Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using a sun-and-moon metaphor as its structural spine, this 98-minute session sees Khensur Rinpoche distinguish the two bodhicittas at the heart of Mahāyāna practice: ultimate bodhicitta — wisdom realizing emptiness, which like sunlight dispels ignorance — and conventional bodhicitta — the altruistic wish to free all beings, which like moonlight soothes without scorching. He explains why wisdom without effort is “like a corpse,” maps three deities to qualities practitioners want to cultivate (Mañjuśrī for wisdom, Chenrezig for compassion, Vajrapāni for power), and compares Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna understandings of wisdom and method. Rinpoche then addresses an Australian audience’s deep-seated distrust, drawing a careful line between ordinary scepticism and the reliable faith one can place in the Triple Gem. A Q&A closes by situating vipassana walking meditation within the wisdom-and-method framework.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 22 LR 2000 07 25.mp3
UUID: 0db21c34-31c2-4b3b-ba4b-2e2e8aac4172
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 2000-07-25
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 98.2 minutes
Words: ~4,421
Yeah. If the practice of listening, giving teaching, listening, contemplation, the meditation, if it’s done along with the motivation of altruistic intention, then the practice will eventually become very effective. Including oneself, wish happiness and the the happiness which is the ultimate happiness. Although they wish happiness, but they are it is very, very hard and there are only few people few beings who had attained the ultimate happiness. So most of the sentient beings lack ultimate happiness, so therefore, we shall here do a short meditation upon on the love wishing that all the sentient beings to have the happiness and its causes.
So likewise meditate on compassion, that seeing that not that those sentient beings not only lacks happiness, they are also tortured by huge sufferings. So wishing the meditating on compassion with the wish, making wishing that they’d be free from all the sufferings and its causes. And in order to and then meditate on a compassion we must then meditate on bodhicitta, the altruistic intention that in order to free all those sentient beings from the suffering and bring them to the state of ultimate happiness, I shall here purify all the the negativities and and attain good qualities. So in order to accomplish that wish, I shall hear, listen to the essence of the mind teaching graduated path and do the practice of to listen and contemplate as well as meditate on this Lamrim teaching, which is essence of Mahāyāna teachings. And for we shall do a short meditation here.
The great Indian master Atisha has set forth that one wants to practice or wish to practice a Mahāyāna teaching, the benefit of practicing that particular teaching is that one will be able to get rid of get rid of the root of the suffering which is cyclic existence or confusion. And and the benefit of overcoming from that ignorance is that by by by abandoning the ignorance, one will not have have one will not have to have to suffer that sufferings which is the result of ignorance. So one will be able to overcome the ignorance, the root of the sufferings by practicing the particular teaching, the Mahāyāna teaching, And through through through what practices what one can overcome those the way from the suffering and and the way of the suffering. By practicing the bodhicitta the sun and moon like bodhicitta, one will overcome the fruit of the sufferings. So the example here is the the sun and the moon like bodhicitta or altruistic intention.
The sun like bodhicitta, it it it’s therefore the sun like bodhicitta because when sun comes, it it the the sun clears the darkness of the space. So likewise, by by by by attaining or training in the sun like bodhicitta, the ultimate bodhicitta, it will overcome the the the the ignorance and the the the sufferings comes from the ignorance. So that the sun-like bodhicitta is is the ultimate bodhicitta. So, here, the ultimate bodhicitta which refers towards the wisdom realizing emptiness. So, which implies ultimate bodhicitta, implies the wisdom realizing emptiness.
And that that that wisdom realizing emptiness from the from the very beginning, that the wis the wisdom, it it can’t realize the emptiness by by its own or or or, yeah, by its own in the sense that that that it realized the emptiness along conjoining with with others. So that wisdom, first it trains in or it meditates on the calm abiding and after having attained the calm abiding, then he meditates on the special insight and after having attained that as well and it makes the next step which is doing the meditation on the combination of special insight, the calm abiding and the special insight. By attaining those the union of the special calm abiding and the special special insight, and it finally realizes the emptiness by its own, which means that it realized emptiness directly. And that particular the the the wisdom realizing directly realizing emptiness is the ultimate bodhicitta which is possessed by the bodhisattvas. And then that particular wisdom, the wisdom realized in emptiness, gradually increases and along with it, it minimizes or it makes the ignorance which is the which is the root of all the sufferings and the disturbing emotions.
And so by increasing or developing that wisdom realizing emptiness, it will help once to minimize the power of that the the root of the cyclic existence, which is self grasping ignorance, the self grasping attitude. And by developing training in that, attaining that wisdom gradually, gradually, one abandons or abandon the ignorance. So, that wisdom realizing that wisdom is very, very powerful and it helps us in many ways that we have two kinds of mental states, the good good and the bad state of bad state of men bad mental states. And by the wisdom realizing emptiness help us to to to abandon and eliminate the bad state of mind. So this and it is also the wisdom realizing emptiness is one of the greatest qualities.
So by and through that wisdom, one will one abandons the will of the sufferings, and by abandoning that, and it will help one to attain the ultimate the mental and physical happiness. But it is but it is it is very hard to to to to do this by by the wisdom that wisdom alone. And and that wisdom, in order to complete in order to do so, what we have just mentioned, that wisdom, which is the part of wisdom path, it needs a company of the method to abandon all these root of these sufferings. It is like even in our normal life, in order to do accomplish something, one needs to have a combination of wisdom and method to accomplish that particular subject one wants to attain. So likewise, in dharma, in spiritual terms, it all one also needs to have the needs the both sides, the wisdom and the method to accomplish something.
So, previously, talking about those two, the moon and the sun-like bodhicitta, the sun-like bodhicitta is the wisdom part, and now the moon like bodhicitta is the method part. So in Australia, we say moon bodhicitta. So moonlight bodhicitta is the conventional bodhicitta which we meditate on it all the time before every teaching that has been encouraging people to develop motivation of altruistic intention, which is called the conventional bodhicitta. So, the example here is moon like bodhicitta. The reason is that when moon shines, it clears the darkness but not as good as the sun.
But the difference is when moon comes out, it’s not but it’s not as hot. Like the sun, the one will say it’s very good for one’s health. There’s not much heat, very smooth or no. So one undergoes through the suffering of mental and physical sufferings before one attains the conventional bodhicitta. So whenever the conventional bodhicitta helps ones to get rid of the sufferings, mental and physical sufferings.
No. It is so so when one attains the the conventional bodhicitta, the the it automatically eases the suffering of physical body and mind. So, if one develops a conventional bodhicitta, then one will have one develops a wish to free all the sentient beings from the sufferings and bring them to the state of ultimate happiness. By having this by having this, the conventional bodhicitta, one will have a very peaceful peaceful mental mental state as well as one can live very one one has one received the happiness of having or possessing that conventional bodhicitta. It is not it’s not only by having the convention of bodhicitta, one not only have receives the the happiness, one will also able to to to convert all the convert all the suffering of body, physical and mental sufferings, into happiness.
So these two great qualities the great vehicle are called the wisdom and wisdom and the method, the wisdom which is ultimate bodhicitta method, the conventional bodhicitta. So by practicing in the combination of wisdom, the wisdom and the method, the one one one abandons, eliminates the all those unwanted sufferings and the negativities, it helps to attain one gradually attains the ultimate happiness. So, in order to develop those two great qualities, the the the the great teaching, the graduated path has been set forth or taught has been set forth as a method to cultivate cultivate those two great qualities. So these are all these three chapters, the small, middling, and the great scopes of the graduated path are the method in in through other methods for one to cultivate the qualities. So, in order to do so, what we need to be to attain, to train in those the teachings.
We saw the method to attain the wisdom and the method with wisdom and the method. In order to do so, first one, it’s it’s important for us to know know know the wisdom and the method. And by knowing so, and, again, it’s important for one to know what are the causes to attain that method, wisdom, and the method. So I should say the qualities and and and should also important for one to know the results of of the advantages of attaining those qualities. So by knowing this, by seeing if one sees the result of those quality, attaining those qualities, then one will develop a faith, which means that in general terms or honorable language, we can say the likeliness.
And and in yeah. So we call it like your faith, which means the likeliness. By knowing that it has such a beautiful quality or nice nice results or nice result, then by liking that, one will have a a one will have or one will able to develop an intention, which is to to attain that attain that special result, very good result. And having by having that a benefit of having intention is that one by having intention, one can develop the the increase the effort or enthusiasm because because because one needs to attain that. So and benefit of of developing the enthusiasm or or effort is that by having effort, one will work for it and able to to perfect or or eventually attain what one wish to attain and and yeah.
Attained. Without having in the effort or enthusiasm, then then it will be very difficult for one to attain it attain or accomplish with a particular wish, and it is it would rather be like just browsing on the surface and remain uncomplete. So enthusiasm is to will the effort helps one to accomplish. So, therefore, the great master Candrakīrti, the great Indian master Candrakīrti said for follow effort or enthusiasm to attain entire qualities and and or entire qualities, which which means that that that showing which shows the importance of the effort or enthusiasm that to attain the qualities as for the qualities, they are the temporal and the ultimate qualities. And to attain that, one needs to have one one needs to follow the the effort or enthusiasm to attain because the enthusiasm are are the the cause for the results, which are the qualities.
So this is how the effort or, yeah, effort is important because without without effort, which is the cause of the qualities, one will not have the result qualities because and everyone will agree with the statement that there is no result without a cause. So no effort, one will not have the results. Just a mere effort or enthusiasm is not enough too. One needs to have the the the if if that enthusiasm lacks the wisdom, then one will it’s a bit hard for one to attain the entire qualities. So, also, the having a very good wisdom is very, very important to go along with the effort.
And by having those two, along with the combination of those two, the effort and the wisdom, then one will attain the entire qualities. So, the method method for increasing one’s wisdom is practicing the embodiment of the wisdom, which is the Mañjuśrī. And Mañjuśrī has been set forth as the embodiment of wisdom, but purified by doing meditation on Mañjuśrī and reciting its mantra, one increases the knowledge or wisdom. But if one practices the Mañjuśrī, one increases the wisdom. It is because Mañjuśrī is in the is the embodiment of wisdom or it’s in the nature of wisdom.
So because of this, by practicing the deity Mañjuśrī, one increase will develop the wisdom. And and it is and also, if one wants to develop very develop strong or develop a great compassion, it’s good to practice the Chenrezig because because Chenrezig is the because Chenrezig is embodiment of compassion in the sense through through through compassion through compassion, Chenrezig attains the the the the becomes the deity or attain accomplishes the final goals. So this is how it becomes to if I want to develop or get compassion, practice Chenrezig. What Okay. If if I want to attain a power or yeah.
Power in the tantric, a secret tantric practices The vajrapani has this very has a strong power. So or in power or in the sense effectiveness because the tantric practice is set set set forth within the teachings. The tantric teachings has been set forth to be a very most effective or very in terms of attaining very fast in the result result. So so and within tantric practice, yeah, tantric practice, and the vajrapani is that what we vajrapani has the most effective or The power to has strongest power or most effectiveness. Likewise, just mere wisdom is not useful.
If mere wisdom without compassion, one cannot give rise to a result. Know. So there is a saying in Tibetan, like, it’s said that without effort, wisdom is like a corpse, dead body. It is like the corpse or a dead body cannot function as a human or So it’s not a human at all, likewise. So the wisdom is like a corpse without a wisdom, without effort.
You can’t function without possessing. So everyone is saying that everyone is saying we all are saying we wish to have the happiness without suffering. So we wish everyone which wish to attain the happiness without suffering, means the ultimate happiness, very stable happiness. And to to to attain that happiness in terms of the Mahāyāna great vehicle teaching, then one one one one attains that ultimate happiness through training in the combination of wisdom and method. So in order to do so, what we have just said before, the wisdom and the effort is having proper wisdom and effort is very, very necessary.
And in terms of In lower vehicle teaching or yeah. In Hīnayāna teaching, The training in the Hīnayāna teachings, one can abandon abandon the the the all the suffering. One can abandon this one one can abandon the sufferings because because because one can attain abandon the the the causes of the the sufferings which is sufferings sufferings because, yeah, because one one can abandon disturbing emotions in or all entire disturbing emotions through training in the Hīnayāna teachings, and one can also attain the the unchangeable. It is. Yeah.
Because One can attain the the the unchangeable happiness of arhathood according to the lower vehicle teachings. And yeah. So, yeah, one abandoned the root of abandoned the entire suffer entire sufferings according to their vehicle. So and the abandonment they have done in they they do or say that the arhats, liberated arhats of the lower vehicles have attained have abandoned a great abandonment, but their great abandon is not a great abandonment according to Mahāyāna vehicle. So the Arhats, the foe destroyers of the lower vehicles, have have abandoned the sufferings and these disturbing emotions.
And and and the happiness without sufferings according to the lower also needs to also need to be attained through the combination of wisdom and method. So and their wisdom the wisdom and method are in the practice of lower vehicle or the wisdom which is which is the wisdom realizing selflessness of the person and the method is the wish the mind or wish to free attain wish to attain liberation, yeah, wish to attain liberation or called renunciation, which is called the wish to free from cyclic existence. These two are the method and the wisdom. But the wisdom and the method according to the Mahāyāna teachings, which are the moon and sun like bodhicitta ultimate and the conventional bodhicitta is not available in the lower vehicle teachings. Because of that, the Mahāyāna because of that, Hīnayāna practitioners by practicing in the Hīnayāna tradition, one will not attain able to attain the the ultimate goal, ultimate the ultimate state, which is state which is free from all the negativities and and and had attained the entire good qualities.
Because of lacking these two with the wisdom and the method, the two two ultimate and the conventional altruistic intentions, the the the lower vehicle practitioners are not able to abandon entire negativities and and also not able to attain the good quality entire good qualities. So, this is the reason of reason which shows the how important the the Mahāyāna, the great vehicle teachings are or is because because because it has those two great qualities, wisdom and method, the the on the ultimate and the conventional bodhicittas. And through this, one can eventually attain the the ultimate state free state which is free from faults. And, also, through this, one one one one can accomplish both the purposes the the purposes purposes of self and others. These are the teachings set forth by great master lord Buddha Śākyamūni, and it is not just he simply said it without any reasons.
Like in general, in one’s ordinary lot, the people speak differently, many people speak all the times. Some people, they just said something without any reason, simply said it, and some people said something with the reasons. So the the teachings all this entire teaching set forth by lord Śākyamūni is not just simply set without any without any proof or or or or or any reasons. So he has set forth all the teachings teachings and which actually makes sense, and it has a very it one can one it’s set it has been set forth with a lot different varieties of reasons, and one can one can prove those teachings as true through numbers through applying numbers of valid logic or valid through valid reasons. So, I find on this this just what we have talked to today it’s been important.
And so so for that reason, today, I have made the the some introductory teaching or or keep these teachings as a bit of a clarification. So these teachings, what we have said for this life, are foundation of the teaching and we can still make it more obvious or more clearer through giving through the teachings of of valid cognition set forth by the numbers of teachers or great masters like Candrakīrti, the great masters Candrakīrti, Dignāgā, and Dharmakīrti set forth. They have set forth the numbers of valid reasonings which makes which proved the things as true as well as make everything much clearer. Do you need a translation for that? The so there are lots of teachings of valid cognitions proved set forth by those great masters which even makes us more knowledge to understand the teachings in better way and much clearer.
Like, at this stage, we are sort of like in a dark house with a dim light and we can see something but not really clear like that. So if one knows, understands all the teachings of the Lord, understands in the teachings set forth by those great masters, the logics, the valid cognitions, then one will feel like that it will become like the house with the dim light has shone brightened up with a great light of sun and one can understand that one awakes in the spiritual level and very feel delighted and happy to see things clearly. And asked Rumbushi. You’ve seen the gesture by Rumbushi. I feel very happy.
Yeah. Yeah. So, as we said, the method and the wisdoms are the main to attain the final goal, and those two, wisdom and method, make steps from the bottom. And on the upper part, from the old masters, on top of that, we also need to receive the blessings from the great masters. And by in order to receive the blessings, one needs to have like a rope to extract or pull down all the blessings which are the faith belief or devotions.
So these things are very necessary to receive or extract the blessings from the the masters. And and in order to have that that so as this this belief, faith, and devotions are very important And to to develop such things, one it’s it’s it’s very important for one to know the the true nature of the teachings and the the the the advantages, the benefits of doing so. By seeing the the benefits or benefits, then one one will have no problem to develop all this faith and so forth. So for that reason, I have set forth all these teachings here, and and I also find it a bit important and wishing that if the people have a proper proper devotion, faith and so forth, to have to receive the blessings, extract the blessings. So I have met many people in Australia.
The people say, I don’t trust anyone I don’t believe anyone. And it’s quite understandable because in our normal life, somebody trusts someone with something very important, nice people, obviously, and later on it turns out to be a bad person doing something wrong and then you trust something and the person makes a mistake. That is quite understandable and I can also see the reason why they say that I don’t trust or I don’t believe. But the belief which we talk here is not necessarily talking about the ordinary person. To whom we believe is the person who never makes mistake and who is perfectly all it’s the valid person to the being to trust and have belief.
It’s not the same word, we use the same word belief, but it’s not the same as what we normally say in our normal days. So, in the spiritual terms of belief, which we say is very reliable and very stable, that that it will never deceive you unless if if if unless you it will never deceive you and and and one can it’s a trustworthy one can take entire full belief in it. If one makes the mistake or you yourself deceive the person, that’s your own fault, but there’s no fault in the other part which you believe or respect. For example, like Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, they are trustworthy and the Triple Gem, and it is not cold and never deceives you. No?
So we’ll stop here today and take a couple of questions if you have Seems perfect. I’ve actually gave lots of kittens here which has lots of many areas where you can ask the questions. What did you say? Were those Sanskrit words something on it? And the vipassana I really don’t know actually the Sanskrit words, what does it mean.
The problem area is I don’t really know the Sanskrit Sanskrit word, what it means. So it could be the wisdom and method of the Hīnayāna way he calls it, but I’m not really sure about the words. There are different sort of practices in the Hīnayāna. People remain silent, they don’t talk, Making the Bhagavad Gita thing, practicing, you know, go through walking meditation, focus on one’s steps and not talking, maintaining silence. Keeping silent is like a method and focusing on one’s walking meditation is like a wisdom.
So this sort of thing could be a lower vehicle thing. It is the doing that maintaining silence and doing walking meditation with mindfulness is also very good in our practices of wisdom and method because and it is very effective because by keeping it silent, remaining silent, that one, one, one, one, one eliminates lots of negativities because we talk a lot, people talk and they sometimes talk very good things and most of the time the usual trivial thing or with the rest of time as well as picking on others, so forth. Through this, one cultivates a lot of negative deeds. So by abandoning, by maintaining silence, one stops a huge amount of negative deeds which are very helpful to attain the liberation of the lower vehicle. And then by focusing and being mindful on one’s walking meditation which has the wisdom is the wisdom part mindfulness needs to go along with the wisdom because the wisdom which investigates the things, what to do, and by clarifying or by investigating through investigation one comes to the through investigation then the mindfulness, being mindful on particular subject like where the steps one makes.
Because of the wisdom clarifies wisdom’s clarification, the mindful being mindful on the topic. So that practice is effective and it has included the wisdom and the method path. So, that practice includes the wisdom and the method as well, but the wisdom and method in that practice is not the wisdom and method of the Hīnayāna school to attain liberation or attain arhathood because in order to attain or her foot in terms of low vehicle, one needs the wisdom part or because one needs to attain one wants to liberate oneself from the cyclic existence and in order to do that, one needs to cut the root of cyclic existence which is ignorance. And in order to abandon the ignorance, the real ignorance, one needs to have the wisdom realizing selflessness, which is the wisdom part. That wisdom realizing emptiness wisdom realizing selflessness requires the company of the renunciation, wish to free from cyclic existence, is the method part.
So through the combination of that wisdom realizing emptiness and the wish to free from cyclic existence, then one frees oneself from this cyclic existence and attains the arhathood, being liberated oneself from So therefore, in for the lower the Hīnayāna preparation to attain liberation, Buddha Śākyamūni has set forth the teachings of four noble truths. No.