paths and the these are necessary are necessary practice in terms of the four noble truths.
But if one practices the four noble truths for the liberation of oneself alone, then then according to this motivation is a lesser vehicle practice. But on the other hand, according to the motivation of practicing the four noble truths in order to attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings, then it’s the practice of the great vehicle. And one would necessarily practice the four noble truths. The this is the the Buddha said, this is the noble truth of suffering. That is its nature.
That’s that’s in terms of its nature. Suffering is to be known. That is I could spontaneously, realizations in the mind of these five disciples, May I, true, the truth sources are the presentation of liberation, that by means of cultivating true path, true path for the cause of liberation, which has the result of true cessation. Book. Yeah.