Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 95-minute session, Khensur Rinpoche sets aside Mahāmudrā proper to tackle a prior question: why practice Dharma at all? A deliberately plain analogy anchors the answer — hunger is solved by eating bread, cold by putting on clothes — but these secular remedies reach only as far as this life; only Dharma addresses the suffering of future lives. He then maps the Lamrim’s three-scope framework onto three attainable goals: fortunate rebirth, liberation from cyclic existence, and full buddhahood. The session’s doctrinal core is how each scope eliminates the afflictive emotions: small-capacity practitioners can only suppress their outward expression; middling capacity can eliminate them altogether; great capacity removes even their latent seeds. Rinpoche ends with a rallying call — practitioners must be brave and carry genuine self-confidence that these vast attainments are within reach.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 MM 1996 11 19.mp3
UUID: 9987ae53-03f1-481c-b288-8c46b5b98b54
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Mahāmudrā 1996-97 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1996-11-19
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 95.0 minutes
Words: ~3,614
As a way of adjusting our motivation, we’re going to meditate on the awakened heart for five minutes. Previously we went through the means of cultivating the awakened heart, the method of meditating on it. And we’ve explained how precious it is and how very beneficial it is. So we’re going to take the time to meditate on it for five minutes. How are we going to proceed in our meditation?
Understanding that all living beings, whosoever, both ourselves and all others, want to be free of suffering and develop the attitude which wishes to free them of suffering and to lead them to complete happiness. In order to achieve that end, I must eliminate all my various faults and bring to consummation to the fullest extent all my excellent qualities. Therefore I must achieve the state of awakening. And as a means of achieving that final end, I will listen to this present teaching on the great seal, the Mahāmudrā, which is the essence of the universal vehicle, and thereby put into practice whatever I have heard. The preliminary prayers beginning on page one.
And then the prayer of Mahāmudrā, which is toward the back. Namo Mahamudraye. We pray to the magnificent, pervading Lord vajradhara, root of all the glorious first Buddha lineages, spontaneously present in the celestial mansions 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 and compassion in the awakened heart. We pray to the supremely wise Mañjuśrī, father who 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 and 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 with consummate skill and love, 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 living beings, may we quickly attain 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, that our mind and your mind, Father, may become inseparably one.
And then Mandala offering, which is on page four. According to a verse by Śākyamūni Buddha where he says that prior to practice, let us say the practice of Dharma, comes a consciousness. And that consciousness is the root of our mind. And what he means by these two lines is that prior to our Dharma practice, it is necessary to generate a particular consciousness and that serves as the root of the qualities of our mind. And what is that consciousness?
It is the quality of our motivation. So the word that we’re going to look at is, in Tibetan, and in Sanskrit, it’s dharma. What do they mean the same? Chi and Dharma. But what in fact do they mean?
Literally they mean to hold. That is to say, if you were falling, that which would hold you back from falling or that which protects you from falling. So it has the meaning of hold or to protect. What does it mean to hold and also to protect? How does the Dharma have that ability?
In what way does the Dharma have those various meanings? The individual who practices Dharma, that is a practitioner of Dharma, through his practice of Dharma, the Dharma is able to hold him back from falling into unfortunate rebirths. It is able to hold him back from suffering, that is protecting from unfortunate rebirth, protecting from suffering through the practice of Dharma. So that person who practices the Dharma, the Dharma has the ability to protect them and hold them back from unfortunate states and to bring them happiness and higher rebirths. So when we when we talk about Dharma, if it’s to have a fully qualified Dharma, then it must have these characteristics and abilities.
So we talk a lot about various Dharma traditions, various Dharma practices, that is say, very spiritual traditions. If it’s a fully qualified spiritual tradition, that is say a fully qualified Dharma, then it has to if it’s to be a real Dharma, it must be characterized by having these characteristics and abilities. If it has this ability, this capacity, then it’s real Dharma. So with respect to practicing of the Dharma, we’re all free to practice or not to practice as we wish. We can do as we like.
And if we choose to practice a tradition of Dharma, then there are many varieties amongst which we can choose, not necessarily that we practice Buddhism in particular as a type of Dharma. We have that freedom. So again, we’re referring to what the Dharma is about. What does it actually what is it actually able to do for ourselves? And it is able to what is it that we don’t want?
We don’t want to suffer. So the dharma should have the capacity to eliminate our sufferings. And what is it that we do want? We want happiness and well-being. So a Dharma should be able to bring us those desired ends.
So in regards to what we’re seeking to bring about through our practice, that is to say, the elimination of suffering and the achievement of happiness. We can talk about the happiness and the sufferings of this life along with the happiness and sufferings of future lives. So if we just concern ourselves with this life, We don’t need a spiritual practice, that is a practice of Dharma, in order simply to eliminate, only to eliminate the suffering of this life and to find happiness in this life. We don’t need to practice Dharma to achieve only that. Why is that?
That, for example, if we’re hungry, if our stomach is empty, then we can simply eat something. We can eat some bread or whatever, and we rid ourselves of that suffering of hunger, we gain some kind of happiness and well-being from having eaten and having a full stomach. Likewise, if we’re thirsty, then we can simply drink something. We eliminate the pain of thirst and we find some kind of pleasure and sense of well-being in having our thirst quenched. If we’re cold, can put on clothes.
If we need a home, we can have that. If we need money, we can work for that. That is to say, all of these various means, secular means, can be made use of in order to find to eliminate our sufferings and to find pleasures concerning which are concerned with only this life. We don’t need to practice Dharma in order to achieve these ends. But we have to expand our perspective in in thinking about the elimination of suffering and the achievement of happiness.
Why is that? We have to go beyond just this life. That at the time of our death we do not become non existent. We are going to continue on. And we have to begin to consider the elimination of future suffering states and the achievement of happy rebirths subsequent to this life.
And we want to not only to achieve happy rebirth subsequent to this life, but can go on and expand our perspective even further and seek to eliminate the very root of our suffering and to find complete happiness. And for this, we need to practice the spiritual path. If there were no future lives, there would be no need to practice the Dharma. We in order there would be no need, since there would be no need to begin to consider how we can achieve the elimination of our problems in future lives and the gradual elimination of the very root of our suffering in general and the achievement of a consummate happiness in the future because there will be no future. So there is no reason to practice Dharma.
But the reality is that future lives do exist. There have been many individuals who have actually seen them for themselves. That future rebirth can be established both through a means of reasoning and by scriptural authority. So there is that which we’re seeking to attain and that which brings about this attainment. And that which brings about the attainment is the dharma.
And that which we’re seeking to attain in the future is as mentioned in a verse by Nāgārjuna where he said that first we are to attain higher rebirth, subsequent to that liberation. That we first have to achieve a higher state of rebirth. Taking that as a basis, we then go on to achieve ultimate happiness. So there are two levels for our towards which we’re seeking. There are two attainments towards which we’re seeking to bring about.
So we we should understand this well. We want to eventually eliminate from its very root all of our suffering. We want to eventually bring to complete consummation our happiness. Now in order to arrive at this, there are two levels of attainments which we’re going to work toward. The first is that of gaining higher rebirth, and then based upon that as a foundation, we seek liberation.
So we have to be able to recognize that these are the two attainments we’re seeking to achieve. What do we mean by high rebirth? Sometimes this is translated as a high status or superior rebirth or superior status. There are six types of migrators, let’s say six types of sentient beings. How do we determine these six types?
This is determined by the fact that there are six types of rebirths that we can take in the future. That there are three types within the lower realms and three types in the upper realms, making a total of six levels of where we can take future rebirth. And the people who not the people the beings who take rebirth would therefore have six types. So there are three types of unfortunate and three types of fortunate rebirths making it a total of six. So within these three types of higher or fortunate rebirths, there are minimal level is that of human beings, but there are two above this, and these are the levels of the demigods, and above that, those are the gods or celestial beings.
In Sanskrit, these are referred to as the deva realms. So it is because within these fortunate rebirths that the beings have an excellence of body, they have a beautiful body, they have wealth, various resources, that these three levels of higher rebirths are referred to as higher status or fortunate rebirths. So all of us, having found a human life, have an embodiment which is really very precious because it is we have intelligence. We can make effort in our practice. We have the various material resources.
We have an excellence in terms of our body. Therefore, all of us have found higher status. Why is our present rebirth as a human being considered so very precious? in dependence upon this human life, through our practice of Dharma, we can prevent ourselves from, in the future, falling to an unfortunate state of rebirth. But more than that, we can ensure that we achieve a fortunate state of rebirth in the future.
But if we were to practice beyond that level, we can achieve liberation from cyclic existence completely where we will never have to again take rebirth within cyclic existence. And if we were to practice in a most far reaching manner, we could eventually eliminate all our various faults and bring to consummation all our excellent qualities and in dependence upon this very embodiment which we all now possess, achieve the state of a Buddha. So if it is in conjunction with our practice of Dharma, in dependence upon this human life, and its capacity, the potential which it affords us that we can achieve this end. How did we achieve this human embodiment which we now so fortunately possess, that all of us have previously in a past life practiced the Dharma and that we made great effort in our practice and coupled with that made prayers to achieve our present human life. And having worked hard in our previous life, as a result, we have this fortunate human rebirth.
So we have to consider the nature of our situation as human beings. That we have an opportunity to practice the Dharma. And even if over the course of our practice of Dharma in this life we aren’t able to achieve liberation, we minimally should try to ensure that we achieve a human life again. That even if we aren’t able to abandon all our suffering, we have to, in this life, we have to create the causes to bring about this opportunity again in the future, to ensure that we’ll be able to go on in our practice in the future. So if we can practice ensuring that we bring about the causes to carry on our practice in the future in attaining a human life, not just the human life, but the same type of life where we’re able to practice again.
If in the future we can again attain human life, even if we want to achieve liberation in this life, on the basis of that future human life, that embodiment, we can carry on our practice. We can, on that basis of our future human life, we can seek to attain the three types of possible goals. That is to say, we could in that future life, based upon a human base, achieve a state of liberation. We could become a bodhisattva, or the ultimate goal of we could achieve buddhahood. So we have to ensure that we achieve one of these two levels of attainment in the future, that we must minimally seek to achieve the attainment of higher status, a higher rebirth, that of at least a human being.
Then we, on the basis of that human life, we can go on to achieve what is called definite goodness, the second of these two levels of attainment. Within definite goodness there are two levels. There is the definite goodness of liberation, that is the abandonment of cyclic existence altogether, and there is the definite goodness of omniscience or all knowing. That is to say, we achieve the level of a Buddha who is able to directly perceive all phenomena simultaneously. So it is only on the basis of higher status or a fortunate rebirth that we can go on to achieve definite goodness.
So, you know, we we can’t we shouldn’t be small minded. No. We could we we can’t be self defeating. We have to expand the scope of our mind. We have to go beyond this thought, I can’t do this.
This isn’t for me. We have to develop a courageous mind, thinking that I can actually do this. And if you can develop this expanded attitude, it will you you find liking for for what we’re discussing, and your mind becomes happy. We have to be extremely brave. To practice Dharma, you must be brave.
But not just brave, you must have tremendous self confidence that I can do this, that I have the ability, the capacity to achieve it. If you remain small minded in what you think you can do, you will only achieve small ends. So we have to expand the sense of our capacity to achieve these great ends. So the goals that we’re seeking are on two levels. The first is the goal of higher status.
The second is definite goodness. In turn, goodness has two levels. That of liberation from cyclic existence where one achieves the level of a foe destroyer, that is to say, an arhat. And above that the level of the achievement of omniscience, that is to say, one achieves Buddhahood. So altogether there are three goals that are seeking, that we can seek.
So there are three ends that we can seek to achieve, three results, and there are three methods whereby to achieve these three ends. Now, know, then we have to question and we must recognize clearly, what is it that in fact can bring about these three goals, these three ends, these three results that we’re seeking to bring about? So there are these three achievements that we can seek to bring about. Now if we were to explain them not extensively but extremely briefly, how are these achievements brought about? Well essentially it is the Dharma.
But within the context of the Dharma, the Buddha taught that there were three levels of capacities which beings could operate on the level of. There was the being of small capacity, the being of middling capacity, and the being of great capacity. This is what is presented in the graduated path of the Lam Rim. There are three accomplishments that we can attain. The ultimate accomplishment is that of Buddhahood.
We said that definite goodness had two levels: that of liberation from cyclic existence, but also the level of the achievement of omniscience, which is the level of Buddha. And what is it that brings about that achievement? What is the achiever, the means? That is the graduated path of the being of great scope or great capacity. Then the second level of definite goodness was that of liberation, whereby one is liberated from cyclic existence.
Which brings about that end is the graduated path of the being of middling capacity. The third achievement which we can seek is that of higher status or a higher rebirth in the future, and that which brings about this achievement is the graduated path of the being of small capacity. So in our practice of the Buddhadharma we must understand well the three levels of possible attainments that we can work toward. And then understanding what we can seek as a future result, understand the means by which they are able to be achieved. We have to analyze and examine well how to go about achieving those ends.
So there are three achievements toward which we can work and three means of achieving those ends. But there are obstacles which prevent their achievement. So we have to understand what faults need to be eliminated, what obstacles need to be abandoned in the course of our practice in order to achieve these three ends. So these three achievements have something in a quality, a shared quality. That is to say they all represent levels of happiness.
The higher status is a level of happiness, liberation from cyclic existence is a level of happiness, and the ultimate happiness is that Buddhahood. And what is it in general that hinders our achievement of happiness? What is the fault which must be eliminated to achieve happiness in general? That is the afflicted emotions. The afflictive emotions are, as the name implies, they afflict the mind.
They have the fault whereby upon the arising of afflictive emotions the mind is disturbed. It experiences suffering. But not only does it experience suffering in the course of manifest afflicted emotions, but due to the afflicted emotions we go on to create karma. And out of this karma we go on to create mental and physical embodiments which are predisposed to suffering. So we have to, in order to eliminate this hindrance to our happiness, we have to eliminate the root fault, which is that of the afflictive emotions.
So afflictive emotions such as attachment, hatred, etcetera. Now, how do we actually rid ourselves of the afflictive emotions? There are levels of ways of eliminating the afflictive emotions. There are the means according to the being of small capacity, middling capacity, and great capacity. So in discussing these means whereby to eliminate the afflictive emotions as hindrances to achievement of happiness, they are discussed in terms of the means of each of the levels of capacity, that is of small, middling and great.
Within the small capacity, there are again two types. And within middling capacity, there are again two types. How is this? There is the uncommon path of the being of small capacity, and there is the common path of the being of small capacity. And the same for middling capacity.
There is the uncommon path of the being of middling capacity and the common path of the being of middling capacity. The way of eliminating the afflictive emotions is different according to these three levels of capacity. The being of small capacity isn’t able to actually eliminate the afflictive emotions. This being is able to only cease the manifest, the expression of the afflictive emotions. They can stop becoming angrily, they can stop fighting, they can stop expressing the afflictive emotion.
They aren’t actually able to eliminate it, only its expression. The being in the middling capacity, on the other hand, is able to actually eliminate, that is to cease, the afflictive emotions. The being of greatest capacity not only eliminates the afflictive emotion itself, but additionally is able to eliminate the latencies or the seeds of the afflictive emotions.