Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. We are wearing the costume of a human being right now but uncertain what costume comes next: Khensur Rinpoche uses this actor-on-stage image to frame the urgency of spiritual practice in this two-hour public talk at Buddha House. He defines liberation as freedom from the rope-like bondage of unhealthy mental states, cut by wisdom understanding emptiness, and quotes the Buddha: “I do not wash away sins with water; by showing the truth, all will be made free.” He traces the path from foundation to fruition — cultivating altruism, love, and compassion; practicing generosity, ethics, and tolerance — and uses a field-and-seed analogy to show how treating others well creates the causes of one’s own future happiness. Q&A addresses mind-continuity across lives, karma illustrated through well-fed pets, sexual ethics in committed relationships, and how ingrained greed can be countered with antidotes.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 21 1991 04 07 PT Path to Liberation..mp3
UUID: 502730dd-3fde-40f5-b15c-351c716fcdd1
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Public Talks 1988-2003 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1991-04-07
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 122.7 minutes
Words: ~5,643
Becoming less focused on the destructive qualities within our mind and developing the constructive qualities of our mind which will lead to various types of constructive verbal and physical actions. Thereby, all the various actions of body, speech, and mind will become constructive, that is to say that they will be able to they will be skillful in creating the causes of happiness and they can thereby create the causes of happiness and not have the causes of suffering. So through the cessation of creating the causes for suffering, then we neither experience physical nor mental suffering, that we only experience happiness in this state of realization of emptiness. The state which is the elimination of suffering is such that we only experience happiness. Whatever we see makes us happy.
Whatever we hear is pleasant to the ear. It only makes us happy. But we don’t even hear a word which displeases us, But everything and everyone is a condition which continually brings us happiness. There’s not even the thought of any suffering. So this meaningful result which we can achieve is achieved on the basis of the human life.
That various types of other beings, all the numerous types of varieties such as animals, horses, dogs, etcetera, cannot achieve this. It’s only in terms on the basis of the human life which can achieve this end. humans possess a very powerful intellect, and it represents a tremendous potential. Other beings don’t have such a potential. For example, if you were to recite the ABCs to a dog for a year, they would never learn it.
They can’t learn the ABCs what to say of practicing the Dharma and realizing emptiness. So the human life possesses a tremendous capacity through the potential of its intellect and our intelligence, we have to ensure that we make use of it while we possess it. If we can do this, make use of our intellect by promoting constructive ways of thinking and beginning to decrease destructive ones, then life has become meaningful, but not only meaningful, we will be happier. We should appreciate this wonderful opportunity which our human life presents to us and make use of our life in order to achieve a final type of happiness which is completely bereft of any suffering that many practitioners in the past have done this. In the past, those of India, Tibet, but also the practitioners of Burma through cultivating their intelligence and making use of the path, that they were able to achieve a happiness completely bereft of any suffering.
And there’s no reason that we can’t do as they did, that we have the same capacity just as they did. We are not going to remain forever. Our life is transitory, it’s impermanent, and if we don’t make use of this life, then in the end it will simply have gone to waste. So the path, the blissful path is the cultivation of the various states such as love and compassion through practices such as generosity, ethics, and tolerance, and ultimately developing the realization of emptiness. In dependence upon progressing in those various practices, which constitute the path, then we can achieve the bliss of liberation. Without these paths, there’s no liberation.
You know, if you’re listening to the actual state of affairs in which we’re involved in and reading books on the various subjects, then you can come to an understanding of our situation. And out of this will come an aspiration and the making of effort in order to implement solutions to our problems. Effort at implementing a method whereby to eliminate the destructive factors within our mind which presently bind us to our suffering, and we are going to experience a continued reoccurrence of cycles of suffering. What we now possess will eventually have to be given up, but the mind will continue on. And where would our mind take us?
And it depends upon constructive types of actions created during the course of our lives. We can expect to take a human life again in the future. On the other hand, in dependence upon destructive types of actions created during the course of our lives, we can take the embodiment of an animal such as a horse or a dog. Our embodiments, it’s very much like an actor on a stage who goes off and puts on a new costume and comes back on and plays another part, and then goes back off and puts on another costume and comes back on and plays another part. So presently, we’re wearing the costume of a human being.
We’re not quite sure what costume we’re going to put on again. With such a type of costume, things will be very difficult for us. So our parents helped us design this costume that we’re now wearing. That we have this costume of a human being, just like any type of clothing, it’s going to wear out. It’s going to become old.
And then what? And just like old clothing, simply throw them out and get new ones. So it’s it’s extremely important that we think in terms of what our future is going to bring us. The quality of our future costume is very much dependent upon the quality of our mind. If we implement, if we develop constructive states of mind, then we’re going to take on wonderful costume in the future.
On the other hand, destructive states of mind will bring us undesirable costume in the future. So why don’t we have some control over our future costume, it’s necessary that we consider this. If we don’t take control, if we don’t exercise our present freedom, then it’s quite unsure what type of costume we’re going to have. And it’s as if there’s a danger that we would take a type of costume that we wouldn’t like to wear. So you have listened to a few words that I’ve spoken, and it’s important for you to reflect upon what has been said.
But I’m not asking you to accept anything that I’ve said, but it is important that you reflect, that you examine, investigate all that has been said. And upon examination that you find it convincing, then put the various methods to achieve these things into practice. If you don’t find it convincing, then it’s no problem. Just set it aside. So it’s as if we’re at the fork of two roads, and one road leads to desirable end, the other leads to perhaps an undesirable end.
And the one road is constituted of love and compassion and the realization of emptiness, all of these. And by implementing these practices, we can travel that road to a desirable end. On the other hand, the other road leads to an undesirable end and these are simply the continuation of our present destructive actions of body, speech, mind. So stop there, but if you have some questions, we may have some answers. Mind.
And this continuum of the mind will reassociate with, for example, an animal. And that line will be the mind of an animal. So it’s not the human mind goes on, but the continuum of the individual mind continues on. So animals aren’t very intelligent. They can’t reason well as we can.
Case of the well off animal, for example, in Australia, cats and dogs have a they’re pretty well off. They usually have good food and a nice place to live. And why is that? That’s the result of, in the past, of having practiced generosity. And out of generosity, the results of generosity are the various enjoyments that we, material enjoyments.
But the fact, so they had food, nice shelter, etcetera, they practiced generosity, but they were reborn as an animal because they did not observe ethics. And when, in the case of the animal, once they exhausted all the results of the past committed generosity in eating all that food, etcetera, then the results are finished. And then in in in the future, they won’t even have food anymore. But there are many instances of humans who don’t want to have food, and this is simply because they didn’t practice generosity in the past. But still they can, while there has been humans, many humans they can practice spiritual methods and thereby they can achieve another human life, another human embodiment in the future which have all the various complete conditions.
So, it depends upon practicing a spiritual method, then they can achieve a beneficial rebirth in the future. So, being in some way cognitively limited is due to not having used one’s mind properly in the past. Not having thought in constructive ways. And therefore, the potential for thinking constructively is lost. So, for example, there are many countries in the world which are going through starvation, where the people don’t have anything to eat.
And because of that, these individuals have to undergo their experiences because they were born in that particular country and with those particular conditions. And this was created out of a cause of not practicing generosity in the past lives. People who have great attachments, greed, and this greed is created out of habituation to this particular state of mind from past lives. The fact that they have affluence, that they have food, and all the necessities of life, is simply because they practice generosity in the past life. There are many people who are extremely kind hearted, have good qualities, positive qualities of mind, but are starving.
And this fact that they have these kind hearted attitudes, these positive states of mind, is a fact of having been habituated to these from previous lives. But the fact that they’re starving is a consequence of not having practiced generosity in past lives. You know, you can look at many people during the course of this life, many highly religious individuals who are extremely spiritual minded, but experience great sicknesses and many sufferings during the course of their life. And their sufferings and their sicknesses didn’t come out of their spiritual life, The fact that they’re practicing their religion, that the cause of their sickness and suffering came from negative actions which they created in past lives. They didn’t come from their practicing their religion.
And likewise, the situation which has occurred in Tibet, that didn’t arise from their practicing their religion, but it came from actions previously created, negative actions previously created in past lives. So, tracing back the quality of knowing. At this point, our mind has a factor of knowing. And this present factor of knowing is in direct continuum with the factor of knowing that we possess in this mind. And you can trace back that factor of knowing, which the mind possesses, all the way back to the moment of our birth in this life.
How can I, you know, reason this out? That we we can one of the ways that we can understand the nature of this continuum of mind is that presently we are able to remember those actions or work that we did this morning. What we did this morning, we can presently remember. So therefore, there’s some continuity from the mind which did this work this morning to our present mind because we can remember actions or work activities that we did this morning. Likewise, we can trace back and remember things that we did during our childhood.
Therefore, there’s some continuity between the mind that was involved in the various activities during our childhood and the mind that we presently have since we can remember the actions of our childhood. There exists this continuity from previous lives, then one would not have this remembrance of what one, where one was born and one’s parents in a previous life. I don’t remember what you did when you were a child, and you don’t remember what I did when I was a child. The reason that you can’t we cannot remember each of those is because our our minds are separate. So we can understand that must be have normally constitutes a reason which supports that there’s a continuity of mind from previous to the present.
So we have a present quality of mind that of knowing, and this quality of knowing isn’t continuing with previous moments of knowing. And this is a it always arises the quality of knowing of our mind always arises from the previous moment of knowing. And if we were to ask, where does the knowing quality of our mind come from? If we were to say, well, we got this knowing quality from our our mother, for example. Or if we could this arose from material causes, there would be main faults in this way of reasoning.
If our lives were something came from our parents, then we should share mental qualities with our parents. For example, if our parents were extremely intelligent, then the child should be extremely intelligent since their mind is coming from their parents. Each each moment of mind of the mind arises in dependence upon a previous moment of knowing. And this is a beginning of continuity, that we can identify a first moment of the knowing quality of mind. There are various reasons that religions do the things they do.
There have been it’s not a matter of just Christianity, but in the past there have been, for example, religions in India which discounted the existence of past and future lives. You know, just one account was that there was one master who had a great attraction toward his daughter. So he His daughter? Yes. And he wanted to have sexual relationships with his daughter.
So he taught that there was He asserted that past and future lives didn’t exist, therefore it didn’t matter what you did. Between yourself and others. Yeah? Ah, I see. And then If you give an example where two people would have incompatible desires.
I say, one cannot fulfill their temporal desires simultaneously. So we’ll begin by adjusting our motivation, cultivating as our motivation the awakening heart. So beginning by appreciating the fact of being a human being that we have this tremendous potential, that with this very great intellect, that we can understand anything which is presented to our mind. And we’re all very much the same in that we all want happiness and then want to suffer. And to that end, having possessing a human life, we are afforded the capacity whereby we can actually bring an end to our suffering and achieve an ultimate type of happiness.
How can we achieve this end of seeking happiness, achieving happiness and alleviating our suffering? It’s through the cultivation of various healthy attitudes, and amongst these, we have the attitude of altruism, a beneficial intention by means of which we can achieve our desired result. So, in order to adjust our motivation for listening to this present talk, try to develop the attitude that perhaps by training my mind, by learning, by coming to a better understanding of my problems and the various methods provided to alleviate my problems, that I can be of that much more benefit to others, and therefore, for the next three minutes, try to cultivate an altruistic beneficial attitude for listening to this present talk. Then there’s a a short prayer that we usually recite in Tibetan. It’s, again, adjusting our motivation.
Yeah. I know. So, Rinpoche is quoting from a verse in which the Buddha sets out the nature of the path of bliss and liberation. So I’m going to talk about this blissful path of liberation. So we’re going to talk about two subjects encompassed in these words, the blissful path of liberation.
What exactly is the blissful path, and what do we mean by liberation? So what is it that we mean by liberation? Liberation entails some that we are in some kind of bondage, and therefore, liberation has the connotation of being freed from a type of bondage and unfreedom. So by liberation, we’re in a state where all suffering whatsoever is eliminated, and we experience only happiness. So to achieve this state of liberation, which is experienced as a complete happiness, devoid of any type of suffering, It’s necessary to understand the nature of our present situation.
In general, what prevents us from having a complete type of happiness? What is it that stops us? The mind is constituted of two types of states, healthy states and unhealthy states. And it is the unhealthy states of mind which as if bind our mind. They enfold our mind or wrap our mind, preventing us from complete happiness.
So these unskillful or unhealthy states of mind as if bind us, by way of analogy, like a rope. And if we can cut this rope, then we can we are freeing ourselves, our minds from the bondage of these unhealthy states. Just by way of mundane analogy, that if someone were to be tied up and prevented from going to wherever they might like to go to, then they would experience this being tied up and bound as extremely frustrating that they would find it to be experienced as a great dissatisfaction. And then on the other hand, if this individual were if their if their ropes which bind them were to be cut, and then they could move on to whatever destination they had in mind, that they’d be free to go. And therefore, all the types of frustration and dissatisfaction experienced in being tied and bound, which prevented them from going to a desired destination, would evaporate.
Much in the same position as this individual who is bound by these ropes, but our ropes are ropes of unhealthy or unskillful states of mind. And it’s due to this bondage that we find ourselves in that we have to undergo various types of dissatisfactory experiences and which prevent us from being liberated from these dissatisfactions. So, to continue this analogy, just like we can make use of a knife to cut the robes by which we are physically bound, likewise we have to make use of a method whereby to cut loose the unhealthy states which presently bind our minds. So, the method whereby we cut the bonds of unhealthy states of mind which presently bind our minds is the wisdom understanding emptiness. By implementing this method of the wisdom understanding emptiness, we can cut the bindings of our own minds.
So the Buddha said that I do not wash away sins with water, nor do I remove the sufferings of others by their hand, but by the practice by showing the truth, all will be made free. So the method whereby to free our minds is the method of the wisdom, understanding, emptiness. The wisdom, understanding, and emptiness simply is not going to arise haphazardly, but it has to be systematically cultivated. Development of the wisdom, understanding, emptiness relies upon healthy states of mind as its foundation. So it’s necessary to begin to decrease the unhealthy states of mind and begin to implement healthy states as a foundation for the ultimate development of the wisdom, understanding, and emptiness.
Primarily when we speak of healthy states of mind, we are talking about those states such as altruism, that is to say beneficial intentions toward others, qualities of mind such as love, compassion, and exceptional resolve. So, you know, illustrating these various types of healthy states such as compassion, and this is expressed in the thought which thinks, wouldn’t it be wonderful if others were free of suffering and the causes of suffering? Will they be free of suffering and the causes of suffering? I myself would take responsibility to free them from suffering and the causes of their suffering. And the healthy state of mind expressed by love is expressed in the words, wouldn’t it be wonderful if those who did not have happiness had happiness in the causes of happiness?
May they have happiness in the causes of happiness that I myself take responsibility to bring them happiness in the causes of happiness. So the mind is trained in to being able to develop, in fact, these actual states of mind of love and compassion, these beneficial intentions that we’ve just described. These are the most excellent qualities that we can develop within our minds. So this begins our course of practice in ultimately developing the blissful path, that is the practice of first developing altruistic attitudes within our mind. Simply developing these healthy states are not sufficient.
It’s just by way of analogy that if we had a thought that I’m hungry, I want something to eat, really that thought is not going to fill your stomach. That we have to actually implement the methods of preparing some food and then eating the food. In this way, we can we our thoughts will be fulfilled that we can fill our stomach. So, out motivated by this thought of love, we actually begin to implement this in fact that seeing sentient beings who are in some way impoverished, that seeking to bring them happiness in the context of wishing them happiness, bring actually implementing the methods whereby to bring them happiness, such as through our practice of generosity. Those who need food, giving food, clothing, shelter, whatever conducive conditions are necessary to bring them happiness.
And on the other hand, expressing our compassion or sympathetic caring in terms of actually eliminating the sufferings of others, in fact. And those who are without without food, providing them food. Those who are suffering because of lack of clothing, lack of shelter, providing them with their material needs and thereby alleviating their suffering. So, by these various material means that we can alleviate the sufferings and bring happiness to others, that but this these material means can only bring happiness in the course of this life alone. We have to try to help them to achieve not only the happiness of this life and to alleviate the sufferings of this life, but also to help them to achieve their same ends in future lives.
And this involves the cessation of bringing to an end their various faults and development of various healthy qualities. So we can begin to demonstrate what types of conduct or ways of acting are destructive and what types are constructive. So, by implementing the methods of beginning to implement constructive types of actions, ways of conduct, beginning to lessen our destructive ways of acting, again developing healthy states of mind, beginning to decrease unhealthy states of mind, then this acts as a foundation for the actual path which we’re seeking to develop in terms of the wisdom, understanding, emptiness. So we can benefit others through our love and compassion by temporally providing for their material means. This will help to alleviate their physical problems, their physical sufferings, and by helping them to act in skillful ways and begin to decrease destructive ways of acting, and this will help them with respect to their minds.
But not only by out of the motivation of love and compassion can we help others, both materially and spiritually, or in terms of their mind. But additionally, this helping of others will, as a result, we ourselves will be made happy. How does this happen that by helping others that we, each of ourselves individually, will be made happy? If we if we try to alleviate the sufferings of others, we see someone who has a problem, and we actually make an effort to help them solve their problem. Through this seeking to help them solve their problems, they are made happy.
And their their elimination of their suffering, the fact that they’re able to achieve happiness, acts as a condition for ourselves whereby we will be able to achieve happiness and solve our problems. By benefiting and bringing happiness to others, we ourselves will be benefited and brought happiness. On the other hand, as an reaction to our harming and bringing suffering to others, we ourselves will experience the same types of results. So if we were to question, how does this happen that by causing to bring happiness to others that we ourselves are made happy, by causing others suffering that we ourselves are caused suffering? How does that work?
From our point of view, we can we can make an analogy that others are very much like a field. So in this field of others, whatever we plant, we’re going to get a specific type of result. For example, just in general in the field, if we plant wheat, then a wheat crop will arise. If we plant barley, a barley crop will arise. But in accordance with what we plant, we’re going to have a result arising.
If we plant fruit trees, and these fruit trees are a variety of a sweet fruit, then we’re going to enjoy a sweet fruit from from having planted that seed. On the other hand, if it’s a variety which is very sour, then our fruit is going to be sour. And benefiting others that we ourselves will be benefited. On the other hand, if we were to cause others suffering, that we were to kill others, steal from them, fight with them, speak harsh words toward them, but in some way harming them, then this is like as if we’re planting a seed in accordance with that seed that we’ve sown. We’re going to experience the fruits of that seed.
So, you know, we presently possess an excellent body that we have. Generally, it’s very healthy and generally it’s quite beautiful. And the reason that we have this body is a result, and it’s a result of having in the past foregone or abandoned the harming of others, such as by killing, stealing, and lying to others. This is the result. And the fact that we have a high degree of material affluence in in our material prosperity in terms of food, clothing, and shelter, This is again the fruit of something that we’ve created in the past, and that was out of our practice of generosity, and we are now able to enjoy all these various results of a livelihood.
And the fact that we have good friends, harmonious relationships, is a result of having practiced tolerance in the past, being patient with others. Whatever we enjoy in life, whatever we may have that is worthwhile, all comes about in dependence upon others. Each of each of them in their own way has come about a reliance upon others. But we ourselves cannot create these for ourselves, but only in reliance upon others are they brought about. There’s nothing in the world that is achieved without relying upon others.
Whether, whatever it might be, whatever great qualities an individual might possess, whatever power, power, status they may have achieved, all of it relies upon others. That all the happiness that we experience has come about through the reliance upon others. So others, let’s say all other sentient beings are extremely kind to us. They’re very beneficial to us. Whatever we may enjoy, these bodies that we now possess, the clothes that we wear, the food that we eat, all comes about in dependence upon others.
There’s nothing that we create by ourselves independent of others. When we’re just born, we’re like a bug, a worm, that we don’t know anything. Can say, ah, gah, gah, gah. Can All we know is how to wet our diapers. So we brought nothing into this world as far as excellent qualities nor material possessions, that we we actually only brought our our various faults with us into this world.
And at the just after our birth, if our mother had not tended to us, even for just a few minutes, it’s probable that we would have died. So it was through the nurturing kindness of our mother that we grew as we have. But additionally, that those, all that we, our various qualities have been brought about by others. Our education had to be dependent arose in dependence upon our teachers. So, the fact that we’re that we can come and go, that we’re educated, that we are able to earn a livelihood, that everything that we need to take so much for granted has come about through the kindness of others, our parents, our teachers, our various companions, and those who hate us unknowingly.
So we’re extremely fortunate individuals for having our present bodies that we now possess with a high intellect and with all the various conducive conditions that we’re able to enjoy. So we have to make use of this opportunity while we presently possess it to begin to cultivate healthy states of mind and begin to decrease unhealthy states. So the cultivation of healthy states and the various excellent qualities have to be cultivated again and again through the various practices and some of them which we have briefly outlined, such as generosity, ethics and tolerances. By these means that we increase the frequency of our healthy states and on the other hand, beginning to decrease the unhealthy states. And it depends upon the lessening of unhealthy states, the cultivation of healthy states of mind as a foundation, we can then go on to develop the wisdom realizing emptiness.
And through this realization and increase of our wisdom, we can cut the robes which now bind us to the experience of suffering. By cutting away the robes of the unhealthy states which presently bind our minds, then they will naturally flow out of this a lessening and finally a cessation of destructive physical and verbal actions. You can do it in or serially. And one after the other. Are you is this referring to her question?
Is that connected? Not necessarily. This is separate. Okay. I don’t know, maybe we have to There’s the ethics of the ethics of abandoning sexual impropriety, for example, in a committed relationship whereby you would not, it would be considered improper to have relationships with anyone other than one’s committed partner, for example.
So the observance of ethics is necessary within a marriage in order to maintain the harmony of a committed relationship, though one may have a desire to have relationships outside the sexual relationship, outside the marriage, that this this would bring harm to your partner, and therefore the observance of ethics is necessary to abandon any sexual relationships outside of the marriage in order not to harm the other person, the partner. I don’t know if that’s So, in order to make our life meaningful, that we have to ensure that we try to cultivate these healthy states of mind, such as kind hearted attitudes of love and compassion. So, if can, we should try to benefit others as much as possible. And if, for one reason or another, we can’t benefit them, then at least we shouldn’t harm others. That is all types of creatures.
We should not be harming them if we can’t help them. And in doing it in this way, we can assure that our life is meaningful. Yes. So the reason that we’re involved in cyclic existence, a type of existence where we have to undergo these experiences which have a nature of suffering, is due to the force of karma or actions, but also these are assisted by the attachment, or the afflictive emotions in general. So it’s due to the force of this combination of karma and the afflictive emotion, most especially attachment, that we’re forced to take these types of rebirth.
But even if, once we achieve liberation from cyclic existence, still we have karma. But now this karma is coupled with compassion and love. And it’s under this influence that we continue to take rebirth. Yes. So, with respect to your first question, in general we could say it is a type of attachment, but for those individuals who are seeking liberation, then they seek to achieve a human rebirth not out of attachment.
But in general, it would be a product of attachment simply to want to achieve a human rebirth in the future, and not out of it, making use of it to achieve liberation. Then with respect to the second question, aren’t there other types of rebirths higher than that of a human rebirth? There are various levels, degrees of karma or actions that we create, and due to this forcefulness, we can take higher types of rebirth than even as a human being. The lower type of rebirth is the positive karma that we create, is that of a human being. But that of a middling variety, we would take rebirth as a celestial being, and that even a higher type, a more forceful type of positive karma, will take rebirth as a celestial being within the form and formless realms.
So, yeah, I’m I’m a greedy person today. I’m a greedy person today, the reason for that is because in my past life, I I I was habituated to greed. Today, I’m a greedy person. The reason I’m a greedy person today is because I acted with greed in my past lives. And then, I’m a greedy person today.
And then, taking that as basis of illustration, what would be your question? Obviously, I’m not acting properly. I’m a greedy person today. I’m a greedy person because of my actions in my past life. Okay.
So one can even though one’s, say, greedy, for example, now, one can begin to incorporate antidotes whereby to bring about a cessation, to lessen and decrease one’s greed. Even if a person is suffering as a result of a past So at the end, have a prayer of dedication.