Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Three analogies — sun, sky, and clear water — anchor Khensur Rinpoche’s nearly two-hour commentary on Buddha lineage. He begins by unpacking sangyé (Buddha in Tibetan): sang clears away faults, gyé evolves excellent qualities, and this transformation is possible because mind’s emptiness belongs to every sentient being. The sun represents the Buddha’s union of wisdom and compassion; the sky, naturally abiding lineage; clear water, compassion. Rinpoche explains how the Buddha’s teachings act like sunlight activating the seed of lineage, while one’s own compassion is the water that germinates it. Adverse conditions — anger, harsh speech, clinging to a truly existent self — are weighed against supportive ones: aspiration, wisdom coupled with compassion, meditative stabilization. A mother-father analogy closes: wisdom is the mother of practitioners across all vehicles, but the awakening heart determines whether a Mahāyāna path is born.
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File: 06 NoM 1992 02 04.mp3
UUID: 283f2924-f218-49b4-ba4e-82da09a9dc99
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: The Nature of Mind 1991-1992 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1992-02-04
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 110.8 minutes
Words: ~3,746
By meditating in the manner of a kind heart. Been concentrating and meditating on the awakening heart but actually we can each of us can meditate on whatever they individually wish but as a foundation of our meditation develop a sense of altruism, a beneficial intention that one is meditating for the benefit of others and then we can go on to meditate whatever we individually desire. For example, we can meditate on love expressed in the thought. May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness; so we can meditate on compassion which is expressed in the thought, may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
Now we can meditate on the graduated path, we can meditate on impermanence, meditate on impermanence or we can meditate on the awakening heart whatever we wish. And, also, if we wish, we can meditate on mindfulness of the breath. You’re allowed to meditate on whatever you like. And also, previously, when we did meditate, I used to give quite an extensive explanation during the course of the meditation and this is because many of you were not familiar with the way of taking the subject matter as a means of meditation but now that we’ve been together for over three years now, I think that you all understand how to go about meditating and so I’m not going to we’re mainly simply going to meditate and we’re going to meditate for ten minutes. But for those who are new and not having any particular object upon which they could wish to meditate, then it would be quite useful if you were to meditate as follows simply developing the altruistic and beneficial intention which wishes may myself and others be free from suffering and the causes of suffering and may myself and others have happiness and the causes of happiness.
So if you wish, then you can make use of that as the as an object of meditation. And mainly we should try to develop a sense of altruism, beneficial intention that we’re we’re wishing to develop, to remove all our various faults and develop our excellent qualities and this, because of our great caring, kind hearted attitude. So with mind, that the nature of the mind is clear light is extremely important and extremely beneficial to understand what it means. Between body and mind there is the factor of mind which is the thinking faculty which discriminates, thinks this is this, that is that, previously I did this, later on I’m going to do that, the mind which has beneficial thoughts, harmful thoughts. All of these are taken to be removed.
So the ultimate nature of the mind is emptiness and this is what is being referred to when it says that the nature of the mind is clear light. It is referring to the emptiness in terms of the mind. If we realize the ultimate nature of the mind, which is emptiness, then that means we can eliminate all undesired suffering and we can achieve our desired happiness, that is to say we can achieve liberation. Factor of the emptiness of the mind is of great benefit. It is due to the existence of this powerful influence that the very quality of mind is empty that it’s able to be developed, that we’re able to raise the level of our consciousness higher and higher and higher, that we’re able to expand the mind, that we’re able to ultimately transform the mind, that is to say we’re able to remove all its various thoughts and to develop all the excellent qualities of the mind.
This is all brought about under the influence of the very fact that the mind is empty. Basis we we we have been discussing lineage. It’s sometimes translated due to nature. And this is the basis for the development of all the excellent qualities, foundation upon which transformation is able to take place and this very basis is the emptiness of the mind. The emptiness will come to understand and gain the conviction that we can change our mind in terms of the development of all excellent qualities and that we can rid ourselves of all our various faults, that we can find happiness, that we can eliminate our suffering, that and we added this condition, we will make effort in this direction.
It is because by understanding this emptiness of the mind that all of this can be brought about and understanding that then all of this else will follow. We talked about lineage; we’re talking about Buddha lineage, and the Tibetan word for Buddha is sangyé. It has two syllables: sang means to clear, to clear away, to eliminate all the various faults; gyé means to evolve — so one who has clearly evolved, who has evolved all the excellent qualities and cleared away all the faults. And the basis of this transformation is the lineage and therefore there’s this lineage which is called Buddha lineage which provides the potentiality for one’s ability to gain Buddhahood. Naturally abiding lineage, naturally abiding lineage. And, you know, that all sentient beings who whosoever have a mind and the mind is empty.
So all sentient beings possess either evolving or developmental or That is to say the mind itself and all of these and its ability to evolve qualities, all human beings have a mind and the mind has the potentiality to develop such qualities as love and compassion, the awakening heart, generosity, ethics, tolerance, wisdom and these all are representative of the developmental lineage of the mind. So both of these types of lineage, naturally abiding lineage and evolving lineage are possessed by all human beings who whatsoever it’s not that just human beings have this potential alone to have lineage but animals, even insects whatsoever has life has All sentient beings with whomsoever have the potentiality to eliminate all of their very faults, eliminate all their suffering and to achieve ultimate happiness. They do not always, are able to, this potentiality is not always activated. This is in making use of analogy, in the case of a seed, a seed has a potential to grow stout but if that seed is left aside without being watered, without these necessary conditions, then though it has the potentiality to grow a sprout, the sprout will never grow and the potentiality is never activated.
Likewise with respect to sentient beings. Though they possess the potentiality for evolution, just like the sea which is left aside, it’s not necessary that this potentiality will be realized. We can divide the world up into two categories and literally there are the contained and the container that these represent the environment and the beings they are in. So our environment environment is constituted of all the various things around us, houses, the forest, the crops, the fields, all of the various non-sentient things about it represent our environment. Within that environment there are those we’re thinking of some damage and the various sectors which grow, for example, trees, flowers, crops, all the various types of grains, fruits that we eat, barley, wheat, etc.
These all grow from seeds. And what if for the seeds to germinate it’s necessary that there will be a combination of conditions present. Mainly the conditions necessary are warmth is the first condition that is to say the fire element which is supplied by the sun and then but in conjunction with this once then it’s just that there’ll be moisture which is supplied by water. So in conjunction with water, with moisture and once the seed is germinated. The seed has the potentiality to grow and but it’s not to say that the conditions be present in order for the potentiality to activated and the germination to take place.
In the case of the seed, the seed’s main conditions are warmth and moisture. Likewise, with respect to our mind, the seed is analogous to our lineage and that too, in order to develop excellent quality has to have internal conditions to realize its potential. Discussing many, I am material makes use of three analogies and these he’s going to analog analogize the parallel between lineage geospace and clear water. space and clear water. In the past, if one had personal wealth or possessions or wanted to plant crops, one had to take one of these wish-fulfilling gems and make prayers and it would grant whatever you wanted whether it’s food, clothing, whatsoever that you needed it would grant and so, but it wasn’t necessary to have all of these personal necessities.
The point is, such wish-fulfilling gems have all vanished. Since there are no wish-fulfilling gems these days, I thought I would use a more relevant analogy: I am going to use the analogy of the sun instead of wish-fulfilling gems. One now again. So we all know that the sun shines upon the field and it depends upon the sun shining upon the field and watering, upon moisture to the field then the seeds grow into crops. What are the meanings of these various analogies?
And we said what does the mean of, what does the sun represent? The sun represents the Buddha’s mind. Within the mind of the Buddha, all faults have been eliminated and all excellent qualities developed, and this is mainly constituted by a union of wisdom and compassion. So this constitutes the nature of the Buddha’s mind — the union of wisdom and compassion which is represented by the sun.
So when the what is the second analogy represent? That was, was space or the sky? What does that represent? It represents the emptiness of the mind — the emptiness of the mind is the lineage, and more specifically the naturally abiding lineage. Another term given for this is the essence of one gone to bliss. And then the third analogy was that of clear water, and clear water represents the evolving nature, the developmental nature, and we can simplify this by saying it represents compassion.
So we have three analogies: the sun, which represents the union of wisdom and compassion within the mind of the Buddha; the second is the sky, which is representative of naturally abiding lineage; and the third, which is clear water, which is representative of developmental lineage, or simply compassion. The sun is striking the seeds in the earth and the sprout grows; likewise by the radiant light of the Buddha’s exalted wisdom in union with compassion striking the lineage of sentient beings, this potentiality is developed. And this says it’s necessary to have water in order to to for the potentiality potentiality of the seed to be actualized and to grow into a sprout. Likewise, as we say, to have the water of compassion in order to have the condition, let’s say, to activate the budding lineage and dependence upon that then all of the various qualities are developed and increased.
Are you confused? Do you understand? The sun stays in the sky. The sun itself doesn’t come down and heat up the earth and thereby the seed. The sun remains in the sky and it is the light of the sun the lineage within the minds of sentient beings which causes the potential to be able to be developed.
How is it that this light radiates and strikes the lineage of sentient beings? It is through the teachings of the Dharma that this is motivated out of compassion, and the teachings are given teachings specifically on what is to be adopted and what is to be avoided and by means of this the various faults are eliminated and all the excellent qualities are developed. It is by means of teachings of the Dharma and specifically the the teaching where the Buddha points out that what are the what are the various thoughts which are to be abandoned such thoughts as the as the distress patterns or the particular emotions within our minds such as desire, anger, pride, jealousy, etc. The Buddha points out that these are faults, and if they are not abandoned their ultimate result will be suffering; therefore, seeing that if these faults are abandoned we bring about a cessation of suffering, and on the other hand pointing out what is to be cultivated — qualities such as love, compassion, emptiness, and the awakening heart — these are to be meditated upon by bringing these afflictive emotions to cessation and cultivating these excellent qualities then we can bring about our ultimate happiness and therefore the teachings are given in terms of a combination of what is to be adopted and what is to be aborted.
Adopted and what is to be rejected, one goes on to develop compassion and compassion is the foundation of the universal vehicle or the great vehicle. It is by means of developing compassion that we will bring about, we will be able to develop our potentialities to their fullest extent, that they become equal to those of a Buddha. So the compassion of the individual is likened to water with the seed, the necessary condition that which by means of which the seed’s potentiality is fully actualized, realized. Therefore, by our own development of compassion all our potentiality will ultimately be realized and therefore there are these two conditions in conjunction that is the teachings of what is to be adopted and rejected in terms of radiated out by the exalted wisdom of the Buddhist and by means of that cultivation, our own development of compassion which brings us to the full realization of the potentiality of lineage. Vehicle qualities and the elimination of all faults, it’s necessary that there will be an absence of adverse conditions and the presence of supporting conditions.
For example, in terms of false obstructions which are to be eliminated, within the great vehicle, anger is considered a great fault. Anger will prevent the development of excellent qualities; also criticism and harsh words spoken to others. And another obstacle to the activation of lineage and the development of the great vehicle universal vehicle qualities is the assertion of a truly existent self. The self does not truly exist but some non-Buddhist schools assert that the self truly exists. Holding, make, holding to this assertion prevents the activation of one’s meaning in the development of great vehicle politics.
Qualities are developed and increased. The sun stays in the sky. The sun itself doesn’t come down and heat up the earth and thereby the seed. The sun remains in the sky and it is the light of the sun shining which warms the earth, causing the seed to germinate. Likewise it is by the radiant light of the Buddha’s exalted wisdom striking the lineage within the mind of sentient beings which causes the potential to be able to be developed. How is it that this light radiates and strikes the lineage of sentient beings?
It is through the teachings of the Dharma that this is motivated out of compassion then the teachings are given but teachings specifically on what is to be adopted and what is to be avoided and by means of this the various faults are eliminated and all the excellent policies are developed. By means of the teachings of the Dharma and specifically the teaching where the Buddha points out what are the various thoughts to which are to be abandoned. That thought the distress patterns or the sickening emotions within our mind that we desire anger, pride, jealousy, etc. The Buddha points out that these are faults, and if they are not abandoned their ultimate result will be suffering; therefore, seeing that if these faults are abandoned they bring about a cessation of suffering, and on the other hand pointing out what is to be cultivated — qualities such as love, compassion, emptiness, and the awakening heart — these are to be meditated upon by bringing these afflictive emotions to cessation and cultivating these excellent qualities then we can bring about our ultimate happiness and therefore the teachings are given in terms of a combination of what is to be adopted and what is to be avoided.
In accordance with these teachings of what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected one goes on to develop compassion and compassion is the foundation of the universal vehicle or the great vehicle. It is by means of developing compassion that we will bring about, we will be able to develop our potentiality to their fullest extent that they become equal, as it were, to those of a Buddha. So the compassion in the evolution of the individual is liken to water with the seed. The necessary condition by means of which the seed potentiality is fully actualized, realized. Therefore by our own development of compassion all our potentiality will ultimately be realized and therefore there are these two conditions in conjunction that is the teaching of what is to be adopted and rejected in terms radiated out by the exalted wisdom of the Buddhist and by means of that cultivation our own development of compassion which bring about the full realization of the potentiality of lineage.
In order to bring about the full generation of the universal vehicle qualities and elimination of all faults, it’s necessary that there be an absence of adverse conditions and the presence of supporting conditions. For example in terms of false obstructions which are to be eliminated, within the great vehicle, anger is a great fault. Anger will prevent the development of our excellent qualities; also criticism and harsh words spoken to others. Another obstacle to the activation of lineage and the development of the great vehicle, universal vehicle quality is the assertion of a truly existent self and the self does not truly exist but some non-Buddhist schools assert that this self truly exists. Holding to this assertion prevents one from concerning oneself with the welfare of others, and one seeks happiness and liberation for oneself alone.
This desire for one’s own personal happiness is a obstacle to the activation of lineage. The potentiality of lineage cannot be activated if we, never seek to bring back the welfare of of others, sentient beings. Those individuals who are troubled by suffering, not even considering the difficulties that they’re going through, not wishing to free them from their problems, not wishing them happiness. So this attitude represents we just listed some of the adverse conditions which prevents the activation of the potentiality of lineage. What are some of the supportive conditions which are conducive to the activation of lineage?
And these would be for example upon hearing about the path and its results thinking, oh how, this is really wonderful, this is really good, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to follow this path and this sense of aspiration, rejoicing, this strong wish to engage in the practices to complete the path. This is a supportive condition for the activation of lineage. Additionally, the wisdom realizing emptiness which is assisted or coupled with great compassion. A known of great compassion wisdom or wisdom assisted, nurturing assisting, assisted by great compassion is like the mother of a child. It’s like in order to be a child you have to have a mother and it is this which is said to be the mother of all the excellent qualities of the universal vehicle.
It is the foundation. And then Another conducive condition is calm abiding or meditative concentration, meditative stabilization and these are are likened to the realm of another. So this analogy of the mother and father, it is said that the family of the child is determined by the lineage of the father, that it’s patriarchal, that a mother can give birth to a child of Australian or American or Tibetan but any type of lineage or child. And the determinant of the lineage is the father. If the father is Australian, then the child will be Australian.
If the father is American, then it will be American. If it’s Chinese, it will be Chinese or Tibetan. The need of the child is determined by the father and not the mother. So in this, what does this mean? In terms of, he said that the mother was symbolizes the wisdom of realizing emptiness and then dependence dependence upon the wisdom of realizing emptiness then such types of practitioners of the hero of the lesser vehicle, the solitary realizers can be born.
Also, the practitioners of the great vehicle can be born out of the wisdom of realizing emptiness. But only, when we said the Father was great compassion and the awakening heart, only a practitioner of the universal vehicle or the great vehicle is born from the awakening heart. So therefore it’s very specific idea of caste. If the father was of a royal caste, then the child would be of a royal caste. If the father was of a merchant caste, the child would be of a merchant class, the caste.
The the type of oxygen is because out of wisdom both here and as a vehicle practitioner can be going and a practitioner of the universal vehicle, it’s not determined of the universal vehicle, of the other of the vehicle and the and just as in the case of the father determines the outcome. The mother and the and the method of the awakening heart being associated with the father is in terms of the the result the result which is result in that in the male nature. You know, we use the vajra and bell and they symbolize the feminine nature. The vajra is the the male nature or or the method, raising the heart, and the bell is the dependent nature or wisdom. This is in the case of that of giving birth to a child if necessary to have both a mother and a father to the universal vehicle.
It’s necessary to have wisdom and nothing. Is unobstructive, it’s intangible, therefore it allows movement through it and likewise the natural existence of the mind or the true existence of the mind and it is a non affirming negation. It’s like space. Space is a non affirming negation. It’s like emptiness and it allows the unobstructed development.
Doesn’t allow, it doesn’t obstruct anything. It’s nonobstructive in its nature. The nature of the the ultimate nature of the mind is nonobstructive, dynamic.