Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 100-minute talk, Khensur Rinpoche teaches the Buddhist path through the Four Truths and Three Trainings. He uses vivid analogies—comparing saṃsāra to Adelaide and liberation to Melbourne—to explain why renunciation, the wish to escape suffering and its causes, is essential. He systematically covers the Three Trainings: morality (stopping seven major misdeeds, which makes the mind workable), meditative concentration (overcoming five faults through eight antidotes, creating stability), and wisdom (realizing selflessness). Renunciation appears as the motivating force underlying all practice. The talk concludes with Q&A on meditation objects and the role of merit accumulation, and speaks to practitioners encountering these teachings for the first time.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1994-03-17 – Cyclic existence. Samsāra – KR.mp3
UUID: 26d4d385-c489-4e42-b421-75c17aaadce4
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Tenets
Date: 1994-03-17
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~5,480
The great teacher, Geshe Puchungwa, writes in one of his teachings, by doing meditation on the reality, one overcomes all impure thoughts. Therefore, this evening we shall start from 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 the representation of the assertions in the form of the 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, 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 become true states. So it refers specifically to the Four Truths or the Four Truths of the superior beings. And within the Four Truths we can further classify into 16 attributes or the 16 features which the four truth can be looked as being composed of. Regarding 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 went over these four several times. And the four refers to the two from the viewpoint of the impure downfall 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. And 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 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 two, the third and fourth truths are to be adopted for what one needs to acquire. And in brief, that’s the whole 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 truths, 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, the freedom from suffering. For example, in normal worldly convention we have what becomes the basis on which from a place to go to 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, what’s 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 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 feels 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 a 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 to be applied is our present situation of constantly being tormented by suffering, the unwanted experience of suffering. And it is a 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 thoughts and karma, then there will be no such suffering. It will be happiness. This way, through such way of thinking, if the practitioner sees that in the present existence, in the saṃsāra, in the mundane cyclic existence as faulty, problematic, and sees the state opposite to that, the liberation, as happiness, 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 that one as well 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. If one finds so much fault with Adelaide and sees Melbourne as with excellent qualities, then it is a matter of time that a person will have to 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 definitely to 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 am under the control of impure thoughts and karma, sufferings are inevitable, that there will be continuous sufferings such as suffering of birth, aging, sickness, death, and not having things fulfilled as one wished to fulfill, and so forth.
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 liberation, then 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 fold 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 to attain 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 free from sufferings and so forth.
This thought of definitely wanting to exit out of saṃsāra is extremely powerful, important, necessary, and regarding what that thought is, it is a topic already you have heard about when the teachings were on the three principal aspects of the path. During those teachings there was extensive discussions about this thought of definite exit. For example, let’s say if one as long as one feels being in Adelaide is very enjoyable, then naturally one will not have wished to go to Melbourne. That wish to go to Melbourne would not arise. It would not.
Do you think it will? If one has the thought of definite exit, then through that one eventually will have the path of 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, 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’s self as an ordinary being and practitioner needs to generate within one’s mental continuity, because only if one has that generated within one’s mental continuity, then it is possible to, as well through that, achieve the path, the experiences and the 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, whereas if 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 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, 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. It’s similar.
Regarding the attaining of the 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.
Where 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 or 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. Regarding the three 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 that one as far as the training of morality goes, 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 of 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 those seven, which in turn makes one engage in good deeds or the meaningful, helpful deeds of the body and speech. That itself the training that itself is the training of of the the morality 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. From another point, by doing the training on morality through stopping the misdeeds of body and speech, numbering those seven, one as well automatically accomplishes good actions through body and speech, through physical action and through 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, 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, but the word uses are 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 flickering and wavering, doesn’t stay on one given object. Instead, it wanders here and there, and it’s as fickle and wandering as our prayer flag, which is blown here and there by wind constantly. So in this way our mind, to start with, already engages into all sorts of concepts and thoughts, and then on top of that it doesn’t remain stable.
It wanders here and there, therefore it has that fold as an ordinary being. And if we roughly classify the types of faults 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 fold as falling to sleep, whereas it should be concentrating or thinking or doing meditative, memorization on a given topic or path. Or when it tries to visualize or think or analyze about certain things, the thoughts does not come clear, clearly, so it is clouded.
So even on a gross thinking level, the mind has such weaknesses. Therefore it is necessary that one needs to overcome all these weaknesses of the mind and put it into a more workable means to develop higher experiences and realizations. 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 body and speech away from misdeeds and properly on to the right direction. And now it is through the training on meditative concentration that one makes one’s mind as well as the quality to be single pointedly one’s training.
And that’s the reason then we next have the training on meditative concentration. So when the mind is not with the training of meditative concentration, then it has all the weaknesses such as being flickering, wandering here and there, and other forms. And in brief, in mind lacking meditative concentration has five major faults, five major weaknesses, and these five major faults need to be overcome through eight antidotes. And it is through one’s training in overcoming the five major faults through the eight means that eventually one comes to the perfection of attaining meditative concentration. Once one attains meditative concentration, one’s mind can remain stable on a given object or in profound meditation or equipoise for as long as one wants to.
It would be as stable as if, let’s say, if we pick up an object, say, that candlestick or an object, if we pick it up and let it down, if we put it on another location, the object would remain there, stable, unmoved. It would just be staying it stay there on the spot where it was put. Similarly, the mind which has achieved meditative concentration would remain unflickering, stable, always there. But also, it has the quality when it is used, employed to think about other topics, then very intensely, without any scattering and thinking and any weaknesses, full concentratively, remain thinking on the other topics. It would be like, for example, if in the old days, if one has a number of servants, then the servants would go wherever the owner asked the servants to go.
For example, if one servant is sent over there to do certain work, the servant would straight away go there and accomplish the ordered task, and if another servant is sent on this side, whatever was meant to do, the servant would straight away go. Like that, a mind with meditative concentrating power would be employable to think about whatever topic it is used to. For example, if it is employed to think about impermanence, it will remain fully thinking on impermanence without any lack of vigor and with distraction, scattering, thinking, none of those, fully thinking only of impermanence. Whereas if the mind with meditative, concentrative power is employed to think about emptiness, it would remain thinking about emptiness only. So such a powerful, fully focused, into one point, stable and concentrated would be the quality of meditative concentration, that while being having the stability, it as well can be used and employed in whatever virtuous reflection and meditative concentration it can be used.
And in brief, if a practitioner has such meditative concentration power of the mind where the person can remain focused on a given topic for as long as months, years, and still not be distracted even in a moment, then it means one has achieved the perfection in meditative concentration training. And that briefly would be a description about the second training, the training on meditative concentration. Je Rinpoche, Lama Tsongkhapa writes in his Song of Experience where the line says, Meditative concentration is like a king overruling all states of mind. If it is placed, it remains stable like Mount Meru, the king of mountains. If it is employed, it engages in all virtuous activities.
So in accordance to such instructions, it is true that meditative concentration has such quality of being able to perform those two tasks. And on top of that, as a function, it is through the meditative concentration power one as well avoids all gross wrong engagement of the mind. Or to paraphrase, it is through meditative concentration power one avoids having one’s mind doing unnecessary and disruptive things. So that is the function one can achieve through meditative concentration training. It is through the meditative concentration that one overcomes the gross misdeeds of the mind, But the subtle misdeeds of the mind needs to be overcome through other methods, and that’s why we have the next training, the training on wisdom.
Regarding the subtle misdeeds of the mind, it would mean attachment, anger, pride, ignorance, principally all other can be tracked down to the ignorance. And regarding ignorance it means ego grasping or grasping to misconceived self or identity or ego. For example, although what that means is what that means is, let’s say, although things do not truly exist, but ignorance mistakenly thinks that things truly exist. So in that way it grasps onto identity or ego or self as truly existing. So in and that’s how ignorance is.
Therefore, one now needs to apply the wisdom realizing selflessness in order to overcome the ego grasping, the self grasping, the ignorance. And the way how one does that is, one needs to have in one’s power of the mind the meditative concentration, but it is through with the additional force of wisdom realizing selflessness that one overcomes self grasping or ego grasping. Why that is so is meditative concentration, which is as well synonymous with calm abiding. By itself, All it does is it makes the mind remain focused on a given topic or focused object, but it does not do any analysis. A mind of a calm abiding or meditative concentration is not an analyzing mind.
So the analysis part is done by the wisdom. In this way, therefore, through the wisdom, additional wisdom part, then one does power analysis on the selflessness, selflessness reality about phenomena and self and so forth, and through that way one comes to direct, clear and unmistaken realization of selflessness. And that is the wisdom, and if one has achieved that, then that is the perfection in the training of wisdom. By the levels of the it would mean there are five levels of the path, meaning path to liberation, and the five are the path of accumulation, the path of preparation, the path of seeing, the path of meditative familiarization, and the path of no more learning. And here these five paths need to be looked in the context of the lower vehicle Hīnayāna path, because the specific exponent and next tenet school of higher discourse groups, they both belong to the lower vehicle Hīnayāna path.
So in that context we have to refer the five paths within the lower vehicle system of path to liberation. Now amongst the five, the path of accumulation means or path of accumulation of merits. It means whenever, as a trainee, as a practitioner, whenever one has developed morality and meditative concentration based on definite exit, based on renunciation, that actually is where one has reached the first part amongst the five, the path of accumulation of merits. So here, although we can make distinction between a trainee entering for the first time on the first part as being of two types, one of sharp faculty and one of blunt faculty, but let’s briefly make it general without going into those two specifics, because even in the lower vehicle system there are specification of a trainee being classified into those two in the initial entrance into the path. Now there needs to be clarification, and that is on the first path when one arrives, it means that one mainly has developed the qualities of morality and meditative concentration based on renunciation or definite exit, but as well one does have attained certain level of wisdom.
So in brief, even on the first part, a practitioner would have certain levels of having trained on the pre trainings. Now if there let’s say, for an example, if there isn’t any cars around and one does have to go somewhere, then one has to go by foot, and in that case one needs both foot functioning and strong enough, because if one has one foot not functioning, whether it is what’s called crippled or whatever, then one would not be able to go well and would not reach the destination. So one needs to have both the feet well. And as one does have to actually make the effort of stepping the step one and then the next, and then one and the next. If one does not make the effort to walk or step ahead, then one would not be walking and would therefore not reach the destination.
So in the example here, we find that part as well is necessary. So in this way, if we have developed within our mind continuity, continuum the three trainings based on having developed renunciation or definite exit, then we have attained path, but we then have to move ahead. Although we have developed the path, now need to make the journey ahead towards liberation. Here, when traveling on the path, it is not our body which does the traveling because it doesn’t. So body cannot do the stepping and traveling.
So it is our mind which needs to do the traveling. The mind needs to be improved in making higher ascent. And that in sense, in that sense we can say that the mind has to make the steps ahead on the path. As a means to make this step by one’s mind in traveling on the path higher and higher to liberation, the main ingredient and the main means one needs is the strength of renunciation, the strength of definite exit. Because it is through the strength of definitely wanting to exit out of saṃsāra, out of suffering, that one really mentally would make effort in higher practices and would go the stepping over, and that becomes possible.
For example, if one does not have that strong wish to go to Melbourne, maybe one can go ahead, but one might be camping on the halfway. So here the thought definitely wanting to exit from some saṃsāra or suffering is the strength one needs in order to make the stepping ahead on the path to liberation. Because in the actual process of in the actual procedure of training towards liberation, how it happens is, it is through the force, the strength of this thought of definite exit that one engages into the method aspects of the path such as doing generosity, morality, patience and so forth, meaning the diligence and meditative concentration. And then, it is as well through the strength of this thought of definite exit, one engages into the training of wisdom, analyzing selflessness, the wisdom on emptiness topic. So in this way, in either case, it is through that strength as a practitioner, a moving force, that one engages into the two necessary aspects of the path, and those two can be said as the two steps one takes on the path to liberation, and both steps are based on the strength of the thought of definite exit.
And in the, in reference to the two types of accumulation, through the practice of the first type, generosity, morality and so forth, one accumulates the merits. And it is through the training on the wisdom, analyzing selflessness, that one accumulates the transcendent wisdom accumulation. So in that way one needs to do practice on both. In the actual meditators’ case of how that is done is, occasionally one, through the strength of definite exit, engages into practices of morality, generosity and so forth. And then occasionally one goes into profound meditation on selflessness, or what is called the equipoise state, the deep or profound meditation state.
And again, occasionally, one spends time out of that profound meditation on selflessness to engage into practices of generosity and so forth. And in that way, although alternative, but still complementing one another as two necessary combined practice. One does the practice on both, and through that way one makes the step ahead. Now in translation it might need clarification for some new people. What is meant by accumulation of merit is to be interpretively can be explained as doing practices which makes one acquire the necessary ingredient contribution towards one’s liberation.
And accumulation of transcendent wisdom, in a sense, means which one first makes the one acquires the necessary ingredient contribution to attain the form, visible body of an enlightened being. And whereas the accumulation of transcendent wisdom is the practices through which one acquires the necessary ingredient material which contribute directly to one’s future attaining of the truth body state of enlightened being. Because it’s explained to attain enlightenment one needs both these ingredients, both these causes, in that sense. So we’ll stop here for the evening. And if you have any questions, we’ll have few minutes for that.
So the five faults are forgetting the instructions, laziness, over-application, non-application, and sinking and scattering put into one. Sorry? Sinking and scattering. Sinking or scattering? Sinking and scattering, yeah.
Put into one. So first amongst the eight eight what’s called means to overcome those five faults. Although this can be found listed, still to get some additional instruction on them. Now, first means is the power of aspiration, interpretively normally translated as well as ‘pliancy’. ‘Pliancy’ different from ecstasy, but ‘pliancy’.
But it actually means power training, it is the first what’s called means, second is faith, third is intent or intention, and fourth is the diligence. So these are the first four. And then the next four are the mindfulness, which is in meaning not losing the object of concentration. And then the next is introspection or the inspecting mind, and it checks whether the mind is in right state of concentration and making sure that it doesn’t fall into sinking and scattering. And then the seventh is to apply the effort to apply the means.
And then the the fourth is, which is the eighth, is in the case while the concentration is going alright, it is not proper to apply the means. So one maintains equanimity, meaning non effort. Okay. The first part of the question, what object would be the best for meditative concentration? Well, it is considered to have emptiness as the object of meditative concentration is the best.
But then in most people’s cases, firstly one needs to have an understanding of emptiness and then keep it. If one does not have the understanding, then even though it may be considered the best object, it would be unsuitable for time being. So it would be a different case. Now what are the alternatives? Well, in place of emptiness then one can have, say, a Buddha image.
That can be okay. It is still momentarily disintegrating that mind being single pointedly focused and remaining as long as one wants in months and years. But although it is momentarily disintegrating, but the continuity stays, therefore, there’s no full nothing I mean, inconsistency about it being non functioning. So it remains continuously disintegrating. And an example can be, since the start of this evening session, we are still on the same cushion sitting.
So the continuity has remained, although it has been momentarily disintegrated. Thank you.