Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 50-minute teaching on the graduated path, Lama Lhundup explores why we take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—the three jewels central to Buddhist practice. He begins by explaining how an extremely subtle mind remains hidden from us due to temporary defilements, making refuge essential for developing the capacity to eliminate all faults and eventually achieve Buddhahood. Lama Lhundup then walks through the Buddha’s excellent qualities across body, speech, and mind: the body radiates infinite manifestations for teaching; the speech possesses sixty qualities that inspire faith; the mind simultaneously perceives all phenomena and holds immeasurable love for all beings. He addresses a common question—if the Buddha has the power to instantly place all sentient beings in a Pure Land, why do we still suffer? The answer lies not in the Buddha’s limitations but in our own failure to create the causes and conditions for his help, illustrated through the analogy of a qualified teacher unable to benefit an unwilling student. Lama Lhundup then clarifies what constitutes the actual refuge (true cessation and true paths), explains the role of the Sangha as spiritual companions, and emphasizes the critical importance of associating with practitioners of stable faith. He concludes by detailing the four divisions of the law of cause and effect, which forms the main training of refuge: infallibility of results, the augmentation or increase of actions over time, non-experience of uncommitted actions, and the non-dissipation of committed actions.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 LR.mp3
UUID: 798f4ce5-8c63-4bb0-b606-c52644c52e3d
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Lam Rim (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 50.2 minutes
Words: ~2,471
But even though this extremely subtle mind is ready to manifest, we don’t know of it because we don’t realize the existence of these adventitious defilements, that is temporary defilements. So, the essential necessity for taking refuge from the depth of our hearts, taking refuge in the causal refuge is that someday each of us can be able to eliminate all our own faults and develop all the excellent qualities. So though we aren’t Buddhas presently, in the future, we will become Buddhas, and that Buddhahood is the resultant refuge. So there’s two refuges. There’s causal refuge and resultant refuge.
As we understand the excellent qualities of the Buddha, then our faith will increase. So we should, in order to develop this faith, consider excellent qualities of the Buddha from the point of view of his body, speech, mind. So the Buddha’s body has thirty two major and eighty minor marks. But just in general, briefly, whoever would meet the Buddha would develop great joy, great faith, and they would not be able to see any faults in his body. So whoever meets the Buddha could not find any faults with his body.
So his body has the ability to radiate out manifestations, numberless manifestations, immeasurable manifestations in order to teach. So the Buddha’s speech is said to have sixty excellent qualities. But just in general, anyone who hears the Buddha’s voice develops great joy and great faith in hearing the words of the Buddha. And the Buddha’s mind has the qualities, for example, of all-knowing. It has the love and abilities.
Knowing, love, and abilities. So from the point of view of knowing or understanding, the Buddha is able to directly perceive the two truths simultaneously, and he has direct perception of the two truths at the same time, and no one but a Buddha is able to do this. His one mind can simultaneously perceive all phenomena existing. So the second quality of his mind is the quality of love. What kind of love do we have?
We have love for ourselves. But the Buddha has more than a hundred thousand times more love than we have for ourselves for us. So out of this love, the Buddha will do whatever is beneficial for sentient beings. Whatever they need, he will give. He could give his body.
He gives the Dharma. He will do whatever is necessary to help them. So, the Buddha has the as far as the ability, he has the ultimate ability. Power. Okay.
Rather than ability, say power. It’s better. So for example of his power, it is said that if everybody in the world brought their possessions and they placed them before the Buddha, that he could look at any one of those possessions and say who the owner was and what family he came from, etcetera. So the Buddha has the power that all the beings in cyclic existence, if they were reborn in Pure Land, He has the ability to place all sentient beings in a Pure Land. So, the Buddha has the power to take all sentient beings in cyclic existence in one second and place them in a Pure Land.
Clear? Then why are we being tortured by suffering? Though the Buddha has this power, from the side of the sentient beings, we have not created the causes and conditions to bring it about. It’s as if, you know, we’re in school and the teacher, a qualified teacher, a very excellent teacher, has the ability to help the students, but if the student from his side, for example, perhaps he has something mentally deficient or he doesn’t make effort, he’s not intelligent, then no matter how qualified the teacher is, because of the deficiency on the side of the student, he cannot help the student. So even though the Buddha has the knowledge, the love, and the power from his side, from my side we have to develop the conviction, make effort. But still, it’s extremely difficult for us to act in accordance with the advice that the Buddha has given us. If we take the example of Mao Zedong, he had many worldly qualities.
He was an expert, for example, in communism. But due to latencies from past lives, he did not, he actually fell into wrong views, and he actually brought harm to people. Because of these predispositions, we’ve become habituated to various, we have predispositions within our mind now. For us it’s difficult. For example, if Mao Zedong and the Dalai Lama were together, because of these predispositions in the mind of Mao Zedong, though the Dalai Lama would want to help him, there would be no way, no method whereby he could benefit him. Now for us, we’re extremely fortunate that we don’t have wrong views, and we have confidence in the Buddha.
The reason we have developed this relationship with the Buddha is through the power of our faith. Dependent upon this faith, we can develop convictions, confidence in the Buddha’s qualities. And dependent upon this confidence in the Buddha’s qualities, the paths that he teaches us, we will make effort in trying to follow them. And the person who makes effort in trying to follow the paths which were taught by the Buddha will not have difficulty attaining Buddhahood. From what cause did all these great excellent qualities of the Buddha arise?
They arose from the practice of Dharma. So among the three refuges, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, they arise from the Dharma refuge. So among the three refuges, the actual refuge is the Dharma. And the Buddha is the shower of the path or the teacher of the Dharma. And the Sangha or the spiritual community are the helpers who accompany us in the practice.
So the actual Dharma refuge is true cessation and true paths. But still, even for us, if we abandon killing, for example, we say, Oh, I’m not going to kill that insect, and this abandonment of killing is the practice of Dharma. Merely what we’re doing now, we’re listening and thinking about the Dharma, that also is a practice of Dharma. So, though we are Buddhists now, through the practice of the Dharma, we will become Buddhas. So with respect to the third, that is the Sangha refuge, the spiritual community.
If we say, actually, the Sangha or the spiritual community are those beings who have attained the superiors or aryas who have attained true paths. So even though the superiors or aryas are the actual Sangha, still they’re difficult to meet with. So we can say that the Sangha can consist of, for example, monks and nuns and those laypeople who are seeking to practice the Dharma. Then it’s sufficient to say that these constitute the Sangha or the spiritual community. So it’s extremely important for Buddhists to have the Three Jewels.
So, there’s a good reason. If we take an example of a sick person, in order that the person be cured, we want to have a qualified expert doctor come in and examine him. And not only that, we have to have potent medicine. And in addition, we have to have nurses to help administer the medicine. So without the doctor who can diagnose the sickness, there’s no way we can cure the illness. We think we’re not sick people, but actually we are sick people. We have, from the beginning of this time, been under, we have been afflicted by the three poisons and self-cherishing. So except for the Buddha, there is no expert doctor who can diagnose our illness.
But even though an expert doctor diagnoses and gives us very good medicine, he tells us, now you take the medicine at this time. If we do not take that medicine, then there’s no way we’re going to get well. So likewise, the expert doctor, the Buddha, has diagnosed our illness and has said that, you know, we’re suffering from the three poisons, such as desire, hatred, etcetera. And he has prescribed medicines, various practices, and meditations. If we ourselves do not practice them, it’s the same way as if we haven’t received medicine and we aren’t taking it.
There’s no way we can become cured. So but still if we don’t have nurses for example to help administer the medicine, becoming better will be difficult. So without the examples of the Sangha, the spiritual community, who support us, who accompany us in our practice, it would be difficult to become well. For example, if there were two laypeople and one of them practiced Dharma and the other one didn’t practice Dharma, if they were always together, the one who’s trying to practice would have a very difficult time. But if the case were that these two people both liked the Dharma, they both practice the Dharma, and they could assist each other in their practices, they could progress easily.
So it’s extremely important for us to associate with people who have faith in Dharma, who have confidence, and are trying to practice. If your Dharma friends, if you become angry at them. If you become angry, you accumulate negative karma. If you always associate with a very angry person, slowly you’re going to become angry yourself. So in this way, it’s extremely important that we associate with people who have stable faith and have a kind heart, good mind.
So refuge is extremely important. There are two causes for refuge. As we’ve said, there is the fear of suffering and the faith that the Three Jewels have the power to protect us from suffering. So at all times, whatever we’re doing, whether happy or suffering, always remain in refuge. When you generate such a mind, then you become a Buddhist. So you develop this mind, you become a Buddhist. The basis of this, one can purify negative actions very easily. And taking that as a basis, one can take various vows, such as the vows of a layperson or a monk or a nun. One can take the vows of individual liberation, the bodhisattva vows, the vows of secret mantra. For example, Lama Zopa will be giving an empowerment when he comes here.
Without this as a basis, the refuge as a basis, there’s no way that we can take the various levels of vows. So the great masters of India, for example, Atisha and Candrakīrti, in determining whether or not one is a Buddhist, it is whether or not you have refuge. So it’s not a matter of having to take the vows from a lama or a guru to have refuge. If one, in the sense of hearing the graduated path, develops confidence and faith in the Buddhas, then one has refuge. Merely by having gone for refuge, one is protected from taking rebirth in the bad migrations.
But one is not completely free of going to the bad migrations. In order to be completely free, then one must train in, one must engage in the training of refuge. So the main training of refuge is developing conviction in the law of cause and effect. So, as we talked about this morning, if someone were going to have been involved in causing an accident, he was afraid of going to prison. He went to this high official to help get him off.
And the official said, you know, he signed this document and said, no, it’s okay. I’ve taken care of it. He says, but don’t do it again. If we simply go out and keep repeating our mistakes again, then there’s no way he can help us in the future. So having gone for refuge, our main practice is the law of cause and effect.
So in observing the law of cause and effect, there are four divisions. The first one is that the results of actions are infallible or definite. The second is that actions are highly augmentative or increasing. The third is the results of uncommitted actions are not experienced. And the fourth is that actions committed are not dissipated or wasted. So with respect to the first, the results of actions are infallible. In dependence upon a non-virtuous cause, only a resultant suffering will arise.
Happiness never arises. And likewise, in dependence upon a virtuous cause, only happiness arises, suffering will not arise. So the cause and effect, the relationship between cause and effect is infallible. For example, if we plant a chili seed, we are not going to get a fruit which is sweet. Like that.
So the second, actions are highly augmentative or increasing. Even from an insignificant non-virtue, we can have immeasurable results. Likewise, even from an insignificant virtue, we can have immeasurable results. So, if we take an example of an orange, you know, we plant an orange seed, and from this seed there arises the tree with the branches and leaves and everything, and we get all this fruit. And the next year more fruit comes, and the next year more fruit and more fruit and more fruit.
From this small seed we get a tremendous result. So likewise, the inner seeds that we have, these are also highly increasing or highly augmentative. Another example. If one person said to another person, you know, you look like a monkey, and this would be non-virtuous speech. And simply from this, he may have to take rebirth as a monkey for many lives.
You know, if today one person killed a fish, he killed it today, then the next day he would have the negative action of having killed two fish. On the third day, he would have the negative action, it would be as if he had killed four fish. So there’s this increasing negativity, you know, as the time progresses, it would be ten, twenty, a hundred, a thousand times. So it’s the same for both virtue and non-virtue.