Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ilia S. Durovic teaches the three principal aspects of the Buddhist path—renunciation, bodhicitta, and the correct view of emptiness—drawing on classical Gelug presentations from Nāgārjuna and Je Tsongkhapa. In this 125-minute session, he establishes why the realization of emptiness is indispensable for liberation, distinguishing it sharply from other Buddhist practices like ethical discipline or concentration, which cannot lead to freedom on their own. He walks through the threefold process of hearing, thinking, and meditating on emptiness; explains how wisdom and method must be practiced inseparably as the “two wings” of enlightenment; and illustrates these principles through the historical example of Je Tsongkhapa’s own journey to realization, including the role of his teacher Lama Umapa and his visions of Mañjuśrī. The talk also includes a brief doctrinal discussion on how the aggregates transform at full enlightenment. Pitched at practitioners with foundational Buddhist knowledge.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Line in 0103.mp3
UUID: 73af0322-9c7b-4010-b1b1-ef1d6ad3eb47
Teacher: Ilia S. Durovic
Collection: Three Principal Aspects
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,982
So says, when we attend Dharma teaching, so when Dharma is explained, then this motivation of benefiting others is very beneficial. To impel us to attend the teachings, it’s also very beneficial during the teachings. It leads to a vast result, which is a vast accumulation of merit. So for this reason, we must generate this motivation. So we would now meditate two or three minutes on generating the motivation to hear, reflect, and and meditate on the three principal aspects of the path, which are the very assets of the Buddhist teaching for the benefit of all mother sentient beings as vast as space with the motivation of dispelling all thoughts within our and their minds and generating all qualities.
So as I said in the Samādhi Sūtra, which which he says is one of the fundamental sutras of the Buddha teaching emptiness, Again and again familiarizing the mind with selflessness, the fruit of this alone will be liberation. The meaning of this profound stanza is that generally speaking, within the two categories of beings, those who have an interest in emptiness and those who do not. Those who have an interest in emptiness are the only category which can hope to aspire, which can hope to attain liberation. Because for beings who are striving for liberation, the realization of selflessness is indispensable. And this realization of selflessness occurs in three stages, which are alluded to by the quote of the Samadhinirmocha Rāja Sūtra.
The first stage is an understanding which arises in dependence on hearing, or a wisdom which arises in dependence on hearing. The second is a wisdom which arises in dependence on thinking, on reflecting on the meaning of what one has heard again and again. This is the meaning of the again and again in the quote of the Samadhya Rāja Sūtra. And the third and final step is the wisdom which arises in dependence on meditation after having ascertained through stainless reasoning again and again the meaning of emptiness. So it is only in dependence on these three activities of hearing, thinking and meditating that one can hope to attain a realization of emptiness, which can then lead one to the state of Nirvāṇa, literally the state which goes beyond suffering.
The Tibetan term nyangen-lae-dewa is divided into two: nyangen means suffering and refers specifically to the afflictions; lae dewa means to move beyond, to go beyond, specifically to go beyond the afflictions. So Rinpoche says here, can be also understood as to abandon suffering.
And this is the goal of practitioners. This abandonment of suffering, this abandonment of delusion is that state of liberation one is aspiring to. None of the other activities as the quote of the Samādhi Rāja Sūtra implies, such as concentration or engaging in stainless morality can in and of itself lead to the attainment of liberation. It is only that wisdom which realizes emptiness, which is the door, the gateway to liberation, the gateway to peace. So peace, liberation has only one gateway and one alone.
It is in that respect akin to a vast palatial house which would have only one door, one entrance way. If we want to enter into this house, we have to go through the main door. There is no other way. Likewise, the gateway to the city of liberation is meditation on selflessness. I don’t need I mean, now I’m nervous.
See the tour.
So as the foremost son, the foremost disciple of Ārya Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva said, the gateway to peace is not twofold. The meaning of this quote is that peace here refers to liberation and the gateway to liberation not being twofold refers to the fact that there is only one way to attain liberation and that is through the wisdom which realizes emptiness. So there are only two broad categories of paths. There are the paths which lead to liberation and the paths which do not lead to liberation. The paths which lead to liberation can in turn lead to the state of an arhat or to the state of full enlightenment and they are contingent on the wisdom realizing emptiness.
If that wisdom is absent, there is no path leading to full to liberation, there is no arhat and there is no full enlightenment. Therefore, if we extrapolate without the wisdom realizing emptiness, there is no Sangha jewel because a Sangha jewel is constituted of ārya beings. On the other hand, if there is or if we have the wisdom realizing emptiness, then we have the means to cut through the very root of the suffering of cyclic existence which are the afflictions and ignorance which is their cause. But I would like to point out again and again that the root of cyclic existence is ignorance, non knowledge, non-knowledge, and that the wisdom which realizes emptiness is the means to destroy this. The wisdom which realizes emptiness entertains the same relation with ignorance which heat and cold entertain.
Heat and cold are mutually contradictory. When heat rises, cold abates. When cold increases, heat is reduced. Likewise, with the increase of the wisdom realizing emptiness, ignorance decreases. And therefore, there are three different activities we must engage in with respect to emptiness.
First, we must listen again and again to teachings on emptiness implanting thereby karmic imprints within our mind stream. Then, after listening to teachings on emptiness, we must analyze emptiness using reasoning again and again to give rise to the wisdom which arises from thinking. And finally, we must again and again meditate on emptiness after generating a definite ascertainment which has arisen from thinking to give rise to the wisdom which arises from meditation. Now without these three steps, there is no realization of emptiness. And specifically, in dependence on the wisdom arisen from meditation, we can hope to gain an experience of emptiness, which is an experience which we attain through conjoining Samatha, which you have heard about, and Vipassana.
And then in dependence on this, we can hope to gain direct realization of emptiness, a realization which does not depend on a conceptual image. Once we have gained direct realization of emptiness, then the coarse delusions will abate. Some will disappear easier. For some, it will be more difficult to make them disappear. Therefore, a repeated process of meditation on emptiness is necessary until we attain the state of liberation where we become arhats.
So at present, we have little hope of gaining realization of emptiness. This is because we have not had in the past the possibility to gain familiarity with emptiness. We have not implanted the karmic imprints which arise from hearing, from thinking and from meditating. So we have to do this at present. We have to hear and listen again and again to teachings on emptiness.
Then we have to reflect again and again on the meaning of this. And finally, have to meditate on the meaning we understand again and again, so that in the future we may be able to realize emptiness. And therefore, we must obtain a basis which enables us to free ourselves from suffering and that is what we have at present. We have a rebirth, a human rebirth which enables us to free ourselves from the four sufferings of birth, old age, sickness and death. And to do this, we must eliminate the cause of these sufferings.
The cause of these sufferings is ignorance. Specifically, that ignorance which grasps at the self and the direct antidote to this is the wisdom realizing selflessness. in dependence on this wisdom realizing selflessness, we can put an end to the afflictions, we can put an end to karma arisen from the afflictions and in turn we can put an end to cyclic existence. If on the other hand we are not able to realize this, then there will be no end to cyclic existence and again and again we will endure the infinite sufferings of the hell realms and the realms of the pretas. So it is important for us to realize that this mind aspiring for liberation is fundamental and we must create or we must generate within our mind stream a feeling akin to the wish to vomit at the thought of just how awful our predicament is at present.
Now, this body of ours is the means by which we can attain liberation from suffering. Most probably, it would be very difficult for any being in another rebirth to generate such a wish, perhaps impossible, Rinpoche says. So the body we have on this continent of Jambudvipa of ours, the extraordinarily rare and fundamental dharma we have heard, all these are very very rare and we must value them. These are the means whereby we can escape from suffering and distress. And therefore, at present, we should implant in our mind stream the karmic imprints of hearing about emptiness, reflecting about emptiness, and meditating about the emptiness.
So that later on, these acting as cause we can give rise to their effect which is the realization of emptiness. There is no superior basis for the attainment of liberation than this human body of ours. And as a means to realize emptiness, we must put on our side the preliminary conditions which are faith, study, and ethics and in dependence on this, we can hope to attain happiness and eliminate suffering. We are from our side very fortunate, Rinpoche says, because it is clear that the view of emptiness does not exist among non-Buddhist, among outsiders. So in as much as we have refuge, we have access to it.
So irrespective of whether we want to engage in the lower or the greater vehicle, the understanding of emptiness is indispensable. And for that matter, for those who wish to engage in the greater vehicle, there is no engagement in the greater vehicle without the conjoined practice of great compassion on the one side and the wisdom which realizes emptiness on the other side, which must be practiced indissociably. As is said in the Sūtra of the Unobstructed or the Sūtra without obstruction, wisdom bereft of the means binds to cyclic existence. The means bereft of wisdom bind also to cyclic existence. The meaning of this quote is that wisdom and method must be practiced inseparably, indissociably, and in dependence on these, the two collections must be accumulated.
In the same way as to walk, we need two legs. Rinpoche says if we were to try to hop around on one leg, it would be very awkward. In the same way, we need these two collections. And as Ārya Nāgārjuna said, the root of this for beings is merit and the merit which is referred to here is the two fold collections of the collection of merit itself and the collection of wisdom which act for ordinary beings or for ordained beings as the cause for obtaining the state of full enlightenment and specifically the two bodies of a Buddha. The form body, the Rūpakāya which corresponds to the body of a fully enlightened being and the Dharmakāya which corresponds to the fully enlightened mind of a Buddha endowed with love, wisdom and compassion.
And these are the qualities which we ourselves must strive to generate. So as Candrakīrti, who was a very great scholar of ancient India says, in a famous quote, which has a similar meaning to the quote of Nāgārjuna, the great beings of the Bodhisattvas fly across the ocean of the qualities of the victorious one with their two vast wings. And Rinpoche says this quote refers to the way Bodhisattvas engage in their practice. They engage in their practice through conjoining the practice of bodhicitta on the one side and the correct view on the other, which are compared to the two great wings of a bird. in dependence on its two wings, a bird can fly easily for long distances.
And this is the same thing for the Bodhisattvas who can cross the ocean of the qualities of the victorious ones with the two wings of bodhicitta and the correct view and in turn attain easily and without difficulty the state of full enlightenment. So it is therefore these two qualities or these two characteristics, bodhicitta, and the correct view which we have to generate within our mind stream. And therefore, as Rinpoche explained previously, the understanding of emptiness among the outsiders does not exist among the non-Buddhist, does not exist. Moreover, while the Buddha himself taught emptiness explicitly during his life, at the time of his passing, his disciples who were very disquieted asked him who would clearly teach emptiness after the Buddha had left this world. And the Buddha prophesied that in the South Of India, in a place called Beto perhaps, a bhikṣu who would be called the glorious one would arise, who would teach emptiness very clearly.
Now this bhikkhus was Ārya Nāgārjuna who was therefore prophesied by the Buddha himself and who was able to teach emptiness this clearly because of the power of prayers he had made in the past in his past lives to his to this effect. He composed specifically the so called six treatises on reasoning to clarify emptiness which are, among others, the Mulamadhyamakakarika, the Yuktishashtika, the Shunyatasaptati and two others. And he was in turn followed by one of his foremost disciples, Āryadeva, who was a great scholar in his own right, who eventually through his teachings gave rise to the great Buddhapālita, one of the great propounders of the Prāsaṇgika view and eventually to Candrakīrti who composed the famed Madhyamakāvatāra. Now Candrakīrti, it is often said arose specifically to clarify in an unmistaken way the teachings of Nāgārjuna. And specifically, he composed two major works, the so called Prasannapadā which is a commentary on the actual text of Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā and Madhyamakāvatāra which is a commentary on the meaning of Nāgārjuna’s root verses on emptiness.
And in turn, Candrakīrti was then succeeded down the line by Atisha who transmitted these teachings to Tibet and eventually by Je Tsongkhapa.
So as Dharmakīrti said in a quote, when the understanding of the two truths degenerates, there is no liberation. Now the actual propounder, the actual propounder, the ultimate teaching of the two truths is Nāgārjuna and when the teachings of Nāgārjuna degenerate, then there is no liberation. Now, there are many religious teachings in which the term emptiness or empty is used. non-Buddhist traditions such as Islam or even certain Buddhist traditions such as Zen, and even within the great Indian tradition, within the four acknowledged schools of Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, Cittamātra and Madhyamaka, there are different presentations of emptiness. But what is to be understood here is the presentation of emptiness in keeping with the views of Ārya Nāgārjuna.
Without the emptiness in keeping with the views of Nāgārjuna, there is no liberation. The other teachings on emptiness cannot lead to any liberation. And these teachings of Nāgārjuna were followed very carefully by Je Tsongkhapa who explicated them remarkably in in his commentary on Nāgārjuna’s in Lamrim Chenmo and so forth. So what is important for us is to listen carefully to these teachings, to reflect on them and to meditate on them and in dependence on this to give rise to an unmistaken view. We are a bit in the situation of a child whose deeply caring mother because he is so young has chopped up the food in very very small bits to feed them to him so he can digest them well.
This is the work which Je Tsongkhapa and our forefathers have done. Unfortunately, like the naughty child, we don’t want to eat the food. So these teachings have been made easy for us to meditate upon, but we don’t want to meditate. Okay. This really vicious and nasty little child who would would not eat the delicious meal his mother has chopped up for him.
So we must recollect the hardship which Je Tsongkhapa Rinpoche underwent to gain an understanding of the view. However, Je Rinpoche eventually became profoundly discouraged with the situation in Tibet and with the beings of his time and Rinpoche says this applies to our age too. And he exclaimed there is no benefit in explaining dharma to these beings. There is no real benefit and his great wish was to become a hermit or to pursue realizations in solitary. And eventually, he reflected carefully on this and decided that he would try to find a path which is of benefit both to himself and to others.
And this entailed going to India. He was hoping to go to India to study under one of the great Indian scholars, Maitreyanatha, because he felt that at his period, the view of emptiness did not exist in Tibet. Misunderstandings were too profound. And it is actually through the kindness of Lama Umapa, Tsultrim Dorje, who encouraged to stay in Tibet that we owe the teachings of Rinpoche. This teacher Lekyi Dorje who was said to be a manifestation of Vajrapāni encouraged again and again Rinpoche to stay in Tibet and said to him, if you go to India, you will indeed become a great scholar, gain realization of the view and for that matter become the abbot of the monastery in Bodh Gaya, but your life will be short and you will have few disciples.
On the other hand, if you stay in Tibet, you will also gain realization of emptiness but you will have many disciples. And Rinpoche then, Rinpoche stayed on in Tibet and through the intermediary or through the medium of who acted as translator for Mañjuśrī. Had direct vision of Mañjuśrī through his intermediary became the student of Mañjuśrī and eventually gained realizations of emptiness. So Rinpoche says who act as intermediary for Je Tsongkhapa was most probably a Khampa and the accounts of his early early life are that as a young child, he would act as a herder keeping herds in the hills, in the mountains of Kham or singing the mantra of Mañjuśrī very loud because he was all alone. And probably through the force of powerful previous habituation, one day all of a sudden, he fell unconscious and had a vision of black Mañjuśrī and received from black Mañjuśrī the transmission of the oral lineage.
And after this was a
To see Mañjuśrī at will precisely because he had been chanting the mantra of Mañjuśrī and had been chanting it from the depths of his heart. The blessing of Mañjuśrī entered his heart. You may remember those of you who received these teachings that in the context of the practice of Yamāntaka, the third offering is the offering of perfumed water for the heart, Gende, which is in the uncommon place of being placed third instead of being placed later on in the offering cycle. And the reason for this is to underline that the blessings of Mañjuśrī first and foremost are blessings which enter the mind and they enter the mind stream naturally through the heart. So after Lama Umapa saw the face of Mañjuśrī, after he encountered Mañjuśrī, he was then able to act as a translator if you want for Je Rinpoche.
And Rinpoche was trying to remember the verses with which Mañjuśrī was invoked. Then after Je Tsongkhapa Rinpoche had this vision of Mañjuśrī through the intermediary of Lama Umapa, he received many teachings on emptiness from Mañjuśrī. And these were so profound that Je Tsongkhapa said to Mañjuśrī many times, I simply don’t understand. I don’t understand. And Mañjuśrī said to him, fear not.
These teachings will ripen in your mind and you will eventually gain realization of emptiness. They are like a key which will unlock the door to emptiness. You must keep them in your mind, practice the two accumulations of merit and wisdom, see the teacher as indissociable from your Yidam, and rely on the great scholars of ancient India uninterruptedly. And in dependence on this, you will gain realization of emptiness. So then Je Tsongkhapa engaged in huge practices of confessions such as the confession to the 35 Buddhas as well as offering hundreds of thousands of prostrations and offering mandala on a stone base.
He had no other base than this to offer it upon until his forearm was bloody and in so doing completed the accumulations. So the question is after death, four aggregates are left. The form aggregate is left behind. And can we say that the four mental aggregates, feeling, recognition, volition and consciousness are of one nature but of separate isolates or not? So Rinpoche says, if we look at the issue from the standpoint of the one mind at the time of death after the form aggregate has been abandoned, then we can say indeed that the form and mental aggregates are of one nature and of separate isolates.
On the other hand, if we look at it more generally, then this is not the case. So the question is when one obtains enlightenment, what’s left of the five aggregates? But generally speaking, the five aggregates of an ordinary being are contaminated aggregates. These are aggregates which are taken upon to the power of karma and klesha, karma and delusion. Whereas the aggregates of a fully enlightened being are not taken upon in dependence on karma and klesha.
Therefore, they are non contaminated aggregates. And then the the aggregates of an enlightened being are aggregates which are not taken through the power of karma and klesha. They are non-afflicted, non-contaminated aggregates, the other is pure aggregates, whereas the aggregates of non enlightened beings are contaminated aggregates taken upon by Karma and Kleśa. Now there is a difference difference in presentation between the lower and the higher schools. The Vaibhāṣikas and the Sautrantikas assert that at the level of Buddhahood, there is the presence of contaminated aggregates until parinirvāṇa, whereas the higher schools assert that at the level of the Buddhahood, there is no contaminated aggregates.
So the Vaibhāṣikas, for instance, assert that the continuum of contaminated aggregates proceeds to full enlightenment. This is not an assertion which is made by the higher schools, Cittamātra and Madhyamaka. The traditional time which was dedicated to him which is Lam Rim teachings. It will be from eleven to 12:30. It will be for one hour and a half instead of one hour because Rinpoche feels that it one hour would be too short a period of time to cover the material in tenets.
And Rinpoche would like to heartily invite you to come because tenets are a fundamental topic for us in as much as they teach clearly the distinction between what is Buddhist and what is non-Buddhist. And within the Buddhist schools, the specific teachings of the four schools, the Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, Cittamātra, and Madhyamaka schools from the standpoint of the basis which is the two truths, the path which is the union of a method and a wisdom and the result which for the two lower schools is a remainderless or a nirvana with remainder and for the two higher schools is the attainment of the form and the truth body. So to understand all of this clearly, Rinpoche would really like to invite you to attend these teachings. Okay. Page nine.
So he says Geshe la is one of his very good students. He has a very good and kind mind. In addition to this, he is a Lharampa Geshe and not merely a Lharampa Geshe. He also has an Acharya degree from one of the Sanskrit universities. So he is an excellent scholar with many students at Sera.
I have one announcement. As the Easter weekend is coming and the long weekend, Rinpoche is just giving a teaching. There’s no such a commitment, of course, you know. And but have to have a refuge taken. And, yeah, and please register if you’re going to join.
Thank you.
Key terms in this teaching
- Cittamatra sem tsam pa (Tib)
- The Mind Only school, one of the two Mahayana (Great Vehicle) philosophical schools. The Mind Only school does not accept external objects but does assert truly established self-knowers. LYWA
- contaminated aggregates zagchä kyi phung po (Tib)
- The aggregates of an ordinary being that are contaminated by the seeds of delusion and therefore pervaded by suffering because they are controlled by delusion and karma. LYWA
- Jambudvipa Rose-apple Land; dzam bu ling (Tib)
- Of the four continents surrounding Mount Meru in Buddhist cosmology, this is the southern continent where human beings live. The other three continents are Godaniya in the west; Kuru in the north and Videha in the east. LYWA
- rupakaya form body; zug ku (Tib)
- The form body of a fully enlightened being; the result of the complete and perfect accumulation of merit. LYWA
- Sautrantika do de pa (Tib)
- The Sutra school, one of the two main Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle) philosophical schools. The Sutra school accepts both self-knowers and external objects. LYWA
- two accumulations sambharadvaya (Skt); tsog nyi (Tib)
- Also called the two collections or two types of merit, they are: the merit of virtue, which develops the method side of the path by practicing generosity and so forth, and the merit of (transcendental) wisdom... LYWA
- two bodies of a buddha sang gye kyis ku nyi (Tib)
- The truth body or dharmakaya, the result of the wisdom side of the practice and the form body or rupakaya, the result of the method side of the practice. LYWA
- two truths den pa nyi (Tib)
- The two ways of relating to phenomena, as conventional or all-obscuring truth, the truth to a worldly mind, and ultimate truth, the truth to a mind engaged in ultimate analysis. LYWA
Definitions adapted from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive glossary, as taught in the Gelug tradition.