Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Drought-stricken farmers who dance at the sight of rain-clouds — that surge of gladness, Khensur Rinpoche says in this 98-minute Precious Garland session, is what a genuinely virtuous person stirs in others. The bulk of the talk works methodically toward that image: the four qualities of a good person (truthful speech, generosity, calm conduct, discernment), the four marks of trustworthy companions (beneficial speech, few desires, wisdom, and warmth), death awareness as a remedy for everyday attachment and aversion, four faults of intoxicants, and nine drawbacks of gambling. A caution against hunting rounds out the ethics sequence. The session closes with a Q&A distinguishing harmful attachment from wholesome desire. Suited to practitioners following this multi-session commentary on Nāgārjuna’s classic text.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 PG 1991 05 07.mp3
UUID: f54c7f35-354f-45d3-ac35-8fbf1b77c955
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Precious Garland 1990-1991 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1991-05-07
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 98.0 minutes
Words: ~4,055
Begin by developing as a motivation the awakening heart. I am but one single person. Others are innumerable. And so may my mind be directed mainly toward the majority. That is to say, others.
These others, these sentient beings who are troubled by various sufferings are in pitiful condition. They have no happiness. They do not know the way way, the causes of bringing themselves happiness nor the ways, the causes of abandoning their suffering. So cultivate towards such sentient beings, a thought that may all of them be free of suffering and the cause of their suffering, that is to say, develop compassion, and may they have happiness and the causes of happiness, that is to say, cultivate love. Though that is a kind hearted attitude, that by itself is not enough merely to wish sentient beings to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering and wish they have happiness and the causes of happiness, but we must determine by developing the exceptional resolve that I myself will bring about this in fact.
Though the thought to free others from their suffering and to bring them happiness is an extremely kind hearted attitude, but we have to examine as to whether we actually have the ability to bring this about in fact. And upon examining it, we will come to understand that presently we don’t have the ability. Who in fact does such have such an ability? It is an individual who has eliminated all their various faults and brought the consummation of all their excellent qualities, that is to say, a Buddha. If each of us individually were to become like a Buddha, that is to say if each of us individually were to eliminate all our various faults and bringing the consummation of all acts and qualities, then we would be able to establish all sentient beings in a happiness beyond all suffering.
Therefore, develop the exceptional resolve that I myself must, for the sake of all sentient beings, train my mind and therefore become a Buddha. So for the next three minutes, adjust your motivation developing as the motivation for listening to this present teaching, that of the awakening heart, that in order that I might eliminate all my various faults and bring to consummation all my excellent qualities, I am going to listen to the essence of the great vehicle, the teaching on the Precious Garland, in order that I might train in it and practice, and therefore ultimately achieve the welfare of all sentient beings. According to the verse from Precious Garland it says first high status must be attained, subsequently definite goodness will be achieved, and this is the main subjects which are taken up in Precious Garland, that of the methods for attaining high status and definite goodness. The high status? Can you hear me?
High status refers to environments as either a human or a god, the various possessions of such types of beings, and the environment of such beings. And by definite goodness, we are referring to the abandonment of all suffering and afflictive emotions which constitutes liberation, and additionally the all knowing state of Buddhahood. So these are the two objects towards which we are seeking to attain. These are the objects of attainment in which we are striving for. So as a means to achieve the first of these two objects of our striving, that is to say high status, we have been looking into the subject of karma or let us say causes as actions and the results and seeking to gain a conviction with respect to karma.
And this simply most is that from negative actions arises suffering, from positive actions arises happiness, and therefore in dependence upon gaining such conviction, we begin to observe ethics. This combined with the practice of generosity and tolerance and the making of various prayer petitions, is the means by which we have attained our present high status. These are the causes for attaining high status. in dependence upon having achieved the highest status of a human being, we can then go on to listen to the teachings on various texts and reflecting upon the meaning, put these meanings in, cultivate the meanings through in meditation and by that means there will arise the wisdom arising from meditation and thus as a means we will achieve definite goodness. So the means of presentation within the present text of Precious Garland is that first the high status is discussed and then definite goodness, and then high status and then definite goodness.
These two, the means for their achievement are ultimately discussed. So in order to achieve the liberation of definite goodness, we must understand emptiness. In order to achieve high status, we must first understand what are the various causes and the importance of engaging in these causes and the need for their practice. So today in our presentation, we’re going to be discussing in the context of high status. So we all have achieved this excellent human life by means of which we can practice the Dharma, and this we have done by creating the causes in a previous life.
We have attained our present high status through the causes created in previous lives. The the first verse in our present discussion, which I will read. A lord of men having the four goodnesses, truth, giving, peace, and wisdom is praised by gods and men, as are the four good practices themselves. We have found a human life, having created the causes in our previous rebirths, and having, that is to say, have found high status. And it’s imperative that we make use of a high status by acting in a productive manner.
We have attained a human precious human embodiment and therefore seeking to make productive use of it. We must, as it points out here in this verse, we must act in a wholesome manner, that we must be good people, a good person, and the way that we can be a good person is by practicing the four goodnesses of truth, giving, peace and wisdom. So, you’re talking about the qualities of how to be a good person, and the first of these is simply telling the truth in one’s honest in one’s communication, not lying. Though one might have various other faults. Simply by being straight and honest in one’s communication, then you will be liked and you will be respected by others.
Others will speak of you as being an honest and straightforward person. So it says here that if by being honest, by speaking the truth, then you will be trusted and liked by others. On the other hand, if one is deceptive and lies, then others cannot trust you and they won’t like you. The text, Precious Garland, was written mainly for the king, and the king obviously had great wealth, and so he was advised to make use of his wealth in the practice of generosity. If one has wealth, one practice generosity, and even though one has other faults, still through your practice of generosity you will be praised by others, and others will see you as being beneficent, and that they will speak of you as a generous person and you will be well liked by others.
So not only do we accrue these benefits in this life, but for example, by speaking the truth, one in the future lives, and as a consequence of speaking the truth in this life, in future lives, one will be believed by others and one will follow one’s words will have force upon others. By practicing generosity in this life, not only do we accrue the benefits of what we just mentioned, for example, being praised by others, but in addition in future lives that we will have objects, we will have many possessions, objects of enjoyment. The king, of course, was a great person in this land, and he had many dealings to do, to engage in with others. And he was advised to act in a peaceable manner, in a calm manner, and this would entail that simply not speaking haphazardly, meaninglessly, not fiddling with his hands while he talked, etcetera, and not jumping up and around in a distracted manner with his body. If he were to act in such a way, in a non peaceful manner, then others would not look up to him, that he would not be respected by others.
But we also need wisdom or perhaps maybe intelligence is a better translation, we need good intelligence. Possibility to examine things for ourselves and come to our own discernment for ourselves. Otherwise, what we understand and what we do has no stability. We will be easily influenced by others. Someone says this and we say, yeah, that’s the way it is, and you act in one way.
And then somebody else says, no, it’s not the way, it’s this way. Oh yeah, that’s right, that’s the way it is. And you have you have no stability within your own mind. You get swept here and there by what other people say, and nothing is accomplished. So to be a good person, it’s necessary that we have these factors of goodness.
That is the factors of speaking truthfully, the practice of generosity, that we act in a calm manner, and that we have good intelligence. If one were to have these factors of goodness, then you would be respected, others would have great confidence in you. You would be held highly by both people and gods, and you would be praised, and your excellent qualities would be respected. Whoever an individual might be, whether it’s a king or anyone, they do not exist alone in isolation. That is to say that we have companions, and it’s important what type of companions these might be.
If we have bad companions, then our conduct will eventually become just like theirs, they will become bad. On the other hand, if we have good companions, then our conduct will become likewise. So we have a saying in Kham that if you associate with white, you’ll become white. If you associate with black, you’ll become black. So the same holds true with respect to associating with companions.
If we associate with good people, then we will become good. If we associate with bad people, we become bad. From the verse, in which it says, Wisdom and practice always grow for one who keeps company with those whose speech is beneficial, who are pure, wise, compassionate, and not contaminated. And this outlines the four qualities of good companions. And what are those four qualities of good companions?
The first quality is that their speech is beneficial, that their speech is honest and is helpful to ourselves. On the other hand, there are those individuals whose speech is, I’m trying to think of the word, someone who simply I’ll explain. Someone who simply praises us with hollow, not really, just says good things about us all the time, but really doesn’t mean it. Pretend, pretense, pretentious speech. That’s good.
Something like that. Pretentious speech as as opposed to beneficial speech. So the first of the qualities of good companions is that their speech is beneficial. The second quality of good companions, the first being their speech is beneficial, but they also must be pure. And what is meant by pure here is that they have, in the way in which they could, they have few desires and are content.
They have few desires and are content. This is such that if when they do speak, those who have great desires have ulterior motives in what they say, and therefore it is out of their desire that they’re speaking what they do say, even if they speak very sweetly. So it is those who have small desires and are content in themselves that are said to be pure because they have no ulterior motives in what they do say. And the third quality was that of wisdom, and this means as far as the qualities of good companions, and quality is that of being expert in both the ways of the world and the ways of dharma, being able to know one’s way around the world, but also knowing the ways of the dharma, its various aspects. Additionally, such a a person should should not be uptight.
They should not be an angry person, and they should have a caring for you. So good companions would have the types of companions to associate with are those who have these four qualities. So if we were just to simplify the need for such types of companions by associating with such types of people, our wisdom will increase and our practice of Dharma will gain. So continuing, such speakers are rare. Listeners are rarer, but rarer still are words which, though unpleasant, help at once.
So, I’m talking about companions, and within the world, those types of companions whose speech is beneficial are extremely rare, But even more rare than them are those who listen to such speech. So, be mindful that companions whose speech is beneficial are extremely rare. And sometimes the speech, beneficial speech can be unpleasant to hear. And though it’s unpleasant, though their speech is unpleasant, what they say you would rather not hear, still you must reflect upon it. Though it’s unpleasant to hear, if it’s meaningful and beneficial, put it into practice.
Yes, This is what the qualities of companions with whom we should associate. So we have discussed what are the qualities of oneself as far as a good person, and what are the qualities of companions, and we are to practice reflecting upon this to set about practicing development of these good qualities. The text goes on to say, how are we going to practice? Always considering that life, health and dominion are impermanent, you will make an intense effort just to carry out the practices. In respect to our individual practice, are to cultivate mindfulness of impermanence.
Though we are not sick presently, though our body is well, we have health, we have a life, in one instant this could all be gone. Though this text was directed toward a king in which it speaks of dominion, that is to say all the various royal possessions of the king, but even with respect to ourselves that everything that we have, our life, our body, our home, our possessions, they’re all impermanent. They can all be lost in a moment’s time. By cultivating the the awareness of death in in in its impermence, we will begin to cease the attachments and hatred which are bound up in this life. That we’re simply not going to remain forever, that we’re going to go on to a future life.
And if we reflect this way, then all of the various objects towards which we develop attachment and aversion, such as one’s own self, one’s other’s possession, various types of possessions, we will begin to all of these afflicted emotions which are associated with these will begin to lessen. We can begin to by understanding that cultivating an awareness of death that we aren’t going to remain forever, then this will automatically begin to lessen our attachment and our hatred. That, you know, I didn’t die last night. I didn’t die this morning. I didn’t die this afternoon.
That thinking in this way, you will begin to cease, your afflictive emotions will naturally begin to cease, and this is the benefit of cultivating awareness of the impermanence of death. So if we if we reflect upon this well, we will understand the point which has been made that our desires arise because we think we’re going to remain many, many years. Out of these desires wishing to avoid the harm of enemies, we develop hatred. To hold on to our loved ones, we develop attachment. Out of our desire for various objects, food, clothing, etc, we develop attachment.
We engage in all our various activities because we think we’re going to be around for a long, long time. You know, we can understand this readily, that always making our plans for some long time, for some distant point in the future, that in the future I’m going to need food, I’m going to need clothing, I’m going to need a nice place to live, always directing our attention toward some point in the long distant future. And out of this, hoping not to suffer in the future and gain happiness in the future, then we develop various emotions of attachment and aversion, and out of that creating various types of karma. All of these thoughts which we have been discussing will begin to cease upon the cultivation and the awareness of the impermanence of death. We are going to die in the future, that we could die this year, we could die this month, we could die today.
We simply don’t know. Upon death, the only thing which would be of any importance, any value would be our practice of the Dharma. That if we haven’t practiced, then we can only expect some kind of future types of suffering. But we are thinking that we are going to live a long time. We engage in all the various activities of making preparations that we are going to live for a long time and all of our activities are involved in making preparations for possible future events and out of this we create a great deal of negativity.
But if we think that we are going to die soon, we simply won’t tend toward all of this preparation making and therefore we won’t create all of this negativity in creating these preparations. If we die, the only thing which will be of value is the practice of Dharma. So, not having practiced the Dharma, having created a great deal of negativity, what can we expect in the future out of this? That even if we were to be born as a human being, we would have a short life, We would have many difficulties. We would have a great deal of suffering.
And if we were to not to to be born as a human, we would be reborn as either an animal, a hungry ghost, or as a hell being, and they have to undergo the great and long sufferings of those embodiments which are almost as if inexhaustible. So now begins the discussion. To ensure that our life goes well, it’s necessary that we abandon intoxicants. And so there’s a listing of four drawbacks of taking intoxicants. So the first of the four disadvantages of the faults of taking intoxicants, are that one will be held in contempt by others, that others will scorn you.
Secondly, the various activities and work that one engages in, the purpose will not be achieved. They will not be accomplished. And we waste all our money. And under the influence of intoxicants that we lose our conscientiousness, and therefore engage in various improper types of activities, and these are the four faults or drawbacks of taking intoxicants. Though Precious Garland was composed for the sake of the practice of the king, the advices which are given to the king are applicable to ourselves.
And the next advice is to give up gambling. There are nine reasons or drawbacks of why we shouldn’t gamble. You know such types of games as cards and dice, things like this. So the first drawback of gambling is one develops avarice. That is to say, one’s greed is more and more.
If you win five dollars and you say, Oh, can win ten dollars or if you win ten dollars I can win twenty dollars and it just keeps on growing once avarice or greed keeps growing. When you do gamble, you’re really concerned about am I going to win or am I not going to win? Maybe I’m going to lose, I’m not going to win. And during this process, your mind is very unhappy. It’s unpleasant.
So this is the drawback of gambling. Further drawbacks of gambling are out of gambling comes hatred, deception, cheating, wildness, lying, senseless and harsh speech. The nine drawbacks of gambling. Was it after lying? Lying, senseless, and harsh speech.
Lying, senseless, and harsh speech. Next comes the advice with respect to lust, that this would be from male having lust for a female or female having lust for a male, that we conceive of the bodies of others as being clean and pure, where in fact they’re not. Therefore the advice comes as to the faults of lust. And then the king is advised to give up hunting, not to shorten the lives of others and to cause them suffering. By through hunting, own life will be shortened and one will experience suffering.
Analogy is made if we were to put into practice these various advices on how to develop the goodness of a person in our various verbal and physical acts. Such a person who speaks straight truthfully, who speaks well, who acts as correct physical deportment, that everyone who sees them has a liking. Really to seeing such a type of person, there’s kind of a gladness that you have about seeing them. And the analogy is that upon seeing such a person, it’s like a farmer who’s going through a drought and when they see the clouds in the sky and they think, Oh, this is great, this is really good, this is really good. To see those clouds brings a sort of gladness to the farmer.
Likewise, people who act with these types of goodness are, others when they see them are made glad. I used to live in India, and when there was a drought, then there was a great hardship on the farmers, and during the course of a drought, if clouds would appear in the sky, everyone was just made glad just by seeing those clouds and they would all dance around. And if it rained, everyone would jump up and down saying hooray, hooray, and they were that happy. Those people who have these various goodnesses, the goodnesses of their mind, their speech, and their body, gladden others in the same way, just by the very sight of them. Just just just just by just by We’ve been talking about how glad people are when they see someone who possesses these various goodnesses.
You when I when I you listen very well when I say, oh, we’re going to stop there, and everyone kind of becomes very glad. So if you have some questions. Yes? I’m sorry to harp on things like that. It just strikes me, you know, we use the word lust for something that’s basically unethical because it is a desire to use the body of another person.
I’m just wondering whether desire comes into this or that because I was looking back by the expression that it was because we It’s a matter of the translation. It’s a general term as meaning attachment or desire, and in this context we’re speaking of the attraction toward the bodies of other people and therefore translate the word as lust, but it’s simply attachment or desire and translating it as the word lust. So that’s just a matter of translation. But here what is being spoken of is that we see no faults in the bodies of others. We see them as clean when in fact they aren’t.
They’ve evolved out of the sperm and ovum of our parents and they are not in the nature of purity or cleanliness, and therefore we should not have lust for them. Without desire, the human race would stop. So again, is a positive desire and negative desire. That’s right, and by desire, the negative desire is that in desire which is in the context of attachment. We can have a desire for liberation, for example, and this would be said a reasonable type of desire.
On the other hand, having desire in terms of attachment to others’ possessions would be unreasonable type of desire, unreasonable or perverted type of desire, distorted. So we had a good laughter.