Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche teaches a paradox at the heart of mind training: the fastest way to your own happiness is to abandon self-concern and take on others’ suffering. Drawing on the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, he works through this teaching from first principles. In this 44-minute session, he shows how compassion naturally stops us from harming others, which means abandoning the ten unskillful actions—the ethical foundation that generates lasting peace. He then presents the paired tonglen practices: taking others’ pain and giving our own happiness and merit in return. The guidance becomes practical: widen your circle of concern gradually, beginning with family and friends. Rinpoche emphasizes that the awakening mind is an attitude and intention, not a demand to become servile or forsake solitude—a point illustrated through Milarepa, who achieved enlightenment in solitary mountain retreat.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992-11-03 – Side 2 – Wheel of Sharp weapons – KR.MP3
UUID: 7e80ccee-c5fa-476e-b23c-33bdbad7cb7f
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Mind Training
Date: 1992-11-03
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,491
But one may, the thought might come to oneself when considering this, in terms of exchanging self-centeredness for other-centeredness and developing a sense of compassion and love toward others, compassion in the sense of wishing that longing that others be free of their suffering and love in the sense of wishing that they have happiness. And if we mainly concern ourselves with others, then what about my happiness? What about my suffering? I’m not I’m not going to get any happiness. I’m just going to suffer.
This bringing about the happiness of others and seeking to eliminate their suffering is not unrelated to the bringing about our own happiness and eliminating our own suffering. That there is a close relationship between eliminating others’ suffering, others’ suffering, and eliminating one’s own and bringing happiness to others and bringing happiness to oneself. How does bringing about the happiness of others and the elimination of their suffering help myself to eliminate my suffering, to bring about my happiness? By developing the quality of compassion we no longer want to harm others. We cease harming others.
We abandon any types of actions which hurt others. And in the course of abandoning harming others, we abandon the 10 unskillful actions. The types of actions such as physical unskillful actions of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, verbal unskillful actions of lying, divisive speech, hurtful speech, all these various 10 unskillful actions. Because they hurt others, we stop doing them. By abandoning these, because not wanting to harm others, we abandon these 10 unskillful actions.
By abandoning these 10 unskillful actions, we are practicing ethics. By practicing ethics, we are bringing about our own happiness. For example, amongst the 10 non skillful actions, if we were to kill or to steal, just by way of example, then this would bring about immediate suffering of others. But also it would act as a means as generating a type of future result whereby we ourselves would experience suffering. Through the power of our compassion we cease harming others.
That is to say we cease engaging in the various physical, verbal, mental, unskillful actions. By ceasing harming others, we are making others happy. By not harming others, due to not harming others, we ourselves are made happy. So by the power of our compassion we cease harming others, and ceasing harming others we ourselves will be pleased. This was one of the main doctrines that Śākyamūni Buddha set forth.
He said that in harming others that we ourselves are harmed. In helping others that we ourselves are helped. For example, if one plants a hot plant, the seed of a hot plant, the hot variety of plant will grow. If one plants the variety of a sweet seed plant, a sweet plant will grow from that. So through our compassion and love for others we bring about the benefit of others and thereby bring about the benefit of ourselves.
If we want to be happy, if we don’t want to suffer, then we are to bring about the happiness of others and to eliminate their suffering. So this is the basis upon which we can bring about, move toward bringing about this exchange of self centeredness for other centeredness, that we can begin overcome this mistaken attitude of how to bring about our happiness, how to resolve our problems. That is to say that it is in the actual reality of the situation that by helping others to have happiness and eliminating their problems is an unerring, unmistaken method of finding happiness for ourselves, solving our own problem. So bodhisattvas are extremely expert are great experts, great masters. And what are they masters of?
What are they experts in terms of? Not only the Dharma in general, but also they’re experts in the ways of practice. And by means of their expertise of practice they bring about their ultimate happiness. They eliminate from the very root their own suffering. They bring about the welfare of both themselves and others.
So we would be wise to follow in the ways of their practice to achieve these same ends as they. And where to to whom did the bodhisattvas look to as a means of learning the ways of practice? They looked to the Buddha himself as a consummate practitioner and they followed his methods of practice. So on the basis of developing a sense of equality between self and others, we go on to look at the various faults of self centeredness and the various benefits of other centeredness. And looking at the advantages and disadvantages of these two, we begin to gradually exchange our self centeredness for other centeredness.
We come to some kind of firm determination, real conclusion of the mind to bring about this exchange of attitude. When we talk about exchanging self for others, it’s not that we exchange the actual self for others, you know, that I become you and you become me, or I have your mind and you have my mind. That’s not what we mean when we exchange self for others. We have an exchange of attitudes. We were changing our ways of thinking.
Previously our way of thinking was mistaken and now we are exchanging that way of thinking for an unmistaken method of relating. In looking at the advantages of other centeredness and disadvantages of self centeredness, we are developing fostering the attitude of love and compassion. And in terms of exchanging this attitude of self centeredness for other centers, we are increasing the power of our love and compassion. But this in itself is not sufficient for us to bring about the actual exchange of self centeredness for other centeredness. We have a sense that we want others to be free of their suffering.
But no, simply wishing, Oh, may they be free of suffering, may they be free of suffering, it doesn’t really help them. You know, how are we going to be, how, you know, if we really want sentient beings to be free of suffering, how are they going to be free of suffering? You know, they simply, can they free themselves from their problems, from their suffering? Their situation is such that they’re continually creating negative actions. They don’t know what is to be adopted, is to be rejected.
So one develops the attitude that I’m going to have to do it. I’m going to free them from their suffering. How am I going to free them? I’m going to take their suffering on myself. It is the attitude of compassion which says, if someone has some money and you think, Oh I’d like to have that money, I wish I had that money.
It doesn’t bring it to you. You have to actually go over and take it from them. You have to actually get hold of it. And likewise these people are suffering and not merely wishing that they’d be free from suffering, but thinking, I’m going to take that suffering on myself. You know, we have to extremely heroic.
We have to be very brave. We have to increase our compassion to the extent that we’re willing to take their suffering on ourselves. And this is the exchange of self for others. So if we were to illustrate the idea that we’re trying to get across, if you had a very good friend and they carrying a great load on their back, and then seeing the great burden that they were carrying out of your caring for them, you would immediately, voluntarily take a load off them and put it on yourself because of your great caring and seeing how troubled they were by that burden. Just put it on yourself.
And thinking the in terms of a parent, the quality of caring that they have for their child, that a parent couldn’t stand to see their child burdened with trouble, that they would immediately spontaneously take that burden on themselves as a means to eliminate the suffering of their child. This is illustrative of the quality of compassion which is willing to spontaneously take upon the suffering of others. So the taking of other suffering is the exchange of self for others out the force of one’s compassion. But further than that, out of one’s love one determines to give away one’s happiness. All of one’s skillful actions, which are the causes of happiness, one determines to whatever happiness I have, to give that over to them.
And By this method of practice we accumulate great waves of creative potential. A tremendous positive energy is accumulated by this means. This is the way that we can really practice in a skillful means in terms of our practice. This is an extremely skillful way of practicing. By taking upon others’ suffering we exchange self for others.
By giving away our happiness we accumulate this tremendous wave of creative potential. So this describes the practice of taking and giving. The practice of the bodhisattva. The Tibetan word for bodhisattva is Jangchub Sempa. Jangchub is translated as awakening or enlightenment.
Bodhi is Jangchub. Sattva is senpa. In Tibetan, Jangchub is sempa. So Jangchub or Bodhi has the sense of having eliminated all of one’s faults and brought to consummation all excellent qualities. And the term sempa, or sattva, has the sense of an attitude, a striving for the sake of living beings, unremittingly striving, the intention to bring them enlightenment or awakening.
And the pa is a heroic mind. So a heroic attitude which is seeking enlightenment for the sake of all living beings. There is a very powerful and brave attitude and intention. So as we mentioned at the beginning of this teaching on mind training, this previously was a secret teaching. It wasn’t given publicly.
And it’s within the genre of the teaching, has roots in what is called the mind training of the sevenfold cause and effect. This training was not given to everyone, it was exclusive. Why? Because those who wanted to engage in it had to be extremely intelligent, they had to make great effort, and they had above all else be heroic. And as I said, I think you all qualify.
You probably have some anxiety about this, about taking on other suffering and giving away your happiness. So we’re going to stop there for today, if you have we’ll take some time if you have some questions. So, you know, we are not the persons that we once were. And we have all of this wonderful opportunity which has been presented to ourselves in terms of the human life. We have met with the universal Buddhadharma that we have all the various conditions whereby to practice.
So it’s necessary that we train. And by training we will develop skillful means. We will become skilled in means. So it’s necessary that we engage in this training of thought transformation or mind training. Mainly we should try to develop altruism, a beneficial intention toward others.
And we can do this. We can cultivate love and compassion. Mainly this is the development of a kind heart. The essence of the Buddhadharma is the development of a kind heart, to refine our mind through the training of the mind away from negative states to healthy states. And this healthy state is expressed most predominantly in terms of love and compassion.
This is our goal. For those who are striving, then they should try to as much as possible to benefit others. But if we cannot benefit others, then at least don’t harm others. So what do you do? To merely say from the mouth, May all living beings have happiness, may they be free of suffering, and to bring problems to those about you, to harm those about you, to speak harshly to those about you, to your family and friends, such words become meaningless when one acts contrary to them in such a way.
So it’s necessary that we begin to enact what we are talking about. And we begin with our immediate circle, those people about us, with our family and friends and our relatives, And trying to actually develop love and compassion and a beneficial attitude and actually seeking to solve their suffering to bring them happiness. But being satisfied with that, but widening our circle of concern until we can include all living beings. But initially it’s necessary that we begin with those who are closest to us, those immediately around us to express our concern in a real way. And this would be an excellent way of practice.
So that would be difficult. We are mainly concerned with our own self centeredness. That’s what we’re trying to decrease the force of. And it’s difficult to be concerned with the self centeredness of others. If somehow we could decrease the self centeredness of others then the Buddhas would have done it by now.
But the only way that it can be done is by explaining the faults and helping them to understand the faults of self centeredness so that one has to do it for oneself and decrease their own self centeredness. And so even we can’t be concerned about their self centeredness in that way, except in explaining the faults of their self centeredness and helping them understand. One has to have a powerful altruism that directs one’s attention toward others, wanting to benefit them by means of becoming a Buddha, that is to say, means of eliminating one’s various thoughts and bringing the consummation of one’s excellent qualities and a sense of love and compassion, wanting them to be happy and wanting to free them from their suffering. When you have those qualities, are suitable to take the Bodhisattva Vow. Between a kind-hearted attitude and the awakening mind — what is the difference?
Is there a distinction between that? A kind-hearted attitude is just that — it’s an attitude. It’s an attitude that we’re trying to cultivate. The awakening heart is an attitude of mind that we’re seeking to develop within our mind. We’re trying to develop as forcefully and as powerfully as possible.
That is our main intention, is to cultivate this attitude in mind. But it does not necessarily mean that we have to become the physical and verbal servants of others, that we don’t have to carry the burdens of others physically or that we don’t have to talk to everyone. But we’re mainly concerned with the attitude of seeking awakening for the sake of sentient beings in order to eventually lead them to freedom from their suffering and to bring them happiness. Milarepa, he didn’t act as a servant to others. He went off and lived in the mountains and he attained Buddhahood in the mountains.
Because of his attitude of mind and engaging in his six perfections, he attained Buddhahood. So it is an attitude of mind that we are seeking to cultivate.