Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 50-minute teaching on the Ornament of Clear Realization, Kyabje Rinpoche unfolds the three exalted knowers—foundational concepts for understanding the bodhisattva path to Buddhahood. After opening with bodhisattva motivation, he systematically explains the exalted knower of all aspects (omniscience), which apprehends all phenomena simultaneously; the knower of paths, which understands the three vehicles and teaches them through the lens of non-true existence; and the knower of basis, which realizes selflessness using the aggregates, sources, and constituents as the framework for liberation. Rinpoche illustrates these abstract philosophical concepts with concrete examples—Australian trees reduced to ash, flowers understood in terms of emptiness—making technical doctrine accessible to practitioners with foundational familiarity with Buddhist thought.
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File: 1990-02-22 – 32A – KR.mp3
UUID: cda8ed76-45c3-4e2b-ac51-213592a57b2a
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Ornament of Clear Realization
Date: 1990-02-22
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,655
So we’re going to remember, she will lead us in adjusting our motivation. There is no difference between myself and others. Everyone wants to be happy, have complete happiness, and does not want to suffer. In order to establish all sentient beings in complete happiness and to separate them from all of their suffering, I must attain complete Buddhahood. And in order to actually bring that about, I am going to I must study well in the great the great vehicle perfection of wisdom.
And therefore, we’ll spend five minutes adjusting our motivation to reflect this thought. So we have begun our explanation of the Ornament for Clear Realization where it is said that the it can it consists of an explanation perfection of wisdom and we, last week, we covered the four types of perfection of wisdom. The natural perfection of wisdom, scriptural perfection of wisdom, path perfection of wisdom, and resultant perfection of wisdom. And it is taking the latter two, path perfection of wisdom and resultant perfection of wisdom as the basis of division in which the eight categories which constitute the ornament are explained. Explained.
And as was explained previously, the eight categories and how they are arrived at. The bodhisattva is seeking, has as its goal, the resultant truth body. So, this is the first resultant truth body. As the in order to attain that result, he or she meditates on the paths which are the four which are the three knowers, the three exalted knowers. The three knowers.
And the the means of meditating on those three paths are the four trainings making a total categories. So, you know, when we talk about the process of meditation, it is the mind which is meditating. It’s not the body doesn’t meditate. So, when we talk about the bodhisattva meditating, we’re speaking of his mind meditating. Meditating and the meditator that is the mind are these four trainings.
These are the meditators. They are doing the actual meditating. What is the object of that meditation are the aspects of the three paths. That’s the object of meditation. And what is achieved by means of this meditation is the fruit which is the resultant truth body making four categories, eight categories.
So we’re going to ex go through a rough explanation of of these three exalted knowers. The exalted knower of all aspects which is synonymous with omniscience, knower of paths and knower of basis. I won’t these are all exalted knowers. So if I if I forget to use the word exalted, you can know that it’s always exalted knower. What do we mean by the exalted knowers?
Generally, a knower, an Exalted Knower is synonymous with the Realizer of an object. It’s a mind which is realizing an object. The only difference here is that exalted knower is an honorific an honorific way of talking about realizer of an object. The, by meditating on the various aspects of the path, we gain realization. When these realizations, but over and above simple, the mere realization, when these are changed into a special when their nature changes into a special entity, then they become known as exalted knowers.
So what do we mean by the four trainings? The term training? I think it’s also also translated as preparation or application. Application. I’m going to use consistent with this translation which uses the term transformation of training.
The trainings, it is it is the means of achieving through meditation higher qualities. But not only just higher qualities in general, but the final actual fruit of the path, which is the ultimate attainment of the truth body. So, in order to attain the truth body, we, in order to develop, to generate, to achieve the truth body, we use the four trainings which are the meditators which act to achieve the higher qualities, ultimately, the truth body. So if we exemplify what we mean by training, in if we had some work that we had to do tomorrow, tomorrow, in order to achieve that work, today we might train, involve ourselves in a training or preparation which would help us to achieve that work tomorrow. Tomorrow.
And likewise, we are seeking to achieve the ultimate attainment of the resultant truth body. In order to develop that, we meditate. The four trainings are the meditations which help which train us to achieve that end, the resultant truth body. So we begin with the, we’re going to speak roughly on the three knowers, the three exalted knowers. The exalted knower of all aspects, the exalted knower of paths, the exalted knower of basis and to begin with the first, the exalted knower of all aspects synonymous synonymous with with omniscience.
Omniscience. What do we mean by that? We’re talking about the various, all of the various aspects of all phenomena. If we take one basis for it by way of illustration, a sprout, it has, we can talk about many, many aspects in connection with this one single phenomena, its entity or its nature, its cause, its result. Within its cause it has main cause, it has indirect cause, with respect to its result it has direct result, the main result, it has a color, it has shape, all of these various aspects based upon in terms of one single basis.
A flower, the entity of the flower, various causes, its various effects, would create its color and shape. One entity in terms of that, can talk about many, many different aspects. If we were to do that with all phenomena, talk about all the possible aspects with each and every phenomena, its various causes, its various entities, its various results, then that which knows all of these aspects is what we mean by a knower of all aspects. It’s an ultimate realizer. It knows all of the aspects of all phenomena.
So, if we were to exemplify the what we mean by omniscience, exalted knower of all aspects, we take as an example We’re it by way of example that we were to take all of the trees from various parts of Australia and we bring them together and we just we burn them and all that’s left is a pile of ashes. And we take a pinch of that ash from the from what is left after burning all these various types and places of trees. And we we were to ask the Buddha, tell me about this this ash. What he that the Buddha would be able to tell you from what type of tree this ash came from, from what area the tree came from, what types of leaves the tree had, what types of bark, what types of root. He would be able to tell you every aspect ultimately which could associated that on this single base in its totality.
All of the aspects which were ultimately associated with that single pinch of ash, he would be able to tell you. This is what we mean by an ultimate knower. So, with respect to the definition of omniscient mind, exalted knower of all aspects. First, we have to understand that it is a type of which has no hindrances whatsoever that it’s separated from all obstructions. Now if and if we understand this definition, another definition is its nature.
If we understand its definition or its nature of omniscient mind, then we will understand the complete path of the great vehicle beginning up to the stage of Buddhahood. Because what we mean by the omniscience, we have to if we if we understand its nature is as it’s stated here in this definition, a fully developed exalted wisdom that directly realizes the ten topics, mind generation and so forth. So if we understand that nature, then we understand all of these topics and therefore we understand the complete path of the vehicle. So the consciousness within a Buddha superior or simply within the mind of a Buddha is synonymous with omniscient consciousness or omniscient mind. These are synonyms.
The boundaries or the where does where does the omniscient mind exist? It only exists at the stage of Buddhahood. It doesn’t exist any at any time prior to that. So then the second of these three knowers is a knower of paths and what we mean by paths are the three types of paths. The paths of the hearer, the paths of the solitary realizer and the paths of the bodhisattva.
What by knower, what is known is the direct understanding of non true existence. By knower we mean a direct understanding of non true existence. When this path knower is contained within the continuum of a great vehicle superior, then it is it is a knower of paths. The great vehicle superior, a Bodhisattva superior. We’re discussing the knower of paths.
We we said it paths were the three vehicles, the paths of the three vehicles and by knower we mean the direct understanding of non true existence. Now the person who has this type of mind is a bodhisattva Superior. What and what he is doing is he is trying to lead others along their various paths. Now, there he is and the way he does this is by teaching the various trainees. Therefore, in order to lead all the various types of practitioners, he must know the method of leading them according to each of their capacities and desires.
Therefore, he must know to complete the path of all of the three vehicles. For those who are intent on the hearer’s vehicle, he must be able to teach them the hearer’s vehicle. For those who are intent upon the vehicle of the solitary realizer, he must be able to teach them the paths of the solitary realizer. For those who are intent upon the great vehicle, he must be able to teach them the paths of the bodhisattva. And in order to do that, as it says in the Commentary on Prime Cognition, that without, if it remains hidden to you, then how can you explain it to others?
That is to say, if you don’t understand what it is you’re explaining, then there’s no way that you can teach it unerringly to others. Therefore, in order to teach others, he must come to an understanding of all the paths of the entirety of three vehicles in order to explain it to others unerringly. And this is what we mean by path in the term path knower of paths. He unerringly knows the entirety of the means of the three vehicles. But he just doesn’t stop there.
His way of teaching, not only does he know the paths, but he teaches it in the context of true exist, a non true existence. We know we can talk about this flower for example that many people can understand the flower but very few people could explain the flower in terms of its non true existence. Therefore, he not only understands, realizes the paths, but he is able to teach through these paths in the context of an understanding of non true existence and this is what we mean by knower. He knows non true existence and he teaches in a manner not only the paths but also in the context of non true existence. Therefore, what we term such a quality of consciousness is knower of paths.
So we explained the definition previously of the knower of paths so we won’t go through that but we will talk about in terms of synonyms. The knower within the continuum, the knower within the continuum of a great vehicle superior is synonymous with knower of paths. And the boundary of knower of paths is is from the path of seeing up through and including Buddhahood. That is to say of the five paths it is the, it is the knower of paths exists in the latter three. Path of seeing, path of meditation, and the path of no more learning.
It exists on these three levels. And with the respect to the to the third exalted knower, the knower of basis. When we mean by basis, we simply don’t mean simply mean enumeration of all type of enumeration simply enumeration of basis of one, two, three, four, we don’t mean that. We also don’t mean as a basis for noble truths nor do we mean the basis of practice, for example, what is to be adopted and what is rejected, taking this as a basis. What we mean by basis here are the five aggregates, the 12 sources, and the 18 constituents.
The five aggregates, the 12 sources, and 18 constituents. These are taken as the basis of understanding. By knower, we mean the direct understanding of the selflessness of persons. The knower here refers to the direct understanding of the selflessness of persons. So why is this explained in this way?
What do we mean by this knower of basis. We mentioned that the basis is the five aggregates to 12 sources and 18 constituents and the knower is the selflessness of persons. The, a practitioner who is trying to generate this, basis knower is one who has dread of cyclic existence and is seeking to liberate himself from the continually circling in cyclic existence. He understands that through taking as an object of his observation the aggregates, the sources, sources and the constituents that he generates with respect to them a conception of a self, he generates a conception of self with respect to these aggregate sources and constituents. In dependence upon generating that conception of self, he develops afflictive emotions.
In dependence upon afflictive emotions, he creates karma, actions. In dependence upon that, he continually circles in cyclic existence. Seeing this, he seeks to understand the selflessness of these aggregate sources and constituents as a means to liberate himself from suffering and to attain liberation. Aggregate So we won’t go through the definition of a knower of a basis. We’ve done that previously.
But if we list a synonym of knower knower of basis, it would be the knower within the continuum. The knower which abides in the category of the lesser vehicle, let’s see, let me get this straight, a knower which abides in the, which is categorized, a knower which is categorized within the continuum of a lesser vehicle superior. A knower which abides in the category of the continuum of a lesser vehicle superior. This knower of paths and knower of basis are synonymous. The boundary of a knower of basis is it exists within the continuum of all superiors.
Let me try again at that that last definition. The the the last synonym. Base knower, basis knower. It is a knower within the continuum of a superior which abides in in the category of the lesser vehicle. Okay.
Abides in the category of the lesser vehicle. Okay. We go on. Now, what do we mean by lesser and greater vehicle? Now, in general, we we talk about three vehicles.
The vehicle of the hearer, the vehicle of the solitary realizer, and the vehicle of the bodhisattva. But if we condense these two former vehicles, hearer and solitary realizer, into one, then these are these are the less this is the lesser vehicle and the vehicle of the bodhisattva is the greater vehicle. Now the definition of vehicle in general general is the knower which seeks to achieve either the welfare of self or other. The knower by which, that is, the knower which is the means of achieving either the welfare of self or other. Which is the means of achieving the welfare of either self or other.
This is the general definition of a vehicle. And within, of course, within the vehicles as we mentioned we can divide it into lesser vehicle and greater vehicle. So therefore, the lesser vehicle would be that which is.