A short teaching by H.H.Khenchen Lama Rinpoche on ‘Buddha’s Teaching’
Buddha’s Teaching
ཆོས་བཤད།
སྡིག་པ་ཅི་ཡང་མི་བྱ་ཞིང། །
དགེ་བ་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པར་སྤྱད། །
རང་གི་སེམས་ནི་ཡོངས་སུ་འདུལ། །
འདི་ནི་སངས་རྒྱས་བསྟན་པ་ཡིན། །
Teaching
諸惡莫作，
眾善奉行，
自淨其意，
是諸佛教•
Commit not a single unwholesome action,
Cultivate a wealth of virtue,
Tame completely this mind of ours—
This is the teaching of the buddhas.
Buddha Shakya Muni.
This is the teaching of the Buddhas. Buddha Shakya Muni’s first teaching was the Four Noble Truths. With this he said, “Commit not a single unwholesome action”.
This means you don’t try negative emotions. Don’t do the opposite of positive thoughts. Think of others the same as you think of yourself. Then you won’t do bad things to others because you think of yourself as being the same as others.
This means Buddha said, don’t do any bad things to others. This is Hinayana advice to monks/ nuns, lay people and yogis/ yoginis. It is the foundation advice.
In Tibetan, this is said as, don’t kill, don’t steal, no sexual misconduct and don’t lie. Do not drink alcohol or take other things that alter your mind.
Another way of saying this is do not cut off life. Do not take what is not given to you. Do not have impure sexual behavior. No false speaking. No slanderous talking, no divisive talk, harsh words, or idol talk. Do not have a covetous mind where you have a strong desire to possess what someone else has. Do not have a malicious mind that thinks of harming others. Do not have wrong views.
These 10 you don’t do.
“Cultivate a wealth of virtue”. This means, you do save life. Be generous and give to others. Tell the truth. No talk that causes discord among people. Instead, speak pleasantly. Try talking meaningfully. Give up covetousness and rejoice in the good fortune of others. Give up being malicious and wishing people harm. Instead, develope the desire to help people. Have right views.
“Completely tame our mind”. This is a peaceful mind. Control yourself. Develop and always have a positive mind. A peaceful mind with joyful mind. Always soft and gentle mind.
“This is the Buddhas’ teaching”.
Inner Buddha. Khenchen Lama.
