Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 101-minute commentary, Khensur Rinpoche anchors the Three Jewels in a sustained medical analogy: the Buddha as doctor, the Dharma as prescription, and the Sangha as the nurse who administers treatment — because our real illness is the eighty-four thousand afflictive emotions that no herbal medicine can touch. Drawing on Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland, he identifies three essential remedies — determination to be free, the awakening heart, and the view of emptiness — then explains what blocks their arising and how to clear those obstacles through the four opponent powers of purification. He closes with a step-by-step meditation on dependent arising, using a flower grown from seed, soil, and water to show why the “I” and the body lack inherent existence. Suited to those drawn to Dharma but without prior experience.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 27 PG 1991 09 24.mp3
UUID: 5e37995f-67d8-40c0-a0a4-80abddd7aeab
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Precious Garland 1990-1991 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1991-09-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 101.0 minutes
Words: ~5,261
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Duration: 1h 41m
This transcript was generated using AI speech recognition and correction
File: 27 PG 1991 09 24.mp3
Collection: Audio Recordings — Precious Garland 1990-1991
Words: 5,261
UUID: 5e37995f-67d8-40c0-a0a4-80abddd7aeab
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Begin by cultivating the awakening heart. Can hear it in the back? We’re going to begin by cultivating the awakening heart. We are all the same with ourselves and others and wanting happiness and not wanting to suffer. Merely by not liking suffering and saying go away, does not make suffering go away.
Really liking happiness and saying I want happiness does not make something happen come. Both happiness and suffering arise dependent upon causes. If we want happiness then we must create the causes of that happiness without creating the causes of happiness from that realm. And likewise, though we do not wish suffering, in order that we not suffer it’s necessary that we cease creating the causes of suffering. Simply not wanting suffering is not enough to think about the cessation of suffering we must seek creating these causes.
So in light of this what are we to do? We are to begin by abandoning the causes of suffering and cultivating the causes of happiness. It is by this means that we can achieve the state of happiness throughout the world suffering. And if in the course of abandoning the causes of suffering and creating the causes of happiness, we would simply proceed in this life and for ourselves alone and this would be an extremely narrow minded attitude and in the course of this we could not achieve really great happiness nor could we eliminate the greatest disappointment. But if we were to undertake our activities in terms of wishing to eliminate the sufferings of both oneself and others, to bring happiness both to oneself and others, then this would be an immense activity bringing that great achievement and this is a very healthy attitude and kind of how to live one’s life.
To lift the decision and cause to arise in the thought that in order to bring happiness both to myself and others and to eliminate the suffering of both myself and others, I myself must eliminate all my various faults and bring the consummation of all my excellent qualities. For the next three minutes cultivate kind hearted attitude whereby that in order to eliminate all my various faults and to bring the consummation of my excellent qualities that I might be able to lead all sentient beings to complete happiness and to eliminate their suffering, I am going to listen to these teachings on the Precious Garland and thereby being empowered to integrate it and to achieve the end of eliminating all my faults and bringing the consummation of all my excellent qualities. Begin with the quotation from Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland, which reads as follows: Going to refuge with all forms of respect to the Buddha, excellent doctrine, the king, community and bodhisattvas, I bow down to all that are worthy of honor. And this is within the context of the fifth chapter, is setting out the various practices, is the practice of prayer. The main subjects which have been taken up in the Precious Garland are one, the practices whereby to achieve a human life, whereby to carry on a spiritual practice and two, the means for achieving liberation.
So it has been explained in detail the means whereby we can create the causes and conditions necessary to achieve human life during which we can practice Sadhana in the future and then in dependence upon having achieved that human life which is the ethical practice cultivating in our meditation, the wisdom understanding and to make sure that achieve liberation. But going beyond the achievement of the liberation setting up the means whereby an individual can liberate all the liberated thoughts and in the consummation all their excellent qualities that is to say the vast means of achieving Buddhahood, entering into the universal vehicle and there engaging in the very profound vast practices. Today’s teaching is specifically designed for those individuals who have an inclination for spiritual practice for the Dharma but have not yet gained any experience with respect to it. Those who have a liking for Dharma and who wish to practice it and what they can do initially. The doorway into Buddhism is set out in this first line going to refuge with all forms of respect to the Buddha, the excellent doctrine, and the Buddhist community.
Initially we want to know what is the Dharma and who is it that shows the Dharma, the teacher or the lama and who is it that practices the Dharma? So, what capacity does Buddhism hold? What is this Dharma all about? The reason that the Dharma is extremely highly valued is that is the factor which can bring about an end to our suffering. All of our problems, all of our distress, all of our unwanted dissatisfaction.
It is like a medicine. Not only that, but it has the ability whereby to bring about both our temporal and ultimate happiness. Therefore, gain a conviction and belief in the efficacy of the Dharma to achieve these ends. So how is this Dharma with these potentials to arise within one’s own mind? That there was a teacher of the Dharma, an individual who unerringly and unmistakably taught the Dharma, and that is the Buddha.
By means of practicing well the teachings which were taught by the Buddha that there are individuals who have removed all of their various coarse faults and have brought about significant excellent qualities within themselves. They have practiced the Dharma well and these individuals have entered into the spiritual community of the Sangha. So initiating our practice of Dharma, it is necessary for us to gain conviction, faith and to cause to arise a sense of respect and homage for these objects. These objects are extremely precious. Have great ability, extremely beneficial and full of blessing.
So through our practice of Dharma and initially in terms of our respect for these three objects, this will bring about the Dharma to arise within our own mind. We have integrated the Dharma within our own mind and it is through this that we are able to eliminate all our various faults, to eliminate suffering and to bring ourselves happiness. To take a worldly example, sick individual undergoes suffering and has very little happiness but by taking medicine they are able to eliminate their suffering. It is by means of a medicine which the individual is finally cured but it’s necessary that the medicine be prescribed for the patient and therefore the patient goes to a doctor and is diagnosed and a specific prescription is given to cure their ills and the doctor is analogous to Buddha. The patient has been diagnosed and prescribed medicine by the doctor.
The patient due to long standing illness, chronic illness is not able to administer the medicine by himself. It is necessary to enlist the assistance of a nurse, and the nurse is able to assist in the treatment, administering the medicine as it was designed, and getting food as necessary with respect to diet, and the doctor’s prescription is set out very well in accordance with the treatment, and this is such that it clearly states what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected. It is the Sangha, the nurse, which assists in this treatment. So this patient who has this chronic illness unable to take care of themselves is analogous to ourselves with respect to our illness of suffering. But it’s possible you think, well I’m not really like a patient, I’m not in poor condition, I’m not undergoing illness, you might think of yourself in a mistaken way, I’m not a sick person.
But in fact we are suffering from the worst condition of being the least healthy patient. Why is that in terms of this analogy of the patient we are simply talking about some physical ailments but in our case it’s a mental ailment. What are our various mental illnesses? They are such as attachment, hatred, confusion, pride, jealousy, conception of true existence, ignorance. The worst type of illness is mental illness.
We have been suffering from this illness from the beginningless of time, and it is in the very nature of cyclic existence — that in fact is its nature. The medicine which a doctor can give us cannot cure our deeper ills but can only bring about temporal relief from coarse physical sicknesses. Through their medicine which is concoctions of herbs and minerals and various plants, they can only assess rough difficulties, physical difficulties. The sicknesses of the mind are not physical. The sicknesses which we personally have, if they were extensively enumerated, we could, would be eighty four thousand afflictive emotions such as attachment, hatred.
These are things we can’t see. The Buddha taught and set forth eighty four thousand remedies as means to remedy the eighty four thousand afflictive emotions. Illnesses that we experience, physical illnesses of our body and speech are expressions of that illness of inner factors within our own mind. For the sicknesses of the mind, need medicines of the mind. The various concoctions of external substances that the herbs cannot affect the mind.
And in order to bring about the well-being of the mind it is only the dharma which has this ability. If we were to list the essential medicines whereby to eliminate the very root of all of our sicknesses of mind, there would be the determination to be free, the awakening heart, and the authentic view of emptiness. In order to generate these medicines of the mind, there is a determination to be free, the awakening heart and our correct view of emptiness. So what are we to do first? This is as I just explained, to generate a faith and respect the sense of homage and conviction with respect to the Buddha Dharma and the spiritual community. Whenever we have a teaching of Dharma, we always commence with the verse: I go for refuge and tell my enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma in the highest ascended and this is the going to refuge to the Buddha, Dharma, and the spiritual community, and then we go on with the aspiration that from the virtuous merits that I collect through practice, may I attain the state of the Buddha to be able to benefit all sentient beings and this is within the context of the universal vehicle, the generation of an awakening heart.
The reason that we seek to generate the awakening heart initially in our practice is that we are trying to implement the practices of the great vehicle Dharma and without the attitude of the awakening heart then one’s practice does not conduct the state vehicle or the universal vehicle. Then we go on to decide the prayer of the seven limbs in which we begin with the line I prostrate with my three doors literally and the three doors are doorways of the body, speech and mind. Is to say that one with respect and conviction in these objects, one pays homage with one’s body, one’s physical posture and one’s mental attitude. But merely having faith and conviction with respect to the Three Jewels, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, by merely doing that will we generate the determination to be free, the awakening heart and authentic view of emptiness, we will not. If we were to ask, what do I have to do in addition to going for refuge to the Three Jewels in order to generate these three — the determination to be free, the awakening heart, and the correct view of emptiness?
Why is it that we have such difficulty generating a refuge, creating the causes, sincere refuge? It’s because of the various harmful activities that we are continually involved in. These various activities, harmful activities are a result of the afflictive emotions such as attachment, hatred and confusion. Out of these three afflictive emotions one creates negativity, physical unskillful actions such as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, verbal unskillful actions such as lying, divisive speech, harmful speech and idle chatter and mental unskillful actions such as covetousness, harmful intentions and wrong views. So it is these very negative unskillful actions that we are continually involved in every day that actually block the generation of these qualities: determination to be free, awakening heart, and the correct view of emptiness.
An analogy would be that even if the field were very fertile, if it were covered with weeds and stone and pieces of wood, then even if we were to plant a crop, the crop would not go well. We could easily understand that if we want to grow a fine crop then it’s necessary to clear the field of all of those pieces of wood and stone. Likewise our mind is being compared with the field and it’s covered over various negativity and even though we seek to plant seeds, nothing goes within the field of our mind and just as we have to clear the field, likewise we have to clear our mind. And this is done through acknowledging or laying bare our past negative actions that we have created. By this means by laying them bare, we are able to prepare the field and then planting the seed we can get the desired crop: the determination to be free, the awakening heart, and the correct view of emptiness will grow.
And how are we to proceed in this clearing of the field of the mind, the purifying of negativity that we possess within our mind. This is done through the practice of the four opponent powers. By means of applying the four Upanishads we can purify all of the vibrations and the actions created and which are left within our mind. The first of these four opponent powers has two parts. The first is going to refuge with devotion and faith in the Three Jewels and the second part of the first power is generating an awakening heart.
The second power is the power of regret and this involves just as just as if we were to eat poison and once it reaches our stomach, we will generate a great sense of regret. I wish I hadn’t done that. If we were to actually take poison, we would become terribly upset. We would become very fearful. We would run here and there trying to figure out what to do.
We would run to a doctor. But there’s nothing really all that terrible about poison in the sense that the worst it can do is cause us to lose our present body. It can’t hurt us in the future after that, but in fact the negativities that we treat not only are able to bring us harm in this life but they will continue to bring us harm in the future life. Poison can only cause us to lose our life. Negativity and unskillful actions can cause us great harm in the future life.
The third point of power is the power of reversal. We commit ourselves not to repeat the same action again. Then the fourth opponent power is the antidote whereby we actually, in order to purify the negativity, then we apply a specific antidote and these antidotes can be of numerous varieties such as meditation on love or compassion, meditation on emptiness, recitation of the one hundred syllable mantra of Vajrasattva, recitation of the sūtra of the thirty five Buddhas going to refuge. Any type of skillful action can act as an antidote to the past negative action created. It is definite that if we apply these four opponent powers well, we can completely eliminate any negativity from our mind.
So this is the practice of acknowledging laying there are negativities. So it is by this means that we eliminate the various negativities that are the fault of the mind just like removing the various stones, weeds and pieces of wood from the field. But is simply this enough to generate these essential three qualities of determination to be free, awakening heart, and the correct view of emptiness? This purification by that in itself is not enough. We cannot grow a crop simply by clearing the field.
In order to grow crop we have to provide all the conducive conditions for a fine crop to grow for us. We have to supply fertilizer, water, etc. To ensure these conditions actually to ensure, a good proper growth. So you know we can understand that if we supply all these conditions in the growing of crops then we can be ensured of abundant harvest. And this is in the case of in order to produce an abundant harvest it’s necessary to provide the abundant conditions, to supply the conducive conditions such as fertilizer and water etc.
Likewise, to ensure that we are able to generate in abundance the determination to be free, the awakening heart and authentic view of emptiness. In addition to removing the impediments to their growth, have to supply conducive conditions to foster their growth. What are these conducive conditions? These are constituted as creating, it’s necessary that we accumulate creative potential that is merit or skillful action that we involve ourselves in healthy behavior. How are we to accumulate this creative potential that we can do it through for example the meditation on love and compassion, the practices of generosity, ethics, tolerance, involving ourselves in joyous efforts, developing meditative stabilization and wisdom.
And those which are most important and most powerful involve wisdom. The wisdom arising out of listening, that of reflecting and that through meditation. Not only can we involve ourselves in these practices directly but we can also accumulate creative potential through rejoicing the actions of others that when we see others involving themselves in these various practices such as meditation and love and compassion, those who are working hard to develop the path to achieve Buddhahood, to generate an awakening heart. When we see people involving themselves in any type of skillful action and thinking how wonderful it is, isn’t it generating a sense of rejoicing in what they’re doing, taking joy in what they’re doing. By this fact of rejoicing both in the skillful actions of oneself and others, our creative potential is increased.
By this means of removing all the inhibitory conditions, that is to say the various negative factors within our mind, promoting all the various conducive conditions, that it is in the very nature of the thing that in the process of these two, the qualities of the determination, the determination to be free, the awakening heart, and the authentic view of emptiness will arise of themselves. There’s no one who can stop them. We can eliminate all the various faults and bring to consummation all the excellent qualities of the mind. This is done by the means of creating causes and conditions and we can realize the potential of the mind. Initially trying to develop the quality of the determination to be free and what do we mean by determination to be free or renunciation and this is that by saying that the very nature of cyclic existence is suffering, developing a longing to be liberated from cyclic existence.
To abide within cyclic existence is like staying within a fire. Can easily understand that wherever you are within the fire, going to be burned and the same holds true that we’re going to be burned wherever we live within the fact that we exist. So the fire is the fire of suffering and cyclic existence is our five aggregates. Our five aggregates. Is our five aggregates.
That as long as we abide within these contaminated aggregates we are always generating suffering therefore it is like being in the middle of a fire. If we were within a raging fire there would be this tremendous longing to get out of it, this desire to be free of the fire. It would be extremely powerful aspiration to get out. Likewise, we are in a place of suffering, our contaminated aggregate and within this fire of suffering of the contaminated aggregate we can only experience suffering and there is this determination to be free likewise as if when we were in a fire. How is this suffering generated, this fire of suffering which we find ourselves in?
If we were to go on to investigate, we would see that the root of all of this suffering are the afflictive emotions, that the afflictive emotions are the source of all our suffering and the root of the afflictive emotions is ignorance, misknowledge. If misknowledge is the root of our suffering, how are we to get rid of this misknowledge, this ignorance? If we were to reflect upon this then we would see that it is necessary that we meditate on emptiness because it is the wisdom realized in emptiness which is the remedy to misknowledge. Then we have to question what is emptiness if we’re going to meditate on it and then in order to come to an understanding of what emptiness is we have to read books on emptiness, we have to listen to the teachings on emptiness and finally meditate on it. Through this process of listening, reading books, reflecting again and again on what emptiness means and then finally seeking to cultivate it in meditation again and again and again reflecting upon it, making use of various reasons.
In this way we can generate the wisdom realizing emptiness. We’ve explained rather extensively the way in which to cultivate one’s meditation on emptiness. We discussed the various types of selflessness, object of negation, the various types of reason which are to be implemented and it is in listening to these really precious teachings that we can, that we’re able to reflect and through reflecting, making use of these reasoning that we can actually cultivate in meditation the meaning of emptiness. We have listened a great deal to the teachings on emptiness and in doing so we’ve created a great deal of creative potential and we’ve implanted a lot of latencies and impressions which will generate in the future the wisdom of understanding emptiness but merely this is not enough to actually generate the wisdom we like in emptiness. Ultimately we want to generate the wisdom realizing emptiness.
That’s the result we’re seeking to gain. It’s not enough simply to have listened to these teachings. It is only by removing the misknowledge which is the root of cyclic existence that we can obtain liberation and this is only attained by means of the wisdom of realizing emptiness. If we don’t generate the wisdom of realizing emptiness, we will not attain liberation. There are endless number of reasons that we can use in cultivating our meditation on emptiness, but mainly that which was prized most by the Buddha was the reason of dependence arising and this is the reason which we should make use of.
This is an extremely important reason. Necessary that we meditate on the reason dependent arising. So how are we to proceed in meditating on the reason of dependent arising? We begin by understanding this I, this I, I, I that we are talking about. When you say I go, I say I’m sick, I’m happy, I’m well, I’m not well.
This I that we are constantly referring to. Additionally we go on in dependence upon the conception of I to conceive of mine. We say things like my body, my hand, my head, my leg. We say for example my body. The I is not the body.
We don’t say the I is the body. We say it is my body. So we can reflect in the following way. We can take as a subject the two factors of I and my body and we can say that they do not naturally exist or another way to translate this, they have no intrinsic identity. They are without intrinsic identity and what is the reason we give Being able to state this because they are dependent arising.
Why the I and my body dependent arising? Because they arise in reliance upon causes and conditions. Since they arise in dependence upon causes and conditions, then they are dependent arising. Since the I and my body rely upon others, that they exist relative to others, therefore they do not have an intrinsic identity within themselves. Why is that?
If something is naturally existent, that is to say it exists by way of its own nature or it has its own intrinsic identity, If it exists that way then it cannot rely upon any other factor outside of itself. It must be established independent of everything else. We have to So we must investigate the nature of the I and my body. Are they established? Do they come into existence in dependence upon something other than themselves?
That is to are they established in dependence upon something other or do they come about in dependence upon other things? Do they exist relatively or absolutely? We can understand that they exist only in reliance upon others. Why? Because they rely upon causes and conditions.
If something relies upon causes and conditions then it dependent arising. The two dependent arising and dependent arising are mutually contradictory. Nothing can be both independent and dependent, and we can see that the I and the body are dependent and they cannot be independent. We can take as an example a flower and we can look at it and say does the flower, is the flower established and dependent upon and reliant upon something other than itself or is established upon not relying upon something other than itself and we reflect, we examine and if we examine this way we will come to understand that the flower comes into existence in relying upon something other than itself. Why?
Because in order to grow a flower we have to rely upon seed, we have to rely upon water and soil and therefore it grows in reliance upon something other than itself. It is not self reliant. If the flower had an intrinsic identity, if it naturally existed, that is to say existed by way of its own nature, then it wouldn’t rely upon anything outside of itself for its existence but in fact it does. Additionally, can see that by examination that in dependence upon just a seed, the flower does not grow. That it needs not only the cause of the seed but it needs auxiliary conditions of soil and water for it to grow.
So if something is reliant upon others, it is not independent of others, is a dependent arising. Because something is not naturally, an object is not naturally existent because it is through the reason it depends on arising. If we take the flower, the flower is not naturally existent, that is to say it is not established through its own intrinsic identity, through its own nature. Why? Because it’s reliant upon other factors such as seed, soil and water etc.
And we should meditate and cultivate the understanding in this way. Likewise, apply the same reasoning to meditation on I and my aggregates, these two factors. That I and my aggregates do not inherently exist, do not naturally exist, exist by way of their own natures because of the reasons that they are dependent arising. Therefore they do not exist independently and we should cultivate them in our meditation using the reason of dependence arising the non inherent existence of I and my aggregates. In this way again and again bringing them to mind through our cultivation and meditation.
Then as in the case of the use of this example of the flower, there will come a point when we will realize that the flower does not exist from its own side. It does not exist objectively. It does not naturally exist. When we are able to really refute the natural existence, that is to say we say that this flower cannot exist inherently. This flower is not established by way of its own nature.
That is the ultimate, that very reputation of that way of existing is its ultimate nature and we can come to this understanding in a gradual manner. When one realizes this, one has generated wisdom realizing emptiness. But still, if we only proceed in the cultivation, in our meditation in this way, you know taking this, making use of this reasoning that I and my aggregates do not naturally exist because of their dependent origin. For example, just like a flower, that if we simply proceed in meditation and only that, then it would be extremely difficult to gain realization. There are many, in the development of wisdom there are many obstacles, inhibitory conditions.
It’s like the wisdom is analogous to the growing of a sprout. Are also, with the growing of a sprout there are many impediments to its growth. So we have to proceed to not just only cultivate meditation on emptiness but we have to eliminate all the various inhibitory conditions. We have to cultivate all the conducive conditions and then proceed to cultivate through meditation using these various reasons. We can bring the realization, the wisdom realizing emptiness, in dependence upon the combination of these three factors.
In the generation of the wisdom realizing emptiness, it’s necessary that we remove all of the various inhibitory conditions or the contradictory conditions which are all the various negativities and obscurations within our mind and we can do this by applying the four point of power which we have just discussed. And then additionally in order to create the necessary conducive conditions, the supportive conditions, then it’s necessary to we can proceed by meditating on love, compassion, reawakening heart, can practice generosity, etc. That is creating, accumulating creative potential. Additionally, one should then make respectful requests to one’s spiritual teacher, one’s lama, that is the individual who in this case has given you teachings on emptiness, who is seen to be inseparable from one’s meditational deity and respectfully requesting to generate the wisdom. It is said that this is the means whereby we can generate the wisdom realized in emptiness in a combination of these three factors.
This was set out by Tsongkhapa when he was given advice by Mañjuśrī as to what would be the quickest means to come to realize the view of emptiness and he was advised that the means were the purification of negativity, the accumulation of creative potential and the requesting to one’s lama seen as individual to one’s meditation or deity. in dependence upon a combination of these three factors, one will gain wisdom realizing emptiness. It’s in this way that Je Tsongkhapa came to realize the view of emptiness. We should make very strong prayers at this point. Some of the most powerful of antidotes would be the cultivation of the awakening heart, meditation on emptiness, the recitation of the sūtra of confession of downfalls, the recitation of the hundred syllable mantra, the recitation of the one’s main mantra and recitation of the Sūtra of the Heart of Wisdom.
These are some of the most powerful antidotes that we can use and if purification is taking place, there will arise signs within your dreams that purification is taking place. If the negativities are being purified then there are various signs which arise in the course of a dream. They are for example dreaming that you’re flying through the air, that you’re washing, drinking milk, meeting with the Lama, much, there’s, yeah.