Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 103-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche uses the Wheel of Sharp Weapons to explain the crucial distinction between the lesser and greater Buddhist vehicles. He opens with Buddha’s essential instruction: abstain from vice, practice virtue, tame the mind. He covers the ten non-virtues (killing, stealing, sexual misconduct; lying, divisive speech, harsh words, gossip; covetousness, ill will, wrong views) and their antidotes—love, empathy, non-violence. The key point: practitioners of the lower vehicles successfully abandon afflictions and attain liberation, yet because they have not abandoned self-cherishing, they remain outside the Mahāyāna path. The Bodhisattva path uniquely requires transforming self-cherishing into cherishing others—a reversal possible through habituation and determination. All Buddhas attained enlightenment by practicing this inversion.
File metadata (for organising)
File: WSW 1 Dec 2010 – KR.mp3
UUID: f14bfc99-d845-4f79-874c-1ac7c7569c52
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Mind Training
Date: 2010 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,638
Okay. So both for the expounder of a teaching and for the attendees, for the listeners of a teaching, it is capital to generate the appropriate motivation for listening to teachings, which is a motivation which wishes to instill and to increase virtue within one’s mind stream and to eliminate non virtue, understanding the situation of all beings, all sentient beings, which are numerous, whereby we are one, and which are completely ignorant of the means to attain happiness and the means to eliminate suffering. Therefore, we ourselves must take upon ourselves a responsibility to instruct them in how to attain happiness and how to eliminate suffering and place them in a state of unalloyed happiness. With this motivation, we should listen to the teachings. Why is this teaching of such benefit?
It is because Buddha Śākyamūni imparted these teachings with a motivation of love and great compassion. Therefore, they have tremendous benefit. And therefore, let us meditate for a couple of minutes on generating the motivation to engage in the activities of listening, thinking, meditating, as well as explaining this Dharma of the Mahāyāna, the Wheel of Sharp Weapons. So Buddha Śākyamūni imparted the following advice. The teachings of the Buddha are to abstain from even the slightest vice, to practice virtue to perfection, to tame one’s mind.
In as much as we want to be free from suffering, and we want to be happy, we must first eliminate the cause for suffering, and the cause for suffering is vice or non virtue. And at the same time, and as much as we want to be happy, we must create the cause for happiness, and the cause for happiness is a practice of virtue. What are these non virtues which are to be abstained from? They are the non virtues of the three doors of body, speech, and mind. There are three non virtues of body, four of speech, and three of mind.
The three of body are killing sentient beings. They are stealing, in other taking what does not belong to oneself, and they are engaging in sexual misconduct or adultery. The four non virtues of speech are first and foremost, lying, which means saying an untruth or intending an untruth. Secondly, they are divisive speech. Divisive speech here refers to speech which either separates people who were living in harmony with each other or pushes even further apart people who were already in disagreement with each other.
The third category of non virtue speech is harsh words. These are offensive words which create a sentiment of mental unease and unhappiness in the ears of those who hear them and for whom they are intended. And the fourth category of non virtuous speech is gossip or idle talk. This is talk about politics, about the relation between states and kings, and all meaningless talk. Then the three non virtues of mind are first covetousness.
Covetousness is that state of mind which has a desire for an object, whichever it is. Then ill will or animosity. This is that state of mind which wishes for harm to befall another person, whether it be harm in the past, the present, or the future. And finally, wrong views. Wrong views are that state of mind which believes that an existent is a nonexistent.
And for instance, that the triple gem, the Buddha, the the Dharma and the Sangha, which exist and which are objects of refuge, do not exist, or that past and future lives do not exist, even though they are existent phenomenon, or that karma and causality do not exist? And these 10 non virtues, killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, harsh word, and gossip, covetousness, ill will, and wrong views are all motivated by a violent state of mind. So one must reflect on the thoughts of violence and this violent state of mind and realize that these violent states of minds are states which harm us and cultivate non violent state of mind and non violence in general, which is both beneficial for oneself and not harmful. Through understanding that violence harms ourselves in the short term and harms us as well ultimately in the long term, one must train in the countervailing forces, which are the minds of empathy, of love, and of non violence. And in dependence on these, one must pledge not to kill, not to steal, not to commit sexual misconduct, not to lie, not to engage in divisive speech, not to use harsh words, not to gossip, not to practice covetousness, ill will, or wrong views.
Such a motivation is virtuous motivation. And then with this motivation, we must bind our deeds. We must pledge ourselves not to engage in these 10 non virtues. In so doing, we will train in virtue, which is of benefit both for ourselves and for others. And should this virtue be dedicated for our own welfare and that of all sentient beings, then it will be the perfect virtue which is alluded to previously.
Ultimately, And the third verse of the stanza, which Khensur Rinpoche quoted from Buddha Śākyamūni, is thoroughly tame your mind. Thoroughly tame your mind, or one’s mind here, refers to training in virtue and abstaining from non virtue in as much as both virtuous states of mind and non virtuous states of mind arise in dependence on the mind itself. So our goal is to eliminate non virtuous states of mind and to do so through applying their antidote, which is the virtuous states of mind such as love, empathy, and so forth. Beneficial states of mind and harmful states of mind are contradictory. In other words, when the beneficial states of mind such as love and empathy increase, the harmful states of mind decrease, harmful states of mind such as violence and so forth.
And when the harmful states of mind increase, the beneficial states of mind decrease. Taming the mind is nothing else but leading to this increase in beneficial states of mind and decrease of harmful states states of mind. And this leads to the fourth stanza which I translated as first. This is the teachings of the Buddha. The teachings of the Buddha are no other than to train in beneficial states of mind and abstain from harmful states of mind.
And therefore, the Dharma of the Buddha is compared to medicine for the mind. When our mind is at ease, is troubled, it is a sick mind, it is a diseased mind, and this diseased mind gives rise to non virtue, which in turn give rise to suffering. So in worldly matters, when we are ill, we consult a doctor and we take medicine. Here, the mind which is diseased, which is afflicted, is a rough mind. It is an unsuitable mind, which is is troubled.
And this mind has to be targeted, targeted by the medicine, the antidotes for this mind, which are love and empathy. Love is that wish for others to be happy, while empathy is that wish for others to be bereft from suffering. As these increase, the non virtuous minds such as violence and so forth decrease since their main wish is for others to be unhappy and to suffer. As these non virtuous minds, these violent states of mind decrease, all 10 non virtues progressively disappear. And therefore, of these 10 non virtuous deeds, the three first of the body and the four of the speech belong to the category of karma, whereas the three latter of the mind belong to the category of afflictions or So in dependence on karma and the afflictions together, suffering is generated since non virtuous karma arises from this.
Impelled by the three non virtuous states of mind, covetousness, ill will, and non and wrong views as a motivation, we accumulate karma of body and speech. These three non virtuous states of mind are clashes. They are afflictions. Their main goal is to harm others, and therefore, this is why the Buddha said in his third stanza, in the third verse of the stanza, therefore, tame thoroughly your mind. Tame thoroughly your mind here refers to taming the afflictions.
And therefore, regarding these three last of the non non of mind. Covetousness, from one standpoint, is of the nature of desire. Animosity is of the nature of anger. And wrong views are afflicted views, which can be subdivided into four. The wrong view of disintegration, wrong view in general, the wrong view of permanence, and taking the supreme as a view.
Here, He will now pass directly to the commentary on page 12, the commentary on the Wheel of Sharp Weapons. And subsection 2,222, we have an explanation of the manner of training in the two aspects of bodhicitta, training in conventional and training in ultimate bodhicitta. We will first approach training in conventional bodhicitta. And we have here a stanza from the root text, Atisha’s guru Dharmarakshita, who was a great Indian yogi composed this text.
This is a Wheel of Sharp Weapons. At present, powerlessly transmigrating under the edges of this lord of the demon self grasping, separating from egotism, the desire for well-being and happiness, I will take on hardship for the sake of others. So if we analyze this verse of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, the first word at present refers to our present situation in cyclic existence, in saṃsāra. Powerlessly refers to the fact that it is involuntarily not under our own power that we transmigrate through the six realms of cyclic existence, the three higher and the three lower realms, in the same way as if we were cycling through a wheel. Transmigrating under the edges of, and here the question is asked, under whose control, under whose power do we transmigrate?
The answer is this herdsman of the demon self grasping. So here, the demon referred to in this text is actually self-cherishing. And self-cherishing is representative, as it were, of self grasping or grasping to the self as being inherently established. So foremost in this text, self-cherishing is seen as impeding us through cyclic existence and self grasping functions as its servant. Specifically, the self grasping which apprehends the person as inherently existing
Moving onwards with the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, separating from egotism, the desire for well-being and happiness. These three are the direct result of self-cherishing. self-cherishing wishes for our own well-being and for our own happiness, and this is what we have to eliminate. How do we eliminate this? The fourth verse indicates it.
I will take on hardship for the sake of others. For the sake of others here means that one will work for the well-being of others, putting the well-being of others ahead of ours. And hardship here indicates that indeed at the beginning, there will be difficulty. It will be difficult for us to do this, to engage in what practice, to engage in a practice where we renounce our own self-cherishing and we train in actualizing the welfare of others. So in the stanza on page 12, verse two of the stanza, this herald of the demon self grasping.
Here, the demon, which is the root of cyclic existence, refers to self-cherishing, and the herald which is its envoy, which acts for it refers to the ignorance which apprehends the self as inherently existing. It is in dependence on these that we wish for our own well-being referred to in verse three, and in dependence on this wish for our own well-being, our individual egotistical well-being that in turn we accumulate the 10 non virtuous deeds, killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, harsh words, and gossip, covetousness, ill ill will or animosity, and wrong views. Because through wishing to be happy ourselves, we harm others and engage in these 10 non virtuous deeds. It is actually as if these 10 non virtuous deeds were the means for us to mistakenly try to actualize our own happiness. However, in dependence on them, we only accumulate non virtuous karma, and through this non virtuous karma in turn, we accumulate suffering.
We are because of our self-cherishing bereft of both liberation and full enlightenment, and are instead enthralled, controlled by the mind which apprehends the self as truly existent. So we are completely controlled therefore by self-cherishing and in dependence on this accumulate only non virtue. At present, if we examine our situation, we can see that we have transmigrated in the lower realms. We have not attained liberation nor have we attained full enlighten ment exclusively because of this demon of self-cherishing. The self-cherishing which leads us to say, my friend, my hand, my relatives, and then to generate attachment and anger with respect to those who help them and those who harm them.
self-cherishing therefore in this context gives rise to the ignorance which apprehends the self as truly existent and in dependence on this non virtue and non virtue alone is generated. Therefore, this self-cherishing must be abandoned, must be eradicated. We must reflect that others are greater in numbers than us. We are alone, others are many. Therefore, we should value others principally, and we should focus on the happiness of others.
Through this, we can hope to attain both our own liberation and full enlightenment. Through actualizing the happiness of others, we will realize our own happiness. Through trying to actualize our own happiness, we will not only not actualize our own happiness, we will not actualize either that of others. So this is the foremost practice of the Bodhisattvas. The Bodhisattvas focus on the welfare of others and in so doing realize both their own welfare and that of others.
This is a very essence of the Mahāyāna. The teachings of the Mahāyāna are that through harming others, we harm both others and ourselves. And through helping others, we help both others and ourselves. And therefore, cherishing is divided into two, self-cherishing and cherishing others, in the self same way as if we look at beings and generally are divided into oneself and others. Now regarding cherishing others, Śāntideva said, there is nothing which through habituation does not become easier, nothing through habituation becomes harder.
And this is why even though it is very difficult to generate initially cherishing others, the bodhisattvas train in it for three countless eons. They train for three countless eons, first to give rise to cherishing others, then to lead it to increase, and finally, to lead it to fruition. The fruition of cherishing others is none none other than the state of full enlightenment of Buddhahood. There is no Buddhahood apart from the elimination, complete elimination of self-cherishing. On the other hand, self-cherishing itself is very easy to generate.
We have been accustomed to it since beginningless times, our numerous lives. Putting an end to it is extremely difficult. It is since countless eons, Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen says, that we have been accustomed to the nefarious impact of self-cherishing. So if we compare the two, we can see that it is difficult to give rise to cherish others, and it is difficult to lead it to fruition. On the other hand, it is very easy to succumb to self-cherishing.
This is the root of the fundamental distinction between the lower and the greater vehicle. The Buddha taught three vehicles, the vehicles of the Śrāvaka, the Pratyekabuddha, and the Bodhisattva, and the two first, the vehicle of the Śrāvaka and the Pratyekabuddha are the lower vehicles. These vehicles are called lower exclusively because their practitioners do not train to eliminate self-cherishing. As a matter of fact, an Arhat who is a Śrāvaka, and an Arhat who is a solitary realizer, or Pratyekabuddha, is someone who has abandoned completely the ignorance which apprehends the self as truly existing. But even though such a being has attained liberation because they have not abandoned self-cherishing, they are not counted within the great vehicle.
They have attained liberation, they have eliminated all afflictions and eliminated suffering, yet they have not entered the great vehicle in dependence on the reason of self-cherishing. On the other hand, practitioners of the great vehicle are said to be great vehicle practitioners because they focus on eliminating self-cherishing. Therefore, if we consider Arhats of the lower vehicle, the sole reason for which the Arhats of the lower vehicle who have eliminated all afflictions, eliminated all suffering and attained liberation have not entered the great vehicle is self-cherishing. And therefore, it is through the power of self-cherishing that we circumambulate as well in cyclic existence, and we must strive to eliminate both the desire for well-being and the desire for happiness, which are mentioned in the third verse of this stanza, through engaging in the activities of hearing, of thinking, and of meditating on cherishing others. Now that there be difficulty in this matter is undeniable.
However, through habituation, the difficulty, the hardship will recede. It is clear that at the beginning, it is difficult for us us to wish to realize the well-being and the happiness of others, yet this has to be what we target. And for this, we need determination and willpower. So once we have determination and willpower, then there will be no difficulty from our side in actualizing the well-being and happiness of others. Let alone this, when we put effort in this, we ourselves will feel at ease and happy, and there will be no hardship for us in the slightest.
In the same way as when a hero goes to war, there is no particular hardship for him, For that matter, he is looking forwards to it. Whereas, when a slack coward goes to war, then he can only envision fear. So we have to generate within our minds a heroic state of mind, not a slack state of mind. And it is through understanding that we actualize our own happiness through indirectly, or we actualize our own happiness indirectly through actualizing the happiness of others, that we will put effort in actualizing the happiness of others. At present, what we have done is we have put great effort in trying to fulfill our own purpose, and we have totally failed to do so.
For that matter, all the efforts we have put have actually harmed us. Our so called well-being, the efforts put in our own well-being have actually been causes for our own harm and our own suffering. For this reason, it is reason, it is said in Lojong, in mind training, he who wishes to improve his lot must first focus on improving the lot of others and not harming them. Okay? So as said in Pänchen Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen’s Lama Chöpa, the childish established only their own benefit, whereas the Munis put effort only in the welfare of others, comparing the qualities and the defects of each, bless me to actualize equalization and interchange of self and others.
The commentary on this stanza, Rinpoche says, runs as follows. The childish here refers to ourselves, ordinary beings, who have been experiencing all of the sufferings of cyclic existence in the past and in the present and will experience them in the future, in dependence on self-cherishing. On the other hand, the Munis, which refer to Buddha Śākyamūni, but not only Buddha Śākyamūni, but all of the Buddhas, have only practiced cherishing others. In contrast to ourselves, we have only practiced self-cherishing. And the Buddhas who by practicing cherishing others have attained the goal of full enlightenment.
We are still mired in suffering. So Pänchen Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen again asks, have you understood this? If you have understood this, then you must abandon self-cherishing, and you must strive to practice cherishing others. And this is the meaning of the final verse of the stanza, bless me to equalize and interchange self and others. What is referred to here is an equalization and interchange, not of the persons, but of the minds of self-cherishing and of cherishing others.
So it’s not the case that I become another person and they become me. Instead, the self-cherishing which I have had for myself, I actually transform into a cherishing of others. And the state of indifference I had for the state of others becomes a state of indifference towards my own welfare. So we interchange the modes of thinking. This is how not only Buddha Śākyamūni, but the countless Buddhas of all time have practiced.
And this is why further on in the Lama Chöpa, it is also said, self-cherishing is the root of all vice. In the world, all that is good, all qualities arise from striving for the welfare of others, and all evil arises from striving for one’s own goals. Why say much about this? Examine carefully the results of the behavior of the infantile and the Buddhas. So Rinpoche says, this quote is very clear, everything which is good arises from putting effort in the welfare of others.
All harm arises from egotism. There is no need to say a lot about this. And therefore, here the interchange of self and others is not something which happens in terms of one’s exterior behavior, one’s body. It is an inner transformation. It is a mind which cherishes others more than ourselves.
As Buddha Śākyamūni said in the stanza at the beginning of the teaching, which Rinpoche quoted, abandon vice and train in perfect virtue. Tame your minds. This is the teaching of the Buddha. So we have run out of time for questions. If you have any questions, please write them down for next time.
So think carefully about this and meditate about it. Analyze carefully.