Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 96-minute session, Khensur Rinpoche walks through the Ornament of Clear Realization’s eight-part framework for understanding the perfection of wisdom, emphasizing the Buddha’s four bodies—particularly the Complete Enjoyment Body and its five certainties: residing only in the highest pure land, possessing all 32 marks and 80 bodily signs, teaching only to bodhisattva superiors, transmitting only Mahāyāna doctrine, and persisting until all sentient beings attain Buddhahood. He opens with a memorable mnemonic (10, 11, 9, 11, 8, 13, 4, 4) to help students anchor the seventy topics across the eight categories. The Q&A explores key tensions: why Buddha Śākyamūni alone descended to our afflicted desire realm when other Buddhas withdrew, and how Tantra differs from Sūtra in claiming enlightenment is possible within a single lifetime. For serious practitioners with foundational Buddhist training.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1990-11-22 – KR.mp3
UUID: 6fdab11e-9131-4df3-8baf-70a02249d2a5
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Ornament of Clear Realization
Date: 1990-11-22
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~4,213
The Ornament of Clear Realization states that the perfection of wisdom is subsumed under eight categories. What are the eight categories? Four knowers and four trainings. So adding the last resultant truth body makes eight categories. I said eight categories.
What’s the last eight of the eight categories? So, if we explain it in terms of the 70 topics, they have a numeric. In Tibetan, they used to help memorize the number of topics per category, so it’s two lines. So the first line goes ten ten plus 11 plus nine plus eleven ten plus 11 plus nine plus 11. The second line is eight plus 13 plus four plus four.
So ten eleven, nine, eleven, eight, 13, four, four. Yeah? That sounds better into that. It has a rhythm to it. Two sentences.
So it comes up to two sentences into that. Ten, eleven, nine, eleven, eight, thirteen, four, four. How many altogether? So there’s eight categories. How many altogether topics?
So the first category of omniscient? So, beginning with exalted knower of all aspects, knower of paths, knower of bases, and complete training in all aspects, the first of the training. Three, exalted knowers, and the first training. So 10 topics go to omniscience, the knower of all aspects. 11 topics to the knower of paths.
Knower of bases — nine topics with respect to knower of bases. 11 topics with the first of the four trainings, complete training in the aspects. Ten, eleven, nine, eleven. Ten, eleven, nine, eleven. Three exalted knowers in the first training.
So amongst the 70 topics, we’ve covered 41. Ten, eleven, nine, that makes 30, and then 11 more is 41. Then the three trainings and the resultant truth body. So then the second of the four trainings, the peak training has eight topics, then serial training has 13, momentary training has four, resultant truth body has four. Okay.
Okay. Good. So what is this first category has 10 topics. What is this category? The second, which has 11 topics?
The category which has nine topics? 11 topic category? Eight category? Eight topic eight. Category with eight topics?
13. The first the first of the fours? So this is very important. Don’t forget. So it’d be good not to forget this and try to memorize them, reciting them, these two lines, ten, eleven, nine, eleven, eight, thirteen, four, four.
If you can if you’re able to memorize the words, then the mind will be able to recall the meaning of what these words are mean. Say what are the sentences? So we finished ten, eleven, nine, eleven, eight, 13, four, and now we’re coming to category which are the second four, and that is the So then it would be most useful to be able to know what each of the topics for each of the categories are. If somebody said what are the 10 topics for the knower of all aspects, and you were able to name off mind generation and the rest of the 10, that would be good. These have been taught, and so it’d be good for you not to forget them.
So now we’re coming to the the last of the eight categories, the resultant truth body, and this is the second of this pair of four topics. So what are the four categories, four topics of wisdom truth body? The first is nature truth body. The second is exalted wisdom truth body. Third is complete enjoyment body.
The fourth is emanation body. So nature truth body, exalted wisdom truth body, complete enjoyment body, and emanation body. So, previously, we said that the resultant truth body and a Buddha were synonyms, and all four of these bodies are Buddhas. So with respect to the first nature truth body, there is the definition, division, and boundary. So the first of these four was the nature truth body, and this has definition, division, and boundary.
The definition of nature truth body is the ultimate sphere possessing the two purities. Ultimate sphere ultimate sphere possessing the two qualities. Two purities. So what are the two purities? These two purities are the freedom from natural stains and the freedom from adventitious stains.
Freedom from natural stains and freedom from adventitious stains, these two purities. So what are these two stains? The first is natural stains, and here what is meant by the natural stain is true existence, and true existence does not exist. All phenomena lack true existence. What we mean by true existence is an existence which does not rely upon anything else.
It does not rely upon causes and conditions, concepts or terms or parts. It doesn’t rely on anything else for its existence, and such a way of existing doesn’t exist. It’s not an object of knowledge. True existence does not exist, and this is what is meant by the natural stain. That is the stain of true existence.
What is meant by the adventitious stain is the afflictive obstructions and the knowledge obstructions. The afflictive obstructions and the knowledge obstructions. So when we talk about the nature truth body having these two purities, we mean it has a natural purity that is, by its very nature, it is free of true existence. By its very nature it is free of true existence. That is the natural purity, and then it has the purity from the adventitious stain, that is to say by way of antidotes having abandoned the two stains of afflictive obstructions and knowledge obstructions.
By the use of by application of antidotes, having abandoned the having the abandonment the abandonment of the afflictive obstructions and the knowledge obstructions. This is freedom from the adventitious stain, that purity. So the nature truth body has two divisions. The nature truth body, which is the freedom from the natural the nature truth body which is naturally pure and and the the nature truth body which is adventitiously pure. The the nature truth body which is naturally pure and adventitiously pure.
So how can we identify what is the nature truth body which is naturally pure? The Buddha has a mind, and, you know, that is to say that he is omniscient. And it is the emptiness of this mind, the emptiness of omniscient mind. That is to say that this mind lacks true existence. It is free from true existence.
This is the natural purity of the mind, and when it’s specifically in terms of the omniscient mind, then it is the nature truth body which is naturally pure. So then what is the nature truth body, which is adventitiously pure. This is as we we said that at the on the tenth ground, at the in the uninterrupted path of the tenth ground, we have we generate the antidote to the subtle conception of true existence. Then when we’ve actually abandoned this conception this, this, of small, the small conception of true existence, we attain the path of release, which is path attain the path of release.
So this is the abandonment of the abandonment which is the abandonment of the conception of true existence. The abandonment, which is the abandonment of the conception of true existence. So the the boundary is at only at Buddhahood. So then the second division was that of the exalted wisdom truth body, and the definition of exalted wisdom truth body is the ultimate direct knower the modes and the varieties. Ultimate direct knower of the modes and the varieties.
In here, modes means emptiness, or that is to say ultimate truth. And varieties means conventional truth. So the ultimate wisdom directly realizing ultimate truth and conventional truth. So if we were to condense all phenomena, we could condense them down to two, the two truths. There is no phenomena which is not contained within the two truths, and that which that ultimate realizer of these two truths is the exalted wisdom truth body.
So then, what do we mean by the exalted wisdom truth body? And we said that a person who has eliminated all their various faults and brought to consummation all their excellent qualities is a Buddha. And any consciousness possessed by such a person is an exalted wisdom truth body, that it is an exalted knower which sees all phenomena. No matter what type of consciousness it may be, it possesses this quality. So, you know, the just as we have we have six sense we have six consciousnesses the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mental sense consciousness.
We have sixth sense consciousness. Now in some texts, they state that the mental consciousness of a Buddha is an omniscient consciousness, but the physical sense consciousnesses are not omniscient consciousnesses. Only the mental consciousness only the mental sense only the mental consciousness is a omniscient consciousness. So, but still even though they aren’t omniscient consciousnesses, all six sense consciousnesses are wisdom, exalted wisdom truth bodies because all six of these sense consciousnesses have no obstructions and therefore are able to have a direct realization of the modes and varieties. And why is that?
Because the individual has all the has no obstacles to realizing the varieties and the modes. That is because they have abandoned all faults. They have no obstacles to this realization, and they have brought this consciousness to complete consummation. One example of such a kind of conscience would be that even closing your eyes, that the sense that the touch consciousness in the hand would be able to read the text just by touching it. So the consciousness within the hand would be able to read the text.
So, there are within the divisions of the Exalted Wisdom Truth body, are many. We can list 21 divisions of So, there are many ways to set forth in the ornament, it sets forth the categorization of 21 divisions, but we could miss many more that when we were going through the text and looking at the knower of basis, we said, for example, the hearer has there are 21 aspects to the hearer, for example. He meditates on the four closed contemplations, etc, and then there are 36 which are particular to the bodhisattva, and then there was 110 which are common to the bodhisattva, which are common to the Buddha. And when all of these are brought to consummation, are all exalted wisdom truth bodies. There are 173.
So there if we were to contemplate love and compassion, that these two qualities, we would increase their potential until we brought them to complete their ultimate potential at the level of Buddhahood. And so, these two would be omniscient consciousness or exalted wisdom consciousness at the level of Buddhahood. So the the the excellent qualities of a Buddha are equal to space. But if we were to condense the divisions of the exalted wisdom truth bodies, we could condense them into two, that would be exalted knower truth body realizing the varieties and that which realizes the modes. So the exalted wisdom truth body realizing the modes is modes here refers to emptiness or ultimate truth, and that of varieties refers to conventional truths.
So the boundary would be that it only exists at the level of Buddhahood. So the third body is that of the complete enjoyment body. The definition of an complete enjoyment body is a final form body possessing the five certainties. A final form body possessing the five certainties. So, the previous two bodies, those are the nature truth body and exalted wisdom truth body.
These are not beings. These are not persons. These are qualities. The first of these, nature truth body, is the factor of the purity of the obstructions, the factor of the two purities, the one being the purity from true existence, the other being the factor of the purity from obstructions. And then the quality of the exalted wisdom truth body is the factor of omniscience.
That is to say, it is a consciousness, knowing all phenomena. So it’s not a person, these are qualities. General. The person who possesses within their continuum these two qualities, person, these two qualities I just previously mentioned, is there are two types. There is complete enjoyment body and the emanation body.
So the complete enjoyment body and the emanation body are persons who possess these two ultimate qualities. So, do we mean by the first of these, complete enjoyment body? So, we said it was an ultimate form body possessing the five certainties. So it has two qualities. First, it is a person who has the five certainties and has a body.
It has form just like we have a body. This person has a body and also possesses certainties. So we should try to understand well what these five certainties are. So this person has these five certainties. And so the first concern is where the person stays, what is the environment in which they reside.
So the first certainty is the certainty of residence. And the certainty of residence is that the complete enjoyment body only resides in the highest pure land. So just as in the case where we ask where does a Dalai Lama live, he lives in Dharmasala. If we ask where does a complete enjoyment body live? They reside in the highest Pure Land, Akanishtha.
So, complete enjoyment body always resides in the highest pure land. It doesn’t go anywhere else. Definitely, it is certain to reside there. Then the second of these five certainties is the certainty of body, and this refers to that a complete enjoyment body possesses a complete set of the 32 marks and 80 signs. A complete set of the 32 marks and 80 signs.
These 112 bodily characteristics. That they have to have, they can always have, they were certain to have all 112. Some people, for example, Australians have long ear lobes, and this is one of the marks of a Buddha, but they don’t have all of them. But a complete enjoyment body has all 112 of these physical characteristics. Definitely a body.
So, in the ornament, these 112 signs, 32 marks, 80 signs are explained very clearly. So, there’s, for example, amongst the marks, there is that of the wheels, which emblazoned his hands and his feet are emblazoned with golden wheels, and it was as if they would press it to paper, it would print a wheel. Just as we have the lines on our hands, which are a product of our karma, Likewise, the Buddha, out of the karma of having created the two accumulations, due to the force of that karma, then there appears on his hands these golden wheels. So this is just giving you one example, just for explanation. So, then another example would be that the Buddha’s lips are extremely red, very red.
He doesn’t have to use lipstick. His hair is pitch black. Marx are illustrations of inner qualities, that they act as expressions of inner qualities and are illustrated in these physical aspects. These inner qualities are illustrated are expressions of inner qualities given illustrated in any of these physical aspects. These expressions these physical aspects are illustrative expressions of inner quality.
So these, so I might have confusing this terminology a little bit. The signs usually aren’t very accurate in translation. 32 signs and 80 marks. So I was using the marks as the physical illustrations of, which are expressions of inner qualities. And then there are these 32 signs.
And these signs are emblematic of his being a valid being, of his being a pure being. So these are signs of him being a valid being. So there’s a little bit of difference between the signs and marks. So, the first certainty was that of resonance. The second was that of body.
The third certainty is that of retinue. Retinue. And this is that the complete enjoyment body is teaching the Dharma, and he only teaches it directly to great vehicle superiors bodhisattvas, great vehicle superior bodhisattvas. That these are the only, those are the only beings who reside at the place of the teachings, who receive the teachings directly. There are no bodhisattvas on the path of accumulation or preparation because they’re not superiors.
One must have attained the path of seeing or the path of meditation. These are superiors, and they must be bodhisattvas. So only a great vehicle, just you wouldn’t even use the word, bodhisattva superiors are certain to be those who are directly receiving the teachings. So that’s certainty of retinue. Those are the retinue, the people receiving the teaching.
So those who are attending the teachings actually receiving the teachings directly, that is what constitutes the retinue, and there are none who have not entered the path. There are no hearers. There are no solitary realizers. And even amongst bodhisattvas, there are none who are abiding on the path of accumulation or the path of preparation. Only the bodhisattvas who are on the path of seeing and meditation.
Then the fourth certainty is that of the Dharma, and this is that the complete enjoyment body only teaches the great vehicle Dharma. It never teaches the Dharma of the lesser vehicle. That’s because those who are actually receiving the teachings directly are only bodhisattva superiors. Therefore, it’s only the great vehicle Dharma which is taught. The fifth certainty is that of time, certainty of time.
And so this is with respect to until what time will the complete enjoyment body remain? Until what such time will it not pass. And this is that the complete enjoyment body will remain until cyclic existence is empty. That is to say, until all sentient beings have attained Buddhahood, that the complete enjoyment body will remain, will not deteriorate. So this is certainty of this time.
It will certainly remain until that time that cyclic existence is empty, all sentient beings have attained Buddhahood. So it says that until cyclic existence is empty, but so even when individuals attain liberation, example, they attain the hearer foe-destroyer or solitary realizer foe-destroyer, they are liberated from cyclic existence. But they’re still necessary for them to go on to achieve Buddhahood, so it would be necessary that a complete enjoyment body, complete enjoyment body remain. Therefore, when it says until cyclic existence is empty, it means the meaning of the sense is that until all sentient beings have attained Buddhahood. And then the boundary is only at the ground of Buddhahood, at the Buddha ground.
So what would be an example of a complete enjoyment body? That would be, for example, Vajradhāra, the initial teacher of tantra. So that would be an example. So, the complete enjoyment body is an ultimate, a final body possessing the five certainties. So a body, let’s say it’s a person, just like we have a body, it is a person, and it possesses these five certainties.
It is a Buddha, or he is a Buddha, she is a Buddha. So we would in the process of attaining Buddhahood, the entity of our body would be transformed into a complete enjoyment body that we would eventually, having attained the level of a bodhisattva superior, take rebirth in the highest pure land, and there receive teachings from the complete enjoyment body, and actualize Buddhahood in that highest pure land, and the body would transform its entity into that of a complete enjoyment body. There are two traditions, that of Sūtra and Tantra. Within Sūtra tradition, according to Sūtra, Buddha is only attained at the highest Pure Land, in this highest Pure Land. That is the only place in which Buddha is actually attained.
Why is that? Because as one progresses from the path, first the path of accumulation, then the path of preparation, upon attaining the path of seeing, one would take rebirth in the Buddha field, that is the highest pure land, and there receive teachings from a complete enjoyment body and actualize one’s Buddhahood at that place. So if you have some questions, we’ll have a few minutes. There’s more Buddhists than there are sentient beings. I was just asking about the tantra.
According to tantra system, one can achieve Buddhahood with possessing a desire, basis of having a desire basis in this body of ours. We can achieve Buddhahood according to the tantra. So in dependence upon tantra, individuals like Milarepa, Ghantapa, who had a human body attain Buddhahood. She would do so. She do so.
Before death. What happens to the enjoyment body? So there are two explanations. One is the first explanation is that when all beings have attained Buddhahood, then because there no longer is the certainty of retinue, then is no longer any then there is no being which has the five certainties. So there are no complete enjoyment bodies, because in order to have a retina you must have bodhisattva superior.
So if he doesn’t have bodhisattva superior, he’s not a complete enjoyment body. That’s the first one. The second one is that though there are that he still remains, that though there are no bodhisattva superiors, there is still the certainty of retinue of the bodhisattva superiors, which I don’t know what that means. Certainty of retina, the bodhisattva superior of the certainty of retina is not a bodhisattva superior. In order to be bodhisattva superior, he would have to be a non Buddha, and everybody’s attained Buddha.
So he’s not a Bodhisattva superior, but he is a Bodhisattva superior of the certainty retina. If there wasn’t if there wasn’t no. So, wasn’t this certainty of retinue, then there wouldn’t there wouldn’t be the complete enjoyment body. They’re out of work. There this is due to the obscurations on the side of the people, of the sentient beings, due to their obscuration.
Even if the Buddha were to speak with them directly, they would be obscured. They have an hindrance to even hearing, even being taught directly from a Buddha, so they the obstructions to hearing, obstructions to understanding, to realizing. It’s all coming from the side of the sentient being. Petty. You do?
That’s Not a petty. So, I’m not sure how many, but there’s probably, they’re probably, I can’t see them, but they’re probably here. I don’t know how many. When the Buddha, after first having attained enlightenment and he went to Varanasi to teach, there were only five students. But the skies were filled with celestial beings.
So when a in the Tibetan tradition, a teacher is about to give a teaching, they recite these lines, which Rinpoche just recited inviting the celestial beings to come and attend the teaching. Yeah. According to, as we just explained in the Sūtra system, in order to attain Buddhahood, one must take rebirth in the highest Pure Land. These are not humans, they’re celestial beings. So this is a place, this is a celestial realm, it’s not a human realm.
So all these beings are celestial beings who attain Buddhahood. bodhisattva superiors are celestial beings. Buddha, Buddha superior, more proper to say, does not stay in a desired realm. They abide in the pure lands, Buddha fields. We can’t see them.
As Buddha superiors, there would be the supreme emanation body. For example, Buddha Śākyamūni, who descended into the desire realm, but he passed into Parinirvana. So we assert that there are emanations of the Buddha. For example, it is asserted that one’s teacher who is teaching the Dharma is an emanation of a Buddha, but they are not the aspect of a Buddha superior. Being which will have the aspect of a Buddhist superior will be Buddha Maitreya.
Most of the Buddhas are afraid to come to descend into the desire realm. And they were very surprised when Śākyamūni Buddha took on the aspect of a supreme emanation body and descended into our world. But they were amazed at his great bravery and compassion that he possessed. I asked if I thought the qualities amongst the Buddhists were equal, but he said there’s a difference in the strength of their intention, the way of their thinking, the difference in the power. It’s analogous to amongst all the flowers, though there are an infinite number of varieties, the supreme of them is the white lotus.
And though there will be a thousand Buddhas in this world cycle, the supreme of them was Śākyamūni Buddha. He’s likened to a white lotus. So, The other Buddhas saw that there was no benefit to come to our particular world system. This was because the people were such that they had no faith in the Dharma, that they had no liking for the Dharma, they had many afflicted emotions, a great deal of negativities, They lacked discrimination, ability to discriminate a lama, who is not a lama and who is a lama, or even discriminate amongst sorry state that the other Buddhists were disinclined to come to our world system. Did they say that?
The situation was such that the Buddhists had a fear of coming in such a situation. There were many occasions even during the life of Buddha Śākyamūni where people tried to kill him. They threw many weapons at him and tried to kill him in various ways.