Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 36-minute session, Ven Thubten Dondrub opens the “Presenting the Path” course with foundational Buddhist philosophy and practical guidance for newcomers. He begins by establishing the course’s approach: engaging actively with teachings through weekly homework, meditation, and study rather than passive listening. He then introduces the Four Noble Truths as reframed in the Gelugpa tradition—focusing on understanding that happiness comes from mind training, not external sources. Central to his teaching is the concept of disturbing emotions like anger, pride, and jealousy as the true obstacles to well-being and liberation. He explains how Buddhist practice progresses from seeking happiness in this life, to securing a good rebirth, to ultimately escaping saṃsāra entirely, and finally to the Mahāyāna goal of bodhicitta—the wish to achieve enlightenment in order to free all sentient beings from suffering. He concludes with practical instruction on how to listen to teachings: avoiding three “faults of the vessel” (distraction, contamination by wrong motivation, and mental distraction). Intended for practitioners new to Buddhism and the Discovering Buddhism program.
File metadata (for organising)
File: DB Presenting The Path Week 1.mp3
UUID: c37ee48f-bde4-4698-b2b0-b675d3f78ab2
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: DB Presenting the Path (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2016 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 36.5 minutes
Words: ~5,121
This just keeps going what is on the program so on. We continue we’re doing, presenting the path the One of the problems of following our lamas is outlines the whole path to enlightenment. So I particularly like to welcome those people who are introduced you to the Buddha House. Anger, pride and jealousy. I haven’t seen some of you before.
Not only do those disturbing emotions embarrass people, but if they’re ever irritation of the other people, and unlike leaders of Buddhism, engage in negative actions and whatever, but also to Buddhism, we’re creating the tendency to do the same thing again. Every time we follow desire we’re creating the habit So some of the people here have been studying and discovering Buddhism for a while. Every time we get angry, Of course, the more background you have, it helps you understand any particular module. The way I try to teach each module, hopefully it will make some sense for new people. We think the solution to being happy is to follow our desire. The Buddha’s teaching is very profound.
You shouldn’t expect to understand everything. Done that. There’s just so many things to explain, such as even why I’m sitting on this fancy, thick, seat and all those kinds of things, and all why we prostrate. An explanation of everything that takes a lot of time, so one thing I ask people to do in coming to these courses is to be patient. Patient with me, patient with yourself, because it all takes time to put things together.
So there is an introductory talk that I’ve made to the Discovering Buddhism programme. Some of you are familiar with the newer people. That will be sent to as well as each There is a link to how you can listen to Because of all of what I see. All of this stuff are recorded and so you can listen to them again if you really want to teach yourself by listening to them. Actually, would encourage you to listen to them again, especially the newer people, because there’s many things that you can miss.
They are the very source and also just by hearing things again what you might Buddhist message is that the first time you hear it. The repetition is really making it start to make sense. It’s just not out there. There’s some pleasure out there, the illusion of happiness out the real source One of the things we try to encourage people in this particular course of the discovering Buddhism program is not just simply to come and real happiness. It’s not just to come and talk about it. The manifestation of The idea is to try to engage with it as much as possible. So for this reason, you’re given a sheet of homework every week.
It’s very simple. You don’t fail it or pass it, it’s just something to encourage you to integrate what you’ve heard and sort of investigate a bit more of what I’ve spoken about for you to do something during the week. Really encourage people to do this take it as much effort as you can into doing the homework. This biscuit break. Involves some For those who will be attending the whole course, there’s also a book every week.
Put over here on this table there’s the homework to read, and give that either break meditation or work practice to do. It’s all very, very simple. If there are some other handouts, I also put them there. When you’ve done your homework, the idea is to put the homework in the book, Buddha’s teachings were always meant to be something not to So there is just homework there, too. One handout, and the meditation, to be put into practice if one feels that they make sense.
There is also just a very brief outline of what I’m trying to talk about, because the more you get a taste of the teachings by practicing them, the more you’re doing things, hopefully the teachings will increase. Also, other thing I should have to mention is that apart from the reading here there are various recommended books that you could, if you really want to, go into the topic more. As a beginner, when we first approached the reader, some of these books are available now to know what they’re about to see what created the next special teachings if they make sense. Discovering Buddhism and why people could join. And after having listened to the teachings for some time, read the teachings for some time, one may feel a joy, one may feel connected to them, one may believe them, or feel drawn to becoming a member, and so one continues to listen to the teachings.
At that point, the real purpose of listening to the teachings over and over is to gain a deeper and deeper understanding of them for the purpose of putting them into practice. So the ultimate reason for practicing, for listening to the Buddhist teachings is to put the teachings into practice and the reason to put them into any way So the first noble truth is to use this term to change the four noble truths that have been used for a long time. Because the basis of technically accurate, it should be called all about the mind. A noble one, an ārya being, is the source of all our. Everything that we experience, are able to directly perceive — reality is in our mind.
So for such a being, everything that the Buddha is experiencing, everything we know, and feel, all conditioned, dependent upon mind. Every time such being experience something, is an ārya being, there are four things which are true, all of which are truths — the nature of happiness and suffering, in the samsaric world controlled by delusions, the real source of them is within our own mind. So what the more we should really mean understand it doesn’t simply mean less suffering in our lives. Our ordinary happiness involves having some suffering. From the main time, that’s the essential message that the very fabric that we have to take care of our mind is suffering.
Not suffering necessarily in the sense that most of us waste our lives taking care of our body, physical or mental, the sense of money or family, friendship, and we forget essentials of what we really want. We don’t take our mind, all those other things are just aspects of saṃsāra. When the mind is obscured, that is impossible. What we all want is to be free happiness. This is what the Buddha is saying.
Happiness what we do. It’s not just imperfect, achieved, genuine happiness, permanent, lasting happiness. And the Buddha says this is possible. Many people are attracted only this way because it’s very dogmatic. It’s undogmatic, for the mind.
A lot more to care of our minds. Buddha said it’s priceless. We have to take care of our minds because it all comes from And the more we understand that your mind is not just brain, our mind is not something physical, it’s something formless and non-substantial. A very mythical version of the life story of the Buddha. When he was born, he came out from the side of his mother. He didn’t come out from the usual place, but was born from the side of his mother.
The more we understand what the mind is from the Buddha’s perspective. He said, I have shown the light. Because it’s formless, it’s formless, beyond anything old or young, what we say or do. Not just beyond this life for a short time, but forever. The Buddha knew he was And if we start to realize that, then he says, Well, it’s up to you to check that really do have take care what I say because I said it. Suffering and happiness can go on, your understanding will be very, very deep and unshakable.
But if you just blindly the causes for this eternal happiness or eternal suffering is what we do with our mind. So this is why in the Tibetan tradition, especially the Gelugpa tradition, we follow a graduated path, which this course covers. But anyway, I think it’s always good to hear again, member of the Sangha, leader of the Sangha. So, at first, start out thinking about wanting to take care of mind for our own sake in this life. But as we practice to not blindly hear but to really think about it, get a deeper understanding, a wider understanding of the Buddha’s teachings, then we can start this as we may not be immediately understand connect.
It’s not enough just to practice to take care of our mind for happiness in this life because we’re all going to die. So anyway, that’s the first noble truth that all we really Second noble truth, the second truth of noble beings is that there is a true cause. We start to understand that and what the Buddha does not enough to make sure that when we die we’re going to get a good rebirth. While our mind is controlled by disturbing emotions, physical and mental imprints generated — these are the greatest. All of it remains the origins called saṃsāra.
The cOmination of all disturbing thoughts, when they arise themselves, they are The whole aim of the Dharma practice is to become free of saṃsāra, it’s painful. While the mind is controlled by anger, actually desire is also painful. We’re not able to experience the true nature of our own. Unskillful actions obscure the true nature of our lives. True nature of our mind leads to more suffering being overcome.
In this life, suffering has the potential for everlasting joy. The suffering has the potential for great compassion for all beings, great love and So it all comes from all these amazing qualities are suppressed, fundamental insight of the nature of saṃsāra. Obscured by all our disturbing thoughts, negative imprints. And we believe that the cause of our suffering is in the external world, like diseases, the hot weather, especially other unpleasant people. The real problem in our life is not all those nasty people who we need to free up from.
Then we get out of cyclic existence. But according to the Mahāyāna teachings, there are two main streams of the Buddhist teachings, they are the conditions, part of what is called the individual vehicle, and then there is the Mahāyāna. Called the Mahāyāna. So Tibetan Buddhism, which we teach and try and practice at this center, a part of the Mahāyāna The immediate cause of suffering now becoming an arhat, if we just become free of cyclic existence, of course, it’s wonderful for ourselves. Are free of suffering, we are free to experience ourselves and our mind as it truly is But it only benefits ourselves.
So the third noble truth is that there is true cessation of suffering. This is what the Buddha himself can experience. A true cessation of suffering, a complete, everlasting, and what the Mahāyāna attains, is that, is that the vast majority of suffering is that human beings and other kinds of sentient beings. But the Buddha says there is true cessation of suffering, all sentient beings are suffering and can experience so much more suffering than ourselves. And totally brought these beings’ suffering to an end in a way that is utterly impossible to arise again.
And that comes from elimination. If you just check today, you eliminate oneself, each of us existing today depends on an enormous number of causes If the cause is still there, the result will keep coming. Directly, we depend on someone. Just like if you have cancer, each of those cancer cells depends on others. If you get rid of ninety nine percent directly and indirectly, just to have a piece of toast, just to have something to wear, to have a car to drive in, to catch a bus, or a taxi, all the result stops.
To a house or place it in, all of these things that we depend on after which the actual cause does not exist without the actual vast numbers can be And just if you say the cause of my problem is this. But if that’s not the actual cause, then you get rid of this, but if it’s fertilized, it’s not actual cause, it’ll go away. So sentient beings are extremely numerous. Buddha says there is an actual cause. So if we think about these things more and more, become aware of, then we can develop this wish, this determination, that it’s not enough, because it’s just to free ourselves.
Although it’s in our mind, it’s always been with our mind. But since everybody else is and everyone just like myself doesn’t want to suffer, and everyone like myself wants to not stay within saṃsāra. Basically, it’s an ignorance — we don’t know it’s there. Rather than just freeing myself, until one comes at my own and says, I need to be good for everyone. Until one comes across these we don’t know we’re dependent on the kindness. We don’t know we have this ignorance.
Much of the time, I feel already offended. I’m not ignorant. I’m very educated. I don’t appreciate it. But the Buddhist teachings, Mahāyāna teachings, have to encourage us to be more and more aware.
But even the most intelligent people are ignorant in our minds, yet there is still this incredible kindness. And the best meaningful thing that we can do in this life it perpetuates itself while we’re unaware of it in this life. Soon as we become aware of it, we can begin to eliminate it. To benefit others, to stop harming them, directly and indirectly, to begin to benefit them, to repay their kindness. As soon as one starts, it becomes joyful and satisfying We experience something in a particular way, and immediately grasp whatever we see, we grasp at what we see. We have to free ourselves of all our faults.
Mind grasps that what we are seeing. And so that’s what this course is about. Presenting the path is about the way we are seeing what we are seeing. Not just the path to a good rebirth. We never doubt what we’re seeing.
Out of saṃsāra. In the moment, it’s referring to the path. Straight away we don’t doubt. That’s right. What we hear in the lives life.
What the path truly leads to is realizing and continuously experiencing the true nature of our mind. But if we start to check and we have that ability, because we have this wonderful quality, we’re gonna this in a few weeks. There’s this amazing quality of intelligence. Look at the path to enlightenment. That was an introduction, but also by way of motivation because We can use our logic.
So this wish to achieve enlightenment, in order to repay the kindness of sentient beings, we can start to see things that state of mind, which is extremely difficult to actually cultivate, is called bodhicitta. So this is the motivation that we’re encouraged to listen develop, to try and have some approximation of that motivation when we listen to the things we can study this particular Depends on many things. Because motivation, nature of our motivation, the strength of our motivation is arising depending on many Determining factors. So if you change the factors, so it’s really important to make our motivation as strong and sincere as possible. The very best motivational teachings we can have for doing anything connected to that is the bodhicitta, the wish for all beings to be able to attain enlightenment for their own sake and the sake of others.
All sentient beings — we see that action of helping them overcome every single cause of suffering. The way it exists, it arises depending on Achieved, everlasting happiness. Nothing exists life So there is a traditional prayer independent of that, every single thing at the beginning of the teaching of something else. If you’d like to join me, is interconnected. We absolutely do this.
So it’s on page in Roman numerals. On page eleven. Can be exclimated. Completely. We do this twice in Tibetan, our Australian version of Tibetan, and one time in English.
Whereby, one time are able to eliminate that ignorance. Traditionally, as one says such, for prayer, is a motivational prayer. We can try to think of the Buddha in front of us as the source. Source of these teachings, very embodiment of these teachings. We can eliminate, reduce, and eventually eliminate Buddha as who is awake in front of us to remind us, awakening to the nature of mind, and to think that the Buddha is inspiring us, pacifying delusions and eventually to inspire us to realize our Buddha nature. And at the same time we try and think of ourselves surrounded by all sentient beings.
So there are an awful lot of sentient beings. That’s a very little on the full note. A note of all truths. At least we can try and think of those people that we’re most likely to So that was the first teaching that Buddha gave and then the other one. One version of that teaching is set out here. One of the sutras of knowledge is the of the four noble truths.
So all the teachings that the Buddha gave for the rest of his life in a sense were elaborations on four noble truths. So the Buddha really brought about a great revolution in India because he really did attract many many followers. And one of the interesting things I possible, I try to boringly point out other times to people, is that when Dharma came to Australia or to the West in general, one can try to get those started in the sixties, I suppose. Like in a really serious way. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma and the Supreme Assembly.
By the merits I create through listening to the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in the At the time of the Buddha, people the first people to be attracted to the Buddha’s teachings were So then if you find it helpful, you can imagine that the princes, very wealthy, and because of that, very wealthy towards the Who became his followers, who gave up directly above your crown and became the Buddha. Dissolves in blissful golden light. Then that light renounced And started following the Buddha. This was really why the teachings correct. And if you read the various sutras, they put in other stories of the time of the Buddha’s life, he would wander, travel around the different cities in North India.
India, with usually at least a thousand monks with him. And at that time, India didn’t have a thousand million people. It had, I’m not sure, a few million people. I don’t know what the population was. So then we can enhance that positive state of mind very briefly doing so.
Far less than what it was now. But even if you were meditation, those who picture the Buddha in Adelaide wandering down the street, to let your mind be a little bit more calm, clear and concentrated — that we can use Especially a thousand monks who come from a very wealthy family. Minds. You think have a bunch of disciples, some really wild ones, mass murderers and all sorts of people. Many of them came from very wealthy families.
But in India, at those times, when the biggest city would have been a few thousand people, ten, twenty, thirty, you know, Rajgriha, which was the capital of Magadha, which was the kingdom of Bimbasara, who became one of the first disciples of the Buddha. Rajgriha was, I don’t know, a town of I don’t know how many people, twenty thousand or something? And so you see a thousand monks walk down the street. That must have blown people’s minds. With the Buddha in the front.
And the Buddha’s teachings are incredibly radical, really. Buddhism can be very conservative, but the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, are actually extremely radical, in a sense, because they’re completely the opposite to our worldly way of thinking. Anyway, I’m getting carried away. What is there to say? I better stop actually.
About fifty years the Buddha continued to teach the to support some people in of situations. And so there is now numerous collection of Vairocana postures — these are the direct teachings of the Buddha on how to sit correctly, taught different things to different people. And And having an enlightened mind, knowing the mind And also how to do the nine round breathing exercises to set out particular person The eight-point posture was beneficial to that person. Was fairly simple to understand that, what he taught at the beginning of each class may have not been encouraged to be perfectly perfect. Ultimate truth.
That person would be able to benefit from that relative truth. I don’t think I need to explain that. And not be reading it off. Think it makes sense. And eventually be able to come to a point where they understood and were able to practice highest.
So the path to enlightenment is a huge subject. But because of that subject actually, it’s very difficult to be able to read all these sutras of the Buddha, which is practically impossible in one lifetime. So we go through the essential points of what needs to be understood a whole lifetime in the past to read these things, of achieving and then to try to understand them, realizing the true nature of our mind. But before we start that, it would be very confusing to talk about tonight one thing I have been And you would think, well, the Buddha really didn’t know what he was talking about because he contradicted himself all over the Buddha did follow it with an understanding that this person may benefit now. There is a way to be able to Because this program is taught in our centers all over the world.
There’s I mean, there’s a very radical mean, I like supposed to do. I will try a story that illustrates that. Anyway, so for the first night, King Ajatashatru features in the life of the Buddha and a little bit of the story, Ajatashatru’s father was a great supporter of Buddhism, but he wanted to be king himself. So he killed his father and also had his mother killed as well and became the king of Magadha. Before that, at some point after that, he went all kind of crazy with guilt.
So this is actually what is set out there. On page fifteen, in the Roman numerals. Someone advised him to seek advice from the Buddha. So the Dharma is of course the Buddhist teachings, the Buddhadharma is referring to the Buddhist teachings, and if we start to appreciate that the Buddha’s teachings are very profound and extremely beneficial, the more we start to appreciate that, then when we listen to the teachings, for the teachings to be effective for our mind, it is said that we should ourselves, the voice is very strange, three faults of the vessel. The faults are: firstly, being a vessel that you can contain that the teachings are like precious nectar and that he can come into us change our lives and really listen to them properly understand them correctly and put them into practice.
But if a vessel is upside down, then nothing can go inside it. So we need to be really encouraged to listen to the teachings correctly, to try and concentrate on them as much as possible, according to Buddhist tradition. Is an example: Even if you’ve got the right vessel, it wasn’t actually turned up the correct way. It was said: Understanding the vessel is really dirty, you could pour the most precious nectar in, but it would be contaminated and therefore go around causing harm to everyone. So we have to avoid being a dirty vessel.
In other words, when we listen to the teachings, we should try and listen to This is what Buddhism can do, without prejudice, judging, or adhering to contrasting views. You must use our intelligence to do that all the time. Check the teachings, but we should do it with a really open mind, even though there are karmic imprints affecting how we hear, these are universal truths. I think it’s also really important for us most of us. Think practically everyone who’s a Westerner, and we weren’t caught up Buddhists.
This I’m trying to get to this point. So the Buddha taught different things at different times, it’s all very confusing. We should try to understand Buddhism. Fortunately from its own perspective, later on, and related to things This great Indian scholar-master Atisha eventually went to Tibet in the tenth century. Being this incredible scholar, not just a scholar but a highly realized practitioner, he was able to know the sutras, to understand all the teachings, all religions or philosophies, to draw the meaning from one and relate it to another.
Because this great master was able to understand there were many similarities why the Buddhist Buddhism shares with Christianity and other religions. He set out from his understanding of all the Sutras the actual path one needs to follow, and one needs to be open to really appreciate it. And this is also, you know, to avoid the dirty vehicle, firstly developing a proper vessel — it also is referring to avoiding listening with the wrong motivation, a meaningless and negative motivation for studying the teachings rather than developing the mind. Some people come and study just to criticize them, and then developing mind. Many, many years ago, when I giving some talk to this person.
He told me quite honestly that he had come to these teachings with the intention of learning enough to go out and teach Buddhism to others so he could be a guru. Overcoming all our wrong motivations instead of having the right motivation is really important, which is wanting to genuinely work with one’s mind. This big Buddhism is all about working with one’s mind, all encompassing mind, really wanting to overcome the negative aspects of one’s mind, understanding just harms ourselves and others, really wanting to love Not just the positive aspects of our mind, understanding that these qualities are wonderful, in the next six weeks I’ll try and talk about that. At least we should try and have that kind of motivation and avoid the opposite. And also to avoid listening with pride thinking. Oh, I’m sorry.
I already understand that. I understand that. Are there questions? I knew that this person explaining it, but in a very I’ll save more time for questions next week. Promise.
So if one is listening with a mind that is distracted, we’ll also have discussion each week from now on. So I won’t blab all the time. I’m not able to pick up some amazing subtleties that, for example, I might be saying. But don’t look for too many subtleties in what I’m saying, unfortunately. Anyway, third point, fault of a vessel, which is being a leaky vessel. Thank you very much.
Just as we began with having trouble with good motivation, to tradition, it’s good to do. We have created some positive imprints in our minds tonight, some merits — it is good karmic seeds for us, so we can dedicate these merits, especially us Westerners. When they ripen, they don’t ripen just in an ordinary way to bring them ordinary boring happiness, but they ripen to bring us along the path to enlightenment. So if you’d like to join in the traditional dedication prayer, which we will do in English, is on the the body of the page. So it’s really important to try and listen with motivation.
Want to hold this in my mind and really try to Due to the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of enlightenment? And if you don’t it, then lead all living beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the precious bodhicitta not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline, but it’s really important to be able to afford the time to benefit, we have to be a member of the Master’s Also the tradition is for those people who feel comfortable to do so, especially those people who have taken refuge, the taking of refuge, and making that stronger. Then we finish with three prostrations honoring the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and trying to remember.
This is why you get the homework. The first part of the homework is to review what you’ve heard. This is why I would encourage people to take some notes. These can be very helpful to remember points that have been said. Or to listen to the talk again, to refresh, and also to meditate on these things, because this is what meditation is for.
It’s to imprint the teachings into one’s mind more deeply so that one can remember them, and by remembering them in our daily life, then one can put them into practice. You can’t practice something that you can’t remember. There may be something really useful, but you can’t remember it, you can’t put it to use. So these are the three faults of the vessel to avoid. There are other aspects of listening to the Dharma.
I’ll leave you to read that as part of your homework. Those three things are good to remember. So what I have to talk about tonight is a little bit about the life story of the Buddha and the spread of the Buddhadharma. Dear. Oh good.
Right. So actually, is all set out in your student material briefly, which is also part of your homework to read over this during the week. So something of the life story of the Buddha is set out on page sixteen in Roman numerals, life of the Buddha. So in the different Buddhist traditions there are different slightly different versions and interpretations of the life of the Buddha. But certainly according to the Mahāyāna tradition, there are many Buddhas, there’s not just one Buddha.
We’re talking particularly now about the historical Buddha who is referred to in the Tibetan tradition as Guru Śākyamūni Buddha. Śākyamūni Buddha is a historical figure, but is only believed to be one of many, many Buddhas that have existed in the past.