Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 130-minute session, Khensur Rinpoche quizzes his Lamrim study group rather than lecturing — a deliberate reversal used as exam preparation as students near completion of the curriculum’s first chapter. He works through the ten qualities required of a Mahāyāna teacher from the Ornament Sūtra, and which five of those ten are sufficient for modern teachers, then turns to the three qualities a disciple must have when formally accepting a spiritual teacher, drawn from Āryadeva’s Four Hundred Stanzas. The class then reviews the precious human rebirth: its eight leisures, ten endowments divided into five personal and five circumstantial, and its dual purpose of higher rebirth and ultimate liberation. A student Q&A closes with questions on practicing without firm belief in rebirth, the mental origins of hell realms, and how taking refuge properly guards against lower rebirths. Suited to students already studying the Lamrim text.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 12 LR 2000 03 24.mp3
UUID: a188806e-1918-4d47-9f38-308acf192884
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 2000-03-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 130.9 minutes
Words: ~5,137
For the sake of for the sake of all the entire sentient beings sentient beings as much as like a space I shall attain enlightenment. In order to accomplish that, I shall hear, listen, contemplate and meditate on teaching of Mahāyāna. So as everyone knows that I know that today is the question and answer time. So, the head Warpa has visited me last Monday. In the last month, during the question and answer time, the student asked the question and he suggested that this time would be nice if I can ask some questions.
So I’ll ask some general questions and I know that study study group is nearly to finish the first chapter, which is small scope. And and sooner, in a very short time, we will be conducting a exam. And so exam. So I may not be here during the examination, whatever it is. The question I’ll ask today, if you make self studies on the questions I asked today, then it will be very helpful for your exam as well.
During the Royal examination, question we ask would be based on the question which we ask and some of the questions might be completely different. Yeah, the exam will be soon and after the examination, the answer sheet, will Champa will check the answer sheets. If one passed the exam, then we’ll be giving a certificate which shows that one has completed and passed the first chapter. And we have discussed that discussed and the role will organize all the certificates and your certificate and I’ll sign the certificate. Okay.
So, as great masters the great master Tsongkhapa has set forth, that the relying upon spiritual teacher is the main source to cultivate all the good qualities, all the root good yeah. So, me, relying upon spiritual teacher is the root or main source to generate all the good qualities as well as good actions and accumulations. Therefore, I will ask one question about the chapter of relying upon spiritual teacher. So what is the definition of spiritual teacher? And the definition of the disciple who seeks the relation with spiritual teaching.
And then how to seek a relation between special teacher, with special teacher? And what qualities the teacher or the lama require? As the text called the ornament sūtra, According to the Ornament Sūtra, it says the spiritual teacher or lama needs ten qualities. So taking all these first three questions as the basis, and now I’ll ask the real question. So the first question is, as spiritual as the rama requires the ten qualities, what are the ten qualities?
So, it set forth in the text called Ornament Sūtra, all the ten qualities of the lama the guru has written. Now, I’m expecting, oh, what are those ten qualities? Extreme tolerance of the students’ lack of practice. The patience of tolerance. Excuse me, after me.
Rob’s answer was one of those ten and the carols that the compassion is also one of the ten. But the spiritual teacher do need a high level of realization, but the realization was not mentioned within the ten. Can we take, I mean, marked each by each, so the Valerie was first, and then and so, I mean, you did say something before. Oh, yeah. I’m controlling.
And then the Chris Whitley, and then the boss. Boss control of the afflicting and measures. Sorry? Control of afflicting and measures. Yeah, so the greater knowledge, have greater knowledge than this disciple or student.
Good. Yeah, the spiritual teacher do need to know all the entire teachings, but it’s not written, mentioned in the ten. Say all the ten qualities. The first one is have maintained good ethical discipline. Have good meditative stabilization.
Third one is the have good So being perfected in three trainings, the ethical trainings, meditative stabilization, and the wisdom. Have greater knowledge than disciple. It’s number four. And who can bear hardships to fulfill or to benefit the And who are very rich in scriptural citations or quotations so that he or she can teach the disciples perfectly. Because of having good scriptural citations and the quotations, the master, the guru can explain the meaning of the text and so forth.
And who realizes the suchness or emptiness, the spiritual teacher who either realizes the emptiness or who can explain the emptiness very well. Who is very skilled in giving teachings? Number eight. And then the ninth is compassion or have very strong affection towards others. Bit of correction here.
We’ll go back to number five again. The number five was the I think said something different, but who is very enthusiastic in giving teachings for the disciples. And the number tenth is, and who can bear the hardship, hardship, all the hardship of giving teachings or helping disciples. Think that that is a yes. Was I was on.
Yeah. Our debate is that So, it is good if you can memorize all these ten qualities of the spiritual teacher so that you can write it correctly during the exam if this question comes. It depends on what sort of question comes. If the question comes, what are the ten qualities? Then you need to write all.
If you’re lucky, or then it must come, how many qualities the spiritual teacher needs? Sometimes you can, if you are smart enough to write something like, to be very clever saying that the spiritual teacher needs the ten qualities like ethical discipline and so forth. That’s the tricky way of doing it. So these are the ten qualities required of the spiritual teacher, stated in the text called the Ornament Sūtra by Ārya Maitreya. So these are the ten qualities or ten required qualities for the Mahayan teacher.
For the betterment, for the best, the spiritual teacher acquires all those ten qualities. If one can’t have, then even having five of those qualities especially at this time is enough to be a spiritual teacher. So, five among the ten are the first three, the three trainings, the ethical, the knowledge of all those three trainings, ethical, discipline, meditative stabilization, and the wisdom. The number four is who realizes the suchness or emptiness. And the number nine, affection or compassion.
So if one has those five qualities, one can be a spiritual teacher if one has those five qualities. Just by having all these qualities, one can benefit as a disciple. So if any of you wanted to become a spiritual teacher, then you need to cultivate all those five qualities. And if you don’t have, then just work for it. Okay.
So, now we go to the second question. And as we said, the spiritual, the first one is spiritual teachers and its qualities. Now, the second one, we go to what is the definition of the disciples and how many qualities disciples need. So how many qualities the disciples mean? How many are there actually?
Yes please. According to the Lamrim teaching, it said three qualities, three qualifications. Yeah, one needs devotion but but it’s not mentioned. The disciple do need to see oneself as a sick person, but it’s not one of those Yeah, this is what we say. We are dealing specifically with the spiritual disciple who seeks a relation with the spiritual teacher, not just receiving the teachings.
Teachings. What we say when one receives the teaching, then one should see oneself as a sick person, but we’re not talking about in general terms, just talking about specific disciple who seeks relation with the spiritual master, not just petition. Helen Minos. I’ve got two things that came to mind that’s seeing the guru as Buddha, but I don’t really think that’s the right answer. The other one, which I also don’t think is the right answer, is also the kind of learner that you are, the analogy of the vessel, seeing the vessel that’s Seeing oneself as a vessel?
Yeah. Seeing teacher as a Buddha and seeing one side as a vessel. Sorry, the both are not in those three. Yes, please. Seeing as as Buddha just said it’s not.
And you said have faith, right? One needs to have faith, but it’s not easy. Is the disciple someone that requests the teacher to teach them? Sorry? Is the quality of the disciple someone that actually asks the teacher to teach them?
Oh, We’re talking about a disciple who wants to seek spiritual relation with the teacher. That is the one who is accepting someone as one’s spiritual teacher. What we were dealing here is the one who wants to seek the relation or accept someone as one’s master or lama. So what are the requirements? First, what are the requirements?
The quality is actually requirements. Enough intelligence Actually, it says one has good wisdom. Good wisdom. Yeah. And John?
Enthusiasm to learn. Okay. Very close. Yeah, one needs that but it’s not in So the three qualities are stated in the text called the Four Hundred Stanzas by Āryadeva. In his Four Hundred Stanzas. The first one is being honest, which means that one is free from the attachment and jealousy or hatred or anger.
It’s been said for honest in the sense, say, somebody who the person likes, and even the person didn’t teach well or not such a good teacher, but telling because of one’s closeness or one’s attachment, saying, Ah, he’s such a good actually. Also, it’s like vice versa to another one. Somebody who is a good teacher but whom one does not like and saying, his teachings are useless or whatever. And so and that is mean that is under the hatred or or anger. So being free from those two, which means the word to word is being honest.
To have good wisdom. Yeah, so one needs to have very good wisdom, so having good wisdom one can study and practice a lot. And the of course, clarify here the what you said Joe said was what it’s a the very enthusiastic and In Tibetan, there are slight difference in the word we say, but in English, the only enthusiasm is the only word when we translate. This is the only word. So it’s more or less same.
One is very enthusiastic. So, yeah, it is has to be very enthusiastic because by having lots of enthusiasm, one can learn a lot. Also it’s been said that if one is very enthusiastic, nothing is impossible. So these are the questions. We’ll stop here at the question subject about the seeking spiritual relation with the master, spiritual master.
Now the next question, next part. So if one asks where does Lamrim start? Lamrim teaching starts? This what I’m saying. This comes in second subject now.
We are on to second subject. If the question asks, where does Lamrim teaching starts, the answer is it starts from the Lamrim teaching or the practice starts, means the practice or the teaching starts from the topic of this precious human rebirth, how it is to find, to obtain spiritual the precious human rebirth. And so it has three main categories or main subdivisions. Recognizing the precious human rebirth, and second one is the importance of precious human rebirth and how difficult it is to obtain. So, precious human rebirth, it has eighteen qualities.
So, eight leisures and ten endowments. So, what are the eight leisures? I’m sure everyone is prepared for this answer. What was the question? Eight leisures.
Eight leisures. Just do it like that. You guys were so fast, you know. I’m just so yeah. The Paul said three.
Paul and his his his team said. Not not not been born in a bad state. Yeah. Got it. And the the what’s the name behind you?
Linda. Linda Linda. Very good, yeah. Not been born in the long life gods. It’s not in the eight leisures.
We are counting the eight leisures, not the endowments, ten endowments. We got one, two, three, four, not being born in the hell, hungry ghosts. Something in barbarian was one that was given. Yeah. La Loma Ibiza.
La Loma Ibiza. Yeah. Sorry. About the difference? That the measure?
All time. Oh, yeah. It’s called, yeah, it’s been kind of like, mute end comes another one actually. You kept unintelligent. Unintelligent.
Yeah, yeah. So those are in one, yeah. Not being born in hell. The eight are not being born as a hell being in the hungry ghosts and animals three, plus not being born in the long life gods, which is four. Those are called the non human lack of lesions.
The human lack of leisures are: not having wrong views. Not being born in the remote place, which means the way that yeah. And not being born as Not being born as a deaf and a dumb person, which is three, and then not being born in a place where the Buddha’s teachings are absent. So these two are different. Not being born in a remote place, and not being born in a place where the Buddha’s teachings are absence.
Absence. So it’s called the eight leisures. To practice, one needs to be free from all those eight. So, now towards the ten endowments, and ten endowments are the five called the personal endowments or riches and the five circumstantial riches. The difference is the five personal riches which comes within one and the circumstantial means which comes from others.
What are the five personal endowments or riches? Okay. Good. Okay.
Good. Have the karma to practice and to hear the teachings initially? Because there are many people in Australia I don’t know. There are many people in Australia who, you know, Buddhism Buddhism is now available, but they’re not accessing the teachings. Are you saying?
Seriously? So, being born as human, being born in the central place, and have all the faculties intact? Yes. Haven’t committed any very heinous crimes or grave actions. Having faith in the philosophies.
These are the five personal endowments or riches. You’re too late. Can I ask a question about that? Say you had committed one of the heinous crimes and you had heard the teachings, does that mean that you wouldn’t be attracted to them or you couldn’t practice properly? Well, one has committed a heinous crime and then he received the teaching, he or she received the teaching.
Yeah. So what happened, right? Yeah. Would you be precluded? How much of it could you actually take in?
I mean how your mind would be so pure? Means purified by crime by representation or? Just repeat what you said please. Someone commit the heinous crimes and received the teaching. Your word doesn’t mean that they would receive the teaching or doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t be attracted to the teaching.
Wouldn’t be attracted. Okay. So, being born as a Yeah, being born in the first one is being born in the world where Buddha has shown. The second one is with his teachings or No, excuse me. Being born is a human and then in a central place.
Central place means it’s in the place where there are bhikkhus and bhikkhunis available and also the men and women lay practitioners. If four of those are available in the place, then that place is being called the central place. Having all the faculties or sense organs. The fourth one is not having committed any grave actions, which means the committing of heinous crimes is considered as one of the grave actions, which means the killing of bhikkhus, bhikkhunis, one’s parents and so forth. It’s been said for the word to word in Tibetan, it’s called tham meh, actually, which means there’s no boundary, actually a word to word, but we generally translate as heinous crimes.
But the tsam is kind of like a boundary, which means that someone who has committed that kind of action, and that person will the period of that person in the immediate state is very, very short. It’s more or less a second. Just after a second, the person goes straight down towards the hell realm. There’s no boundary, means the person will not have any duration of searching for any other rebirths, just go straight down. So that’s why it’s been worked too well, as I said.
So, yeah, so one who has committed the heinous crimes has been said that it’s very hard to gain any realization through meditation and practice. And there could be some exceptional case for some special beings. And also, there is a difference in the teachings of the different tenets. According to the lower tenets, lower schools, when one commits the heinous crimes, there’s been said it is compulsory for one to go, and one will not develop any realization through practice, and after one’s death, one will descend to the hell. But according to the upper schools, they said that if the person has a sharp intelligence, sharp wisdom, then can still get certain kind of realization, especially if the person has realized the emptiness.
Then through and being a sharp, a very intelligent or having sharp wisdom, one can purify the action or the crimes. So, yeah, so, we have gone through all the five, all five personal witches or endowments being, they’ve been being born as a human as everyone knows and being born in the central place, the place where there is four types of practitioners, which are beacon, beaconing, and then the lay practitioners, the men and women lay practitioners, male and female lay practitioners. And possessing all your faculties means having all the organs intact and not having committed any grave actions, like henry’s crimes and so forth, which we just mentioned. Then the last one is having faith in the source of teachings. Because saying the teachings of the Buddhist, those are the teachings which are to calm or cool one’s control or subside one’s mind.
So, and there are five circumstantial riches, and which comes from external. So what are the ten circumstantial? Alright. One word. So Chris said the first one.
Oh yeah. That’s good, yeah. Yes, Jim. What Jerry said was very close to the fourth one, which is they are those who follow the teachings. Linda?
I think that one. We had that one. Just had. Two. I was going to say the one that just said that the teachings are still being practiced.
Three. There was three. Third one is that the teaching still exists without decline. Last time, Jerry’s point was close to the number four, which is there are those who follow the teaching. Yeah, so what Jerry said was closer to the number fifty one actually.
It’s called that others are very compassionate, which means that if one wants to practice and with the shortage of material or financially, there is those who can support or help one to practice. So which is number five called that others are compassionate, but what you said was true. Right. So it is said that others are very compassionate, comes under the circumstantial wishes which comes from the external part, from oneself. If shortage of anything which insists one’s practice or one’s teaching, then others can, if others help, if there are those who, people who support you to place.
So this is what means the others are very compassionate. Now, as we went through the eighteen qualities, and now comes, so what are the benefits or the importance of having those eighteen qualities? So can you say what is the importance or the benefits of having those aging qualities? You can realize your temporal and ultimate ends. Yeah, temporal and ultimate.
This negative between two Are you all alone, priests or not? What Rinpoche says is, is it true what rock has mentioned? Have you got other than Yes, Jerry. Every moment Can you say again? So, what are the essence?
So Rinpoche asked the question to Rob. Rob Gudu, If one has the eighteen qualities of human rebirth, then one can end the so one can end or actually one can complete both the temporal and ultimate goals. So what are the temporal and ultimate goal? Temporal goals are just in relationship to this conventional life. One can make a living and have relationships with others, and the ultimate goal is to become a Buddha.
So what you said for the ultimate goal is very good, and the temporal one is not quite correct. So the benefits of having the precious human rebirth is that the first one, by having precious human rebirth one can achieve both the temporal and ultimate achievements which are the temporary achievements are the rebirths, higher rebirths and so forth, and the ultimate is called definite goodness, which is Buddhahood. So, having a precious human rebirth is very very useful because by having this human rebirth with eighteen qualities and through one’s practices, even if one fails to attain the arhathood or liberation, but one can still achieve a better rebirth in the next life, not being born as a human again. At this time of the life, one fails to attain liberation by taking rebirth as human in next life, one can definitely achieve the liberation. So these are the importance of having these qualities with the human rebirth.
So I had prepared to ask three types of questions. A question on three topics, but we have only done three subjects, two subjects here today. And so I will look for a time to ask the question for the next subject in some time, whenever I find the time. And we’ll stop here. So, we have asked a few questions today and these questions may come during the examination, during the exam.
So, it would be very helpful if you, during the exam, if you study this. And hope you have taken the notes of the questions. If you haven’t, then I told Shampar to write down that I did, which are in Tibetan. I’m sure one of you have Rob has written down the questions. So, one who hasn’t copied the questions can make a copy from Rob or anyone who has written So we’ll stop here on my questions and I’ll take a few questions from you if you have.
Yeah. Can actually practice without firm or steady belief in the rebirth, but without having a very stable belief in the teachings, one can practice but one will not able to practice correct very strongly or very deeply. Also one practice will be of little benefit but it wouldn’t be much able, not as good or helpful as one would be not much useful or beneficial as one has a strong belief in the rebirth because if one has a strong belief in the rebirth, then it will influence you to practice very strongly and also put you into position like where we or development events like I shouldn’t be doing this, if I do this, I will be born as this and that, so which will advance you from doing some bad action. So it’s very important to have it, but if one hasn’t got it confirmed, then one can still practice, but the practice wouldn’t be that would not be that much beneficial. As there is a non virtuous action, and for the non virtuous action, there are three levels of non virtuous actions, the great ones and the middling and the smallest ones.
So there are three types of negative, the commenting of non virtues, and there should be a result of those three. So the greatest one, the result will be produced that produce one in the hell realms, and middling is in hungry ghosts, then the Smallest is animal. So the if there is if there’s no hell, which hell realms, which is the result of the great non virtuous actions. And then we need to say that there’s no result of the positive actions. The result of the positive actions are like the greatest one was born in God and then comes the human, and then we should say there are no humans and there’s no benefits of the good actions.
And then there comes the question of does Buddha exist or not? Joe was the first and then you According to the higher tenets or the Buddhist school subtenets, everything which exits or everything comes under the mental projection. Comes to joy, it’s also a mental projection. And I have a material big soup, very, very. It’s a hell hell hell big.
So what do you mean is hell big one, actually? As you said, you have natural things, so they actually do I mean, in the hell realms, they are even greater than us. Bigs, bigs. For example, like, the body of them is very, very big, huge. So as we said, the small amount of the result of small amount of positive actions to achieve the human rebirth and the greater virtues one will attain the body of being born in the god realm and where the god has greater physical forms.
So likewise, the greater non negativity will form a greater forms for the lower realms, the beings in the lower realms. So likewise, the hell beings have a very big body. So in the sense to re check with you, do you mean material which means just like body itself or just like a clothier with very material things? So the great master of Śāntideva has set forth that so where does that the place of hell come from? Who made the place of hell?
For example, it was mentioned the hot hell, the entire ground is like a solid, very hot iron and metal thing and it has rain like very mold or lava things coming down and where does that come from? And Buddha Śākyamūni’s answer was, the Buddha Śākyamūni has set forth all these come from the negative actions created by one’s mind. So there are no creator or it’s not something just people made it, it just comes from one’s mind, one’s action. It’s like the place, take Australia as a country as an example, no one has made Australia but there just comes as a result of the beings inside it, so so do all the other countries like America, Tibet, China, and so forth. Those are the results of the actions created by the people’s model.
Yes. It says if you take refuge, you won’t be born in the lower realm. How does one take refuge properly so that one isn’t born in the lower realm? Yes, so it’s been if one take refuge, one will not been born in the hell in the lower realms. So and to to in order to practice the refuge, probably, first one need yeah.
Excuse me. I have planned to to plan to ask a question about the refuge subject as well, but the time has time ran out, so we couldn’t ask any I couldn’t ask any questions. So to to take a proper refuge, one needs to have one needs to understand or recognize the causes of the refuge first. So which are like the causes of taking refuge is to develop the fear, having fear or afraid of fear in the sufferings of cyclic existence and the lower rebirth, so cyclic existence and the lower rebirth in particular. And by having this, having that fear in that sufferings, then one goes in the refuge in Buddhadharma and Sangha with a strong faith and devotion, knowing that they have a capability to protect you from those sufferings.
And by following their instructions, by following their instructions, one will be doing practices of purifying all the negative karmas that one has committed and will, will, will, will collect or accumulate the merits, and if one has commit cultivated a merit previously, one will practice to increase the amount of the merits, and if one hasn’t accumulated any merits, one will cultivate the merit newly. So through this, by lessening one’s negativities and increasing through this one, yeah, one stops the or abandons the negative the non virtues and increase one’s positive actions actions and the merit one will be free from or one will not be born in the well, this is what it says. Absolutely. I just will check with you. Kind of I put it this way.
Will one still continue with one’s assumption to being born in the hell realm because of the level of the negative and the merit within oneself even one has still has faith in the refuge. This way. Yeah. But say the it’s nothing to do with one’s assumption or one’s to assume that will one will one be born in the hell realm or not. So it is true that if one has a greater amount of negativity, then one has a cause, one has all the causes within oneself to be born in the lower realms and one doesn’t need to assume but it eventually take one to the lower rebirth.
Just by having a refuge or belief and faith in the Triple Gem or Buddha, Dharma and Sangha doesn’t necessarily help you to or doesn’t necessarily mean that they have a capability to just take, you know, place you to the top or up up the the higher rebirth. But they do they do have a potential if yeah, a potential to support you or interest you to accumulate the the good causes to for the rebirth, so better rebirth. And for the the positive and the negative the potentiality of the the positive and the negative actions are equal or the same. So they so in general, they are same, but it depends on which parties depends on the amount of the positive and the negative, like putting a weight. If the negative action is more, it means it’s more heavier and which will drag you down.
So, to him for hours and hours and hours and hours But it’s very, late and so thank him for his questions and hope we didn’t disappoint him too much. Don’t remember all the details. But we’ll be much, much better on the exam. So, and we should thank for Jerry for his offerings of tea, chichai, and biscuits. I don’t know, I’ve got a Tim Chan as well.
So today is the first time I ask my questions and I was very pleased with your effort of giving effort in offering answers even though you failed to answer all the answers. But I’m very pleased with your answers, and I’m sure in the next time, you will be much better than this.