Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A thief who accidentally receives refuge vows anchors one of the most memorable moments in this 83-minute Lam Rim commentary by Khensur Rinpoche. The session focuses on why Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha qualify as objects of refuge, then walks through eight of the ten benefits of taking refuge: becoming Buddhist through fear of saṃsāra and conviction in the Three Jewels; refuge as the foundation for all vows; purification of past negativities; protection from lower rebirths and harm by human and non-human beings; fulfillment of wishes; and accumulation of vast merit. Rinpoche closes by explaining why the guru appears as a fourth refuge in the Guru Puja — because Buddhas emanate as lamas to teach those who cannot directly perceive them.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 LR 1999 06 22.mp3
UUID: 410b6fc9-b49c-4433-8694-cb817662eb21
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1999-06-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 83.0 minutes
Words: ~4,808
The purpose of doing this is because those texts or verses which we recite are composed or written by great yogis. And they have written those verses through their experience they gained through the meditation. And so by giving a commentary or explaining the meaning of the verses of those masters, the purpose of explaining or giving the commentary on those verses of those yogis is because they are perfect and are authentic sources. And so by listening or explaining on this, those perfect or unmistaken verses are very effective and by learning on it will give you good result. So if you give a teaching without relying or taking those the authentic sources as a basis then and we just if we talk or give teaching simply, I mean, just without relying on those verses, what we give is there is a danger of the mistakes creeping through once or coming coming across through once teaching as well as then a person who takes your words and to just meditate will not be may not become effective or beneficial.
So the the verses here, it says that it says we are we are suffering in this cyclic existence and which comes from our disturbing emotions. Due to that, we and we seek, so we need to free ourselves from the free from those sufferings of saṃsāra. And to to free ones from the suffering of samsaric existence or saṃsāra, we need an object of refuge which protects us from the suffering of the saṃsāra. So about the refuge, now here, it will describe the qualities that object of refuge requires or needed. So the object of refuge here, mentioned that the object, the refuge should be free from all the negativities and yeah, from all the negativities and then free and acquired the good qualities or had gained all the good qualities through meditation?
What sort of object, which object has these qualities been free from all the negativities and acquired the good qualities through familiarization or through meditation. So here, the Buddha is the object of the perfect object of refuge because he had perfected or has acquired all those two qualities, free from suffering and acquired good qualities through the perfected these two qualities through cultivating in the wisdom and method of the Mahāyāna teachings. So Buddha, Śākyamūni, or Buddha has perfected himself from or free himself from all the negative or all the faults and acquired good qualities. And how he acquired those two qualities is by relying upon or by training in the teachings or the Dharma. So it’s also been said as the doctrine.
So doctrine is the one by learning or in the parts of doctrine he neglected all the faults and acquired good qualities. So it is the due to the because of Dharma, he been able to do this. So for that reason, the Dharma is the the doctrine is supreme or it’s very holy. So for that reason, the Dharma or the doctrine is the is the suitable object for refuge. So Buddha and Dharma, the doctrine are suitable object of refuge.
And also the third refuge object, which is Sangha, is the suitable object of refuge because Sangha is the one who follows, who practices the Dharma and goes through meditation and through this. So they are great yogis and masters who also cultivate or who meditate upon the path and the Dharma. So due to that, the the Sangha are also the perfect or suitable object of refuge because they’re training do meditate and train in the doctrines. So here comes the the object of refuge are three, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. There is no other refuge or refuge object other than these three.
So so they are that’s for the object of refuge. They are three. And these are called the object of refuge, or usually in Tibetan the word is called kyab, actually. It means the protection or safe. So they’re called the protection or protect because we have unwanted sufferings.
We undergo through lots of unwanted sufferings due to the disturbing emotions. So those three protect us from they help us to eliminate those unwanted sufferings and free often from those suffering. So due to that, these are called the protection or protector. So this Buddhadharma and Sangha are called the object of refuge. So what you’ve got is protector.
And But it says that the Buddhadharma and Sangha are the protector or the refuge of the one who seeks liberation. So it means they protect or they are the protector of one who wants to free oneself from the suffering of cyclic existence or saṃsāra. And so this Dharma, the refuge of protectors will protect one who who who wishes to free or who who seeks liberation. So so one who seeks liberation who that person the particular person if that person that particular excuse me. They So those three refuge objects are the protector or object, are protector for the one who seeks liberation.
And so that so if that particular person goes refuge to the Buddhadharma and Sangha, there are many benefits or the advantages for that person of taking refuge in Buddha those refuge objects. So about the advantages of going or taking refuge, there are ten. So among the ten advantages, the first one is that by going taking refuge by by developing a fear towards the suffering of cyclic existence, the person will first become a Buddhist, so one will become a Buddhist, which is the first advantage. So what makes the difference or what makes the person to become a Buddhist or non-Buddhist, or what distinguishes, is that one who develops fear toward the suffering of saṃsāra or cyclic existence. And through the power of that fearfulness, one seeks protection from Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, by seeing that Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are the only objects and the only hope to free oneself from the suffering of the cyclic existence.
And through this, going refuge and by going through this fearfulness and wanting to free oneself from the cyclic existence, taking protection from the Buddhadharma and Sangha. And by going refuge through this, when one develops such a mind of going refuge within one’s mind stream, then the person becomes Buddhist. So, seeing and having a conviction or faith towards the refuge object that they are the only hope, or they can help you to free yourself from the suffering of cyclic existence. And so it is the same for all the religious practitioners, whether he is a Muslim or a Christian and so forth. The person who follows a particular religion has a conviction and faith towards their particular god and so forth.
So likewise, it’s the same in Buddhism as well, that we have the conviction. One needs to have conviction towards the Buddhadharma and Sangha, the conviction that they can protect you from these old sufferings. About taking refuge, there are many ways of taking refuge, going refuge through the three doors: body, speech and mind. And by doing prostrations and so forth, the physical activities are like going taking refuge through the body, and by reciting the refuge prayers are like going refuge through speech, or it’s also called the word refuge. And the main, the actual or the main refuge is that having a conviction and full confidence towards the Buddhadharma and Sangha that they are the only hope and the only one to whom you can rely upon.
Yep. So if one has such a conviction or such a thought that by fear, have a fear and is towards this suffering of cyclic existence going refuge towards Buddhadharma and Sangha by full confidence that they can protect you from the cyclic existence suffering from cyclic existence. So whenever one generates such a thought or a mind within the within one’s mind stream and person, that person becomes Buddhist. And the second benefit is that it acts as a foundation for all the vows. And there are many vows we can receive or we can take, like the lay vows and monks’ vows and bodhisattva vows, tantric vows and so forth.
And so before taking any of those vows, first one has to take refuge in the refuge objects. And without taking refuge, one will not develop or will not receive any of those vows. So the refuge acts as a basis for those vows, to take those vows, and also helps to stabilize one’s vow. And without having a refuge, one will never receive any of those vows. So the great master Vasubandhu has clearly stated that one who does not take refuge will not receive any of the vows.
So that is the second point, which it acts as a foundation for all the vows or which helps to stabilize the vows. And third benefit is that by taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, one will purify or purify many demerits or negativities, which means that from the beginningless of time we have accumulated numbers of non virtuous or unwholesome actions. So by taking refuge, by going refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, one abandons or eliminates all those negativities which one has previously committed. And the fourth point is that you will not fall into the bad state of rebirth because what brings you to take or what makes you to take rebirth in the lower realms is the negative action or negativities. And as by taking refuge, it cleans one’s previously committed negativities.
And by purifying that, one will not have to bond or take a birth in the lower state. So due to that so the means is the fourth one is that one will not by taking refuge, one will not born in the lower states or bad states. And the fifth one is that one will not be affected by one will be unaffected by the harms from god humans and non humans. So it means there are usually different types of I mean, affections which we inflictions which or harms comes from the outer part from other sides like humans and non humans. So by taking refuge one free.
So it it says the harms from human and nonhuman. And so one will not be harmed or unaffected by the harm from humans and nonhumans. So there are many analogies we can say, but among the many, I will tell one here. So once, you know, there was one hill or forest where one meditator or hermit lived. And he hardly opens the door, and there is a hole at the bottom of his door that people can pass the food through that hole.
So once the one of the meditators’ sponsor brought him a good very nice material or a cloth and offer it to that meditate meditator. And while he was making this that offering, a thief has saw that saw I mean, saw that. You know? And then so that sponsor made the offering and left. And after just after that, the thief came to to the hermit place, he shouted the meditator that, bring me or give me that cloth that’s been offered to you.
And the meditator answered that this material, this cloth, is being offered to me with due respect from my sponsor. So if you really need this, then just send your both hands along with this posture and then send it through the hole. So the meditator just made a trap off from the rope and then just take it at the hole. And then so as soon as that his that that hand caught into the thread or the rope, and the the meditator tried the rope on the the little I mean, I think excuse me. There’s a stone in the corner of the cave, so he chuck it there, So so after after that, I mean, he tied the rope to that particular stone.
And then he got up from his cushion and took a stick from another corner of the cave. And then he hit three times, saying along with each strike, and he hit once, and then second, and so he hit three times. And then the meditator released the rope and said, alright. Go. And then the person ran away, and he reached a bridge with water, and he sat under that bridge recalling the words the meditator had recited, counting that he hit me with saying Namo Buddhaya and Namo Dharmayaya and Namo Sanghaya. And he is just thinking on those words and saying that there are only three refuges. And I’m lucky, if there were four, then it’s a pity, he would have hit me four times. So by recalling that word, spent whole night under that bridge.
So normally on that bridge, it’s been said that there are many spirits or like devils or non humans which crossing humps are crossing or passing through that that bridge normally on every night. And on that particular day, as that thief was reciting or recalling all those the refuge prayers, and on that due to that, it’s been said that all the harms the spirits or the devils came from the non human harms, the beings are not able to travel or pass through that bridge. Likewise, there are many similar analogies or stories. Don’t think I can go through all. Many, many.
And then the sixth advantage or benefit is that all your wishes will be fulfilled. So it will fulfill all your wishes, with the wishes what you have in the whether it’s religious things or the worldly things, the Dharma, the three refuge will fulfill your wishes for both these last and next. So for this, there are the sayings from the great masters saying that don’t hope for the beings. Just hope for the free or refuge or hope for the refuge means if you hope for some people or like beings, they may able to help you but will not help you ultimately. So if you take hope or refuge in the Triple Gem or refuge object, then they will always fulfill or help you forever.
So all those arhats, bodhisattvas, all those being a change, become or beings become liberated beings or become bodhisattvas, they become bodhisattvas and arhats by developing conviction and having full confidence in bodhadharma and Sangha. And also, having conviction and confidence Buddhism and Sangha, they make supplications supplications towards the refuge prayers. And also the renunciations, bodhicitta and the correct rules also be gained all those realizations can also be gained by having conviction or faith in Buddhadharma and Sangha. And so roughly speaking, all this by having conviction, by taking refuge in Buddhadharma and Sangha, one can eliminate all the unwanted sufferings and culture acquired all the wishing happiness. The seventh one is that the great store of merit is easily accumulated.
So by taking refuge, one accumulates a great store of merit. It’s been said that if the merits of taking refuge were to take form, then it will not fit, or the world itself is very small to contain the merits. So just by developing, by having a fearfulness or fear in the suffering of cyclic existence and then having developed the conviction towards Buddhadharma and Sangha that they can protect you from those sufferings, and through this reciting one’s refuge prayers or taking refuge once, the merit of that particular taking refuge, a single refuge, is very huge, and if it were conceivable or if it had form, it will not fit in this whole universe. But there are lots of proofs or reasons of saying this. It is not just said simply without any reasons.
So there are reasons because the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, they they have a very vast quantity of good qualities and as vast as like a space. And only for the the qualities of Buddha, if you were to count the qualities of the Buddha, one can one will be not able to count all the qualities of the Buddhas because it is numerous. So likewise, the Buddha the Dharma and Sangha also have the same qualities, immeasurable qualities as vast as Buddha the Buddhas. So so they have as they have the very vast quantity of good qualities, but taking refuge in those in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, as they have the vast very vast quantity of of good qualities, we also gain or attain numbers as far as of merit or yep. As yeah.
We we accumulate great, very vast quantity of merits. So what we need is we need to cultivate the great of merit. And to cultivate the great store of merit, there are two objects. One is to Or two objects. One is to going and taking refuge.
In Buddhadharma and Sangha, we accumulate the great numbers or great store of merit, and the second object is that by developing compassion and love and bodhicitta by focusing on the sentient beings, and number of sentient beings are numerous and countless. So by developing love, compassion and bodhicitta towards sentient beings, one also cultivates great store of merit as vast as the number of sentient beings. So we need to cultivate the great store of merit, which is the virtues. And so, by cultivating that, it eliminates the sufferings or eliminate the sufferings and brings or gives happiness. So there are many different types of beings which practices the teachings or Dharma.
And with so among those beings, the beings of this world are the perfect beings because considered as a perfect beings. And because they have the good intelligence or wisdom and have effort to do perfect effort to do the Dharma or practice and if one tries to do one have a wisdom one has one can do practice and so by having proper wisdom and effort and still if one fail to practice then it will be very sad and it’s a different question for the beings who not who hasn’t got sharp faculty and some they do practice but they still don’t understand so this is a different case but we have wisdom and intelligence and have effort and if we still fail to do it it would be very sad so if we practice and go refuge in Buddha Dharma and Sangha and develop the flow of compassion and renunciation towards the sentient beings, and by focusing on sentient beings and if we meditate for ten minutes, say, the merit of doing that practice will be as vast as space. So in this Buddhism or Buddhist teachings, there are practices which normally we can perform through three doors, which is body, speech and mind. Or to perform a good action, there are three types of actions done through the three doors. And also for the negative deeds, it can be performed through three doors, body, speech, mind. So among the practice, although there are three doors to practice, but among these three, the main practice is to be done through the mind, which is the main door. So to do the practice first, one should able to identify what things to be what are the teachings, what are the doctrines in which what are the non doctrines.
One should be able to distinguish between those two. By studying on this and understanding, then having this understanding and then one should apply all one’s knowledge or implements all one’s understanding or knowledge into the practice. So if one fails to put all this knowledge into the practice, then the one’s knowledge will not would not be become very, very helpful. And about the beings who understand the teachings, there are three types of one who knows perfectly or huge and then it’s been described into the greatest middling and the smallest who are being classified according to their knowledge or understanding of the teaching and a person who has a vast knowledge of the teaching will practice very profoundly or very vastly and then and he will have a greater or vast benefits from it. Likewise, a middling one will practice according to their knowledge or their understanding and will have the middling kind of merits or help for the smallest and will practice according to their knowledge and then gain the same amount of benefits or help now.
So but no matter whether one has a greater knowledge or middling or a small I mean less or smaller knowledge but the main important thing is to one should be able to put all one’s understanding or knowledge into the practice. If one can do that, then it will be very helpful and just being the perfect being. Very, very good. So there is a saying in ancient time that giving teachings are as many as the bubble of the water and the practice of which means practice. Yeah.
So practice is like And the practice are as less I mean, as many as like the drop of the gold. It means a very few people practice. So the reason it says it’s like a bubble of the water means because, I mean, the one is it’s too many bubbles. And second is there’s not much essence there. It just make it pops.
So, in practice, like a drop of the gold. It means so in Australia, they are gold mining, people mining. So if you had a single drop of gold, it’s very helpful, but very helpful. So and then the eighth benefit is to all up to now the benefits we count one to seven these are the benefits temporary benefits which gains through taking refuge in to taking refuge and the eighth one is that and the eighth one is which is the perfect ultimate advantage is which that one will attain. One will eliminate all the negativities and acquire perfect or all the good qualities and become enlightened.
This is the ultimate advantage. So at this stage, Buddha Śākyamūni has came and he gave a vast quantity, already performed teachings due to his kindness. And we have the Buddhas to teach, show the path, and then we have the actual Dharma to practice, and we have also have the spiritual community to keep us company to practice. It’s been said that Buddha’s teaching, there is a duration that Buddha’s teaching will remain. And so they are So they are nearly about nearly or just above two thousand years left for Buddha’s teaching to remain.
So within this place, during this time, will have within this just about two thousand years, we will have the Buddhadharma and Sangha to help us to practice. And after that, then we will not find the refuge, Buddhadharma and Sanghas to practice. And so last so so after that, I mean, just about two thousand years, then the the teachings of Buddha will cease. And then and just and from after that onwards, we will not find any the show teacher or show of the refuge and then Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha for millions and billions of years or at this stage, it’s a very fortunate time and we are very fortunate to have this opportunity and so having this opportunity one should go take refuge in the bodhidhamma and Sangha to overcome all the sufferings and then attain the ultimate ultimate happiness. So we say the three refuges are Namo Buddhaya and Namo Dharmayaya and Namo Sanghaya.
But in the Guru Puja, the practice of Guru Puja, it mentions the fourth one, which is Namo Gurubhya. So if I ask, because there are only three refuges, why does the fourth one, the Namo Gurubhya, come first? So why should we need to say Namo Gurubhya in the beginning? Because there are three refuges and it should be okay by saying those. If one says certain things, which is not right. So before the refuge, there is the prostration.
No? So in Sanskrit, the word is guru, which we recite first name on guru there. And where is it in Tibetan, the first guru is called the lama in Tibetan word. So the So we first go refuge by I prostrate to the guru or lama. And we also go refuge in Buddha.
Why we go refuge in Buddha is because we undergo through many sufferings and and it is being caused by not having a proper understanding that what things to be done and what things to be avoided so and with so without having with not having so with not having such a knowledge and what we do is we always do our opposite. We are cultivating which is not supposed to be cultivated and we are not cultivating which are supposed to cultivate it and due to that we undergo through huge suffering. So so we go to we go refuge in Buddha because Buddha who through his teachings he instructed us or showing us the the things which are to be practiced and think which are to things to be avoided or abandoned. So by so as he shows or instructs the practices of abandonment and the taking, but through this, we go refuge in in Buddha. So Buddha is the one who instructed who instructs the what things to be practiced and what to be avoided.
So through his teaching. So in order to receive his teaching or listen to his instructions, we need to see Buddha first and then listen to his teaching. And so just without seeing him, we cannot hear any words from him about showing the instructions, what things to be practiced and what to be what. So we need to hear it by seeing him. Without seeing him we cannot hear and his sounds will not be like the radio sound, which just comes in the air.
So without seeing Buddha, there is a danger that we find it difficult to have conviction or develop the faith in Buddha. But we need an instructor who instructs us, who teaches us. So as we cannot see Buddha and we can’t receive teachings from Buddha so what Buddha does is then so as we are not able to see Buddha so what Buddha does is he emanates into a form similar to our similar to us and which we can see. Yeah. So so to whom we can see.
So Buddha, he emanates into beings who are similar to us and to which we can see and receive the teaching. And if asked, who is that being? So that being is one’s lama. So Buddha emanates into as one’s lama. And the lamas are the emanation of Buddha and we receive the teachings.
So lama is the one who teaches you the teachings. And so even if you see Buddha and receive the teachings and but Buddha hasn’t got any I mean, different teachings other than one’s lama’s teaching. So we say the lama are the Buddhas, the enlightened beings, because the Buddha emanates into our lama. So as they are the emanation of Buddha, we call the lama the Buddhas, the enlightened ones. So here comes that Buddha, he or the Buddha, indirectly teaches us through the lama. And so the lama is the one who directly teaches you.
So in this case, because of this, we first take refuge or prostration in one’s lama. So in the earlier teachings of the of the in earlier teachings, we have taught the the teachings of seeking relation between the students and the spiritual teacher. And for the spiritual students to see the spiritual teacher or the lama as a Buddha. So this is the point why one should see lama as the Buddha. So we have actually gone beyond the time, and means we are asleep, but still, if you have any questions, we’ll keep about four or five minutes.
So in terms of you saying that the Buddhas, they help sentient beings is what way in what way or which way they help sentient beings is that because the sentient beings, they do not wish suffering and they want happiness. So they show the method and methods how to abandon or eliminate all the sufferings and shows you the path to attain the one’s wishes, which is happiness. So this is how we say Buddhas help sentient beings because they show you the methods of how to abandon the sufferings and cultivate happiness. And if you follow that, his instructions, then you will be able to overcome all the, I mean, unwanted which are suffering and have happiness.
And this is how we describe that Buddha’s help. Okay. It’s the dedication page five verses eight and nine.