Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 75-minute commentary, Khensur Rinpoche opens with a cautionary tale: a yogi who spent years on advanced tantric practice yet died and took rebirth as a hungry ghost — his form resembling the deity but his practice hollow for want of bodhicitta. The story anchors the session’s argument that Lamrim’s small-scope teachings are not steps to skip but the foundation of all practice. Rinpoche walks the small-scope sequence — precious human rebirth, impermanence, fear of lower rebirths, taking refuge in the Three Jewels, and the law of karma — then explains how abandoning the seven non-virtues of body and speech constitutes ethical training, the ground from which concentration and wisdom grow. A Q&A closes the session, addressing where the power of refuge resides and practical methods for developing bodhicitta.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 19 LR 1999 07 20.mp3
UUID: c4f4471b-ea33-4ade-bb46-f62acbdea650
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1999-07-20
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 75.5 minutes
Words: ~3,883
And the master Atisha, who is the pioneer of the Lamrim teaching, had set forth very concisely and very clearly the practices of three scopes or three beings, the beings, the initial scope, middling and the great scopes. So the teachings, the practice of the three scopes has been clearly said in his teaching called the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. So if I am asked how does the teachings are shown in the part in common with the person of initial capacity or first initial scope now. So the person of the first stage or the ordinary person should when they first train in the small scope they should start with meditating again and again in the practice how difficult it is to find this optimum human rebirth and conjoining this with the meditation on impermanence of death. The person of the first ordinary person or the person of first level has to train in this from the beginning yeah from the beginning of examining how thinking how this optimum precious human rebirth is difficult and by conjoining with the remembrance of death it is because before they trained in this, they only strive for the happiness of single life, present life.
So by conjoining a meditation on how difficult this precious human rebirth is to obtain and calling to mind impermanence. By meditating on this, the essence of this working for this present life and decreasing their interest of gaining happiness, their interest of working for this person lifetime and will increase their interest in working for the future life. So by cultivating more interest in future lives by this they came to know that one will not vanish or disappear after the death. They came to know that one travels in the next life after the death and for that they will also come to know that about the migration traveling after the death there are two migrations bad and the good migrations. And the way of going traveling in those two migrations, the better than the good migration, comes by the way of doing the positive and the negative action.
But one will know that one have no freedom or one have no control over one’s oneself about death. So is is so at this stage we have no assurance or we are not confident that one will not die, one will not be born in the lower realms after the death and due to this one came to know so one is uncertain. And if one travels, if one goes into bad migrations, one has to undergo through huge sufferings like the cold, hot hells and suffering of hunger and thirst and all the suffering of the confused beings, not having enough and by being in the lower realms by eating each other. So by knowing this, one develops fear fear of the sufferings or hardships in the lower realms and one tries to free oneself from those states and tries to seek refuge or seek protections. So the unsurpassable protector from those states are the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
And only the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha has a capability or has power to has a power to protect you from those states and so here one, it’s important for one to know that, one, it’s important for one to know that Buddha, Dharma and Sangha has the omniscient compassion and potential to protect you and by knowing this should develop a belief and faith in the Triple Gem. And by arousing faith and belief in the Triple Gem and undertake the precepts or advice of the refuge and by following the precepts or advice one can free oneself from the bad migration. So one should develop the fear, one should be terrified by the sufferings of those bad migrations and should try to, should acknowledge that the Three Jewels have the potential to protect you and should develop or arouse faith in you. And a part of the practice of the small scope is taking refuge. And the aim of the practice of small practitioner of small scope is that they are trying hard to they are trying to attain a better or the higher rebirth in the future life.
The rebirths like the taking a birth in the human and the god realms. And by doing such practice, one can really free oneself or ever oneself from taking birth in those those bad migrations once, twice or several times. And here the great Indian master, Śāntideva, has stated that time to time one goes goes in the good migrations and have the the and enjoys or have the happiness of the higher states but they are not but one is not really free from the free from the migrations forever. And through this, there is still still there is a danger of falling into the bad migrations. As they are not ultimately free from the bad migration, there is a danger of falling back or falling into the bad migrations and undergoes through the huge sufferings.
Even a bodhisattva who has reached the first part of the bodhisattva five paths which is the first path of accumulation, even such a bodhisattva has a danger of falling back in the lower migration or lower rebirth due to the past negative actions. There are many scholars who have taken a birth in the in the bad migrations as well as great practitioners have also drowned in the lower realms. So there are many scholars and great many practitioners who have also were born in the lower realms. It is because they are not able to practice or undertake the advice of the refuge. There are three advices or precepts of the refuge: the refuge of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
And because of not having properly practiced or implements the advice or the precepts of the Dharma, it happened for them to take birth in lower states. And so the precepts of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and as the Dharma itself is the teachings to help both oneself and others and the practice, the advice of the teachings is that or the main practices from the advice of the Dharma is that one should always bring help to others and even if but one should bring help for others for all the time. Even if one fails to bring help but should not harm others and these are the main, advices of practicing and the, advices of the Dharma and not practicing its advice properly and fails to fails from not harming others and by this one takes birth in the lower states. So So through this it says that the one second, of the second important practices of the small scope is that to practice in the law of action and their result and the practicing of law of action and their result is that not harming, not bringing harm to both oneself and others help bring help to both oneself and others and this is the practice of the law of actions and the effect as well as it is the advice of the refuge.
So through this one should practice in the law of action and the result and the classification of the three classes or three scopes, small, middling and the great scopes are also classified by the amount of practice done by each school. The practitioner of the small scope practice the law of action and their result and the middling scope performs a practice greater than the small and then the greatest one does the greatest. So for that reason the Lamrim teachings said that the beginning, once you start the meditation with setting up the motivation, it is said that everyone wants to meditate, likes meditating but once meditation should be started by setting up the motivation. So no matter what practice one does, the practice of small, middling and great scope, one should always, no matter what meditation one does, the meditation of small, middling and the great scopes, one should always set one’s motivation and also should, I mean whatever practice or meditation one wants to do, like meditate the the yeah, meditate upon compassion and emptiness and bodhicitta or the vast practices or the vast practice like meditation on generation and the completion stage, of course one should always set one’s motivation at the very beginning of the meditation.
Setting motivation at the beginning of meditation, whenever one does the meditation, one becomes familiarized with setting the motivation. So for these reasons, it’s very important to set one’s motivation and for that one’s it says in the teaching that one should train one’s motivation before meditation. The beginning of the pure practice of pure Dharma which starts at the impermanence, from impermanence. Because it is because to do the pure practice, one forsake present life and strive for the future life and so to do such one has to practice on impermanence, forsake this life needs to practice on impermanence. We always say the practice and practice.
So where one starts the practice, beginning of the practice means the implementing the teachings and which starts from the law of actions and their results. So as the practice starts from the law of action and the result is the beginning of the practice. And for that if one practice the law of action and their result then whatever practitioner whether it’s among monks or lay people that person is a becomes a good practitioner. So it’s important to have the proper, to do the practice of law and practice of action and their result. If one hasn’t have the practice of law and actions and their result then no matter how much a person is educated or a scholar but he the person is being called the scholar or educated but we cannot wish we can’t say he is a good practitioner.
And no matter how one seeks seclusions, stays seclusion and doing practice of Mahāmudrā or great seal and the great completion stage or meditating on emptiness. If that person lacks the law the practice of law of action and effect, then the person is not a practitioner, not a great practitioner. So in this case, in ancient time in India there was one great yogi who practiced the Yamāntaka Tantra. So after he died he was born in the hungry ghost realms and he has the figure of the deity, but actually he was born as a hungry ghost. So he was said to be a friend of Atisha and Atisha, the great master Atisha was in Tibet at that time and that the person who was taken born as a hungry ghost, the practitioner, Yogi born as a hungry ghost travels to Tibet to beg torma from Atisha and great master Atisha saw that person and said, alright, yeah, we should and Atisha said, the great master Atisha said, we should give to torma and sent him quickly it’s not appropriate for him to stay here.
So he was that hungry ghost was a great yogi or the great practitioner of Tantra but he fails to practice bodhicitta or altruistic intention properly and due to that he was taken he was he yeah. He was born as a hungry ghost. So no matter the the tantric practice itself is a very very effective practice or teaching but the person who practice should need to develop the develop the bodhicitta and the correct view. If one fails then there is a danger like that hungry ghost. Master Atisha was in Tibet and during that time he had he occasionally he time to time he has a he has a visitor to his disciples from India visiting him time to time and the moment at the time he met, meet his two disciples, he discussed with them about India and one of the students said that in India, one great yogi, the practitioner of the vajra practitioner or yogi has attained stream entry.
And by hearing this, the great master Atisha himself was amused and found it very funny and just laughed and recalled that sentence — the practitioner of the Tantra has attained stream entry — and he’s just laughing. It is because one who practices the Hevajra Tantra, the yogi, means he is practicing the highest yoga Tantra, it’s also the Anuttara Tantra, and so by practicing such a great Tantra one should attain enlightenment. And he heard that the practitioner has attained stream entry and he laughed because stream entry is attained in the lower vehicle, not in the Mahāyāna vehicle which is the Tantrayāna.
So by hearing this find it very means the practitioner instead of progressing in his practice, he drops down. So it is like the one who is traveling to Melbourne and he caught, I mean, he got in the plane and assumed that he himself is going flying to Melbourne. But later he found himself in Bali. It’s it’s like that. Mistaken or he traveled to a wrong path.
So he made wrong in choosing the path. It is because while he was practicing the vajra Tantra, he failed to meditate on the bodhicitta or altruistic intention and due to this he failed to meditate upon the bodhicitta or altruistic intention due to that all his practicing the Hevajra Tantra becomes for the benefit of oneself only, and due to that he fell down. So there was a mistake in his motivation. So for that one should always set one’s motivation before the meditation and correct oneself from the beginning the meditation by setting the motivation and by setting up the motivation then engage purely and correctly in the practice and by doing this one will be able to practice in the law of actions and their results. And so to to do the to do the to do the practice of on to practice on result, there are many varieties of vast quantity of teachings on the law of their actions and result actions and their results and of the Buddhas and here the practice of law of action and their results has been summarized into ten by the great teacher Vasubandhu.
And here the great master said that it is hard to summarize all the practices of the law of actions and their results into ten. But he had set forth the ten parts of actions and their results by summarizing the main practices of the action and their results. So the actions are set forth in ten and by the action done by the three doors of a person like the three actions from body, four from speech and through mind. So all the good good part or the good actions comes from those three doors and as well as the ten non virtues comes from the three doors as well. So the practice of what should be done and what done and what should not be done are also done from the three doors by doing what should be, what the things what should be done is that cultivating the positive actions which are virtuous and should always try to cultivate the positive actions from the slightest or smallest amount of virtues day by day and always try to stop cultivating or should try to abandon the negative deeds every day and it is very hard to abandon these subtle negative deeds or non virtues to one to train oneself to abandon the negative action from the close or the closer level.
So there are ten non virtues or ten negative actions performed through three doors, body, speech and mind. And in the practice of this small scope they practice and try to abandon all the ten non virtues but within the ten non virtues they mainly the practice of the small practitioner of small scope mainly tries to abandon the seven negativities or negative actions of body and speech. In practice of middling scope they mainly are practiced to abandon the negative actions of mind, the covetousness, harmful intention and the wrong views and try to abandon the grosser disturbing emotions which are the covetousness harmful intention and wrong views. So in the practice of small scope, mainly try to abandon the negative actions, seven negative actions of body speech and such a practice is, such a practice are the teachings of the ethical training. Such a practice is the practice of training in the ethics and all the Buddhist teachings are classified into three main categories which are the training or categorized into three trainings, training in ethical, training in ethics, concentration and wisdom.
So the practice, they mainly try to abandon the seven negative actions of body and mind. Body and speech in small scopes are the practice or in the training of training in ethics. So the practice in training, practice of training in ethics is like a fertile soil, it’s like a field or a basis to gain all the realizations and all the higher realizations. Like it is clearly stated in the great master Candrakīrti’s middle way text that the, from ethical, from ethics, one attains the higher rebirths and also gains the insight and realizations of the path and grounds, up to Buddhahood itself. So it’s the leading the ethics, training the ethics which is training in abandoning the seven negative second negative actions of body and speech is like a basis to cultivate the good qualities.
So it is like the root of all the happiness our root of all the happiness or goodness and for this by taking if you are a lay person it’s and it’s important to take a lay vows and by taking a lay vows is like the root of all happiness and goodness for that lay person and for the for the monks, they are taking the vows of novice monks, fully ordained monks and nuns. So by taking a vows means one agrees or one agrees to maintain or guide one’s vow and by guiding one’s commitments or vows purely, then one is training in the ethical disciplines. And by training in ethics, with on top of this, by having guiding the ethical disciplines, then one can one goes in the practice of the training of concentration, one will train in the trainings of concentration or meditative stabilization and and upon it then one practice one trains in the training training of wisdom and through this one realize the selflessness of the person and being able to abandon the self grasping attitude and by abandoning this one attains liberation. So we have today the taught the taught about the the practice the basis of practicing the basis yeah, basis of the of practicing the law of action and its result and and for and we’ll stop here today and the more about the more teaching on the action and the result will come next.
So if you have any questions, please do ask. Objects of refuge. Yeah. Where does this power reside? Reside.
Reside. Ne. Ne. Oh. Never.
Yeah. Yeah. In the refuge objects themselves or in the mind of the practitioner who’s inspired by them and tries to see their state? The oh, the Three Jewels or Buddhadharma and Sangha has a potential or a power to protect you and so that potential or power we could say results within the Triple Jewel. So by following the instructions of the refuge and one practice properly and purely by leading a pure practice one receives the power as a blessings and gets the blessings, means from the Triple Gem, means by receiving blessing or power, by leading a prayer practice, and through this they help.
Is that all you want? It is like a person is drowned in the water and he wants to free himself from the water and he’s seeking for he’s seeking help. So at that time a person who is not drowned and on the suppose on the shore and that person has a potential to save that person who is drowning in the water. So that person has a potential or a power as well as in the robes, alright? So person throws the rope.
So it entirely depends on the person whether he can receive that power or not. So if he holds and the person pulls then he receives the power and he gets free. It’s not that. And so the person has mainly failed to practice the bodhicitta or altruistic intention properly, plus taking refuge and following the precepts of refuge which are the practice what to be done and what to be abandoned, should not be done. And through this, I mean he actually does good meditation and he mainly meditated only on the Yamāntaka and due to that in time he has the vision or his body figure looks exactly like the Yamāntaka deity but his practice by making all this refuge and the precepts on bodhicitta, his practice didn’t get to the point through this.
So we can say he failed in bodhicitta refuge and the precepts of refuge. Sorry. How does we remind? So the actual way of developing the bodhicitta is by doing the practice of sevenfold causes and results and also by equalizing self and others or equalizing and changing self and others. And so yeah, this is the proper way of developing the altruistic intention, method of developing a proper intention and if one if one cannot do that then another way of developing altruistic intention is that always see oneself in every day seeing that see oneself as I mean oneself is undergoing through huge suffering and always see that one is tormented or we are tormented by huge sufferings every day.
And by knowing oneself is suffering and imagine that all other sentient beings are same as oneself, they’re undergoing through huge sufferings and they are being tortured by huge suffering. By knowing this and one should and as one is undergoing through huge suffering, will one feels or one wish to free oneself, one should develop that or one will have intention to freeing oneself from the suffering and by seeing the other beings undergoing to receive suffering then should develop a compassion which wishes that all those suffering sentient beings free all those suffering sentient beings. So and so should develop that compassion which wishes to free the others from their suffering and that others should be not one and two, all should spread entire motherly sentient beings and and and have that wish to free all those sentient beings from the suffering and bring them to the state of ultimate happiness and so in order to do that and once so for that purpose I shall engage in the practice, I shall try to eliminate all negativities and attain all the good qualities and meditate upon such, meditate upon it very often again and again and by doing, leading a continuous or very often meditation on it one will gain a bodhicitta called the bodhicitta with effort and by meditating on that that bodhicitta with effort later one gains the bodhicitta without effort.
Good. Okay. Not that I can say. So