Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The claim that Buddhahood can be reached in as little as three years and three fortnights — per Lama Tsongkhapa’s instruction — anchors Khensur Rinpoche’s 48-minute talk on Highest Yoga Tantra practice. He opens with two conduct points: avoiding companions heavy with negativity (explaining drib, or mental pollution) and never disparaging women, who may be Dakinis or enlightened beings. Purification of broken vows through Vajrasattva’s hundred-syllable mantra follows. He then walks through how generation-stage and completion-stage practices draw the wind-mind into the central channel — leading to clear light and illusory body — with attainment timelines mapped across practitioners of sharp, medium, and dull faculties. A Q&A covers the correct sequence of impure and pure illusory body stages and whether a physical consort is required for full enlightenment. For practitioners already initiated into Highest Yoga Tantra.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 13 1989 12 15 PT Advice for HYT 1b.mp3
UUID: 9f26cd5c-d27c-4656-9f33-082aa1fcb877
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Public Talks 1988-2003 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1989-12-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 48.2 minutes
Words: ~3,169
And in the case of a person with very much negativity who has lost — or who is in contradiction regarding — sincerity to the lama, so the actual word is who is in contradiction of pledges with the lama, meaning who has broken the lama’s advice. So in such a case, and also a person who has caused so much negativity in the sense of not accepting the Dharma and so forth — to such a person one should not be too close, and one shouldn’t keep too constant and close companionship. Because in that case it normally happens that because of such a person being very much with negativities, one, when coming in contact with such a person, one somehow receives pollution. Pollution — in Tibetan we have a condition called drib, which best translates as pollution.
So this is how it normally happens: when a person with a lot of pollution comes close to you, you somehow get a fraction of their pollution, because of which your intelligence and your clarity of mind are clouded and become unclear. So in this case, because of you keeping in contact with such a person so much, you will receive what I call pollution. Because of which, it will prevent you from having realizations born. Therefore this is not to be done. Do not keep companionship with such a person.
The next one is not to defame and look down upon any kind of female or any kind of ladies, because it is possible any lady out there could be Tārā, could be vajravarahi, and so many other Dakinis. And there are so many Dakinis and so many exalted female enlightened beings. Therefore, it could be possible you could be defaming and looking down upon such beings. Therefore, it’s possible some people, just taking it on a typical assumption basis, might defame by saying: Oh, these ladies have a lot of ideas, too many ideas, and so forth. So not to defame in such a way — and this has been explained as not to do.
So in this way, one should abandon the things which are prescribed or required to be abandoned and should adopt the practices which are required to be adopted in terms of the pledges and the vows. And in each day, try to abandon as many as one can and adopt as many as one can. And perhaps occasionally it might happen that one transgresses some parts of the pledges and vows. In that case, there are purification methods: to recite Vajrasattva’s hundred-syllable mantra twenty-one times complete, or twenty-one times having the four antidote powers complete. And in this way, that is the basis.
And on top of that, then if it’s the lower tantra classes, then one can do the actual practices of the yoga with sign and yoga without sign. And in the case of the higher tantra classes, then one can do the practices of the generation stage and completion stage. And that is how the secret mantra has been called the very swift path. And in this way, if the practitioner does the practice accordingly, then the very name “swift path” will correspond in meaning. And in this way, if one does the practice well, then if it is the practice of the lower tantra, one can attain Buddhahood within one lifetime. And if it is the highest tantra, then one can attain Buddhahood within one body.
And also more quickly than that, one can attain Buddhahood in twelve years’ time. And especially in the instruction of Lama Tsongkhapa, it is possible to attain Buddhahood even in what are called three years and three fortnights. Three years and three fortnights. So “fortnight” is just a translation of a small unit. So each fortnight comprising fifteen days.
So about three years and one month and a half, one can attain Buddhahood. And for the practitioner of the medium caliber or medium faculty intelligence, then in that case, even if the practitioner may not be able to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime, the practitioner will definitely attain Buddhahood in the bardo or intermediate state. And for the blunt faculty or the lowest intelligence, the Buddhahood can be attained in the next life, two lifetimes, four lifetimes, and maximum within sixteen lifetimes. It all depends on the practitioner themselves, how fast and how swiftly the practitioner reaches the destination. What the lama or the teachers can do is just teach the Dharma, show the path instructions.
But the real vehicle — meaning what the practitioner has to use to reach the destination — will have to be the Dharma. But still, Dharma itself, by itself, is not enough. Therefore it all comes down to the practitioner being most responsible, and how it is responsible for the practitioner — or in other words, how it comes down to the practitioner — is that it depends on the practitioner putting the instruction into practice or not, which determines the practitioner arriving at the destination sooner or later. In the case we say, in example, the road is very good. It all depends on the pedestrian or the person going.
Like, the road is very good, but if he just goes here, swings here, go over there, there, then maybe all day and night are maybe not possible to reach the destination. So same here. It all depends down to the practitioner himself how he practices strongly, effortfully, and so forth. Regarding this point about everything depending on the practitioners’ practice — in the past, Tibetan lamas have a saying: Oh, everybody has a deity to visualize on and a mantra to recite.
But because of not having a Dharma to think on, that implies all are remaining in this state of not being enlightened. Yes — everybody has a deity to visualize on, and everybody has a mantra to recite like Om Mani Padme hum and so forth. But still, because the whole practice is lacking from the mind, and from the mind there are no realizations being born — that is why everybody is now in the same state of not being enlightened. And that saying feels very true.
That saying feels really very true. The great bodhisattva Śāntideva says in verse: These are to be practiced by body. What will be the use of mere saying or expression through the mouth? Will the mere recitation of the diagnosis help the patient? So this is to be explained as meaning: if a person may know the whole instructions of the practices, and also may verbally say, Oh, I’m going to do the practices.
But if the person doesn’t do the practices, then there is no meaning at all. No meaning at all. There will not be any progress at all. And in the case, let’s say, a doctor who has undergone so much thorough training and has become an expert doctor, has diagnosed the patient and has recorded and told the patient what to take and what not to take. But if the doctor fails to prescribe the medicine and leaves the patient without medicine to take, then in that case the whole exercise is wasted.
There’s no meaning in that. Therefore, the whole Dharma comes down to the practitioner putting it into practice, rather than verbally making promises that I’m going to do this and do this — that is meaningless, not helpful. Therefore, the great master Śāntideva brings together the meaning and example: the example being the sick person not taking the medicine and being left like that, and the practitioner lacking practice. And here in the mantra practice or tantra practice, what principally is to be abandoned is ordinary appearance, ordinary vision, and ordinary apprehension — or ordinary clinging — ordinary appearance and ordinary apprehension.
Why that is so: in the sūtra system or sūtra explanation it is said that the very root of circling in cyclic existence is the truth-grasping of persons. And whereas in mantra, it is explained that the very root for sentient beings circling in saṃsāra is because of the role of the faulty wind-mind. So there are the wind and the mind. The wind is subtle too. The bad wind causes circling in samsaric cyclic existence, and the good wind is the cause to become enlightened, to become a Buddha.
So with the good wind, it transforms into the body of a Buddha, and the mind which is along with the good wind becomes the mind of the Buddha. Whereas with the bad wind, it is the one which keeps sentient beings in cyclic existence, and the mind which goes with that bad wind is the one which is in the aspect of the afflictions or deluded mind, delusions. And in this way one remains circling in cyclic existence. And now what is to be done is to eliminate the bad wind and bad mind and to accomplish the good wind and good mind. So once the bad wind and bad mind are eliminated and the good wind and good mind are accomplished, within that instant, one becomes a Buddha. So how is one to accomplish — “accomplish” is the literal word, perhaps “acquire” — how one is to accomplish the good wind and mind is only possible if one has ceased the bad wind and bad mind, because it is the bad wind and bad mind which cause the person to circle in cyclic existence. And how one has to cease the bad wind and bad mind is: one has to absorb the bad wind-mind inside.
Into the inside — literally, into inside. So when is it possible to draw all the bad wind-mind inside? It is only at the time when they are drawn in the completion stage of the higher tantras. It is not possible to draw them in in the lower tantras. Of course, the lower tantras by their own part — it is not possible by their part alone to attain Buddhahood and to be able to draw in — but still in addition to that, on top of the higher tantra, one attains what is called Buddhahood. And the lower tantra may be explained as being practices for those of the blunt faculty. Anyway, when it comes to the completion stage in the higher tantra, the completion stage has within it two stages called the clear light and the illusory body.
And clear light itself is of two kinds: example clear light and meaning clear light. And it is during the example clear light that one is able to draw all the bad wind-mind into the central channel. And one is able to draw it to such a measure — like a prisoner being jailed in prison — that the bad wind-mind are drawn to such an extent that they are drawn in so as not to be released and not to flow back out. And after that, one arises into Buddhahood, one becomes a Buddha. As with the tummo — the tummo has been explained by Rinpoche before — that tummo practice is mainly a practice of the completion stage, and it is a practice by which one draws all the courses of bad wind-mind into the central channel.
And in order to have the drawing of all the bad wind-mind through the completion stage into the central channel very effectively, one will have to do the preceding required practice that is of the generation stage. And to practice the generation stage — to practice a valid or qualified generation stage which is qualified in the sense of being a cause to become a ripener for the completion stage. So in order to do the practice of the qualified generation stage, which is to become the ripener of the completion stage, one has to do the practice of taking the three bodies as the path, where death is taken as the Dharmakāya, the intermediate state as the Sambhogakāya or the enjoyment body, and rebirth as the emanation body or Nirmānakāya. And regarding the generation stage, generally it is of a coarse generation stage and a subtle generation stage. Anyway, there is not much time to go into detail of that.
So the subtle generation stage will have to be perfected, through which one enters and does the practice of the completion stage. And the completion stage itself is of the five stages: body isolation, speech isolation, and mind isolation. And regarding the so-called illusory body, it is of two kinds: the impure illusory body and the pure illusory body. And clear light is of two kinds: example clear light and meaning clear light. And during that time one understands emptiness in the form of imaginative conception, normally called or sometimes translated as intellectual comprehension of emptiness.
And whereas with the meaning clear light one understands or realizes emptiness directly. And after that one attains the illusory body. So the clear light being joined or conjoined in union with the illusory body — through this, firstly, one remains or does the practices as a learner’s union or learner’s conjoining. And after some time, one becomes a non-learner or non-training union. And after that one becomes enlightened and one attains the state of vajradhara. So perhaps we stop here.
So we all became enlightened Buddhists! So if you have any questions, there are about ten minutes. And first: do you arise in the impure illusory body first? Right?
Mhmm. And then from that, they dissolve again. Mhmm. The winds go back in again, and then comes the — being the clear light, I mean, the example clear light. And they come out again, you know?
And from that example clear light arises the pure illusory body. And then from the pure illusory body comes the emptiness, and they have the real clear light at that point. Is that the right order? So first you have the what we call example clear light? That’s what my question is — don’t you first arise in the impure illusory body before you have the example clear light?
I guess that’s the question. No, it is not through what I call the example clear light that you first attain the impure illusory body. The clear light comes first and then comes — yes — the example clear light comes first. And that’s from dissolving the winds completely inside the essential drop of the heart.
So all the bad wind-mind will have to be drawn into the channel. Having drawn all the bad wind-mind, through having drawn that, then one understands emptiness, but still that understanding of emptiness is in imaginative comprehension. So being in imaginative comprehension, it’s not direct. Therefore that mind which comprehends emptiness imaginatively — along with that there is wind. And these two together arise into what’s called the impure illusory body.
So at this point, when one realizes emptiness through imaginative comprehension, along with that mind there is the mount wind — which is the mount of that mind — and that wind arises in the form of the deity, and that’s the impure illusory body. And why it is called impure is because the person has still not abandoned all the delusions and afflictions. And one may ask: what would be the state of the mind? So that mind is still in the state of realizing or comprehending emptiness, and therefore it is in the state of pure wisdom.
And that wind which arises into the impure illusory body — that is the first time the good wind has arisen. That is the starting of the good wind, in other words. From that, you continue to meditate on emptiness in that form. When the impure illusory body, keeping on meditating on emptiness — in that state with repeated familiarization meditation on emptiness, there comes a time that emptiness is realized directly. And at that point, the mind which had been comprehending emptiness imaginatively ceases and transforms into a mind realizing emptiness directly. And at that, the wind which was in the form of the impure illusory body also ceases, and these two arise in the form of a meaning clear light.
And that meaning clear light will have to be explained as being in the state of equipoise, deep meditation. And after deep meditation, the period called post-meditation, or technically called post-equipoise. So during the post-equipoise, that wind arises in the form of a deity, and that is the pure illusory body. No. It is not constant.
There are subtle knowledge obscurations to be abandoned. And still after that, there is a further stage which is called the learner’s conjoining or learner’s union, and after that, non-learner. So there are stages after that. Stages after that. Is it true that complete enlightenment is impossible unless using an actual consort?
Mhmm. The actual action consort, like a karma mudra. Consort. Right. Yeah.
The karma mudra. No. Not necessarily have to rely on the action mudra. So technically called action mudra — that’s a natural actual consort. And normally the mudra — consort, technically called mudra — is of two kinds: the wisdom mudra, which is the yogi’s own emanated deity or lady, and the other is this one, the action one.
So one will have to depend on either of the two, not necessarily the karma mudra lady. I read that he achieved enlightenment in the intermediate state because of not using it. Because he didn’t want to renounce his vows. Mhmm. The same with his disciples. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Did you read it or did you hear it? I heard. You read it. Mhmm.
I read it. I would have to see the source. Yes. So he had a very special responsibility of being the head of the Gelug sect, and he is like an example to which everybody looks. Therefore, with great reasons or purpose of preventing a kind of possible excuse by future followers to transgress that vow — especially Lama Tsongkhapa being not only that, but also being a gelong, a fully ordained monk.
Therefore, there are two occasions. One occasion during which the consort — let’s say a consort — during which the consort is allowed to be attended to, and there’s another occasion when the consort is not allowed to be attended to. And in the future, when the time is such that practitioners are not allowed to attend to a consort, in that case, some may perhaps find an excuse saying: During his lifetime, Tsongkhapa had a consort, attended to a consort. Therefore, we also can. So he didn’t attend to any consort.
So I also read Śākyamūni Buddha used a consort in his previous lifetime. Mhmm. And yeah. So it just seems Rinpoche just said that it’s not necessary, but I just thought it seems almost as if, like, the established — yeah, you know — the main people working for enlightenment are ordained monks and nuns.
And so it almost seems like a