Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The central question driving this 101-minute Lamrim session is how one should actually rely on a spiritual teacher. Khensur Rinpoche distinguishes relying in thought from relying in action, then examines two aspects of thought-reliance: cultivating faith as a foundation and arousing respect by remembering the teacher’s kindness. He defines three types of faith, citing the Sūtra on the Three Jewels, and draws on his own formation to show what each teacher gave him — from Tibetan alphabets to tantric initiation. Guru Yoga visualization follows, with instructions for how the teacher dissolves into the practitioner’s heart. A story of a forgetful monk purified by sweeping connects to the merit of serving a dharma center. Closes with Q&A, including whether a student can ever surpass their teacher.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 LR 1998 11 24.mp3
UUID: f4fda32f-f482-4dbf-b217-794242bda64e
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1998-11-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 101.0 minutes
Words: ~5,070
And by doing that, we have to travel that way. We should should be free both from the suffering, the gross, and then through that develop the compassion towards both oneself and anything. And those two should be generated through through the through the mind ours with all sentients, you know, just the same one to one to really need to generate within one’s mind and develop both both love and compassion. Is very important to develop this special insight that not just about wanting that both one self and ten beings be free from suffering and have all the ultimate happiness, just enough by thinking or thinking, one should really need to spend with especially And at this stage one has no capability to free all sentient beings from suffering and let them have all the happiness. And through investigation, one came to know that there is a particular stage which is free from all the negativities and acquired all the good qualities and if one reaches there then one can accomplish.
We both accomplish that purpose, that we, and yeah, to have that all can be free from suffering and have all happiness. So through that, by knowing that particular state which is free from, so one should really strive hard to achieve that state which is free from all the negativities and has all good qualities. And to attain such a state which is free from all the sufferings, negativities and qualities, And the method to attain that particular stage is to listen, hear the teaching and contemplate, and then through doing meditation one can achieve that, and two therefore here today to gain or achieve such a state I shall therefore listen to this particular, listen and practice, listen, contemplate, and meditate on this particular Lamrim teaching which is the essence of Mahāyāna teaching. One should have this particular motivation. So in the last week, we have dealt with this, the topic of how to cultivate this relation with a spiritual teacher, and we’ve been dealt about what are the benefits or the advantages of relying upon a spiritual teacher and what are the disadvantages of not relying upon a spiritual teacher.
So after having thought about the disadvantages and of relying on disadvantages of not relying upon spiritual teacher, and this question is supposed to be, supposed to come up by listening after having done with that topic in the last weeks. The question here is if these are the benefits and disadvantages, then one should have to ask, I mean, how one should rely upon the spiritual guide, you know. No. About relying upon spiritual teacher, so if one asks, is that just listening, just receiving a teaching doesn’t mean that one is relying upon spiritual teacher, is just listening to the teaching doesn’t mean that he or she is relying upon the spiritual teacher, and also about relying upon the teacher, one doesn’t mean that one has to stay with spiritual teacher as well. About relying upon special teacher, there are two types of relying, which are the first one is relying how to follow, how to rely upon spiritual teacher in thought, and how to rely upon spiritual teacher in action.
So about how to rely on spiritual teacher and thought, it has some divisions, and one is training yourself in the faith, which is the foundation, so to develop a faith within oneself in teaching, first we have about and as well as in relying upon the spiritual teacher, there is the training yourself in faith which is the foundation, is one of the subdivision of relying upon the spiritual teacher in thought. What it actually means here is training also from the faith, which is the foundation, which means to the main purpose of doing practices is to develop a knowledge of Dharma within one’s mind, and so to develop, to generate, to increase, to develop the Dharma or teachings within one’s mind, and the faith is the root to develop a knowledge of Dharma within one’s self, within one’s mind. So here it shows that faith is the root cause to develop a realization or that knowledge in one’s mind stream. It’s like in worldly context, like in this life, then the happiness, the root, yeah, the harmony or the friendship or harmony is the most root cause for the happiness of this worldly consent. If there is harmony, there is peace in this, so which means it’s according to the worldly context, which means actually the context of this life, happiness of this life, so and whereas in the Dharma context the faith is the root cause to develop a realization within one’s mind stream and inwardly think of the harmony or the friendship, friendly or friendship is the root cause to have happiness.
So in Dharma context, faith is the root. So, for here Buddha Śākyamūni has stated, the Sūtra on the Three Jewels says, faith is the preparation, it gives birth like mothers, it measures all good qualities and increases themselves, which means to give a child, to give a birth to a child, first one has to proceed as a mother. Without becoming a mother one cannot give a birth to a child. Likewise, the qualities or the realizations are the result or a child of a faith. So to develop a realization or insight within one’s mind stream or within oneself, first the faith has to proceed before the realization or insight.
Without proceeding faith one cannot or it means without faith one cannot develop any realization or insights. And also, so without a child, without a mother, there won’t be any child, a son or a daughter, and after having given a birth to a child, and then the mom, it’s mainly that the mom takes care of that and look after the child to have and give him more like child like no education and take care of the yep, takes care, take care of the child everything, no. So, mom takes care of the child and just trying to take care of that particular child and then looks after him or her, that nothing can bring harm to their child or look after their growth. So likewise, to overcome all the or all the negativities, like disturbing emotions, non faith or unfaith, it’s to overcome all these negativities, the faith that one has to develop faith first. Without faith, one cannot overcome, one cannot overcome the negativities and disturbing emotions.
Also, faith also looks after, help us to generate a realization, help us to develop a realization which one hasn’t realized or one hasn’t developed and if and also help us to increase one’s knowledge or realization. So, and one may think that how faith can help us to develop the realizations and insight within oneself, and it helps in this way if say one study in the dharma and then while due to the lack of knowledge or lack of understanding in certain point one came to have the, one came to develop kind of like a doubt and saying that without their lack of knowledge, certain points they feel doubt how it come or how it is, something like that, and then at that point if one has proper faith within oneself at that particular period, it will help us to clarify one’s doubt and give us and then one can overcome that doubt, clarify that doubt and develop realization in oneself. So up to now we have been cycling in the saṃsāra or or being around or cycling in the four great oceans, and if one develops, if one is able to develop a proper faith, then one can free oneself from the four oceans, four great great oceans, all which means to free from saṃsāra.
And through the faith, one can can reach the one can reach the city of happiness and goodness, which means means liberated. And it also helps us to, the faith also helps us to free oneself from non respect and feel hatred and harming others through hatred and jealousy. So, we keep going through the benefits and advantages and disadvantages then it will take lots and lots of time and there are numbers of advantages and disadvantages of not doing that. So, So, I mean I can’t go further details because it has, if you go it takes lots of time, so if we summarize here then faith is the root to abandon all the negativities and to develop the qualities. So about the faith, there are three types of faith, and one is like pure faith, and the third faith is which is called the conviction or, yeah, conviction, and then the second is which is the aspiring faith, the thing, saying that how wonderful, it’s kind of like faith, which is what one has to aspire to, something like that.
Yeah. So I’ll look for that particular exact word next time. So, the pure faith is like seeing the qualities of Buddhas and for example like Buddha seeing that his realization of emptiness and overcoming all the negativities and seeing his yeah, seeing all his qualities, and by seeing that one sees how it is great or it’s wonderful, by seeing his qualities one developed a faith within Buddha, faith in Buddha, and which which that that faith is called the pure faith. You know? And the second faith is called aspiring faith, which is by seeing the qualities, for example, of those qualities of the Buddhist, and then seeing that this he has such such good qualities, and how wonderful if I mean, our wish to have that qualities, and that kind of faith which is wishing to have or to aspire oneself to have those qualities is called the aspiring faith.
And the third is the faith called conviction, which is like seeing, but by knowing that if I do the positive things, result will going to have a say the happiness is the result of the doing positive things, and which is the cause of positive, and by knowing that logic and and generating a faith is called the conviction. And also, by seeing that all these unwanted sufferings or the results of the negativities and the bad actions, and by knowing that one tries to stop the bad actions or negativities, which is called also which is also called the conviction which is the third type of faith. So, here we are talking about the faith which is training yourself in the faith which is the foundation. The faith which we are dealing at present we are dealing is by seeing the qualities, by developing faith to spiritual teacher or one’s guru by seeing his qualities saying such as like he has, he teaches this and that and knowing his realization, his affection towards beings and so, saying all seeing all his good qualities and by seeing those qualities one develop a faith and the happiness or yep, within oneself is that kind of faith.
We are developing the faith in him by seeing his qualities in which is called the first one called the pure faith. And so if one has that faith, then and through the power of that faith, through the power of that faith, then one can receive the blessings the blessings, and then one can get receive the blessings from one’s Guru, and that blessings will, yeah, will, one will receive the blessings from that spiritual Guru through that faith, and then by receiving the bless, then one can overcome all the disadvantages. One can overcome all those negativities and non virtues and can develop all the qualities. So the faith, that faith is the most important or root cause to overcome all the negativities and generate good qualities within one’s mind stream. So this is the main.
So this is one of the how to rely upon spiritual teacher in thought. And there is another important subdivision here, which is the first one is training yourself in the faith, which is the foundation, and the second division is arousing respect by remembering the kindness of spiritual teacher. So here the arousing respect by remembering the kindness of spiritual teacher is from the beginning one has no knowledge about cultivating the good qualities and abandoning all the negativities, and through the contents of spiritual teacher one has came to know that overcome all the negativities and by, yeah, through his teachings one came to know, one came to abandon all the and start abandoning the gross negativities gradually and gradually, and then acquired qualities day by day, and which is, so this is, help ones to develop the wisdom of, yeah, within oneself. So this is the contents of our spiritual teachers, you know. So it may be a bit easier to understand if I take myself as an example.
So, from the beginning, from my childhood, first when I was very young and I don’t know how to, I don’t know the old thirty consonants in Tibetan called, starts from the alphabet, Tibetan alphabet’s ka ka ka, and if it’s in English, a b c d. So I don’t know that how to I don’t know all the alphabets now. And then my first teacher taught me how to taught me the alphabets, Tibetan alphabets, and then first she taught me how to say correctly thirty consonants or alphabets, and then, and after that, you know, when we study we have different ways of reading the alphabets and then the words and then the sentence and after now, now these days I can read perfectly and which is this is the kindness of my alphabet teacher. So if I haven’t met that alphabet teacher, then at this time I cannot recognize the first letter which is ka, and even if someone just pointed me to a letter cut on a wall And then later I became a monk and been able to attains $2ll the teachings pujas and able to contemplate on teachings and this is the kindness of my sublime guru or to whom I received all these vows.
Is his kindness that I’ve been able to attain all the pujas and then teachings, etcetera. So, otherwise without his kindness I can’t join the puja and go for classes. Just what I can do is just peep through the windows. And then through the kindness of my debating teacher, I’ve been able to learn all the dialectics and debating philosophies and then being finally been able to complete my Yeah, so it is this it is all his kindness that can at this stage I can contemplate and meditate myself and also can teach others. So if I can’t if I can’t do this, then I won’t be here in Australia?
But that was no. And, yeah, through the kindness of my tantric teacher and by giving me initiations and etc, I’ve been able to teach tantra and then listen and also contemplate myself on tantra. Without his kindness, any actually without receiving any initiations about tantra one is not permitted to even read the book and listen to the teachings as well. So it is because of his kindness I’ve been able to do all this. So, due to the kindness of all those teachers, I’ve been able to practice for myself and through their help I can have a better rebirth, if can then, if one can do the proper practice, can even become liberated being liberated oneself elf from saṃsāra in this life, and even if one can do even better than this, then one can become enlightened in this life.
So, are, and at this stage one has a certain knowledge or a certain power, kind of like a power that if it’s entirely upon oneself, if one really do the practices one can achieve for enlightening this enlightenment. Are all these are the contents of the spiritual teachers. So, so at this stage what I am, it’s entirely upon, excuse me, is all the contents of my spiritual teachers and if I haven’t met all those spiritual teachers at this time, maybe I could be just a simple layman and cannot understand or identify what are the three precious gems or three refuges. So, if one really want to develop a realization and insight within oneself, then it’s very important to develop a faith and respect towards one’s spiritual teachers, and by developing those two faith and respects, then through the power of that too, one can truly receive the blessings from the spiritual blessings from one, blessings from the gurus, then through that one can overcome all the negativities and develop, one can quickly abandon all the negativities and acquire good qualities, and so these two are the root cause to develop all the realizations and insight within oneself, and here, so without having these two, if one hasn’t got those two, the faith and the respect, then one has no root cause or a basis to develop all the basis to develop the realization and insight.
So, and so without these two, one cannot develop the realization and insight. And here, when we talk about realization or the knowledge, which means, which is not just ordinary knowledge, but here we are talking about wisdom or the realization means the realization in the path and grounds which is free from all the negativities and acquired good qualities and we’re not just talking about ordinary knowledge to become a great speaker or anything. So as for that, the vajradhara has stated that and So as for here, the vajradhara stated that one without faith cannot develop qualities or good qualities, and it is like that, one, the one without the faith is like a seed, a burnt seed or a burnt seed which cannot grow anything. It’s like that person, person without a faith cannot develop any virtues or good qualities. Rinpoche had given a good joke here, which is, you know, saying that once in the early time that a person has misunderstood or misunderstanding that actually he was taught to meditate one’s spiritual teacher on one’s crown or on one’s head.
And he misunderstood saying, he had heard something like one should meditate upon spiritual teacher’s head, something like that. So, he’d been doing this for a lot and, but finally it’s said that his spiritual teacher has a, like a bald hair, bald man or yeah, we call it, we call it, in Japan we call it, means rat head, something like that, which means bald, alright? And he was saying, it’s very difficult for me to meditate that because my spiritual teacher, I cannot meditate on his head because he’s bald and I cannot sit on that, always sleep. So and so, but developing a faith in respect to a spiritual teacher, then one has to meditate upon one’s one’s guru or spiritual teacher and about the doing a meditation upon spiritual guru and one can do in many various kind of way in system of Guru Puja and the hundred deities of land of joys or Tuśita which one can visualize one’s spiritual teacher in the front space and in the system of Cittamani Tārā which one can, it’s Guru Puja of Cittamani, yeah, Guru Puja of Cittamani which one can visualize the Nirmankaya or form body.
Yes, visualize the spiritual teacher in one’s heart upon one’s crown, and in the system of six session yoga in front space and also one can meditate spiritual one’s spiritual teacher in one’s heart and also in one’s plan as well. Meditation meditation you do, but it’s a system of Guru Puja, one has to visualize or meditate on a spiritual teacher and visualize in front of, first in front space, and then gradually comes upon all, upon one’s crown and then dissolves within oneself and find at the end one visualizes everything on one’s mind. So, and so no matter what what kind of visualization and meditation you do, at at the end has to end has to be meditated upon upon one’s heart. So at the end when one during one’s meditation then one has to, upon one’s heart it’s like a lotus with the eight petals and then upon that they dissolve, one’s spiritual teacher within one’s heart and if it’s either in the form of a hum syllable, or even at the time of if you’re visualizing or meditating on Tārā then in the time of Tam, and in the general system common, in the form of the syllable Shri and then finally dissolves within one’s heart and imagining or visualizing that one has one’s mind has become one with the or mixed with with the meditation deity and become one with it.
So, and the main thing is about the system of Guru Puja, where the practice of Guru Puja is the practice called the Guru Yoga, and the main purpose of doing the Guru Yoga is that they’re visualizing or meditating on one’s Guru, which is in the form of all the Buddhas and wisdom of Buddhas, and all the Buddhas dissolve within oneself and finally one finally one has becoming oneself one with the spiritual, that Guru, and this is the main is the main point point of doing the guru yoga. This means becoming at the end, becoming or becoming oneself, one with the deity, you know. So our guru is the nature of all the Buddhas, and so by dissolving this guru into one’s becoming one with the spiritual teacher means becoming one is becoming in nature of all the Buddhas as well, and and by dissolving or becoming one with spiritual teacher then one receive all the blessings, one receive the blessings from all the Buddhas and through that one being able to overcome all the negativities and acquired good qualities and then can quickly attain the enlightenment. And if one can do these practices, then one can quickly, one can develop all those good qualities like love, compassion, bodhicitta, altruistic intention and the correct view which is emptiness.
And also if one can do this kind of practice like while you’re having your meal or like lunch or food, and then imagining that your offering, of course, as the guru has one has wish I mean, become oneself as a as this guru, and then imagining that one’s not eating oneself, but making offerings to one’s teachers who is the nature of all the Buddhas, and if one can do that, then there is a huge benefit of like, it’s good for cultivating a merit. If you go farther farther down then it’s numbers of teachings about how to about relying upon the spiritual teacher and so I think I should end here about this topic. So, the purpose of doing practice is to abandon all the sufferings and cultivate the happiness. And cultivating we can cultivate happiness through numbers of methods, skillful means. And so, in the past during the time of Buddha Śākyamūni, there was a master and he was I mean he has a very bad memory or very weak memory and cannot remember the both words together.
One is abandon the suffering and abandon the stains and when he was when he was taught abandon the suffering, he cannot remember it, had abandoned the stain. And when he tried to recall it recall the second word to abandon or clarify the stains when he cannot remember the first one. So, and so it is because he was he has a strong obscuration within himself and to overcome the overcome that obscuration, Buddha Śākyamūni asked him to sweep or cleanse the monk’s assembly home. And so Buddha, to overcome all this obscuration, Buddha Śākyamūni is asking to sweep the assembly hall, the teaching hall or assembly hall, and of course he was asked to sweep the hall by reciting those two words, abandon the suffering and abandon the stains. And by doing this, and finally he came to know the meaning of these two words, and by the through the power of that he’d been able to overcome all the negativities and free himself from the obscuration and later he came to realize all the teachings on the Four Noble Truths and finally he became liberated.
So and so for that purpose, I also end saying that and so we all are good practitioners and the main purpose of practicing is to abandon all these sufferings and also acquire good qualities and happiness and also one purpose is to clarify or cleanse one’s obscuration, and as for that it’s very helpful to serve the centers. In the past years we have people, volunteers who helped to clean the Buddha house and it’s very helpful to Buddha house, not only that, it’s also huge benefit for oneself to clarify one’s obscuration and so I always, and it’s good if one can serve center but at any time like helping cleaning the centers which is which is very good to clean someone’s obscuration. So, our have lots of benefits about cleaning the temples and like assembly halls, and there are numbers of benefits of doing this purification or this practice, helps to cleanse one’s mind as well as others, and if one to to have a beautiful appearance, it will also, one can, in future one can have a good appearance, but as you know, after cleaning one’s room or one’s tray, the house itself looks beautiful. It’s likewise, but during a cleaning, it also helps to have a good appearance and in future it can be like anyone who sees the person will just feel pleased because of his figure or appearance.
And it also helps one to take a birth in the god realms and also helps to achieve a liberation. So there are numbers and numbers of benefits of doing these practices. So so this center, it’s not like other organizations, word is, in our Tibetan word itself called the chogar, which is the gathering of the teaching or Dharma, and which means it helps many people and it also helps one to have not, it’s not just helping one’s this particular life, it also helps in the many, in our future lives and help and through the kindness of this center having existed, there are many practitioners who have been able to become generators of bodhicitta and been able to attain liberation. So it’s very important, so this center is very helpful for many people and it is very important to access this center in which in future it can benefit a lot of people. So in that case, if one can help this center to access and serving this center is very, very helpful and important.
So it’s good if one can help the centers in any way. So, by having this center one can achieve great store of merit, and very powerful merits, and it’s like and this is the place to achieve all the ultimate happiness and this is also a place to overcome all the sufferings and negativities. And by serving this center one can, at this time one can achieve your collective merit and also in future like by helping this center and through your help the center can exist for a long time. By existing the Centre for a long period it benefits many people and also one can also achieve great merits through that as well. So, it’s very important, it’s very beneficial for one to serve the center.
Through that can achieve huge amount of merit. So I think it is very helpful for both oneself and to both oneself and also to center if one can serve the center. Okay. I do appreciate very much. Yeah, we’ll stop here.
Questions? Sorry. Some teachings, then their teaching. One’s main teacher is one’s mind. Okay.
You have your understanding or you have heard something like that, would become If that happens, you mean? You mean if that happens, a spiritual teacher attained a great knowledge than his spiritual teacher. If that happens, all right? Okay. No.
So, it is impossible that student can be or have a greater knowledge than a spiritual teacher wants to teach it because a spiritual teacher is a Buddha. Buddha call it Buddha, no? There is no Buddha. There is no such a Buddha who has greater knowledge than another Buddha. Did you get the point?
I think your question was saying if a spiritual teacher becomes or a greater knowledge than one’s spiritual teacher, which is impossible to happen here according to Rinpoche’s answer to that. A spiritual teacher, he himself is a Buddha, and there is there isn’t any other there is not such a Buddha who has greater knowledge than another Buddha. I think that it relates with that question. No. In term in the the in the spiritual teacher means the hearer, we are talking about spiritual teacher, not just ordinary teacher in the worldly things.
It can be possible in not, it’s not a question of Dharma, just worldly things can be, a student can become a more qualified than one’s teacher, but it’s, but in terms of Dharma there’s no such thing will never happen. Okay. So, actually, Buddha Śākyamūni has thousands of teachers in his lifetime, and the main is the Mañjuśrī who took him through all the paths until his enlightenment. Gautama, yeah? Yeah, Śākyamūni Buddha and the Gautama is the one.
Same. Gautama, Śākyamūni, The text is called the Sūtra on the Three Jewels. The Sūtra on the Three Jewels. The second one, please? To check, investigate.
No. No. I mean, it’s not I mean, it’s not contradiction. So the thing is the second one, he wasn’t saying that don’t develop faith. He was saying, he wasn’t saying don’t I mean, develop faith in me as Buddha Śākyamūni.
What he was saying is, because he had been teaching, because I’m teaching numbers, various of teaching according to the person. And what he was saying, don’t just accept his teachings by having a faith in him. It doesn’t mean that Don’t take it on faith. Don’t take it on faith. It’s clear?