Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 106-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche identifies the true enemy blocking dharma practice: self-cherishing, the life force of cyclic existence itself. Using the Wheel of Sharp Weapons as his text, he teaches how to deploy the powerful antidote of other-cherishing, cutting through the self-love we’ve cultivated since beginningless time. Working through Atisha’s Four Detachments, Rinpoche clarifies the boundary between dharma and worldly pursuits: dharma focuses on future lives, not this one; renunciation means abandoning attachment to saṃsāra; bodhicitta requires ceasing to cherish oneself alone; and the ultimate view rests on understanding emptiness. He grounds these teachings in vivid examples — a mother bird’s labour for her chicks — to awaken the compassion the Mahāyāna path demands.
File metadata (for organising)
File: WSW 27 Oct 2010 – KR.mp3
UUID: b9366ba6-0a75-4d18-90eb-01a52f62b6db
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Mind Training
Date: 2010 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,542
So it will be good to generate the motivation to engage in these three activities of hearing, thinking and meditating on this treatise, the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, which is a very essence of the Mahāyāna treatise, the Mahāyāna teachings. And this motivation should be a motivation to both listen from our side and to teach from the teacher’s side with the wish to benefit others. In other words, reflecting on the fact that we are but one and others are infinite in numbers, to wish to place all of the other sentient beings without exception in a state which is free of suffering and the causes of suffering, a state of unalloyed perfection, the state of full enlightenment. So we would meditate for one or two minutes to generate this motivation, and then Rinpoche will start the teachings. If you have a prayer book to all the preliminary practice.
If you’re not familiar with the phonetic English language, so that’s my page two in English. Page five, the verses mental offering, and we the first and the last verse. So we have at present finished explaining the verse quoted on page two of the commentary, first training the two preliminary practices, and at present we will pass on to the second outline on page two, the specific meaning of terms in this mind training treatise, is subdivided into two. Outline A, the meaning of the title, and Outline B, a bit further down, the meaning of the treatise. Now this title we will be studying has a name, the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, and the first outline covers the actual meaning of this title.
When we speak in this context of mind training, one has to understand mind training in the light of study, which is also a form of mind training. So in worldly matters we train our minds in the sort of same way as in dharma matters. And this mind which is to be trained has two aspects: a good or worthy mind, and a harmful mind. So the worthy mind has to be the target that which we train and try to generate. On the other hand, the harmful minds are the minds which must be abandoned since they give rise to suffering.
This is, in a nutshell, the meaning of the title of this treatise, the mind training Wheel of Sharp Weapons. Mind training, as Richard has explained, sharp weapons, the weapons technically here is actually swords. A sword is used to cut, to destroy, to cut through what? To cut through harmful And in this context, the main evil mind which we have to overcome is the mind of self-cherishing cherishing or the mind cherishing the I. This mind of self-cherishing is a mind with which we have been accustomed since beginningless time.
It is a source of numberless faults and defects, and precisely because we have been accustomed to having such a state of mind of self-cherishing within our continuum since beginningless time, it is extremely difficult to eliminate it. We need therefore an extremely sharp sword, an extremely sharp weapon to do so. Here when one speaks in this context of a weapon or a sword, this is not a weapon or a sword in the worldly sense of the term. This is a state of mind which is extremely powerful to counter this state of self-cherishing. This very powerful state of mind is other cherishing, which is the quality whereby we counter the thought of self-cherishing.
In the self same way, Rinpoche says, when it is very hot, to reduce the temperature we use a direct antidote to heat, we turn the air conditioner on. In the same way, the mind of other cherishing acts as the antidote to the mind of self-cherishing. And we are present at the level of the small three on page two. The title of this treatise of mind training, the Wheel of Sharp Weapons mind training, is given which has great names, the powerful wheel of weapons. Here Rinpoche says that there are two types of enemies, which are referred to in a worldly sense when we speak of an enemy as ordinary beings, are speaking of someone who has harmed our bodies or who has harmed our possessions and so forth.
But there is also a dharma meaning of the term enmity. So in worldly matters, there are, for instance, or it’s widely believed there are, invisible beings which can be harmful such as spirits, but we do not see them and therefore cannot fully understand the harm they inflict. However, this is not what is referred to in this context by the term enemy. What is referred to in this context by the term enemy is that enemy which has inflicted since beginningless time various sorts of sufferings on us without our being able to control this in the slightest. This enemy which has harmed us since beginningless time is none other than self-cherishing from the standpoint of Dharma.
So generally speaking, Dharma practice entails striving for virtue, striving for happiness through virtue, and striving to avoid suffering through abstaining from non virtue. The foremost foe to this practice is self-cherishing. The key element for Bodhisattvas is the practice of Dharma. They cherish Dharma, and their main practice is therefore to train in the cherishing of others. The main enemy to this training in cherishing others is self-cherishing.
So, in our own case, we know very well that if we want, for instance, to slay an enemy in this world, there is no point in striking at the peripheral limbs. We have to strike at the vitals, strike at the heart, where the life force is. The life force here of the enemy is self-cherishing, it is his very heart, and therefore we must become acquainted with this enemy we are striving to defeat and know where to strike him. It is true that all of the afflictions, the mental afflictions, arise from the various poisons such as ignorance, hatred, desire, and so forth. But the foremost of these is self-cherishing.
And then the homage of the root text on page three of the commentary, homage to the wrathful slayer of the lord of the dead. This homage was composed by Dharma Rakshita, who was one of Atisha’s gurus, and generally speaking here there are two meanings or two understandings of the wrathful slayer of the Lord of the dead. The definitive meaning, where he is seen as a non dual union of bliss and emptiness, and the interpretative meaning, where he is seen as ārya bodhisattvas. The ārya bodhisattvas manifest in this wrathful form to overcome self-cherishing. Rinpoche will not gloss on the definitive meaning of wrathful in this context, since that leads us into commentary on tantra.
Instead he will focus on the interpretable meaning, which is that the bodhisattvas manifest in a wrathful form to slay self-cherishing, which is the author of cyclic existence. So from within Atisha’s teachers, there were two of note, Serlingpa, who was a bodhisattva practicing Cittamātra, who lived in Sumatra, and the guru Dharmarakshita, one of Atisha’s Indian gurus, who lived in India and who belonged to the Vaibhāṣika school. Generally speaking, the Vaibhāṣika school is a school of the lower vehicle, and therefore does not accept the existence of the wrathful slayer of the Lord of the dead, which is a specific practice of the great vehicle. However, within the Vaibhāṣika School, which in general does not accept these teachings, there are some Vaibhāṣika practitioners who nonetheless do. An alternative reading here is that Dharma Rakshita was in the first part of his life a Vaibhāṣika practitioner, and in the latter part of his life became a bodhisattva and a Mahāyāna practitioner who obviously then relied on the wrathful slayer of the Lord of the dead.
And at this point, Rinpoche would like to mention teachings which Ārya Mañjuśrī gave to one of the great Sakya lamas of yore, the teachings of Parting from the Four Attachments. The first teaching is that one who values this life has no Dharma, so is not a Dharma practitioner. The second is that one who values future lives lacks renunciation. The third is that one who values the self has no bodhicitta. And the fourth is that one who values the true existence of phenomena has no understanding of the view.
These teachings on the four attachments are very profound, and the first of them indicates clearly that if we are attached to food, clothing, conversation, wealth, happiness in this life, then we lack Dharma and we cannot call ourselves a dharma practitioner. Many people are like that, who have great desire and cannot really be said in any sense of the terms to be dharma practitioners. So if one is a dharma practitioner, one views this life as an enemy. Many of Atisha’s students asked him what the boundary was between non dharma and dharma, or what the boundary of the frontier was between a non dharma practitioner and a dharma practitioner, and Atisha answered succinctly, non dharma is this life. In other words, all pursuits which are related to this life, whether one is striving for clothing, food, wealth, relations, friendship, all of these are by definition non Dharma, and these can best be attained through worldly matters.
They can best be obtained through money, through connections and so forth. Dharma begins with the next life onwards, Dharma practice, therefore, is practice which is focused on the next life and on future lives. Dharma is of no use or no relevance for this life. Therefore, it is not the case, one has to be clear here, that one who is striving for future lives abandons completely this life. One does need food and clothing in this life, and it would not be possible for us to live like Milarepa.
However, one must not be focused on this life, instead one must be focused on future lives, meditating and reflecting on death and impermanence in the various aspects of the path. However, obviously to do so we need the necessities, the basics of this life. However, we should not generate attachment to them, and we should perform whatever we have to do in this life so as to be able to reflect on future lives. The second parting from the four attachments is he who is attached to future lives lacks renunciation. So, what is being said here is that he who is attached to samsaric existence lacks renunciation.
One has to understand clearly here that cyclic existence refers to contaminated existence. However, what one must put an end to is attachment to the necessities of future lives. We do however clearly need in future lives to have a modicum of prosperity and to have a modicum of ease. For that matter, we need to obtain a human rebirth in future lives, because it is with such a human rebirth that we have the means to escape from cyclic existence. So what is the correct approach here?
The correct approach is not to allow desire or craving to arise with respect to the happiness and prosperity of future lives, and instead to strive for liberation. We do need a human rebirth to be able to practice in future lives, however we should not allow either desire or craving to arise with respect to this. Likewise, we do need prosperity, we do need a modicum of comfort in future lives, but we must all the time be aware of the fact that these are of the nature of suffering. What is the fault of desire or craving? Its fault is that through desire or craving, we will be reborn in the lower realms.
Regarding the third parting from the Four Attachments, one who cherishes himself lacks bodhicitta. What is referred to here when one speaks of cherishing oneself or self-cherishing is thinking only about oneself and not thinking about others. Such a one does not have bodhicitta, since one can say that self-cherishing is directly opposite or completely incompatible to bodhicitta. So the self-cherishing which is referred to here is that mind which wishes happiness, comfort and well-being for one’s own self and for one’s own self alone, and such is directly opposite to the generation of bodhicitta. So in this context, in the mind training context, one must train and reflect on benefiting others.
Generally speaking, if we look at the division between the lower and the higher vehicle, between the Hīnayāna and the Mahāyāna, the Hīnayāna practitioners have strong self-cherishing. They only think about themselves because they are striving to escape from cyclic existence for their own sake. They lack great compassion. They have however a very sound and solid love for their own self, since they wish to be themselves free from suffering and to attain happiness for themselves. This is not the road of the Mahāyāna, in which the generation of bodhicitta is indispensable.
If bodhicitta is present, one can say that this is the Mahāyāna, and if bodhicitta is absent, this is not the Mahāyāna. And therefore the practitioners of the lower vehicle in general engage in practice which is worthy, which is worthwhile, since for their own sake they are striving to attain happiness and to free themselves from suffering. When they attain complete happiness and eliminate all suffering, they become arhats. So one can say that lower vehicle practitioners, Hīnayāna practitioners, have great self love from within the twofold division of love for others and love for oneself. Their self love is very pronounced, since they fully understand the scale of their suffering and wish to eliminate it, and they fully understand potential happiness and wish to realize it.
However, they lack compassion and they lack specifically great compassion for other sentient beings. On the other hand, in the Mahāyāna, one reflects exclusively on the welfare of other beings, and tries exclusively to help other beings, understanding that sentient beings have been one’s own parents, one’s own fathers and mothers in past lives. So we will know the kindness of our parents to us in this very life, how much suffering they have endured for us. And we will know, for instance, that our parents, to spare us the slightest discomfort, do not hesitate sometimes to engage in grievous non virtue, which will impel them in future lives, most certainly into the lower realms. This is for our benefit alone.
Then reflecting upon this, one can say how awful, how terrible it is that they should be experiencing suffering, and generate the strong wish to eliminate completely their suffering and to place them in a state of complete and unalloyed happiness. This is what is referred to by bodhicitta, which arises on the foundation of great love, great compassion for other beings. For instance, if we were to take a particular example, let us take the case of birds. There are numberless birds, When we look at the amount of effort which a bird engages in to feed its chicks, we begin to understand the kindness of sentient beings for us. How many insects, how many worms does a bird slay to feed to her chicks, and how much effort does she undergo to do this?
She has done this life after life, and the clear result of such non virtuous deeds of slaying will be for her rebirth in the hell realm. Now the predicament of that bird is the predicament of all sentient beings, so from our side we must take the strong resolution to place all sentient beings in a state of happiness, and to free them from suffering, and through relying correctly on a spiritual friend, progress all the way to the state of full enlightenment, where we will have completed both our own welfare and the welfare of others. Understanding clearly that mother sentient beings are exclusively our parents from past lives, who have accumulated inconceivable non virtues for our sake, we must completely abandon any thought of our own welfare. It is base and vile to think of oneself in these cases, and therefore one must meditate on bodhicitta and overcome self-cherishing. Finally, the fourth parting from the four attachments is he or she who has grasping to the self lacks the view.
Generally speaking, both method and wisdom are necessary to progress on the path, and here is the wisdom aspect, the view of emptiness which is referred to. If one has a view of emptiness, then one will not apprehend the self as inherently existing, and one will not apprehend all phenomena as inherently existing. Then, in dependence on an inseparable union of method and wisdom, one can progress to full enlightenment. Therefore, these four partings, the partings from the four attachments, are extremely important. The first defines clearly the boundary between dharma and non dharma, or dharma practitioners and non dharma practitioners, which is this life, as Rinpoche explained.
The second defines clearly the concept of renunciation, saying that he who is attached to cyclic existence lacks renunciation. One who lacks renunciation does not see the faults of cyclic existence, but sees cyclic existence as endowed with qualities and does not understand that cyclic existence itself in as much as it has arisen from karma and klesha is actually of the nature of suffering. The lower realms are the nature of the suffering of suffering. The higher realms, excluding the concentration realms, endure the suffering of change, and the formless realms are pervaded by all pervasive suffering. The third, parting from the four attachments, is a definition of the practice of the being of great scope.
He who has self-cherishing lacks bodhicitta, since the very foundational practice of the great scope is cherishing others, and there is no self-cherishing in the Mahāyāna. And the fourth of parting from the four attachments refers to the view. The view is that understanding that phenomena lack inherent existence, phenomena lack existence by their own characteristics, phenomena lack own nature, and it is in dependence on this that we can attain the state of full enlightenment. So the reason for us to strive for the state of full enlightenment is for the sake of all father mother sentient beings to free them from the suffering they undergo. And because there are numberless sentient beings, not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, let alone millions, but billions, only a Buddha himself can place them all in a state of full enlightenment.
Therefore, for this reason, we strive for Buddhahood. So if you have questions, we have five minutes for questions. So here, Rinpoche says, when he’s speaking of questions, these are questions on the material which is covered today on Dharma, not questions which are unrelated. Questions on what you have heard today. So, if you were thinking only of this life, then your practice would not be Dharma.
But if you are thinking mainly of future lives, then obviously Dharma practice is not only of benefit for future lives, but there will be benefit in this life. Most definitely there will be benefit in this life as well. However, the measure or the criterion for a Dharma practitioner is someone who practices mainly or overwhelmingly for the happiness of future lives, and not for this life. This is what a Dharma practitioner is. So, the view of nihilism, literally the view which cuts, is a view which does not believe in the existence of something which exists, for instance, it does not believe in the existence of the triple gem, or of karma and causality and so forth.
On the other hand, self-cherishing is actually something which does exist. We experience self-cherishing and it is the main enemy against one has to, against which one has to struggle in the context of the Mahāyāna. Now, it is clear that sometimes when self-cherishing is very strong, it can lead to sense of nihilism. debating on the differences between imputation and deprecation. The debate hinges on the difference between the view and Yeah.
Yeah. Very good. But I was very good. Very, very good. Page nine.
Mandal offering. Okay. This Friday is the Hayagrīva puja and 04:00 room which is giving, a refuge ceremony. Those who already registered, you know, you have to come maybe fifteen minutes before. And evening we have Guru Puja, so that, you know, all welcome.
And then other thing I think it’s 07:00, if I’m not wrong. Other things, we have a Tibetan class. It’s going to help in January. There’s a number of people already entered so that if you really have a desire to want to learn, there you can talk to Ilya, please. Thank you.
Sorry. There is a child and we have booked the foyer already. You have to come in a get a shoe and your belonging and come around here in a bookshop and office area and you can have a chat and chat around. Here we go. I forgot something very