Tenets, 10 February 1994, part 1

The great Buddha Śākyamūni has given the advice that my teachings are of two kinds. The instruction teaching as a guide and the tenets for the final conclusions. And for the childish I show the instruction as a guide. And for the yogis, I teach the tenets the final conclusions. In meaning, Buddha Śākyamūni, when he taught the childish,, the less intelligent ones and the other which is the tenets, the final conclusions, the philosophical final conclusions which is taught for those of the advanced intense practitioners.

So in brief, it explains that his teachings were of two aspects. Well, what it means is the teachings being two were given from the point of the two different two different types of persons whom the two different teachings would be suitable. So it is due to the difference in those who due to the difference from the side of listeners, the side of the recipient that the teachings came to be of the two kinds. Now we look into the two. One is childish and other is the yogis, the serious intense practitioners.

Now with childish what it means is for example first we have in normal worldly convention a person’s phases of life divided into five major stages. The age from birth until 10 is called the child childish and from 10 to 20 youth and from 20 30 adult and from 30 to 40 post adult and from then onward old age. In classical periods, periods, we we have have reckoning reckoning in in that that type type of of social social circumstance. Circumstance. But in brief, so there I don’t if I get too worried.

So in brief, are those five five stages in human life phase, and we know that child is the beginning part when not matured. For example, a human when born is considered immature and until the newborn baby reaches the age of 10 it is called a child and the phase in that part of that phase of life is called childish stage stage and there it is a stage where newborn baby has not fully developed either in mental faculty as well more more observably in its physical growth. Now here similarly when the teachings in the context of tenets describe people as classifiable into two kinds the childish and the yogis. So childish is the type of people who due to lack of training, study, and practice have at the moment not developed the power of the wisdom, the strength of wisdom and therefore it is likened to a childish in normal sense as well. And for those people and beings who fall into this group, the childish group who whose mental faculty, the wisdom have not fully developed, for them, the Buddha Śākyamūni has taught the type of teachings which are more like a simple guideline and whatever he is teaching later on put into book form or in transcribed book form they also are mainly presents the instructions in a form of simple guidelines.

And for the second type of people who by their who by their training, study, and practice have developed the power of of wisdom, the strength of wisdom and not only that who have the have the qualities of meditative concentration power for them who are like and who who are like a fully grown person for them the Buddha says that he has taught the type of teaching which can be described as the tenets, the final conclusions. And this second kind of people for whom the more advanced teaching was given the tenets type of teaching were given those people are called as yogis, which literally means people who do a combined practice of method and wisdom or advanced intense practitioners. And here so here, let’s assume that you are all who are present here are of the second type who have a good ground of moral ethics and who have developed a level of wisdom and who is not attached to this life’s pleasures as well of next life’s pleasures but who have a strong renunciation, renunciation, a strong definite-exit thought, and who want to attain liberation and freedom and let’s assume that you really are qualified people to engage into the teachings called the tenets and we can say that you all we assume that you all can be called as yogis.

Therefore, tenets in tenets or the advanced teachings of final conclusions, these were the these were the teachings given not to the childish type of people, instead to the yogis, the advanced practitioners who really have reached their mental capacity at quite high levels. And as well, there is another classification of humans from the point of tenet teaching, and it is explained that generally amongst humans there are one type of humans who have entered into tenets meaning who have engaged in the analysis of what is the finite conclusions of the way things are. So there is one type of human beings who are engaged into tenets and then the and then there is another type of human beings who are not engaged into tenets, who are not at all concerned or don’t have interest at all about the way things are or and therefore, they are not though they are not the kind who have entered into tenets. The type of humans who are who have not entered into tenets means humans who are not at all interested in the teachings as well in the scriptures which now we can mean as those who are not not interested in the books relating to the reality of things and the teachings and instructions concerning the reality of things and these type of humans are who as well do not at all concern themselves with analysis and investigation into the way things are and in brief they are humans who just let themselves follow after the innate mind which is the ordinary inborn mind one has inherited from previous lives and which will be continued to next life so one just let oneself be follow the direction of innate mind and the direction of ordinary innate mind is such that it mainly is concerned about pleasures of this life.

Therefore as a consequence this second this second type of humans who have not entered into tenets are humans who are merely interested and working in fulfilling the pleasures of this life. And then the first group of humans are those who have entered those who have engaged or entered into tenets and these are the humans who engage into investigation analysis of reality by such act by such ways such as by reading the books and instructions and teaching so forth which explains about reality and on and in addition to their readings and study they as well they as well mentally spend time and effort in analyzing what actually are the way things are and so forth and finally as a result these are the types of human who in their mind have come to a very decisive conclusion about about how things are about reality and so forth so they have come to certain final conclusions and having come to certain final conclusions they then present what their final conclusions they have come to they present that to others by way of explaining through very rational reasoning applied way and as well whenever in their own way of life when they have to deal or talk or so forth to others they talk honestly based on their final conclusions, based on what analysis they have done.

So their whole perspective and talk and so forth is guided by the observations and the final conclusions they have come to and these humans are called as tenet proponents to use so called term those who explains conclusions. So they are called the proponents of the tenets or the tenet proponents. So in this way we have of tenets or people who explain their final conclusions and from classical period perspective, we can say those who explain final conclusions can be of two types, the non Buddhists and Buddhists. But here, there needs to be a clarification because here, the phrase the phrase or description being used is in the phrase the proponents of the non-Buddhist tenets and the proponents of the Buddhist tenets or in another words those who explain the non-Buddhist tenets and those who explain Buddhist tenets because this is very significant. A person can be non-Buddhist but it may not but the person does not necessarily have to be a person explaining non-Buddhist tenets, non non-Buddhist philosophy.

Similarly a person can be a Buddhist but the person does not being a Buddhist does not have to be a proponent of Buddhist tenets, does not have to be one who explains Buddhist philosophy Buddhist final conclusions so it looks like there is a subtle difference which needs to be cleared out in whole four expressions the first two being the proponent of the non-Buddhist tenets and the proponent of the Buddhist tenets and the second being mere non-Buddhist and mere Buddhist. And then we look into what constitutes or qualifies the person to be called and to be a Buddhist and what constitute or qualifies person to be called and to be a non-Buddhist. So okay. And to be non-Buddhist. Well, a person is called Buddhist in the sense a person on the path to become a Buddha, to become enlightened.

So a person is called a Buddhist if the person because of being aware about this about the fear of miseries and bad rebirth goes for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha enlightened beings their teachings and their truth and the highly realized practitioners so whoever goes for refuge to these three Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is called a Buddhist and those who do not go for refuge, do not place their confidence in these three are called non-Buddhist. Well, this this standard which measures whether a person is Buddhist or not seem to be quite what’s called, quite respected way of respected or what’s called quite an acceptable quite an acceptable way to determine whether a person is a Buddhist or not because this way of this way of determining or qualifying whether a person is a Buddhist or not is in the tradition of the great Indian masters such as Shantipa,, Atisha, and later on preserved the tradition was preserved even in Tibet by such great teachers as Tsongkhapa Jé Rinpoche so if it is if it is a perspective maintained by those great masters then we can be confident to follow the same and as well as well apply the similar standard to determine whether a person is a Buddhist or not.

And excuse me, by the way, there is a car light on outside red Germany U F X 902 and red Astra U P M 979. Now for a person to not only be a Buddhist but as well to qualify as proponent of Buddhist tenets or in another words to be a person who explains Buddhist philosophy or Buddhist final conclusions well to qualify that the person not only have to go for refuge to the Three Jewels but also but also the person had to accept the four seals, so it will be explained as we go. The person as well have to accept the four seals which are alternatively as well called the four views based on the words of the Buddha. Now the four things or the four views four views based on Buddha’s words are such that all all compounded things are impermanent, all contaminated things are bound to be miserable, all phenomena are selfless and empty, and nirvana is peaceful and virtuous. So these are the four seals.

All compounded things are impermanent, all contaminated things are bound to be miserable and all phenomena are selfless and empty, and nirvana is peaceful and virtuous. The four seals or the four views based on the word of the Buddha are considered extremely precious because these four views are very beneficial to the person in in the course of practice. All the first line, all compounded things are impermanent. Now this means firstly by compounded thing which as well in popular translation call the products. Anyway, all compounded things by this it means anything which is the product or result of causes and conditions and this means there is not any existing thing which does not depend on causes and conditions, causes and conditions for its production for its birth and also both causes and conditions are necessary there is because a thing or a compounded thing or a thing cannot just be produced by causes alone and as well they cannot just be produced by conditions alone instead they need to have the two combination of causes and the conditions through which they are produced and by the very term which is in the literal original term called gathered and formed by that which is the word for compounded thing gathered and formed.

So by the very original word we can see that a product or compounded thing is a result of the gathering of causes and condition, and then it is formed. It is produced or it come into existence. Now because compounded things or products are results of causes and conditions therefore their very production, very birth is dependent on causes and conditions and now we see in this way because they are born, because they are produced, so in excuse me if you don’t mind in Tibetan it’s the same word produce or born. So because they are born or produced therefore by the very nature of being a produced thing, by the very nature of being a born thing it does not last the next moment and it is by nature of being born something that disintegrates moment after moment. Therefore all compounded thing, all products do not last the next moment, disintegrate moment by moment.

And therefore, then we have the whole line making the sense that all compounded things are impermanent. So impermanent in that sense. By the very causes and conditions which the product or the compounded things are produced they themselves become the causes for the product for the products disintegration for the for the products disintegration for for the products or disappearance for the products and destructions and this is so because the very nature of being born the very nature of being produced itself is also in the very nature of being disintegrating, also in the very nature of being destroyed, being disintegrated and it being, so example being compounded thing a product therefore it by its nature disintegrates moment by moment it doesn’t last even a moment and this so we can be very convinced even by looking at our wristwatch where although the second may be considered quite what’s called more precise unit of time abiding but still that second itself doesn’t last, it doesn’t abide, it disintegrates moment after moment. Now because of this very reasoning that products that they are produced by the nature of being dependent on causes condition and that very nature itself is also in the nature of destruction and therefore moment by moment disintegrating this also then becomes the reasoning why compounded things or products are called impermanent that their nature is impermanent and for us in our practice how helpful and precious this understanding can be is in this way that this shows the unreliability of the very object on which one is so attached and grasping onto.

So there is no reliability, it is not it’s not reliable at all. So one can think in this way and one can apply it on the pleasures in the ordinary existence in the saṃsāra in the cycle and through that way by applying this understanding it can be possible that one can develop definite exit, one can develop renunciation. So in this way, this understanding can be helpful. With us since our With us since our birth as a baby, where at that time we didn’t have all our teeth and we were very in such helpless situation even then onward as a baby there wasn’t any moment at all that we weren’t that we weren’t disintegrating moment by moment. Even from that moment onward from the very birth whether we were going, we were eating, whether we were sleeping or whether we were doing any other types of activities we were still in the process of momentary disintegration moment by moment being perished moment by moment being disintegrated and and and then this has been happening and at this time when at this stage when our whole appearance appearance of of the the body body and complexion so forth have changed have changed and this has become more stark, the disintegration disintegration being observable in this way and it is not and the process that has not stopped yet because until we die now this will continue the momentary disintegration related to our this life’s existence to our this life’s appearance so forth so it will continue and it is without any disruption as if like continuous racing of a horse.

So this is how the moment by moment disintegration is still happening and in this way it is impermanent and for us as a practitioner if we think about these reflect on these meanings and as we do some meditation on this point then it can be helpful for us to be not attached to the samsaric pleasures and be able through this way of thinking and meditation, we will be able to develop the renunciation and the aspiration to attain liberation. Well, this then is quite convincing that that all compounded things when related to our body is also impermanent that our body being an example of compounded thing is impermanent and and now in the next part which is the second line all contaminated things are bound to be miserable. There we can again apply to our body in this way that it has been produced by certain causes and conditions and we ask what produced this body. The actual word used is aggregates including the other four aggregates. So we ask what actually produced this aggregate or this body and we know that it is it is produced by not nice causes, it is produced by karma and impure thoughts and because it is produced by not nice causes therefore it is bound to be miserable that our body is bound to be miserable that our aggregate presently as ordinary being is bound to be miserable and we can can we can see that it is bound to be miserable for example if we are slightly hungry there is a discomfort, if we are overeating there’s a discomfort, if there’s slight excess of coldness in the weather again there is discomfort or if the weather is too hot again there’s discomfort and even if someone pierce a small needle onto the skin there will be discomfort.

In these ways it’s definite that it is not only impermanent, it also has the nature of being bound to be miserable. Similar example, we can say in this way, say, if we sit down, well it brings certain comfort in the beginning but if we keep remaining sitting for too long then it will turn into a suffering of being too discomfortable and then there is suffering and we might after a while want to get up stand up and if we do stand up the instant after too long sitting down and being discomfortable if we stand up, then instant