Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 50-minute talk, Lama Lhundup teaches the foundational topic of refuge by connecting Buddhist doctrine to lived example. He opens with the story of Angulimala, a serial killer transformed by encountering the Buddha, illustrating how a qualified spiritual teacher differs fundamentally from an unqualified one and why we need reliable guidance. He then contrasts the Buddha’s equanimity with the story of Devadatta, the Buddha’s jealous cousin, showing how true refuge protects us through unconditional compassion rather than contingent favor. Lhundup defines the marks of a worthy refuge—one who has eliminated all faults and perfected all excellent qualities—and explains why worldly refuges and gods of other traditions lack these. He concludes with a core Tibetan Buddhist insight: our Buddha-nature is always present but obscured by temporary defilements, and through ethics, listening to teachers, and Dharma practice we can manifest the subtle mind and attain Buddhahood.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 LR.mp3
UUID: 1d4ae14c-10fc-440e-bcfc-a307b11baf7c
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Lam Rim (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 49.9 minutes
Words: ~2,613
But I need somebody to help me. I need a helper. So they said, well, you know, what what do you want for your helper to stay with you? And she said, well, you know, amongst all the all the all the various students, think the the the most The, you know, the best you know, the best of the of the students would be, I would like Angulimala to stay with me. So she said that she’s So they hadn’t got to the park yet.
He said, she told Angli, her husband, this, that she was going to the park and that she needed a helper to go with her. And then, of course, they had this conversation. She said, Well, I would like Angulimala to go with me. So he sent a message and told Angulimala to go accompany the his wife to the park. So they all went to the park to they all went to the park.
So when she got to the park with Angulimala, she told Angulimala that she had a great desire for him, but they had never had she had never had time to tell him, but now it was a good opportunity. Within within Brahminism, though she was the wife of of the teacher, within Brahminism, there was no it was not considered to be sexual misconduct for for them to come together. But still, Angulimala didn’t have any desire for her, and she got very angry at him. But since she got extremely upset, she got extremely upset, she started pulling out her hair and crying, and she fell to the ground. And at that time, the teacher, he came.
And Angulimala, he he he went out and left the park. He went to Looking. He went to to look after the the cows. The the then the teacher went up to this building there, the house. He knocked, and no one came.
She she came the came So the door wasn’t locked. The door wasn’t yeah. So he knocked at the door, but the door was not closed. It was not closed. It was closed.
The door was closed, but it wasn’t it was not locked. And he knocked a lot at the door. So he looked around and then he finally saw his wife who was on the ground and she had blood on her and she was a mess. And he asked you, you know, what’s happened to you? What you know, who did this to you?
So it was one of your students who did this to me. Know, he wanted to commit sexual misconduct with me, but I wouldn’t I wouldn’t let him, and and he he did this to me. And the teacher became extremely angry. So he but he didn’t he didn’t do anything immediately. He let a few days pass.
One day, he called he’s called Angulimala to him. And he said to him, amongst all my students, you’re number one. You’re the best. I have told everyone this. I’m going to give you the the greatest teaching.
I’m going to teach you. So you need you need one thousand you need to come from one thousand people. Need to make a rosary from the thumbs of a thousand people. Killed. Oh, you need to kill.
Okay. So you need to kill one thousand people and make a rosary out of all their thumbs. And Angulimala had a good mind. But because Angulimala, he had a bad mind, he thanked his teacher, but he said that this was contradictory to the tradition of Brahmanism, that would be very bad if he were to do this for him and his teacher. And he said, I shouldn’t do this.
And he requested that he that he that shouldn’t he shouldn’t do this. He shouldn’t do. Should not do. Yeah. Should not do.
So the but the teacher said, you know, I I I’m your I’m your guru. You know? How can you question what I say? I’m giving you the the the oral instruction on what to do. All at once, Angulimala became extremely angry.
So he immediately, he he took a knife and he went out and began killing people. So I got up to the to the place where he actually killed nine hundred and ninety nine people. And then he couldn’t find anybody to kill. But there was his mother who liked Angulimala very much. And she had great compassion for Angulimala.
So having great compassion for Angulimala, she offered that that he could kill her. So she gave him food? So she went to go she went to give him food. And so when Angulimala saw his mother, thought arose, I’m going to kill my mother. But but Angulimala thought, if I kill my mother Mhmm.
I’m going to So while Angulimala was thinking to kill his mother, the Buddha came. Buddha manifested walking as a monk. And he saw Buddha. He Buddha. I don’t and then he was very happy because he thought, I don’t have to kill my mother.
I can kill the Buddha. No. I don’t have to kill my mother. I can kill this monk. So he didn’t see a Buddha.
He saw a monk. So he he thought, I don’t he was happy. I don’t have to kill my mother. He thinking, I don’t have to kill my mother. I can kill this monk instead.
So he went to kill him with his knife? He walked over. The monk was walking very slowly and casually, but no matter how fast Angulimala ran, he wasn’t able to catch up with the monk. So, Angulimala said, wait, wait. And the monk who was actually the Buddha said, I’m staying.
I’m staying, but you’re the one who’s going. Upon hearing this, Angulimala, he began to think about what the the the Buddha had actually what what Buddha these words the Buddha had said. Know, temporally, you know, if you do what the the your spiritual master does, it’s extremely it’s great merit. It’s great merit.
He has great merit. So so he thought because Angulimala had a great deal of merit, he was able to think when the Buddha says, I’m staying, the Buddha actually meant, he says, I’m abiding in nirvana, or I’m staying in nirvana. And when he says, you’re the one who’re going, he’s saying, you’re actually going toward the sufferings of bad migrations. And so and then he developed a great deal of of confidence in the Buddha, and he turned away from killing. And he immediately prostrated before the Buddha and asked for him to protect him.
And there and through this thought, there arose the blessings of the Buddha. And he called he called Angulimala to him, and he he told him to meditate. So then the Buddha said, come here. So and it’s coming here, he was saying, this meant, you know, come to where I am. That is in parinirvana.
And in in in coming to the Buddha, Angulimala developed renunciation. So then he entered into meditation and he attained the fruit of stream-entry and they walked away together. So therefore, it is said in many of the scriptures that we should examine well the the advices of the of our teachers, of spiritual friends. And and the the Buddha has the So the Buddha manifesting, and then through his great through his skillful method, was able to establish others in nirvana. So there are many such accounts in the biography of the Buddha.
So why the Buddha is an object worthy worthy of refuge, there’s he must have possessed all four qualities. So, you know, briefly, we have attained a human body of leisures and fortunes, but this body is not going to last long. Eventually we’re going to die. And at the time of death, because we have created negative actions, when these actions, when these karmas ripen, we’re going to undergo suffering. But is there any protection from these sufferings?
And we have to develop the conviction that the Three Jewels are a worthy source of refuge, a worthy refuge of protecting us from the various sufferings that we will undergo. So we don’t have time to have questions now, but we’ll do that later. So having developed the we should take great joy in the fact that the refuges have the ability to free us from the fears of suffering. So not only can the can worldly refugees not free us from from our suffering? They do not have the excellent qualities nor the skill and means to help us.
So within the the various non-Buddhist religions there are accounts of their various refuges, the beings who they take refuge in. But these refuges do not have all the complete excellent qualities, not have completed all the excellent qualities. And also the various worldly gods who are taken for refuge, in the beginning if we were to make offerings and then later on we were to turn away from them and to no longer make offerings to them, then they would bring us harm. But whether or not we make offerings to the Buddhas, whether or not we have faith in the Buddhas, they still hold us with the same love. So, not to speak of the Buddhas, we can set the Buddhas aside if we just talk about the bodhisattvas.
Even if we were to harm them or even kill them, the thought to return this harm with more harm would never even occur to them. In fact, they would have, from the depths of their heart, great compassion for us. So there’s an example of during the Śākyamūni Buddha’s life, one of his relatives, his cousin, his name was Devadatta, And he was always finding fault with the Buddha, and he’s always he’s always trying to bring harm to the Buddha. So, Devadatta always had in mind that, you know, he wanted to eliminate the Buddha and and take his place. So one day,
So one day the Buddha took this one type of medicine, which is called the king of medicines, and he took thirty two of these pills. He usually took this medicine. So one day, the Devadatta, because the Buddha took this medicine, he too wanted to take this same medicine, this king of medicines. And he asked, how many pills does the Buddha take? And he was informed that the Buddha eats thirty two of these pills.
And he said, Well, however many the Buddha eats, I’m going to eat the same amount. And the doctor said that the Buddha has his body is invulnerable, and just because he eats if any normal person should not eat that many, you shouldn’t eat thirty two pills like the Buddha. And he said, well, Buddha and I are exactly the same. However many he can eat, I can eat too. And so he didn’t listen, and he went ahead and ate thirty two pills.
And he harmed he almost died. And he had, you know, brought a great deal of harm to his body. And the Buddha, he heard about Devadatta going through a great deal of suffering. And he went to Devadatta, and And the Buddha said upon arriving at Devadatta’s home, when Devadatta was lying there suffering, So through his clairvoyance, the Buddha came to know that Devadatta was suffering from these pills, he flew through the air and came to Devadatta. Also the Buddha’s son was there.
And he said, any difference if I have any difference in feeling between my own son and Devadatta, if I do not have any difference in feeling between Devadatu and my son, may you be cured. And because the Buddha did not have any had complete equanimity for these two by the power of this, Devadatta’s illness became better. As he became better, he kept improving and his mind became happier, and then he saw the Buddha’s hand. When he saw the Buddha’s hand, because of past So Devadatta was getting better. He was feeling better and better.
The Buddha had laid his hand upon his head when he had said this. And then he saw the Buddha’s hand, and he felt the Buddha’s hand. He said, whose hand is that? So if he were like most of us, if we were in that same position, we would say, when we saw that he was going to die, we would say, oh, it would be good if he died. We wouldn’t we wouldn’t have at least a little thought to to try to benefit him, to try to help him.
So, but the Buddha, at all times, has only the the the never has the thought to harm, but only has great compassion. So, it doesn’t matter who we are, whether we’re a beggar or it doesn’t matter. He always has only he will always act in our benefit. So the object of refuge, in this case the Buddha, has eliminated all faults and has completed all the excellent qualities. So how do we identify what is the proper refuge?
Proper refuge should have eliminated all faults and should have all the necessary qualities. Whoever has that, that person is worthy of refuge. In general, there are numberless Buddhas. Teacher within this era was teacher Śākyamūni Buddha. So the way we can recognize an ultimate refuge is that the refuge must have eliminated all faults and have only the excellent qualities.
So this is presented from the point of view of causal refuge. But if we’re taking the Buddha as the causal refuge, we have we have within our own mind the potential to be exactly like the Buddha. So, this, you know, we possess the potential to become a Buddha. That is the mind itself. But also the ultimate nature of the mind.
So there are two. There is the potential, the mind itself, and the ultimate nature of the mind, which are the So there are the potentials by which we will eventually become a Buddha. There are conditioned and the conditioned and unconditioned potentials to become Buddha. The nature of our mind, the mind that we normally are using when we eat, when we go about, and when we walk about, etcetera. This is the coarse mind that we make use of.
But within this mind, there is an extremely subtle mind. And there is also it is accompanied by an extremely subtle wind. These are not these are not stained by these have no adventitious stains, temporary stains at all. The various temporary defilements that we now possess can in no way stain it. Because of our temporary defilements, we cannot manifest this extremely subtle mind. But through the practice of Dharma, through practicing ethics, etcetera, by purifying again and again the mind, by listening to the advices of our teachers, we can learn and begin to develop the methods for actually manifesting this extremely subtle mind.
If we can manifest this extremely subtle mind and have direct perception of it, then we can easily attain Buddhahood. Within us all, we all have the ability and have the nature to attain Buddhahood. It’s for example, our situation is similar to if we had the body of a statue of the Buddha, and it was in a very dirty place, and we couldn’t see it, it would be in the same way that this statue was made out of gold. A golden statue of a Buddha, it was