Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 47-minute talk, Kyabje Rinpoche introduces the Seven Point Training of the Mind, opening with Śāntideva’s teaching on the preciousness of human life as a foundation for practice. He traces the teaching’s lineage back through the Indian master Serlingpa to the Buddha, establishing bodhicitta—the awakened heart—as the supreme element of all Dharma practice. He then explains how to cultivate bodhicitta through love, compassion, and an exceptional resolve to establish all beings in happiness and freedom from suffering. Rinpoche frames the Buddha’s teachings within two essential goals: eliminating one’s own suffering and benefiting others. He explores different types of nectar and introduces the framework for studying this foundational text. Suited to practitioners with basic Buddhist familiarity.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1997-04-29 – 1A – 7pt – KR.mp3
UUID: e95d277b-f28a-4641-b65d-30811fb64395
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Mind Training
Date: 1997-04-29
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,453
And that’s it. All of a sudden, Can hear okay? Quoting from a verse by can you hear me? Okay. Can you hear me okay in the back?
Quoting from a verse by Śāntideva where he exhorts us to appreciate the human life that we all presently possess. A human life by means of which we can, through our practice of Dharma, bring about both our temporal and ultimate welfare a human life which possesses the conducive conditions necessary to practice and the absence of types types of conditions which would inhibit our practice. Therefore, we have all the great fortune necessary to bring about a successful practice of Dharma to make our life meaningful. Possessing such a life, we should take advantage of it. Such a fortunate life which we all now possess is extremely difficult to find.
Possessing such a human life which has these great fortunes that we should make it as meaningful as possible and this we can only do through our practice of the Dharma. Through our practice of Dharma we can bring both temporal and ultimate meaning to our life that we can find both temporal and ultimate happiness within this life. Without our spiritual practice we are no better than animals darkness, that we live without any purpose in our life. Spiritual practice of Dharma, what is the most supreme element? What is it the greatest, what is the most meaningful constituent of a Dharma practice?
And that is the awakening heart. There is nothing more precious. There is nothing which goes beyond the awakened heart. It is the supreme means by which we can bring fulfillment and meaning to our life. So we’re going to begin by adjusting our motivation developing for a few minutes the awakened heart.
All sentient beings who so ever are exactly alike and that they all want happiness, none want to suffer. As a prerequisite to actually developing the awakened heart, it’s necessary that we cultivate love and compassion. Here love can be expressed in the thought may all living beings whosoever have happiness in the causes of happiness and compassion can be expressed in the thought may all living beings whosoever be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. And then going on to develop an exceptional resolve expressed in the thought that I myself will establish all living beings in a state where they have complete happiness where they are free of suffering. In order to bring that about in fact, I must rid myself of all my various faults.
I must bring to consummation all my excellent qualities. That is to say that I must for the sake of all living beings achieve Buddhahood. This is the awakened heart. In order the essence of the universal vehicle that is the Mahāyāna. That is the practice of equalizing exchange itself for others.
The essential practice of the seven-point training of the mind. Having once listened and reflect upon it, I shall cultivate it through my meditation to bring it to fulfillment. So we begin with preliminary prayers. The first of which are found on page one in the Maroon books. Beginning with the verse number three followed by verse number two.
And verse number five. And verse number seven. All the names that that there So today we’re going to begin a teaching which is based upon a text entitled The Seven Point Training of the Mind which was composed by the master Chekawa. And the text that we’re going to look at is a commentary to that seven point training of the mind. It is entitled Mind Training Like the Rays of the Sun and was composed by a direct disciple of Je Tsongkhapa by the name of Namkha Pel.
In general, there is a lineage of the teachings passed down from the Buddha himself that there is a lineage which passes through such great masters as Maitreya, Asaṇga, Vasubandhu, Śāntideva, and Serlingpa. And it is Serlingpa who took the words of the Buddha himself and clarified them — the source of these teachings are the Buddha, but they were clarified and expounded upon, expanded by Serlingpa. The great Indian master Pandita Atisha, wanted to receive the oral instruction on the development of the awakened heart, bodhicitta. So he knew that the master had such an instruction. And in order to receive those teachings, he set out on a twelve month journey by ship to to what is Sumatra or these days is within the nation of Indonesia but in Sanskrit it’s Suvarnadvīpa.
Having met with Serlingpa, Atisha remained by his side for thirteen years, receiving the teachings and meditating on them until he actually gave birth to the awakened heart. So in the in the root text, the root text itself, and by root text I mean the actual seven point training of the mind, there is a line which introduces this notion of where the teaching actually came from. It says that the essence of this nectar of instruction is transmitted from the master from Serlingpa. So Serlingpa means the Isle of Gold. The Golden Isle was the name given to this master Serlingpa.
So the essence of the nectar is that of the way in which to develop the awakened heart and this was transmitted from Serlingpa who lived in, it says in the text Sumatra or modern day Indonesia. The the Buddha gave vast teachings. It said that these teachings can be thought of in terms of 84,000 groups of Dharma teachings, or they can be thought of in terms of the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma. If we were to take all of the teachings that the Buddha gave and condense them, could could bring them down to two essential areas of teaching. The first is that the means by which we are able to eliminate our own suffering, all that is undesired in our life.
That is done by abandoning the root of all our afflictive emotions. And the second is the means by which to bring about the welfare of others, the altruistic activities in benefiting others. So all of the teachings are concerned with either of these two areas, a means of going to bring an end to our own suffering or as a means to benefit others. Categorizing his Dharma into the two vehicles. The first vehicle being the individual vehicle or the Hīnayāna which concerns itself mainly with the alleviation of one’s own suffering, and the second vehicle being the universal vehicle or the Mahāyāna which is concerned with mainly the alleviation of the suffering of others.
So with regard to the teachings of the Buddha, we can they can be they can be divided divided in two ways. One of them is the subject for whom they are meant. And in terms of the individual vehicle, the subject were the hearers and the solitary realizers. Then the second way, the second division is the means by which the subject is taught. And here, it was the this these the teachings which were meant for the hearers and the solitary realizers were taught in the terms of the first turning of the wheel of Dharma.
So in the the first of these, those teachings which were directed toward individual practitioners of the individual vehicle, the subjects taught were the various paths and stages whereby they could achieve an individual liberation. The second area of teaching is that of the universal vehicle. The subject taught are are such subjects as the awakened heart, the view on emptiness, the various paths and stages, which bring about as a result Buddhahood. And these are taught by means of the sutras and tantras. So in in this verse from the root text that we just mentioned, this line where it says the essence of the nectar of of the instruction.
The the word nectar is in the Tibetan language dutsi. In Sanskrit, it’s amrita. And the word dutsi is made up of two syllables, so we’re translating the word nectar. It is made up of two syllables. Du, usually it can be translated as some sort of something which is demonic, something which is terribly negative.
Here it refers to the various afflictive emotions. And tsi has the meaning of pacification, that which pacifies the demonic or pacifies the afflictive emotions. So, there are a variety of types of nectar. There are the nectar of immortality by means of which we can achieve a state of deathlessness. There is uncontaminated nectar by means of which we can eliminate the contamination of the afflictive emotions.
But there are varieties of types of nectar, but supreme amongst the nectars is the precious awakening heart, and this is the nectar which is referred to here. So, with regard to bodhicitta, which is I generally translate as the awakened heart, There are two types. There is ultimate and conventional. I translate the ultimate as the awakened mind, and conventional as the awakened heart. Here we’re talking about the development of the awakened of this both of these two types of awakenings, both of the heart and the mind.
By means of developing these two levels of awakening, we can eliminate all afflictive emotions. Thereby, we can eliminate the state of death. Why? Because death is under the control of Karma and afflictive emotions, and if we can eliminate the afflictive emotions, then we can eliminate the karma and afflictive emotions which control which causes to uncontrollably be thrown into uncontrollably be involved in death and therefore achieve a deathless state. So, we mentioned that there are a variety of types of nectar.
Another of these types is the nectar of uncontaminated wisdom. Is by means of this when we say when we use the word contaminated or uncontaminated, we refer to that which causes us to continually be circling within cyclic existence. Something which is contaminated supports this the perpetuation of the continual cycles of existence. That which is uncontaminated inhibits this process, seeks to interrupt this process. So it is by means of this uncontaminated wisdom, a wisdom which which is a type of these two awakened states of mind, by means of which we can remove completely the afflictive emotions from the root and achieve a state of liberation where we experience an unsurpassable bliss.
Having cultivated the awakened heart, he returned to India, and then subsequently was invited to Tibet. He went to Tibet, and spent nineteen years there. And he passed on the lineage of these present teachings on the development of the awakened heart to Dromtönpa, who was an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, who again passed it on to his disciples such as the three, what are called the three brothers. And these were then further passed on to the composer of the root text, the seven point training of the mind, Chekawa Yeshe Dorje. There is a tradition in Tibet that there is an examination process which is which goes before one actually involves ones themselves in attending a teaching. One checks up, you know, on the Lama him or herself.
Is it a good Lama or not the teacher? And what is the nature of the teaching? From where did it come? Does it have it? Can it be traced back in the lineage to the Buddha himself?
If I were to practice this teaching, kind of benefit could I expect to gain from it? So looking at the teaching in this way, whether there is a lineage of practice from the Buddha in which practitioners have gained realization by means of these teachings, whether the teaching the teacher is qualified or not. If not, then they don’t listen. So what we’re describing here is extremely important, this process of examination, investigating the teaching to see whether it’s pure teaching, whether it’s pure Dharma, and is the teacher him or herself pure. We apply this in a mundane way whenever we buy anything.
We check it out. Look at if we’re going to buy some article, we say what is its quality? Is it of a good quality or not? We even go around asking experts, you know, what do you think about this? Should I go ahead and buy it?
We make thorough investigation if we’re buying something, making investments of something, in something valuable. But, you know, even if we make a mistake and few months later it falls apart, you know, that’s, it’s no, it’s no big deal. But in this case it is because why what is the Dharma what is the Dharma meant? Why do we involve ourselves in the Dharma? Because it’s something that we’re making use of as a means to eliminate our suffering.
We do that by eliminating our afflictive emotions. It’s it’s something that we’re making use of in order to achieve liberation, to achieve the state of omniscience. That’s the purpose of our involvement in Dharma. It’s not, you know, whether, you know, whether somebody somebody teaches well or is able to speak eloquently, whether they call it the Dharma or not, what it is that they teach, whether from our side if we involve ourselves in it simply as a means of gaining fame or as some kind of to become known as as a a great practitioner. These are these are are not any of the reasons that we involve ourselves in the teaching.
We involve ourselves in the teaching to rid ourselves of suffering, to remove the afflictive emotions. Also, the lama from his side to whom we’re going to listen should be should be teaching from a out of a pure motivation. It should be not for their own sake, but only to benefit the student. If, from their side, they speak even a single verse with such an intent, then that verse can be of tremendous benefit. If if if it’s if they speak if they don’t speak in that way, not only is there no benefit, but it actually is negative for them.
The root text goes on to say, to present an analogy of these teachings. And it likens these teachings to a diamond, the sun, and a medicinal tree. Oh. Oh, here, these present teachings are being likened to first that of a diamond, and a diamond is said to have three properties in this context. By means, a diamond can eliminate our poverty if we were to be without wealth we could make use of the diamond in that way.
It is able to get whatever it is that we want to to gather riches for ourselves by means of