Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 49-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche places pledges and vows at the center of tantric practice. After establishing motivation through renunciation and bodhicitta, he explains that entry into the secret mantra path requires a specific empowerment, followed by binding commitments: pledges (practices one must undertake) and vows (behaviors one must abandon). Using a prime minister analogy—a leader without constitutional constraints collapses within weeks—he argues that meditation and mantra are meaningless without ethical observance. He enumerates nineteen pledges and vows associated with the five Buddhas, ranging from maintaining faith in one’s teacher to never abandoning bodhicitta or revealing secrets to the spiritually unripened. Even perfect vow-observance alone, without meditation, guarantees Buddhahood. Pitched at practitioners who have received initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-12-15 – 1A – Advice HYT – KR.mp3
UUID: 12d838a2-94a9-4f9c-b4d4-a28e2a4367f9
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Tantra General
Date: 1989-12-15
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,197
No. At this point, think that I I must I must attend the state where I will be free of all the faults and will be completely endowed with all the good qualities in order because in that state, there will be the possibility of doing the welfare of all other sentient beings to remove their suffering and to place them in the ultimate excellent happiness by myself alone. And to attend that state, I will engage in the activity of listening to great vehicle teaching, in this context the teachings of the secret or teachings of the profound secret Mantrayāna. So in this way let’s try to listen with that motivation and trying to generate that motivation, let’s meditate for about three minutes. The great Lama Tsongkhapa has said from here the great Lama Tsongkhapa has said in two lines, from here to go to the complete Buddhahood, they are the profound mantrayana and the perfection vehicle.
So this explains the destination to which we have to go is the state of complete Buddhahood, and the path through which we are able to reach that destination is of two, the perfection path, and the profound mantra path. And regarding the manner by which one goes on that path to that destination, it’s not like normal way of going the two feet or two legs moving and going like that. It is instead the mind through which ones, what call development of the mind, through which one has to go to the destination on those two path. And regarding the actual start through mind by going on the path, how it has to restart is one has to have a right motivation, right motivation and intention, thinking that all these kind mother sentient beings, they have been so kind to me. And at the moment, they are very much being tormented by all sort of suffering.
Therefore, in order to lead them to the complete Buddhahood, I must first attain the state of Buddhahood. So the starting of the mind development and through that going to the path will have to be by right motivation in that way. And that kind of motivation is called precious bodhicitta. And that motivation of bodhicitta by itself, one is not able to go to that destination. It is like a case of a lame person with only one foot who can’t, what call, arrive at any destination.
Therefore, the other pair of the two legs by which one has to go will have to be the correct view. So with the correct view and the bodhisattva through these two, with a motivation and intention to help other beings, one has to go to the Buddhahood, the state of Buddhahood. And in order to have these two perfect, one has to proceed one’s training training by the definite issue mind or normally called renunciation. And that renunciation is supposed to be a mind which wants to be which the person who has that renunciation mind it is a mind which the person with that mind wants to be free from the saṃsāra. And that feeling or that wanting to be free from saṃsāra has to be very well, meaning has to be very strong.
And in this way, these three, the the renunciation, bodhicitta, and correct view, these three comprises the principal practices in the great vehicle path in the context of perfection vehicle. And in the perfection vehicle these three has to be the principal practice and on top of these practice as being the base, on top of these then the practitioner has to practice the six perfections starting from generosity, morality, patience, diligence, concentration, wisdom, and as well on the four means to attract others. And in this way the practitioner has to, on top of those three, has to practice the six perfection, a means to ripen one’s continuum and the four means of drawing disciple, which are means to ripen other’s continuum, other’s mind stream. And also for the practitioner of the secret mantra, so mantra being literal, we can alternate have the more popular tantra. So also for the practitioner of the secret tantra, these three will have to be the basic requirement, and these three also becomes like the foundation for the secret tantra practice, and it is like a house construction where the foundation stone is same wherever Worker One is going to build the house.
When these three are very perfect in the practitioner’s training, then as Tsongkhapa in one of his lines or one of his texts goes on saying, when the uncommon training has been preceded well, then the entrance for fortunate one, the supreme among vehicle, should be entered instantly or immediately. So this is to be meant as explaining that the person or fortunate person wanting to do the practice and enter into secret mantra path should have those three which are called the common trainings. Once a person have those three common trainings perfect and very well thoroughly trained, then one can enter the secret mantra door. And regarding secret mantra door, it is of the four tantra classes, action, performance, yoga, or unifying or integrating, and the highest yoga, the highest integrating or highest unifying tantra classes. And these four is up to the individual practitioner’s choice which he wants to enter.
If the practitioner wants to enter into the action tantra, then it’s up to his choice. Or if he wants to enter into the performance tantra, that’s up to the choice. And also the yoga and highest yoga tantra. So these four doors are just options, alternatives after that. So regarding the entry into these four doors, firstly the starting point where one has to go or enter is like in the case of one becoming to follow one becoming the follower of Buddha’s teaching, in there the door is to take the refuge.
And in the case of entering the path, in there one has to have renunciation. And in the case of becoming great vehicle follower or great vehicle practitioner, in that case one will have to have bodhicitta as the entrance door. And here with the four doors of the four classes of tantra, the entrance door will have to be the respective of each of the deity. If one wants to enter the action tantra then one has to receive the specific action tantra empowerment and in the case of performance tantra one will have to receive empowerment of that tantra and same to the yoga tantra and highest yoga tantra, or their respective empowerments. Once a person has received the respective empowerment, then after that, the practitioner can or can visualize himself in the aspect of deity’s body and can also recite the respective mantra whichever classes of tantra of whichever empowerment the practitioner has received.
And in the case of the lower tantras, the practitioner will be allowed or becomes permissible to do such practices as the yoga with sign and yoga without sign. And in the case of higher tantra or higher tantra, in that case the highest tantra case, in that case the practitioner becomes permissible to do such practices as generation or arising stage and the completion stage. And without empowerment, it is not permissible to do those practices. In the case, let’s say, example, where there is a country and if one becomes elected as one of the, what I call, administrator, let’s say in the case of a certain country, one becomes elected as the prime minister, then from that time onward, one becomes permitted to be able to execute plans regarding the country’s development and everything. And in the case before the election, the person, because of not having been elected, is not permitted to do or execute their respective plans and projects and everything.
And same here with the empowerment. Once the person receives the empowerment, then the person becomes permitted to do such practices of the respective tantra classes as generating oneself into the deity and reciting mantra. And in the lower tantra, the yoga with sign, yoga without sign, in the highest tantra, they are generation and completion stage. And in the case one hasn’t received the empowerment of the respective classes of tantra, then one is not permitted to do those practices. Therefore, it is called wang, literally meant permission, and normally called empowerment or initiation.
So therefore, it is called permission or wang. In the case of a president or prime minister, even though having been elected, but still, the person will have to confirm with what the constitution says and constitution can be analyzed into having two aspects, one from the standpoint of the prescription to the president or prime minister saying what things he is not allowed to do regarding the country’s management and another aspect prescribing what the person is allowed to do and should be doing. So with that as basis, worker permission to rule the country and manage the country is validated. And in the same case here, once a person has received Wong, empowerment permission, then there will come along with that some prescription which are called enforcement and that enforcement will have two aspects. One, prescribing what the practitioner should be doing and and one prescribing what he shouldn’t be doing.
So along with respective tantra classes, empowerment or permission, they also accompany two aspects of And regarding the constitution in this context in the tantric practices, it is of two called damtsig and dompa, the pledge and vows. Regarding the pledge, what is pledge? Pledge is that enforcement which prescribed the practitioner to do, that these are to be done, these are to be practiced, and placed. And whereas the vow is the, like in the case of constitution, that part of constitution which prescribed the person not to do that, not to transcribe, not to do that. That, what I call, part is same here.
It’s called va, which I call prescribe the person or the practitioner not to do such and such particular acts and so forth. So normally samaya in Sanskrit and vow being samvara in Sanskrit. And if one is not able to observe these two, the place in the vow, then no matter even one has received the permission, the empowerment, and also no matter even one does meditation or visualizing one so less the deity and recitation of the mantra, still they will all be meaningless. Whereas in the case if one observes these too well, then if one has the perfect practices of visualizing oneself as deity and reciting mantra, then it will be meaningful, will be good. In the case of prime minister, if he instead of abiding to not do things which are prescribed not to do, instead of that if he does something opposite to that, and also instead of prescription of what he should be doing, instead of that if he does something contrary to that, then the Prime Minister will not last even for a duration of a couple months.
A few years back, perhaps in ’77 in India, there were two political major major political two parties, Janata Party and Congress Party, People’s Party and Congress Party. And they had election, and Janata Party won the election, and it were called appointed a prime minister from their party. But because the prime minister wasn’t very good, so it didn’t last more than a week. So therefore, even if the person has work or power or permission, but they still can’t work or function effectively. So same here in the context, even if one has received the empowerment, but if one is not able to abide by the required observations of the pledges and vows, then whole practices would be meaningless.
Therefore, Rinpoche feels perhaps tonight it would be quite meaningful to explain principally a bit more on pledges on and vows. In the tantra called tantra Vajrapanjara, in that tantra it has been said in two lines which goes in meaning that even if a person may not meditate the practitioner himself as the deity, but still if the practitioner observes the pledges and vows very well, then in a matter of 16 lifetimes, the person will attain Buddhahood. Regarding the what we call or victors or synonyms for Buddhas. So regarding the victors or victorious ones, they are five families, normally called as the five Dhyāni Buddhas. So they are the Akṣobhya, Vairocana, Amoghasiddhi, and so forth.
And with each of them, they have their respective pledges and vows to be observed and altogether comprises 19 in number. And that starts with going for refuge or to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And then the four kinds And then to practice the four kinds of generosity, of which the first three are the generosity of the Dharma, generosity and then the generosity of the material things, and third generosity of love which means to have a loving mind and caring attitude for other sentient beings. And then are the three kinds of the morality of which the two two are I call refraining or restraining one’s misdeeds. So this is to stop or to avoid harming other sentient beings and the second one to do meditations on bodhicitta and thereby to what call to do the welfare of other sentient beings.
And then the gestures of the vajra and bell, which are as prescribed in the six-session Guru Yoga practice. And also one so these are what are called numberings and being explained of pledges and vows. And also is the practice of all the time having faith to one’s vajra master. And then to make offerings of offerings of what are called incense, flower, whatever offering substances one has to Buddhists and Bodhisattvas, and also to observe all the previous pledges very well. And also prescribed the practice of offering mandala three times.
So in this way, these are to be to be practiced and also also not abandoning ones not to harm other sentient beings and to have love for other sentient beings, to have compassion for other sentient beings. And in the what I call from the standpoint of what to be abandoned is the in the highest yoga tantra, the 14 root downfalls and the eight gross or eight gross transgressions. So in total, 22. And then as in the what I call in the six-session Guru Yoga, and Rinpoche presumes you all must be reciting every day. So in there, the line starts with the I’m not sure what the English translation is.
Tibetan, to look down upon the Vajra master and tease one’s Vajra brothers and so forth. So the first one is to have non faith or to have lack of faith in one’s lama, one’s vajra master. And the second one is belittling or belittling words or the precepts or things to train on. So this is possible to have an attitude, oh, these prescriptions are about what to practice, what to avoid. There’s just nothing.
There isn’t any meaning. So in this way, if one or to belittle and have a tendency to mock at the Dharma, then that’s one transgression, and that’s to be avoided. And in the case of a Dharma brothers sense who have received the empowerment from the same teacher at the same time or who have received empowerment before. So those are the Dharma brothers. And to those, if one are called, if one expresses the sense of not respecting and not assisting each other, then that’s one transgression, and it becomes one fault, meaning it becomes one transgression.
And if one has received the teaching from the same teacher and others also, and also if the teaching has been received together at the same time or before, then those one has regard like as if one’s own relatives. And in the case of any person who somehow inflicts harm to you. And during such situation, if you think or if you wish something bad happens to the person thinking, oh, may he become sick, may he be or may he become terribly hot, meaning may he suffer terribly hot temperature and may he or whatever everything become inauspicious, unsuccessful to him. So to that to hold such attitude in retaliation to slight harm by other. In that case, one is losing one’s love.
And if one loses one’s love to other sentient being, then that becomes one transgression. And before one actually started entering the secret mantra practice, one has already had bodhicitta, motivation, thinking for the sake of other sentient beings, must attain the complete Buddhahood. But still, afterward in the course of practice, find things like, Oh, I can’t work for this sentient being. I’m not able to work or help them, or It doesn’t matter very much. Let them whatever happens to them is not my concern.
So to hold such attitude in the course of practice and thereby, if one if one were called let loose the bodhicitta, then that also become one transgression. And also the next one is the phrase called announcing the secret to the unripened. So this is in the case of if one encounters person who doesn’t believe in the Dharma and still if one exposes, announces the secret mantras aspect of the secret practices to the person like showing him that this is Dharma and it has such function it means that and also bell showing that this or explaining to the person this is bell and it has this meaning and it’s secret tantras thing. And likewise all other things within the category of the secret mantra practice, if one exposes and announces to a person who doesn’t believe in the Dharma, then that is one transgression and it’s called announcing secret to the unripened. The next one is, once received empowerment one, from that moment onward, one already has accepted to do the meditation of visualizing one’s body as the deity and to do the recitation of mantra.
Therefore, after one has received empowerment, one has to visualize one’s body into the form of deity. And when one visualizes one’s body in the form of deity, one’s body is very good. And because it is very good and because it is, it has to be a deity in its actual fact. Therefore, if, on the other hand, if one does something to decline one’s body, one’s power of the body, and to make it weak and so forth, then in that case one is oppressing. So I’m not sure what the actual English translation would be.
So oppressing would be normally the Tibetan word. Oppressing. So in that case, you will be oppressing the body, your body, which is the deity. Therefore, it’s not allowed. And if one does, then that becomes one, what I call, transgression.
And also, once one has entered into secret mantra path, one has accepted to what I call meditate and get used in meditative contemplation on emptiness. Therefore, every day, if one fails to meditate on emptiness, then that becomes one fault.