Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 88-minute session, Khensur Rinpoche opens the middling-scope section of his Lamrim series with a striking image: a criminal bound to a tree, helpless against sun and rain — a picture of how disturbing emotions chain the “I” to successive bodies through saṃsāra. He then maps all three scopes in turn: the small scope targets seven negative bodily and verbal actions to secure a suitable rebirth; the middling scope goes to the root, attacking ignorance through the three trainings of ethics, concentration, and wisdom, aiming at liberation; the great scope uproots the subtle imprints of disturbing emotions to reach omniscience. A Q&A closes the session, including practical guidance for beginners on how to start Mahāyāna practice immediately through a short refuge and bodhicitta prayer.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 23 LR 1999 08 24.mp3
UUID: 4e2bbed7-e1a7-4585-8ac4-44d29c9abe5f
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1999-08-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 88.1 minutes
Words: ~5,728
So we have started the the the part the part of the intermediate states or intermediate capacity, intermediate scope. Also said that the main, it has been classified, it has the four divisions which are the actual way of training the mind in the middling scope and criterion of having developed the mind and clarifying the fault or doubt. The fourth is the mode of establishing the nature of the path which leads towards liberation. So the teaching called Lamrim is the stages of the graduated path, or the stages of the path. And here, this it’s called the stages of the path because the it has been divided into three parts or three parts and which are the first one is called small small part or small it’s been said, small scope, middling scope, and the great scope.
So the person who who are newly or who was who have a person ordinary person or the person of the person of the first stage or first level will first train in the small scope. And by training training in a small scope for a while and through one in small scope for a while, he or she develops their practices and their knowledge in in the path and by by advancing their knowledge in the or the understanding or knowledge in the path, then they gradually transfer to a middling scope and then towards the great scope. So life is more or less like the kids been trained in the school that they started from first from the kindergarten or from very first stage and then towards the primary high school and college. It’s like training in the stages or the graduated parties like that. So we have reached towards the second grade.
What it means causing So in general, we call it saṃsāra or cyclic existence. Within the saṃsāra, in cyclic existence, there’s only suffering and we undergo to huge sufferings. We experience suffering all the time. So what we need is we need to free. We need to be liberated from the cyclic existence.
And to say to seek liberation, which means by having if one is being liberated, then the happiness derived or happiness comes by liberating oneself is a very long lasting or perfect happiness. And so as we know that one has to free oneself or liberate oneself, one first needs to recognize from where one needs to liberate it. So in order to do that, are two types of it says the arousing of aspiration to attain liberation and which itself has two divisions showing So if you demonstrate an example here then, for example, a person who is a thief or or or someone who is a criminal being caught by detectives, And he he or she’s been tied up tied by a huge rope tied to a very huge tree and with a very, very strong strong strong rope. And by tying it’s being tight so he he or she can’t escape from that rope. So as he or she can’t do anything to help oneself, and he’d been tied to the huge tree and left in the open air.
And and then then, say, the weather and suddenly, the weather changes turned it into very terrible weather. It rains in this very sunny, very hot sun. So the person will get squashed or burned by this sun and also been tortured by rain, getting wet and so forth and he and she can’t help. So due to that, the person will undergo through huge suffering. So the person will undergo huge sufferings of cold and hot as well as from hunger and thirst.
So that’s the example and likewise our body like that tree and a person, we normally which we say I. So I is the one and I who resides within this body is the person being tied to that tree. Likewise, so what and the so there are we have the action and disturbing emotions disturbing emotions. And within these two, the main is the disturbing emotion, which act as the act as rope to tie one their eye towards this body and never letting this body and the mind or the mind or whom we consider ‘I’, never let them separate and tie them together forever. Being ‘I’ is being together with that particular body forever and by conjoining or being with the body, the person or I goes through huge sufferings because this body has, by nature or this body itself has huge sufferings: hunger, thirst, cold, and so forth.
And so this is the body. Being so our body itself, body and the mind, which has been tied by the disturbing action and the disturbing emotions is called the saṃsāra or cyclic existence. We undergo through suffering, huge suffering all the time by those disturbing emotions which tie us towards the body, tied us with that body. And so by the certain, say, the disturbing emotion and the action action and the disturbing emotion tied us to this present body. And by tying up together and when the action yeah.
When the action or the yep, the action comes to the cease. Being along being this I with this body, then suddenly the action and emotion untied itself and let this eye free from the particular body and again tied the eye into another body of the animal and so forth. Then we’ll let it tie the eye with that animal body for a certain time or until the power of that action will come to cessation. Then, again, we’ll swap towards the other body. So being changing body but but but what it does is that we always change we change the body for that I and the disturbing emotion will tying this body or I into a particular body existence and due to that we circle in this cyclic existence and by taking a dip by tying or by getting with the different bodies or different forms one goes through different sort of sufferings in the cyclic existence.
So as and so do so as you remember that example that that many a person has been tied to to a huge tree, and if someone or oneself cut that rope with a knife, then the person or he or herself is he or her is being free from that rope or from that yeah. No. So likewise, so what we need to as our body is being tied up by the way of disturbing emotion and action, and among these disturbing emotions is the main one which has tied us into this body. So what we need to do is we need to cut that rope of disturbing emotion and and let this eye and eye and the body been separated let it be separated from the form of form of or separated being tied up by the the influence of disturbing emotions and action. The name is anything So if one is able to do such, then they cut the rope of the disturbing emotion, we one has one is being liberated from the saṃsāra or cyclic existence and by liberating oneself from the saṃsāra, one will only have happiness.
So if one is being free from cyclic existence then one will only have happiness. It is because we undergo huge sufferings due to the disturbing emotions and action or karma. By liberating oneself from the cyclic existence, then it means that one is free from those disturbing emotions and the cyclic and the action. And by having eliminated the action and the karma, action and the disturbing emotion, then there is no cause for the causes of suffering has been abandoned and so as there is no cause for the suffering, the one will not have suffering. So this is the reason is how by attaining liberation one will only have happiness.
So that is just analogy or to demonstrate that the person that we are not that person who has been tied up by rope to a tree. So we are also being tied by the disturbing emotion and the action, but one can’t really see that and it’s not one does not necessarily need to see that one has been tied like the one person who has been tied towards the tree. So how one is being bound by the disturbing emotions and the action is that because of our karma, the accumulated karma in the previous life, and due to that, at the time one dies and one travels in the intermediate state and within the intermediate state, one’s consciousness will dissolve or enter into the sperm of the father and the mother’s ovum. And by entering the by by dissolving or entering into the the mother’s sperm, and then one will take a form or one take birth in any form. And it once it’s been dissolved or entered into his mother’s sperm, it is through the influence or the pressure of the disturbing emotion and the action.
And due to that, one will take a form or one will take another birth. As it has been influenced by the disturbing emotion, one is still not free from the disturbing emotion and the cyclic action. So this is how once you undergo the suffering, so this is the way or this is how one has been bound by the rope of disturbing emotion and action. So due to the power of particular karma or action, one being tied up with a particular form and and and will stay with what the eye or the person will stick with the the particular body until the the power of particular action will cease or come to the end. And by coming towards the cessation or becoming towards the end of the certain power or the power of the action, then one will the person or the eye will be separated from the particular from that body and then transferred towards another, you know, transfers towards another form or another body or so so to and likewise and and after that, one keep cycling.
So, you know, one one will keep changing the forms of of or changing the forms within the cyclic existence, changing the forms in different for, like, six types of forms or six types of beings from the human towards the god realms and then towards the god and then to demigods and the hell realms, animal realms, and hungry ghost realms, and so forth. And so as far as one’s been not free one’s mind one is not being free from those disturbing emotion and action, one will keep circling in one will keep changing the form within the cyclic existence and keep circling in the saṃsāra and will never be free from saṃsāra unless one has been free from those disturbing emotion and action. So if one asks who produced or who gives us the suffering, then it is within our body which produces or which gives us the suffering or let us undergo through sufferings. Because in our mind, we we have two two two types of minds called the positive state of mind and the negative state of mind. So negative state of mind is called is the mind which is called the disturbing emotions and and which which which produces this which produces this suffering and so forth.
And the positive state of mind is is the mind which gives happiness all the time by developing the compassion or the bodhicitta or altruistic intention and developing a perfect, correct view and so forth. So these are the causes for the happiness, by developing the positive state of mind, one produces or one will have the happiness for the result. So this is how we call it the practice. The practice is to abandon or minimize the bad state of mind which is disturbing emotion and cultivate or increase the good state of mind or the positive state of mind. So this is called we have by developing or increasing a good state of mind, one will have the happiness for the result.
And if and and if one abandons or eliminates the bad state of mind, then one abandoning or minimizing the So one should try to abandon the bad state of mind which is disturbing emotion and is also the root causes for the suffering. So disturbing emotion is the one which gives produce this suffering. So, the practice here means is or the practice of or practice Dharma, which means is to cultivate or increase the good state of mind and abandon or minimize the bad state of mind. So the bad state of mind or the disturbing emotion is the one which harms or produces suffering in this life as well as in the future. So trying to abandon such a disturbing emotion or that sort of mind from its root is very becomes very important or yeah, where it becomes very important.
About the bad state of mind, there are many, many minds which are within the bad state of mind. Among the bad state of mind, the greatest or the called the ignorance. And ignorance is the one which obstruct us or or Which obstruct us to to understand the reality or the perfect to to gain the knowledge of the truth. And so by without knowing as it act as obstacle or obstacle us to know understand the meaning of perfect or correct meaning of the truth. Then due to that, one so so so one lacks the knowledge of what to be done and what to be avoided.
Without knowing, by lacking such knowledge, one always involve or engages negative actions. And another is called the attachment or desire, which do do by having that attachment or desire, one becomes very greedy and very focused on that, becoming so greedy and voracious, and due to this, one having strong attachment or desire, one is likely to involve or perform this sexual misconduct and stealing and act of stealing because of wanting or having so attached it to some to particular thing or to to a things when one starts stealing the things. And it is also to these days, there’s huge war in these worlds and all this war happens or comes comes due to having too too much attachment or desire or or so being so greedy of, like, wanting to control our other country and wanting to become or put all everything under one’s control and so forth. So all these problems or bad actions comes by the results of having this attachment or desire. And so by having strong desire or attachment due to this, then one has we have strong desire or yes.
And due to that, one feels very one one one becomes very greedy and wants too much. And by not getting what one wish, then one becomes one one becomes very frustrated and then getting angry yeah, develop an anger towards other people by saying that he or she is the one who stopped me fulfilling my wishes and so forth. By developing anger then one is likely to one will start involving in a bad action it’s like killing someone else killing killing and stealing and so forth. So by developing all those disturbing emotions one may be more likely to think that this is alright, it didn’t hurt me. What it hurts is just by developing such one one one will hurt others.
So one might think that it hurt it will hurt harm others but not oneself. So by developing those disturbing emotions, it harms very badly towards oneself as well because of having those disturbing emotions then it controls one’s mind And by controlling one’s mind, one I mean, our mind will have no freedom and it will the disturbing emotion will have a complete control of our mind and that it can lead the mind wherever it wants. The mind is being controlled by the disturbing emotion due to that and our body is controlled by our mind and so as that mind has been controlled by the disturbing emotion and our body is being controlled of the mind and due to that the body will start or the person will start will not have any freedom or yeah, any freedom and being influenced by the disturbing emotion in mind and due to that, and the person will perform a huge negative actions like killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, lying, and so forth, and will perform various various of of non virtuous action. And so if one examines what brings one to perform or person to engage or produces all those those disturbing negative actions, it is the root cause will lead to the disturbing emotion the root one which causes person to perform all those negative actions.
So, excuse me. So this is it. It’s very important. I find it very important to know these states of the mind and the disturbing emotions and the person. Due to that, I’ll try to give more detailed teachings on it today. Because of having developing those disturbing emotions, and our mind, as we said, mind has been controlled by the disturbing emotion.
That mind will control the person or the body. Due to that, the person will produce the three negative actions of the body and the four negative actions the speech. As a result of performing such seven negative actions, one will be born in the lower states or one will go into bad migration. By taking birth in the lower realms, one will always have suffering and also experience such suffering for a long time. So this is the huge disadvantage of having the disturbing emotion and it is because we call it the enemy and enemy.
Enemy, The way or how we constitute enemy is that the one who gives us or who produces or who harms us. So disturbing emotion is the one who really harms us and let us let us suffer or suffering let us suffer in these lower lower state of lower states for a long time, as well as even in this lifetime. But even in this lifetime, it produces many many sufferings and produce uncomfortable and so forth. So disturbing emotion is the one which produces all those suffering. And and so so those two, the seven negative actions, the three of the body and the four of the speech are the actual results of the producing, developing, and disturbing emotion.
And in order to overcome or abandon the the seven negative action, so the training the path of the training of the small scope or the small scope is the is the antidote towards the towards antidote towards the seven negative action, and we can it is also right to say that the the main elimination of the practice of the small part is small scope is to be are are are are this abandon are the abandonment of the seven negative act seven negative actions, or we can say the the negation of the small scope of those seven negative actions. Yeah. So I should say the main abandonment of the the small scope are the dose seven negative action And it yeah. It is because because the person, the practitioner of the small scope is afraid of taking birth in the lower realms and lower migrations. And so due to that, it becomes it the seven negative action becomes the main abandonment of the small scope because because the main causes to take birth in the in the lower realms now.
So for us, we have two types of attainment or achievements which are the higher rebirth and the definite goodness. And and the the practitioner of the small scope the practitioner of small scope considers and wishes to attain the higher rebirth. And so in order to have a higher rebirth, one has to guide the ethical discipline of abandoning the abandoning these ten non virtues. Without abandoning or without eliminating those ten non virtues action, then one will not have or one will not receive or attain the better rebirth or better state, no? So here the better rebirth refers to a rebirth which will become a basis to attain liberation and it doesn’t mean that just the hearer the better rebirth doesn’t mean to just simply refers to a better state, better rebirth, just having a better rebirth from the lower I mean lower the beings from the lower state.
So here it refers to a particular higher rebirth which is the basis to attain the liberation. And so in order to attain such a rebirth, one has to have a basis to attain such a rebirth. One has to have all the basis of it. One one will have the ethical discipline of of of abandoning the ten non virtues which will become which will act as a basis and the six and the six perfect training in the six perfection which will act as a company towards that basis and making a pure making a pure prayers which will conjoin those two practices of ethical discipline and perfection and by having all those three, developing all those three, then by performing all those three together, one will have one will attain or will have a the better rebirth which has been which is the better rebirth to to have all those eight leisures and ten endowments, is also called the optimum human rebirth, which is the basis to attain the liberation. And this is the main so here, the the the person of small scope strives to attain such a higher rebirth or higher states.
Just to attain a better state then, just to attain a better rebirth, one does not need all those requirements, all those ten just by keeping a single ethical discipline will help, you know, will will help to attain or will attain the the better rebirth, but such a rebirth, you know, will not is not a basis of under, is not a rebirth which is suitable to attain the liberation. So, for example, like someone has attained a human rebirth but physically he or she appeared as a human, have all those bodies physically attained but the way they think are more or less same as the animals. So such a person is not a suitable object or their rebirth, the better rebirth study is not the suitable object to attain the liberation. So so this is how the person the the practitioner of the small scope trains in the refuge from the beginning and then and and then with the action and their their results and which is by training in and abandonment of the ten non-virtues and cultivating the ten positive actions and within the ten non virtues, they mainly try to abandoned trying to abandon the negative, the first seven negative actions which are the three of the body and three of the mind, speech.
The purpose of training in such practices is to attain a better rebirth which is the suitable object to attain liberation. So the practitioner of the small scope will try mainly to abandon mainly the seven negative actions and whereas in the practitioner of the middling scope, the practitioner will focus mainly on mainly to abandon the disturbing emotion because during the while training in the scope, one has a fear of taking birth in the lower rebirth and instead of that, one tries to attain a better rebirth and due to that, one abandons the the seven negative action. And while in the while in the while in the middling state or middling scope, one come one knows that all the seven negative actions are mainly comes from the root which is disturbing emotions. Whereas so during the during the intermediate scope or the middling capacity / middling scope, one tries to abandon the disturbing emotion itself. And so the attainment of the small scope is the higher rebirth and the other yeah.
So the the attainment of the middling scope is the definite goodness and as for the definite as for the definite goodness, it has two divisions called the liberation and the enlightenment. And the the enlightenment and the the percussion of the mid middling scope are are the attainment of the the middling scope is to attain the liberation which is or yet to attain the happiness of of attaining the liberation by by by just by abandoning the disturbing emotions. So just to just to have attained the liberation. So so the the person of the middling scope tries to attain the liberation of happiness of attain do derived from attaining the liberation. And so in order to in order to in order to attain the liberation, one has to abandon the disturbing emotion.
And the root of the disturbing emotion is the ignorance. And in order to in order to abandon the ignorance, the antidote towards the ignorance is the wisdom which realizes or which yeah, the wisdom realizes realizing emptiness. And so in order to gain that wisdom realizing emptiness, one trains in the in the the training of wisdom. And to have so and as for the method to maintain as for the math method to maintain or train maintain the the practice maintain the training in the wisdom, one one one trains in the training of meditative stabilization or concentration. And therefore, so in order to maintain those two practices, two trainings, the training of the wisdom and concentration or meditative stabilization, one one trains in the the the training of ethical discipline.
So so so this comes or this shows that the that in order to attain liberation, the practitioner of the mid middling scope trains in the in the three training in the three trainings which are the training in the wisdom the training in the wisdom, meditative stabilization, and the training in ethics. Nice, nice. And then in the middle, in this, the practitioner of the great scope or the Mahāyāna practitioner and what they so they tried their abandonment or what they try is what they try to abandon the imprints, yeah, abandon the imprints which is printed or they try to abandon all the predispositions which is laid by or printed by those disturbing emotions And the the the the those those let those imprints act as a obscuration and obscured one from seeing the reality of the phenomena. And in order to overcome those imprints or the dispositions of that lead by the disturbing emotions within one’s mind stream, the practitioner of the the the great scope or the Mahāyāna practitioner, they abandon, so they try to abandon such imprints or predispositions. So and attainment of the great scope is the enlightenment or all knowingness.
It says all knowingness or all knowing because because one’s aim is to help the sentient beings. And and to in order to help the sentient beings, first, one has to know that what the sentient beings they need, what sentient beings need, what is their wish and their intention. Without knowing the intentions or the wishes of these sentient beings, one cannot help the sentient beings. One has to be like a doctor that the doctor in order to help the patient, because doctor needs to know what is the diagnosis that the patient has and by knowing that the disease of the patient, the doctor can prescribe the medicine to the patient and if the doctor prescribed the medicine without knowing the diagnosis or the disease of the patient, then there is a danger of giving or mistreating the patient or giving a wrong medicine. So likewise, in order to help all those sentient beings or lead all those sentient beings towards the state where there is no where there is no sufferings, only have only happiness.
First one should know what first one the Buddha or one should know the wishes of the what the the wishes of the sentient beings and what they require or what they need. And by knowing all the the knowledge, by knowing what they need and so forth, then they can give the teachings and and and also want to know the what what teachings are helpful or mean, needed to a particular person just by giving all the teaching at one time is not helpful. Once you know their wishes or what teaching will be benefit to a person to bring that bring such person towards the state of the ultimate happiness. So all the Buddha’s teaching should the giving of the teaching, should be like giving the right medicine towards the right patient or towards the right dynasties and so due to that, so in order to know all those, know the wishes of the sentient beings and what they want or what do comments, what teaching suits to sentient beings, such particular person to bring bring that into the state of ultimate happiness. The ignorant the the predispositions or the imprints of the disturbing emotion act as act as obstacle and which obscures ones from knowing the wishes or the understanding the wishes of the sentient beings.
So this is the reason that the practitioner of the great scope mainly tries to abandon the imprints of the disturbing emotions and in order to abandon such, they train in the generation of bodhicitta or altruistic intention and cultivating the correct view and so forth. So the practices of the small, middling and the great scope very very important and helpful. Okay. So we’ll stop here today and take a few questions if you have. Yes, please.
There’s huge differences. So the wisdom the development of wisdom realizing emptiness of those middling scope or the practice, the practitioner of the middling scope also is called the lower vehicles. So as being a person of a lot No. No. And the way they establishes the wisdom realizing emptiness is very very not very intense.
The way intense the way the practitioner of the the the great scope establishes the emptiness because because because the person or the the person the practitioner of the middling capacity / middling scope is not sharp as the person of the great scope and whereas the person of the scope, when they establishes the wisdom realizing emptiness, they establishes the emptiness through applying hundreds of of hundreds and thousands of logics and reasonings and through many views, they establishes the establishes the emptiness or wisdom realizing emptiness. Due to that, cultivation of wisdom realizing emptiness becomes very, very powerful and which becomes the they become a very powerful antidote towards the obscuration of liberation or obstruction towards omniscience. Yeah. Do you practice with the intention of bodhicitta when you’ve only just started practicing? That’s such a short time. How to start Buddhist practice without the altruistic intention?
Buddhism? So, in order to become alright, I’ll read it exclusively. In order to perform a practice of Mahāyāna, one has to have a Mahāyāna motivation or intention which is bodhicitta or altruistic intention. If one practices the practices of Mahāyāna without developing a bodhicitta or altruistic intention, one’s practice will not become a Mahāyāna practice even though it is the teaching of Mahāyāna. So this is the reason the great master Tsongkhapa stated that there is no help if the teaching is Mahāyāna and if person is not a Mahāyāna practitioner then by studying the Mahāyāna teaching will not become Mahāyāna practice Mahāyānist practice and also will not have benefit of the practice of Mahāyāna.
So in order to become a Mahāyānist or practitioner of Mahāyāna, one needs to develop a bodhicitta or altruistic intention and by having cultivated the bodhicitta then the practice one performs will become a Mahāyāna practice or yeah, Mahāyāna practice and without having Mahāyāna motivation or intention, the bodhicitta, then if even one practices the Guhyasamāja Tantra, which is the very intense or, yeah, very intense or yet high teaching but the teaching itself won’t become a Mahāyāna practice because the person who practices is not the Mahāyānist. So this is the reason every beginning of the teaching we talked about the generation of the importance of developing a bodhicitta or altruistic intention and so it’s very important to do one’s practice by developing an altruistic intention and in order to have such from the beginning, one does not necessarily need a vast understanding of the bodhicitta or altruistic intention because from the beginning, just by having a knowledge or just doing a practice with the intention of seeing that I shall attain, become, or I should achieve the enlightenment as soon as possible in order to save all the sentient beings from suffering and bring them to the state of ultimate happiness.
For that purpose I shall overcome all the negativities and attain good qualities for the sake of all sentient beings. And for that purpose do the meditation and do my practices of meditation and so forth. So just by having, just by developing such an intention, one has developed the mind of Mahāyāna or Mahāyāna motivation and the practice one has performed, whatever practice one performed just by developing such intention and one can or one will have a taste of practicing So from the very outset, as one has not had much knowledge about the Mahāyāna, it is okay or it is good to start the practice just by reciting the refuge prayer three times from the beginning which is that I shall go take refuge in Buddhadharma and Sangha until attainment of enlightenment for the sake of sentient beings and due to that I practiced the generosity and so forth. By reciting those refuge prayers three times and then performs one practices and one practice itself, one practice will become a Mahāyāna practice. Doing such practices from the beginning, reciting three times the refuge and bodhicitta prayers, it’s okay for a time being and don’t just stick with it forever for a time being, and then increase train one’s mind and increase one’s knowledge and step towards the higher states or higher qualities.
Okay, thank you.