Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 97-minute commentary, Khensur Rinpoche opens with a striking numerical demonstration: to produce a single hair on a Buddha’s body requires more merit than all ordinary beings, hearers, and bodhisattvas combined could generate — multiplied by ten. This vivid escalation through the thirty-two signs, eighty marks, and crown protrusion anchors a broader teaching on the two collections of merit and wisdom. Rinpoche then explains why speech is the supreme activity of a Buddha — without it, beings have no means to understand what to adopt or abandon — before turning to a key practical point: that meditating on dependent arising conjoined with bodhicitta simultaneously accumulates both collections. A Q&A closes with the distinction between involuntary rebirth driven by afflictive emotions and a bodhisattva’s compassion-powered return. Suited to practitioners with some Mahāyāna background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 20 PG 1991 07 10.mp3
UUID: d054dd95-0c04-461e-a154-e07c3925528f
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Precious Garland 1990-1991 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1991-07-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 97.0 minutes
Words: ~3,718
That we have additionally companions to help us in our practice of Dharma, that we have all the conducive conditions, is an indication of a great amount of creative potential that we possess. And having this present wonderful opportunity to practice, if we can achieve it again in the future, then this would be wonderful. So how can we achieve this human life again in the future? If we have healthy attitudes, then out of all of this will come various types of healthy conduct and thereby healthy results out of all of these various conducive conditions. And of the various types of healthy attitudes, there is none which exceeds the attitude of the awakening heart.
So how are we to develop this attitude of the awakening heart? We begin by developing the attitudes of love and compassion which are embodied in the thought that may I, may myself and others, if the others’ infinite sentient beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering, and may they have happiness and the causes of happiness. This love and compassion are altruistic in that they have a beneficial intention, it’s necessary that we increase the strength of this intention such that who is going to bring these sentient beings a happiness which knows no suffering, that we must develop the courageous resolve that I myself will bring them this happiness? So this courageous resolve is extremely beneficial. This thought that I will do this, in fact, is a very extremely strong, kind hearted attitude.
But if we analyze and reflect upon whether we actually have the ability, we will see that we simply have the kind hearted attitude wishing to bring us about, but we don’t presently have the ability. My question about who in fact has such an ability to be able to lead all sentient beings to happiness which there is no suffering. And it’s only an individual who has removed all their various faults and brought the consummation to all their excellent qualities, that is to say only a Buddha. So is who is it that can eliminate the various sufferings and bring happiness to the beings, and that is to say, a Buddha can lead him to a type of happiness which knows no suffering? That if we think, well, okay, then let the Buddhas go ahead and do that.
And if we were to think simply that and just forget about simply being, this would not be a healthy attitude. But in fact, that we ourselves as individuals must become a Buddha, that I myself must lead all sentient beings out of their suffering and place them in happiness, that therefore I myself must become a Buddha. And it’s this attitude of I must become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings, is the awakening heart. Meditate cultivating the awakening heart for the next few minutes, such that I myself, for the sake of all sentient beings, must achieve Buddhahood. In order to achieve that end, I must practice the great vehicle.
In order to practice the great vehicle, I must understand it. In order to do that, then I must presently train my mind and listen to the various teachings and thereby develop the ability to give vast benefit to all sentient beings. In thinking and contemplating of the meaning of this, one proceeds to listen to the Dharma and to meditate on it. This is the various types of conduct. Out of this listening and meditating comes the fulfillment of the healthy types of conduct and out of this will come the ultimate achievement of Buddhahood.
We oftentimes talk about collecting the accumulating the two collections. And within the great vehicle, there are the two collections of creative potential and wisdom. The creative potential acts to bring about the form body of the Buddha and the wisdom collection acts to bring about the truth body of the Buddha. So, with respect to Buddha’s form body, it is said that whoever sees it generates great faith. It radiates light and it’s very beautiful and it’s very wonderful.
So how did this beautiful body arise? It arose in dependence upon the creation of, upon the collection of the creative potential. As we talked about previously with respect to the Buddhist body, that he has thirty-two auspicious signs which are unlike the qualities of any other being. And for example, we mentioned the one auspicious sign that he has wheels on the palms of his hands and soles of his feet. By auspicious signs such as the wheels on the Buddha’s hand and feet.
These are very beautiful marks. They’re very clear and they’re very, they’re such that when another person sees them upon seeing them, they think that such a person who bears these. This is a sign of a person who is unlike any other. They surpass others, that they must be extremely holy and this comes about by the meditating on these marks, that serve as signs that this person is somehow unlike anyone else. So by means of the signs, person can understand that this person has exceptional qualities.
This means you go on to have what are called the eighty marks and these are for example the extremely even white teeth, copper colored nails, extremely black hair and these are indicative that this person is unlike others. One way of example of a mark, the Buddha has extremely well-formed lips and this is an indication or let us say it’s a mark of having cultivated love to the point of fulfillment. That had brought to consummation the quality of love. And so, this is a mark of iniquity. So, the signs indicative of a holy being.
One sees those and understands that this is a holy being. The marks are indicative of an internal quality. The Buddha has eighty marks, auspicious marks. So I am not going to go through all of these eighty marks. To go through them in detail would be very difficult.
So out of these various qualities of the Buddhist body, in what did they, in dependence upon what did they arise, We all have arisen in dependence upon the collection of creative potential. By means the various types of creative potential, various qualities of the Buddha’s body arise. So, this section begins with the verse which states, Great King, hear now from the great scriptures of the Mahāyāna. The marks of the Buddha arise from merit inconceivable. So, as I mentioned, all of these various marks and signs of the Buddha arise dependent upon the collection of creative potential.
And there are various types of beings in the world. Some have entered into a path and some have not. If we were to combine all of the creative potential of those who have not entered into the path, ordinary beings, those who have entered into the path, the various hearers, solitary realizers, bodhisattvas, etc, if we were to take all of the the creative potential of all of those beings, combine them together and multiply that by ten, then we would have the creative potential necessary to create one of the hairs on a Buddha’s body. One hair. Do you understand the word?
Hair. As it says in the Offering to the Spiritual Master, Guru Puja, Buddha has twenty one thousand hairs. In order to create one of those hairs, it requires a collection of that amount of creative potential. And therefore, in order to create those twenty-one thousand hairs, it requires those twenty-one thousand collections of creative potential. And further, so all of the collection of creative potential to create the twenty one thousand hairs upon a Buddhist body, taking that amount of creative potential.
Would require one hundred accumulations of those collections in order to create the one mark of a Buddha’s body that is his red lips. So, it takes one hundred of those collections of twenty one thousand creative potential accumulations. And each of the marks is multiplied by one hundred as you go along. Do you Okay, if we take all of that accumulation of the collection of the creative potential necessary to bring about, which act as causes for the eighty marks of a Buddha — that is the accumulation of the collection of creative potential necessary to create the eighty marks.
If we take that, we have to take that and multiply it by one hundred in order to get enough creative potential to create the one sign of the wheels upon the BAM of the hand of the Buddha. And there are thirty-two signs, so for each of those signs, we necessarily have to create the necessary accumulation. And if we were to combine all the necessary, the collection of creative potential which goes to create all of the thirty-two signs and multiply that by one thousand, then we would have the necessary creative potential to produce the hair curl on the Buddha’s brow, the white — what appears to be a white dot is a hair curl. This hair is extremely long when extended out, but it appears, I mean it’s curled, to be like a white dot on the Buddha’s brow. If we took the amount of collection of creative potential necessary to create that hair curl, and in order to, we would have to multiply it by one hundred thousand in order to create the necessary accumulation of creative potential for the Buddha’s crown protrusion.
Ushnisha crown protrusion. And then if we were to take the next collection of creative potential, if we were to take the collection of creative potential, let’s say to create the concentration of a bodhisattva and multiply that in order to create the sixty qualities of the euphony of the Buddha’s speech, we would have to multiply that by ten million in order to produce the sixty qualities of the euphony of the Buddha’s speech. In order to be able to benefit sentient beings through his speech, it’s necessary that the Buddha create that much accumulation of creative potential. Buddha is involved in many various types of activities, activities of body, speech, and mind, but the supreme amongst those activities are his activities of speech. Do you understand that, that the Buddha is engaged in various types of activities, by means of, through his body, speech and mind, but amongst these activities, it is those of speech which are supreme.
Do you understand why, amongst the various activities, the Buddha’s speech is supreme? Don’t get it. There’s no regrets, there’s no pain. Do you agree, what do you think? Buddha was born into this world for the sake of sentient beings and this was in order to assist him in understanding what was to be adopted and what was to be rejected, that beings are obscured with respect to understanding what should be practiced and what should be abandoned.
In order to eliminate that unknowing, than the Buddha taught and therefore he taught through his speech. If the Buddha had no speech, then there would be no method whereby the obscuration of not understanding what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected could be eliminated. So, the Buddha taught in order to understand what would be a benefit, that is to say the abandonment of harming and what should be practiced, that is to say in order to develop wisdom. By abandoning that which is harmful and adopting that which is beneficial understanding that and practicing that, then one can achieve the ends of liberation and omniscience and these all arise in dependence upon the Buddhist speech. So the elimination of our suffering and the bringing about of our happiness arises in dependence upon the teachings of Dharma, and therefore it is the Buddhist speech which brings about these ends.
Previously when the Buddha was actually teaching the Dharma, there was no records being made. There were no books which were being published at that time. The students, by means of their meditative stabilization, would not forget one word that was said. So these individuals not forgetting even one word which was spoken, keeping these all in their mind as to the various practices, what was to be abandoned, what was to be rejected, then in dependence upon this, then the various individuals were able to achieve liberation, the level of bodhisattva and buddhahoodod. When the Buddha passed into parinirvana, those with great realizations, probably perhaps five hundred, were about to pass into parinirvana at the same time.
I made a mistake. There were these five hundred individuals who were planning to pass into parinirvana and the Buddha, just prior to his passing into parinirvana, selected one as his representative. And he said that you should collect together and not pass into parinirvana. He addressed these people in this way. So these five hundred highly realized individuals came together who held within their minds the teachings of the Buddha and they made preparations to publish the teachings.
So the teachings of the Buddha were published in book forms and then subsequent to that various pandits, masters wrote both Indian and Tibetan, wrote various commentaries to these books, the actual teachings themselves. Then down through time, various commentaries were written about the commentaries and commentaries were, these were again commentated on, but the, so whatever books that we do read, the various commentaries that we do read, would take back to their root the teachings of the Buddha himself. Within these books has been written the various teachings of the Buddha and especially with respect to what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected, what is to be abandoned and what is to be practiced. This in this way we can come to understand the Dharma. By means of reading these various books, reflecting upon them, cultivating them, then we can eliminate our various obstructions to our understanding.
We can develop wisdom. We can, by listening to the teachings from these various books, can go on to cultivate what we understand, reflecting upon their meaning and cultivate them in meditation and gain the various wisdom. Without these books, without the Buddha, then there would be no Dharma taught and there would not exist these various books. There would be no way to develop wisdom, there would be no way to remove our various obscurations, there would be no way to eliminate our suffering and to find happiness without the Buddhist teachings. So the most important of the activities of the Buddha is giving of teachings.
The Buddha is not presently with us, that there was a time when he was giving teachings and he was of immense benefit to those who were present at that time. But now he’s passed into parinirvana. His body is not present. The body is of no benefit to us. It’s not helping us.
But we still have his speech in the form of his teachings. By understanding that his teachings which have as their foundation his speech, then we can understand and meditate on what is to be abandoned, what is to be practiced. We can understand what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected. And this all is dependent upon his speech. So, speech is the supreme of his qualities.
It is because of this fact that amongst the beneficial qualities that it is the Buddha’s speech which is the supreme or most beneficial that it required the greatest collection of creative potential to bring about. So just as we have a body, speech, and mind, the Buddha also has a body, speech, and mind. So, though there are a numberless Buddhas of various types, we can speak of in general that they are constituted of a body, speech and mind. Their body and speech is generated by means of the collection of creative potential and their minds by the collection of wisdom. If we present a syllogism saying, there’s a subject I and the body do not naturally exist and give the reason because they are dependent arising.
So dependent arising is a sign or a reason. And dependent arising, that reason, we generate both the collection of wisdom and the collection of creative potential. The eye and the body are not naturally existent. The awareness, so by cultivating the realization of that, again and again, we create the necessary collection of wisdom whereby to achieve the Buddha’s mind. in dependence upon understanding that the eye and the body are dependent arising, we generate the collection of creative potential whereby to achieve the Buddha’s body and speech.
So it is said that in dependence upon this one line of reasoning, we can accumulate the two collections whereby to achieve the body, speech and mind of the Buddha. So, one line of reasoning represents a combination of the two causes whereby we are able to achieve the body, speech and mind of the Buddha. As we do at our teachings, when cultivating the, as our motivation, the awakening heart, we were to combine that awakening heart, we would then go on to proceed conjoining that awakening heart with the realizing that the eye and the body are not inherently existent because they are dependent arising — these two conjoined together, we would simultaneously be collecting both, we’d be simultaneously accumulating both collections. So there’s a tremendous amount of benefit to be gained by meditating on the emptiness through using the reason of dependent arising conjoined with the awakening heart. So the wisdom realizing emptiness.
For example, the non natural existence of the eye and the body conjoined with the awakening heart is the is the accumulation of wisdom. By again and again cultivating that, one cultivates the collection of wisdom. And again and again cultivating that awareness, one achieves the wisdom truth body of a Buddha. If we think through contemplating of the eye and the body as being dependent arising, we accumulate the collection of creative potential. If we were to question, well, how does the contemplation of the eye and body as dependent arising generate the collection of creative potential?
In order to contemplate that the eye and the body are dependent arising, we must contemplate in detail what dependent arising is. So with respect to dependent arising, it is categorized in two ways. There is the category of that which is to be abandoned and that which is to be practiced. So with respect to the category of dependent arising in terms of abandonment, As we talked about previously that under the influence of ignorance we create actions and as was taught, we through by means of the twelve links of dependent origination, we continually cycle within, circle within cyclic existence, continually taking rebirths again and again, experiencing various sufferings through this process. And therefore, what terms of what is to be abandoned, there are these factors of ignorance, actions, and rebirth are the factors which are to be abandoned.
So to put that another way in terms of the abandonment category of dependent arising, what is to be abandoned are the various unskillful actions, the afflicted emotions, and their results, suffering. And with respect to the category of practice of dependent arising, What is to be practiced are the various skillful actions of verbal and physical and the various states which motivate those verbal and physical skillful actions such as love, compassion, the awakening heart and motivate it, but additionally the various six perfections. So the practice category of dependent arising creates the collection of creative potential by means of having as one’s motivational cause such states as the awakening heart, love and compassion. Out of that one engages in the vast deeds of the bodhisattva such as the various types of six perfections, generosity, etc, getting the four means of cultivating the disciples and this as a result creates the accumulation, the collection of creative potential. So it is by means that these two categories of dependent arising by the abandoning the various types of activities and objects which are to be abandoned and engaging in the various practices such as the various six perfections as generosity, motivated, etc, motivated by love and compassion in the awakening heart that one creates the necessary collection of creative potential by means of which one achieves the Buddha’s speech and body.
So, we should consider this well, that by meditating the one reason of dependent arising in terms of the eye or the body is not inherently, is not naturally existent because it is dependent arising. And dependence upon a single reason of dependent arising, we can accumulate the two collections within the great vehicle whereby to achieve the Buddha’s body, speech and mind and therefore, we can see that serves as a method, a means of practice, which has tremendous benefit and is a great blessing. So we’ll start there if you have some questions. Yes. So when we talk about the abandoning rebirth, we mean rebirth which is taken under the influence of afflictive emotions and actions, karma, a bodhisattva, that is to say, type of rebirth which is taken under the control of afflictive emotions and karma and a bodhisattva does abandon that type of taking of rebirth.
A bodhisattva takes rebirth under the power of prayer and aspirations and skillful actions. Skillful actions and prayer and compassion. By means of the root of his skillful actions, prayers, and compassion, he takes rebirth under the power of those. The hearers of the lesser vehicle take as the main abandonment attachment, but the bodhisattva does not mainly take attachment as his abandonment because there is some use, some use can be made in order to benefit others through attachment. So from this point of view, there is a difference between the lesser and greater vehicles with respect to this.
So when we talk about taking rebirth under the influence of actions or karma and afflictive emotions mainly. Mainly the afflictive emotions of ignorance, anger, and the view of the transitory collection. Under those types of afflictive emotions. I don’t think he said that. The Buddha’s body is not around. So you’re saying that the images of the Buddha are equal to the Buddha’s body, therefore it’s around.