Three Principal Aspects

Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. In this 125-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche guides practitioners through the four schools of Buddhist philosophy—Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, Cittamātra, Madhyamaka—showing how Buddhist understanding of emptiness progressively refines. He establishes proper motivation, then explains why correct understanding requires rigorous textual study and direct instruction from a qualified teacher. The core of his teaching focuses on how ignorance operates: it imputes inherent existence onto phenomena lacking it, illustrated by the vivid example of mistaking a stone heap for a person. Rinpoche shows how the Buddha taught different levels of emptiness adapted to practitioners’ capacities. He emphasizes the distinction between the inherently existing self (object of negation) and the conventional self that accumulates karma, stressing that implanting karmic imprints through hearing, thinking, and meditating on emptiness creates conditions for future realization. Pitched at serious practitioners with prior Buddhist study.

File metadata (for organising)

File: Line in 0105.mp3

UUID: 4e1763c2-eb14-4fd2-af07-594856613058

Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche

Collection: Three Principal Aspects

Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide

Words: ~4,296

Okay. So says before listening to Dharma teachings or for that matter explaining them, it’s important to generate a motivation Right. To benefit others. And this motivation, this kind motivation is of benefit not only to oneself but to others as well. So it is a vastly beneficial one, and this is therefore what we should try to generate.

So we must therefore generate the motivation to free all sentient beings from, suffering and the causes of suffering and endow them with happiness and the causes of happiness and place them thereby in a state which is free of all these sufferings. And for this, we ourselves must eliminate all thoughts from our mind stream and generate all qualities. And with this as a motivation, we should listen to these teachings of the three principles of the path, are the essence of the Buddha’s teachings and specifically on the section on emptiness. Preliminary prayers. Page one.

One b, refuge and bodhicitta for teachings. If you’re not familiar with phonetic on Tibetan reading, and you can look at on page two. Okay? Page five, Mandala offering. We we saw the first and the last verse.

Sorry. Okay. Page five, Mandala offering. So what she said, we recited the first couple of times the prayer called so that you would understand or we would understand the lineage of transmission of the three principles of the path. But there is no need to recite it anymore since that has been understood and it would interfere with the explanation.

Now, well, in general, the three principles of the path go directly back to the Buddha himself as a conceptual framework. The lineage itself was transmitted from Mañjuśrī to Je Tsongkhapa and onwards. So this is something for us to retain from this prayer. And with regards to the realization of emptiness, Atisha, in an oral instruction, said to his students, to realize emptiness, you need to be introduced. You need an introduction to emptiness by the spiritual teacher, and then you must rely on the thought of Nāgārjuna.

Now Rinpoche says specifically when one speaks of relying on the thought of Nāgārjuna, one must rely on the thought of Nāgārjuna in the light of the great treatises of Candrakīrti, Madhyamakāvatāra and Prasanapada, which explain Nāgārjuna’s root text, the root verses of the middle way, the Mulamadhyamaka. Now generally speaking, the Prasannapadā is a textual, a word by word explanation of the Mulamadhyamaka Karika of Nāgārjuna, while the Madhyamakāvatāra on the other side is an explanation of the meaning. Both of these must be brought together to understand emptiness. And then in dependence on this one meditates. It’s not just a matter of, establishing some sort of blankness or voidness in one’s mind and then thinking that one is meditating on emptiness.

This is meaningless. Emptiness must be understood in the light of these treatises.

And this is why among the sutras Buddhas taught, the definitive sutras are those two sutras which explicitly and literally teach emptiness. Now with regards to how to realize emptiness, one must rely on the great treatises. One must therefore study these great works, but it’s not sufficient because emptiness is an extremely difficult topic. And if we were to study these great texts alone, then we would probably not be able to understand the meaning. So we have to rely on the Mengak, on the oral transmission from the teacher.

And what is this? This is a transmission of the meaning of emptiness by a teacher who understands it in a pure, correct, and incontrovertible way and then can guide us through these great texts. This is a tradition of. And this is the most fundamental topic in which he will present because the very root of suffering and the afflictions is ignorance. And the only means to cut through ignorance is that wisdom which understands emptiness.

There is no other means. So without this, the door to happiness is closed. And, with respect to that capacity to eliminate completely ignorance from the very root, the arhats are not able to do this. The bodhisattvas are not able to do this. It’s only at the level of full enlightenment that this is possible.

And throughout, it is in dependence on the understanding of emptiness. For instance, at the level of a practitioner of the small scope, a practitioner of the lower vehicle, then the practice of wisdom, which is the understanding of emptiness, will be conjoined with renunciation at the as the means. At the level of the practice, of the great scope, the understanding of emptiness will be conjoined with a method side, which is bodhicitta. And finally, for the practitioner of the tantras from within the four classes of tantras, Kriyā, Caryā, Yoga, and Anuttara, in every single case, the practice of emptiness from the wisdom side is conjoined with, from the method side, the practice of deity yoga. So the two go hand inherently.

And it is without this union, this inseparable union of method and wisdom, there is no attainment of full enlightenment. So as Āryadeva, the heart son of Nāgārjuna said, those of little merit when they hear of emptiness doubt and thereby are reborn in a lower rebirth. And this means that the topic of emptiness is not not one which is accessible to those of little merit, of those to those of little understanding or intelligence. One must have great merit and understanding to understand emptiness. And then as Āryadeva, who was a scholar among scholars of Mādhyamika said, when analyzing existence, it disintegrates.

And here, Rinpoche says the term existence refers actually to samsaric existence. And the meaning of this is that through the analysis of emptiness, the very foundations of cyclic existence, which are ignorance, collapse. In the same way as, for instance, if you have a suit of clothing, which once new has become old and as we say, has just become decayed or rotten, then it falls to pieces in one’s hands. In the same way, cyclic existence, once one has understood emptiness, disintegrates. So as Śāntideva said, ignorance binds us to the cycle of lives.

And through cutting through ignorance, we are in turn freed from the cycle of lives. Now fundamentally, ignorance and the view of emptiness are opposites of each other. And to understand emptiness correctly, it is extremely important to understand actually what ignorance is and specifically how ignorance operates. Now ignorance is a process which imputes, in other words, which places upon something which exists, something which doesn’t exist. So for instance, process of imputation would be one which imputes inherent existence on existent phenomena, which imputes true existence on existent phenomena, which imputes, phenomenas being characterized by their own characteristics upon existent phenomena.

Now in every single case, the imputation is a nonexistent. It does not exist. So what is important for us is to understand clearly this process of imputation, this process of projection if you want, where something which is a nonexistent, inherent establishment, establishment by its own characteristics, true establishment is projected upon something else, upon an existence. And once we have understood this process of imputation, then through subtracting the imputation, we can arrive immediately at an understanding of emptiness. Otherwise, we cannot arrive at a sound understanding of emptiness.

So Rinpoche wonders what sort of an example to give you. He says, in Tibet, people would erect heaps of stones on mountains. And, if you look at them from a distance, it’s easy to imagine that this is actually a person. So that is the example that Rinpoche would like to give. You’re looking from a distance at a heap of stone on the mountain, and you think, oh, that’s a person.

And then when you you generate actually conviction it’s a human being, and then you go closer. And as you go closer, you examine and you realize that that is not a human being. It’s not a person. It’s just a heap of stones. And then the artificial belief that it was a person disappears.

So imputation, therefore, means projecting or attributing to what is not a human being, in this case, the characteristics of a human being. It’s a process of reification. And in the same way, the ignorance which, apprehends true existence imputes, projects, or reifies, true existence, which actually is a nonexistent on the basis of whatever phenomena it perceives. So then what we have to do to understand emptiness is to analyze this process of imputation. And when we analyze carefully, then we will say, maybe this true existence which is being imputed does not exist.

And at the moment that doubt arises in our mind, then the understanding of emptiness is very easy. Therefore, the presentation, of the four schools of Buddhist tenets, the Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, Cittamātra, and Madhyamaka school, are differentiated in function of their presentation of emptiness. Generally speaking, if one understands the view of the supreme school with respect to emptiness, which is the Prāsaṇgika school, then one will automatically and quite easily understand the views of the lower schools. And on the other hand, it is an excellent preparation to understand the view of the Prāsaṇgika school to study incrementally from the bottom up the view of all the lower schools. So while all the Buddhist schools of tenets accept emptiness, they differ greatly in their understanding of the subtlety or the coarseness of emptiness.

The lower schools like the Vaibhāṣikas have a very coarse understanding of emptiness and the higher schools like the Prasangikas have a very subtle one. However, when we try to posit the understanding of emptiness which is shared by all and which is that of the Vaibhāṣika school, it is a selflessness of persons where persons are not one, permanent, or independent. And what is meant by this is that the person is not one because it is constituted of parts. It is not permanent because it is changeable, and, it is not independent because it arises in dependence on causes and conditions. Now this is the core or fundamental view of selflessness which is shared by all the Buddhist schools and which is completely at odds with the presentation of the self in the non-Buddhist schools.

So for this reason, it is generally a good preliminary when one studies tenets to present the understanding of self in the non-Buddhist schools. The non-Buddhist schools see the self as exactly the opposite of the way the Buddhists perceive it. They see it as a one permanent and independent entity. And the reason they see it as such is because they say that if it were not such, then it would be like the body which disappears at death Because they do notice that while the body disappears at death, an entity transmigrates, passes from life to life. And this is what they call the self or the soul.

Now this is precisely the object of negation which is negated in the Buddhist view of selflessness. So that self which is one, which is permanent, and which is independent is refuted by the Buddhists, and only a self which is imputed in mere dependence on the aggregates is accepted. And therefore, all the non Buddhists assert the existence of a self which is independent of the aggregates, the five aggregates which you know, which are form, feeling, recognition, volition, and consciousness. The Buddhists all of the four Buddhist schools assert the existence of a self which is dependent on the aggregates. And then the four schools of tenets, Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, Cittamātra, Madhyamaka, differ in their understanding of what precisely the relation is between the self and the aggregates.

So some of these schools assert that the self is all five aggregates. Others assert that the self is merely the aggregate of consciousness, the mental aggregate. Others yet again assert that, the self is the continuum of all five aggregates. And, each of these views is acceptable in as much as each of these views is one where the self is not independent of the aggregates. And the Buddha himself who was extremely skillful in means authorized all of these views.

So some came to him and said, the self is the aggregates. Like he said, that is so. That is so. And others came and they said, no. No.

The self is consciousness. Like he said, that is indeed so. And others came again and they said, no. No. The self is a continuum of all aggregates.

Like he said, that is indeed so. And the reason for this is that the Buddha wanted to enable a basis for the accumulation of virtue and non virtue to be positive because most of the trainees would have been profoundly disturbed at the thought that there was no basis for the accumulation of the collections of merit and wisdom, no basis for the accumulation of virtuous and non virtuous karma, and therefore would perhaps have given up all ethical behavior. So through his great skill and means to allow the trainees a basis for the accumulation of virtue and non virtue, the Buddha enabled all of these different teachings to be given.

And therefore, says that the process of progression is the following. At the beginning, practitioners would, study the Vaibhāṣika view, the lowest of the four schools, and specifically the Vaibhāṣika view of the self. And then as their collections of wisdom, their studies, and their understanding increased, they would realize that the Vaibhāṣika view was really not appropriate, and they would abandon it and turn to the Sautrāntika view and study it in great depth, accumulate the collections of wisdom, of merit, and eventually realize that the Sautrāntika view of the self was not sufficient and progress upward to the Cittamātra, the mind only view of the self. And then once again accumulate the collections of wisdom, study the Cittamātra view, meditate on it, and eventually realize the Cittamātra view is not sufficient, is not adequate to describe reality. And then move up to the Madhyamaka view.

Now generally speaking, the Madhyamaka view is divided into two subschools, the Svatāntrika subschool and the Prāsaṇgika school. The Svatāntrika school is slightly lower in terms of the view. So the practitioners would study the Svatāntrika view, accumulate the collections of merit and wisdom, and eventually realize that the Svatāntrika view of the self is not sufficient, is not appropriate, and finally move up to the ultimate view, what the Buddha called the ultimate view, the Prāsaṇgika view. So Khensur Rinpoche says it’s exactly the same thing as when a child enters schools. He moves upwards from class to class, and as he moves upwards, his understanding is refined.

Or for instance, if someone were ill and went to see a doctor, the medicine the doctor prescribes is medicine which is appropriate to the patient’s illness and to his general bodily condition. It’s not as if the doctor has his one best medicine and he prescribes it to all patients without exception because he’ll send them over to the hospital for the wrong reasons. So as Buddha said, the nectar which I hold in my hand, I do not reveal to all, but I hide. And the meaning of this quote is that the nectar the Buddha held holds in his hand is a profound view. This is not revealed to all because they would be unable to understand it, would develop wrong views, and there would be no benefit whatsoever.

Generally speaking, when the Buddha started teaching, he turned the three wheels of the law. And the first wheel of the law was turned in Varanasi, the wheel of the four truths. When the Buddha turned the wheel of the law of the four truths, he did not teach subtle emptiness at all. The wheel of the law of the four truths was taught for beings of limited capacity of rather coarse intelligence, and it was only for their sake. Then later on in, on Vulture’s Peak, the Buddha turned the second wheel of the law, the wheel of the law of, the perfection of wisdom sutras.

And here, he taught explicitly and literally the view which later was developed by Ārya Nāgārjuna, the Prāsaṇgika view. This was taught for the highest of trainees, the great bodhisattvas of extremely subtle acumen. And then in dependence on this, more subtle teachings were given on the tantric path on the four classes of tantra, Kriyā, Caryā, Yoga, and Anuttara Tantra, which each one are more subtle than the one preceding it. So that the most subtle of all Anuttara Yoga Tantra is an extraordinarily subtle set of teachings. So the Buddha taught in this way teachings which were adapted to the needs of beings.

And as Je Tsongkhapa said, for beings who are of very limited understanding and dull minds, it is better to teach the existence of an inherently existing truly established self. And the Buddha indeed in some sutras did teach the existence of a self, of such a self because for these beings, there is benefit. So remember, he says, in the Tibetan tradition, the view which is taught is the Prāsaṇgika view, the highest view. So that’s what you all get to meditate. So you have to meditate on the most difficult bit here.

Sir, I said, great effort, was expended in Tibet by all four schools, the Nyingma, Kogyu, Sakya, and Geluk schools to understand the ultimate view of emptiness. And this was done by very great scholars. So for ourselves, even if we cannot understand emptiness in this life, through implanting the karmic imprints of hearing, thinking, and meditating, we create the conditions for realizing it later on. So if we engage in careful analysis now and implant the karmic imprints of hearing about emptiness, thinking about emptiness, and meditating about emptiness, even if we do not realize emptiness in this life, then when a new supreme emanation body, a new Buddha manifests in this world and teaches, we will realize emptiness at his feet. So this is a very profound task we’re engaged in.

So then the karmic imprints which arise from hearing are vast, but those which arise from thinking are vaster and those which arise from meditating are yet vaster again. So if we can engage in any one of these, then later on, there will be great benefit. So to realize emptiness, one needs powerful karmic imprints. Without karmic imprints, it will not be possible to do this. In the same way as, for instance, if we hope to have a sprout, we must first sow the seed.

Without the seed, there can be no sprout. However, once a a seed has been sown, then if it rains heavily, the sprout will quite naturally germinate. This is the same thing.

And therefore, it is for this we have a human base, a human body that we should try to implant karmic imprints through hearing about emptiness. Because once we unfortunately get a nonhuman rebirth, then even if we hear the sounds which concern emptiness, the meaning will not have been implanted in our mind and the karmic imprints will not be present. And a life which is spent in that way is a life well spent. We have little control over where we are born in this world. But if we are able to use this life of ours wisely to listen to teachings, to benefit from them, then this would be a meaningful and worthwhile life, and living a long life will be worth it.

Otherwise, it will broadly speaking be a wasted life. And, therefore, as said, the, object of refutation does not exist among objects of knowledge. This refers to the object of refutation, which is refuted when one meditates on emptiness. So as Rinpoche explained clearly, meditation on emptiness is meditation on the emptiness of something, the absence of something, and that something is what has to be clearly identified. For instance, when we talk of the emptiness of true existence, the emptiness of inherent existence, the emptiness of being defined by its own characteristics, in every single case, true existence, inherent existence, being defined by its own characteristics are the objects of negation.

They are that which does not exist, that which is refuted. The emptiness on the other hand from its own side is an existent. It is not the case, Rinpoche says, that emptiness is a nonexistent because if emptiness were nonexistent, then meditating on emptiness could not lead us to liberation or full omniscience. Well, emptiness is an existent even though it’s very awkward in English because we think that emptiness is a complete absence of everything. It’s merely the absence of one specifically identified object of negation.

Therefore, it’s fundamental to identify clearly the object of negation. And and Rinpoche would like to give two examples for this. The first is that of a marksman. When a marksman shoots at a target with a high powered rifle, it’s very important that he shoot precisely at the target. The target is the object of negation.

Otherwise, if he doesn’t shoot accurately at the target, the shot is wasted. Likewise, if you’re trying to catch a thief in a crowd, then you have to identify clearly the thief, and you have to holler, catch the man in the white shirt. Because otherwise, if you just say catch him, it doesn’t really help anyone. So, again, the thief here is the object of negation, which has to be clearly identified. And as Rinpoche was explaining, and I forgot to translate this, the, famous passage in the Heart Sūtra which reads, the four the five aggregates are to be seen as empty of nature is a very clear illustration of this.

When the Heart Sūtra says the five aggregates are to be seen as empty of nature, the object of refutation is the five aggregates being established by their own nature. And this emptiness of nature is in near absence of the object of negation. So while reciting the Heart Sūtra would be very good for all of us, if we don’t have the time to do this, we can implant very powerful karmic imprints within our mind through just reciting this small stanza. The five aggregates are to be seen as empty of nature, and then we will gain the karmic imprints for understanding emptiness. So as the Dalai Lama said, what arises from something is empty of nature.

And Khensur Rinpoche says empty of nature here means empty of inherent existence. So this refers to a famous quote of the Buddha, which says the same thing. And if we have time, it would be very helpful for us to meditate on this or recite this stanza every day. Do you have any questions?

Could you just respond? But it’s. Right. I will write it for you if you So this verse from the Heart Sūtra refers to the fact that the five aggregates lack nature, lack inherent existence, lack any existence from their side or existence by their own characteristics. Okay?

These are the best commitments he can give you. If you can recite this every day, you will implant very strong karmic imprints in your mind. Do you have questions? Yes. So says there is a big difference between the self, which is an object of refutation, which is the inherently existing, self established by its own correct characteristics, truly established.

That is an object of refutation and that does not exist. But on the other hand, that self which experiences happiness and unhappiness, which accumulates virtue and non virtue, which experience the result of virtuous karma and non virtuous karma, that self exists. That is affirmed. So it’s important to make a clear distinction between these two selves. One self, which is an object of negation, the inherent existing self, which is the root of cyclic existence.

And since we want to be free of cyclic existence, this is what we have to cut at the root, and the other self, which does exist. For instance, if you take men, women, husbands, wives, monks, books, dogs, or cats, they all exist. They all exist as selves. Those selves do exist. Do they exist?

So Australians, Indians, and all that, they exist, don’t they? Those are instances of existent selves. They don’t know about it. And they do know about it. So they accumulate karma.

They practice virtue, non virtue. They experience happiness and unhappiness, so they do exist. So it just is therefore, there are these two divisions or two forms of self. You have the self which is an existent and the self which is a nonexistent. The self which is a nonexistent is the inherently existing truly established self.

And, its main thought is that if it were an existent, then obviously there would be no end to cyclic existence because there would be no way to eliminate it. And as it is the root of cyclic existence, then this is what we want to cut. On the other hand, there is a self which is an existent, which really exists, and that is all of the beings who cycle in cyclic existence, they all exist. They are existence. Okay.

Page nine. Verse nine. Today is a very special day. You know? You don’t know her?

Wait. Let’s see. Venerable Chamtrin, would you please come over here? And Happy birthday, dear Chamtrin, and happy birthday to you. Hip hip.

Hip hip. Hip hip. Give a hand for Chamtrin, please?

You have to Indian style, alright, today with your finger.

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

Madhyamaka u ma (Tib)

The Middle Way school, one of the two Mahayana (Great Vehicle) philosophical schools. The Middle Way school does not assert true establishment even conventionally. There are two divisions of the Middle Way school: 1) Autonomists and 2) Consequentialists. LYWA

mandala offering

The symbolic offering of the entire purified universe to the spiritual teacher (guru) and the visualized merit field. LYWA

Nyingma

The old translation school of Tibetan Buddhism, which traces its teachings back to the time of Padmasambhava... LYWA

object of negation gag cha (Tib)

An object to be refuted or eliminated. There are different objects of negation in different contexts, but when meditating on emptiness according to Prasangika (the Middle Way Consequence school), the object of negation is inherent existence. LYWA

oral transmission lung (Tib, Wyl)

The verbal transmission of a teaching, meditation practice or mantra from guru to disciple, the guru having received the transmission in an unbroken lineage from the original source. 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

true existence den par yö pa (Tib)

The concrete, real existence from its own side that everything appears to possess; in fact, both self and phenomena are empty of true existence. LYWA

Definitions adapted from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive glossary, as taught in the Gelug tradition.