Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 96-minute opening session of his Mahāmudrā commentary at Buddha House, Khensur Rinpoche anchors the entire series with a physician analogy: the Buddha is a skilled doctor, the Dharma is medicine, and the Sangha are nurses — but the patient must actually take the medicine, not let it accumulate unused in a cabinet. From there he establishes going for refuge as the sole mark distinguishing Buddhist from non-Buddhist practice, tracing its two causes: fear of future suffering and faith that the Three Jewels can remove that fear. He introduces the Mahāmudrā text by Pänchen Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen, outlines its three-part structure of preliminaries, actual practice, and dedication, and names renunciation, bodhicitta, and Mahāmudrā as the three medicines for mental affliction. A brief Q&A closes the session, examining whether fear or positive aspiration is the proper motivation for refuge.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 MM 1996 11 05.mp3
UUID: 4f7c2044-2e2f-4cf6-a174-aa3cb5aaca50
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Mahāmudrā 1996-97 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1996-11-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 96.0 minutes
Words: ~5,996
We’re going to recite some prayers together. We’re going to begin with the prayer on page number one, the first of the prayers where it says, Refuge in bodhicitta, and that will be followed by prayer number two. And then after that we’re going to recite the lineage prayer of the great seal, which is toward the back of the book, and then that will followed by a short mandala offering. So beginning with the first prayer on page one, refuge and bodhicitta. bodhicitta is the awakened heart.
In the prayer of the seven limbs. And toward the back of your prayer book is a prayer in English, the Lineage Prayer of the Great Seal. Namo Mahamudraye. We pray to the magnificent, pervading Lord vajradhara, root of all the glorious first Buddha lineages and spontaneously present in the celestial mountains of the three bodies. Bless us that we may quickly attain the supreme great seal, path of unity, severing the continuum of attachment to the conception of self and bringing consummate skill and love, compassion in the awakened heart.
We pray to supremely wise Mañjuśrī, Father, he gives birth to the victors of the three times in the infinite Buddha fields of the ten directions of the universe. Bless us, that we may quickly attain the supreme great seal, path of unity, severing the continuum of attachment to the conception of self and bringing consummate skill and love of compassion in the awakened heart. We pray to Loving One’s Son along with the lineage of his spiritual children. Bless us that we may quickly attain the supreme Great Seal, Path of Unity, severing the continuum of attachment to the conception of self and bringing consummate skill and love and compassion in the awakened heart. Bless us that we may see our holy spiritual Master as a Buddha, that we may turn aside our attachment to this place of cyclic existence and taking upon ourselves the burden of liberating all mother sentient beings, may we quickly obtain the great seal, the wondrous union of the ordinary and extraordinary paths.
Bless us that our body and your body, Father, that our speech and your speech, Father, our mind and your mind, Father, may become inseparably one. Then turning toward the front of the book, we offer a short mandala, which is on page four. Quoting from a verse by the great Je Tsongkhapa, where he says, Listen with clear minds as fortunate view, who unattached to the pleasures of conditioned existence, endeavoring that the lives of freedom and fortune shall find meaning, entrust themselves to paths pleasing to the victors. So today we all have a human life, and it is by means of this life we can make greatest use of it by practicing the Dharma, that we have the absence of inhibitory conditions and we have all the complete conducive conditions, and that we should not allow our life to be led in a meaningless fashion, but on the contrary, try to bring meaning to our life. So we should seek not to be attached to the conditioned existence and the emphasis on this life, but on the contrary, we should try to develop a kind heart, opening our hearts as a means to bring meaning to our life.
Not only that, we have to begin to concern ourselves with the view of emptiness. We all have a like we need to develop a liking toward emptiness and develop a faith and belief in it. So it said if we can have these three aspects of the path that is to say, to develop a non attachment toward conditioned existence, cyclic existence, if we can develop a kind, caring heart, and if we can be pleased with the view of emptiness, coming to an understanding emptiness, that we have all the complete conducive conditions whereby we can properly listen to the Dharma, that we can practice it, and our life becomes a basis for realizing the Dharma. So all of you have these qualities in their complete manner. And therefore, we should having the basis for making our life meaningful, we should listen to this explanation on the great seal or Mahāmudrā with an attitude to make our life meaningful and try to set aside any types of conflicting ways of thinking which might hinder this process.
If if you if you listen well, that is to say, not allow your mind to to be distracted, then you will be on be able to understand well. So understanding what has been explained, we should then go on to not allow ourselves to forget, to be mindful, to be able to remember what has been learned in order to be able to make use of it in our meditation And in that way, it will be a great benefit. So what should we do at the time of actually listening to the Dharma? We should have an attitude of wishing to alleviate both our own as well as others’ suffering and to bring ourselves as well as others’ happiness. That is to say, we should develop a kind hearted motivation for listening to the teaching.
So because this is the universal vehicle Dharma, that is the Mahāyāna, it’s necessary that we expand our usual attitude and seek to include all others that seeking to listen to this teaching with the motivation to free all other living beings from their suffering and to lead them to complete happiness. And that as a means of achieving this end, that I myself must remove all the various faults from my from my own mind and bring about the consummation of all its excellent qualities. So with respect to the text that we’ll be studying, that is the text on the great seal or Mahāmudrā. Mahāmudrā is a Sanskrit word which I translate as the great seal. And if we were to ask, well, who is the author of this text?
The author is the same author as the the composer of the Guru Puja, that is the offering to the spiritual master, and that is Pänchen Lozang. So it is he. So this Pänchen Trinley Gyatso is a tremendous individual in himself, and he has composed a really precious text. And if we were to develop a great deal of reverence for him and for what he has written, and pay a sense of homage toward him and what he has written, then this will help in removing any obstacles to gaining a clear understanding of the text. So the author, Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen, initially pays homage and then makes a promise or resolve to compose the text.
It is by the power of this promise or resolve that he’s able to bring the text to completion. If we have a resolution to complete the work, this aids us in actually bringing it to an end. So in order to actually practice the great seal, it’s necessary that we involve ourselves in three activities. And these are listed as the actual the prep the preliminaries or the preparations, then the actual practice itself, and finally, a dedication where we dedicate or the concluding act of dedicating the virtue of skilled actions created thus. So this applies to any great work that we might undertake.
First, we we ask to make the necessary preparations or do the preliminary work. And then having done the preliminary, done well the preparations, then we involve ourselves in the actual task itself. And having done the preliminary work well, the actual work will also go well. And in consequence, in conclusion, we can say to ourselves, I’ve done very good, very good. It’s gone well.
Very happy. Very happy. So with respect to the first of these three activities, that of the preliminary preparation, this has two parts. The first of these is going for refuge and what is technically termed mind generation, that is the development of an awakened heart or simply opening the heart. So going for refuge and opening the heart is the first of these two preparations.
The second of them is the accumulation of the collection of creative potential or merit and the purification of negativities. So the the accumulation of the collection of creative potential or merit, and the purification of negativities is the second. So with respect to the first of these two preparations, and that is going for refuge. And this is what we usually do. For example, when we in our meditation session, we would recite the verse that we recited previously, but in English, I go for refuge and enlighten to the Buddha, the Dharma, the highest assembly.
So this is the formal verse for going for refuge, and this is what makes will make the following practice a Buddhist practice. It will become a Buddha Dharma. First, it’s necessary that we go for refuge to the Buddhadharma and Sangha in order for our practice to be a Buddhist practice. Otherwise, it it doesn’t fall within the context of a Buddhist practice. So what is it that distinguishes a Buddhist practice from a non-Buddhist practice?
It is just this, this fact of going for refuge. If there is no going for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, then the practice is not following to the category of a Buddhist practice. So this is the measure, the means by which we distinguish a Buddhist practice from a non-Buddhist practice. This was the thought of all the great the wise of India, the great masters such as the teacher Shantipa, and also extends to the various sects in Tibet itself, whether it be Kagyupa, Sakya, or Gelug. The distinguishing factor between Buddhist and non-Buddhist practice is going for refuge to the Buddhadharma and Sangha.
So if in this you know, this isn’t an arb this isn’t arbitrary. This complete limbs of refuge in order for the refuge to be effective. And this going for refuge has its cause, the cause for going for refuge, the object toward whom we’re going for refuge or towards what we’re going for refuge to, and thirdly, the mode of going for refuge, the way in which we go for refuge. So what is the cause for going for refuge? And we we it’s necessary that we try to bring our practice within the the context of Buddhist practice.
And by the way, the question, what if it’s necessary to go for refuge for our practice to be that of a Buddhist practice, well, what is the reason for going for refuge? So if we were to be able to answer this question, the reason for the necessity of going for the reason behind our necessity of going for practice, then we would really understand the cause for going for refuge. So if having this question to put to ourselves, what is the reason for going for refuge? If we were to try to understand giving a reason for an answer, we all experience a great deal of suffering over the course of this life. And within As Buddhists, we also assert the existence of future lives where too, we will continue to experience suffering in much the same way.
And the fact is that we don’t want to suffer, we want happiness. And not only just happiness but some type of ultimate, complete happiness. So it is the reason that we go for refuge is because of this fact of wanting to eliminate our suffering and seeking to achieve happiness. And the method by means of which this is achieved is the Buddhadharma and the Sangha. So it is this very fact that the Buddha Dharma in the spiritual community or the Sangha acts as a means by which we can achieve what it is that we want most, the elimination of our suffering and the means of gaining happiness.
And we it’s necessary that we find that we develop a faith in this fact that they have that they can act as this method for achieving this and that we place our trust and have a sense of of a joy of our our finding this very pleasing to ourselves that we have this object of refuge. So in setting out the reasons why we go for refuge, the first of these is in terms of our experience of suffering and wanting to be happy. That we we want to eliminate suffering, that we want to achieve happiness in the future. Moreover, there’s a sense that foreboding about the future what our future prospects are in terms of suffering. We develop a fear or anxiety around our future sufferings.
And this is the first of the two causes for going for refuge. That is to say, a sense of anxiety or fear in connection with future states of suffering. But this in itself is not sufficient. There is a second cause, and that is we look to the Buddhadharma Sangha as having the ability whereby to protect us from these future sufferings. So we examine, do in fact the Buddhadharma Sangha have the capacity to alleviate our fear around these future prospects of suffering?
And we conclude, in fact, they do. So that there develops a a sense of faith. And this is the second of these two causes for going for refuge, faith. So in this this discussion out of going for refuge is can be likened to any situation where where we create a cause and bring about a result. If the cause is good, then we will definitely achieve a good result as a consequence.
The quality of the result is directly dependent upon the quality of the cause. If there’s no cause, there will be no result, just as if we were to have a field. If we fertilize the field well and water it, then we’re going to have an abundant crop. If we don’t, then we will not. So, you know, with respect to all of us, we we have a fear around future sufferings.
It’s definite that we that we have that. We all have anxiety around the prospects of continuous suffering into the future. But what we have to also try to generate is the second cause of going for refuge. That is to that we examine well whether the Buddha Dharma and Sangha actually have the ability to protect us from this fear of future sufferings. So in examining the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, in order to ascertain whether they in fact have this ability, we can readily come to understanding the fact they do by making use of an analogy.
And here within this analogy, the Buddha is likened to a skilled physician, a skilled doctor. The the Dharma is likened to medicine, and the spiritual community or Sangha is likened to a sister or or a nurse. So we need we need one more factor and that is to say a sick person. And we are the sick person. So we’re going to use ourselves as the as in this analogy, as the sick person where where because in fact, are suffering from the chronic illness of conditioned existence where we’ve suffered for a long time.
We’re just imagining that it’s ourselves that that we that we aren’t able to eat food, that we aren’t even able to to get up out of our bed, and in such a pitiful condition that we call upon a skilled physician. We we are pinning all our hopes on this doctor, and the doctor comes and examines ourselves. And the doctor upon examining ourselves is able to properly diagnose our illness, is able to identify what is wrong with ourselves and prescribes a beneficial medicine whereby to alleviate our illness completely. So having diagnosed our illness, the the doctor prescribes the medicine. But it’s necessary that we be able to follow the course of treatment in getting well, that we have to take the medicine.
But also we have to follow the course of treatment and what type of food that we are to eat and what is not to be eaten. In that critical condition, we’re not even able to get up and take care of ourselves. So we’re in a position where we aren’t able to, by ourselves, follow the complete treatment which has been prescribed. So the it’s to say that we that we be assisted in implementing the course of treatment that the doctor has prescribed in the various foods that they use, medicines, and when they are to be taken, we need assistance in this. So if through the proper course of treatment and having been assisted in fulfilling the course of treatment, we gradually get better.
Finally, we are cured. And this cure is the happiness which is the absence of that previous suffering state. It comes about automatically through the cure. So once one is cured, one looks at what it was that brought about the cure. We look to the doctor and the medicine and the nurses, those who assisted in implementing the treatment.
And we understand that in fact they do have the ability to alleviate our illnesses. Amongst these three, if we were to question, which was the main contributor to my actually getting well, we would have to say the medicine. The doctor and the nurses or the sisters were assisted in the process, but the main factor was the proper medicine. So I think this is simply an analogy, but I think through this analogy that you can really understand what is meant about concerning this analogy. So if we explain well, which of it, what this is an analogy and what is being analogized, what is the meaning of the analogy, the doctor is analogous to the Buddha, the medicine is analogous to the Dharma, and the sisters and nurses is analogous to the spiritual community.
And but there was one one ever that we left out and that was ourselves. We are we are the sick people. And but the sick person is actually analogous to a practitioner of Dharma. But some people were protesting saying, oh, this analogy doesn’t apply to myself. I’m not a sick person.
So, you you may be right if we simply confining our conception our concept to only the body, but in fact, there there are two types of illnesses that we can suffer, not only physical illness, but also illnesses of the mind. And here we’re talking about illnesses of the mind. So this analogy that we use was applied to physical illnesses where the doctor, the medicine, and the sisters were able to eliminate the physical illnesses, but these three cannot eliminate the illnesses of the mind. But these three, the doctor, the medicine, and the sisters are not able to alleviate the illnesses of the mind. The only by which The only means that can be done is by the Buddha Dharma and the Sangha, the spiritual community.
Of course, now somebody might immediately protest, well, a lot of doctors give drugs for the mind. Doesn’t that cure the sicknesses of the mind? Here again, we would have to distinguish that these drugs may be able to alleviate some temporary and superficial ills of the mind, but not as deeper and ultimate illnesses. So if well, what are these illnesses of the mind that we’ve been talking about? The you know, if we were to we can list such illnesses such as attachment and anger and pride and jealousy and ignorance.
If we were to speak of them in an extremely extensive fashion, we could say that there are eighty four thousand illnesses of the mind. The they’re the they’re the Buddha prescribed eighty four thousand antidotes to by means of which to rid ourselves of these eighty four thousand illnesses. So just as there are doctors of the body, so there are doctors of the mind. And it is the physician Śākyamūni Buddha who works with the illnesses of the mind. So it is the Buddha who is doctor of the mind.
It is the Dharma, which is the medicine of the mind. And it is the spiritual community who are the sisters and nurses of the mind. So it is necessary that we eliminate these various afflictive emotions, these disturbing factors within the mind such as attachment, anger, ignorance, etcetera. Not only in themselves do they cause ourselves illness, but due to their influence of these mental illnesses, we experience physical illness as well. If we can eliminate our mental illnesses, then we will of itself eliminate our physical illnesses.
So we are seeking to rid ourselves of the illnesses of the mind. What are the main medicines which we can make use of? These are firstly, the medicine of developing a will to rise out of cyclic existence, so that is to say renunciation, a will to awaken. Secondly, a kind hearted attitude or bodhicitta, the awakened heart. Finally, the medicine of the great seal or Mahāmudrā.
These are the three types of medicines which we can apply to the illnesses of our mind. So we can understand how these negative factors of the mind cause us to suffer, how they are actually destroy our sense of mental well-being. Immediately upon the generating of these afflictive emotions, then Upon that arising of a negative emotion, we suffer. For example, if we get angry, immediately we get red in the face. We get a shortening of breath.
We aren’t able to eat our food. We can’t sleep at night. We’ve all experienced all these various detrimental effects of simply the rising of anger. And so we can all check up and we can understand this quite readily for ourselves, that how these afflictive emotions, these negative factors of the mind, causes not only mental illness, but they go on to bring us suffering of both suffering of the mind but also sufferings of our body, various physical illnesses that go on to cause us to fight amongst our companions and to involve ourselves in various types of negative actions. So, but there is a medicine which we can take to eliminate the illness, this mental illness of anger, for example, and that is the cultivation of tolerance.
If we cultivate tolerance or patience, then we will we pacify both the suffering quality of our mind but also any types of physical illness which might be enhanced due to our anger. So also another mental illness is that of a great attachment. And we have a great attachment to conditioned existence, to cyclic existence. And the antithesis to that, the medicine for that is the will to awaken or renunciation. Generally when we look at conditioned existence we say, Oh, it’s really wonderful, it’s really wonderful, it’s really good, good, good.
In such a state we develop attachment so we have to examine the nature of cyclic existence and begin to see its faults. If we consider the faults of cyclic existence well, then attachment to it will cease. So the Buddha prescribed an antidote for each of our various illnesses of the mind as a means for eliminating them. And this he did by means of his teaching the Dharma. He introduced through his teachings the various faults, pointing out the various faults.
This is detrimental and this is harmful. And then prescribed a practice which acts as an antidote to continuing in such a state, to alleviate that state. Just as a doctor, when having an experience in a particular state of illness, that the doctor examines and points out the faults of eating such and such type of food or prescribes the eating of another type of food as a means to eliminate that state. So Buddha is the teacher of the Dharma. Historically, there have been the four Buddhas who have taken rebirth Four Buddhas who appeared in India.
Now the Buddha we have not ourselves had the opportunity to actually meet directly with the Buddha. But we have but for for for us, who is the Buddha? It is the Buddha’s representative or the emanation of a Buddha is one’s own lama. Is that is the individual who teaches you the Dharma is the emanation or representative of the Buddha for us. So it it is one’s spiritual master, one’s lama who points out the various illnesses of our mind, what needs to be done, what various practices are needed to be engaged in to eliminate those illnesses.
Having said that, having taught that, even if by means of teaching the Dharma, even if the Buddha, the actual Buddha were to come before us, there’s nothing more that he or he or she could add to what has already been taught. So in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, there is homage paid not only to the Buddha but also to the spiritual master, the guru. They recite formal homage to the guru, Namo Gurubhya, and then they pay homage to the Buddha, Namo Gurubhya / Namo Buddhaya. But they recognize that, well, what is the source of the Dharma? The ultimate source is the Buddha, but we have not met with the Buddha ourselves directly.
But we can meet with the Dharma indirectly by means of our spiritual master or our guru. Therefore, though we aren’t receiving the Dharma through the Buddha directly, we are receiving it through the indirect means of the guru who acts as the representative for the Buddha for ourselves. So we receive the teachings of the Dharma in dependence upon both the spiritual master, the lama, and the Buddha. And what is the Dharma? What is actually being taught to ourselves?
That is to say, what is to be practiced and what is to be abandoned? What we should do and what we should not? So just as in the case of physical illnesses, the various faults of the illness are pointed out and what we should do and what we should not do, what we have to begin to forego, what we have to begin to make sure that we in fact what we have to do. Likewise, with mental illnesses, the various mental illnesses are pointed out to us. It’s pointed out to ourselves, you should begin to do this, you should begin to forego this.
And also in a positive sense, what qualities of the mind should be developed in order to do that, what practices should be engaged in, what we should be meditating on. And by means of this, we integrate into ourselves the Dharma. So it is through these means, that is to say, by our practice in meditation that we are able to eliminate the illnesses of our mind, that we have to eliminate the various faults in our mind and cultivate the various excellent qualities as a means to cure the illnesses of mind. So there are many of you who have been listening to the dharma, and you constitute the spiritual community or the Sangha. You are like the sisters or the nurses.
You are the companions who assist one another in the process of implementing the Dharma. If you were alone at Buddha House, there would be no one here to give teachings. There would be no The conditions for listening would not exist. So those who assist us in being about the conditions are our spiritual community. So we have it’s important that we develop a caring for one another, for our our spiritual community, that we help one another, that we seek to benefit one another, that we assist each other in carrying our practice to higher and higher levels, that we help in terms of our meditation, helping in whatever way that we can.
I’d like to present an analogy to you in terms of someone who is sick. They have a skilled physician who prescribes a particular medicine and they take the medicine and the next day they get more medicine, the next day they get more medicine. This goes on for several weeks and they just keep placing the medicine in the medicine cabinet. They get they get the medicine, they keep putting it in the medicine cabinet. You know, what what would you think?
Do you think the patient would get better or not? I don’t think he or she would. If the patient doesn’t take the medicine, are they going to be cured? They won’t get to be cured, will they? Likewise, in our case, if we keep listening to the Dharma and never practicing it, we’re like the sick person who keeps getting more and more medicine but never takes it.
Just as a person with physical illness must actually ingest the medicine, likewise, for our mental illnesses, we must actually practice and meditate. So do understand how the Buddhism and Sangha have the capacity whereby to eliminate the illnesses of our mind? So as we mentioned, in going for refuge, there are two causes. One of them is the fear and anxiety around future sufferings. And the second is a faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as having the ability whereby to remove that fear of future sufferings.
So what we mean by faith is that we have a sense that these three, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, that we have a sense of joy that, in fact, they can. We we delight in the fact that there is something that we can do to to rid ourselves of this fear of future suffering. That’s that’s what faith means. It’s it’s a delight in seeing that in fact they have this capacity. So this is what we mean by going for refuge.
When the mind is so pleased and feels a great sense of joy that there are these objects which act as a means to remove fear around future sufferings. So we have to combine these two. That is to say, a sense faith, is a joyless trusting in these objects. Moreover, the actual practice of Dharma, actually meditating on what is being taught. Only faith itself will not eliminate the illnesses of our mind.
It is through faith and trust, but also through our practice together as a means to eliminate our mental illnesses. This is the same as in terms of physical illnesses where the patient has tremendous faith in the doctor. Thinking, Oh, doctor is wonderful. This is really a fine doctor. But they never take the medicine the doctor gives them.
They’re not going to be cured. So this is the special quality of the Buddhadharma, that it’s necessary that it be practiced in terms that it be implemented in terms of both faith and practice. So if we if refuge is present within us, then whatever it is we meditate on will become practice within the context of Buddhism. But for example, if we were to meditate on love, may all living beings have happiness and the causes of happiness? Then if this is in the context of refuge, then it becomes a Buddhist practice of cultivating love.
On the other hand, if there’s no refuge and we were to cultivate love and compassion, in which there are many instances of, still, though we are cultivating love and compassion, it has not become a practice, a Buddhist practice. So, you know, we’ve spoken rather extensively about generation of refuge. It’s an extremely important point. We’re always talking about, I’m a Buddhist, you’re a Buddhist, everybody’s a Buddhist, but what does that mean? What does that mean, in fact?
It means it comes down to the point of whether one goes for refuge or not. And therefore, I thought by introducing this fact of what constitutes a Buddhist, it would be beneficial. So I’ve talked about it together extensively. So we can also apply this to the Dharma of the universal vehicle. The awakened heart or bodhicitta is is an extremely kind hearted attitude.
If one does not have this attitude of the awakened heart, though it may be Dharma, it is not Dharma, the universal vehicle. That is say, it’s not Mahāyāna. So this is the distinguishing factor as determining whether it is the practice of the universal vehicle or not. It is this one quality of the awakened heart, bodhicitta. The aspiration to seek whereby one seeks highest enlightenment for the sake of all living beings in order to eliminate all their suffering, in order to lead them to complete happiness, that I myself must remove all the various faults from my mind and bring in consummation all my excellent qualities.
If one generates that aspiration in one’s mind, whether one is a man or a woman, whether a lay person or ordained, one is a practitioner of the universal vehicle. So in determining whether one is a practitioner of the universal vehicle or not, it comes down to this factor, this distinguishing factor as to whether one has developed in your own mind the awakened heart, bodhicitta. If there is the awakened heart within your mind, you are a practitioner of the universal vehicle. If there is if the if the awakened heart is not present within your mind, you are not a practitioner of the universal vehicle. This is the thought of of the past great masters such as Śāntideva, Tsongkhapa, Atisha, and various Indian and Tibetan masters.
So we’re going to stop the teaching proper there for this evening, but it will take five minutes if you have some questions. Okay. Okay. Yes. Okay.
I have a question about right motivation. When Rinpoche was discussing taking refuge, essentially he was saying that one should move away from motivation is the reason why you do something. Yeah, what you’re saying that? In adopting the taking refuge, one should do that because one sees all the wonderful advantages of taking refuge rather than saying, Look, there’s all this evil and illness So you want to change your question? Sorry.
Basically it’s my right question. He’s saying that in adopting the The reason that we go for refuge is not to get away from suffering, but because we want to attain something good. Well, think it should be a good opportunity. Yeah, but that’s basically what your question is? Yeah.
Okay. So fear of suffering is one of the causes for going for refuge. And it you know, we could that’s we could point to what is positivist. Let us say, we we are seeking liberation. But but what are we being liberated from?
We’re being liberated from fear. We’ve been liberated from suffering. If we don’t fear suffering, we’re never going to seek liberation. So we have to have the the fear of suffering is the reason that we seek liberation. So it’s just like Yes.
Is just as in the case of the sick person. If they didn’t have anxiety around their sickness, if they didn’t feel the suffering that they were going through, they would not be motivated to go to a doctor and seek out his advice and take medicine. It wouldn’t matter. Yeah, I see the point there, but it’s a little bit like the Christian example, paint on one side the whole picture of heaven and the whole picture of hell and say that if you react to life in such and such a way then you’ll go to heaven and be a good person. Although there’s nothing wrong with being a good person as opposed to being a bad person, it’s not necessarily necessarily true that it’s it won’t be an ugly person in precisely the way that’s prescribed by the particular teachings of Christianity or possibly So the ways of conduct are similar both in terms of Buddhism and and Christianity that that Christianity would also say that we have to have been