Three defects of the vessel
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Three defects of the vessel or pot (Tib. སྣོད་ཀྱི་སྐྱོན་གསུམ་, Wyl. snod kyi skyon gsum) — three incorrect ways of listening to the Dharma. They are to listen like:
- a vessel turned upside down,
- a vessel with a hole in it, and
- a vessel containing poison.
Alternative version:
As regards the three defects of the container, it is said:
- Not paying attention is to be like a container turned upside down.
- Not remembering is to be like a container with a hole in it.
- Mixing what you hear with mental afflictions is to be like a container with poison inside.
These three should be avoided.
As the sutra says:
Tibetan
༼༡༽རྣ་བ་མི་གཏད་ཁ་སྦུབས་ལྟ་བུའི་སྐྱོན།
༼༢༽ཡིད་ལ་མི་འཛིན་ཞབས་རྡོལ་ལྟ་བུའི་སྐྱོན།
༼༣༽།ཉོན་མོངས་དང་འདྲེས་དུག་ཅན་ལྟ་བུའི་སྐྱོན།།
Footnotes
- ↑
- Patrul Rinpoche, Preliminary Points to be Explained When Teaching the Buddha’s Word or the Treatises, translated by Adam Pearcey
Further Reading
- Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher (Boston: Shambhala, Revised edition, 1998), 'The Three Defects of the Pot', pages 10-12.
- Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, A Guide to the Words of My Perfect Teacher, 'The Three Defects of the Pot', page 35.
- Khenpo Kunpal, The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech, translated by Padmakara Translation Group. Published by Shambhala. ISBN 978-1-59030-439-6, page 24.