Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Khensur Rinpoche teaches the structure of the Ornament of Clear Realization using an elegant mirror analogy: just as a mirror illuminates an already-beautiful body, this commentary illuminates the three mother sutras on transcendent wisdom. He maps four types of ornaments onto the text’s structure: the mother sutras as natural beauty; the eight categories and seventy topics as beautifying ornament; the commentary as the mirror; practitioner realization as joy. In this 42-minute session, he clarifies Sanskrit and Tibetan terminology, explains why this text anchors Geshe training alongside logic, Madhyamaka, Vinaya, and Abhidharma, and defines a true Geshe—anyone who studies well, practices well, and teaches with positive motivation. He closes with encouragement to plant seeds for rebirth under Buddha Maitreya and practice his future teachings.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-05-04 – Side 2 – poor sound – KR.MP3
UUID: 8fa81a98-bb14-4a81-ad17-22e9e5430883
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Ornament of Clear Realization
Date: 1989-05-04
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,312
# Khensur Rinpoche 19890504 Ornament Side 2 poor sound
**Collection:** Rinpoche Recordings — Ornament of Clear Realisation (1989-90)
**Duration:** 41.8 minutes
**Words:** 2,316
**Model:** Deepgram Nova-3
**Corrections applied:** 8
**Transcribed:** 2026-02-28 21:24
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The third type of ornament by way of analogy, these are all analogies, was illuminating ornament. And this we exemplified with a mirror and having, you know, you have a naturally beautiful body. Alright? That you dress up very nicely. You put on earrings.
You put on nice beautifying ornaments. And then you want to actually come to see how you actually look so you look into a mirror and this actually reflects or illuminates the beauty that’s already there. It clarifies it or illuminates it and you say, I really look beautiful, it looks very nice. So this is an illuminating ornament or clarifying ornament. And then lastly, the ornament of joy. And so we have a naturally beautiful body.
We get all dressed up, and we look in this illuminating ornament of the mirror and we see how beautiful we are and this fills us with a great sense of joy appreciating our beauty and this is the ornament of joy by way of analogy. So these are the four types of ornaments by way of analogy. The natural ornament, the beautifying ornament, illuminating ornament, and the ornament of joy. Now we actually apply this to the actual basis rather than analogy to the actual situation that we’re speaking of. The ornament that is the ornament of clear realization is a commentary.
Its root which it is explaining are the discourses on transcendent wisdom but most especially the mother sutras or mother discourses, the extensive, middling, and abbreviated. So these are the natural ornaments. The mother extensive, middling, and abbreviated discourses are the natural ornaments. So then having the natural ornament, these are the three mother discourses. The subjects which are taught by these discourses on transcendent wisdom are the eight categories and 70 topics which will be explained later.
The eight categories and 70 topics which explain the vast path. And therefore these are the beautifying ornament. Taking the natural ornament and summarizing it we create a beautiful ornament out of eight categories and 70 topics. Then that which illuminates these eight categories and 70 topics is the illuminating ornament which clarifies or illuminates these eight categories and 70 topics. And that is the Ornament for Clear Realization itself, the actual text, the treatise that we’re now studying. This is the illuminating ornament.
For those trainees who are intent on the ornament, by ornament I mean the Ornament for Clear Realization, who engage in the listening, reflecting, and meditating on the ornament. Then for example us, then having the natural ornament of the mother discourses, extensively, middling, and abbreviated, beautified by the eight categories and 70 topics of the beautifying ornament within the mirror of the illuminating ornament of the Ornament for Clear Realization, they are able to see clearly and gain realization and all the subjects appear to their mind and this brings them a great deal of joy. And therefore they are beautified by the ornament of joy. So we’ve spoken of these four types of ornaments by way of analogy and then the actual ornaments. Now again, the natural ornament are the discourses on transcendent wisdom or the perfection of wisdom.
I use the translation transcendent wisdom. And especially the three mother sutras. These are the natural ornament. These are beautified by being summarized into the eight categories and 70 topics and this is the beautifying ornament. Then these are reflected or clarified within the illuminating ornament of the Ornament for Clear Realization allowing the trainee who is intent on the ornament in the process of hearing and reflecting upon them to gain realizations of the subjects of the ornament which are for example the emptiness, awakening heart, the six perfections.
And upon gaining a realization of the subjects of the ornament the trainee is beautified by the ornament of joy. So these are the four ornaments spoken of here. So they used the analogy of the worldly ornaments to give an idea or understanding of what we mean by ornament here. Then the Sanskrit term in the title nama is translated into the Tibetan and that simply means, we would in English we would say known as or called. It’s called this. So this is the translation.
So then the title continues. And the ornament is a commentary. And it’s a commentary, the root is a commentary on the discourses of the Buddha and the root discourse which is being commentated on are those on transcendent wisdom. That is prajnaparamita, transcendent wisdom. So then the Prajñāpāramitā Upadesa.
This is the Sanskrit and translated in Tibetan as mengak. Translated into English as either treatise or maybe commentary is a better translation. Or treatise or commentary. So usually the term mengak is sometimes translated as precept. And by precept I mean the method whereby in dependence upon which we can attain benefit and bliss.
The precept is spoken of by the teacher or the lama. Here what is meant is the speech of the teacher which enables one to easily understand transcendent wisdom. So the verbal oral commentary which allows one without difficulty or easily to understand the transcendent wisdom. So I made mistake when I said, I said it’s usually translated as commentary or treatise. That’s not correct.
That’s not right. It’s usually translated as something like a precept or guideline instruction or quintessential instruction. And therefore this makes more sense. When I talk about the oral commentary by a teacher, what he says in order to facilitate understanding. That’s his instruction, quintessential instruction.
And the title continues. Shastra in Sanskrit is translated into Tibetan as tencho. And tencho means treatise or commentary. So we have the translation from the Sanskrit.
If I were to translate this into English, the title of the text, it would be something like Commentary on the Quintessential Instructions on the Perfection of Wisdom Called Ornament for Clear Realization. Commentary on the Quintessential Instructions on Perfection of Wisdom or Transcendent Wisdom Called Ornament for Clear Realization. The name of the text. Next in the text comes the expression of homage by the translators of the text who translated it from Sanskrit into Tibetan. And the prostration or homage is paid to, it says, to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, I prostrate.
And this is done in accordance with the tradition which was instituted whereby according to which of the three scriptural collections a text was categorized as, was determined who, what the object of homage would be paid to. In this case, since it’s a discourse, part of the scriptural collections of the three, it’s a set of discourses. Therefore, its main subject taught is the higher training in meditative stabilization. And the main practice of higher stabilization is taken up by the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas. Therefore, homage is paid to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
So now we’re embarking on the training of becoming Geshes. And among all the various texts, the main text that is used in the training of a Geshe is this very text, training in the perfection of wisdom or transcendent wisdom. In general there are five subjects taken up in the Geshe training. They’re constituted by five main texts.
The first is Dharmakīrti’s Commentary on Dignāgā’s Compendium of Valid Cognition. And then the next text is the study of Madhyamaka and then manifest knowledge or Abhidharma, discipline or Vinaya, and then the fifth is transcendent wisdom. So generally we think of the Geshe as being a monk, but this isn’t necessarily so. Traditionally it seems as if the Geshes are only those who have graduated out of one of the three great seats of learning, these are always monks. But Geshe doesn’t have to be a monk.
He doesn’t have to have this particular type of background. Anyone who has studied well, who has practiced well, who is able to differentiate between what is skillful and what is unskillful, and with positive motivation explains it clearly is a Geshe. So now we’re training to become Geshes. You know if we study well with the proper motivation and we put into practice what we study and we practice well, in the future when we are placed in a position where we ourselves have students and we explain with positive motivation how to practice the Dharma, we ourselves are Geshes. We don’t have to have any fancy procedures in order to be that other than this.
So we should make effort to train well, to study well, to practice, and to make prayers towards this end. Listening well and reflecting well. So you know, the Dharma as taught by Śākyamūni Buddha is going to finally disappear. It will vanish from the earth. It is only meant to last five thousand years and already two thousand five hundred years have passed.
So there only remains two thousand five hundred years and there will come a time when it will be completely eliminated. But at such a time when the Śākyamūni Buddha’s Dharma has disappeared there will again another universal teacher will appear and this will be Buddha Maitreya. And again as Śākyamūni Buddha did he will attain enlightenment in Bodh Gaya and proceed on to Sarnath and turn the wheel of Dharma. And through our listening, reflecting and meditating well on what was taught by Maitreya, the Ornament for Clear Realization, in addition to making prayers, then there’s no doubt that we can be reborn amongst his very first circle of disciples when he displays his Buddhahood and turns the wheel of Dharma at Sarnath. And therefore we can easily attain Buddhahood ourselves.
So even though, having listened, by means of practicing the teachings as taught by Śākyamūni Buddha, for example, it is possible, taking some type of vows, through listening, reflecting, and meditating as much as we are able, that even if we aren’t able to achieve liberation during this period that we can plant the dispositions, the latencies, whereby we can be reborn at the time under, during the flourishing of the teachings of Buddha Maitreya and at such a time definitely attain liberation. So we have to think about our goals well. No great goal is accomplished without some type of difficulties. All the Buddhas had to go through difficulties themselves.
If we don’t go through any difficulties ourselves then there’s no way that we’re going to attain Buddhahood. But if we’re willing to consistently work and make effort then it’s definitely certain that in the future we will attain Buddhahood. So we’ll stop there for today and we’ll spend the rest, the remaining ten minutes answering questions. Yeah. Yeah, I gave the first text and then the remaining four were by way of subject.
So we begin with the study of valid cognition as we’ve mentioned before. And then we go on to study the Ornament for Clear Realization which takes up all the various subjects. For example, the Awakening Heart, the Six Perfections, enumerating all the qualities of the Buddha, all the paths and stages. This is what we’re going to be studying, Ornament for Clear Realization. Then after that the training would involve the study of the middle way philosophy and this is essentially studying emptiness. Then would come the study of Vinaya or discipline and this would involve what types of negativities are to be abandoned, the types of ethics which are to be followed.
And then lastly would come the study of manifest knowledge or Abhidharma and this would involve the enumeration of the various classes of objects which are to be rejected such as the five contaminated aggregates, the 12 sources, the 18 constituents. It enumerates how we actually engage into cyclic existence and the method for extracting out of cyclic existence. And so it determines what are to be adopted and what are to be rejected. That’s the subject of manifest knowledge. So these are the five subjects taken up by the Geshe training. Any questions?
Any doubts? Comments? Alright. Okay.
So this is, the ornament is a very important text. If we could memorize it would be very excellent to implant latencies in our mind. But maybe that might be a little bit difficult. So we can try to make prayers, for example, seeing the greatness of this text while we’re studying it, that may I be reborn in the future when Buddha Maitreya turns the wheel of Dharma. To make prayers toward this end. So we have to try to be enthusiastic about our study and practice.
You know, we should encourage ourselves and develop courage in the same way Asaṇga carried on his practice. We can do this by making extensive and vast prayers. Things are brought about in dependence upon, things that are dependently arisen. They arise through dependent relationships. And this relationship can be brought about through the force of the power of our mind.
For example, making very forceful strong prayers acts as a force which brings about into a dependent relationship the actual fact itself. So the force of making very powerful, brave, extensive prayers. So it’s extremely important the quality of our intention. It should be extremely vast. We shouldn’t think small.
Even in worldly activities if someone sought to benefit the entire world and though perhaps as it turned out they only benefited half the world then this would be a tremendously great achievement. But if we only think to benefit a few people then our achievement can only be that small. So even with our practice of Dharma we should develop a very vast, extensive aspiration.