Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 36-minute introduction, Kyabje Rinpoche opens with a practical question: how do you actually honor commitments made upon receiving an empowerment? He lays out the foundational framework—study your vows so you can observe them through three mental factors: mindfulness (knowing what they are), awareness (tracking your conduct), and conscientiousness (directing your mind toward skillful action). He then contrasts this with the Tibetan Six Session Yoga, which formalizes daily recitation. Rinpoche shifts to why Highest Yoga Tantra uniquely offers enlightenment in a single lifetime, and the extraordinary rarity of these teachings reaching the West. The talk concludes with a striking reflection on how Tibetan displacement—outwardly a tragedy—became the karmic condition for these teachings to reach Western seekers who might otherwise never have encountered them.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-03-18 – 1A – Introduction to Tantra – KR.mp3
UUID: af7f59d5-b6c0-443f-bd07-d11f51720873
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Tantra Introduction
Date: 1989-03-18
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~1,352
To observe your balance. So within the commitments of the words of honor, there are the division of those types of conducts which are to be adopted and those which are to be abandoned or rejected. If one does not adopt those types of conduct, one is acting in contradiction to observing the commitments that you have made. If one does not reject the conducts which one has committed oneself. If one does not reject those types of conduct, one is acting in contradiction to the commitments.
Are there other words of honor? The the vows?. So so So having taken an empowerment, we commit ourselves to various words of honor. For example, if we just take some very general examples, and then we commit ourselves to act, to generosity. If we were, if a beggar were to come up to us and ask us for help and we were just to reject him, then obviously we’re not, we haven’t honored, we haven’t honored our word of honor to act in a generous manner or ethically.
If we were to continue to kill, to steal, and this would be in contradiction to our commitment. This is why it was spoken of previously that upon attaining an empowerment, committing oneself towards honor, it’s necessary to study them, to understand what the vows entail so that one is able to follow them well, one will not act in contradiction to them, to have an explanation and to study them. If you study them well, then one oneself determines whether one is acting in contradiction to them or not. It’s by one’s own examination of one’s own conduct. So it’s necessary to study well to have an proper explanation.
Now there is the possibility that you may misunderstand the vow or the commitment and you make some mistake. That’s a special case. Here we’re talking about you should having taken the vows, the words of honor, that study them well, to know them and be able to identify them And then one will be able to individually decide whether one is honoring them or not, or acting in contradiction to them or not. So previously in India, amongst the great siddhas, such as Tilopa and Naropa, etcetera, the method of observing their words of honor Abided solely within their own mind. And they made use of the three factors of mindfulness, awareness, and conscientiousness.
Mindfulness is the factor which knows the vows, the words of honor. That is, it’s a recollection memory. One actually knows what they are. Awareness tells you whether you are actually observing them or not. What types of conduct are in accordance with what you’re remembering.
Conscientiousness is the factor which serves to direct the mind towards observing, towards committing oneself to adopt skillful states and to reject negative states. So through these three factors of mind, mindfulness, awareness, and conscientiousness, the great Siddhas in ancient India observed their words of honor. This as a means of skillful, as a skillful method in Tibet, then the tradition was introduced of what is called the Six Session Yoga. In which in the Six Session Yoga there is a listing of all the words of honor. And it’s necessary to recite this daily upon having taken a highest Yoga Tantra commitment.
And this was to add the emphasis on the verbal aspect of actually reciting what are you to. So if if we just talk about the enemies from the point of view of traveling the bodhisattva path, then there are obstacles to observing the Bodhisattva vows. For example, there are 18 root and 36 secondary Bodhisattva vows. And then there are the various abandonments of the path of seeing and the path of meditation. On the path of seeing there are 112 abandonments.
On the path of meditation there are, as was spoken of before, the three cycles of abandonments, each having three different levels. These are our enemies which are necessary to overcome in traveling the path. So in in worldly terms, we generally refer to someone who seeks to take our life, to harm us, as an enemy. And also just simply those who might, a thief who might steal our possessions, we consider them as enemies. They somehow are obstructions to our worldly happiness.
In the spiritual sense, in seeking to attain Buddhahood, we must make use of the tool that we are using to attain Buddhahood is the Dharma. And so the enemy is anything which obstructs us from implementing the Dharma. Anything which is discordant to the Dharma is looked upon as an enemy. So someone visited Japan from Sera Monastery and investigated the various Buddhist traditions there. And he came back and reported that there are tantric practices in the Buddhist traditions in Japan. But they have the three lowest sets of tantras, they don’t have the highest yoga tantra. It is only by means of highest yoga tantra that one is able to achieve enlightenment in one lifetime. And by one lifetime we mean that having not entered into the path, and upon entering into the path that same life attaining Buddhahood.
That’s right. So it’s said that even to hear the name Buddha is extremely rare. It’s even more rare to receive the teachings of what to say of actually achieving Buddhahood. In the Sūtra on Individual Liberation, it says that it’s extremely rare to achieve a human rebirth. And it’s even more rare that having achieved that one seeks the spiritual path.
And it’s even more rare that having sought a spiritual path one comes in contact with the words of the Buddha. Isn’t it extremely rare that in this world that people are actually achieving Buddhahood? So it’s extremely fortunate. We are all extremely fortunate. We have the great fortune of having come into contact with the teachings of secret mantra which are extremely rare.
But not only that, we are even more fortunate in having them, being able to come in contact with the condensed essence of secret mantra through the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa. That we have, it’s evidence that we have a great fortune that from your side in listening to these teachingss and I am very fortunate in being able to explain these teachings and that together we are creating a vast amount of positive potential, merit, and that we should understand our great fortune and the vast amount of positive potential that we are creating in this situation to make prayers that we will be able to repeat such a situation again in the future in order to attain Buddhahood, that we will come in contact with the teachings of the Great Vehicle in general and especially these teachings of Secret Mantra and to make prayers that we will be able to accomplish this in the future. And I will do the same. So this is a very, all of this arises from fortuitous coincidence of the sequence of very auspicious events. Due to the great compassion of the Chinese in invading Tibet, the Tibetans were forced to leave their country and take to flee and become refugees in India.
Due to having to become refugees in India, through the great compassion of such beings as Lama Yeshe, such centers as this were established. Then we were able to gather together here in order to hear these teachings through a long string of series of events of showing the great compassion of the operating of the Buddhas in order to lead us along the path. Though in fact we have, the Tibetan people have gone through a tremendous ordeal of suffering, but in the final result it is of great benefit to the West. So ultimately the Chinese have been very compassionate to the westerners. Have been very kind to the westerners.
So the Chinese have been very kind to you. If it wasn’t for the Chinese overrunning Tibet, you wouldn’t be receiving these teaching. We should all make these heartfelt prayers to this end.