Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. “Wisdom without joyous effort is like a corpse” — that arresting image anchors this 46-minute talk by Khensur Rinpoche on how the two qualities depend on each other. Rinpoche defines wisdom as the supreme mental factor: the consciousness that distinguishes an object’s qualities and faults without needing other factors to assist it. He traces three stages of acquired wisdom — arising through listening, reflection, and meditation — using the realization of emptiness as a worked example, showing how each stage deepens into the next until direct realization is achieved. He then explains why virtues such as compassion and generosity are “blind” without wisdom to lead them, and why joyous effort specifically — effort taken with genuine appreciation of its benefits — keeps wisdom from becoming inert. The session closes with an oral transmission of the Mañjuśrī mantra for increasing wisdom.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 34 1993 09 05 PT Wisdom and Joyous Effort 1a.mp3
UUID: 710b8227-ea36-4346-a411-a8fec34e6686
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Public Talks 1988-2003 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1993-09-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.1 minutes
Words: ~2,472
We’ll meditate for ten minutes. So today we’re going to discuss the wisdom and joyous effort, relationship between them. So we’re constituted of body and mind. And with with respect to mind, there is the mind or primary consciousnesses. And then there are secondary consciousnesses mental factors.
So there is mind and mental factors, and wisdom is a mental factor. So in the presentations of mental factors, there is one presentation which lists forty-six mental factors. There is another presentation which lists fifty-one mental factors. Whichever one amongst these mental factors, wisdom is one of them. As is joyous effort, it is also a mental factor.
So these two minds and mental factors, they accompany one another. They are simultaneous. And the difference between them is that the mind merely realizes the entity of the object. Merely, we merely sees or comes to understand the entity of the object. It is mental factors which distinguish the individual characteristics of the object.
So the word that we’re translating as wisdom in Tibetan is and is made of a made up of two syllables. The first is which means consciousness. And we can talk about various types of consciousnesses, those which are are limited consciousnesses, which are middling, and those which are supreme. And wisdom is a supreme consciousness. So we’re saying that wisdom is the supreme of consciousnesses.
It is consciousness is that which is clear in knowing. And by clear we mean consciousness has a luminosity. And knowing means it’s able to realize its object, it’s able to see its object, it’s able to apprehend its object. And amongst the mental factors which facilitate this knowing, it is wisdom which by itself can bring about a knowing that without depending upon it is the main engager in the object. It is it is the main means by which we engage in it in the object.
And it’s it does not necessarily have to be accompanied by any other factor in order for it to know or to realize what what the object is in terms of its being good or bad, its faults, its its excellent qualities, whether it’s impermanent or permanent. It is wisdom itself which which which can distinguish the the characteristics of the object. So one who has excellent wisdom is able to distinguish the quality of the object in terms that due to this the due to their wisdom, they’re able to is this a good object? Is it a bad object? Is this happiness?
Is this suffering? Is this healthy? Is it unhealthy? Is this to be adopted? Is this to be avoided?
That which is able to make these distinguishment is a factor of wisdom. Distinguishment is the factor of wisdom. So there are two types of wisdom. There is innate wisdom and acquired wisdom. Innate wisdom that one that without any sort of formal training or education that one has certain knowledges one is able to recognize if something is said, is able to recognize what is able to understand what is being said simply without having been educated or trained.
But then there is the acquired wisdom, or that is to say wisdom which is developed out of training. So this innate wisdom or literally wisdom through the power of birth is those intelligences we an intelligence which has been brought about by training previous lives. And when one takes rebirth in his life, one has a latency or a predisposition, a potency to be able to clearly understand things due to that past training. Then an acquired wisdom or that is more literally wisdom through the power of training is those types of understand ings which come about in the course of this life through study with the expenditure of effort and going through some difficulty, the certain understandings become clear to us, but it’s only through training in the course of this life. So with respect to wisdom through the power of of training or acquired wisdom, there are the three types.
The wisdom arising through listening, wisdom arising through reflection, and wisdom arising through meditation. Wisdom arising through listening is that wisdom which arises by listening to the teachings. They can be mainly through the listening to the teachings of others, listening to the teachings given by a Lama. Upon hearing that some wisdom arises in our mind. But also it can be reading books on the teachings.
And there also arises a wisdom through this means. So this the wisdom which arises through listening to the teachings again and again through listening to them, there is a certain wisdom which arises and this is the wisdom arising through listening. Then through listening a great deal and gathering gathering information, we then begin to to contemplate what we have heard. We try to understand its meaning. We proceed with reasoned analysis, try examining, investigating this is this this is this, thinking about it.
And and so that understanding which arises, in dependence upon correct lines of reasoning, is the wisdom arising through reflection. So having proceeded with reasoned analysis, thinking with this is this, this is this, we come to some ascertainment with respect to the object. Then we accustom ourselves to that object that we have that we have come to understand. And this is the process of meditation where we increase the power of our ability to to penetrate the object and to become accustomed to the object through single point of placement upon the object. Previously, at the level of wisdom rising from reflection, we proceeded with analytic meditation.
Here we proceed with stabilizing meditation. That is to say a wisdom which is accompanied with calm abiding, a single pointed concentration with respect to the object. And so it is through this means that we generate the wisdom arising from meditation. So I think it would be helpful to make use of an example of coming of emptiness to understand this process. Initially we listen to the teachings on emptiness again and again.
We come to understand what emptiness is. It’s this and it’s not this. And there are through this process of listening to the teachings on emptiness, we develop a wisdom arising from listening. Then we begin to reflect upon what we have heard trying to understand its meaning using reasoned analysis. We use various types of reasoning.
For example, that it’s not the object is not really existent because it’s a dependent arising. Through this reason analysis, then when we generate a newly, a new realizer with respect to emptiness, we then develop the wisdom arising from reflection. But we go on to take our realization and accustomed to the mind to that object, that newly realized object, emptiness. And we do this by placing our mind single pointedly upon this object and through the development of a combination of calm abiding and special insight we then develop wisdom arising from meditation. So we having developed the wisdom arising from meditation with respect to emptiness, we then proceed in our meditation on emptiness again and again, further and further.
At this this point, we do not have direct realization of emptiness. But as we proceed in development of our single pointed concentration and stabilization upon the object, we eventually gain direct realization of emptiness. And dependence upon that, we are able to abandon the coarse afflictive emotions. And Proceeding in our meditation, are able then to abandon the subtle level of afflictive emotions. And finally, through proceeding further in our meditation, the seeds of the afflictive emotions such that the afflictive emotions can never be regenerated again and we achieve liberation.
It is only through the wisdom realized in emptiness that we can free ourselves from the bonds of cyclic existence which are the afflictive emotions and the seeds of the afflictive emotions that we can bring an end to our suffering aggregates. It is the only thing there is no other consciousness which is able to perform this function except that of the wisdom realizing emptiness. Without the without the wisdom realizing emptiness there is no way that we can free from be freed from cyclic existence. This is why wisdom is referred to as the supreme consciousness. It is though it is through the power of wisdom that such an individual is able to abandon all the afflictive emotions.
It is only through the power of wisdom that the other excellent qualities such as love and compassion, our realization of impermanence, our generosity, our ethics, our tolerance are able to bring about the abandonment of the afflictive emotions. That ability to bring about the abandonment of afflictive emotions is facilitated only by the power of wisdom. So all of these other excellent qualities such as love and compassion, such as generosity, ethics, tolerance. They are all as if blind. They they by themselves cannot reach their destination.
But it is wisdom which leads the all of these other factors to their destination. Wisdom is like an individual with eyes who can lead hundreds of other people who are blind. Though one may enter into the universal vehicle or enter into the path of liberation, however vast one’s excellent qualities may be in terms of the qualities of generosity, ethics, tolerance, etc, They by themselves cannot lead one to liberation, but they must be accompanied with the wisdom realizing selflessness. It is only through a combination of these other excellent qualities with the wisdom realizing selflessness that we can be led to a state of liberation, that they by themselves cannot abandon the afflictive emotions. So it is wisdom which leads us along the path of liberation.
In traveling the path of liberation, though it is wisdom which leads us, it must be accompanied by joyous effort. Without joyous effort there is no way that we can travel the path. If we again and again apply joyous effort, then wisdom is able to perform its function. Without this again, the striving and again and again in terms of joyous effort, wisdom is not able to operate or perform its function. Yeah.
Without joyous effort, wisdom is like a corpse. So we said that it is it is wisdom which is able to lead us as if it were if it as if it were the eye of the individual. But just as in the case where an individual dies and becomes a corpse, they’re they’re no longer able to lead us. And so wisdom without which is not assisted by joyous effort is likened to a corpse because it simply cannot, by itself, cannot lead us where we want to go. So it’s necessary that we be assisted with these various factors such as joyous effort and exceptional resolve and renunciation or the determination to awaken.
We need the help of these factors. So to this point in terms of the use of our wisdom in being assisted by joyous effort and exceptional resolve has and the determination to awaken has simply been a means to lead us along the path to liberation. But if we were to not only develop those factors, but additionally develop the fact the factors of the great compassion and the awakening heart and enter into the universal vehicle, then by the coupling of these, mainly these two, wisdom and the awakening heart, we can we can eliminate all our various faults and bring to consummation all our acts and qualities. By the union of these two, we can achieve Buddhahood. Yeah.
So I’m going to stop there but if you have some questions So in the case of ye shes, which is usually translated as exalted wisdom, that necessarily is a path. Whereas wisdom, shes rab, which is translated as wisdom, is not necessarily a path. With with that type of wisdom one doesn’t have to make effort. One, in order to achieve Buddhahood, has to make some difficult one has to go through some difficulties. Yeah.
So there’s yeah. There there’s in Tibetan there’s two different words which I use. Here the word is which is being translated as joyous effort. It it is effort in which there is joy as as denoted by the term. And but there is simply there is simply effort which is another word altogether.
And this means simply that we we we have to do something and we do it with we it’s difficult. We don’t like to do it. We just we just get on with it. And that that’s not what what we’re talking about here. And the reason that in, for example, in terms of our Dharma practice, that we perhaps just make effort without joyous effort is because we don’t understand the benefits of what what we’re doing.
If, for example, one was meditating on the awakening heart and one did not appreciate the great benefits of meditating on the awakening hearts, then there is it’s likely that there would be no happiness and joy in in one’s meditation on the awakening heart. On the other hand, if one deep realized the the great benefits of cultivating the awakening heart, then one would do so with great joy. It’s not it’s because we do not see the benefits of what we’re doing that we do not take joy in what we do. So now the with there are many many different types of wisdoms beside beside the wisdom, understanding emptiness. There’s all every all the work that we do requires some type of wisdom.
You know, to know the alphabet requires a wisdom to to do to draw. We have to it’s some kind of wisdom. So everything that we all the various activities that we involve ourselves in requires some wisdom. So without wisdom, then we would not know how to perform the work that we’re involved in. We would make mistakes.
It is because we have wisdom with with respect to what the activity that we’re able to do it and in a non mistaken fashion. So I think it went well today and and we’ve been talking about wisdom and the the the meditation of deity associated with wisdom is Mañjuśrī. And I’m going to give you the oral oral transmission of his mantra as a means to increase your wisdom. And that is found on page nine of the prayer books. We can make use of this prayer to Mañjuśrī who is the meditational deity associated with wisdom, requesting that we that he help us in in the development of wisdom.
And then the recitation of the mantra, Om Arapacana Dhi, to reciting that well. This will help us in the increase of our wisdom. And you all become great scholars. Yeah. Take care of that.