Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using the image of an eye checking a road — steering toward the good surface, avoiding the bad — Khensur Rinpoche opens this 26-minute commentary by explaining wisdom as the mental factor that investigates objects and ascertains their qualities without doubt. He draws the distinction between the five omnipresent mental factors, which all share a single object, and the five determining factors, each with its own individual function, tracing how aspiration, belief, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom work together to develop excellent Dharma qualities. Rinpoche then pivots to the purpose behind this series on mind and mental factors: cultivating kindness and non-harm through understanding dependent arising. The session closes with a brief Q&A on whether seeing the sun constitutes belief, which Rinpoche uses to sharpen the distinction between bare perception and stable ascertainment.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 25 AK 1988-12-08.mp3
UUID: bc957ecb-29a9-43d6-a523-f9c466cce1d1
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Awareness and Knowledge 1988-1989 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1988-12-08
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 26.4 minutes
Words: ~1,307
So then the fifth determining factor is wisdom, and sometimes I think this can be translated as perhaps just intelligence. What what it means is the mental factor which investigates the aspect of an analyzed phenomena of a of a of an analyzed phenomena which is its object of observation. The the mental factor which investigates an aspect of an analyzed phenomena, which is this object of investigation. Determining, you know, it distinguishes the qualities of the object, the aspects of it, whether it’s good object, bad object, all the very any type of quality, it’s investigating an object of analysis, looking at its aspects. So share of wisdom is is functioning you know, it it’s it’s its function is to investigate, like investigating, whether this this happiness arise from positive causes or negative causes.
Does suffering arise from positive causes or negative causes? You know, is this pot impermanent or is it permanent? Are things selfless or do they have a self? You know, what is the good aspect of this object? What is the good aspect of this object?
What is the bad? What should I cease with respect to this object? What object should I engage in? So it’s it’s investigating and analyzing. Yes.
So wisdom is like an eye. When when we’re walking down a path, we our eye is checking out the condition of the path where it was. There a bad part, maybe like a road. What is the bad part of the road? What is the good?
So you avoid the bad part and you drive on the of driving, you drive on the good part of the road. Likewise, wisdom analyzing all the various phenomena as to their whether they are productive or unproductive types of phenomena, good or bad. It has so that we can begin to, in dependence upon this, engage in those types of phenomena, engage those types of phenomena which are productive and begin to reject those type of phenomena are unproductive, which are bad or harmful. It has the function of of non doubt. It functions that is to say, it actually ascertains.
It has no doubt with respect to the object. It doesn’t think, I’m not sure whether this is good or bad. And maybe this is good or this is bad. It actually ascertains. It know it knows that this object is good and this object is bad.
Before we we talked about the the five omnipresent factors, and these these factors together accompanied a main mind. And they all had the same object. They they all took the same object. They all knew the same object. But in the case of this of the determining factors, the five determining factors, each of them has their own individual object of observation.
They have their own individual activities. So they they they are each each are determining their own each each of them are determining a specific factor about the objects. Therefore, they’re called determining factors. Each of them is has their own individual determining quality with respect to the object. They don’t they’re not all taking the same aspect.
Therefore, they they they’re all determining an individual factor about the object. They’re therefore, they’re called determining factors. So it’s through these five determining factors that we come to understand what things are beneficial, what things are good, what things are bad, what things are useful. And therefore, because it is these five factors which are determining the qualities of the various objects, activities that we engage in. Therefore, it is these which determine which help us to increase our excellent qualities through the force of these five determining factors.
If we take as to how these five determining factors bring about excellent qualities, we take the very fact of dharma itself. First, look at we aspire to the dharma. That is to say, we see that it’s through the aspiration, determine its excellence, its quality, and we take an intense interest in it. By taking an in intense interest in it, we we ascertain something about it. We know something about it.
By that, we we develop belief. We stabilize our previous ascertainment. Having belief, we develop we begin to strive to develop the qualities within ourselves that we’ve ascertained. We do not forget these qualities due to the factor of mindfulness. And we we remain upon these, desirable qualities of the Dharma that we’re trying to incorporate within us through the through stabilization by, single-minded placement for long durations upon these objects, cultivating them in our meditation.
And finally, bringing about an understanding of the ultimate nature of reality, selflessness, and emptiness through our meditation, and that is developing wisdom. And so this through these five determining factors, developing all the excellent qualities. Come on, chew. Come with water. So the reason that we’ve been studying, awareness and knowledge is to help us to understand their mind.
The way in order to help us to practice, in order to help us develop a good mind, to seek to develop a kind heart, to develop altruism, wishing to help others, to begin to eliminate the factors of harming others and anger in our minds. This is the essence of Dharma. Even just to The thought to remove an insect from water and set it aside to save life. And all these are what we mean by practicing Dharma, and this is the reason we’re studying. So, you know, I ask you to please keep this in mind too, that the essence of Dharma is are these qualities of developing a good mind, kind heart, seeking to benefit others, altruism, non harm, and non anger.
And is what we’re trying to do. So when we’re practicing the the Dharma of the Buddha, essentially, we’re practicing non harm. And when we talk about non harm, the way the way in which we can bring this about is through the understanding of dependent arising. Understanding dependent arising is simply understanding that all events arise in dependence upon causes and conditions. Dependence upon bad causes and conditions, some negative result will arise.
Dependence upon positive, good causes and conditions at a positive result will arise. Understanding this, then we can practice, bring it in, practice the essence of Dharma, is non harm to others. So so if you have some great questions, we can spend some a few minutes on that. No great questions. You the sun in the sky?
Yeah. Yeah. This is a belief or what is it? You mean you mean the When you see the sun Yes. Is that a is that belief?
See the sun, you can see the sun and When you belief. Is that belief? The No. So if we take as as examples the understanding of seeing the sun as a basis for example. If it were a case where you had seen the sun previously, you really you knew, you had ascertained that this was the sun, and you looked at the sun, you think, Oh, that’s that’s the sun.
And very stable ascertainment that this is the sun. And though someone may come up and said, Oh, that’s not the sun. He said, No, I I know that’s the sun because I have ascertained that for myself that it’s the sun. This would be a case of belief with respect to the sun. Anything other than that would not be a case of belief with respect to the sun.
So you can, in this case, say you believe in the reality of the sun? In the reality or just in the sun? What? You believe in the sun? You believe in the sun?
I don’t think so. You believe this is the sun? Yeah. I was just waiting for another question. No great question.
Small question.