Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 47-minute guided meditation, Khensur Rinpoche builds the practice of bodhicitta from the ground up, pausing twice to lead silent meditation periods. He opens with the logic of taking refuge: all beings — king or commoner — face sickness and death, and the Buddha qualifies as a genuine refuge because he is fearless, compassionate, skillful, and impartial toward all sentient beings equally. After a five-minute visualization of the Buddha above the crown of the head, Rinpoche turns to the Mahāyāna’s distinctive heart: love and compassion, defined precisely as wishing others happiness and wishing to free them from suffering. The session closes with the reasoning for bodhicitta — since I alone cannot truly help even one person, I must attain Buddhahood myself — and a second silent meditation to settle that resolve.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 GM 1988 11 06 Guided Meditation.mp3
UUID: b28cd901-9835-4ef9-9d22-948ba2751d79
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Guided Meditations 1988-1992 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1988-11-06
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 47.8 minutes
Words: ~1,483
So now we’ll take a few minutes break. You can stand and stretch, and then Rinpoche will continue to lead the meditation. So the distinguishing mark which distinguishes a Buddhist from a non-Buddhist is the going for refuge to the Three Jewels. And within Buddhism, the distinguishing mark or factor between those who practice the lesser vehicle and those who practice the greater vehicle is the generation of the awakening heart, bodhicitta. With respect to the going for refuge, we go for refuge within Buddhism to the Buddha jewel, the Dharma jewel, and the Sangha jewel.
So we’re going to consider these Three Jewels and their qualities. So if we consider the necessity for going for refuge, that is to seek some kind of protection, it’s necessary that we get in touch with the various dissatisfactions of this life that we experience. And the two main types of dissatisfactions are the suffering qualities of our life — sickness — and the fact that we have the suffering of death. No matter what we do, no matter whether we’re kings or how much power we may have, everyone must undergo these various types of suffering of sickness and death. But in order to gain some protection from these, as a means of refuge, we go for refuge to these three qualities of the Three Jewels.
So in order to actually go for refuge, we must understand what is the measure. We must come to be able to identify what is an actual refuge, what is actually going to be able to protect us from these dissatisfactions that we experience in our life. Even in worldly pursuits when we are working in the world and we have to know what types of work that we have to, what our job is, what it entails. And it’s quite often necessary to ask for help, to have assistance in performing even types of worldly work. And likewise, in going for protection from our sufferings, from our dissatisfactions, we have to be able to recognize these dissatisfactions and what type of direction that we can take to protect us from these dissatisfactions, to overcome them, and also to seek some kind of assistance in alleviating our dissatisfaction.
So it’s said that the the Buddha as from the point of view of a worthy object of refuge, of going for protection, has four qualities. And the first of this is the fearlessness, that the Buddha has no fear for himself and therefore he is able to help others to go beyond their fears. And then he has the quality of skill and means, and able to benefit in whatever way the sentient beings need. And that he has great compassion. And lastly, he has the quality of equal mindedness, or a feeling of equanimity toward all sentient beings.
He doesn’t hold some close and others distant, but he seeks to benefit all equally. Yes. So we’re going to meditate for about five minutes. We’re going to visualize that the Buddha is at the crown of our heads, just above the top of our heads. And that we are developing heartfelt respect for the Buddha, understanding that such a type of being, that such a type of state is in fact our ultimate refuge. It has the ultimate ability to protect us from the dissatisfactory qualities that we are trying to eliminate.
And therefore making requests for assistance, for help, for aid, and visualizing with heartfelt respect the Buddha above the crown of your head. So the uncommon feature with respect to Buddhism is that it has both a method, both a conduct and a view. And the conduct is non harm or non violence. And the view is the dependent arising. Now, when we speak of non harm or non violence, when we take that to its fulfillment, we’re speaking about the generation of love and compassion, and ultimately the awakening heart.
When we talk about compassion, we’re talking about the wish to separate other beings from their suffering, that seeing the condition that people exist within and developing the heartfelt desire that they be separated from their suffering. And when we talk about love, we’re wishing them that they have happiness they presently don’t have, and wishing that they’d be always joined completely with happiness. And when we look at sentient beings, have to understand that we’re very much equal in the sense that all sentient beings want happiness, that no sentient being wants to suffer just like ourselves, that we’re completely equal. And if we look at the situation realistically, then we can understand that I’m just one person. Other sentient beings are equal to all of space.
So if we are to cherish one self or other, which of the two are we to cherish? Well, we can see by the fact of the number that others are more important than self. Since we’re just few, others are many. Therefore, we have to develop the attitude of cherishing others over ourselves. So understanding that others are equal, you know, infinite in number, that one is just a single person, and that they’re equal to us in the fact that they want to be happy and don’t want to suffer, Within the great vehicle, between self and other, the main practice is always emphasized with direction toward concern with others.
And that the trying to develop the attitude and the motivation for whatever we might do, that we’re seeking to develop love, which is seeking to benefit others, to bring them happiness, and compassion, which is seeking to separate them from their suffering. At present, our love and compassion is very, you know, very literal. That is to say, our thought to bring happiness to others and to separate them from their suffering is very slight. So we have to develop the strength or the power of our love and compassion to the extent where we actually are willing to take on the burden, where we say, I am going to separate them from suffering.
I am going to bring them happiness. That is, we have to develop exceptional resolve, this unusual attitude. But if we look at the situation that we’re presently in, even though we may wish to take on the responsibility of bringing happiness to others and to take on the responsibility of separating them from their suffering, we have to ask, in fact, can I? Do I have the ability? And at present, we don’t.
We don’t have the ability even to help one single person to be completely happy and to eliminate completely their suffering. So we have to look, is there such a possibility? Is there such a type of person? And we have to come to understand that it’s at Buddhahood, that in fact enlightenment, when we ourselves become a Buddha, that we can actually be of maximum benefit to others. Simply, the Buddha has the excellent qualities and the abilities to be able to maximally help others, that simply by radiating out, manifesting, emanating various bodies to in various parts of the universe that he’s able to help infinite sentient beings in infinite ways.
So understanding that in fact if we’re ever going to really be of maximum benefit to others, that we have to attain the excellent qualities, all the positive qualities, all the skillful means of a Buddha, that we ourselves have to attain the state of Buddhahood, that we have to attain enlightenment. If we’re ever really going to be able to eliminate the sufferings of others, ever going to bring them happiness in a realistic maximum fashion, then we ourselves are going to have to take on the responsibility of doing And most efficient way, the most effective way, is if we ourselves, each of us individually attain Buddhahood. So therefore developing the exceptional resolve that I, for the sake of all sentient beings, in order to eliminate their suffering, in order to bring them happiness, I myself must attain Buddhahood. I have to achieve the state of Buddhahood, thinking therefore I am going to whatever practice, whatever I have to do, I am going to work to attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. Developing such an exceptional resolve, developing such an altruistic thought, is what we mean when we say the awakening heart or bodhicitta.
And for the next five minutes we’re going to meditate or accustom ourselves to this thought of wishing to develop, to help others, to eliminate their suffering, to bring them happiness, and developing the thought to take on responsibility of actually doing this, and understanding that we ourselves have to develop the skillful means and the qualities of a Buddha in order to be able to do it, and therefore I must attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. So we’ll meditate on that.