An extract from Khensur Rinpoche's Final Graduated Path Teaching for 1998.

From an interpretation by Jampa Monlam, transcribed by Diana Houston, edited by Anthony Hall.
Please read as if listening to an actual teaching.

"Today I am not going to continue with the teaching, today I will summarise all the teachings that have been taught up to now, and will teach how to put all the teachings into practice…

"The Lam Rim teaching is usually learnt from hearing, or listening and then contemplation and meditation, so Lam Rim teaches all those three categories - listening, contemplation and meditation. If one does not understand the teaching then that person possibly has no understanding of listening to Dharma.

"With a student, there are two types. Some are listening to the teaching for the first time while others have listened before, perhaps a second or third time. For the newcomers it's their first time and they are just listening and getting ideas of the Buddha's teachings and how one should listen and practice. It's their first time for receiving that sort of knowledge.

"The older student who has received the Lam Rim teaching before needs to check whether the instruction and their practice are matching or not. If you find that your practice is matching with the teacher's instruction, then that means you are doing a proper practice and if one continues with such practice one can really develop realisations. (Rinpoche says "very good".)

"If your practice and the teachings contradict each other then it's not a proper practice.

"So one has to check with listening to the teaching and make a correction with one's practice and if one's practice is consistent with the Lam Rim text or the teacher's instruction, then one should rejoice that one has been doing a proper practice and then continue. If one's practice is contradicted by the teaching then one should feel regret and try to recognise one's mistakes and try to make corrections.

"It is stated that the Lam Rim teaching is like a mirror. In our ordinary life when one wakes up in the morning one washes and has breakfast. In Australia people check their appearance in the mirror before they go out to their job...

"If one looks in the mirror to check everything is okay and walks along in a crowd one is very sure there is nothing wrong with one's appearance, one feels very happy in a crowd and others feel happy to see one's good appearance. So Lam Rim teachings are like a mirror and one reflects one's practice and if it matches with the Lam Rim teaching you will feel happy with your practice. Also the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas - like the crowd, will rejoice in seeing you in such a way. Likewise, feel happy with your practice and if there are mistakes in one's practice, one should feel regret and sadness with such a mistake and the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will also feel very saddened with your practice.

"So at this stage our mind is conjoined with disturbing emotions and because of that one commits many negativities through one's body, speech and mind, one is always accumulating unwholesome deeds. One should try to mix one's mind with the Lam Rim teaching. By conjoining one's mind with the Dharma one always commits positive actions through body, speech and mind and wholesome deeds are accumulated.

"Normally we say "practice, practice," but practice itself means to conjoin one's mind with the Dharma, and if one can do that then there is no greater practice than that.

"First we don't know how to conjoin our mind with the Dharma. To understand that first one has to listen to the teachings. By listening to the Dharma one comes to know what is to be abandoned and what is to be adopted and then analyse one's mind. If one finds that one's mind is conjoined with the non-virtuous, try to direct it towards the virtuous - this is called "meditation".

"At this stage our mind is mainly mixed up with the disturbing emotions. It's like water that has been poisoned, or a cup of water soured with lemon. Our mind is like the water that has drops of disturbing emotions.

"What we need to do is drop some medicine into the water, but it's not easy for the water to become pure or suitable to consume with just a few drops of medicine. It takes time, so by putting medicine drops into water for a long time, gradually that medicine subdues the power of the poison in the cup, and gradually the water itself becomes the medicine to be consumed.

"Our mind is like water with poison in it. It takes time to convert the poisoned water into medicine. Just by dropping one or two drops will not turn that poisoned water into medicine. It needs many drops of medicine in it. Likewise just a few practices, listening a few times, cannot purify our mind completely. By continuing for a long period, one can gradually purify one's mind and can convert into a positive state.

"By giving drops of practice on that poisoned mind, by continuing with the practice, one can gradually convert that poisoned mind into a positive mind. Gradually one can give rise a mind called Bodhicitta, and better than that one can give rise to a wisdom realising emptiness. If one can cultivate those two minds then one has mixed one's mind with the best medicine for overcoming all the sufferings and achieving ultimate happiness.

"If one can generate those two - Bodhicitta and wisdom realising emptiness (which are also called method and wisdom) one can achieve enlightenment. Our great Master Chandrakirti has stated that:
"If one has that method which is Bodhicitta, and wisdom which is the wisdom realising emptiness, then one can easily fly over the oceans and reach the ultimate goal of enlightenment."

"In Australia there is a bird with a wide wingspan known as the Albatross. It can fly long distance over the sea. Like the two wings of a bird, the wisdom realising emptiness and the method of Bodhicitta can enable one to easily fly over the oceans and reach enlightenment.

"To achieve the wisdom and method within oneself one needs to rely on a spiritual teacher can teach unmistakably, and who has travelled the paths. By relying on such a teacher one listens to the teachings and puts them into practice. Then one can achieve wisdom realising emptiness and Bodhicitta.

"To achieve the wisdom realising emptiness and Bodhicitta first one needs to develop love and compassion, which is the practice of great scope. To train in the great scope one has to practice the middling scope - which is the practice of the Four Noble Truths. To do that one has to meditate on the difficulties of achieving this optimum human rebirth, which is the practice of the small scope. So one has to go through all the practices from the small scope to the great scope - meditating on the optimum human rebirth, Four Noble Truths, great scopes and finally achieve that wisdom realising emptiness and Bodhicitta.

"Initially we are not familiar with the practice and we have no experience. If one meditates from small scope to great scope one might think it is a very long meditation session. But it is because one is not fully familiarised with the practice. In the beginning one faces difficulties but later, through our strong practice our mind becomes more familiarised and we can do the whole meditation from small to great scope, much more quickly. Some Great Masters can meditate on the whole Lam Rim - from small to great scope, in the time it takes to put their foot in the stirrup of a horse. The main thing is to familiarise one's mind to the practice. If one's mind is fully familiarised with the practice one can do all this practice in just a few seconds…

"To train our mind one has to listen to the Dharma. To listen to Dharma one needs to rely on a spiritual teacher. This is the root of the path, so relying on a spiritual teacher is very important and we have covered this topic in recent weeks. I have also taught the advantages of relying upon a spiritual teacher and the disadvantages of not relying upon a spiritual teacher, so one should practice seeking a relation with a spiritual teacher. I have also taught relying in thought. The main thing is to generate faith and conviction. It is very hard to do this practice for the first time, but by practicing very often, later one can really do this practice well. If one knows how to do this practice which is the root of all the paths, then one will easily achieve all the scopes.

"I have given these teachings like a seed but there is an English translation of the Lam Rim called Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand composed by Pabongka Rinpoche if you go through that then you can understand more.

"Up to now I have been teaching for a long time, and both of us have worked very hard. Some people are working full-time but despite this they still come to teaching regularly and I, from my side I am doing my best to teach. So through our practice we have achieved a great store of merit and have made strong Mahayana imprints.

"Even by doing strong practice on the Mahayana teachings we may not develop great realisations, but one shouldn't be upset with that because by doing a very strong practice in one's whole life one creates strong imprints. The one more we do the practice the more we imprint and in future that imprint, or predisposition will help us to develop a realisation very quickly.

"At this stage we cannot develop such great realisations within one's mindstream even within intense practice. It doesn't mean that the teaching does not have the potential or power, it is because we have not left enough imprints in the past. Because of that we cannot develop certain realisation, even with intense meditation but by doing such a practice this time we are leaving great imprints on one's mindstream and in future that predisposition will help us to easily develop realisations and we can start going from happiness to happiness.

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