Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute teaching, Khensur Rinpoche begins a commentary on Atisha’s “Seven Points of Mind Training” using the homage text “The Sun’s Radiance.” He introduces the foundational metaphor: the bodhisattva path as a great sailing ship, with compassion and the awakening heart as the vessel, the six perfections as the sail, and effort as the wind carrying us toward Buddhahood. Rinpoche then distills Buddha’s teachings into two essential nectars: the realization of emptiness, which overcomes ignorance as the root demon, and bodhicitta, the awakening heart embodying ultimate welfare for self and others. He traces these teachings through lineages of Nāgārjuna and Śāntideva, down to Atisha’s teacher Serlingpa, and recounts Atisha’s thirteen-month pilgrimage to Indonesia to receive these precepts—evidence of their transformative power. For practitioners with foundational Buddhist knowledge.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-05-02 – Side 2 – Sun's Radiance Poor Sound – KR.MP3
UUID: 57a3f993-d768-4a35-bead-28836d7803f1
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Sun Radiance – Thought Transformation
Date: 1989-05-02
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,349
Today we’re going to begin the commentary to the basic text which is called The Seven Points of Mind Training. And the commentary to that is the actual text that they will be explaining is called the sun’s radiance of training of the mind. So if we, the text, the seven points of the training of mind was composed by Atisha and we asked what is the source of Atisha’s text, the seven point training of the mind. And this is So it’s extremely important to, in establishing the authority of a text see whether it has a valid source. To that end, Lama is going to give a brief historical account of the meaning of the text that we’re going to be studying.
So we’ll begin with sun’s radiance has the face homage and we’ll briefly explain the homage which is at the beginning of the text. Sun’s Radiance as it is composed by Namkha Pel and in it he begins with a homage. And so we determine that when when paying homage, we praise the great qualities of a particular object and we do this in order for two reasons. One of them is to create positive potential or personal power whereby to bring about the second point which is that the purpose of composing a text will ultimately be established. That one purpose for writing the text will finally come about.
So it’s necessary in order to establish a final end that we create positive potential. We’ll do this through homage. We can do this in general when we’re engaging in various practices, spiritual practices, Dharma practices, by reciting praises, by making prayers, prostrations, etcetera, to perhaps personal meditation, etcetera, that just enhances the possibilities for action to be successful. In in the in rough explanation of the homage at the beginning of the text, we aren’t going to explain it word by word in detail. We’ll just explain the meaning of the homage.
And in it, homage is the use of metaphor in which the qualities of the object of homage such as love, compassion, awakening heart and the precepts of the awakening heart are likened to a ship. We’re on a vast ocean and in the times that this text was written, they didn’t have airplanes to get to where they wanted to go to nor did the ships have motors. They were powered by sail. And so in order to arrive at our design destination, we have to have a great sail in order to power the ship. So in this simile, the ship is likened to compassion, love, the awakening heart, the precepts of the awakening heart.
The sail of the ship is analogous to the practice of the six perfections. That is the perfection of generosity, patience, effort, meditation, and And also the four means of attracting that’s analogous to the sail. And the wind which actually powers the ship is one’s own effort which will help you to arrive at your desired destination. So by means of the ship of the awakening heart, compassion and love, With the sail of the six perfections and the four means of attracting disciples empowered by one’s own effort that we can cross the ocean of samsaric existence to our destination in Buddhahood at the palace, the jeweled island of Buddhahood. And the system is such that it’s large enough to accommodate all sentient beings and are in it we can take all sentient beings to the land of happiness.
And the navigator of the ship is the Buddha and this is the analogous to altruism which guide us to our final destination. And this ship is manned by by the various sailors such as Mañjuśrī, Candrakīrti, Śāntideva within the profound lineage amongst the vast activity lineage, the masters such as Asaṇga and Vasubandhu, those who are seeking to put into practice to engaging and the duties of the Bodhisattva together. Thinking to finally arrive at the our destination of Buddhahood, they make use of various methods in bringing this method about and teaching the Dharma, Buddha taught 84,000 bundles of Dharma which are further condensed into these twelve branches of Dharma and these are further condensed into three categories of Dharma and also are categorized by names of the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma. But if we were to condense all the teachings of the Buddha and say, know, presenting all the various methods, what is the means for actually practicing the Dharma? And the means are condensed into two.
And they are to eliminate ego-grasping and ego-centeredness. In finally eliminating these two obstacles which need to be eliminated in finally attaining Buddhahood, the Buddha taught the lesser vehicle as a means to overcome ego-centeredness and the great vehicle in order to overcome ego-grasping. If we ask, well what is the essence of the teachings of Buddha? And the very essence of the teachings is emptiness. Emptiness is likened to a nectar.
So I talked about the word nectar. In Sanskrit the word nectar is amrita. In Tibetan it’s dütsi. So the purpose of nectar is to bring about a deathless state to eliminate death. In general, the word dütsi is made up of two syllables, dü and tsi.
And the word dü means demon. And there’s said to be four types of demons. There’s the demon of afflictive emotion, the demon of death, the demon of contaminated aggregates, and Devaputta or the son of the gods, the offspring of the gods. But if they say, amongst all these demons, is the fundamental or the root demon? And that is the afflictive emotion.
And amongst the afflictive emotions, the root of the afflictive emotions is ignorance. But the real demon is ignorance. And when we talk about seeking to eliminate the suffering of samsaric existence, In order to bring that about we have to eliminate all the afflicted emotions. In order to do that we must finally eliminate the root of all the afflicted emotions that is ignorance. The way we eliminate ignorance is through the realization of emptiness.
If we do not have the realization of emptiness, there’s no way that we can eliminate ignorance, there’s no way that we can eliminate suffering completely. So therefore, it is the realization of emptiness which is the which amounts which brings about the victory over all the demons through Through overcoming the demon, we overcome all our obstacles and hindrances and therefore this is how the word comes about, that it’s like a nectar overcoming, bringing bliss to one by overcoming the demon, one is lifted to bliss. The real nectar is the utilization of emptiness. The realization of emptiness is like a medicine. It is through such realization that we overcome all our illnesses and we finally attain the good of liberation.
Though we talked about, we were discussing the essence of the nectar of the precept And this is emptiness, the realization of emptiness. Just like with respect to food, other than its ability to bring health to the body, its nutritional quality, it also has other qualities, various taste, its various textures, etc. And therefore other than the essential nectar the realization of emptiness, there are other entities and among the essences which we are going to study is the essence of the awakening heart. Though by means of the utilization of emptiness, we can go beyond samsaric existence, but we can actually attain the bliss of liberation where there is no suffering whatsoever. But really by this means alone we cannot attain the state of Buddhahood.
So in order to actually attain the state of Buddhahood, not only do we need the realization of emptiness, but we must train the mind in bringing about the ultimate welfare, bringing about the ultimate purpose of both oneself and others in such a way that we spontaneously and effortlessly work to bring about our own purposes and the purpose of others. It is therefore, it is as if there must be coupled with two essences, the realization of emptiness and the awakening heart as the essence in order to attain complete Buddhahood. Atisha set forth that the precept of the essence of nectar, the essence being realization of emptiness and the essence being the awakening heart. By these two means that we can finally attain the state of Buddhahood. Where did a teacher receive this, the meaning or the source of these teachings, it was from Serlingpa, in talking about the lineages of the transmission of the various teachings and the text and the precepts, there are two types of lineages.
There’s the direct and the indirect lineage. So these teachings on development of the realization of emptiness and the awakening heart have their ultimate meaning source in Buddha himself. That would be the indirect lineage coming down from the Buddha. But in order to clear up doubt, for clarification, it is necessary to rely on the direct lineage, having actual presentation of the teaching personally whereby coming to a clear understanding.
And this would be Serlingpa who would give him the direct lineage. So there are the two lineages of the precepts of the awakening heart had their thought in the Buddha himself, but they took two different paths. One of them passed through the lineage of exchanging self and others, the others passed through Nāgārjuna, Śāntideva, and finally down to Serlingpa. The other precepts then passed through Maitreya, Asaṇga and then again to Serlingpa. Serlingpa was the gathering together of what was two diverse lineages into one.
The lineage of the teaching precepts of exchanging self and others and the sevenfold cause and effect precepts. It was the tradition in Tibet to always examine whatever teaching was presented. It would be examined from the point of view of who taught this originally and where is it coming from. In order to gain the conviction that if they in fact put it in the practice that they would get some results, ultimately it had to have its foundation in the Buddha himself that they had to be able to trace its source to the Buddha himself and thereby being convinced that if they put effort in the practice they would get results. If they couldn’t, weren’t able to trace this teaching to its ultimate source, then they would set it aside.
The ultimate reason for practicing the Dharma is to achieve the results. The results are such that they are both bringing about the purposes of oneself and others. Ultimately is to eliminate all our suffering and therefore the practice is directed towards that end, the elimination of our suffering. So there has to be a conviction that the method that you’re going to undertake, the practice of Dharma is going to actually eliminate the suffering for yourself and others. So, you know, generally we might find such accounts rather boring.
Know, these social accounts, there’s many, but It’s actually if we’re going to be sincere about our practice, it’s extremely important that we have conviction in authority of our practice. That is just not something that’s been made up. Atisha who received the teachings from the lineage was a prince, the son of the king, and he renounced his royalty and became a monk. Having become a monk, Atisha developed a great longing for the teaching on the method for developing an awakening heart, bodhicitta. And so he had a personal contact with the meditation deity Tārā and Tārā informed him that he could receive such teaching by Master Serlingpa.
Serlingpa lived in what is now modern day Indonesia. I think it was called Srivijaya back then. Indonesia. And he spent thirteen months on a difficult trip journey to meet with Serlingpa. I think it was extremely kind.
He spent his thirteen months undergoing an arduous journey in those days. It was very difficult to travel and working himself through all the various difficulties and receiving the teachings and meditating on them in order to realize them as a method for actually benefiting us. Atisha went through all these great hardships as a kindness for us as well. The dominant is extremely precious to serve immense benefits. But it’s very difficult for to practice it.
Is the reason that we don’t have any particular realization as we aren’t able to bear any degree of difficulty. One day we may practice the Dharma well and the next day we get fed up and we can’t carry on any arduous practices as example Atisha did. But we have to seek to generate faith in the possibility of the benefits of Dharma and to make prayers and simply to progress to first just hearing about the precepts, the teachings themselves and eventually gradually we will be able to attain the same state and develop the same practice that the teacher himself did through this development of faith and making prayer, heartfelt prayer. Upon returning, Atisha received a prophecy from his meditational deity Tārā, which he stated that he would find his main disciple in Tibet. And upon he finally made the arduous journey to Tibet and ultimately spent sixteen years in Tibet giving all his teachings, all his precepts to the Tibetan people.
And amongst all his disciples who he gathered around him, his most outstanding and what the lineage passed on to as all his teachings was Dromtönpa, possibly known as Dromtön. I think he passed all of his various teachings on to his disciple of Dromtönpa and he’s taking the the source of what has been later been called, has come to be termed the graduated path or the phases of the path, the teachings on the phases of the path, Lamrim and Tibetan and also what has later become termed as the mind training or thought transformation text. And again passed on to Chekawa and came down to Sangyé Gompa, the great master Sangyé Gompa who realized all the various teachings and all the various teachings and these were ultimately passed on to the author of our present text.