Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. What makes someone a genuine Mahāyānist? Khensur Rinpoche’s answer, opening the 2000 Lamrim series at Buddha House, is clear: not robes or texts, but bodhicitta — the altruistic intention to attain enlightenment for all beings. In this 87-minute talk, he explains the three grades of motivation, argues why Mahāyāna means great vehicle (practitioners shoulder the burden of all sentient beings, not just themselves), and makes the striking claim that even animals and hell-realm beings have generated bodhicitta by carrying compassion cultivated in a previous human life. He then maps the three-part structure of Mahāyāna practice — preparation, developing bodhicitta, and the six perfections. A natural entry point for practitioners beginning the great-capacity section of the Lamrim.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 LR 2000 02 01.mp3
UUID: 9e1e0da3-46f1-44b6-bcbb-a10d8f820673
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 2000-02-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 87.2 minutes
Words: ~4,008
So here the great master, Tsongkhapa, has stated that if one has a good motivation or a good mind, then all the paths and ground, paths and and the grounds are also be good. And if parts and the grounds will also be worse or bad if one’s mind or motivation is not a proper motivation. So it implies that if one has a kind heartedness or good motivation then one will have happiness, peace in this life as well as through motivation one increases one’s knowledge and can attain new realizations in the passing grounds. And if one has if one hasn’t got a proper motivation or kind hardness, then one the person will not have happiness in this present life, as well as also whatever actions one will not be to fulfill one’s wishes within this life and even after the death there is a possibility of leading oneself into the wrong wrong or mistaking path and grounds. Whether to prove the action is right or wrong or the good or bad, it entirely depends on one’s kindheartedness.
Here it refers to it’s the motivation. So having proper motivation is very important. Today is the first class of the year and setting on developing a proper motivation from the beginning of one’s studies or the classes is very important. And as for the motivation, developing for the motivation, there are different types of or different grades. In the motivation, the smallest, middle, and supreme are all the great.
For the for the motivation, as we said, for there are three types of motivation for the lowest state which is doing a meditation along with the motivation which is motivation not attached towards the present lifetime. One does meditation to have a, to attain a human rebirth in the next life and have a better friend or companion yeah, Companion and enjoying it. We should that motivation is a good motivation, but it is among within the the levels of the motivation in this global status. The middling one is that one is not only not attached towards the present lifetime, one is also not attached towards the betterment of the next life. One does the practices of attaining or uprooting all the causes of the cyclic existence and works for the attainment of arhathood, which is liberation from saṃsāra. The ultimate motivation is called bodhicitta, altruistic intention, which sees all those sentient beings, motherly sentient beings, wishing happiness and not wanting suffering like oneself.
And by knowing this, considering other more important than oneself because they are limitless in number. And in order to free all those sentient beings from the cyclic existence and the suffering and bring them towards the state of ultimate happiness, Buddhahood. And so, that purpose, one tries to attain, one practices to attain enlightenment for the sake of all those sentient beings is called, is the most ultimate or perfect motivation, which is also called the bodhicitta. So that motivation cherishes others more importantly than oneself. It is because the reason why one needs to, with that motivation, consider or cherish the others more important than oneself is because, for example, while one is in the cyclic existence, all the entire happiness and the enjoyments of the cyclic existence is entirely depends or being obtained by depending on those motherly sentient beings and it is also, one also attains the attains the liberation and the enlightenment by depending on those sentient beings. So without their help, one cannot attain any happiness of the cyclic existence as well as the liberation and the enlightenment.
For that reason, the sentient beings are very kind and they one should consider or cherish those sentient beings, more important than oneself. So the motivation, the bodhicitta is to attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings and enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings in order to benefit, in order to benefit all those motherly sentient beings, first one has to overcome all one’s, overcome one’s own negativities and the faults without purifying or abandoning all the faults of oneself, one will not able to benefit sentient beings. So for that, the bodhicitta is the motivation which tries to abandon all the negativities of oneself and to attain enlightenment to benefit the sentient beings. So we will here do a short meditation on the bodhicitta. So to do as today is the first class of the year, and and there are a few newcomers, and we will do a short review of the past teachings and last year’s teachings.
We have done the refuge phase in the beginning of the teachings that we have just recited, it is because we perform the practices along by developing a strong faith and respect towards the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, it because the Buddhas are the ones who shows us the teachings and shows us teachings. And the teachings which we are practicing are the teachings set forth by the Buddhas and we go refuge in the Sangha spiritual community, it is because they are the ones who maintain or who serve the teachings of the Buddhas. The last words to develop the good motivation which we have just said before, which the two verses are merit, again, but through practicing generosity and so forth, may I attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, and that was used to remind or to generate the good motivation in us and after the refuge prayers, we recited the prayers of the hundred deities of the land of Tuśita. It is because the teaching which we are giving is the graduated path towards enlightenment which is composed, set forth by the great master, Tsongkhapa.
So at this at at this time, the great master, he lives in the land of Tuśita. For that reason, the reason why we recite the praise of the hundred deities of Tuśita is to welcome the author of this text, the great master Tsongkhapa. So, by reciting that prayer, we are welcoming the great master Tsongkhapa and paying our respects, paying homage, doing prostrations and developing respect, and requesting him, by doing all these prostrations, to cultivate the virtues, abandon all the negative deeds, and requesting him to stay long and benefit the sentient beings. And we we and it’s all and also, we are making prayers that the teachings that these teachings will remain for remain long, remain forever. It is because these teachings are very beneficial towards the sentient beings to overcome their negativities and cultivate or attain to happiness.
And after the prayers, we recite the the prayers offerings of mandala, which and that that offering’s been made towards the towards the guru. And asking him, telling making offering to to the guru and asking him to give us a teaching which give us a good teaching, which which gives us all the ultimate happiness and to overcome the suffering. The purpose of making all those prayers is that by doing such prayers one will have or one becomes very relaxed and one’s mind becomes more relaxed and wisdom becomes more clear, clearer, and due to this becomes more clear. By having all those, one engages in the practice and one can derive the benefits or derive the happiness from some benefits from teaching. And also, that making all these prayers is also a good method of transforming one’s bad state of mind into a better or good state of mind.
If one is not in a good state of mind, if we do not do this then the teachings will become like going to listen to someone’s talk or speech without any kind of motivation. One simply goes to attempt to listen to someone who gives a talk or speech, and so that kind of speech will never, or will not necessarily help one to transform one’s bad mental state into a better one. So, the system which we do here, before the teaching recite all the prayers, is the same system which has been done or performed in ancient time. And it has been set forth in ancient time by doing this sort of thing setting up oneis motivation, reciting all the prayers and listening to the teachings. The benefit of doing all this, it has been set forth that many of the students in the past they have attained a different kinds of realization within the class or within the session.
So therefore if one does the same activities which has been done by the great arhats, by the scholars in the past, one has a possibility or one has a chance to attain a realization within the class or within the session like others did in the past. So the graduated path, which is the text which we are studying, we have finished the first two parts of the teaching in last year. The parts are of the smaller and the middling scope. So now to this year or today, we are starting from the teachings which is the training your mind in the stages of the path of the person of great capacity. In general, the Buddhist Buddhist teaching in general, it has been classified into two groups or two parts, which are the Hīnayāna, teachings of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna.
And, the teaching of Mahāyāna is being said for superior than the teaching of Hīnayāna. So, the Hīnayāna and the Mahāyāna teachings, and as we set forth, the Mahāyāna teachings are considered to be superior than the Hīnayāna, but it doesn’t mean that Hīnayāna teachings are the lower or the lower. It is said, It’s been set forth lower because the practitioner, the distinction of the Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna have been made by the motivation developed by the practitioners of the teachings. So the motivation, because of the motivation of the Hīnayāna are inferior or say lower than the motivation of the Mahāyāna. Due to that, the practitioners of the Mahāyāna, Hīnayāna, performs the practices or action motivation and they will have results, results accords with their practices.
And the result of the Hīnayāna practitioners is lower than the result of the Mahāyāna. So, because of that result distinction or the upper and lower of the results of the practitioners, it’s been considered that the Mahāyāna is still superior than the Hīnayāna. Because the Hīnayāna practitioners, they they develop, they see the disadvantages of the cyclic existence and understand the disadvantages and the sufferings of the cyclic existence. But after having seen all these disadvantages, one develops the fear and and looks for the method or the path to liberate just oneself from the cyclic existence. So, that is the motivation, the motivation of the Hīnayāna practitioners.
They work for, work to attain liberate only oneself from the cyclic So along with that that motivation, they engages in the practices to liberate oneself. And by doing such practices, they attained the happiness which is liberation or arhathood, which is just being free from the cyclic existence. In general, just by attaining that sort of result, to just be free from cyclic existence, it’s also great because that happiness is uncontaminated. In general speaking, attaining such a result or such a state, just free from cyclic existence is also, it’s very, very good because because that because because that happiness is unchangeable, it’s also uncontaminated.
What it means, So they have attained the happiness of liberation, but still one has attained, obtained the happiness of the liberation, but one still hasn’t completely overcome all the faults and negativities as well as one having obtained all the good qualities. Also, one has not attained the capability to fulfill help other sentient beings. So they they have not attained completely overcome one’s negativities as well as have not attained the capability of other sentient beings. It is because It is because they they they have not cultivated all the causes and haven’t cultivated the motivation or the the perfect motivation in bodhicitta or altruistic intention and also the root of the bodhicitta. They have not developed the root of the bodhicitta. The roots of the bodhicitta are great compassion, love, and special insight.
To attain the ultimate result or the ultimate result, one has to cultivate all the ultimate causes. And in order to cultivate all the ultimate causes, one has to have the ultimate motivation which is bodhicitta. So, in order to cultivate all the ultimate causes, one has to cultivate the ultimate motivation which is the bodhicitta. For that reason, we have set forth the cultivating the proper motivation, altruistic intention is very important. It is like whether we are doing religious works or general work, having a proper motivation is very important because in order to have a good ending or a good completion, it is important to have a good preparation for whatever the proposed work is.
And having the good preparation, one can proceed or complete the actual part of the work very nicely and due to that as a result one will have the happy ending. So as everyone knows, that if one has a good preparation and good process in the actual part of the work and have a happy ending, that means for doing such an action it will produce a huge benefit. Produces a huge benefit. So likewise, having a good preparation and good preparation from beginning of the religious or teaching in one practices and completing the actual practices very successfully and having a good ending will also have a great benefit for you, for oneself. And so so having a proper preparation, actual and the and the ending ending will produce a huge benefit, and this is the nature of the this is the nature of the work or nature So, the teachings which we practice in Tibetan is the Mahāyāna, and the word Mahāyāna has been translated as tektion in temple chamber or tektion in Tibetan which has been translated as a great vehicle in English.
So, it’s whether Tekchen or Mahāyāna, whichever one says Tekchen or Mahāyāna, the same meaning like flower or metal. So here Rinpoche is translating all the words. Mahāyāna in Sanskrit. Maha in Tibetan is chen po, in English it’s great or big. So the yana in Sanskrit.
In Tibetan, it’s theg pa. In English, it’s vehicle. So, it’s called Mahāyāna. In Tibetan, Tekchen. And, in English, it’s called big or great great vehicle.
And the meaning of yana, in Tibetan it’s called theg pa and in English vehicle. The definition of yana is that the taking a burden, taking making commitment of commitment to take the burden, to take any burden of oneself or others. So which means for the Hīnayāna practitioners, they take a burden of one’s own burden and to to to overcome all the and, yeah, to free oneself from the cyclic existence. That which means that they are working for for individual and one’s own purpose, which means they take their own burden. So, whereas Mahāyāna is the one that take the burden, not of not one one’s own burden, but they take the burden of all the entire sentient beings upon oneself and to work to to free all, right, and work for the betterment of all the sentient beings.
So, we have said given the meaning of the Mahāyāna and the Hīnayāna, so the Hana, the Yana, the vehicle in general, means they’re taking any of the burden to fulfill any of the purposes oneself or others. And, by conjoining the vehicles with the first part, the Hīnayāna and the Mahāyāna. So Hīnayāna is the one which takes the burden to fulfill one’s own purpose whereas in Mahāyāna is the, is to fulfill all the purposes, to take the burden of fulfilling all the purposes of other sentient beings. So, this is the definition of the great Mahāyāna and Mahāyāna. So they one one one should so they they may one may have a danger or or or danger of practicing Mahāyāna without at the first time without knowing the definition of the Mahāyāna.
So now one now you have you have under you have understand the meaning of the Mahāyāna, and there should there’s no need to get developed or there there there’s no need to feel afraid of when one can act easily practices in Mahanan teaching. So now we have set forth the meaning of the Mahāyāna, also called the great vehicle. So, to practice the Mahāyāna teachings, there are three parts to complete the Mahāyāna teachings, which are the preparation, actual, and the conclusion. So for here, so as we said, to complete the teachings of the Mahāyāna, they are they are it’s set for three parts, which are the preparation, actual, and conclusion. And so here, in the text called the Seven Point Mind Training, it is set forth that first one should train in the preliminaries.
Here the preliminary refers to the practices. Here the preliminary means the preparation and it’s been said for preparation and the training in the first two parts, the small middling scopes are the preliminary or the preparation practices of the Mahāyāna teaching. And the actual the actual of the practice of the Mahāyāna is to to develop or is to train in train in the bodhicitta or altruistic intention. The conclusion of the teaching of the practices of the Mahāyāna is to train in the six perfections: generosity, ethical discipline, patience, effort, concentration, and wisdom in order to ripen one’s unripened state of mind. So the conclusion practices of the Mahāyāna has been set forth as the training in the six perfections, which is to ripen one’s unripened state of mind, and also to train in the four ways of gathering disciples, which means training in those four means in order to benefit others.
So, the training in the Six Perfections and the four points of gathering and benefiting others, these ten are the main or the conclusion practices of the Mahāyāna. The results or the benefit of doing those those practices or that or engaging in those practices, preliminary, actual, and the conclusion is that if one can by practicing this, will perfected both the self and others purposes and can attain the enlightenment or Buddhahood. So that is the benefit of practicing doing such practices. I don’t think I know what to do. Is it a very vast teaching?
So to have all those results, to attain that result, the Buddhahood or ultimate happiness entirely depends on the bodhicitta. So for that reason, having the bodhicitta or altruistic intention is very important, and I will hear I will hear explain the importance of the importance of the bodhicitta. So as for the the the the teachings or the the the qualities of of the great vehicle, Mahāyāna Mahāyāna vehicle, there are there are various of the various qualities and numbers of teachings. But among the teachings, root or the main is the bodhicitta. It is because one can distinguish the teaching or distinguish the teaching is the Mahāyāna teaching or not just by understanding whether the teaching set forth the teaching of bodhicitta or not.
And also one can distinguish the person whether the person is a Mahāyānist or not by checking whether he or she has developed the bodhicitta or not. For that reason, just by the mere word, the bodhicitta can, so the distinguish of the designation of Mahāyāna being set forth, just by and set forth by knowing whether the bodhicitta is there or not. So for that reason, the bodhicitta is very, very important. It also distinguishes whether teaching or the person is Mahāyānist or not. So I I I’ve I’ve I’ve said this many I’ve said this many times.
Mahāyāna or Mahayan is doesn’t necessarily be something something who Mahāyāna is something who wears a maroon or yellow color robes or or the and also the teaching, the text, the huge text is called the Mahāyāna. The Mahāyāna teaching or not. So, Mahāyāna is Mahāyāna refers to the bodhicitta mainly because if any any person whether he or she is whether if anyone, whether it’s a monk or a nun or a layman or a laywoman, whoever develops the altruistic intention or the bodhicitta, whenever one develops that, the person becomes the Mahāyānist or the practitioner of Mahāyāna. So here, the great master, Śāntideva, has set forth that if whoever whoever whoever develops the altruistic intention. Altruistic intention, instantly the person becomes the Mahayanists.
So here has said for whether it’s animal or whether it’s an animal or it’s the one who suffers in the cyclic existence or a person who has a greater being who has greater knowledge or a greater qualification, whoever develops that motivation, the altruistic intention, that person becomes Mahayanists and he or she’s been called the son or daughter of the conqueror and also being called the bodhisattva and that person is a suitable person to whom suitable person to pay respect or make reverence. So, there’s no doubt if a per any a person or a human who if a person meditates or meditates, if one does or one does meditation there is no doubt to generate the bodhicitta because it’s been said for that in the past it has been happened. The beings in the hell realms, animals, nagas, yeah, nagas, hungry ghosts, been able, some of them were able to develop the bodhicitta by meditating, being able to generate the bodhicitta. So by saying this, that the beings, some of the beings in the hell realms, hungry ghosts, nagas, animals were able to generate the bodhicitta, one may have, one may likely to raise a doubt on this statement or at this point because they don’t understand, they do not know how to happened in the past and it is possible to develop the altruistic intention in the state of the hell realms, hungry ghosts and so forth because the being, the person, because of his practices done in the previous life and the person during his human state of life and within that in his previous life in the human realms the person has practices in the first two scopes, smaller and middling scopes.
They’re trained in those scopes and also developed the great compassion and failed to develop an altruistic intention. And later death approaches and the person dies at the time of death because of the previous person’s commitment of huge negativities. One is being born as an animal realms, but it doesn’t mean by taking a birth in the, for example, taking birth in the animal realm, it doesn’t mean that one has, or the person has lost all the great compassion one has developed in the previous life. The compassions which the person had developed still exist within that being in the animal realms. And because of that, instinctively the person, the animal has a strong compassion within, itself.
And whenever they see the other sentient beings suffering, they automatically will be able to develop a great compassion. And due to that, as a result of that, one is being able to develop the altruistic intention because the great compassion is the main cause to develop the altruistic intention. So So it is also possible for us as well to one should train in the path or in the first two scopes and should cultivate the compassion and work to develop the altruistic intention. By doing it, even if one fails to develop a good compassion within this lifetime, but the result of doing all these practices, there is a possibility of for one to develop a comp develop a bodhicitta in the next life. So, anyway, we’ll stop here today.
It’s it’s very closer to the town, and, also, it’s pretty hot inside today. So we’ll stop here. So so we can take a couple of questions if you have. So we’ll stop here. It’s not compulsory to ask a question.