Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 57-minute teaching, Geshe-la introduces Lama Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path by establishing guru devotion as foundational to the entire Lamrim teaching. Finding a qualified teacher is essential: such a teacher embodies wisdom, especially realization of emptiness, and method—compassion. He illustrates these qualities through personal stories of meeting his own teachers in India and receiving initiation from Rinpoche decades earlier. For practitioners in degenerate times unable to find fully qualified teachers, three minimum qualities suffice: prioritizing future lives over this life, virtue over non-virtue, and others’ welfare over one’s own. The teaching culminates with guided meditation on generating bodhicitta—compassionate intention for all sentient beings. Suited to Buddhist practitioners with foundational study.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Sunday – KR.mp3
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Three Principal Aspects
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,182
Good day, isn’t it? Yes. Today is the day. What? It’s very nice.
Okay. Thank you for coming. Thank you for my teaching. You know, so thank you for don’t want to lie. Thank you for coming for my teaching.
So last Sunday I taught, you know, I taught a little bit about the story of Lama Tsongkhapa’s life and then, you know, the three principal aspects of the path. I think Genji has a, how do you say, probably he is neck. Neck pain. Yeah yeah yeah yeah because you know okay. Yeah, so and today I would like to praise, praise Lama Tsongkhapa, not praise of this text. You know? Or, tried? Do you understand? Praise. Praise.
In Tibetan, tö pa. So it is about many, the many of spiritual teachers. Spiritual teachers. So Geshe-la is going to talk about the praise to the this text. And this text, the three principal aspects of the path, it has the entire Lamrim teachings.
But in Tibetan, how do you say? It’s Tibetan. You know? In English, riva? Mhmm.
Diva? Diva. This is the reading now from the text. Alright? Yeah.
The first verse. Yeah. In English, homage to the holy teachers. Baqin, do you understand? Yes.
Good. 100%. She said he’s going to take very slowly. Otherwise, I run out my English. His homage may also be directed to all spiritual teachers of lineage. Yeah.
Yeah. Again, yeah. So so. He’s, you know, his homage may also be directed. Is that?
Homage, right? Homage may also be directed to all spiritual teachers. All spiritual. Of extensive lineage. Lineage.
Of the extensive lineage. Yeah. So Geshe-la was saying that it’s very important to know, you know, the lineage of this teaching. So Rinpoche said when Rinpoche, when they spoke, you know, teach about the three principal aspects of the path or any kind of text, the first, they have to make sure to understand the lineage of the text and how they go homage to the lineage. Composed by Lama Tsongkhapa. There’s four, you know, one verse and Geshe-la said one verse, merely.
Four verses. Four verses. Sorry. The Rinpoche and the other teachers, they explain how you praise to those lineage gurus. So he or she may be a student of Buddhism.
So he or she may be a student of Buddhism. And then the student needs to have a relationship with spiritual teacher. What? Spiritual teacher. Spiritual teacher.
So the the spiritual teacher no. No. The relationship, the relationship between student and teacher is very precious. Precious. They are not precious.
So in Tibetan, guru devotion is the root of path. Understood, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Clear?
Yes. Yeah. 80%, 90%, 100%. Really? Over 110?
Oh, goodness. That’s enough. Thank you. Because the spiritual teacher is the student’s guide on the path to liberation and enlightenment. Enlightenment.
So Geshe-la said the relationship between the spiritual teacher and student is very precious. Reason is because the spiritual teacher can take the students to path to enlightenment or liberation. So therefore, the quality of the spiritual teacher needs the entire effort to guide Buddhist practitioners. And then that teacher can lead others to student to liberation or enlightenment. So it is very important to find qualified spiritual teacher.
Extremely important to have a, you know, qualified teacher to once student to find. It is very important to find a great teacher. Yeah. So in order to engage, listening, and contemplate, meditate oneself, first, it is very important to find a right qualified teacher and that’s what the Lam Rim have taught, you know. So Geshe-la said, finding a qualified teacher is the most important to all the student.
Wait a minute. There was more. What? He was talking about the long lived, and he was talking about the qualities. No.
No. No. Qualified teacher. Qualified teacher? Yeah.
And he also said that you might have to look for a couple of years. No matter how much time it takes to find a qualified teacher. So it is difficult to wait that long. You know, not wait too long because your life may end. So a good spiritual teacher is qualified in many ways.
A fully qualified spiritual teacher should have 10 qualities. So in this fully qualified teacher, it is very important to first have the 10 qualities. And the 10 qualities, if you condense 10 qualities, it is actually the method and wisdom. So that is important to find somebody who can have understanding and someone who has these two, method and wisdom.
Method is compassion, and the wisdom is the wisdom understanding of emptiness, someone who has a realization on those two qualities. You know? And that’s the fully qualified teacher. One of the qualities of the qualified teacher. There’s a text called Uttaratantra, which is composed by Maitreya Buddha.
This, Geshe-la said it is Maitreya. It is Maitreya. Maitreya. Actually I had three lamas, you know? Who?
Our Rinpoche, first, my lama. And second, the three kinds of root guru. Three kindness of guru. Yeah. Root guru.
Yeah. Yeah. So I had three kinds of guru. Is it actually the lama who given your initiation?
To receiving commentaries of the initiation that you have received. And so actually I had, you know, three gurus. First, second, Geshe Ngawang, you know? Geshe Ngawang was our Rinpoche’s teacher. Lama or teacher, second.
And third, Geshe Losang. You know, he passed away in Dharamsala. So and also there, their world, they all pass away. But now, lama is someone is the lama. You know? The khenpo.
Okay. So four lamas, is that? So when I first came to monastery and before Rada, I mean, before, I wanted a teacher. I asked maybe somebody to somebody, you know. But anyway, I asked Geshe-la, you know, his name is Geshe Ngawang Gyatso, personally.
He said, at that time, many years ago, then he said in English. Before you left a bit? Yeah. No. No.
In India. In India. Just in India. Then he said at that time, I have a lama, you know. He lives in Dharamsala.
So his name was Rada. His name was Geshe Ngawang Tharchin. Yeah, Geshe Ngawang Tharchin. So at that time I stayed in Mussoorie, you know. Then we went to Dharamsala, you know, Dharamsala.
Then we also went to see him, Geshe Ngawang Tharchin. Then I asked about my teacher. Then he said, don’t worry, don’t worry because at that time he said to me, I have a friend, so now he is abbot of Sera Je monastery. So his name at that time, his name is Geshe-la Lama Zopa Rinpoche. So this one.
This, yeah. Geshe-la’s, you know, you know what Geshe-la is talking about, how he found his teacher. All right? So then he wrote a letter for me. It was an introduction.
Introduction. Introduction for me. So they saw. So how he met first Rinpoche is like just like that, you know, what he explained. You know, Geshe-la said he looked at many, you know, since he arrived in India, he looked, you know, put lots of effort to find a teacher. Put a lot of effort.
You know? Yeah. She said it wasn’t easy, very difficult time. Then I go to do it. Then I go to Drepung.
You know. So and because our Rinpoche was my first lama because Heruka initiation, he gave me the initiation of Hayagrīva. Hayagrīva. First initiation what Geshe-la received from Rinpoche. Yeah.
After Rinpoche accepted, he’s his student. So Rinpoche gave, you know, Hayagrīva initiation. So it was Geshe-la’s first received initiation from his own teacher. And also, Rinpoche himself, he hasn’t given initiation previously before that. Mhmm.
You know? And, yeah, Rinpoche has given this initiation very beautifully, you know. So many students were so grateful and received that initiation. It was a long time ago, you know. Yeah, long time, thirty years ago, you know.
Thirty years. Thirty, that time he gave. Correct, he gave initiation? Yeah. Hayagrīva and tokens.
All tokens, you know. And this is how the kind, you know, when you receive initiation and able to give initiation and this Geshe-la received one of the very kind from his guru to able to receive his initiation. Mhmm. At that time in 1984, ’84, ’85, yeah. This, the qualified teacher is very important, you know, especially to understanding or the realization of those two qualities, you know, the entire these 10 qualities condensed into two, which is wisdom and method.
Wisdom realizing emptiness. Correct, do you understand? So it is important I should mention here. Especially, you know, the realization on emptiness is very important. You know?
Rinpoche, we were talking about, you know, just one or two years before he passed away, he was talking more on realization on emptiness. And Geshe-la said, I think this, he was almost directly saying he has a realization on emptiness. So that, Geshe-la said, this is very important to someone who has these qualities. When he passed away before two or three years. Two or three years, yeah. During the year, what?
During the year, he was very clear. So, Geshe-la, the Rinpoche was talking more on emptiness and especially anything that when we meet Rinpoche, he was more talk on emptiness, explain, you know, and talk about in the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Not only that, how he talked. When he taught me about emptiness, it was very powerful energy. Very energy, powerful. So this, yeah.
It’s very powerful when he talked on emptiness. Talk emptiness in conjunction with the Bodhisattva Way of Life, chapter nine. There is a verse that he, you know, in conjunction with that verse, he talks about the emptiness. So it’s good to know. Chapter nine that you called?
Chapter nine. Chapter nine, yeah. Okay. I will explain. We got in Tibetan, but not in English.
Chapter nine. Yeah. So I will bring it next week. Okay? Exact word.
Next Sunday. So, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
So a teacher may not be fully qualified to the full extent, but if he or she has two or three qualities. Qualities? Qualities. Qualities, then that, you know, may be enough to start. So you should have said in such time or degenerate time, we can’t find the fully qualified teacher, but at least two of them is probably enough, you know, in such time, in this time, degenerate time.
But Geshe-la said, what is the first to when, what are the, you know, three. Two or three qualities, then answer. Answer. You know? Number one, puts future lives before this life.
Number one. First quality is someone who concerns more on future life, not this life. And number two, puts virtue before non-virtue. Then someone more engaged or concerned on virtues than engaged in the non-virtues. And number three puts.
Yeah. Number three puts others before himself. So number three is someone who, you know, more concerned for others than oneself. In such degenerate times, these three have to be present. So generally, you know, it’s very important to oneself making sure to, you know, who you approach as teacher.
You know, there are a lot of, you know, teachers come into in our town, you know, so oneself judging in this way, you know. Okay. Okay. What? And then we have to create compassion motivation for all human beings.
All sentient beings. All sentient beings. So Geshe-la said, let’s for, you know, few minutes, I think, four or five minutes. Now let’s do some short meditation, you know, for five minutes, and to generate oneself, you know, the bodhicitta, you know, motivation for, you know, making sure caring towards all sentient beings than before oneself and try to generate this bodhicitta and then sit on that for a while. Okay.
Okay. Okay. So he has dropped today. So thank you very much. And we have Guru Puja tonight, 7:00.
So please come. Yeah.
Key terms in this teaching
- bodhicitta jang chub sem (Tib)
- A principal consciousness that combines the two factors of wishing to free all beings from suffering and of wishing to attain enlightenment in order to achieve that; the spontaneous altruistic mind of enlightenment can be either aspirational or engaging. LYWA
- bodhisattva jang chub sem pa (Tib)
- One who possesses bodhicitta. LYWA
- guru devotion
- After finding a fully qualified spiritual teacher and establishing a connection, the disciple trains in devotion using logical reasoning. LYWA
- Guru Puja Lama Chöpa (Tib)
- A special Highest Yoga Tantra guru yoga practice composed by the fourth Panchen Lama, Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen. LYWA
- lamrim
- The graduated path. A presentation of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings in a form suitable for the step-by-step training of a disciple. LYWA
- puja chö pa (Tib)
- Literally, offering; a religious ceremony, usually used to describe an offering ceremony such as the Offering to the Spiritual Master (Guru Puja). LYWA
- three principal aspects of the path lamtso nam sum (Tib)
- The three principal realizations of the lamrim path: renunciation, bodhicitta and the right view (of emptiness). Also the title of a short prayer composed by Lama Tsongkhapa that is commonly recited during prayer services. LYWA
Definitions adapted from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive glossary, as taught in the Gelug tradition.