Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 47-minute talk on Buddhist tenets, Kyabje Rinpoche guides listeners through the lowest school’s understanding of the spiritual path, using an extended analogy of traveling from Adelaide to Melbourne to illustrate how renunciation works. Rather than remaining in samsaric existence plagued by suffering, the practitioner recognizes faults in the current state and develops the thought of definite exit—the wish to attain liberation. Rinpoche then unpacks the four noble truths as the focus of the path and outlines the three essential trainings: ethics (abandoning the seven misdeeds of body and speech), meditative concentration, and wisdom. The talk emphasizes how moral discipline makes the mind workable—clear, stable, and suitable for deeper practice. Part of a Thursday evening series on Buddhist tenets.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1994-03-17 – 6A – KR.mp3
UUID: 4d948c69-495b-42ee-a7ea-3c8e231f1878
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Tenets
Date: 1994-03-17
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,051
This is a verse. The great teacher writes in one of his teachings by doing meditation on the reality one overcomes all impure thoughts. Therefore this evening we shall start from the lowest Buddhist school’s explanation about the path. So far in the Thursday evening series of teachings we have been going through the specific exponents, explanation about the basis the lowest Buddhist schools explanation about the basis because we had the threefold format of their presentation of the assertions in the form of the basis basis, the path, and the result. And tonight, the basis have roughly been finished.
And therefore, this evening, we shall go through their assertions about the path. In the path, this covers three points. The focus of the path, the objects of the path, and what are overcome through the path, and thirdly, the nature of the path. So these three points. Generally, by the focus of the path, it would mean any phenomena there.
So any phenomena becomes the focus of the path. But here, in reference to the path with specific relation to the overcoming of weaknesses of mind and acquiring excellent qualities of the mind the focus of the path should have more profound or higher context meaning. And in that sense the focus of the path should specifically refer to the four truths or what is commonly translated as four noble truths which actually should be the four truths of the superior beings those who have realized emptiness in their perspective how these four becomes true states. So the four it refers specifically to the four truths or the four truths of the superior beings and within the four truth we can further classify into 16 attributes or the 16 superior features which the four truth can be looked as being composed of. As the as the four truths, these are the four which were taught by the Buddha Śākyamūni and which we all here would be quite well aware of as we go went over these four several times and the four refers to the two from the viewpoint of the impure, what is to be abandoned, viewpoint and the two from the pure what is to be adopted higher viewpoint and this means amongst the four truths the first true suffering is the result from impure, what is to be overcome, and true origin of suffering is the causes of that true suffering.
These two are to be overcome or literally called to be abandoned and the third and fourth truths are from pure perspective what one achieves as purity. The third being the true cessation which is the overcoming of saṃsāra, overcoming of mundane existence. And it can be synonymous with the nirvana, the sorrow transcendence. So that’s the third true cessation, true termination, and it is the result. And what is produced by that is the next truth, the true path, and it is the cause.
In brief, these latter, the third and fourth truths are to be adopted for what one needs to acquire. And in brief, that’s the four they are the four truths and that as well explains why there is why there should be not less than four truths and not more than four truths. To paraphrase meaning that reason from the point of what is to overcome and what is to acquire also explains why there are just the four truths. The true path would refer to the direct realization of the four truth and because of that a wisdom which directly realizes the four truths is the actual meaning of the path. And the reason why it is called path is because it is the means on which one traverses or travels on towards liberation, freedom from suffering.
For example in normal worldly convention we have what becomes the basis on which from a place to go to another another place is called as a road. For example you would have a road which leads to Melbourne, a road which leads to Sydney, or Brisbane, or wherever it is supposed to lead. In that sense it is correct to call it path and to describe it further that why that is so would be because presently our state is a state of being in saṃsāra in the cycle of mundane existence or what’s called constantly tormented by sufferings and we wish to go to a state where there is no suffering, the liberation, and the means and the basis that going over to that becomes possible is through such realization of the four truths and in that sense, it can be called as the path similar to normal conventional usage of the word. For example, if a person is here living in Adelaide and somehow things are not going very well and because of that, if the person fails, there’s all these problems. I don’t feel like living here anymore in Adelaide.
And in that way, if the person sees Adelaide as full of fault, due to that, if the person looks around, if there is any alternative place where there would be no fault, no problems, instead happiness and if the person finds Melbourne is the choice then in that case, one sees a fault in Adelaide and good quality in Melbourne due to which there arises the wish to go over there. That’s the example. And here in the context where the example example is applied to be applied is our present situation of constantly being tormented by suffering the unwanted experience of suffering and it is fact that we are in this situation. Now as a practitioner if one realizes that I have this continuous torment of suffering it is not good, I do not want it, and as well in the deeper understanding if the practitioner realizes that this all is happening because of being basically under the control of rebirth through impure thoughts and karma or non virtuous or contaminated actions, actions produced through wrong understanding or misunderstanding of reality. And as long as one is driven under the control of these two, impure thought and karma, then constant torment of suffering is inevitable outcome.
Instead, if I were to make myself freed from such control by impure thought and thoughts and karma, then there will be no such suffering, it will be happiness. In this way, through such way of thinking if the practitioner sees that in the present existence in the saṃsāra, in the cyclic mundane cyclic existence as a faulty problematic and sees the sees the state opposite to that, the liberation as happiness then it is natural that the person, the practitioner would have a wish wanting to attain liberation that state free of all sufferings. And once one has that wish then it follows follows that one also would like to travel on the path leading to that liberation. So such path is what is the present topic of study and such path can be seen in normal worldly convention as being similar to a road needed to reach a destination. That then maybe.
If one finds so much fault with Adelaide and sees Melbourne as with excellent qualities then it is matter of time that a person will have the wish strongly wanting to go to Melbourne and if there is that wish such wish is what in the practitioner’s case would be called the thought of renunciation or more literally called the thought of definite exit, wanting to definitely exit out of suffering and its causes. And how that example would relate in the case of practitioner would be that in the case of practitioner one thinks that as long as I’m under the control of impure thoughts and karma, sufferings are inevitable, that there will be continuous suffering such as suffering of birth, aging, sickness, death, and not having things fulfilled as one wished to fulfill, and so forth. And due to such thinking if the person wishes instead to be freed from such choiceless control under impure thoughts and karma, and wishes to attain wishes to attain liberation thinking that I must attain liberation, I must go to liberation, I must somehow make to there, then such thought is in the practice language called the thought of definite exit. If one sees there is a fault in being under the control of impure thoughts and karma, then one naturally will have a wish wanting to attain liberation, wanting to attain freedom from these two controls.
Whereas if one does not see any fault in being under the control of these two then there will not be a wish liberation, to achieve liberation freedom. And because of that as end result one will not be liberated because one even has not made the initial start from the thought wanting to exit out and therefore it is not possible for one to be freed from sufferings ings and and so so forth. Forth. This thought of definitely wanting to exit out of saṃsāra is extremely powerful important necessary important necessary and regarding what that thought is it is a topic already you have like heard about when the teachings were on the three principal aspects of the path during During those teachings there was extensive discussions about this thought of definite exit. For example, let’s say if one as long as feels being in Adelaide being in Adelaide is very enjoyable, then naturally one will not have wish to go to Melbourne.
That wish to go to Melbourne would not arise. It would not. Do you think it will? Actually, one has the thought of definite exit then one then through that one eventually will have the one eventually will have the path accomplishing liberation, accomplishing freedom whereas if one does not have this thought of definite exit then one will not have the path accomplishing liberation. Therefore it is necessary that one needs to generate this thought of definitely wanting to exit out of suffering and its causes.
And regarding it regarding that one needs to generate it generate it, well, it is something that one needs to generate within one’s mind stream, mental continuity. Because if the thought wanting to exit out, definitely exit out of suffering is somewhere in the country lying around, that’s again not going to help oneself. Instead, one oneself as an ordinary being and practitioner needs to generate within one’s mental continuum mental continuity because only one has that generated within one’s one’s mental continuity then it is possible to as well through that achieve the path the experiences experiences and and the the realizations. Realizations. If one wants to go to Melbourne, then one also needs to find the road to Melbourne because if one finds the road to Melbourne then one would arrive in Melbourne whereas if one does not in the first place one has if one whereas one has not found the road to Melbourne in the first place, then although one may be thinking one is going to Melbourne, it may be possible one might end up in Sydney or Brisbane.
So it that could be possible. In the similar example, here one needs to find in the sense attain the path accomplishing liberation because one does not find attain that path within one’s mental continuum then it’s not possible to accomplish liberation in the similar as we go back with the example if one has not found the road leading to Melbourne, one would not reach there. So it’s similar. Regarding the attaining of the path it would mean attaining the three trainings because all training of the path can be inclusive to the three trainings. So this then would mean one needs to train on the training of morality or pure ethics.
And second, one needs to train on the training of meditative concentration, and thirdly on the training of wisdom. Because when Buddha has taught the training on the path Buddha Śākyamūni has taught the training on the path as inclusive to these three and the order of training needs to be in that firstly one must have as a basis training of morality or pure ethic and then combined with meditative concentration and within meditative concentration would mean having a single pointed, the single pointed, concentrative power of mind where it does not go astray to unintended topic of practice and meditative familiarization. And in the wisdom part it would mean that through the training on wisdom one has to realize the four truths and the four truths themselves comprise of 16 features or 16 attributes. How that is so is true suffering has four attributes, true origins of suffering has four attributes, true cessation or true termination has four attributes, and true path has four attributes, and together these 16 attributes of the whole truth needs to be realized through the training on wisdom. Trainings firstly it is on the basis of the renunciation or the thought of definite exit that one does the training on those three so the thought of definite exit is the minimum requirement even to start with the initial training on the path.
And now as far as the training of morality goes it means means that one as far as the training of morality goes first that first there is this fact that whether we engage in virtuous actions or non virtuous actions we engage in to these two kinds of actions through three doors body, speech and mind and because that very reason they are called the three doors, the three avenues of activity. So they are called the three doors. And now in doing the training of morality what is the way how one has to train is one needs to stop misdeeds through these three doors and starting one’s stopping of misdeeds through these three doors one starts with the stopping of the misdeeds of the body and speech. Regarding the misdeeds of the body, so misdeeds is the actual word literally used synonymous with any action harmful to others and oneself eventually, in that sense misdeeds. Regarding the misdeeds of the body it comprises of the three: killing, sexual misconduct, and stealing.
And in the speech, telling lies, slander, harsh speech, and gossip or meaningless speech. So these seven are the misdeeds through body and speech doors, through physical actions and verbal actions. And as a start in one’s training on morality, one needs to stop these seven. When one actually engages into the stopping of these seven again it must be remembered one needs to have basically the thought of renunciation or definite exit. And with that thought, one makes the determination that I must stop the misdeeds through these two doors.
In this way, by stopping the misdeeds through misdeeds of the body and speech numbering seven those seven which in turn makes one engage in good deeds or the meaningful helpful deeds of the body and speech that That itself is the training of the morality. That itself is the training of the morality on on that level, meaning at the beginning’s level. Through this training on morality, we would be able to stop rebirth to the lower rebirths and we would be able to achieve the three higher rebirths because it is through the training of morality that higher rebirth is attained. It is that training which determines the rebirth in the lower realms or the higher realms. Training on morality through stopping the misdeeds of body and speech numbering those seven, one as well automatically does good actions through body and speech, through physical action and verbal action.
And as a result that makes one’s mind workable, that makes one’s mind workable and how it makes one’s mind workable is we can look this way if say over out there if there is a field for farming and if the field is full of weeds, stones, pebbles and unnecessary other things then the field is not good enough for plantation farming. Whereas if the field is free of these then it is a good field. In that sense our mind through the training on morality becomes workable. So you can say it becomes properly tuned in that sense, workable, subdued, what use is workable? It becomes workable.
And then with regards to the mind, our state of mind is from one point it is as ordinary being it thinks of so many thoughts, conceptions, it is always thinking about different things. So in that sense it is with so many concepts and ideas. And then on the other hand, the mind as an ordinary being is very very flickering and wavering, doesn’t stay on one given object, instead it wanders here and there and it’s as fickle and wandering as a prayer flag which is blown here and there by wind constantly. So in this way our mind to start with has already engages into all sorts of concepts and thought and then on top of that it doesn’t remain stable. It wanders here and there therefore it has that fault as an ordinary being.
And if we roughly classify the types of folds the mind has in that sense. They can be at two levels gross level and subtle level and on gross level it can be gross sinking and scattering and within sinking it has such a fault as falling to sleep whereas it should be concentrating or thinking or doing meditative, familiarization on a given topic or path, or when it tries to visualize or think or analyze about certain things, the thought does not come clear, clearly, so it is clouded. So even on a gross thinking level the mind has such weaknesses therefore it is it is necessary that one needs to overcome all these weaknesses of the mind and put it into a more workable more workable means to develop higher experiences and realizations and due to this very fact here then comes the practice of second training, the training on meditative concentration. Because earlier through training on morality, one has made one’s body and speech away from misdeeds and properly on to the right direction. And now it is through the through the training on meditative concentration that one makes one’s mind as well into quality.