Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 66-minute teaching, Venerable Lobsang Namgyel guides practitioners on taking refuge and understanding the bodhisattva commitment to benefiting all sentient beings. He begins by establishing the foundation: recognition that self-cherishing leads nowhere, and that taking refuge means entrusting oneself to the Buddha’s teachings after checking what resonates with experience. Namgyel walks through the three objects of refuge (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha), the practical conduct that follows — how to respect sacred objects, texts, and ordained practitioners — and the core refuge vow of not killing, explained with both seriousness and humor. He then details the five refuge vows (not killing, not stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, no intoxicants), distinguishing root infractions from downfalls requiring purification, and addresses audience questions about white lies, eating meat, alcohol, and intent. Throughout, he emphasizes that vows exist to liberate, not to create tension, and that practitioners should choose what they can genuinely keep. Suited for those new to Buddhist practice or considering formal refuge.
File metadata (for organising)
File: p1_2009 09 29.mp3
UUID: 4577b1a0-dc22-4540-9234-6f4a45ffe554
Teacher: Ven Lobsang Namgyel
Collection: Ven Namgyel Bodhissatva (Ven Lobsang Namgyel)
Date: 2009-09-29
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 65.8 minutes
Words: ~4,678
I’m just here. I I think Mandala and then refuge. You all know. Got it memorized. So you can do the lam-rim first and then we do it.
Mhmm. We have suffering. Solutions. We don’t like the suffering. Solutions.
But we may like the causes of suffering. But now we have to see the faults behind creating the causes of suffering. So limiting the delusional minds. Limiting the creation of negative karma, because this is what comes back to us, we don’t want to experience it. So if we don’t want to experience it, then we should stop creating it.
So in Buddhism this is the key. That we are responsible. So if we want happiness we have to create it. If we don’t want to experience suffering, we should stop creating it. Up until now, we’ve tried to be happy by self-cherishing.
So self-cherishing is an egotistical mind that relates everything to itself. And wants only happiness for itself. Or it may allow a few sentient beings into it. I have my dog. My cat.
My bird. And they have some problems between them. And that makes life interesting. And then my mother. And then my mother.
I don’t like my brother or sister. So let’s see. One, two, three. We can say four. Or five.
But, you know, when we start to think about all sentient beings, this seems inconceivable. But this is what we’re talking about today, having the motivation to be able to benefit all sentient beings. So at least while we are sitting on the cushion when we are doing meditation, at least we can start with that motivation. And each day you start your day with compassion, you think I’m living today because of compassion. Then every moment after that motivation becomes compassion.
So this is skillfully bringing dharma in your life. So we don’t need to have another stick. We already have enough sticks to beat ourselves. So you don’t need to have a Dharma stick? And so you beat yourself over the head?
Oh, you’re a bad Dharma practitioner. You should be doing more meditation. More study. More of everything. But I think most of you are very busy.
And so Dharma has to fit into your life. So that gradually Dharma becomes your life. And so taking refuge and bodhisattva vows is about learning how to be a Dharma practitioner. How do I dedicate my life to others? Instead of to myself?
So then we have to talk about refuge. So is anybody thinking of taking refuge before I talk about refuge? Nobody. One. Two.
That’s it. At least three. Three. Any any more on three? It’s like an auction.
That’s the case. Yeah. We can keep upping the numbers. First of I wanted to know what is to take refugee and see. Not exactly refugee.
Refuge. Refugee is being Tibetan. You don’t want to become Tibetan, do you? You have to give up your passport. So taking refuge.
The meaning, if you say it in a very short way, is that you’ve studied the teachings of Buddha. You don’t understand it all, especially when it comes to the wisdom teachings. But then you think, well, the things I’ve checked work for me. And there are things that I don’t understand. Or that I can’t prove, which could be rebirth.
Emptiness you can do by yourself, but this is going to take time. So you’ve checked out what you can, and you have a belief in the person who’s teaching, Which is the lineage of Śākyamūni Buddha. The actual refuge is the Dharma. Śākyamūni Buddha gave the teachings, and then the Dharma is the teachings that he gave. And then when you actualize those teachings, you become your own refuge.
So there’s the outer refuge and the inner refuge. The outer refuge is Śākyamūni Buddha. The inner refuge is when you’ve actualized the Dharma. So the purpose of taking refuge is to have this actualization within your own heart. So that’s the Buddha, the Dharma.
And then the Sangha. These, as I said before, are like the nurses. So you’re fellow practitioners. And you are working together to help each other to become enlightened. So they are the conventional Sangha, but the actual Sangha are beings who have realization of emptiness.
So the beings who have some level of wisdom and who are able to encourage you in your Dharma practice. So if you take refuge then having taken refuge in the Buddha, you should not take refuge in worldly gods. And you don’t prostrate to such objects? So, again, we talked about this before. And so what you’re doing is you’re paying respect to enlightened qualities rather than worldly qualities.
And then you should be careful about entrusting yourself to non virtuous friends. Having taken refuge in the Dharma, you avoid harming any being? So this is you directly harming or indirectly? And then having taken refuge in the Sangha. Again, you have to be careful of keeping company with negative friends.
So when you take refuge, as I’ve explained before, it’s about you becoming liberated from your suffering. So the purpose is to protect you. So that you’ve got time and space to develop your mind so that you’re able to liberate yourself from your suffering. So why I’m telling you this now is because some of these things may seem harsh when you’re thinking about compassion. So at the refuge level, then you’re trying to have as positive friends as you can.
But if you have negative friends, you don’t reject them. But on the other hand, you don’t spend all your time with them. But when you get to the bodhisattva level, then you are supposed to use whatever you have in order to benefit others. So how you put the refuge into practice, how you put the Bodhisattva level into practice is up to you. So these are decisions that you need to make.
So then you know what to avoid and then what you have to do. When you’ve taken refuge in the Buddha, you have to regard statues or thangka paintings, anything like that. You have to regard them as real Buddhas, and then you have to prostrate and you pay respect to And then you avoid placing texts on the ground. Then you have to be very careful about judging the material or the art of the artist. So say for instance there’s a cheap statue and then there’s an expensive statue.
So then you could have this mind that says, oh, this is a really cheap statue, it’s not very good. But still it represents Śākyamūni Buddha. So then it doesn’t matter what the material is made of. You’re just paying respect to the idea. As if Śākyamūni Buddha is actually there in that statue.
And then once you’ve taken refuge in the Dharma, so having respect for the texts, Even if you find one word of a text, still you place it in a high place and you have respect. Having taken refuge in the Sangha? I guess the yeah. The main thing about this would be not being with a Sangha and then discriminating amongst the Sangha. So you wouldn’t say, Oh, this person is a good Dharma practitioner, this person is not.
You just recognize that all the Sangha are trying their best to be dharma practitioners. And then particularly with monks and nuns, be careful not to step over the robes. And if you find cloth from robes, then you should put it in a clean place. So again, just thinking in a respectful way about if it’s monks and nuns, monks and nuns robes. So then the advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche?
You should rely upon holy beings, listen to the Dharma, and after you comprehend the Dharma, follow the Dharma and practice it. Then the second point is not to let your senses become too excited. Because then you can create negative karma when you become too excited. And take as many vows as you are capable of keeping. Have a compassionate attitude towards sentient beings Because even though we are taking refuge, we are taking refuge with the mind of compassion.
And then when you are eating or drinking, make an effort to offer to the Three Jewels before you eat. And every morning and every evening you need to make three prostrations to the Three Jewels. And then with those three prostrations you have to recite the three refuge verses. So doing prostrations is to help us to become more humble and also use the body, speech and mind in order to accumulate merit. And then with taking refuge, you have to take one vow.
So the one the one vow that you have to take is to avoid killing. And the root vow of not killing is to not kill a human being. So the vows can either be broken from the root. Which means then you don’t have the vow anymore, In which case you have to confess and you have to retake the vow. Or there is a downfall.
And this is something to purify. So losing the vowel from the root means you’ve killed a human being. Then the second one is taking what has not been given. To break it from the root, you steal an object that is valuable to somebody else. The third one is sexual misconduct.
So this is to break it from the root, then you engage in sexual activity with somebody else’s husband or wife. There could be other things involved. These. But Edgar will explain it to you in the tea break. But then your story was kind of or not.
Did you also say the or not to them? No. Just to me? Yeah. Charming.
Maybe Serin can explain. Hold on. Cool down. Not using not using two doors. Sandra can explain now she’s here.
She’s been married. She probably remembers years ago. Okay. Do I have to be specific? We can ask them.
We can ask them. That. Could do a poll. Yeah. Right?
Okay. We’ll poll we’ll have a sexual poll. Do I have to be more specific? Yes. How did I ever get into this?
Is it getting hot in here or so? It seems very hot in here. Turn the heating off. Okay. Mouth or anus?
So they’re the parts of the body that you should not be using? If you can’t resist, don’t take the vowel. Okay. Then fourth one is telling lies. To break from the root means you have to tell a supreme lie.
That you’ve attained a realization, but you haven’t. Okay. Then the downfalls. This means that you still have the vow, but you need to confess it and you need to purify it. So you kill a non human.
Steal an object of no value. Engaging in sexual conduct at a holy place. Or on one of the holy days or while you are taking precepts. Telling ordinary lies and then the fifth one is drinking alcohol. I think that’s a bit strange.
I think we have to include drugs. I think it must be a mistake. I’m not talking antibiotics, people. We’re talking we know what we’re talking. Something that makes the mind intoxicated.
Ecstasy? Ecstasy? D and D? Damn that. LSD?
How was that? Cannabis? Zolly. I knew that one. What else?
Anyway, you get the idea. So with the fifth one, it’s as soon as you take an intoxicant that there’s a downfall. And using intoxicants means any of the other vows can be broken? Because once the mind becomes confused, anything’s possible. And then for the person who takes all five vows, this is the person who takes the real refuge, that person then needs to avoid the ten non virtues and And practice the ten virtues.
So for others, then you need to try your best to do that. So when you take the ceremony, as I said, you have to take not killing. Which is to protect life. Then the other four vows are a choice. And you can take any combination of as long as it’s not killing, you can take not killing and not stealing or not killing and not lying.
So this is a personal decision based on what you think you can keep. The only person who knows how many vows you have is yourself. So then once you’ve taken vows, twenty four hours a day, you’re accumulating merit. This is the benefit of taking vows? So for instance, if you don’t believe in killing, and you just think, well, I don’t kill, Then walking across the table here is a cockroach.
And I have the instinct to kill. But then I think, oh no, but now I don’t kill, in that time then I’ve accumulated merit. But it’s only in the time that I could have killed. Whereas when you’ve taken a vow twenty four hours a day, you’re accumulating merit. But it’s also something that you need to protect.
You can’t just take it and then think, oh, it doesn’t matter. I can always retake it. So it’s true. You can retake it. But we shouldn’t do these things lightly.
It says here Questions. Who spoke? Who spoke? Yes. Speak.
And what about so called white lies that these are the things that you often say in order to protect these people from being frustrated or not making them unhappy. Mhmm. Like, for instance, you you just don’t say them some things or say that say, you have done a thing that you know you will do, but you know that the person will be frustrated if yeah. Well, still lying. Yeah.
Yeah. It’s it’s an ordinary lie. So we should try to be truthful in our speech. Because we may think we’re being kind. But actually you can check.
How do you feel when you find out somebody’s been lying to you? It’s hard to trust. So there’s cases where people are wearing new clothes and they say, how do I look? And you think, oh, no. Now we’re in trouble.
Do I tell the truth Do I and hurt the person? Or if I lie, actually, I’m hurting myself and I’m hurting that person. I don’t know. It’s nothing. I think as much as possible, you tell the truth.
Because otherwise, people don’t know then when you are being honest and when you’re not. So you say, please don’t ask me. I have terrible dress sense. Look at me. I’m not the person you should be asking.
You ask somebody with dress sense. Some way you try to get out of it. And try to find something to complement rather than being critical. The length is good. The sewing is nice.
It’s an unusual color. Where did you buy it? You know? So remember that the judgments that we make are subjective. They’re not absolute.
So, you know, I can say, that’s a really horrible outfit. And a hundred people could say it was good. So, you know, if I give my opinion, it doesn’t mean it’s the right opinion. It’s only an opinion. And so maybe we just shouldn’t be so opinionated.
You can say I took a vow. I don’t give opinions anymore. And if you think you look nice, you look nice. But, you know, to become more aware of our speech. And then at the bodhisattva level, it says, actually, sometimes you need to tell lies.
So at the refuge level, you need to be very aware of your speech, so that you’re not making any confusion about your motivation. So that if at the bodhisattva level you have to tell a lie, you know it is for the other person’s benefit, not your own. But the lie at the bodhisattva level is more to save somebody’s life. I had a situation with one of my friends that her mother had cancer and the doctors asked her Had cancer. Mhmm.
She said had cancer. Mhmm. Her mother Had cancer. Had a cancer. Yeah.
Yeah. And the doctors asked her whether to tell it to her mother Yeah. Or not. Yeah. And she didn’t have an answer what to do with that situation.
I would always tell. I know a lot of people with cancer. There’s nobody who knows the. And I I think from the people I know with cancer, I think they always want to know. Well, I’m not into I can’t Suppose it’s personal.
I think we can usually sense when there’s a lie, there’s a collusion going on. And so then that makes the person who’s sick unsure. But you know, there is always exceptions. I have one student right now and she suspects she has cancer. Because she’s had cancer before.
So she’s avoiding the test because she doesn’t want to absolutely know. So then she asked me, what should I do? I think it’s better to know. Because we have so many Dharma practices we can do. If you know you’re sick, you involve yourself more in your Dharma practice.
And then if you know you’re not sick, you can relax. But you know, she’s in she’s in between the two. And I think if you think the person that you’re going to tell is not going to go into a deep depression, It’s actually very constructive to know that you have a sickness that can kill you. Because then, for many people, it gives them a very good appreciation of life. And so then every day becomes very important.
Or that person might think I am healthy, just waste life. And then later they start to get really sick. Can’t understand why they’re sick. Find out they have cancer. And then say to the family, why didn’t you tell me?
And then they say, well, we lied to you because we were being kind. After that, it’s hard to trust. Telling lies can make more confusion. But you have to go on an individual case basis. Of course there are going to be times when you shouldn’t tell the person.
Which is when that person would react very badly. This is hard to know. But through your compassion, you don’t want them to suffer even more. By accident. You step out on a ant or or something like that.
It’s it’s killing? Without the the four parts complete. There’s So then the result is unsure? So there would be some result? So then if you’re aware of it, then you should purify it.
And if you’re not aware of it, there’s nothing to purify. Because you don’t know you did it. So the main thing is when you know that you’ve done something, have the mind of regret and want to purify So in order for it to be a downfall, this should be a feeling of you did the action, you wanted to do the action, you rejoicing in the action. So if you’re just if you’re walking on ants and then you suddenly realize I’m walking on ants years. So the correct reaction would be, oh, no.
You know, I didn’t want to do that. So immediately, there’s regret. So that’s a very positive state of mind. And then you recognize that you’ve harmed sentient beings. And so then you could do Thirty-Five Buddhas practice or Vajrasattva.
Because you don’t even want to experience a headache. Harming sentient beings is what gives us physical problems. So you still have the vow, but you want to keep it intact, complete. Women are very strong these days, aren’t they?
Killing when people are killing in front of you. I think if you can, say something about it. Because often people don’t even consider a mosquito as something that should be saved. So we also have it happen in the monastery. Where the rules are, you know, don’t kill.
And then new people arrive and the mosquito comes onto their arm. And automatically they go. And for the rest of us, it’s like, you know, you you feel shock. So for them, it’s protecting themselves. They see the mosquito as an enemy.
And not killing means human. So then it’s about explaining that mosquito has a life and wants to keep its life. So even though it’s very small, still it is like us in that it wants to be happy and not to experience suffering. So then they might say, you’re a little bit weird, aren’t you? And you can say, oh, no.
I’m a lot weirder than that. That was just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more I could tell you. But we’ll just leave it at that for today. I mean, usually in teachings, I talk about cockroaches having families.
They’ve got a little house. The family are at home watching TV. Waiting for father to bring home the food. But papa’s been sprayed. So if you can see the situation in a different way, then there’s not so much fear.
Your mind can relax a bit. Yeah. They think we’re weird and quirky, but, you know, what to do? Any other questions about refuge? You already have refuge.
Moving on. You should have thought of this before. Yeah? She’s going to speak in English. That’s tomorrow.
Surprise! She’s asking about the nontoxicants. Wow. That’s her teacher told the as well in the form that you shouldn’t interrupt like this. Okay.
Drunk. Oh. Oh, well, I would agree with that. Yeah. You you you can If you’ve taken the vow, you shouldn’t get drunk.
You can drink up to and and you you can drink if you’re not getting drunk. That’s But it’s really it’s really, really hard to know. Oh. Her teacher received the vow in this form from Lama Yeshe. Also, I received it like this from Lama Zopa.
And I’ve given it sometimes like that. But then it came back to bite me. Because somebody I gave this to went to Kopan. And told the abbot. Geshe-la Namgyel said.
I could drink one glass of alcohol. So I said wine or beer. One glass of beer or wine, what else? We’re not talking a glass of vodka. You know, like in Germany.
Then you get into trouble, don’t you? How big is the glass? But what I actually said was, if it’s Christmas or a time when other people are drinking and you find it very difficult to say no. Then you can have a drink like this, like beer or wine. As long as you don’t become intoxicated.
The difficulty is to know when you’re becoming intoxicated. So you’re weaving along the road, holding your bottle of wine, thinking I’m completely sober, but you’re completely drunk. So, you know, the scientists say it only takes one glass of alcohol to lose your understanding of right and wrong. And that’s included wine and beer? So I I think we know that.
And, actually, Buddha said not even one drop. So I I also agree that the purpose of the vow is to stop us from becoming intoxicated. But it can be really difficult to draw that line. And sort of say, well, it’s this much and no more than this. Is in the vow of killing only on the physical on the physical level because she thinks that almost every moment our thoughts or what we say are killing others’ hopes, others’ maybe love.
No. It’s killing a human being. And and then killing animals, insects. So we use this word killing in other ways. But maybe we also need to change that word in those contexts.
Because it’s a heavy word. And so then it makes the drama in the mind. So we need to be happier. And so in order to be happier, we need to be careful of our thoughts, our speech, our actions. So the purpose of taking refuge, of taking vows, is not to put you into a prison.
It’s to liberate you from saṃsāra. So it’s not to make more tension. You already have enough tension. In Latvia? Latvia.
In Riga? Riga. You need to relax a bit. Yes. Go on holiday, as Edgar said.
Need a little bit of a relaxing break in the mind. Instead of making more tension. So if you’re approaching this situation from the point of view of making more tension, it’s not the right attitude. Because that’s not what Buddha wanted for you. He wanted you to be happy.
And not to experience suffering. So this is the beginning method of that plan. So just gradually to understand the negative way of thinking. And find skilful means to change it. Yeah.
When you think even even you can think of killing somebody at work and hanging them upside down and doing terrible things to them. You’re still not breaking the vow. But still, you become aware of that thinking. And then you think, oh, that’s not very nice. You need to make that a bit nicer.
She said that she’s just over exaggerating things, and she’s usually very nice. Oh, I I didn’t think she’s not nice. I don’t like that. He was nasty, yo. I I just think we have these moments where you think, I could kill that person.
Or parents say to children, If I get hold of you, I’ll kill you! So we can easily say these words, and yet they don’t have the meaning. If you got hold of your child, you wouldn’t kill your child. So it’s to become more aware of the words and the meaning. So that we’re expressing ourselves appropriately.
Any other questions? What about eating animals and Enjoy. Roast chicken, roast duck. You don’t have to become vegetarian. You don’t have if you take refuge, you don’t have to become vegetarian.
Vegetarian. So if you eat meat, then you try to reduce your consumption of meat. If you need to eat meat for your health, that’s different. If you’re eating meat out of attachment, then you need to reduce it. But it’s not included in the vow?
Because in Buddha’s time the vows were mainly given in the beginning for monks and nuns. And monks and nuns were begging for food. And so they had to eat whatever they were given. So that means they couldn’t say, oh, I don’t want want to eat this. But nowadays we have supermarkets, and we can choose anything.
So then you try and make healthy choices. And especially at the Bodhisattva level, you should reduce your meat consumption. Because it becomes more and more difficult to have compassion when you’re eating meat. Then at the tantric level you’re told to eat meat. Because at the tantric level you have the ability to send the being’s consciousness to a pure realm.
So again, it depends on the level of the practitioner. You have to decide what is good for your mind. The come up of the young come up? He said recently. It’s better to be a non egotistical meat eater than an egotistical vegetarian.
But we’re working on the ego. So you can become very egotistical about being vegetarian. I’m a pure lacto vegetarian. And you forget about all the beings who die for the vegetables and the fruit. So whatever we eat, beings die.
Whether you’re vegetarian or not? So you need to make sure that when you’re eating, you’re dedicating the merit back to the beings who died. They are We’d be in big trouble. They’re not sentient being. So sentient being the definition is with mind.
So sentient usually means able to move under their own volition. But, you know, it also doesn’t mean you can cut trees or flowers without thinking. Because beings inhabit trees, flowers. So in that way, Buddha said we should be very careful. Okay?
Maybe we have a quick break.