Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 34-minute teaching, Khensur Rinpoche introduces the Wheel of Sharp Weapons through a striking analogy: ordinary beings cling to comfort and pleasure (the medicinal garden) while bodhisattvas thrive in difficulty and solitude (the poisoned jungle) — just as peacocks feed on poison and flourish while crows would perish. He distinguishes cowardice (self-centered pursuit of momentary comfort) from true bravery (acceptance of hardship for others’ welfare). The core teaching: a bodhisattva with emptiness realization can transform destructive emotions into benefit. Attachment, for instance, becomes the engine for compassionate action. He illustrates this with a detailed example of a bodhisattva taking rebirth as a king, using attachment to father children who then teach dharma widely, multiplying benefit to countless beings. Pitched at practitioners with some familiarity with the bodhisattva path.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992-10-19 – Side 2 – Wheel of Sharp Weapons – KR.MP3
UUID: 4837bcd7-acbc-4fe9-b2b5-7843ddb8ed86
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Mind Training
Date: 1992-10-19
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~1,419
The next verse reads as follows: In a similar fashion, the Brave One, the bodhisattva, remained in the jungle of worldly concern. No matter how joyful this world’s pleasure gardens, these brave ones are never attracted to pleasures but thrive in the jungle of suffering and pain. The Bodhisattva is analogous to the peacock and the beautiful medicinal garden is analogous to all of the various pleasures of this life, wealth, prosperity, delicious foods and drinks, etcetera. On the one hand, the jungle of poisonous plants is analogous to an area in where all of these are very scarce and a place of isolation. And this is where the bodhisattva likes to stay.
The bodhisattva does not like to stay where there is great wealth and prosperity in this beautiful, analogous situation of the medicinal garden, but in fact likes to stay within the poisonous jungle where he enjoys remaining alone. So if we explain the meaning of this analogy, it is that in the case of ourselves, in cherishing ourselves, we are solely concerned with trying to bring ourselves pleasure in terms of our food, clothing, and our various enjoyments, and that we become attached to these ends. But the bodhisattva, in setting aside his own self concern, is concerned with the welfare of others, in his cherishing of others. And therefore, the bodhisattva has no attachment for any of these objects, for various foods, clothing, etcetera, all of these various pleasures. But in fact, it takes tremendous joy in abiding alone in meditation in order to gain realization for the welfare of others.
This is what brings the bodhisattva great pleasure. And in this sense, the bodhisattva is analogous to the peacock in liking the poisonous plants. Those who are attached to their own welfare are completely wrapped up in self concern and therefore strive only for their own happiness and the happiness of this life are termed cowards. On the other hand, the bodhisattva is concerned with the welfare of others, out of his cherishing of others, has no attachment toward any of these worldly goods, is termed a brave one. So, it’s important for us to be able to distinguish between who is a brave one and who is a coward.
We have to recognize which is which, who is who. A brave one, that is to say a hero, is someone who goes through temporary difficulties in order to bring about an ultimate great end, the great end of bringing about the welfare of both oneself and others. On the other hand, the coward is someone who who gains some kind of temporary pleasure in avoiding difficulties but ultimately is of no benefit neither to themselves nor to others. So the verses are making use of analogies of the peacock is analogous to the bodhisattva and the coward is going to be analogous to a crow. Also, is another further analogy.
Poison has the nature of bringing harm, harming us physically and mentally. Poison is analogized to attachment, the afflictive emotion of attachment, it which has the nature of bringing harm like poison. In general, if one were to eat poison, it would be extremely harmful. But in the case of the peacock, not only does it not harm the peacock, but it actually benefits the peacock. Through the eating of poison, the peacock becomes even more magnificent.
It is like some medicinal property in benefiting himself. Just as poison in general brings harm, likewise in general attachment brings harm. But because the bodhisattva is mainly concerned with the welfare of others, then through the bodhisattva’s use of attachment, attachment becomes something of great benefit. It is actually transformed into something which is beneficial. So, it is said that the attachment is made use of by the bodhisattva to bring about the benefit of sentient beings.
And the bodhisattva, one who has developed the awakening heart, who has direct realization of emptiness, the bodhisattva having reached the first of the 10 grounds, takes rebirth as a king. And then out of his attachment takes a queen out of his attachment has many, many children. It is through his having many children and the way they are raised. The bodhisattva’s children. This is the way that he can be of tremendous benefit to sentient beings, making use of his attachment, her attachment.
But on the other hand, though the poison is a benefit to the peacock, if a crow were to eat the poison, it would kill the crow. Now that in terms of the analogy, those who are not bodhisattvas, who seek to make use of attachment kill the life of their chance to achieve liberation. So then it begins to note what causes us to, as ordinary beings, to continually circle within cyclic existence. And this is our self centeredness, our self-cherishing. But on the other hand, if we were to cultivate qualities of other centeredness development of love, compassion in the awakening heart then we would become bodhisattvas and find freedom from cyclic existence.
So it is necessary to develop other centeredness or the cherishing of others. So today we have very rapidly gone through what is more or less an introduction to the main body of the text. The main body of the text which we will begin the next teaching And these are the teachings which we are very much to contemplate, which we are to give a great deal of thought to. Today this has been more or less a few introductory verses. So we’re going to stop there for today, if you have some questions, we’ll take a little bit of time.
So, the bodhisattva which is being referred to here is a bodhisattva who has direct realization of emptiness and is seeking to bring about the welfare of limitless living beings. In order to do that, the bodhisattva purposely takes rebirth as a king or as a queen and then takes a partner, a royal partner, and generates attachment in order to have sexual intercourse. So the first moment of union is brought about by the force of attachment, making use of attachment. After that, because the bodhisattva has direct realization of emptiness, the continuum of the attachment is cut off. The bodhisattva does not abide in the attachment.
It merely makes use of it as the initial motivating force to bring about intercourse in order to have children. Raising these children such that they were able to teach the Dharma to vast numbers of people. And therefore his potential to benefit others is multiplied many, many times in this way. So what we mean by emptiness is that all phenomena are empty of natural existence. That is to say that phenomena in fact, depend upon their causes and conditions, their parts and terms and concepts.
They are dependent upon that. And they are empty of being independent of their causes, of parts, of terms and concepts. Are empty of being established from their own side independently, so they are empty of independent existence or natural existence. So attachment acts as an obstacle to the achievement of liberation. Moreover, the attachment is a negative action.
If one were to those negative actions, purifying those negative actions and remove the attachment, then of course one could achieve liberation. There’s a story about a man by the name of Angulimala, who killed 1,000 men, people, but through a purification of these negativities was able to purify it and achieve liberation. I don’t know if that is that what you had in mind? Various types of negativities act as an obstacle to liberation. It is unvirtuous actions such as abusive speech that act as an obstruction.
But all of these, if we were to simply apply the antidote and to acknowledge these negative actions, then we can purify them. We can purify also killing, whereby we can achieve liberation. So the practitioner of the lesser vehicle or as you said, the solitary realizer, does not have attachment for all the various pleasures of this life. But it could be seen in the sense that the bodhisattva, in having other-centeredness, voluntarily accepts suffering for the welfare of others and therefore lives in the poisonous jungle. Whereas the practitioner of the lesser vehicle, because of self centeredness, is only willing to accept suffering for his own welfare.
Therefore, he could be living in the pleasure garden but not in the sense of being attached to the various pleasures of this life.