Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche opens this 100-minute session with a pointed question: how can students develop genuine faith in Buddhist teachings without logical grounding? Drawing on Candrakīrti’s Middle Way and Dignāgā’s Compendium of Knowledge, he traces a chain of reasoning — hearers arise from Buddha, Buddha from Bodhisattvas, and Bodhisattvas from great compassion, wisdom realizing emptiness, and bodhicitta — to establish that great compassion is the root of all Buddhist teaching. He then unpacks eight logical proofs embedded in Dignāgā’s opening homage verse, showing how reading them in forward order maps the entire Mahāyāna path and in reverse order maps the Hīnayāna path. A Q&A session closes the teaching, covering selflessness, the situation of beings who lived before Śākyamūni, and the promise of future Buddha Maitreya for sincere practitioners.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 23 LR 2000 08 01.mp3
UUID: 8b4a1c67-773e-4787-aef4-c6da9a3ce206
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Lam Rim (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 2000-08-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 100.0 minutes
Words: ~4,624
Awareness. Before we do the practice of listening, contemplation, and meditation, we shall first develop a motivation of altruistic intention, and then during the practices of all this listening and so forth, along with the motivation of altruistic intention, the practice will become very helpful and the result of doing so will be great. So, you know, all the sentient beings, they wanted to achieve a happiness which is ultimate happiness as well as the unchangeable happiness. Although they wish to attain that, but there are a few in number of sentient beings who have attained only few in numbers who have attained. The rest of them wishes to attain this ultimate happiness.
They don’t just lack the ultimate happiness, they also lack the uncontaminated happiness as well. So focusing on those sentient beings who lack both happiness should develop here, meditate on love, wishing them to have all the entire happiness and yeah, wishing them to have the entire happiness and its causes. And then those sentient beings not just lacked happiness. On top of that, they were also tortured by the different types of sufferings, like three types of sufferings and so forth, the suffering of suffering, suffering of change, and suffering of pervasive conditions. They are more likely intoxicated by the sufferings, so by knowing those sentient beings that have been tortured by the sufferings, they develop a compassion, meditating on compassion along with the four aspects or four attributes wishing them to be free from all the sufferings and its causes and making prayers for them to be free from sufferings and taking all the responsible responsibility to free them from the suffering.
So by doing so, the result of doing so will be huge, immense. It cultivates huge merits. Briefly speaking, we should develop a bodhicitta wishing that all the entire sentient beings be free from all the sufferings of cyclic existence and so forth. And in order to do so, I shall so in order to free them from the suffering of cyclic existence, I shall here I shall hear attend practice and practice to overcome all the negativities and attain good qualities to become enlightened for the sake of them. So in order to attain enlightenment for the sake sake of all sentient beings I shall here engage in the practices of listening towards Mahāyāna teaching and then bring all the hearings into contemplation and then to the meditation.
Along with such practice, through this practice, will bring great help towards both self and others and we shall do a short meditation here. So today, in the next upcoming teachings, we will encounter we will encounter with the topics of the yeah, topics like the Hearer school, the solitary realizers, Mahāyāna teachings. Within the Mahāyāna teachings, it has paths and grounds and qualities and comes like the saying the gold basis, gold title, gold basis and so forth. So in order to go through all these teachings, to in order to help people student to understand more clear the upcoming teachings. I feel like doing a introductory teaching here today and saying that telling the true nature true nature of the teachings, what are them what are the teachings and what it means, then we have different sort of students in the class.
Some some students have been in contact with the teachings for a long time and they understand and they have devotion and faith and belief in the teachings and some of them who are very new haven’t had that much quite a big understanding, and because of that they may develop a doubt within themselves thinking does all these teachings exist or not, and the point is if one has a strong devotion and faith towards the teaching, then the teaching will become very effective and helpful help helpful. So in order to help people to develop a strong devotion and faith towards the teaching, I shall hear along with the numbers of logic and proofs. I just want to demonstrate the the the true nature of the teachings here. No. So, the great Indian master called Candrakīrti, who was said to be the emanation of Mañjuśrī and who was expert and specialized in the view of emptiness, and there is a passage set forth from his text called Middle Way and I feel it I find it a bit important here to discuss now.
So if we ask where where where do all those the practitioner of hearers and the solitary realizer, the Pratyekabuddha comes from. So those practitioners comes when the first well, Buddha Śākyamūni turned the first wheel of doctrine and he gave a teaching there. A teaching set forth during the first wheel of Dharma was the teaching of Hīnayāna teaching, and by so by the and the person who practices those teachings and by practicing those teachings, they have attained a liberation, which is called the liberation. They become arhats of the lower vehicles, so practitioners because the practitioners of those the first doctrines is called the Hīnayāna, and those two practitioners he was in the solitary realizers. So before turning the wheel of first doctrine, there were no the Buddhist teaching was not exist at all.
So, in the middle way, says those practitioners, the practitioners, the hearers and the Pratyekabuddha comes by or form the Buddha’s teachings because the Buddha is turning the first wheel of doctrine, therefore the hearers and the solitary realizers comes. And if asked, where does that Buddha come? And the answer and it says that the Buddha comes from the Bodhisattvas because that bodhisattva, by practicing in the paths and grounds gradually attains enlightenment and gives the teaching. So that teaching Buddha comes from the comes from bodhisattva. So this is how it’s stated in the Middle Way text.
The hearers and the solitary realizers come from Buddha, and Buddha comes from Bodhisattvas. Now, where does the Buddha where do Bodhisattvas come from? The bodhisattva is a result of comes from the three qualities the Bodhisattva was born from three qualities, which are great compassion, the view of realizing emptiness, from bodhicitta. It’s about practicing those three qualities: the great compassion, the view of wisdom realizing emptiness, and the conventional bodhicitta, by practicing those three becomes the Bodhisattva. Did you remember one time, right?
Yes. And if asked, is there a level developing the steps, of developing those two qualities within one’s mind stream of the bodhisattva? Then there is according to the person of sharp sharp faculty, the person first develops the great compassion and then develops after this develops the wisdom realizing emptiness the wisdom realizing emptiness and then develops the it was not a conventional bodhicitta, it was called the nominal bodhicitta, and by practicing on the nominal bodhicitta, gradually one attains the genuine bodhicitta or the ultimate bodhicitta. So through this, it shows that the qualities, the root of the entire qualities of the great and the lower the greater and lower vehicle, Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna vehicle, are is the great compassion. Yeah, the great compassion is the root for the entire qualities.
So the root of entire qualities is the great compassion, and about counting the putting in the order, there are two ways of counting. We call it like a proper order starting from the cause or the reversal order which is counting from the very last result and then back towards its cause and cause. Example, like, in the proper order, which is called the cost counting the cost first, then the great compassion comes first, then the wisdom realizing emptiness, the wisdom realizing emptiness, then the nominal bodhicitta. Through this comes the bodhisattva or we have bodhisattva and comes the Buddha, but from Buddha comes the Pratyekabuddha or solitary realizer and the hearers, and if you count through the reversal order, then comes the hearers first and then backwards. So, so it shows that the compassion is the root the great compassion is the root of entire Buddhist teaching, and that great compassion is the one everyone knows that the wish to free sentient beings from the sufferings, and so in that point, sometimes we don’t need to have the real proof or logical approach to prove what is the root of the Buddhist teachings because you can easily see through our naked eye in front of you that the great compassion which we always the great compassion wishing to free sentient beings from the suffering is the source or the root of the Buddhist teaching.
Somebody else? And also the Buddha, Śākyamūni himself has said that the omniscient of the Buddha, which is the one omniscient is the one which understands, realizes entire phenomena. So it’s said that the omniscient comes from the great compassion, through or by practicing great compassion, bodhicitta, practicing six perfection? So in olden days, in the ancient time of India, all the Buddhist practitioners were being criticized by the non-Buddhist philosophers, non-Buddhist practitioners like Jainisms and so forth, telling them those Buddhist practitioners just listen to what Buddha has said and they practice without any reason. They have no valid logic, syllogisms or reasons to prove what they’re teaching or what their practices are true or yeah, their practice are true practice.
So in order to defeat or refute all those criticisms, the great master Choklang in Tibetan, in Sanskrit, which is called Dignāgā, has composed a lot composed many texts on valid cognitions to prove that we have a logical reason of practicing what our to prove our teachings are the true teachings. So, great master Dignāgā has composed a text called the Compendium of Knowledge, and which is the logical the philosophy of logics. That text so in all of this, when someone wants to compose a text, the beginning of the text, person takes refuge first and then makes the pledge or a promise to complete compose to complete or complete the text to compose. Right? So at the beginning of this, the great master Dignāgā has made the same has composed the homage as well as the pledge.
So the first verse of the text he composed includes the homage and the pledge of composing. So the word says the tema iduwa which says the valid one brings help to its sentient beings, the teacher of perfected refuge I take refuge. So we’ll be explaining the meaning of that. So first says the term the first one proves that saying the valid ones the person, valid person, the Buddha Śākyamūni, which refers towards the Buddha because the Buddha is but through practicing, he perfected himself and become a valid person, unmistaken person that who sees the sentient beings, the that those sentient beings who teaches sentient beings what to be practiced and what to be abandoned and telling showing all the the the true method of overcoming all all the unwanted sufferings and abandon its causes as well as in start gift, the right method to attain attain the happiness in its causes, their happiness in their causes. So so because of the person who who unmistakably teaches the right method of helping sentient beings from its sufferings as well and enter it in happiness, who becomes the valid, who turns who is called the valid person.
So today we are studying a bit of Buddhist Pramāna, which is valid, we call it valid cognitions, validations, with debate sort of thing. Think carefully. So, Buddha Śākyamūni is the valid person who unmistakenly teaches what to be practiced and what to be abandoned and what to be taken, cultivated. So as we wish happiness and do not want suffering, and Buddha Śākyamūni is the right person who teaches you or shows you the method, who shows us the method to achieve our happiness and abandon our sufferings, so that means shows us the right practice of abandonment and and abandonment and the achievement or cultivation. So and so he is a valid person.
Now the question comes, how how how one can say that he is a valid person to teach, not to teach us, to show us those methods? And the great master Dignāgā continues that there are numbers of proof or logical proof that Buddha Śākyamūni is a valid person to show us the method. So excuse me. So to in order to prove that Buddha Śākyamūni is the most perfected being or the enlightened and the ultimate the valid person, unmistaken person, to prove that they are are set forth to be, as we call it, the reason of four corners or said to be basically, there are eight logical approaches, logical proofs to prove Buddha Śākyamūni is a perfect person. So the first there are four from the beginning and the four comes afterwards, right?
In four into two becomes eight reasons. The verse, the beginning of the verse, the homage towards the Buddha Śākyamūni, what the word to word was saying, the valid help sentient beings, teacher, happily going beyond protector, I go homage. Taking homage towards the valid person who helps sentient beings who is also a great teacher happily gone beyond and the protector it’s the roughly meaning. So in that two runs, the verses has the shows the has included the attainment and the method of attaining that attainment. So the first one, called the valid one, is the attainment, and the Buddha Śākyamūni has been valid, attained become a valid person and unmistaken which in the sense is the unmistaken person.
So in order to prove that attainment sorry, to be a valid person, the rest four are the ones. So the method of attaining the valid is the next four, saying the first one the next four are who helps sentient beings is the first, and the teacher is the second happily gone beyond is the third. The last one is the protector or a refuge. So it’s the meaning goes same as the previous the logical proof set forth in the middling Middle Way group because the first one so helping sentient beings include which implies the great compassion because without compassion, one can’t help. Because of this, the great compassion was the first one helping sentient beings, and the second one, the teacher, the great teacher, which shows And the second one is teacher, which implies towards the wisdom and so which implies the method and the wisdom.
So these two are called the two perfect causes, and the the result of those two perfect causes are the next two, which is gone beyond and the protector or refuge. By practicing those two or attaining those two perfect causes, one attains the latter two perfect results which are that one will be gone beyond and become a great protector. So Buddha Śākyamūni has attained all these qualities, but therefore is the unmistaken or valid person. Is that all clear? I don’t know.
Sorry. Okay. So which also implies that without practicing, without hard work, one can’t be perfected or one can’t become enlightened. And so from the beginning, the Buddha Śākyamūni had had experienced the sufferings and had disturbing emotions, and he was also from the beginning like us who had attachment, sufferings, and so forth. So and by meeting yeah.
Meeting with the spiritual master and listening his teaching and practicing love and compassion, meditate on the wisdom realizing selflessness and practicing cultivating in those two causes, the wisdom and the method. By by practicing in those two causes, finally attains the final result, which is the omniscient of the Buddha, that that that that omniscient which which which understands all phenomena, and and we so that omniscient has been called is is called called the the the happily gone beyond. And so by attending so, then attaining that omniscience, the Buddha can understand or read others’ mind and they understand people’s what they require, what they need. And through this, it comes that they they benefit sentient beings through through or give teachings to sentient beings according to their wish. So in other words, by practicing all those two perfect causes, he finally attained enlightenment and perfected both the purposes, the self and others.
So, those four are the four logical proofs that they which comes from the proper order. They’re saying through how the valued person or the enlightenment has been achieved through practicing first compassion, and then the teacher said, have said Rinpoche has set forth the meaning of what does those four oshi means. The helping sentient beings which was the great compassion and then the teaching of all the wisdom realizing emptiness and so forth, and then the happily going beyond. The third the fourth one is the protector or refuge. So by practicing in this which is called the proper way, the right order, so by practicing through this, it also shows the entire teachings of the Mahāyāna or great vehicle.
There is other and the other pramāna logical proof is the same thing but going through a reversal order by training from the reverse, like the refuge or a protector, and then with them happily going beyond teacher and the great compassion. Going through the reversal order, it shows the entire teachings of the lower vehicle. So, you can understand easily through this, going through training through this, that the first four reasons, starting from compassion, shows through the proper order, shows the entire teachings of Mahāyāna because it shows about the first, the root, the compassion. Great compassion, one attains the bodhicitta and becomes bodhisattva, and through this, from then attains the wisdom realizing selflessness and which attains the wisdom directly realizing the selflessness of the person. That wisdom directly realizing selflessness cut the root of cut the seed of the self grasping attitude. In doing so, by by abandoning those, one finally abandons the entire negativities and attained one being able to abandon the entire abandonment, which means that one has perfected the self proposes.
By doing so, by attaining so, then one starts teaching to other sentient beings and being able to perfect the other’s purpose. Through this way, one can easily understand that the proper order of logical proof shows the entire teachings of Mahāyāna. And when one goes through the reversal order, it shows the entire the teachings of Hīnayāna entire Hīnayāna teachings because first proof was the reversal order comes to protector or refuge. Because the Buddhas, when they first teach, understand the people’s wish and they can teach according to the person’s wish and what they want. They can read the other’s mind.
Through this, the Buddhas, they teach and the first teachings of the Buddha’s or the Buddha’s first teaching was the Four Noble Truths which are which is the main practice of Hīnayāna, a lower vehicle practice. And the practice teaches the abandonment of two the first two truths, which are true cessation true true suffering and the origin of the suffering, and then cultivate the true path and the true cessation. By unmistakenly teaching the practices of Four Noble Truth, which is the main practice of Hīnayāna, he protects the sentient beings according to their wish teaching according to their wish. So through this, the Buddha Śākyamūni is the refuge or a Buddha is a refuge or a protector. And to prove that the is the protector, the third one, reversal order which happens, second which is happily going beyond.
Because Buddhas can read others’ mind and can teach according to their wish because he has attained or he has happily gone beyond, which is the mind, which is the omniscient of the Buddha which realizes the entire phenomena. By going through this reversal order, it shows the entire teaching flow. And then the next one proves the previous one because so to prove that Buddha the Buddha has happily gone beyond and had attained the omniscient, become omniscient because he has practiced and attained the teaching which we said that the teaching is who has developed the wisdom realizing selflessness and directly realizing selflessness. By attaining that wisdom directly realizing selflessness, which cuts the seed of the self grasping attitude and finally helps the happily go beyond or So the second one, the teaching, or in reversal order it shows the third one, the teaching or the great teacher, which purifies all the entire negative views of the mind and attains the entire qualities or and attain omniscience and so forth. And how come that the the the third one attain enlightenment pretty fast entire entire entire negative false entire false.
It is because because by practicing the the first one now keep saying first. The the universal order, the fourth one, which is great compassion. By practicing a great compassion, it purifies the entire negativity and so great compassion. So here it comes to the same source that previously the great master Candrakīrti in his middle way school said set forth the great compassion is the source, is the main, from through this comes the entire qualities. Now, according to the great master Dignāgā in his Compendium of Knowledge says the same thing, it comes towards the same end that great compassion is the main source or is the root of entire qualities.
So both the teachers have come into the same conclusion. So all those masters like the Master Candrakīrti, Śāntideva, Dignāgā, and the author of Dharmakīrti who composed the commentary of the valid cognition. All those masters are the students of Mañjuśrī. What mean is Je Tsongkhapa?
I mean this is your case. And also the great master Tsongkhapa was a student of Mañjuśrī. Indetachable, shuayasu. So, because they all are the students of the Mañjuśrī, and the Mañjuśrī is the emanation of the wisdom. Therefore, those masters have very sharp intelligence, and they trained in they are very sharp and trained in the logics, and the logic set forth or the philosophy or the logic composed or set forth by those masters are very deep, profound.
So, therefore, one wants to be have a very sharp faculty, good wisdom, and have very deep and profound wisdoms and so forth, it’s it’s good to become a student of Mañjuśrī. Okay? So, today I have briefly spoken about Buddhist logics or debate and also explain the brief some verses of teachings from the master Candrakīrti and Dignāgā. Yeah, Dignāgā. There are other pramāna logic teachings of the great masters like the Dharmakīrti who composed the logic texts which includes the long size traditional text size, page sixty, and those teachings are very, very profound indeed.
So, all these logical spiritual the logical debate proves the true nature of the teachings which are valid. Those teachings come from all those teachings come from the great master, the lord Buddha Śākyamūni. Buddha Śākyamūni is the one who was born in Anyway, sorry, brother. Can’t figure out the calculation here. The Buddha Śākyamūni, who was born in says two thousand five hundred years before, right, ago.
And then at the age of twenty nine, he so until the age of twenty nine, he stayed in the kingdom, trained in various fields. And at the age of twenty nine, he left the kingdom and became a monk and stayed in the six years retreat. Then finally, he teaches the after attaining enlightenment, he finally taught the teachings of Four Noble Truths. Okay. So we’ll stop here and any questions?
We’ll take a couple of questions. Rinpoche said that they just ask a straightforward question in a way that has solid meaning exactly you want to ask. Some people ask the question. It continues. There’s no end at all, which people feel bored about listening to the questions.
Can ordinary people act as selflessness? Selfless. Selflessly. That’s a tricky question. The selflessness, wisdom realizing selflessness, and selflessness we are talking, we just talked, is not the self which we talked about, which is not the nominal self.
The selflessness we are talking here is the selflessness of the person, which according to the school, the tenets or the schools of sūtra and the Cittamātra school. The great master Dignāgā, was set forth to be the practitioner of the Cittamātra, the mind only school. The selflessness comes the set forth in the Four Noble Truth. The teaching of Four Noble Truth is the selflessness according to The selflessness comes through the teachings of the sūtra school and the mind only school, so that is called the selflessness of the person, and that selflessness of the person can be attained by the ordinary, can realize, can be developed or realized by the ordinary person. But I know your question was not we just went deeper there.
The quote says, can ordinary person act selflessly? Can ordinary person act selflessly? So probably put it yeah, the ordinary person, him or herself, is a selfless so everything is selfless this is it, no questions. I’m waiting for questions. Richard, yes please Prior to Buddha Śākyamūni, you’re just talking about the beings in general or talking about the previous life.
So, the sentient beings in general prior to Śākyamūni’s stance. Right? Yeah. So, yeah, those human beings prior to Buddha Śākyamūni, they have a potential to attain enlightenment because all the entire sentient beings have the potential to become or attain enlightenment. Your next question I was trying to break into two bits.
So what was the second bit? Prior to Buddha Śākyamūni, there have been three other Buddhas who came along with the twelve deeds, and during their period, which is prior to Buddha Śākyamūni’s period, there have been thousands of thousands of Buddhists. So, therefore, the good master Śāntideva has set forth, the numberless of eons have been passed, and numberless Buddhas have been passed, but I, because of obscured by my negativities and disturbing emotions, have not been able to see the Buddhas and receive the teachings from the Buddhas, and that’s how I’m still in saṃsāra. So likewise, Buddha Śākyamūni has taught numbers of teachings in the teaching in in the India in India. And and because of our delusions, the negativities, and so forth, they obscured us, and we were have not been able to see Buddha Śākyamūni and receive his teaching directly from him.
And because of this, we are still in cyclic existence. So if we practice very well and abandons all the negativities and achieve or cultivate lots of virtuous actions as much as we can, then we may be born during the time of Maitreya or the Buddha Maitreya, future Buddha, and then can be able to receive teachings from him. And and for the betterment, one you or we or yeah. One may attend become enlightened within that lot or become bodhisattva or attain enlightenment arhathood, liberate from the samsaric existence. So this is what we are hoping at this stage.
And to do that, it entirely depends on our practice at this time. So if you don’t practice, then it’s quite difficult to achieve that as well. Have to be born during that time. It is good for us to practice as much as we can and make prayers to born during the time born in India when the future Buddha Maitreya comes to India or comes to the world to teach. So because the Buddha future Buddha Maitreya has a promise that to help those beings who have practiced during Buddha Śākyamūni’s, the era of Buddha Śākyamūni’s.
So he has that promise, and if you practice well, then it becomes like a hook and a ring, which meets during that time, which will very good.