Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Kyabje Rinpoche uses an extended agricultural analogy to explore great compassion as the foundation of Mahāyāna practice in this 49-minute teaching. Compassion functions as the seed planted at the beginning of the path, the water and sun sustaining growth, and the harvest itself—what motivates a Buddha to teach others. He distinguishes great compassion from ordinary affection: it extends equally to friends, enemies, and strangers, not just loved ones. Rinpoche traces how grasping at ‘I’ and ‘mine’ generates attachment, aversion, and indifference, driving negative actions that perpetuate cycles of rebirth. He emphasizes that compassion must be cultivated toward oneself first. The teaching closes with Candrakīrti’s six well analogies, comparing our bondage to karma to a bucket endlessly drawn up and down a deep well. Suitable for practitioners beginning to understand Mahāyāna philosophy.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-06-10 – 1B – Workshop – KR.mp3
UUID: f27fd242-1c91-408f-8963-ee1dc6b9ca14
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Meditation
Date: 1989-06-10
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,994
So we should seek to develop the motivation such that I must attain flawless, complete Buddhahood in order to establish all sentient beings in complete happiness and bliss. And with such a type of motivation, determine that in order to bring that about I must practice the various means. In order to do that, I must listen to the teachings on the great vehicle and therefore, with its intention, listen to the present teaching on the great vehicle. So today we are going to talk about the benefits of compassion and the actual way of developing it. So, in his text by the great Indian master, Candrakīrti, engaging in the Middle Way, he pays homage and praise to great compassion.
So if we were to explain what actually is great compassion, we can explain it by use of three examples. So in his praises to great compassion, great compassion is exemplified as being of paramount importance in both the beginning, middle and end. Initially, just as in when we plant a field, that it is the seed of all future happinesses. It is the seed of all the future crops that we desire. So great compassion is like the seed in which a farmer plants in his field.
But it is also in the middling, that as a crop is actually beginning to grow, that it’s important. Compassion is compared to the fertilizer, the sun, the water necessary in order that this rich harvest eventually is realized. And then in the end it it is the actual ripened harvest itself that through great compassion and the various auxiliary practices which supplement it, which develop it, that we realize all our future goals, all our future desires, that we are able to actually cultivate the crop harvest. So, in extending this analogy, actually explaining the meanings of why compassion is praised and is necessary in the beginning, middle, finally in the end. That within the great vehicle that compassion, great compassion, is likened to a seed, the seed which is initially planted in the field.
That is, it is the root of the entire path of the great vehicle. Therefore, in order to engage, to enter into this practice, spiritual practice of the great vehicle, it’s necessary to cultivate, to have the seed of great compassion. In the middle it’s important because it is through the force or the motivation of great compassion that we are able to accumulate the necessary collections of personal power, positive potential or merit. There is no way that we can amass the necessary personal power to achieve our own ends without this motivating quality of great compassion. Therefore, it’s necessary in the intermediate period of our actual engaging in the various practices of the great vehicle.
And then having actually reached the end of the great vehicle, having actually achieved Buddhahood, it is through the power of the great compassion that a Buddha is motivated to turn the wheel of Dharma, that is to give the various teachings for the benefit of others. It is through the force of his caring, of his mercy for the benefit of others that he arises from his own peace and seeks to benefit others, teaching them the way, for example, to find happiness in future lives, to find liberation in this life, and ultimately to achieve Buddhahood. Therefore, great compassion is necessary both in all three, the beginning, middle, and end. And just as in the case of, in the world, when we seek to harvest a crop, initially we have to plant the crop. And to begin with we have to have some kind of faultless, some type of good seed which does not have any faults, without any defects in order to plant before we can actually grow a crop.
Likewise, taking this as an example and explaining the meaning in this context that great compassion is the way of entering into the practice of the great vehicle, the Mahāyāna. Without the seed of great compassion, there is no way that we can enter into the practices of the Mahāyāna and therefore there’s no way that we can engage in this practice and achieve the fruit of the Mahāyāna, that is Buddhahood. So it’s necessary, just as in the case of a seed, grow crops, great compassion is necessary to grow the fruit of Buddhahood. And having planted the seed in the field, and there arises the sprouts from these seeds. But even then, this is still not, we haven’t gained our end.
There’s still work that needs to be done. We have to constantly water the sprouts, to nourish the sprouts. If we simply grow the sprouts, leave them, then eventually they are going to dry up and it will be of no benefit whatsoever. So again and again we have to water the sprouts in order to eventually reap the harvest. And likewise, having entered into the great vehicle through planting the seed of great compassion, we have to engage in the various practices to cultivate the necessary accumulations of personal power and the necessary realizations and skills in order to achieve Buddhahood.
As a motivating force for engaging in these practices, it’s necessary again and again to generate great compassion. This is the force which empowers one to engage in all the various vast deeds and activities of the bodhisattva. Therefore, our practice is watered by the seeds, by the waters of compassion. And again and again, if without this constantly regenerating our compassion as a motivating force for our practice, then the seed of our practice, then the sprout of our practice will wither and die. Therefore great compassion is necessary in the intermediate period.
Having planted the seeds, cultivated those seeds, the sprouts which have arisen, and finally we were able to reap the harvest. And this is in the world that having brought in a harvest, that we can make whatever use of it that we wish to bring ourselves happiness. That we can simply eat it ourselves or we can sell our harvest for profit and all to bring ourselves happiness. This is the motivation. Likewise, in the case of Buddhahood, having brought to fruition our practice and having even ourselves achieved Buddhahood, we then proceed by the force of our compassion to teach the Dharma, to begin to teach the methods to bring others happiness is also to profit others from our crop that we have cultivated.
That we can teach them, for example, the various methods for achieving the state of a human or a god in the future, that type of happiness. Or we can go on to teach them the disadvantages, the dissatisfactory quality of cyclic existence and the methods for being free from cyclic existence. And that is the method to achieve the bliss of liberation. And we can go on from that in teaching the methods, the Dharma, of how to actually achieve Buddhahood. And all this teaching process is all motivated by the force of one’s own great compassion.
It’s making use of the great harvest which you have brought in and creating some kind of benefit, some kind of profit out of it. So do you understand this analogy? So we’re to apply this agricultural example to one’s practice. It doesn’t mean we have to become farmers. So the point is that compassion is the root of the great vehicle.
That if we possess great compassion then all the qualities associated with a great vehicle will arise within one. Without that seed, that foundation, then the qualities of the great vehicle cannot arise in one. Just as in the case where if we have the seed of the crop, can eventually cultivate the crop. Without that seed, there’s no way that we can cultivate a crop. So, we now discuss the actual method, the means for the development of compassion.
Now we all have, we are able to develop some compassion. For example, for those we find likable, those we care about. When they undergo some kind of difficulty, some kind of suffering, we develop some compassion for them. But this is not the type of compassion that we are talking about since this type of compassion is not extended to all equally in the sense that when our enemies, those we don’t like, experience some suffering, we develop no compassion for them. And likewise, for that number of people who we neither like nor dislike, that is if we have neutral feelings for, we even confronted by their suffering, remain indifferent or apathetic.
So, the type of compassion that when we speak of great compassion is not the type of compassion that we usually manifest, that we usually possess. The type of compassion which is simply directed toward those we love, those our friends, our relatives, those people we care about when they are undergoing suffering. And we are seeking to take the same quality of compassion but to extend it to all sentient beings. To see all sentient beings as the same as you now see those you love. That taking all sentient beings as your object of observation, to develop understanding that they are going through dissatisfaction, that they are going through suffering and developing the thought, I must separate them from their suffering.
I must remove their suffering toward all sentient being. So what we mean by mercy, sometimes translated mercy probably sympathy or caring might be better, is that the thought to separate sentient beings, the longing which wishes to separate beings from their suffering. Sentient beings other than oneself, you know, the wishing that they might be separated both from their suffering and the causes of their suffering. This is what we mean by caring or sympathy, mercy. Directing this longing toward others that they might be separated from the suffering and the causes of their suffering.
And the sufferings in general we can list birth old age disease, birth aging disease and death for examples. And what are the causes of, are, these are the various types of sufferings that sentient beings are undergoing. And the cause of suffering are various types of unskillful actions, destructive actions. Therefore, in order to separate beings from their suffering, it is necessary to separate them from the causes which create their suffering. So in the development of sympathy, of caring, Master Śāntideva says that if in development of sympathy and caring toward others and seeking to develop the longing to separate others from the suffering and the cause of their suffering, if initially we haven’t applied this to ourselves, that is to say, if initially we haven’t developed caring and sympathy for ourselves in wishing that we ourselves be separated from suffering and the causes of suffering, then there’s no way that we can develop this attitude towards others.
That first we must cultivate our sense of our own dissatisfactory state and wish to separate ourselves from this and the various causes, developing this type of attitude towards ourselves and then beginning to extend this to others having done that, that others in the same situation that we’re involved in without understanding our own situation as a preliminary, we can never really develop sincere sympathy and caring for others. So initially, we have to begin to develop the attitude toward ourselves, the longing that we ourselves be separated from the suffering and the causes of suffering before we can begin to extend it toward others. So the Master Candrakīrti says that initially the place upon which we are going to develop sympathy and caring is on oneself. So how are we going to develop this toward ourselves, this quality of sympathy and caring? That we begin to understand that we all have quite naturally a strong sense of I.
You know, I, I, I. And for example, when somebody says some type of harsh words to you, you say, Oh, he hurt my feelings. I feel very bad. Or if you get cold, Oh, I’m so cold. When the weather gets hot, I’m so hot.
This sense of I that we have. So, in dependence upon his natural sense of I, we begin to develop grasping toward the eye. We develop misconceptions as to the nature of the eye. We also develop self centeredness or self-cherishing. Based upon the I itself, the sense of I.
in dependence upon the misconception of I, then we extend it and we begin to develop the sense of mine. My family, my friends, my wife, my possessions. And we begin to become possessive with what we regard as mine. So, know, today we’re talking about the way of developing compassion and the benefits of compassion. So in dependence upon this sense of I arises other, that I exists in relationship to other.
We have my friends and those who are not my friends. We have I. We have what is mine and what is not mine. We begin to, dependence upon the sense of I, we begin to make this differentiation into other. So, it’s an in dependence upon the arising of the sense of I and its distortion.
We begin to develop the sense of I grasping. We begin to think in terms of my friends. And we develop attachment toward those who are my friends, my possessions. Towards those which are not my possessions, those who are not my friends, we develop indifference or actual hatred, aversion toward them. So, we begin to develop in dependence upon this sense of I, other, and therefore engage in attachment, hatred, apathy.
And various types of afflictive emotions begin to arise. These afflictive emotions force us to engage in various types of negative actions, negative karma. So it’s due to the force of karma and afflictive emotions, karma actions and afflictive emotions that we are continually involved in cycles of rebirth. Continually taking rebirth, collecting more actions, dying, forced to take rebirth again, collecting more actions, negative actions, karma and this repeated process of circling within cyclic existence. So with respect to this continual circling within cyclic existence and these compulsive patterns that due to the force of karma and afflictive emotion, Candrakīrti presents six analogies.
So, with regard to these six analogies, Candrakīrti was born in India, so his analogies are taken from this situation, context. So, Candrakīrti makes use of, in his in his six analogies, makes use of the analogy a well in which, a type of well which is dug very deep into the earth and then it’s built up around the sides. It’s necessary in order to get the water to lower a bucket by way of a rope down into the well, raise the bucket up and pour the water out. So we’re going to make use of this analogy. So, six analogies.
Using this analogy of the well and making, using the various parts of it in order to exemplify the meaning. First of all, there’s the bucket in the well. And then there’s the person who’s actually drawing the water out from the well, drawing the water up. And then there’s the that’s two. Then there’s the up and down movement of the bucket in the well itself.
That’s three. And then there’s the difficulty of raising the bucket up to the opening of the well and how easily it goes down to the bottom. That’s four. Taking those two as one. And then the necessity that each day, having to go to the well draw more water.
And then that’s five. And the sixth is the indefinite time when the water is drawn. Sometimes it’s necessary to go to the water, to the well early in the morning, sometimes late at night. There’s no definite time when water is drawn. Making use of these six parts to this analogy.
So this is extremely great example, this analogy that Candrakīrti is using. Candrakīrti was said to be an emanation of Mañjuśrī and that he was a great master of the Middle Way, but in general he was a master of all the various subjects and that he was considered one of the greatest pandits or scholars and experts in all of India. Beginning to explain this analogy, the bucket is tied tight by the rope. It’s not free to move as it might. It’s controlled by this rope.
Likewise, we are not free to we are tied tight by the rope of karma and afflictive emotions, that we are not free, that we are under control of karma and afflictive emotions. So, what is meant here is that we are tied tight by the rope of karma and afflictive emotions. If we can untie this rope, then we are free. We attain liberation. So the first part of the explanation of the analogy is that we are tied tight by the rope of karma and afflictive emotions, just as in the case of the bucket being tied by the rope.
And secondly, the up and down motion of the bucket is being controlled by the person. That is to say, in order to draw water there has to be someone who is actually doing the work, whose work it is to be the drawer of the water. If there wasn’t this person, then there wouldn’t be this motion of this up and down of the bucket. There would be no drawing of the water. Likewise, we’re constantly involved in circling in cyclic existence and there is an agent which is involved, causing this to occur.
And this agent, just as in the case of the drawer of the water, is unskillful states of mind, negative states of mind. This is the agent which is causing us to circle in cyclic existence. Without this agent, there would be no circling. Just as in the case if there was no person drawing the water, there would be no water being raised up.