Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 100-minute session, Khensur Rinpoche explains why Vasubandhu presented the same conventional reality three different ways — aggregates, sources, and constituents — each calibrated to a different student capacity. He works through each system methodically: the five aggregates (form, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors, consciousness), the twelve sources pairing sense powers with their objects, and the eighteen constituents. A detailed section on revelatory versus non-revelatory forms introduces the concept of a subtle form created in the mind upon taking vows, which leads into a practical discussion of why formal ethical commitments generate far greater positive energy than identical virtuous behavior without one. Q&A closes the session with a memorable analogy: a butter lamp the size of an ocean, held by someone without vows, gives less light than a tiny lamp held by someone who has formally committed.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 Eye of A 1988 11 01.mp3
UUID: 669bd244-1703-4b9c-a46e-962e580e4d24
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Opening the Eye of Awareness 1988-1989 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1988-11-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 100.0 minutes
Words: ~5,978
So we’ve spoken about the great benefits to be derived from listening to the Dharma. As to whether it’s going to be a great benefit or not is determined by your motivation for listening. Therefore, we should try to set our motivation such that we are going to listen to this teaching on the Dharma so that we may be able to liberate, to place in enlightenment all sentient beings and with such a motivation then our listening will be of great benefit. In this section, I’ve been discussing the two truths. That is the ultimate truth and a relative or conventional truth.
And we’ve completed the explanation of the ultimate truth and then we’re going to go into a brief discussion of conventional truth. No, we’ve only gone into the discussion of emptiness slightly. We can go into it much greater depth in the future in more detail. There are a great number of texts that we can use as sources. There have been the various texts by the great master Tsongkhapa in his Praise the Dependent Arising, his three principal aspects of the path, etc.
And then there are the texts, the root texts such as the text by Candrakīrti, Entering into the Middle Way and the foundation text of Root Wisdom by Nāgārjuna. So if we can if we’re able to realize emptiness, that’s really wonderful. But even just listening to a teaching on emptiness plants latencies within the mind. It plants the seeds whereby later we will be able to realize and understand emptiness that much more quicker. The past great scholar yogis who have understood emptiness in its most profound sense, First they themselves had planted the seeds of listening within their continuum, within their mind.
And then depending on having listened to the various teachings, had the seed planted, then they began, they made great prayers, aspirations to be able to realize it. And then through their process of meditation they went on to great realizations. And just as these great past scholar yogis have done, likewise we are going through the same process. So the text quotes two lines by Vasubandhu from his Treasury of Knowledge in which he says, The heaps, stores of production and type are the meaning of aggregate, source and constituents. So what is meant here is that the various phenomena are being divided into three categories.
The first, the categories are aggregates, sources, and constituents. These are really categories, categorizations of phenomena. So, discussed this first categorization which is, that is to say, heaps, and what we mean by heaps are aggregates. Now, when we say an aggregate, we can talk about the physical aggregates, that is those aggregates which are formed or that is to say physical objects. These are an aggregation or they’re coming together a collection of atoms.
So, we have a composite or a heap or a bunch of atoms coming together. In this collection, that is which composed of atoms, the aggregation of atoms is what we mean by a physical aggregate. Then there are the two types of non physical aggregates, the aggregate of non associated compositional factors, non associated compositional factors. And this would be, for example, the compounding of the various directions, you know, the parts, the various directional parts. This collection of the various directions coming together is an aggregation or collection of directional parts.
Then there would be the consciousness aggregate and this would be, for example, the aggregation, the collection of the various moments in a continuum of a particular consciousness, the collection of the moments of consciousness. So these are the different ways we can look at the aggregations or collections of parts making up a heap or an aggregate. So, we classify the aggregates, can classify them into five types. There are five aggregates. There’s the aggregate of forms, the aggregate of feelings, the aggregate of discriminations, the aggregate of compositional factors, and the aggregate of consciousnesses.
Forms, feelings, discriminations, compositional factors, and consciousnesses. So when we divide up the aggregate of forms, can divide it up into various further categorizations. For example, in the discussion of the study of mind, we’ve been discussing for example the sense powers. So, would there were the five sense powers. The eye sense power, ear, nose, tongue, body sense powers.
Then there are the objects of the sense powers. For example, the visible forms which are the objects experienced by the eye consciousness or that is the object of the sense powers. Then there’s the ear, the sounds heard by the ear consciousness or the object of the basis of the ear sense power. There’s the nose, the pleasant smells, unpleasant smells. There are the delicious tastes and un delicious tastes, unpleasant tastes and then there are tastes such as sweet and sour, etc.
And then there are the objects of the body consciousness such as the smoothness and roughness, etc. So the five sense powers and the five objects of the senses. So, we can add one further category. There are degrees or there is a classification into gross or coarse and subtle form, coarse and subtle form. So these ten we’ve listed so far are coarse forms.
There is one more to be added which is a subtle form and this is called non revelatory, non revelatory, non revealing, non revelatory form. So this makes eleven in total. So these various forms are made up an aggregate of the elements or the atoms. Those are the elements of earth, water, fire, and air. Upon the aggregation of these elements, they are able to be held by the eye consciousness, etc.
And they act as objects for the eye consciousness. So then, what is meant by the one nonrevelatory form? An example would be upon taking a vow, for example, if a monk were to take, if a person were to take a novice vow or a fully or a fully renounced the full empowerment of a monk, then at the time of taking the actual vow, a subtle form is created in the mind. This subtle form is a form but it’s a non revelatory form. So, we can talk about revelatory forms and non revelatory forms.
When we say revelatory forms, there are revelatory forms which are speech, revelatory forms which are body. What we mean when we say revelatory form which is speech is the fact of being able to ascertain the motivation or the intention behind someone’s speech. If intention or the motivation behind someone making a statement, that is some speech, is if we can ascertain that, then this is called the revelatory form of speech. Whereas the So the difference between these two types of subtle forms, these are both subtle forms, there’s the revelatory and non revelatory subtle forms. If we are able to ask if we can understand or we can know the intention or the motivation behind the speech or the bodily action, then it’s a revelatory subtle form.
For example, if someone were to hit you and motivated by anger, then we could understand as hitting us that he was motivated by anger and that we should So, if someone hits you, then this is not a subtle form. This actual activity of hitting is a form. For example, the bodily hitting, someone hits you and knowing the motivation, this is an example, it’s not the knowing, it’s the action of being hit. If we can understand the motivation behind it, then it becomes a revelatory form. It’s a revelatory form.
That is to say, it’s being revealed. Why is it revealed? Because we can know the motivation behind that action behind this form. This activity itself is a form. Now, if we cannot know the form, the motivation, such as the having taken the vow of individual liberation, for example, you know, monk’s vow, for example, this creates a form but cannot others cannot understand the motivation behind this form.
Then this is said to be a non revelatory, a non revealing type and it’s a more subtle type of form. Therefore, it’s a non revelatory form, a subtle form. So, then an example of being hit is a bodily non revelatory, a bodily revelatory form. Example of verbal revelatory form would be for example if a beggar were to ask you please give me money and and dependence upon that sound that you heard, you would be able to understand what is motivation behind that, making that sound. So, this sound would be an example of a verbal, revelatory form.
So, we can mostly understand what the motivation is behind when someone says something. Just in general, when someone says something, if we can think about it, then we can come up with an idea of what his motivation behind that making those sounds was. For example, you you’ve come here, you’re sitting here and this body posture is sitting here. Rinpoche can infer from your body sitting here, if he thinks about it, he can infer that you’ve come here to listen to this teaching and therefore his bodily posture, this form that you’re taking, can the motivation behind it can be inferred or thought about. He can understand it through some reasoning.
So, when Rinpoche actually gives the teaching, he’s speaking all these meanings, terms, then you can understand from your side having set our motivation initially, what his motivation is behind speaking these words and therefore you can come to understand that these sounds that he’s making are a verbal non verbal revelatory form. So, this physical revelatory form, that is bodily revelatory form and verbal revelatory form are forms which we can understand the motivation behind their taking this particular aspect, know, whether it’s particular forms of sound or the particular body confirmation. We can understand why that’s coming about. We can understand the motivation behind this person taking this particular bodily posture, for example, at a teaching or behind what’s being said, the motivation.
Therefore, because we can understand the motivation behind these, these are called bodily and verbal revelatory forms. And on the other hand, the non revelatory forms are the, for example, the subtle forms which are developed in the mind upon taking vows. Now, for example, if we were to take a vow of some sort and when you take the vow, actually there’s a point in taking a vow where you think that you have taken the vow completely perfectly. Now, actually it’s very difficult to know what is your motivation behind taking that vow. You may not even know your real motivation.
Therefore, taking this vow, since we cannot come to understand what our motivation is, in actuality for taking that vow, we think we’ve taken it well. We try to come to this firm belief, but in fact, to understand what our motivation is, is difficult. Therefore, these are called non revelatory forms or forms, the motivation for which, the development for which we cannot understand. Dharmakīrti has said that the taking of the full monk’s vows develops a type of subtle form, which he compares to the moon in that it’s brilliant, it’s white, but even though it has this aspect, still we cannot know the motivation behind it, therefore it’s called a nonrevelatory form. So, this creation of this subtle form in the continuum of the being upon taking a vow is the reason why it is said that the taking of vows is great of importance, that these vows, these various ethical vows that we are able to take is said to be one of the skillful means that the Buddha enacted by, you know, we can take the various vows of a layperson, we can take a one day fast vow and having taken these vows, there’s a subtle form created within the continuum of the person and while this form is in existence within the person, no matter what you may do, whether you’re sleeping, whether you’re working, engaging in various activities, this vow is creating positive energy.
This It is said that the various vows that the Buddha gave us, the skillful means to help lead the practitioners on in their spiritual journey was the skillful means of the Buddha that, you know, example, we can take the vows of a lay person. This consists of five vows: the abandonment of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxicants. And that no matter having taken these vows, the subtle form created is created and no matter what we might be doing, the various activities whether we’re eating, sleeping, all the actions and work that we do during this period, we’re creating a great deal of positive energy, a great deal of positive potential and therefore this is why it’s said to be the entrance way into the teachings of the Buddha. So there’s a difference between the same action performed by a person who has taken a vow and someone who hasn’t. That is to say, a person who has not taken a vow even though he may refrain from, for example, killing does not compare with the positive energy, the positive potential created by someone who actually commits himself to abandoning killing, for example.
Having taken a vow, I am today from now on, for however many years he may wish to take the vow, I am not going to kill. From that time on, no matter what he may be doing, in all his actions, he’s creating uninterrupted positive stream of energy. Likewise, if we were to take the eight precepts, they’re within both the eight precepts of the common fast day vows, the twenty four hour precepts of taking eight vows, eight precepts, or the motivated by the great vehicle motivation, twenty four hour vows of the Great Vehicle. And, you know, we It’s said that just having taken these, it’s unimaginable. Even though it’s only for one day, it’s unimaginably beneficial.
The power that we create within ourselves, not only is it going to benefit us in this life, but it’s going to benefit us in the future lives and this is the way we can really engage in the actual practice of the Buddhist teachings. So there’s a quotation from a discourse by the Buddha in which he said those who take the various vows will be within the circle of disciples of Maitreya and they will quickly achieve enlightenment. So the Buddha said, you know, it’s in enumerating the benefits of the methods for creating positive energy. He said, by taking precepts and vows, we don’t have to make much effort, but we create a great deal of positive energy. So this first categorization is aggregates.
Then the second categorization is sources. There are twelve sources. These are the So, there are the twelve constituents. No, I’m sorry, twelve sources. There are twelve sources.
Now in dependence upon a sense power and the object of that sense power, we develop a particular consciousness. Example, in dependence upon the eye sense power and the object of the eye sense power, the visible form, we develop an eye consciousness. So there are six external sources and six internal sources. The sense power and the object are external sources and the consciousness developed is an internal source. So, are six external, six internal making twelve sources.
Okay. So, I made a mistake. There are twelve sources. Six internal sources and six external sources. The six internal sources are the six sensory powers.
For example, the eye sense power is referred to as the I source. The eye sense power is referred to as the I source. So, there’s eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mental sources and then there are the various and then the six external sources, the various objects these sense powers, of these sources which are the forms, sounds, tastes, smells, touches and phenomena. So, are the six internal, six external sources. In dependence upon the eye or the eye source, that is the eye sense power, the eye source, the eye in combination with the object that is a visible form, there arises an eye consciousness.
That’s why they call these sources. in dependence upon these two, the eye source and the object of the eye that is the visible form. in dependence upon these two, these act as a source to develop an eye consciousness. So, the same is true of the ear. The ear or the ear sense power or the ear source in combination with the sound produces an ear consciousness and the same for the rest.
So, it’s similar for the rest of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mental sources. These are similar can be inferred from the previous two examples. So, then the next way of categorizing phenomena is into the constituents. So there are eighteen constituents. So, the way we can make up eighteen aspects of the eighteen constituents of the constituents is that just as before we had six sense powers, eye sense power, ear, nose, tongue and body and mental sense powers.
And we had the various objects of observation of the mental sense powers, the visible forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touches and phenomena. And these, in addition to these, we generate the six respective consciousnesses, eye consciousness, etc, making a total of eighteen. Six sense powers, six objects of observation, and six consciousnesses make eighteen constituents. So, there are the six objects of observation the visible forms, sounds, smells, tastes, objects of touch, and phenomena. Those are the objects of the observation.
Then there are the basses, the six basses, the eye sense power, ear sense power, nose sense power, tongue, body, and mental sense powers. These are the six sense powers. Then there are the six consciousness generated, the eye consciousness, the ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue, and bodily, and mental consciousness, making a total of eighteen, and these are referred to as the eighteen constituents. So, when we talk about consciousnesses here, we’re referring to between the two minds and mental factors, we’re referring to minds. That is main consciousnesses rather than but they are simply consciousnesses.
But between mind and mental factors, we’re referring to the two minds. There are six. Now where do they develop? They develop from the basis and these basis are the various respective sixth sense faculties or sixth sense powers. So, if we give an example of the eye consciousness, from where does the eye consciousness develop?
It develops in dependence upon the base that is the eye sense power. And what is its object of observation? It could be any type of object, for example, the book. And so, what is the eye developing from? The eye sense power.
What is observing? It’s observing, for example, color or shape or white, the various colors. And each of these three applies to each of these six possible constituents, so it make a total of eighteen. So, this explanation in the various conventional phenomena into the aggregates, the five aggregates or the twelve sources or the eighteen constituents. These categorizations are not mutually exclusive.
Do not exclude one another. These are simply methods of explanation or explaining. This is from the point of view of the master Vasubandhu in his skill in teaching his various students, he said that according to his students ability, for example, there are said to be three desires, there are three powers and there are three wishes on the parts of his different types of students. In accordance with their various desires, powers and wishes, he presented an explanation, an abbreviated explanation, a middling explanation and a detailed explanation and this is how they developed these three ways of explaining the same phenomena: aggregates, sources and constituents. So, we were saying that this was a skillful method on the part of Vasubandhu in teaching his students these different ways of dividing phenomena.
And, if we take the example of the three types of powers, I guess you would say faculties, the faculties of the different students. Are those who are dull, those who are mediocre, and those who are quite clever. So if we were to explain the five conventional truths from the point of view of the five aggregates to a clever disciple, then this would be sufficient. We wouldn’t have to go into the explanation of constituents and sources. But if you did this for the middling student, you would have he wouldn’t be able to understand the conventional truth, in dependence upon only the five He would have to go on and explain conventional phenomena in terms of sources.
Likewise, if you were teaching a dull minded student, even you would have to not only teach the five aggregates and teach also the sources, but you would have to go on and begin to point out every phenomena around you in order to get across what you mean by conventional truth. And this would entail a teaching upon eighteen constituents. So, it’s according to the three powers of students or faculty. Likewise, the teaching has to be given in accordance with the student’s desires. There are some students who might desire only the abbreviated teaching, the very condensed teaching.
Therefore, you would just teach that student the five aggregates. Another student might like a more middling presentation. Therefore, you include the sources. Another student, he wants a very detailed, expansive type of teaching. Therefore, you would go on to teach him the eighteen or her, the eighteen constituents according to the desires, the three levels of desire.
So, again, according to the level of disciple, and I mistranslated this third quality of a disciple. I said wishes. That’s wrong. It should be according to the obscurations. So, the teaching has to be given in accordance with the degree of obscuration that the student has.
For a student who has only a slight obscuration in order to understand the conventional truth, then a mere explanation of the five aggregates will be able to eliminate obscuration that he has to understand the conventional truth. Then for those with middleing obscurations, you would have to go on and teach the sources, the twelve sources. And those with great obscurations, you would have to go on and give an extremely expanded detailed explanation involving the eighteen constituents in order to remove the obscurations for him in understanding the conventional truth. So, is the difference the presentation of which presentation of these three types of ways of presenting the conventional truth which would be made use of according to the disciple’s capacity, according to his type, whether he was clever, whether he was dull faculty, his desire, his power, etc. So, you we could go to a lot further trouble.
There’s actually an explanation which divides up conventional truth into sixty two categories but he doesn’t want to trouble you with all that. So Vasubandhu also had an extremely detailed teaching which divided conventional truth into sixty two categories. So, within the five aggregates, the aggregate of feeling, we talk about the three types of feeling. That is, the feelings of pleasure, pain, neutrality. So, we can understand these three quite easily.
You know, when we Sometimes we experience the feelings of pleasure and sometimes when we’re doing work, various activities, experience suffering, that is feelings of pain. And those times when we are feeling neither pleasure nor pain, we simply have a neutral or indifferent feeling. This is the feeling of neutrality. So, the aggregate of discriminations are for example when we think, Oh, this is white, this is black, this is a person, this is a book, etc. This type of thinking are called aggregates of discriminations.
The fourth aggregate is the aggregate of compositional factors, and in the study of mind, we can divide mind into minds and mental factors, minds and mental factors. And there are fifty two mental factors. Sometimes they are called secondary mental factors. Fifty two mental, fifty two secondary mental factors, mental factors. If we set aside feeling and discrimination, that leaves fifty mental factors.
These fifty mental factors are the aggregate compositional factors. The fifty remaining mental factors make up the aggregate compositional factors. Then there’s the aggregate of consciousnesses and this is we’ve been talking about the aggregates such as the I consciousness, ear consciousness. There are six. So, we are beings.
That is to simplify, we are persons. And the reason is that we have five aggregates. in dependence upon these five aggregates, we designate, we impute person or being. To an object which does not possess these five aggregates, we cannot impute or designate being or we cannot designate being in general but we cannot designate person for example. For example, if there is no feeling, aggregate of feelings, then upon that object we cannot designate being or person.
So in order to attain liberation and omniscience, we have to realize the two truths. First, realize the conventional truth and upon realizing that, we realize the ultimate truth and, therefore, we’re able to achieve the state of liberation and omniscience. So, as in wishing to walk down a path to reach a destination, we have to rely on our two legs. Likewise, in in dependence upon the two truths, realization of the two truths, we can achieve liberation and omniscience. Okay.
So we have to realize the two truths, that is the conventional truth and ultimate truth. Now, how are we going to do this? What is the method for realizing the two truths? In order to bring this about, he said that the Buddha spoke eighty four thousand bundles of Dharma, eighty four thousand bundles or heaps of teachings as a method to realize the two truths. This is encompassed within the three scriptural categories, the three scriptural categories, Three scriptural collections.
So why did the Buddha give, pronounce eighty four thousand bundles of Dharma? It’s because we have eighty four thousand afflicted emotions which need to be abandoned. Therefore, for every one of our eighty four thousand afflicted emotions which needs to be abandoned, he gave a teaching of a Dharma. Therefore, there are eighty four thousand bundles of Dharma So, there are, you have these eighty four thousand afflicted emotions which we possess. There are three main afflicted emotions.
That is delusion, attachment and hatred. Delusion, attachment and hatred. With respect to the abandonment of delusion, the Buddha taught twenty one thousand bundles of Dharma and likewise twenty one thousand with respect to abandoning desire, twenty one thousand with respect to, for the purpose of abandoning hatred. And again, he taught an additional twenty one thousand to help us to abandon all three together. So, these eighty four thousand collections of doctrine or the teachings are included in the twelve branches of scripture, twelve branches of scripture.
And these twelve branches of scripture are further are in turn included in the three scriptural collections. So, three scriptural collections are the sets of discourses, sets of discourses or the sutras. The second is discipline or Vinaya. And the third is manifest knowledge or abhidharma. There’s a quotation from Maitreya’s Ornament for the Great Vehicle Sutras.
It says the scriptural collections are either three or two. Nine reasons are asserted for including them in three. So, when it says the scriptural collections are either three or two, when we say three, we are talking about the collection of discourses, discipline and manifest knowledge. When it says two, we are talking about the collections from the point of view of the great vehicle and lesser vehicle. So, coming to this explanation of the three scriptural collections is like beginning a long journey.
So, we don’t have time to complete the journey. So, maybe it’s better if we take the remaining time and Rinpoche thinks it would be best if we answered any questions that you might have. So, any questions? Do you think you are person who would naturally live by those three precepts without having taken vows might have actually taken those vows on a much more profound level than just standing up and saying, from now on I’m afraid from feeling still. He might have taken the vows.
I thought he didn’t take the vows. Much more profound level than standing up and saying, no, I’m not. Yeah. Got the before that. The person who?
Person who quite naturally lives the life without So, now, when we say there’s no difference between these two types, between these people, they both can be quite good people or they both might not be good people whether they take vows or not, but we’re only talking about from all other factors aside, just the fact of having this form within one’s mind is a method for developing more positive energy. Just this development of this form, this factor of the subtle form of having the vow in your mind is a method for developing more positive potential. All other factors set aside. So it doesn’t actually have You mean, does it have to be formal or unformal or just It doesn’t have to be formal, does it? The taking of a vow.
You want to explain what’s wrong with that? You mean like getting up in front of a Get up and say it to anyone who’s going up. So you’re saying if you didn’t take the vows, you may have taken them on a certain level? No. But then you took them?
Yeah? I mean, are you taking them where you don’t? I think you would have taken them if you were living by those people. You would have taken them if you were living Yes? I’m not sure what to say.
So the difference is, let’s say that someone there’s two people, one accepts to not kill today. He’s not going to kill anything today. Just that acceptance, deciding in your mind that you’re not going to kill today, creates positive energy. Whereas this other person, we’re not talking about whether they kill or don’t kill. This woman decides, accepts the fact that he’s not going to kill or she’s not going to kill.
That decision, having taken that acceptance, that commitment, creates positive energy. The other person hasn’t created that positive energy. We’re not talking about whether they kill or don’t kill that day. Just making that commitment to not kill creates positive energy. In the other case, the other positive energy isn’t created.
So, that’s right. It’s dependent upon the intention. You know, having, for example, you see that by killing you hurt others and out of you develop compassion for sentient beings and you say, I’m not going to kill today. And you make a commitment, for example. You know, you take a vow in front of an image of a Buddha or a teacher.
And say, Today I’m going to commit myself to not killing. And dependence upon this, the actual you’ve taken a commitment, this vow, you’re creating positive energy. Whereas the other person, you know, they may refrain from killing that day but maybe they just don’t have the opportunity, the chance to kill something. It just hasn’t arose in that day. They haven’t committed themselves.
They haven’t actually decided in their mind. They haven’t made the intention not to kill. Circumstances. And perhaps there’s benefit or no benefit to be derived that day by that person having made no commitment. But there’s definite benefit to be derived by the person who has committed themselves to that particular course of action.
So, there’s a difference between committing oneself to a particular course of action and taking a vow with intention of that particular type of action. In the case of a vow, initially it should be taken most properly in front of a spiritual teacher if you don’t have that available, him available, her available, in front of a monk. If that’s not available, in front of an image of a Buddha, for example. So vows are usually initially taken in front of these types of objects whereas a commitment wouldn’t necessarily have to be. For example, if you were to see an injured animal, you know, you might quite naturally develop compassion.
That is the thought, you know, I wish this animal was separated from that suffering. This would quite naturally develop, but if you went on to take the actual bodhisattva vows, motivated by this compassion, to separate that being from suffering, then this would be extremely more powerful than the mere compassion that you have developed, that you have developed to separate, that you’re wishing being was separated from suffering, actually committing yourself formally to actually separate that animal from suffering. So, the power would be greatly enhanced, having actually formally committed oneself by taking a vow. So, likewise, in taking vows, we derive greater positive potential from observing them, but we also derive greater negative potential by acting in — what do you say? — contrary.
Contrary. Contrary to the vows. For example, if two people, one person had taken a vow against killing and the other person hadn’t taken a vow against killing and they both killed, the person who had taken a vow against killing would create a more negative karma between these two. And with the action, there would be a subtle form, a negative subtle form that would develop in the continuum of that person. The actual vow, the subtle form which is the vow of having taken a vow, would be degenerated by acting contrary to that vow.
It degenerates it. So, instead the difference the positive energy that’s developed between someone who takes a vow and doesn’t take a vow has been there’s an analogy describing the difference between the positive energy that these two people create. One is that it’s like the flame of a butter lamp. But the size of the butter lamp of a person who has not taken a vow — if it were the size of a great ocean, the amount of light given off by that — and the amount of light given off by someone who has taken a vow but the butter lamp is extremely small. Still, having taken that vow, because of having the force of having taken that vow, the light given off by this very small butter lamp is much greater than the light given off by this butter lamp the size of an ocean through the force of taking a vow. Likewise, in reciting a mantra, having taken a vow, The difference between someone who’s taken a vow, reciting one mantra, and someone who has not taken a vow reciting mantras all day, the person who has recited one mantra creates greater positive energy. This is the power of vows. The Buddha said this. So, this explanation applies to all the various levels of vows, the different types of vows and precepts. For example, taking the refuge, taking refuge vows or taking a vow to abandon killing, taking a vow to abandon stealing, taking a lay person’s vows.
And thinking about the great advantages of the great benefits to be derived from holding vows and we become enthusiastic about committing ourselves to a certain course of action and taking vows. So this to this end, the Buddha gave eight types of vows. There’s the vows of renunciate, The vows of renunciate, the twenty four hour vows, the male and female lay vows, the male and female novices, and the male and female fully ordained. So there are eight types of vows. No, that’s not right.
How many right here? Is that right? And then there’s a pre novice nun’s vowel, female pre novice vow. So we’ll stop there.