Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 47-minute commentary, Khensur Rinpoche reaches verse five of the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation — the verse that instructs practitioners to accept public humiliation and false accusations without defending themselves. He first frames the text’s logic: enlightenment requires method (bodhicitta, rooted in cherishing others more than oneself) and wisdom (realizing emptiness), and earlier verses have addressed pride, disturbing emotions, and compassion for difficult people. The session’s heart is patience: when someone spreads lies about you or abuses you in a crowd, Rinpoche teaches, do not explain or retaliate — accept the words voluntarily. He cites Geshe Langri Thangpa’s claim that bearing abuse with patience earns greater merit than making offerings to an entire monastic community, and Śāntideva’s argument that since opportunities for patience are rare, provocateurs deserve gratitude — illustrated by the image of buying your offender a cake as thanks. The session ends as verse six opens.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 8VTT 1999 06 14.mp3
UUID: 55b44732-a5be-45e1-beee-b51ca41f504c
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: 8 Verses Thought Transformation (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1999-06-14
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 47.6 minutes
Words: ~2,394
It’s beyond the So our main aim or main purpose is to accomplish, to reach a state which is the completion Which is the completion we reached to the our main purpose or aim is to reach a place which is the result or which is the place where we accomplish both the purposes of oneself and others. So which is enlightenment. So if one does not attain the enlightenment then then one is, one has not accomplished self purpose, both one and others’ purposes. In order to accomplish both purposes, have to one has to attain enlightenment through overcoming all the negativities and cultivate the all good qualities. So to attain enlightenment the ultimate goal one has to attain through the combination attain that enlightenment through the combination of wisdom and method.
So for the method there are many many methods and but the main method is the bodhicitta or yeah, it’s the bodhicitta. And for the wisdom, it has also many wisdoms but the main is the wisdom which realizes the emptiness. So to attain enlightenment both method and wisdoms should be present. If one is absent then one cannot attain enlightenment by the single. So the bodhicitta is that the two is to is a motivation which begins from the practice of Mahāyāna.
So if one does a practice without a motivation of altruistic intention or bodhicitta then one’s practice won’t become a Mahāyāna practice. So to do the practice of Mahāyāna one needs to have a motivation, that bodhicitta. So about the bodhicitta there are two types we call that, the bodhicitta with effort and bodhicitta with without effort which means so one should have either of those bodhicitta within oneself and so the first one, the bodhicitta with effort comes before which means cultivating or generating using with the Through practice cultivating bodhicitta and through become accustomed with the bodhicitta later without effort means it just generally by itself comes within oneself. So in order to generate that mind, the bodhicitta or altruistic intention, one should have a mind which cherishes others more important than one, oneself. So the cherishing others more important is the principal practice or the basis of the practice and so it’s the basis of the practice or principle of the practice and it’s also called so this cherishing that mind, cherishing others more important than oneself is indispensable.
So so that one should cherish others more important than oneself and always pay respect to them and to to to to generate such a mind or such a respect towards others placing oneself in the lowest position, pride is the obstacle to cultivate such a mind and about the pride we have discussed about the pride. Yeah. The second verses. Second verse. Verse number two.
So and then to have proper pay respect and be concerning others more important oneself, also the inner disturbing emotions which acts which which objects or which act as obstacle to generate such mind and to to avoid that we have dealt with third verses saying in all action whenever it, if one is developing disturbing emotion one should stay on the spot or stay away one should eliminate, apply antidote and eliminate it. And the verse number four shows that we pay, so we should pay respect or pay respect to or cherish others more important oneself but sometimes but there is a difficulty of cherish paying respect or cherishing other beings who are in very weak condition, being captured with dangerous disease and people in bad nature so one may face difficulty. So what it says is you should, the verse number says that one should, I mean put more especially or put more important especially once you cultivate and pay respect with those beings of bad nature and because these are the main, those people are the main basis to develop a compassion and which is compassion which is the root of the bodhicitta. So the verses number, now we are on the for number five and which is which implies that whether you have harmed others or not, but if they returned, if they due to their, excuse me.
So whether you have caused harm or not to others but they have used harsh words and abuse you and then and told you off and then just and and like was that word? Okay. So, and then they’re letting out all your secrets, telling them you have still this and that and then you said this and just, yeah, so forth. If someone does this to you. So it’s not for example, like that one one who is doing a very good practice and then being respect to others, helping poor people and so forth and means, and then that person that I’m becoming a good practitioner and others feel jealousy and and feel jealous and then due to that because of their jealousy they told you off and they just use harsh words and then and saying bad things about you and sometimes due to their jealousy, they might beat you and yeah.
Yeah, so and then others they just spread bad rumors, rumors all over the places about you and And for that, the hero, the great master told me So this text called the Thirty Seven Practices of the Bodhisattva saying that others they just spread bad rumors and in a crowd they abuse you and say bad things for for you and with some saying I’m making up or just yeah outright lies that which that you have done something which you haven’t and for that and he said that one should, so one should say if others did do this to you, one should not one should not try to explain others instead of that one feel, keep oneself very relaxed and voluntarily take the words what others have said to you. So you’re saying that one should keep relaxing, voluntarily take what what what what the person has said, whether he’s complaining you personally personally that you’ve done this or just complaining to a group where you are included and you should say that you were included in that part even though you are not, but one should not try to explain or convince that person, you should rather take voluntarily what he had said without any hesitation.
So that when we got ethical discipline, we cultivate lots of virtues and purifies the negative it is. Likewise, just no matter whether you have done or not, but just accepting what the person has said, not feeling upset and showing patience to that person is doing this will also accumulate lots of merits and purifies the negativities like way not guiding the ethical discipline. You said the ones you do like the great master Langri Thamba that that always whether whether a person hurts you or not and say there is a wealth to share between you and others. Always take loss and give victory and offer victory to others. Said that for here the Geshe Langri Thangpa once went to the place called in Tibet, which is not far from the central Tibet.
And so No. Yeah. Probably that was his birthplace. So and there were many monks making offerings like a butter. So it means they’re the scent, smell offering to the hungry ghosts, you know, or things.
So it’s making a smell offering by burning the melting or burning the butter lamps or butter. And he said that is one will accumulate more merit by paying patience towards one and taking all the other’s complaints or bad words with patience than doing making doing a offering of smell of doing a smell offering. Did you get it? Yeah. Go there.
That that more clearer here now. It was not a smell offering. It’s saying that it’s the making offerings like butter and so forth to the monks and nuns. Usually when we say that, we we say that about making offerings to the Sankang community amongst nuns, one accumulates against your merit. For here the Geshe Langri Thangpa estimated said that the merit which accumulates by paying patience for one who abused you or complains about you, will be greater than making offering to the monks and nuns at the Phenpo area.
And so for that, so if someone told you off or someone says harsh words with influence or through anger, then instead of paying with or doing or responding or giving answer for that, one should pay, maintain or cultivate patience towards that person rather instead of just response and the answer. So, yep. The great master Śāntideva has said that, so when someone someone contempts you or use harsh words through anger or fight through anger, one should not fight back and maintain or cultivate patience and meditate upon the patient. And then that patient comes, is result of the person’s anger, or a person’s anger, and instead of getting angry to that person you should make offerings, like saying the verses, making argument by their prayers. And because the practice of patience is very effective and brings one lots of virtues and the cause for that patience is the anger of that person so you should not get angry and pay respect or make offerings to that person for their anger.
It’s like so it says that one should not get angry to that person and make offerings to that person. For example, like Anthony got angry towards me and he told me off. And in for as for the answer, instead of getting angry, I should I should buy a nice delicious cake and then offer him and saying that, yeah, your anger is the is the cause for my patience and it’s just to pay thanks with the cake. Why one should pay thanks to that person or the anger is because the object of cultivating or object of cultivating patience or the causes of cultivating patience is less than the object of practicing generosity or giving because can, practice of generosity can be done to anybody, you can give it to anyone where you want but the object to practice patience is very few, it’s not much. Because so in order to cultivate the patient one needs someone to provoke you or for someone who gets angry towards you.
So without provocation one cannot cultivate the patient and one cannot perfect the patient. As a result, if one has not perfected the patient, practice of patient then one is not enlightened. One can’t achieve the enlightenment without perfecting the patient’s So here again the great master said that there is no greater yeah, so the anger is one the greatest non virtuous actions or the most powerful. And the practice of patience is also one of the greatest practice. So here the once the master Atisha someone offered, offered, say a child of the group could be, it’s a kind of like one kind of Indian people in the olden days looks very awful and then have a bad nature and not proper character.
Atisha was offered a person from that lineage, or that lineage. And then so and that person very, very naughty and doing nasty things and provoking all the monks or all the artistic students, alright? And then the monks will always complain or request the master, please get rid of that fellow and then all the time, and then the master was saying no, no, no, he’s very kind, he’s very kind and also he’s the one who helps me to perfect my practice of patience. It’s very kind to me so no I don’t want to get rid of him. So for us, you know, we have you have many kids.
Some some got many kids at home and some kids are not really good, you know. And then and some have like I I mean, have partners or couples and have difficulty with being so very easy to get angry and suffer, so you should think that it’s a good object to practice patience. So here it says that one should take the sufferings voluntarily. For example, when one does the practice and there are many sufferings come like others being very jealous or not saying nice to one’s practice and one faces physical illness and then faces difficulty or suffering when something went wrong and one feels one has suffering and so forth. So so whenever when those suffering comes, one should not get upset instead of that feeling delighted and take them voluntarily.
So it’s the practice, should practice the patient and within the practice of patience there are many classifications and among those practice of patience, the practice of patient of taking the self involuntarily is greatest practice of patience. So now we’re on to number six. It says that while in early days one was in a very good position, wealth and everything, and then one of your friends or someone was very, very poor and undergoing a lot of suffering, and you helped that person at that time and later on, yourself became very poor and facing difficulty and that person became rich and more financially okay. So you came to know that the person has done is very well organized already. Then you think that with expectation that all right now I have difficulty but I have helped him in the previous, I’m a partisan and so maybe if I go there he or she will help me with the expectation, the thinking that he or she might help me if I go there because I help them.
Now in the past. Expectation, help someone else and you have expectation, this expectation is usually there in worldly and possibly sometimes in dharma practitioners as well. And then so so with with great hope or with great expectation, you just pack your things and go go to that place and the friends. And so and if that friend just acts like pretending not to know you, and not only that, not just pretending to call his other friends and beat you up very badly, hurt you, and put you into the jail somewhere. If that that person did something like this, did something like this, then what one should think?