Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute weekend retreat teaching, Khyentse Rinpoche explores the relationship between emptiness and clarity through the lens of how all phenomena are perceived. He opens with the striped rope mistaken for a snake in a dark room—a classical example contrasting relative and ultimate truth. The talk moves through several key themes: emptiness is inseparable from clarity; abandoning relative truth is actually abandoning ultimate truth; perception requires both perceiver and perceived, revealing their radical interdependence; why tantric practice, particularly completion stage meditation, offers faster methods than sūtra because it deploys more skillful means; and the pure potential of all sentient beings and phenomena. Rinpoche concludes with extended meditation guidance on naturally remaining—resting the body, breath, and mind in their unelaborated state—as the direct path to understanding the mind’s true nature, or Buddha-nature, which he identifies with dharmakaya, clarity, and unobstructed awareness.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 WR.mp3
UUID: 178cf1e8-bc0b-4041-b0d7-4e719ce7e1c1
Teacher: Khyentse Rinpoche
Collection: Weekend Retreat (Khyentse Rinpoche)
Date: 1986 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~4,111
So as an ordinary, when we talk about ordinary characteristic, then we think about what is the characteristic of class, characteristic of this and characteristic of that and like that. So now we search what is the characteristic of phenomena, you see? But then this We have to talk about clarity and emptiness when we talk about the characteristic of phenomena. Because there isn’t any characteristic that can identify all phenomena, is there? What is the characteristic of phenomena?
The best is you can I think I feel the best characteristic of phenomena is perception? Perception that perceived by six perceivers. Eye, nose, tongue, and like that. Now, when you You know, every single phenomena and group of phenomena, they have their own characteristic. And I’m now talking about what is the characteristic of perception or phenomena.
And we are sort of agreeing that characteristic of phenomena is a perception. And then we should ask more questions. What is the characteristic of perception? Something that is perceived, is it? What is the characteristic of perception?
Something that needs perceiver. Well, for me there is nothing that is not perception, you know. Yeah, that’s Perceiving. Yeah. But I said earlier that a perception that is perceived by six perceivers, the eye, nose, tongue, object.
Yeah, object. So they can’t have any perception without a perceiver. So interdependent of perception and perceiver will make you understand the emptiness. This is one way you approach to the emptiness. It’s interdependent of perceiver and perception.
Without the perceiver, there is no perception. Without the perception, there is no perceiver. Right? And if there is a deceptive perceiver, then the perception is also deceptive. If there is non deceptive perceiver, then the perception is also non deceptive.
So if sentient being look at this house, for us, when we look at this house, this is the house where we do today’s activity. If a hell being is here and if he look at this house, this is a hell, boiling water, burning iron, this is the hell. Because he has the perceiver which is deluded by anger or ignorance or desire, and he has this karma that makes him think that way. And if a Buddha is here, this is pure realm. You see?
So now the fact, which is the real fact? The house or hell or pure realm? The fact. Now what is the fact? Now that we have to see.
Then again go back to the emptiness. You see? So, in Mahāyāna, the reason why we call characteristic vehicle, because in Mahāyāna, most of the main view is emptiness. So, the emptiness is known as characteristic of all the phenomena. That is the absolute characteristic of all the phenomena.
You understand? Every single bit of phenomena, they have their own different individual characteristic, but all phenomena has one characteristic and that is emptiness. And that concept of emptiness is also one of the phenomena. See? And now And this So this is such as emptiness.
And since it is emptiness, then it has the potential or it can be perceived by a different perceiver and they can have different perception. You understand? And that is the potential of emptiness. That is the emptiness. It’s not something void or space.
It is not Is there any good, better word? Yeah, nothingness. For many years, we tried to find a better word for sunyata, but it seems that we are stuck with emptiness all the time. And this emptiness or Now, this emptiness is the fact of everything, and this emptiness is not apart from the clarity. That’s why now there is the sense, you know?
If emptiness is apart from clarity, then emptiness doesn’t make any sense. Emptiness is just nothing. There’s no point of practicing emptiness. But emptiness is not apart from the clarity. That’s why one should practice the emptiness.
That’s why actually I sometimes feel that practicing clarity is more important than practicing emptiness. You see, many philosophers and some meditators, they also have this kind of idea, such as Krishnamurti. They are great philosophers. But I can see there’s one problem, that they go too much on the ultimate truth, too much on the emptiness. And they sort of forget about the clarity, forget about the relative truth.
And when you forget about the relative truth, that means you are abandoning the ultimate truth. You see? For example, the relative truth is you walking into a dark room, striped rope there, and relative truth is when you look walking in the room and then you see a snake there. That is the relative That is the relative truth. And striped rope is not important.
Now don’t think about striped rope. The perception of snake is very important. There is a Okay. In the striped rope, there is a striped rope, then you look into this striped rope, look at this striped rope, and then you perceive as a snake. Your mind is deceptive and deluded by not knowing of striped rope.
And then there’s also cause and conditions such as dark room or hurry situation. Okay, so then when you see the snake, then you switch on the light, and then you see the striped rope. Then mistake is then we don’t care about the absence of snake anymore. Then we say, Oh, this is striped rope. And then you relax.
There’s a relaxation of, Ah, there’s no snake. Where does this relaxation relax of absence of snake come from? If you walk into a light room where in the beginning, you saw a striped rope, you will have no enjoyment of relaxation. You understand? This enjoyment of the absence of snake only came because you saw the snake.
There is an absence of snake because there is a snake. You see? So there is an ultimate truth because there is a relative truth. You understand? So that striped rope, whether you saw earlier as a snake or whether afterwards you are, you know, it doesn’t change.
That is the Buddha-nature. That is the emptiness. Emptiness is like a stripe rope. It doesn’t change. It is always like that.
First first moment, you saw as a snake. A rope is not snake. Second, you after switching on the light, you saw you feel the absence of snake. But striped rope is not absence of snake. You see, that is very important.
Striped rope is not absence of snake. Emptiness is not the absence of relative truth. Emptiness is not absence of relative truth. That’s what I’m going to tell you. Ultimate truth is not absence of relative truth.
You see, it’s like that. Ultimate truth is ultimate truth. It’s striped rope. From the beginningless, it is striped rope. You see?
I ultimate truth is never stained by I mean, emptiness. The real fact, the absolute fact is never stained by our conception of relative truth and ultimate truth with both of these. Now this is quite confusing. Do you have question in this? The absence is very important.
This is very important. You know? So this is the nonduality. You know? This is the nonduality of ultimate and relative.
Without that snake a a perception of snake, how can there be absence of snake? Can you follow what I’m saying? Absence of snake only came there because there was a perception of snake. So ultimate truth is there because there is a relative truth. But after switching on the light, after knowing that there was a striped rope from the beginning last time, so what will you feel now?
There was no snake and there was no absence of snake. You see? So there’s only a striped rope. There was no saṃsāra. There’s no nirvana.
There was no ultimate truth. There was no relative truth. You understand? So, the relative truth is just an illusion. Illusion.
You understand? Snake. The perception of snake is an illusion. But I don’t mean that illusion doesn’t work. Illusion works very well.
Snake, in the first place, when you walk in the dark room, that snake succeed to frighten you. That snake frightened you. And it was a very scary snake. Some if you are very cold person, you might even die having heart attack there. You see?
That depends with your characteristic. That is an illusion, but illusion can be delude you into the saṃsāra. Understand? So that is relative truth. That snake is illusion.
As well as that snake is illusion, also the absence of snake is also illusion. When there is no snake from the beginning last time, how can there be an absence of snake? You see? So that absence of snake is also illusion. So ultimate truth is also illusion.
So that’s why in some of Buddhist prayer, we say, by this illusion illusory practice of Dharma, may all illusionary sentient beings, may they attain all this illusionary like bodhisattvas state, and may they attain illusionary like nirvana. Like that. This is something like a nirvana. So earlier, what I was saying is we we sort of despise the relative truth, you know, so much. For example, someone like you came to came to go to a teacher and say, I really don’t know about the fact.
I really don’t know ultimate truth. Please tell me about ultimate truth. Give us some ultimate teaching, ultimate truth teaching. You know, when you say this, you’re inwardly thinking that you’re inwardly accepting that you’re quite good about relative truth. Right?
You know relative truth, but it’s the only thing is that you don’t know ultimate truth. So you always despise the relative truth. We constantly despise the relative truth. And then if you do that, you will never see the ultimate truth because you haven’t seen the snake. So you will have no enjoyment of absence of snake if you want to have that.
You see? So how can a teacher show you absence of snake? If I say, this is absence of snake, I you’ll think I’m crazy, right? If there was a snake and then we try to get rid of this, switching on light or something like that, and then you see this, you will see something. So relative truth is very, very important.
That’s why Krishnamurti or Rajneesh, it seems that for me they disparage a lot about relative truth. And when they disparage relative truth, then they don’t have method. They lack of method. You see, when they lack of method, then they have no skillful means. And then they go too much on wisdom.
Ah, wisdom. Everything is empty. Everything is nothingness. We do whatever we like, sort of. You see?
So that’s where you are sort of you become stupid Buddha, you know, because you are you have some wisdom, but you have no method. When you don’t have method, then I can say you have no wisdom also because that kind of wisdom is better not have, you know? For example, like bodhisattva, a true bodhisattva, if he go to some place where people wear shoes on the head and wear hat on foot. She will do that same thing. A bodhisattva has to help sentient beings.
Helping sentient beings has to come acting and sharing the same view with the sentient beings also. And with a skillful means, one should bring all the sentient beings into the ultimate shore and the nirvana. And that’s why thinking about relative truth is really very important. So that’s why, you know, like love and compassion meditation, bodhicitta meditation can really bring ultimate emptiness teaching. For example, in the Mādhyamika, in sūtra, like Mādhyamika, not tantra, sūtra, emptiness teaching is very good in sūtra.
Sometimes I feel that emptiness teaching is much more better explained in sūtra than tantra. But why tantra is sort of better and profound path than sūtra is because quicker, sort of, supposed to be quicker. Right? Quicker or powerful, more powerful. Why?
Because there’s no difference between the view itself. Both the sūtra and tantra believes same view, share same view, the view of emptiness. But when you approach when you try to approach this view, then there is difference. Sutras more analyzing, more on that. But tantra, why it is better?
It’s because it has more method. For example, in the completion stage meditation, like Vajrayoginī’s practice, tantra introduced emptiness through the blessing, through the bliss, through the compassion, through the unobstructed compassion, through developing oneself as a deity, through completing oneself, through meditating on illusory body, through meditating on transferring the consciousness, you see, it has more method. That’s why tantra or vajrayana is supposed to be more quicker or whatever. But quick and slow also depends with the practitioner, you know? Because vajrayana is very very open.
Actually, very open is not good enough. vajrayana is completely open teaching. If you really know how to take, even a glass of water can be a path in vajrayana. For example, vajrayana talks about result. So for vajrayana, five element is five Dhyāni Buddhas, Five poison, the anger, hatred anger, jealousy, desire, ignorance, pride.
These five poison, if you recognize, they are five Dhyāni Buddhas or five wisdoms. And when the five elements are five dakini, then water is Māmakī. Water can be blessed as a water from the beginningless time, the water element is Māmakī dakini, and it can be blessed by mantra because it is from the beginningless time pure. That’s why we can bless. You see, vajrayana talks more about vision, purity.
Why? Because sentient beings are naturally good. All the sentient beings, their nature is good. They have good potential. That’s why you can be good.
It is not that sentient beings’ reality is something bad. If the reality or nature of ourself is bad, the nature is something that cannot be changed, right? Characteristic of nature is something that cannot be changed. If our nature is bad, then it’s like you try to wash coal to make it white. Nature of the coal is black.
No matter how much you wash, it will still be black. So if our nature is not good, something impure, then we can never become pure. But nature is pure. Not only the sentient beings, every phenomena, every existence of phenomena are pure, the essence. So that’s why during the initiation. I’m sure you must have received some initiations, some of you.
When you receive initiations, they use this water and that kind of thing, lots of substance in vajrayana. Now all the phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvana are one’s own mind. That’s why one’s own mind, perception, all are just a perception. It’s just a phenomenon. Doesn’t word phenomena has got to do anything with mind in English word?
It seems for me that in English, the object objective phenomena is sort of completely different from the subject, the mind. Is it? What is view in English? What is, I mean, what is You see, when we talk about, when you talk about a view, they can’t have a view without a viewer. When I talk about subject and object, I always think I have this thinking, this idea.
They can’t have object without subject. This we must understand. So then the understanding of everything is Every dharma is one’s mind. It’s very easy at that time. So anyway, all dharmas of saṃsāra and nirvana, one’s own mind, only determined by its display, pure or impure.
In reality, neither pure exists nor impure exists. Do you have any question? Mhmm. Impure and pure is just the same as snake and no snake. Yeah.
Pure, the absence of snake exists when there is impure snake. In reality, neither impure snake exists nor the pure, the absence of snake, exist. And that is the greatest pure. You see, the great pure. Have you ever heard of this great great purity and a great You see, all this perception in one of the hundred thousand songs of Milarepa.
I think so. Anyway, Milarepa Repa and Rechumpa once Rechumpa you know, these things have to be experienced. Rechumpa once went to India and then come back to Tibet. And then Mira Rechumpa is his disciple. And they were talking about this perception.
Everything is All the phenomena is just perception. Just our mind. So when they were talking this, suddenly there was a big storm. And then Milarepa quickly went inside a horn, a yak horn, and then horn didn’t become bigger, then Milarepa didn’t become smaller, but yet Milarepa is inside the horn, and horn is outside Milarepa. And then Milarepa sang a song to Rechumpa.
If you really know what is the perception means, now come inside the come inside horn. There’s still plenty of room. You see? For someone like Milarepa, he has realized realized the fact. The fact is there’s nothing that is small, such as horn, which has to be enlarged to make big.
And there is nothing that is big such as Milarepa’s body which has to be reduced. You see? This reducing and enlarging business is only come from the habit of dualistic mind. And then pure from the beginning and free and empty, not falling into the concept of any emptiness, resting in the luminosity of it, its self existing energy. It is fully fully accomplished.
I think what we should do is maybe if anybody wants to make photocopy, they should make a copy of this. And now this thing, this striped rope, which is beyond the snake and absence of snake, this emptiness or this reality which is beyond the saṃsāra and nirvana both, which is beyond the saṃsāra and absence of saṃsāra. Now, this thing is this is what we call the very ground of very ground for the manifestation of compassion. Now, this is a little bit Dzogchen term. This is more like Dzogchen term, Dzogchen’s way of teaching.
Now this is what we call awareness. This is what we call Buddha-nature. This is what we call Tathāgata. When you search your mind, you don’t find the mind. Mind is emptiness.
But mind is emptiness. That is also our conception. This is our words. This is our designation. In fact, actually, this emptiness is beyond our words.
But then we have to communicate. So if you want to give name, you can give any kind of name. Scholars and saints of Buddhists have chosen some very, very beautiful names for this empty aspect of the mind. They call it dharmakaya. Some, they call it emptiness.
Some, they call it sunyata. And then when you search the mind, find no mind. But who found there is no mind? Mind itself knows there is no mind. And that is the clarity.
We can give that name to this also. You can say this is sambhogakaya. Not only giving name, you can draw. You can paint. To represent the dharmakaya, you can draw a naked blue Buddha.
Blue represents the empty. Naked represents, you know, the empty also. To represent sambhogakaya, you draw Vajrasattva, something like Vajrasattva, fully ornamented, you know, clarity, expressed by ornaments. This is representing the clarity. Everything is there.
Everything is there. You know? All the qualities. All the qualities are there for the on the So this clarity and emptiness is not different, not separate. And this is the very ground of all the manifestation of compassion.
And this is what we call rikpa or awareness. This is beyond our concept, conception, designation, verbalization. And out of this Buddha-nature, spontaneously arises without any intention. It arises as it’s displaying as the variety of appearance of saṃsāra and nirvana. Out of this Buddha-nature, spontaneously arise the display of saṃsāra and nirvana.
Now, display of saṃsāra and nirvana. When I talk display and saṃsāra and nirvana, can’t you see that there needs an enjoyer of this display? From this Buddha-nature, it doesn’t have any intention to make this part saṃsāra, something bad, and this part something good, nirvana. He’s not displaying something to. This Buddha-nature itself has all the quality of saṃsāra and nirvana both as a display.
Then perceiver, a deluded being, looked at this reality and found saṃsāra. Nondeluted being looked at this reality and found nirvana. This is how the unobstructed display works. This is what we call nirmanakaya or manifestation. This is quite difficult about Nirmāṇakāya.
Actually, manifestation and manifest are not two or not something separate, and in this state of oneness naturally remain. Now I think we should do some meditation here. Naturally remaining is very important. For example, most practitioner of Dharma, we try to do the egolessness meditation. But when you come from your home to a center, to a shrine, inside a shrine, then you think that I am going to do egoless meditation or egolessness meditation.
So there you already create I, ego. When you are supposed to reduce that ego, you already create an I. You enter in the room, you sit in the cushion, and then you start to do egolessness meditation. And when your meditation is good, you feel proud. My meditation is good.
There you create another I. If your meditation is not good, then you think, My meditation is not good. I am doing not well. So every time you create I, I, I, and actually you are supposed to cut this I. And most of all, after doing the meditation, we dedicate the merit of doing this egolessness meditation.
I offer this merit to all the sentient beings. There comes another I. So all this countless unobstructed immeasurable I comes because we never stay in the natural state. Naturally remaining is very important. So first try to remain in natural state.
Don’t try to pose. Body, free of walking, sitting, movements, and posing. Just remain. Remaining is very practical, very, very practical thing that can only bring the understanding of clarity. We are always not to remain in one.
We are always after different experience. Our mind always rushes after many, many thoughts, making plans, ambitions, expectations, aversions. Speech, natural to the flow of breath, remain. Mind, free of afterthoughts, remain. If you don’t have mind, your body is just a corpse.
You are not corpse now because there is mind. Mind is very important for the life. If you don’t have mind, you will not hear all this sound. You will not taste all this food. You will not feel all this touching.
You will not see all these visions. If you don’t have mind, then you will not know what I am saying here. If you don’t have mind, you will also have you will also not know what I am saying here. Not knowing is there because there is a mind. Knowing is there because there is a mind.
You think your friends and relatives are good because there is mind. You think your enemies are bad because there is a perceiver that’s bad. So it is very important to see and find the mind. Now search the mind again. If any thoughts arise, then chase this thought.
The moment you chase this new thought, asking, Where does this thought come from? Where it is now? Then the thought will disappear. And when the thoughts disappear, again see and analyze where does it disappear. And now see that who is this analyzer?
Who is this thing that asks this question of where does this thought come from? Where does this thought stays? Where does this thought end? Mind is like a water. Thoughts are like a bubble of water.
Bubble disappears on the water. Bubble comes from the mind. The water. Bubble comes from the water. Thoughts comes from the mind.
Thoughts disappear in the mind. Bubble comes from the water. Bubble disappears from in the mind in the water. And where is this mind? And this nameless mind.
The essence of this mind is dharmakaya, and this essence of mind, the emptiness, is uncreated by cause and circumstances. Yet, the clarity appearance is unobstructed in the arising. So unspoiled by understanding, un stained by thoughts of I and mine and this or that, in the silence of its natural simplicity, remaining is only an expression. In reality, it is totally free of that which remains and remaining itself. And this is the awareness and emptiness.
And this is the actual face of dharmakaya. This is the actual form of vajradhara. Pure from the beginning, Spontaneously accomplished from the beginning. It is pure from the beginning because it is not stained.