Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The question of how purification actually works sits at the heart of this 86-minute Lamrim session by Khensur Rinpoche. He works methodically through the four counteracting agents — reliance, regret, reversal, and antidote — then argues that the two middle powers carry the greatest weight: genuine regret addresses past negativity while a firm resolve not to repeat protects against future harm. A doctor-patient analogy illustrates why refuge in the Three Jewels must be combined with personal effort rather than passive trust. The session closes the narrow-capacity section of the Lamrim, and a final Q&A sharpens the teaching further when Rinpoche uses the image of a seed scorched by fire to explain how karmic potency can be diminished or destroyed entirely through the counteracting agents. Suited to practitioners working through the Lamrim sequence.
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File: 11 LR 1991 06 01.mp3
UUID: 084a0b67-bd72-4267-a502-91517fd2295f
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1991-06-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 86.1 minutes
Words: ~5,121
Begin by adjusting the motivation, developing the awakening heart. I begin by cultivating the two attitudes of love and compassion. Compassion expressed in the thought, May myself and all sentient beings equal to space be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. And then, Love, May myself and all sentient beings equal to space have happiness and the causes of happiness. So having developed these aspirations to free sentient beings from suffering, to bring them happiness, we now seek to increase the force of this thinking in that I myself must free sentient beings from their suffering and the causes of suffering, and I myself must bring them happiness and the causes of happiness.
That I can’t depend upon others to bring about this end, that sentient beings simply don’t know how to go about achieving happiness. They don’t know how to go about abandoning their suffering, and therefore not knowing how, then I must lead them to this understanding and bring them happiness and help them to be free from suffering. I myself must free sentient beings from their suffering and bring them happiness. But when we look to see if we can actually bring this about in fact, do we have that ability? We find that we don’t possess the ability even to free one sentient being, let alone all sentient beings.
And we go on to investigate who does, and then we see that it is only a Buddha who is able to bring about the welfare of both oneself and others. And what must I do in order to bring the ultimate welfare of myself and others? That in order that to be able to lead all sentient beings and endowed with happiness completely bereft of all suffering, I can only achieve that if I myself develop all of my excellent qualities and eliminate whatever faults I might possess. There is no other way to achieve this than by this means. So for the next three minutes cultivate the kind hearted attitude that in order to bring about the welfare of myself and all others, that I must listen and practice the essence of the great vehicle, that is the Lam Rim, the graduated path.
By I must practice it, in order to practice it, I must understand its meaning. In order to understand its meaning, I must listen to its teachings. Therefore, I’m going to presently listen to this teaching on the graduated path, whereby to come to an understanding of it and put it into practice, whereby to be able to benefit numberless sentient beings. Je Tsongkhapa in his Teachings on the Graduated Path speaks about by means of our body, speech and mind, we can achieve any desirable end that we seek. But we also, in the course of our actions of body, speech and mind, create a great deal of negative actions.
And so it’s really important in achieving what we want, that combined with our practice of achieving positive types of actions that we implement methods for eliminating the destructive actions that we have already accumulated. So we create a great deal of destructive actions through our body, speech, and mind. And he goes on to list a great number of consequences of destructive actions, such as meeting undesired, not finding the happiness that we desire, for example in our meditation that we do not gain any new realizations or those realizations that we do develop are slight and they degenerate very quickly. Also we find it difficult to practice skillful actions that we aren’t able to practice them or we simply don’t want to or we simply aren’t willing to put forth the effort to create skillful actions. So if we were to briefly note the disadvantages of the destructive actions, They are simply that all the undesired suffering that we experience is brought about by destructive actions, but additionally, destructive actions inhibit the experience of the happiness that we do desire.
So there’s a great need to purify, to eliminate these destructive actions through their acknowledgement, through their declaration, and this is extremely beneficial practice. So there is this necessity to eliminate these destructive actions. What is the method whereby we can do this? So the method is that by means of continually declaring or acknowledging the destructive actions that we created in the context of the four counteracting agents. So if we, in applying the four counteracting agents, there is no destructive action whatsoever which cannot be completely purified from its roots.
What are the four counteracting agents? The first is that of reliance, the second that of the acknowledgement, the third that of reversing from the action, and the fourth is that of antidote. So the first power of the four counteracting agents was the power of reliance, and this is constituted of two components. The first is that of going for refuge, as we usually do, in the formula that we recite: I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma and the highest assembly, and this is going for refuge. And then we go on to cultivate the mind generation or the awakening heart.
The virtuous merit that I collect by practicing giving and the other perfections, may I attain the state of a Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings. So these two taken together are the power of reliance or the counteracting agent of reliance. We can classify all our various destructive actions that we’ve created in terms of the object towards which we have created them, and these can be condensed down into two: either we create destructive actions with respect to the Three Jewels, or we create destructive actions with respect to sentient beings. So in the purification of these destructive actions, those we have created with respect to the Three Jewels, we go for refuge, and in those we have created with respect to sentient beings, we cultivate an awakening heart. So by way of analogy, if one person treated me very badly, treated Jampa very badly, and they recollect, I shouldn’t have done that.
They remember what they did, and they come to me and they apologize, and they say, you know, please don’t get angry, I really didn’t mean it, I’m very sorry. Then doesn’t do any good for them to go to someone else and apologize for what they did to me. They have to go to the actual object toward which they have created this negativity. Then this brings us, then how are we to declare our action? We declare or acknowledge our action with these destructive actions with respect to the object toward whom we’ve created the destructive action, but we then go on to acknowledge these destructive actions with a sense of regret, and this is the second of these four counteracting agents, the power of regret, in which if we develop a sense of regret with the destructive actions we’ve created with respect to the Three Jewels, or with respect to mother sentient beings, Remembering, recollecting all the various negative actions that we’ve created and developing a sense of regret at having created them.
That wasn’t the right to do that. It’s just as if we had eaten some poison and it was in our stomach or some type of food which it was possible that we were going to have food poisoning. And we developed a great fear and we developed a sense of regret of having eaten that food and likewise recollecting the destructive action created toward either the Three Jewels or sentient beings and developing a sense of regret at having created those actions. We would quite naturally develop a sense of regret if we had swallowed poison, but here the regret that we should necessarily develop with respect to having created destructive actions should it be even greater. Why should our regret be greater in this latter case?
In the case of swallowing poison, the worst that the poison can do is destroy our body, but it can’t send us to hell, which destructive actions can do. So if we do not acknowledge our destructive actions, then we will experience many difficulties even during the course of this life. But upon death, we will have to experience, for example, immeasurable sufferings of the hell realms. So in this way, our destructive actions are even worse than poison. So the first agent was that of reliance in which we go for refuge to the Three Jewels or generate, cultivate the awakening heart with respect to sentient beings.
The second was that of generating regret toward those negative actions. Then the third agent is that of reversal from the action, and this is committing ourselves not to repeat the action, the same action again. So it’s just as in the case of the person who swallowed poison. And upon swallowing poisons they go to the doctor and the doctor prescribes a specific antidote. Upon taking the medicine they get well.
And so they make a very determined effort and they promise themselves they’re never going to take poison again. And then the fourth agent was that of the agent of antidote. The antidote is applied in order to actually purify the negative action and that we can there are various types of antidotes that we can make use of. For example, the recitation of the Sūtra of the Downfalls, the declaration of one’s downfalls and this involves combining this recitation with prostrations. If one has a particular empowerment, one can for example recite the hundred syllable mantra.
One can repair various images of Buddhas if they’re in disrepair. One can meditate on various subjects. For example, meditating on love or compassion or emptiness. All of these are effective ways to purify the negativity. One can offer butter lamps, any type of skillful action that we do as a means to counteract the negative action previously created.
So of these four powers that we’re applying, those which are mainly to be emphasized are the two middle powers. That the power of regret and the power of reversal. These are the two which are to be emphasized in the purification of our negativity. So why are these two middle powers or agents to be emphasized in this purification process? The first of these middle ones was that of regret and it is by means of regret that we remember and then develop a sense of regret toward all the various previous negative actions that we created.
So we’re remembering and we’re seeking to purify all our previous negative actions by means of regret. And then emphasizing the second of the middle four of the middle two, that of reversal, and this helps us not to create the negative actions in the future, that we commit ourselves not to repeat these actions again in the future, thereby not creating the negative actions. So the first of these two middle really helps us to purify past negative actions already created, and the second not to create new negative actions in the future. So if these two middle powers are not applied forcefully, then our, in terms of regretting our previously negative actions, we will have little ability to actually purify them and we will not have eliminated them altogether due to the lack of the forcefulness of our sense of regret. On the other hand, if our sense of reversing from previously created negative actions is not forceful, then even if we were to purify the past created negatively, we will simply go out again and do the same thing.
Unskillful actions will arise again and again, and therefore suffering will arise again and again, and therefore this process has no great benefit. So, it’s necessary that these two agents be emphasized if we are to practice well. If in our practice we apply these very powerfully, then we can purify our negativities. If not, then our practice isn’t very effective. So, as has been emphasized, especially these two middle powers must be forcefully applied if our practice is to go well, and how are we to reflect upon the application of these two powers?
So how are we to ensure that we are able to forcefully apply these two central powers such that our practice will go well? The first method is by reflecting upon and gaining conviction in karma as causes and their results. This was taught when we discussed the four definite modes of actions and their results. The first being that actions are infallible, that from positive actions only happiness arises, from negative actions only suffering arises, becoming convinced of this relationship between these two. And additionally, that if the results of an unperformed action are not experienced, that if we do not create a skillful action, then we will not experience the resultant happiness.
Or if we do not create an unskillful action, we will not experience the resultant suffering no matter So, we’re necessarily having to create the action for which we want happiness, even if the interval between these two is thousands of lifetimes, If the action is created, it will definitely be experienced. Its result will be. And the foundation of the application of the four agents is faith and trust in the Three Jewels and their effectiveness to aid us in eliminating our negativities and to the finding of happiness. And in order to develop a sense of faith and trust in the Three Jewels, it’s necessary that we go for refuge. And depends upon the quality of our refuge, then in turn we will have that same degree of faith and trust in the Three Jewels.
Turn, in dependence upon that, in turn, our practice will go well in application of these four counteracting agents. So it all relates back to the quality of our faith and trust, that we should consider this will and cultivate this faith and trust in the Three Jewels in order to develop a very stable and forceful type of faith and trust. If we have cultivated these qualities, then our practice will go well. Without a sense of faith and trust, then there’s going to be no way to eliminate our suffering. We’re going to remain in cyclic existence.
There’s no possibility for liberation. The Three Jewels set forth in the various teachings, how we are to conduct ourselves, what are we to do, and what should we refrain from doing. And not having trust in what has been set forth, these teachings, then we simply do not abandon what is to be abandoned. We don’t practice what is be practiced. Out of lack of conviction in these teachings, we simply continue to create the causes of our suffering and we don’t ensure that we create the causes of skillful actions, the skillful actions which are the causes of happiness, and therefore we never free ourselves from cyclic existence out of this lack of conviction and trust.
Analogy would be if there is a patient who had a chronic illness and the patient was attended to by a skillful physician, that it would be wise for the patient who is continually troubled by the sufferings of their sickness to depend upon this skillful physician who, because this person is skilled, they understand the nature of illnesses and they have a beneficial intention. And upon the doctor examines the patient and prescribes various medicines that the patient is to take, various diet, various dietary restrictions, other types of actions and activities that the patient should refrain from. So if the patient has trust in the doctor because the doctor is skilled and she has beneficial intention, then it would be wise for the patient carry out whatever the doctor said, to take the medicine in accordance with how it was prescribed. If it’s necessary to take it in the morning, take it in the morning. If it’s necessary to take it in evening, take it in the evening.
To in accordance with the diet set out, to everything done in a proper fashion at the right time. If the patient conducts himself in this fashion, it’s definite because it’s a skillful doctor who has a beneficial intention applying the medicine well, the patient will definitely get better. So there are various reasons coming together to bring about the improvement in the patient. One is that the doctor is skillful and has a beneficial intention. The second is that the medicine is an effective type of medicine.
And thirdly, the patient follows the way of the prescription as set forth by a doctor in the way that he takes the medicine and his diet, etcetera. On the other hand, if the patient has no trust in the doctor, has no trust in the medicine, and doesn’t act in accordance with the doctor’s instructions. For example, not taking the medicine at the proper time, taking other medicines which have been advised not to, eating food which is prohibited, then there’s no reason, then in dependence upon ultimately this lack of trust in these three, in acting this way, then the patient is not going to improve. So in this analogy, the doctor is likened to Buddha, the medicine is the Dharma, and we are the patient. So, the unwillingness to follow in accordance with the regime which has been prescribed by the doctor is due to our lack of trust in the doctor?
And the reason that we continue to wander in cyclic existence is ultimately comes down to our lack of trust in the Buddha. The reason that we don’t practice well, that we don’t act in accordance with the teachings in doing what is set out that should be done, and not doing that which is set out to be refrained from is simply we don’t trust in the Buddhas. Those who have attained liberation in the past had trust in these teachings in the Buddha and they follow them and they achieve liberation. But we, still not trusting, wander in cyclic existence. So the way we should proceed in our practice is as if taking the Buddha as a doctor and developing trust, but not only just proceeding in terms of trust, but a combination of trust and our own reasoning.
So the way we are to proceed is in terms of a combination of reasoning and trust, but even trust is born out of reasoning in the sense that, to the analogy, that the reason that we might gain trust in a doctor by seeing that the medicine that he had prescribed, that he was an expert, that the medicine that he had prescribed to previous patience improved them, made them better and therefore out of this reason we can say well I can trust this doctor. So this way of proceeding is extremely important to our practice. We have to reflect and cultivate these attitudes and determine what it is that we want, what it is that we desire, and how we’re going to go about achieving that end. So today we’ve completed the section in graduated path of being of narrow perspective and we’re going to move on from there. The main practices of the being of narrow perspective are those of going for refuge and the practice of karma as causes and results.
It’s necessary that we practice this common path because the fact is that when we die we’re not going to become non existent, we’re going to take rebirth. And so, it’s necessary to ensure the type of rebirth that we’re going to take and practice in accordance as part of our practice with the perspective of the being of small capacity. Upon death we were simply to be annihilated, to become nonexistent, then there’s no need to practice Dharma. That we should just try to get as much happiness as we can out of this life and that we would just have that much more profit. But the fact is, upon death we do not become non existent, but we are forced to take rebirth.
And the factor which determines the quality of our future rebirth is karma with respect to the degree of the skillfulness or unskillfulness of the actions that we have created. With respect to the skillfulness or the unskillfulness of the karma that we’re creating, through the force of the unskillful karma having been created, we will necessarily or be forced to take rebirth in one of the bad migrations such as that of the hell realms, the hungry ghosts, the animal realms in which there is the worst types of environment, companions, the extreme length of the suffering period in these realms, and developing a sense out of this understanding, we develop a sense of anxiety of these future possibilities. And having developed this anxiety of the future possible experiences of suffering, one goes for refuge to the Three Jewels, understanding that there’s no other factor which can protect you from these future possible sufferings than these Three Jewels, and this is the practice of the being of narrow perspective. But even having gone for refuge to the Three Jewels, the question must be asked, well, can we simply do that? Just simply going for these agents of protection, and is that sufficient?
Is there nothing that we have to do from our side in additionally? There’s no way simply in terms of Three Jewels by themselves that we can carry on a successful practice. That though they have the capacity to aid us, that we from our side must make effort in implementing the methods. So the actual successful practice comes about through a combination of the power of the refuge in combination with our own efforts at implementing the various methods. That is to say, the successful practice comes about in the dependent reliance upon these two.
Explain this in terms of analogy. If we wanted to write a letter, to able to write we make use of a pen, but if we were to just seek to try to use one finger, we wouldn’t be able to we wouldn’t be able to hold a pen, therefore we wouldn’t achieve what we wanted. It’s necessary that we have two fingers working together which hold the pen and then we can write the letters. These two fingers working together in combination can achieve the end that we want. One by themselves cannot do it.
And the same would hold true if we wanted to snap our fingers. It’s a combination of two fingers necessary coming together. Just one finger by themselves cannot produce the snap of a finger. Also, ringing of the bell, and dependence upon the stick itself or the bell itself, no bell can be rung, but it’s necessary that these two factors of the stick and the bell coming together and then there’s the ringing of the bell arise. So the same holds too in terms of our practice, but in terms of the refuge, that is the Three Jewels from their side and from our side in terms of implementing the various methods which have been set forth, that this combination we can achieve all our desired ends and remove that which we do not desire.
The Three Jewels in terms of the shore of the refuge and the various methods which have been taught from their side in combination with seeking to implement the methods which have been taught through our trust in the effectiveness of these methods and the effectiveness of the protection which is afforded by these methods. We can carry on a successful practice and we can remove all our fears of the possibility of future suffering, for example in the hell realm. So, in development of this trust, as was mentioned, it’s necessary that we gain a conviction with respect to karma as causes and results. This was also applied in terms of the four counteracting agents where we sought to acknowledge their past negativity and turn away from them again in the future. All of this trust in the objects of refuge, in the purification of our negativity comes about through gaining a conviction with respect to karma.
Gaining a conviction with respect to karma and acknowledging our negativities that we’ve created, We create the negativities through the three physical, the four verbal and three mental unskillful actions and acknowledging these actions as destructive and developing a sense of regret and purifying various negativities and in this matter additionally through the four counteracting agents creating skillful actions, positive actions, then through the force of this then there’s nothing that we cannot attain any desire in. We can attain liberation. We can achieve rebirth, for example, in Tuśita. If we want to take rebirth in Sukhāvati or Maitreya’s Pure Land, we can do all of that. This is the reason why the main practices of the being of narrow capacity are those of going for refuge and karma as causes and results.
The graduated path begins with teachings on the way in which to rely upon the spiritual friend. The reason that this is set forth is because initially we simply do not know what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected, so it’s necessary to rely upon the explanations of a spiritual friend in order to come to an understanding of the nature of refuge, of karma, causes and results, in order to carry out our practice of the graduated path in general. If we were to question, well can I actually carry out the successful practice of Dharma? The way in which we can answer that for ourselves is through the explanation of the teaching on leisure and fortune that we possess. In order that once being able to appreciate that we do have the ability to practice the Dharma, to exhort this, to carry on our practice quickly, then the teaching on the impermanence of death is taught.
Then as the methods to facilitate our going for refuge, the teachings on the sufferings of the bad migrations are explained. And then the main practice of being of narrow capacity is refuge in addition to karma as actions and results. So we could abbreviate the graduated path into just a few words, but in fact, in order that we understand well the way that we are to carry on our practice, then the Lam Rim is explained in a very extensive manner. In fact, those who are extremely proficient in meditating on the graduated path, who meditate on it again and again, can meditate on the complete path in the time of a finger snap. So we’ve completed the explanation of the common path of the being of narrow capacity, or a narrow perspective, and next teaching will begin the explanation of the middling capacity.
Do you have some questions? There are two types of renunciation. Renunciation with respect to bad migrations and with respect to cyclic existence in general. In order to develop faith and trust in the Three Jewels, it would be necessary to have renunciation with respect to bad migration but not with respect to cyclic existence in general. The being of narrow capacity has great faith and trust in the Three Jewels, seeking to renounce the possibility of, to be free of the possibility of future sufferings and bad migrations, but they have no particular stable renunciation with respect to being free from cyclic existence in general.
Because you experience the results, any action you create, the results are undoubtable. So if we create negative action and we must experience that results, if we purify, is the way that it works that we develop regret with that specific action and perform an answer specifically to counter that negative action so we link the two terms together. Is that how they get purified? The two terms get linked together? But I think you mean, and through this process you undergo a certain suffering which is the result of that past negativity.
Well, see if you commit an exit action you’ve got to experience a result. The teaching says that. But then if, so purification can actually diminish the result of an action. So I’m asking, is the way it works by deliberately linking the karma of a positive action and the karma of a negative action together? Is that how There are types of karmas which are definite to be experienced and those which are indefinite to be experienced and not definite to result to be experienced.
It’s not certain that the result of a particular action will ever be experienced. But with respect to those which are definitely to be experienced, it is definite in the sense that if one does not, in the case of negative actions, purify those negative actions, then the result will definitely be experienced. But these actions have a potency, and just as was explained previously, it’s like a seed which has a potency, and if that seed is scorched, its potency is destroyed. Even if you were to plant it in a field, it does not grow a sprout. Likewise, by the application of these four opponent powers, the potency of the action is destroyed or lessened and one will either experience a lesser result or no result at all.
And the way that we scorch the seed, that we lessen its potency, is by the antidote, power of antidote. This actually lessens the potency of the action or destroys it altogether. That which has the capacity to grow a sprout is a seed. And that seed comes into combination with conducive conditions such as moisture, then since there is present that capacity, this activates that capacity and the sprout grows. So this is a conducive factor to the growth of the seed, that is to say moisture.
But on the other hand, there are inhibiting conditions which prevent or destroy the potency, the ability of that seed to grow into a sprout. For example, fire. This fire is analogous to the four counteracting agents. This is in the case as a seed gets closer and closer to a fire is more and more scorched. Its potency is decreased until the point is reached where it loses its potency altogether, and likewise the more we’re able to apply these four counteracting agents to specific actions created, then potency becomes less and less the more and more we’re able to that forcefully, apply that four counter agents to the action until the action can be completely destroyed and it does not have the ability to create any effect.