Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A ferris wheel spinning between hell realms and celestial realms is Khensur Rinpoche’s image for the trapped, cycling mind, and it anchors this 71-minute closing session on lineage — the mind’s innate potential to develop all excellent qualities. He explains why the path is entirely internal: Buddha Śākyamūni traveled six years at Nālānda without leaving his seat. The talk’s central teaching is the two-feet analogy: method (awakening heart, generosity, ethics) and wisdom realizing emptiness must alternate like footsteps to reach Buddhahood. Going for refuge to the Three Jewels is framed as the prerequisite for activating that potential, purifying negativity and building accumulations. Rinpoche ends with a practical daily framework: morning prayers, work undertaken with a beneficial intention, evening meditation, and a purification mantra to address negativity created during the day.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 NoM 1992 03 31.mp3
UUID: db2050c7-c666-4291-ae75-23fb488d97d2
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: The Nature of Mind 1991-1992 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1992-03-31
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 71.4 minutes
Words: ~3,888
So today is the last teaching on lineage. We hope, we think. I think. I’m not sure. I have some doubts.
When does the break begin? Next week. So we’ve been talking about lineage. Lineage represents the potential of the individual, the potential of the mind, the ability to develop any excellent qualities to attain and to achieve any results. So all sentient beings whosoever possess lineage, this ability whereby eliminate all their various faults and to generate all excellent qualities is pervasive to all sentient beings whosoever.
But we can divide lineage up into two. We can say that there is the lineage of those who have generated a path, or that is to say have attained a path, and those who have not entered into or generated or attained a path. Those who have entered into a path and those who have not entered into a path. Their lineages. So lam is what I usually translate as path, but Rinpoche says it’s road.
In English we call it a road. So in the world we call the way of going, whether it’s for people whosoever it might be, the way on which they travel, we call that a road in the world. But here, when we use the term road, we mean the pathway, the way of going by means of which we are able to eliminate from the very root our various faults and bring to consummation all our excellent qualities. So it is that pathway that we travel in a road which enables us to eliminate our faults and develop qualities. So this road is something which is internal.
It’s not external. It’s internal within the consciousness of the person. So a path is of the mind. It is spoken of in terms of the mind. The path is of the mind or the road is of the mind.
And what do we mean by the road? Well first we have to consider cyclic existence and all of the various sufferings which are inherent within cyclic existence. Such types of suffering as birth, aging, disease, and death, that they all involve various levels of suffering. In seeing the difficult suffering of cyclic existence, one develops an awareness which seeks liberation from these sufferings, wants to abandon these sufferings from their very root — a non-artificial awareness which seeks to abandon the sufferings of cyclic existence from the root. So an awareness which wishes liberation, seeing various faults of cyclic existence.
When we use the term non artificial, it also could be translated as spontaneous. That is to say, it is an awareness which arises automatically, spontaneously. We don’t need to think of reasons. We don’t need to make effort. Really by seeing suffering, one wants spontaneously there arises a longing to be free from it.
So it’s by way of analogy, a mother who had a child she cared for a great deal, and was a very good child and she really loved the child very much. And if the child were mortally ill, extremely ill, very sick, then whatever activity the mother would engage in, her mind would be constantly turning to the welfare of her child. It would be automatically returning to the welfare of her child. She would be constantly thinking about the welfare of her child. Likewise, when we begin to see this pulse of cyclic existence, then whatever we do, our mind is constantly looking, developing the wish to be liberated from it.
One simply cannot stand to be in such a situation. Again and again this mind arising. And when it arises in this way, this is a path. This is the term renunciation, or the determination to be free. It is a path, a road.
So if we were to generate such an awareness, this would be really something very precious. This would be a great quality. This would be an expression of our lineage. The person who has generated such an awareness has entered to the road, has attained a path. So this awareness would be, would enter, by means of this awareness, one enters into the path which seeks liberation or Buddhahood.
As a consequence of generating such a type of awareness then there develops a very powerful attitude which seeks to abandon all of the afflictive emotions and unskillful actions on the one hand and wishes to put into practice and make effort into developing skillful actions. And dependence upon this attitude of effort which wishes to abandon all the various faults and negativities and to bring about all types of skillful actions, the awakening heart and the wisdom realizing emptiness will rise. Seeking to develop all of the various qualities, but mainly the development of the qualities of the awakening heart and the wisdom realizing emptiness. It comparable to one’s feet in walking along a path. These represent wisdom and method, the method being the awakening heart and the wisdom of understanding emptiness.
Just as we travel and walk along a path by putting one step in front of the other. Likewise we make use of these two steps of the awakening heart and the wisdom, understanding and emptiness to travel the path to Buddhahood. So not having a car and we want to travel the path, then walk and putting one foot in front of the other and then we can arrive at our destination. So this is in traveling a road and we’re putting one foot in front of the other in order to get to the destination. Likewise, we put the two feet of method and wisdom, one in front of the other to travel to our destination.
The method is constituted of such practices as the generation of the awakening heart, but also practice of generosity and ethics. So on the one hand, this is like putting one foot in these various practices, but only that will help us to arrive at the destination. We have to have the other foot of the wisdom realizing emptiness. So we sit, we do meditation on wisdom realizing emptiness and that’s placed in the other foot. Then again we need method.
So again we cultivate the awakening heart, practice generosity and the various other practices to assist and we put one foot in front of another. This way one practice assisting another, complementing one another, all our various excellent qualities of the mind will increase greater and greater and all our various faults will lessen more and more. So this is the way we travel. Just as we put one foot in front of another we make use of the two means means of method and wisdom, method and wisdom. In this way these practices become more and more powerful.
They increase all our various excellent qualities and coincidentally they eliminate all our various faults. Once we have achieved this end of having brought to consummation our excellent qualities, having eliminated all our various faults, then we are a Buddha. We have achieved the grounds of Buddha. We have achieved Buddha. There is not some other type of Buddha than this.
This is what we mean by a Buddha. The Buddha Śākyamūni meditated six years at a place in India called Nālānda. Meditating for six years, Buddha Śākyamūni did not go for strolls. The way he traveled was in terms of his own mind. By means of sitting in meditative equipoise, he traveled by the means of the footsteps of method and wisdom, putting these one in front of the other.
By means of that, he traveled the path. In the context of the determination to be free, he developed all of the qualities and eliminated all the various So his body stayed put, but he actually traveled a path and the path is traveled in terms of one’s own mind, in terms of eliminating the faults from one’s own mind, developing all its excellent qualities. Likewise others, all the various examples that we could enumerate, those from India and Tibet, but also other places have traveled the path in the same manner developing all the excellent qualities and eliminating their various faults. So we hear about people who have transformed their mind and we wonder, well, how did they go about it? And it is simply this, that they travel the path using method and wisdom and this is how they transform their mind.
We likewise can transform our mind by using method and wisdom. And How do they have such an ability whereby they are able to travel a path and transform in their mind? It was because they possessed lineage, this potentiality of the mind. We likewise possess the same lineage and we likewise if we were to act in the same way could achieve those same ends. So we have to appreciate the potentiality of our own lineage that these individuals achieve their by actualizing or giving expression to the lineage which we likewise possess.
And we are able to expression to our lineage. So as we have explained previously in activating and giving expression to the potential ity of our lineage. It is necessary that we go for refuge in the sense that we follow in the footsteps of the Buddha. And it was by means of the Buddha’s various practice that he was able to complete the path. And having gained the experience, the complete experience of achieving destination of the path, he went on to teach his experience.
He said this is the way that one is to practice if one wants to achieve the same end. First in the beginning you practice this, in the middle you practice this, and finally you practice this. And he showed the way of practice in an unerring fashion the way in which to travel the path. So the Buddha is the the shore of the way. That is to say, it shows us the various means of practice.
It’s important that we trust in these practices. If that having, that because he is able, he had an unerring experience of the end and he was able to explain the teachings in unerring fashion. Additionally if he had no compassion then it wouldn’t have evolved that he would have necessarily shown the teachings. But because he not only had the unerring experience but he had complete compassion that he was willing to assist others to achieve this same end by teaching the various practices. Though an individual may have compassion caring and they wish to show one, to teach one the methods and the way of practice, that in itself is not sufficient because though being sincere and wanting to help, they may make errors.
But the Buddha, by abandoning all his various faults, abandoned all possibilities of making mistakes and showing the path. So there’s another possibility. Though one has compassion and wishes to assist and one has an understanding and therefore does not make mistakes, still it’s possible that one would not fulfill each individual’s desire, that one would be deceptive for various reasons. Because the Buddha has fulfilled his own welfare, that is to say he has no agenda of his own. It is complete.
And therefore it is the sole purpose is to bring about the welfare of others. And therefore he has no, there’s no reason to be deceptive and he was, and he was able to, he was quite willing out of compassion and has the ability due to his understanding to show an unerring path to others fulfill their welfare. So, because of all of these reasons in terms of therefore that the Buddha is considered non deceptive because he has fulfilled his own welfare. He has no self purpose involved in his teachings. He is solely altruistic.
That is to say, it is only for the benefit of others. And he has compassion. He has an unerring experience and therefore understanding of the path, and therefore he teaches in an unerring and non deceptive way. So in order to express, to give expression to the potentiality of our lineage, it’s necessary that we, to regain a trust in the shore of the path and to hold in high regard the teachings which are the Dharma, which are without mistake and of great benefit and those who are unerringly putting into practice the Dharma. Those who assist us in achieving happiness and eliminating our problems.
That is to say we are to generate a strong refuge with respect to these Three Jewels. So there is, by going for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, these objects of great qualities, we purify eons of negativities and we collect oceans, waves of, we accumulate waves of collections or potentials. So this represents the prerequisite for giving expression to the potentiality of lineage, the going for refuge. It is by going for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha spiritual community that we are able to, by generating faith and trust in these and going for refuge, that we are able to purify various negativities and accumulate the necessary collections. The reason we have not been able to give expression to our lineage to the present is because of our lack of the accumulations and the presence of negativities.
Negativities. So as a prerequisite by going for refuge we are able to purify the necessary negativities and to accumulate the necessary collection in order to give expression to the potentiality of our lineage. If we do this well through the purification of negativities and the accumulation of the collections, We will be able to give expression to our lineage in terms of the generation of, as was previously explained, the mind of renunciation or the determination to be free or to grow, and we will develop a path seeking liberation within our And coincidental with the achievement of such a path seeking liberation within one’s mind, great effort arises in our practice. We simply do not wish to waste time. We have an attitude of continually wanting to make effort in developing skillful actions and abandoning negativities.
And in dependence upon effort we will develop an awakening heart and a wisdom realizing emptiness. Dependence upon effort, we develop these two factors of the awakening heart and the wisdom realizing emptiness. And just as we explained in terms of traveling the path, we use these to travel the path within our minds. If our desire is to achieve liberation, we can quickly achieve that end. If our desire is to achieve Buddhahood, we will quickly achieve Buddhahood.
So the path is traveled in terms of the mind, But it is not the body which travels the path. Through the development of the mind, the body is able to be freed from cyclic existence. It’s present abiding within cyclic existence having to undergo all the various sufferings of birth, aging, disease and death again and again. But it is by the means of the mind which will eventually be liberated. So this is a good analogy that you wanted to go to America, you made the effort, you went along in various ways, you got to America, and you came back.
All the while we’ve been sitting here, we remain fixed. That’s because we never developed longing to go to America and we never went and we’ve been sitting here all the time that you’ve gone and come back. Likewise, if we develop a longing to reach the destination of the path and we put one foot in front of the other, make the effort to get there, then we will get there. But we don’t and therefore we remain fixed where we are. We just keep going around in circles for ourselves.
From time to time we go to the hell realms and we go up to the celestial realms and we go back to the hell realm. It’s like riding on a ferris wheel. We just keep circling around. Time to time we become an animal, sometimes we become humans, sometimes we become a celestial being and we go back to an animal. What is it that is taking us?
What is going that is forcing us to go in this way? It’s in terms of our minds again and what is within our minds? It is the two legs, the two feet of afflictive emotions and actions or karma. Like karma and afflictive emotions, this is what is forcing us to travel in this circle So from time to time we generate an afflictive emotion such as anger. Out of the anger we engage in various actions.
We create karma and out of that karma we take rebirth. From time to time we generate attachment. Due to the force of attachment we engage in actions, create karma and take rebirth. Sometimes from time to time we generate bewilderment or confusion. Out of that confusion we engage in various actions causing karma and rebirth.
So there are six types of migrators and this migration is compelled in terms of the mind. It is the mind which causes the migration. So it is in terms of developing excellent qualities that we will arrive at the state of Buddhahood. It is in terms of various afflictive emotions and the unskillful actions which they bring about which causes us to move in a downward fashion. So what are we to do?
When you get up in the morning you should think, well I didn’t die last night and therefore I have this wonderful opportunity in front of me today and rejoice in what you do have. So I didn’t die last night. I still have a life. And what am I to do with not just a life, but a human life? The reason I have a human life is from the skillful actions that I’ve created, that I have found a human life out of skillful actions.
And we are able to remain in human embodiment through the skillful actions. Once those skillful actions are exhausted then we are unable to remain in the present human embodiment. But there are some who though their, the skillful actions by means which allow them to remain in this particular embodiment have not been exhausted, there rises an obstacle to their life such as someone kills them or they have a car accident. And we should think that, you know, rejoicing, I did not die last night, and I have in front of me this wonderful opportunity presented to me today. And I’m going to make use of it in order to implement the methods whereby to find happiness and eliminate suffering.
So in implementing methods whereby happiness and eliminate our suffering, we do to take care of our body. We have to maintain our body. So we can think in order to, I want to implement the methods to find happiness, to eliminate my problems and I’m going to have to take care of my body. In order to do that I am going to, you know, you wash your body, you clean yourself, you drink tea, you have breakfast in order to maintain your body. And then we have to go to work, but we can go to work with the attitude that we’re going in order to benefit others.
So if we go to work with the attitude that I am going to benefit others, then many we meet along the way and all the various fellow employees that we meet once we get to work, we will develop that much more skillful actions and upon this skillful motivation. So why is this? Because if we have beneficial attitude and seeking to benefit others through our work, then we have initiated that attitude out of a skillful motivation. And whatever is incurred in the state of a skillful motivation becomes skillful. So then we go to work and we should work in an honest fashion.
There should be no deception with our work. And having finished one’s work, then remembering one’s intention initially that it was to benefit others and that things went well in benefiting others through your work, then rejoice in what you’ve accomplished. And then we’re going to go home and we think, well, you know, I want to engage in various activities to benefit both myself and others. And with that intention we can engage in meditation when we get home. So again, all the various activities that we engage in with this beneficial intention, then they’re going to become skillful.
And we want to it’s necessary that again we maintain the body in order to benefit others in order to abandon the causes of suffering and to find happiness. So again we can cook and we can eat and all of these actions, these types of activities become skillful. So having eaten, having washed, then we can go on to meditation and we can generate respect and faith in the Buddha and the Dharma. And we can recite, for example, the seven limbs prayer which we always recite. The one that begins “Sang gyé chö dang tsog kyi chog nam la.”
We can recite that, and generate as a motivation a kind-hearted attitude. And then we can meditate on whatever it is that we want. We can meditate on the awakening heart, on emptiness, on the mindfulness of death, on karma and its results. With this beneficial intention, all of these activities will become skillful.
Then we go on to make prayers of dedication. All of these skillful actions that we’ve created in this way may it be able to eliminate from the very root all the sufferings of both myself and others and to bring them to complete happiness. And in this way our life has become meaningful. So if we can, when we get up in the morning we can also go for refuge, recite this prayer of refuge and the awakening heart, and do some meditation. But if you cannot, then just meditate in the evening.
But whatever, whether you meditate twice a day or whatever and performing all these skillful actions during the course of the day, review the course of the day and thinking that, Oh, things went well today. I lived up to my intention and rejoice in what have accomplished and pray that may I be able to do this the same tomorrow. On the other hand, if things didn’t go well, if you got angry, you created some negativity, then you should acknowledge that negativity that you created, the various mistakes and generate a sense of regret and recite the Vajrasattva mantra and make a commitment that I’m not going to allow this to happen again. I’m not going to allow this to happen again tomorrow. Then in this way we are creating each day we will improve, things will go better and better.
This is because in this way our lineage is finding expression in our daily life, this ability, potentiality. Mainly our practice is of the mind and of the mind we should minimally seek to not harm others. Optimally develop compassion, benefit others, and help others. But if we can’t do that, then at least don’t hurt others. Daytime.
So we’ll stop there. We’ll stop there for the day.