Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute session, Ven Jampa Ignyen teaches the intermediate stage of the Buddhist path (Lamrim), emphasizing that understanding saṃsāra must come before the aspiration to escape it. He explores the twelve links—the causal chain of rebirth—and introduces the three trainings: ethics, concentration, and wisdom. To deepen these teachings, he uses a practical metaphor: felling a tree requires both a sharp axe (wisdom) and a steady arm (concentration). Wisdom alone cannot cut; concentration alone cannot see the target. Working together, they penetrate to the truth of selflessness. He then anchors this in ethics and monastic discipline, establishing them as the foundation. Suited for practitioners already familiar with Buddhist teaching.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 16 2001 06 07 LR.mp3
UUID: c95ec429-f833-47bc-a124-809e46deb450
Teacher: Ven Jampa Ignyen
Collection: Lam Rim 2001 Month 04-06 (Ven Jampa Ignyen)
Date: 2001-06-07
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.9 minutes
Words: ~4,878
Alright. So this week, we’re starting the next section of the text, which really will now proceed with the ethics. There are a number of different sources given to you to look at. Oh, okay. So we’ll continue anyway with the liberation itself, which is a brief exposition of these points.
So in fact, we’re dealing with the intermediate scope practices here, and really the common intermediate scope. And in a common intermediate scope, people were dealing with the sufferings of the higher realms and how we should think about, how we should contemplate the process of saṃsāra. In the previous section on the meditative lower scope and how we practice the path of the common lower scope, then we dealt mainly with the suffering of the three lower realms. So now, having progressed from there to this section of the text, we’re dealing with, of course, the common intermediate scope practices. So common here means the practices of the intermediate scope, which are common to the great vehicle.
Now in the intermediate scope, that’s divided firstly into the sufferings of the higher realms, because the lower realms have already been covered, and then the twelve links, fundamentally, the process of how we enter saṃsāra, how we engage saṃsāra. But initially there, the sufferings of the higher realms dealt with the sufferings of the six destinies or the six migrations and general sufferings in general. If everyone has this abbreviated, it’s really a listing of the major topics in the different sections. It’s good to just look back on it from time to time because then it gives us an idea of why we’re doing what we’re doing and how one thing connects to what comes after it. It.
Often this is not so clear, we need to understand this, otherwise we get a lot of information about things, but it’s not clear as to why this should occur at this point or why it should follow that point. So in fact, contemplating these divisions is one of the major ways of contemplating Lamrim. In fact, the divisions of Lamrim come out as a separate text. This text is just a list of all the the classifications or the divisions. People memorise them.
In fact, often in Tibetans, you don’t have little trees and diagrams with, like, flow charts and so forth. In the Tibetan it’s often just a list, a long list of things. The first has four, it is this sort of four. I mean the first one has three, and the first of those three has eight. And then the second one has this and the second one has four.
Afterward, you go, where am I? What’s the second one? What does that refer to? Remember, was number three. Where does number three occur?
But if we’re really familiar with the text, we’ll have a very clear picture of exactly where we are. And in fact, the Tibetan way of listing all the divisions often seems very confusing. But if one is really familiar with the text, then one doesn’t need a huge amount of information. One is able to work out all divisions from just the mention of the name of the division. So here we have the sufferings of the six realms.
This is also again discussed in the intermediate state intermediate, sorry, scope practices. And so the sufferings of the six destinies or the six migrations is the sufferings of the lower migrations, and that’s been covered in-depth in the previous, and then sufferings of the happier destinies. Sufferings of the human beings is then we went into in some detail. Birth, aging, sickness and death, meeting with the unpleasant, separation from the pleasant, and not obtaining what one wishes, and obtaining what one doesn’t wish. There’s really eight divisions there condensed into seven.
Then the sufferings of the demigods, and the sufferings of the gods, and the sufferings of the gods is given into the gods of the desire realm and the gods of the higher realms. So here in the intermediate scope, we’re discussing the basic sufferings of humans and gods. And then we have the sufferings in general, then the six sufferings that pervade all beings and saṃsāra, the three sufferings. So the three sufferings we need to know, they’re the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and the suffering the all pervasive suffering or pervasive compounded suffering. And so these we need to reflect on.
And then we have the second great division of the intermediate scope practices, and that is how to think about the process of saṃsāra, or in Tibetan khorva. And here this is dealing with the twelve links. And the twelve links we covered last week pretty briefly, of course, the sufferings of the process of the twelve links and how that reflects the truth of suffering is something that we need to spend a lot of time contemplating in order to develop an understanding of it, because the subject matter is so subtle and difficult to comprehend. Were there any questions coming from last week in terms of the twelve links? What they pertain to?
It’s good if we can memorize what the twelve links are. This the reason for memorizing them is that we can contemplate them then wherever we may be. And it’s good to understand because the process of the twelve links is the process that we’re currently involved in. This process of engaging Samsāra, engaging a contaminated state of existence, moment by moment. We’ve actually got to disengage ourselves from this process, but before we can disengage ourselves or stop the process, we need to understand what the process is.
Because at present we’re enmeshed in it, we’re moving forward into it all the time. And not seeing the dangers of it, we even the thought to stop or to try to stop the process does not occur to us. So we should therefore examine the process of the twelve links and the disadvantages of it. The process of the twelve links really reflects the nature of dissatisfaction or the dissatisfactory state, our unsatisfactory state. So I’ll just read some of the sections that Pabongka Rinpoche is giving.
Now here’s the section on ethics. And here we’re dealing with the path that will stop saṃsāra. Even at the title, the path that will stop saṃsāra, unless we’re fully convinced, firstly, unless we know what the nature of saṃsāra is, it’s hard for us to develop an aspiration to want to stop it. But then having gained some idea of what saṃsāra is, and then seeing that it’s in our best interest to stop this process, then we need a path that will actually stop it. And this path really begins with ethics.
Everyone’s aware of what Samsāra is? What is saṃsāra? cyclic existence? Yes. Khorva in Tibetan, saṃsāra in Sanskrit, cycling Korowa.
Yes. What is it? What does it refer to? Uncontrolled rebirth is referring to that process of uncontrolled rebirth. What is actually taking rebirth?
The mind true? That’s, yes. It’s probably easier to say that our contaminated mind body is what saṃsāra is. Our present mind body, in other words, is saṃsāra. So in a sense, in trying to stop saṃsāra, we’re trying to stop our mind body, our contaminated mind body.
This may seem a little bit alarming because we are it would hardly seem in our self interest to wanna stop our mind body. One of the reasons for this is that it’s hard for us to comprehend the difference between a contaminated mind body and an uncontaminated mind body. Thus, all we can really conceive of is a contaminated mind body. And so that if we were to stop the mind body, it would seem that we would stop. And what would be the benefit of that?
Even the Dalai Lama has said this, that, yeah, if stopping saṃsāra means stopping the mind body, then it’d be better just to hang on to the contaminated mind body. At least it’s a basis that we can continue to use and hopefully help other beings and so forth. If stopping saṃsāra meant that we stop our current mind body, or we stop the mind body altogether, then that probably isn’t in our interest, in our self interest. So even having taking an interest in what the path may be to stopping saṃsāra or stopping the contaminated mind body really very much depends on comprehending what the contaminated mind body is. Otherwise, we’ll never be convinced that stopping saṃsāra is a good thing.
That it actually is in our best interest. But it’s said that the contaminated mind body is pretty much what we’ve got at present. There’s not one one particle of our physical body that’s not contaminated body, and not one moment of mind that’s not contaminated. So it’s no wonder we begin to wonder that if we stop the contaminated mind body, what then remains? What would be left over?
So, actually contemplating this would be a very good thing to do for some months. And in fact, if we had the leisure to do this, like at the the great monasteries in Tibet such as Drepung monastery, where they would contemplate, you know, on a retreat basis the entire Lamrim over a very long period. By being able to do that, then it’s possible to really reflect in some depth on each of the points, then it’s possible to really gain a deep conviction in the path that will stop saṃsāra. So as Pabongka Rinpoche says here, we should sever the root of saṃsāra. This root is the ignorance which is blind to suchness.
So the root of saṃsāra, we should stop saṃsāra. In order to stop saṃsāra, we stop the root of saṃsāra, which is ignorance to suchness. Ignorance to suchness is the first link of the twelve links. Suchness really refers to the final mode of abidance of objects, the The final mode of abidance of anything. Ignorance to the final mode of abidance of objects is ignorance to suchness.
And that type of ignorance is the root of saṃsāra. But that’s also the innate form of ignorance as well, not just the imputed or the intellectually acquired. So the innate form of grasping at the I is the root that must be cut, because when we do not sever this and cultivate other antidotes instead, it merely dulls a few delusions or afflictions within our continuum, but does not destroy them forever. So in other words, by generating the antidotes to our different types of negative mind, they temporarily can subdue these negative states. But only understanding of suchness will sever them at the root.
The wisdom that understands selflessness realizes that the I does not exist by way of its nature. This wisdom is therefore directly opposite to the thoughts and manner of grasping that take the I to be established by its nature. We therefore need to need the wisdom that understands the selflessness in order to eradicate the instinctive or innate grasping of the self. Right. So what the author here is saying is that currently we have saṃsāra, which is this contaminated mind body of the present moment.
It’s just what we’ve got there in terms of whatever we impute this I to, that’s contaminated. It’s contaminated because its cause is contaminated. If the cause is contaminated, the result will be contaminated. If the result is contaminated, its cause must have been contaminated. So the cause of our current mind body, the root cause is really this innate grasping at itself.
So, that must be eliminated in order to overcome Samsāra. So to develop that we need, we really need single pointed concentration. So here what Pabongka Rinpoche is saying is that we actually need the three higher trainings or the three superior trainings in order to stop saṃsāra. The three higher trainings are ethics, concentration and wisdom. In order to get the wisdom that comprehends suchness, we need concentration that will act as a support for that wisdom.
For example, as he goes on with the example, when you chop down a tree trunk, when you chop down a tree, you need a sharp axe and a steady arm. So you need both. You need a sharp axe and a strong-arm to do it. Strong-arm that’s steady and trained to be able to strike the same spot. Otherwise, if we’re not trained in it, we try and chop we get an axe out and we try and chop a bit of wood and we hit one spot, like at present if we went out and tried to chop something, I would imagine we’d hit one spot the first time and we try and hit that same spot the second time and, you know, we would miss by an inch or six inches.
And then we try and hit the first spot again, miss it by another three inches on the other side. So by trying to chop in this way, we just make a mess of the tree. We need a skilled arm that’s able to guide this sharp axe to the same point again and again to successfully cut through the tree. So really, that concentration that permits the development of wisdom is like the strong-arm that’s able to bring the axe to bear at the same point. The sharp axe is like the wisdom of analysis that’s able to penetrate the meaning once the arm is or once it has a steady basis.
If there’s a steady basis, then wisdom can penetrate to the meaning. It’s like having a light trying to watch or view a picture at night. If the light is steady, the flame is steady, we can actually make out the detail of a painting. If it’s flickering, then it’s hard for us to see the detail. Similarly, if the arm holding the axe is not well trained and able to remain steady and bring the axe to bear at the same point again and again, even though the axe may be sharp, because it’s not hitting at the same point, it’s not going to be able to penetrate and cut through to the pith or the center of the tree.
The absence of self, or the absence of all, what, fictitious or All fictitious types of self is selflessness. All non existent types of self, their absence is selflessness. Oh, this is more fundamental than that. Here it’s talking about all constructed or fabricated senses of self that we have. The fact that none of those exist is selflessness.
It is said that the root of our ignorance is that conception which holds a fabricated sense of self to exist. And at present our sense of I is very much a fabricated sense of I. In other words, it’s a sense of I in which the referent object of that conception doesn’t actually exist. In saying selflessness, it’s not saying that there is absolutely no self whatsoever. There is an existent self called the mere self or the mere I.
That we need to understand because a person does exist. There is an existent I, but at present we exaggerate the I. We overestimate the I. Some schools do assert that the mental consciousness is the instance of the person, because it is the mental consciousness upon which the karmic imprints are laid. And that mental consciousness does actually continue even through the death process from one life to another.
So some do assert that that actually is the instance of the person. If we had to find a person, then it’s that the mental consciousness that we have at present, that consciousness that actually continues even beyond death into the intermediate state, into the next life, then that would be the person. But that’s not held by the highest school. Although if we like to think of it in that way, then that’s okay. But, certainly, the mere I does exist.
Even the Buddha, when he was talking about these things, would use the word I. And certainly he wouldn’t use the word I unless it had some meaning. And when he referred to himself, he referred to, you know, I’m doing this or in a past life I did that. Come Ānanda, we’re going to go to Kushinagar and seek alms. So on.
The Buddha himself would refer to himself as I. If the I didn’t exist, there would be no point in using such language. So here, the question that we’re dealing with here is developing concentration and wisdom in order to comprehend selflessness. Because selflessness is so subtle that without having concentration and wisdom, we would not be able to comprehend it. And it’s only by developing concentration and wisdom that we will develop the capacity to eliminate all fabricated senses of the eye, all misconceptions about what the I is.
They can only be eliminated like cutting down a tree by having that sharp wisdom and wisdom applied through the stability of concentration to the particular object that we’re investigating. So anyway, this is given in the form of like chopping down a tree or watching a painting. If we don’t have the combination of the two, a steady mind and a mind that’s focused clearly through analysis, then we won’t be able to comprehend selflessness. Right. So to summarize then, Pabongka Rinpoche then says that we should look at the text by Asaṇga called the Śrāvaka levels.
The things to have are very stable root, rejoicing in a pacified mind, and the ārya view, things not to have, the views of the sinful. So in this statement here, Asaṇga is recommending that what we should develop is a very stable root, a root of virtue. And then rejoicing in a pacified mind, we should also rejoice in the fact of having a mind that is tamed. And the unruly aspects, the faults of the mind, we should eliminate. We need the root of virtue.
On that basis, we need a pacified mind, which is a clear mind, clear and stable mind. And then on that basis, we develop the ārya view. Ārya view is the wisdom here. And what we should try and eliminate is the views of the sinful. The views of the sinful are all forms of wrong view that we can generate.
All forms of afflictive view, such as the wrong view that the law of cause and effect is not pervasive, and so on. That in fact the law of cause and effect doesn’t pervade every impermanent object throughout the universe. Asaṇga is recommending that we don’t hold a wrong view or afflictive view. So in a sense, is saying that, and as Pabongka goes on, that in order to develop the ārya view, which is the wisdom comprehending selflessness, one first needs to develop a calm mind or calm abiding. And in order to develop calm abiding, then first we need ethics.
Because if we don’t have ethics, then we don’t have all the requisites or the conditions for the development of calm abiding. And then Pabongka Rinpoche then quotes another text that of Nāgārjuna’s letter to a friend, Suhṛllekha. This is a letter to a king who was a student of Nāgārjuna’s, one of the Satavahana kings in Eastern India. And he wrote once to the king, if your hair or clothes should suddenly catch fire, give up putting them out. Strive instead to stop reincarnation.
There can be no other aim as great. So in other words, our energy, our focus should be on stopping reincarnation. In other words, stopping saṃsāra. Even if other conditions should arise, we regard them as distractions. We’re on fire.
It’s a distraction to getting out of saṃsāra. Concentrate on getting out of saṃsāra. Don’t worry about being on fire. Of course, meaning here is that we should have our priorities right. Firstly, we should try and get out of Samsāra.
That should be our main goal. Other things that we should avoid getting burnt if we catch on fire, but these are not as important. Of course he is saying that. Absolutely he is saying, we catch fire, of course we put it out. But we need to keep our priorities focused.
Always the thing that we need to do is get out of saṃsāra. There’s no greater aim than that. Do not backslide on the quest for peaceful subdued stainless nirvana. Through pure ethics and Dhyāna and wisdom, or absorption and wisdom, achieve it. nirvana is without earth, water, fire, wind, sun and the moon.
So again, he says we shouldn’t backslide, we shouldn’t take up a good position in regards to all this. In other words, we shouldn’t commit ourselves to getting beyond saṃsāra and then backslide from there, take two steps back from there, and so on. In fact, we need to develop ethics, concentration and wisdom to attain the state beyond saṃsāra. Because that state beyond saṃsāra is without earth, water, fire, wind, sun and the moon. Well, of course, we may think, wait a minute.
I don’t mind a little bit of water and a little bit of sun. It’s okay. I need a bit of, wind at times and so on. What’s he actually saying when he says this? nirvana without earth, water, fire, wind, sun and the moon.
Actually, here is talking about nirvana, which is uncontaminated and permanent and not reliant on these mundane conditions, which at times are conducive to our existence and at times not very conducive. Like for instance, at times water can be conducive to our existence. But if we have too much of it, it’s liable to be detrimental to our existence. Same with Earth. A certain amount of Earth is good for us, but if it’s on top of us, it’s not good for us.
Fire is the same thing. We need it to cook, but it burns at the same time. Wind, if the wind is too much, also it’s dangerous for us. The sun, the moon and so on. We need to get ourselves to that state which is beyond contamination.
So the main thing to be practiced in the medium scope are the three higher trainings, the three superior trainings. In fact, there’s all sorts of training in the world. We train train in the scouts or the cubs or the girl guides. We train in netball. We go to football training.
We do an apprenticeship and we train for a few years to be a carpenter or we train to learn to do a particular thing. We may take up training at any stage and they’re all okay. All these types of training are useful, but they’re not called the higher trainings or the higher trainings. Actually, hear higher, because it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily physically higher. The term is lhag pa in Tibetan, which means also superior or special.
So in the world, are really three trainings, which are ones that we should get above every other type of training. In fact, if we just got these three types, then we wouldn’t have to worry if we didn’t get any others. If we got all the others and didn’t get these three types, then we’d still need to be concerned. So the three higher trainings, everyone I’m sure here knows what they are. What are the three higher trainings?
Ethics? Concentration. Concentration. Wisdom. Wisdom.
Yeah, those three. Ethics, concentration, and wisdom. What are they? Are they all awareness? All states of awareness?
Wisdom is a state of awareness, isn’t it? Concentration is a state of awareness. What about ethics? A state of awareness? It is, yeah.
Actually, they’re all states of awareness. So there’s is a little bit of debate about ethics, whether they can also be a type of subtle form. But definitely, ethics is the in Tibetan, it’s called the tsultrim sempa, the mind which guards or protects. Tsultrim sempa, the mind which guards. Guards against negative actions.
So that’s ethics. So, for us to have ethics in our continuum, we have to have a mind that’s guarding against negative actions. In order to guard against negative actions, we have to know what those negative actions are. And then also we need a certain degree of understanding that those negative actions are negative, and why they are negative, and so on. So, that’s ethics.
And then concentration is the ability to hold the mind on the object of the mind. We have a certain amount of concentration at present, don’t we? In fact, everyone has concentration. Although it’s not an omnipresent mental factor, It’s not always existent, but concentration is there, especially if we’re comprehending the object. So, concentration is the ability to hold our mind on an object.
And wisdom, what is wisdom? Did he understand the object you’re holding in your mind? No. No. Although wisdom does comprehend its object.
We can have wisdom understanding anything. Actually, wisdom is the ability to differentiate dharmas in general. More specifically, it’s the ability to differentiate virtue from non virtue. And then more specifically, it’s the ability to differentiate ultimate truth from relative truth. Dharma here, we can say, is virtue.
The actual meaning of dharma is that which holds its nature or retains its nature. But here, a more specific sense than that, a virtuous or what is virtuous. So, wisdom very much for us is the ability to discern what is virtuous and be able to differentiate the virtuous from the non virtuous. So these are the three higher trainings that we need and they’re superior higher trainings. So in this intermediate scope, the main practice is the three higher trainings.
And if we understand that, then we really almost have the pith meaning of the common intermediate scope practice, the three higher trainings. Then Pabongka Rinpoche then continues. So I would have to discuss them at the point no, wait a minute. So the main things to be practiced in the intermediate scope, the medium scope are the three higher trainings. And then Pabongka then goes on to say that, actually, I’m not going to discuss these three here in the intermediate scope, because I’m going to discuss concentration and wisdom in the highest, in the great scope.
So then he says, so I will discuss two of the higher, he says he will discuss two of the higher trainings, single pointed concentration and wisdom in the sections of the great scope. So that leaves only the higher training of ethics to be discussed here in the intermediate scope. What he means by that is, even though the three higher trainings are all intermediate scope practices, It is the tradition of explaining the Lamrim to explain the two higher trainings of concentration and wisdom in the great scope section. And therefore not explaining the intermediate scope versions of those in the intermediate scope. Does that make sense?
In general, the intermediate scope is dealing with the three higher trainings, but the tradition in Lamrim is not to explain them, explain the latter two in the section on the intermediate scope, but to discuss them both in the higher scope training, in the higher scope presentation. So then he says that actually, so now in this section we will only deal with ethics. And so this is why ethics now is this next section. Now ethics is vital because it’s the basis of all good qualities. They are the Buddha’s fundamental teachings.
Ethics is the most beneficial if one keeps them, but there are enormous drawbacks if they are not kept. The benefit is in the keeping of them. So the fundamental thing that determines whether the Buddha’s teaching will continue to exist is the ethics of the Prātimokṣa Vow. If there are no more fully ordained monks or nuns, then any teachings which will still continue to exist will be ineffective, despite there being those with wisdom in the world. In the Prātimokṣa Sūtra it is stated, when I go to nirvana, you should call this your teacher.
So this is a statement by the Buddha. So that is, you should feel that the ethics in your mind stream or in your continuum stands in or represents our teacher, the Buddha. And you should cherish these ethics and uphold them. So, of course, what he is saying there is that to the monks, the Buddha said to the monks before he passed into Parinirvana, the ethics in your mind stream is my representative. Those you should cherish and uphold.
And then Pabongka Rinpoche then goes on to say that out of the three higher trainings, the difficult ones for us beginners to practice right away are wisdom and concentration. And that’s true, wisdom and concentration extremely difficult. But ethics of the Prātimokṣa vows is easier. And we can definitely put that sort of ethics into practice. So for this reason, that is why it’s said that it depends on the Sangha, on the ordained Sangha, whether the Buddhist teachings continue to exist.