Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A turning point in Khensur Rinpoche’s Mahāmudrā series, this 95-minute session is the first devoted to the Gelugpa Ganden oral tradition — a lineage he calls “near” because it ran directly from Vajradhāra through Mañjuśrī to Tsongkhapa. The doctrinal core is a single sūtra line, “empty, pacification, wishlessness,” unpacked as the three doors of liberation: using a mother, her mother, and her child as examples, Rinpoche shows how any phenomenon’s entity, cause, and result are each empty of true existence. He traces how ignorance of this generates afflictive emotions, karma, and rebirth across the three lower realms, then explains why Buddhist special insight — unlike non-Buddhist varieties — takes emptiness as its object and can thereby cut the rope binding us to cyclic existence. A Q&A clarifies which of the three terms maps to entity, cause, and result.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 MM 1997 02 25.mp3
UUID: 7a721e64-ed3b-408c-ae7b-134135e3cd49
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Mahāmudrā 1996-97 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1997-02-25
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 95.0 minutes
Words: ~4,863
So by cultivating as our motivation the kind hearted attitude of the precious awakened heart. It is necessary that we listen with an attitude of the awakened heart as our motivation. So each of us wants happiness, does not want to suffer. And likewise, with all the rest of those who are alive in this world, they too, like ourselves, want happiness and do not want to suffer. So developing in the extremely kind hearted attitude towards others, a better love.
Though as was mentioned, everyone wants happiness, but in fact they don’t have happiness. They do not have the happiness of liberation, nor do they have uncontaminated happiness, but even they are more than not, do not even have contaminated happiness. And such individuals are numberless. And developing love in its three levels of power. First, in terms of, it would be wonderful if all living beings, whosoever had happiness and the causes of happiness, may they have happiness and the causes of happiness.
I myself will lead them to a state where they have happiness and the causes of happiness. But in addition to not having real happiness, sentient beings are tortured by various types of suffering. That they experience suffering which are unimaginable to our present minds, but still they suffer it with all their various embodiments and their going inappropriate sufferings which are inconceivable to ourselves at present, but still they suffer. So developing the tremendously beneficial attitudes of compassion and especially that of exceptional compassion, first by expressing a thought, It would be wonderful if all living beings were free of suffering and the causes of suffering. May all living beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
I myself will lead them to a state where they are free suffering and the causes of suffering. Developing the altruistic attitude that was expressed in the thought that I myself will free them from all suffering and lead them to a state where they have complete ultimate happiness. But in order to free them from their suffering and to lead them to complete happiness, I cannot do that as long as I myself have various faults and have not achieved all the excellent qualities. In order to actually lead them to such a state, I must free myself from all my various faults and fulfill all my excellent qualities. Therefore, for the sake of all sentient beings, in order to free them from such sufferings and to lead them to complete happiness, I am going to attain this precious state of freedom from all faults and where I have brought to fulfillment all excellent qualities.
In order to actually to bring that end about, I’m going to listen to this present teaching on the universal vehicle Dharma. That having once listened to it, I’m going to reflect upon its meaning and then meditate upon that. This is the way that we can actually remove all our various faults and bring to consummation all our excellent qualities. So, with that in mind, in order to achieve that end of removing all my various faults and bringing to consummation to bring into fulfillment all my excellent qualities, I am going to listen to this present teaching. So the text that we’re explaining is the Great Seal according to the Ganden oral tradition.
And up to this point, let us say previous to today’s explanation, the text has been very much written in terms of the past great masters of the Sakya and Kagyu traditions. Henceforward from today, it will be very much explained in terms of the Gelugpa tradition especially as set forth by Tsongkhapa. So we’ve been explaining the tradition. We’ve been explaining the lineage according We’ve been explaining Mahāmudrā, the great seal, as terms of as it has proceeded over the lineage from the great Indian Panditas or great masters such as Saraha, Naropa, Tilopa, Matripa, Maitreya, down to the Tibetan masters such as Marpa, Milarepa, and to our present masters. So, we’ve been explaining the great seal down through the lineages of these past great masters up to the present.
And by present, it’s present in terms of under the influence of Jetsongkhapa. We’re going to explain it henceforward in terms of what is called the Ganden oral tradition, and which is said to be a near lineage as opposed to a distant lineage. And by near lineage it is meant here that the teaching on the great seal was passed from vajradhara himself to Mañjuśrī and directly to Tsongkhapa and through Gelugpa tradition in that manner. So it’s considered a near lineage. And it’s an extraordinary lineage.
It’s terribly profound. It’s unerring and extremely clear. So, in our prayer of supplication in terms of the practice of the great seal, first we make supplication or request to vajradhara, then the next verse is that of two main verses directed towards Mañjuśrī, then the next verse is directed toward Je Tsongkhapa. So here, the explanation by Tsongkhapa on the great seal is mainly given in terms of the Sūtra tradition. It is not explained in terms of the mantra tradition.
So, within this explanation of the Sūtra tradition of the great seal, it is given in terms of the object. The great seal is defined in terms of the object, which is emptiness. And as has been previously mentioned, this extends to all phenomena whatsoever. So all phenomena are sealed with emptiness. And then in terms of the subject, the subject is the exalted wisdom which directly realizes emptiness.
And it is by means of so this is the subjective great seal. And by means the subjective seal. And it is by means of cultivating this exalted wisdom, directly realizing emptiness, that one is able to abandon all the afflictive emotions and to abandon the obstruction to knowledge or omniscience. And this is the great seal. So, quoting from a sūtra by Śākyamūni Buddha, which is from a sūtra requested by the Ārya Yogi Yojana.
So this is the name of the person who requested a teaching from the Buddha and then the Buddha gave a discourse in reply where he says that So here, in reply, he points out exactly what he means by emptiness. So he begins with the first line of this reply within this discourse. The first line says, Empty, pacification, wishlessness. So, explaining this first line, we first have to understand that the word dharma. Now, dharma can be very general term.
It can be translated as phenomena. And phenomena simply means all that exists, what whatsoever in the world. Is it a phenomena? Is it an existent? Is it a dharma?
Within these phenomena, there are two varieties or categories. There are compounded and non compounded phenomena. So here the word, when we use the word Dharma, we’re not referring to the Dharma within the the three Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. That’s, that’s, it’s a different usage of the word. So, the word Dharma here is not referring to the Dharma within the three Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
It’s referring to various objects that we recognize about ourselves. You know, for example, the book, the flower, the cup, these are all dharmas, and these are all phenomena. So, we said that these phenomena, or dharma, are of two categories. Those are compounded phenomena and uncompounded phenomena. By compounded phenomena, we mean phenomena which come into existence through an aggregation of causes and conditions.
So by the compounding of causes and conditions, these phenomena come into existence. So the coming together of causes and conditions brings compounded phenomena into existence. On the other hand, there are uncompounded phenomena. So, uncompounded phenomena are those phenomena which exist not dependent upon the aggregation or coming together of causes and conditions. So, with regard to compounded phenomena, we can list a we can they can be viewed in three different manners.
A compounded phenomena can be viewed by way of in three different manners. And we can take as a basis of illustrating this a flower. So we can view the flower by way of its entity, the entity of the flower. Maybe we could say nature, but entity is a little more correct. By way of the entity of the flower.
We could view it by way of its cause, that which created the flower. And then we could view it in terms of its result. So, the entity, the cause, and the result. We could compounded phenomena in those three terms. So, to make this readily understandable, we’ll take another example of that.
Okay. Maybe I need a new battery. May I have a battery? So to make this more readily understandable, I’ll speak louder. Take as an example our mother.
Our mother is the entity, so the mother in herself. Then the mother has a result. We are the result of the mother. We can speak of ourselves as the result. Our mother also has a cause.
That is to say, our grandmother or our mother’s mother. So that we can speak of our mother in terms of her cause. So we can speak of our mother in terms of herself, her own entity, in terms of her result, or in terms of her cause. So, we can talk about any compounded phenomena in these three same terms. That we can talk about the phenomena itself in terms of its own entity, in terms of that which created it, its cause, or that which it brings about as an effect that is its result.
So taking this first line from this discourse where it said empty, pacification, and wishlessness. We can connect that up with the example that was just given in terms of our mother. The mother is the entity, and the entity is this first term, empty or emptiness. That is to say, emptiness of true existence. So the mother can be said to be empty of true existence.
But the mother has a cause, and that cause too, that is to say, the mother’s mother, is empty of true existence. So there is pacification. That is the pacification of the conceiving of the cause to be truly existent. And we said that the mother had that we are the result of the mother. And this result, too, also is not truly existent, that nothing is truly existently born.
So it is so all phenomena, all compounded phenomena can be understood in these three terms: other entity, that which creates the entity, and that which is the result of that entity. And it is necessary that we realize the non true existence of all three of these facets of any particular compounded phenomena. That we have to realize that the entity itself does not truly exist, that that which creates the entity does not truly exist, and anything which is created by the entity does not truly exist. It is because we do not realize this non true existence of these three facets of any compounded phenomena. That is to say, to not realize is to have ignorance.
And as long as we are under the control of this ignorance, then we will go on to develop the various afflictive emotions of attachment, hatred, pride, etcetera. Out of these various afflictive emotions, we will create various types of actions, both skillful and unskillful. So, out of these afflictive emotions, we are motivated to involve ourselves in actions. That is, they create karma. karma of both skillful and unskillful, and what is called unspecified actions.
So skillful and unskillful can be extremely powerful. But this third variety of actions, which is termed non specified or sometimes termed neutral, they are not a powerful type of action, they bring about a type of result which is neither constructive or destructive result, but a neutral type of result. So with we said that the skillful and unskillful actions can be of various degrees of powerful be very powerful, can have varying degrees of power, whereas the unspecified was a neutral nature. So the differentiation into these degrees of the forcefulness of the skillful and unskillful action is in terms of the motivation and the execution of the action. If the motivation and the execution are minor, then the result will proportionately minor result.
The type of action which is accumulated is a minor action. If it’s middling, if the motivation and the execution is of a middling nature, then the action and the result will be middling. And likewise, if motivation and the execution are extremely powerful, then the action and therefore the result will be extremely powerful. So our actions, for example, unskillful actions can be of a variety of degrees of forcefulness, depending upon the intention and the quality of the execution of the action. They can generally characterize as either being minor, middling, or great, and therefore bringing about proportionate result, bringing about a proportionate type of suffering.
So, as a result of these varieties of intensity of results, there is a variety of intensity of results of these levels of unskillful actions. In terms of minor unskillful actions bring about a minor type of result. And that would be, for example, by way of example, taking rebirth as an animal. You know, it could be as a dog, as a cat, as a fish, you know, that all the various animals that live in the ocean, you know, that, you know, you could, if you see them on television, they’re almost, they’re almost like, they’re as plentiful as dust, And we can see their condition, they live in pitiful many animals live in pitiful conditions and starved conditions and are forced to eat each other in order to exist. And as a result of middling forceful, middling types of unskillful actions created, one can take rebirth as a hungry ghost.
This is beings who live on vast, empty plains, they are without food or drink, and they must spend extremely long periods of time in continual hunger with continual hunger and thirst. And the result of the heaviest type of unskillful action would be that of taking rebirth in the hell realms. And here there are the hell realms. Hot hell realms and the cold hell realms where beings experience tremendous suffering for long periods of time. So if we were to take rebirth as an animal, we would undergo a great deal of suffering.
And the way that we can assure that we will not take rebirth as an animal is by stopping the cause of such types of rebirth, that is to say, abandoning the unskillful actions. So these three levels of rebirth, that of a hell being, hungry ghost and animal, because they have such dominance of suffering, they are referred to as unfortunate realms. So then, but then on the other hand, there are skillful actions and the result of skillful actions is happiness. And then likewise with skillful actions, there are three levels of skillful actions. There are three degrees in terms of lightness, light skillful actions, middling, and heavy skillful actions, which are in turn, as was explained previously, depend upon the degree of the intention, the quality of the intention and the execution of the action.
So as a result of the lightest variety of skillful action, one will take rebirth as a human being. As a result of middling skillful action, one will take rebirth as a celestial being within the form realm. So, these beings have, as Rinpoche mentioned, have extremely beautiful bodies. They have extremely pleasant surroundings. They have wonderful companions and live long lives.
So, it’s a very wonderful place to be reborn. There’s no suffering whatsoever. But there’s an even better place that we can be reborn which is even higher than that and they live even longer lives. Fifty of our years is like one of their hours. But it is necessary that we accumulate not course actions, but types of action.
We were in such realms. So whatever they whatever they think about comes appears to them. But all of what we’ve described thus far is contaminated as a result of contaminated actions. In general, we can talk about two types of actions: contaminated and uncontaminated actions. All of what we’ve talked about thus far is the result of contaminated actions.
The reason that it’s termed contaminated is because the action is under the influence of afflictive emotions. Even though it may be a skillful action, still it’s created under the control of afflictive emotions. Therefore, it’s said to be a contaminated action and therefore its result will be contaminated. On the other hand, there are uncontaminated actions. That is say, actions performed free of afflictive emotions, not under the influence of afflictive emotions.
And they have as their result the levels of a foe destroyer or a bodhisattva or a buddha. So all contaminated actions which act as a throwing karma, that is, they propel us into rebirth, are under the influence of afflictive emotions. Even taking rebirth as a human being is taken, is brought about ultimately under the influence of afflictive emotions. So any action which is done under the control of afflictive emotion will bring about a type of result which will be experienced as some level of suffering. Even taking rebirth as a human, though it may be a wonderful rebirth, still is not free of suffering.
Therefore, we have to try to create types of actions which are no longer under the control of afflictive emotions, that is, say, uncontaminated actions. So the Buddha said that all suffering arises from afflictive emotions that as long as we act under the control of afflictive emotions, we will continue to suffer, and we don’t wish to suffer. Therefore, we must destroy afflictive emotions. And the way to finally end afflictive emotion is to destroy its very root, that is, that is ignorance. So the Buddha said that if we want to destroy ignorance, then we must understand these three: empty, pacification, and birthless.
If we do not understand these three, we will continue to circle with cyclic existence. So it is said that Śākyamūni Buddha had unimaginable compassion for sentient beings. You know, we can’t compare the compassion that he had with any other individual. And that he saw that beings were experiencing suffering, continuing to circle within cyclic existence, and tried to see how can I free sentient beings from their suffering and develop how can I help them to abandon their suffering, and therefore set forth the method of the various practices such as generosity and the observance of ethics, tolerance, joyous effort, etcetera? For example, considering our future re births, if we were to practice generosity, then we could be assured that we would have resources.
All of our necessities would be taken care of, that we would readily be able to have a livelihood. If we were to observe ethics, then we would be assured of a fortunate rebirth in the future. If we practice tolerance, then we will have a beautiful body that we will have harmonious companions, etcetera. So, if but if we look to our present situation, that we have in fact, we have now presently a fortunate rebirth. We have healthy bodies.
We have enough material resources. Now, it’s time to go beyond these levels of pleasantry and seek to gain freedom from liberation, seek to free ourselves from cyclic existence altogether, to liberate ourselves completely from suffering by meditating on emptiness. There is a quote by Śāntideva where he says that all limbs were taught by the sage as a means to attain wisdom. What he means by this is that the Buddha gave a variety of teachings of Dharma. And he set forth all of these various practices, such as the various practices of the six perfections, etc, as we’ve just described.
That they all were a means, a method, leading to, ultimately leading to the realization of emptiness. That they all were taught as methods leading to the realization of emptiness in order to generate the wisdom realizing emptiness. Once we’ve generated the wisdom of realizing emptiness, then they all were means to cause that wisdom to go to increase higher and higher, to develop the ultimate wisdom of exalted wisdom of realizing emptiness. So, previously we talked about the way of meditating or cultivating calm abiding and this is, it can be as in accordance with, it is in accordance with what has been explained thus far is in accordance with the method of cultivating calm abiding set out by Tsongkhapa in his extensive exposition of the stages of the path. So the practice of calm abiding is common to both Buddhist and non-Buddhist practitioners, as is the practice of special insight.
special insight of Vipassana is also common to both Buddhist and non-Buddhist practitioners. Then what is the difference between non-Buddhist and Buddhist practitioners, especially in regards to special insight? What is the difference between the special insight? Is there any How do we differentiate between the special insight of Buddhist and non-Buddhist? We can posit an extraordinary type of special insight, which is practiced only by Buddhist practitioners.
So the non-Buddhist practitioners take on occasion as their object of observation either their body or the afflictive emotions within their own mind. And this holds true also for their practice of special insight. There are occasions when they take as their observed object their body or the afflictive emotions within their own mind. But taking those as the objects of observation in the course of their meditation, they are not able to abandon ignorance. They simply are able to cause the non manifestation of the afflictive emotions such as attachment, hatred, etc.
But though the afflictive emotions may not manifest, become, express themselves, they are not abandoned. Because they do not take as objects of their meditative equipoise such objects as emptiness or the four noble truths, they are not able to abandon ignorance. But on the other hand, in accordance with the means of the methods of the Buddhist practitioner, object having once achieved calm abiding, they then take as their object of observation emptiness. There are two verses within the Guru Puja, or Offering to the Spiritual Master, in which they talk about the blessing to bring their perfections to fulfillment in terms of their meditative stabilization, in terms of their special insight. And in both of these verses it explicitly mentions that taking emptiness as the objects of their meditative stabilization and their special insight.
So, here, this combination of calm abiding and special insight goes on to examine, single pointedly placed upon emptiness, and examining emptiness. And it is through this examination of emptiness, this analysis, that the wisdom of the mind is increased to the point where it is able to completely abandon the ignorance of self grasping or the ignorance which is the conception of a truly existent self. So, we said that the emptiness, in terms of, when we explained the meaning of the great seal, we said that the seal was to be thought of in terms of, the seal is object. The seal is emptiness in that all objects are sealed with the characteristics of being empty. In terms of the subject, it is the calm abiding, observing emptiness conjoined with special insight, an analytic consciousness, an analytic wisdom which directly realizes emptiness.
So, it is by this means of conjoining of calm abiding and special insight that we are able to uproot along with its seeds the ignorance of which conceives of a truly existent self. This is specific to the Buddhist practice. This is an uncommon quality of the Buddhist practice. So we talk about liberation And what is meant by liberation is liberation from cyclic existence. We’re seeking to be free of cyclic existence.
And cyclic existence is seen as binding us. We are bound to cyclic, bound within cyclic existence. As if our legs were tied. We’ve been bound with a rope. And in such a condition, we are not free to go.
We are bound. But if cut the rope, then we are freed from those bindings. We have been liberated from those bindings. Likewise, we are seeking to cut the rope of ignorance, which by means of which we are freed from cyclic existence. So, in this analogy, the rope by which a person may be bound is analogous to ignorance.
And we are, just as in the person is bound and not free to go, we are bound by ignorance. And this binding in ignorance constitutes cyclic existence. So, the special insight which realizes emptiness is able to free us from the bindings. They say the binding, that which binds us, ignorance. And free from ignorance or free from the binding of ignorance, free from those bindings is what we mean by liberation.
So, liberation is freedom from being bound, bound by ignorance. So, it’s necessary that we cut the rope of ignorance in order to find achieve liberation. This liberation, it is said that there are three doors of liberation. Just as in the case of if we want to come into Buddha House, we must necessarily pass through the door. The door in Tibetan is go.
So, door and go. We must pass through the door. There’s no other way to get in. Likewise, there is no other doorway to liberation other than these three doors of liberation. There are these three doors by means which we must pass through.
And these are the three which we’ve just set forth in this first line. Empty, pacification, and birthless. So we’re going to stop there, but we’ll take five minutes if you have some questions. A special insight which is not exalted wisdom of emptiness. Is that what you’re asking?
Yeah. You’re saying that there’s a special insight which is not necessarily realizing emptiness. And what is that special There are many non-Buddhist special insight. So we said that the special insight was common with non Buddhists, and therefore there are many insights which special insight, are not realizing emptiness. So, there’s a special insight realizing impermanence.
For example, the lower tenet systems such as the great exposition and the Sūtra skulls, they have special insight, but they do not have special insight realizing emptiness. So, taking as an example the flower. The flower has a cause, the seed. Flower grows from the seed, but the flower is born from the seed, but that birth is not truly existent. So the flower is without truly existent birth.
So, we can, the flower itself as an entity is not truly existent, That which it’s born from is not truly existent, and that result which it brings forth is not truly existent. So, neither truly So, it’s without truly existent birth, and it also does not have truly existent result. The more butan driver. You said that the pacification was connected with which? You thought?
Shiwa. Shiwa. Oh, Shiwa. And then the cause was connected with empty or result? We’re trying to supply extensive reasonings for why all phenomena do not truly exist.
If something were to truly exist, then it’s its entity itself, its own entity must be truly existent. But, the thing in itself is not truly existent. Or, we could say, Well, maybe its cause is truly existent, but the cause in itself is not truly existent. Maybe its result is truly existent, but also its result is not truly existent. So, if it itself is not truly existent, nor is its cause, nor is its result truly existent, then this is the way we go on to establish that nothing is truly existent.
So, the empty was in connection with entity itself. And the pacification was the cause. The cause or the sign of the cause being truly existent is pacified. That means, here’s the word, it means to be non existent. Therefore, cause is not truly existent.
So, here pacified means non existent. A sign of the cause being truly existent is pacified, is nonexistent. The cause is nonexistent. The cause is not truly existent. So, empty refers to the entity itself as the emptiness in terms of the entity itself.
The pacification refers to the emptiness in terms of the cause, that the sign of it being truly existent is pacified or is nonexistent. wishlessness refers to the emptiness in terms of the result, that it is a result without a truly existent birth. So, we should it would be good to understand these three doors of liberation terms of these three factors. The entity itself, which is empty. That is, its cause is empty.
And its result is empty. Its cause, any sign of it being truly existent is pacified. It is non existent. And its result is empty. Any sign of it being truly existently born is non existent, is without truly existent birth.
So, the three doors are understood in these terms, in terms of the entity itself, its cause, and its result.