Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute session, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen leads guided meditation on refuge-taking and bodhicitta before walking through purification practice and Buddha Śākyamūni visualization. The main teaching explores what karma produces rebirth in each of the six realms. Heavy destructive actions like killing drive beings to the hells; miserliness and covetousness cause rebirth as hungry ghosts; disrespect for Dharma teachings leads to animal realms; positive karma carries beings to human and divine realms. He illustrates these teachings with a story of a family whose jealous words, spoken when hearing of a mother’s merit, caused three family members to be reborn as hungry ghosts—unable to swallow food without choking, burning, or severe stomach pain. Suited to practitioners with some Buddhist background seeking to understand how karma shapes rebirth.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 16 ALB.mp3
UUID: 19c1ada8-f979-494f-a632-c6337fb26288
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: A Look at Buddhism (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.9 minutes
Words: ~3,125
Have complete or they they have they have the complete qualities or or or the complete powers which which that oneself and others can be completely free freed from the suffering of lower realms and and suffering of the general suffering of saṃsāra and and specifically the suffering of lower realms, thinking that knowing that the quality of them are are that they can free oneself and others from all these state of sufferings and generating faith. So so that one, after generating this this faith, then it follows with making request which is make this request to the refuge object to protect oneself and all other sentient beings from these state of sufferings. So so then through through the power of this request that we once I’ve has made, one should imagine that imagine from those huge object like the Buddha and the teachings in the form of text. Sends forth or showers down a nature of light that is like white, red and blue and that which sinks into oneself and imagine that which purifies one’s all the negative karmas that one have accumulated through our body. And similarly those negative actions that one have accumulated through our speech.
So, like, the negative actions that one creates one have created to our body, like killing, stealing, and and then sexual misconduct. And then and through our speech, those negative actions that we create through our speech like that of telling lies and divisive speech then like harsh words and then meaningless idle gossip. And then and and and then those negative actions that one have accumulated through our mind, those are the covertness to, and then the ill will, and then the one is wrong view. And imagine that these negative actions have been purified. So the one point which we miss out was some in the very beginning.
One one one is sitting in the questions with the seven postures, with the seven physical postures. At the same time, one should visualize all other sentient beings sitting around one like taking the same postures, the seven postures, which are seven postures and imagining that they all are in the form of humans around one. Like, all those insects, all those all those animals in the in the the in the depth of oceans, all of them you visualize around sitting around one in the form of human, like, doing doing these meditations. And similarly, like when the light of nectar showers down and sinks into one, at the same time one should also visualize or imagine that those natural lights also to sink into those sentient beings around one. And imagine at the same time like imagining that once all negativities that one have accumulated through one’s body, speech, and mind are being completely purified.
And at that same time you imagine that the others sentient beings negative karma that they have accumulated through their body, speech, and mind to completely purify. So then while you are visualizing this, should visualize like once you are sitting a little higher than those the rest of the sentient beings who is sitting around you in your meditation. And then and then through this after after finishing this visualization, then you you like it. You you you chant the refuge prayers which that you you you lead the refuge prayers and imagining the rest of the sentient beings to, like, falling after you. So then after the refuge prayer, you generate this mind, which is the mind of bodhicitta, that whatever practice that you engage in, like the practice of giving or generosity, the practice of morality, the practice of patience, Any of these practice, whatever you engage in, imagining that you’re doing for the sake of other sentient beings.
Like generating that, generating the mind which is the bodhicitta. So so then so then after this that one should imagine now another replica of of the right future object in the space before you appears and then sinks into one and becomes inseparable with one? So so then so then one becomes inseparable with the with Buddha Śākyamūni, that one I visualize. And then and then from one, another replica of that, which is Buddha Śākyamūni appears and then that sinks into the sentient beings, round one. And they too Buddha Shakyamunis.
They too become Buddha Shakyamunis or they too achieve the state of Buddha Shakyamunis. So then if one sorry. If you want to imagine that that all those sentient beings around one have to achieve the state of Buddha Śākyamūni, imagine that is something very auspicious, one thing. And secondly, because at the very beginning one have generated the motivation, one have generated the motivation to lead also into the enlightened state. So then finally when you finish the meditation, imagine this that you have led now them to the enlightened state and rejoicing in that action.
Rejoicing in that action of one’s own self. Rejoicing in that action which is of the self and also the actions of the others. So then so that’s one one path of meditation. And second, like there are many other meditations that one can continue or do, which is like meditations on impermanence, meditations on precious human rebirth, meditations on bodhicitta, and meditations on emptiness so that many different meditations that one can continue or do. So there are these different meditation that one can do like as we just give some subjects, different subjects.
And it’s not that when one hear the explanation of meditation one time that one can understand everything. It is not like that. But then if you are able to continue with the able to continue then slowly slowly that that you will be able to understand what has been explained. And Geshe-la himself here, coming here to Australia, the main reason is to give the explanation on these different subjects. So from his side he said there’s no problem giving explanations unless you can’t make it.
So that’s a short explanation on like a meditation which someone last past week requested. So the next one, the request that, I don’t know her name, but she made. So, what causes or what causes or what karma brings about the six six levels of beings. So the six level of beings which is also known as the six migrators and like if divide, if these six are divided within, then it can be divided into many categories. So if it is to give like all the detailed explanation or classification of these six migrators then maybe you might even feel a doubt whether all these exist or not.
So Geshe la is saying he won’t be giving like, he are going into detail and what type of sufferings that they go they would go through, but giving explanations which what what causes them to take the birth in those different states. So the six migrators are the three lower realms that are the hell beings, the the realms of hungry ghost, and the animals. And then next is human beings. And then gods and demigods. These six are known as the six migrators.
So like the hell itself, there are many different hells which I explained And similarly with the hungry ghost, there are different types of hungry ghost which I explained. And similarly with the animal too, the animals that we see and the animals that we don’t see that many which can give a division. So even with the human beings, there are there are different human beings, not only the human being of this continent, but the human beings of different continents. And similarly, with among the gods, the the gods of the desire realms and the god of the the upper realms. So there are many divisions.
Generally, karma can be explained in three types. That is a positive karma, negative karma, and then a karma which is known as immovable karma. Under the control of delusions that one come create this karma. That is the negative karmas. And as a result of this negative karma, that one is taken to one is reborn in the lower realms and the lower realms that are which of the three that have the hell, hungry ghost, and the animals.
And then with the with the hell the hell realms, they are like the hot hells, the cold hell, and also the neighboring hells. So there are different hells, neighboring hell. So so as a So that one can one can, how to say, tell some beings when at the at the at the very time of death the very time of death that whether they are some whether they are going to the hell realms or not. Like if the person or the being when the person is able to speak, if he or she is saying that I’m feeling very cold, If I’m like saying I’m feeling very, very cold, then that shows that the person will take reborn into the hot hell which because of the coldness makes the person to have desire for heat. And that leads one to the hot hell.
So so if it is like as ordained person, as a monk and nun, if they to bring harm to human beings or take the life of other sentient beings out of hatred or out of anger and similarly carelessly getting drunk. If they do this, then they say they create the cause to take the birth into the hot hell. So that is the karma and that person at the very time of death, like Generate attachment to the heat. The attachment at the very time of death is like the conditions to make that person to get reborn into the hot hell. So like conditions that brings about the sprout from the seed.
So like the condition like water and so on. Like the attachment is the condition that leads the being into that hell. So so then, like the cause for being getting born into the cold hell is generally it is explained as all types of delusions and specifically the wrong view, holding a wrong view and taking the belongings of others. Or or or like taking the clothings of the refuge objects and and using for self purpose. So and then similarly, like a like any like bringing, like, I don’t wanna say, sending or letting like the insects or any sentient beings into a cold place, like into a very cold place.
That too becomes a cause for one to be born into into cold hell. So then the next is the hungry ghost, and that is as a cause for one to be reborn on that realm. One of the causes is miserliness that act as a cause for one to be born into the hungry ghost realm. And secondly, the covetousness.
Alright. And then third, desire or attachment. So always, what do say, having longing or desire towards one’s wealth. Wealth and possessions. And out of that, one generates a great attachment towards towards the wealth.
So so oneself unable to be generous, generous, and and also if you if if not letting other to to to be generous. And like stealing. And and stealing, I wanna say, the belongings of the. So and and others like a nicknaming. Like, for example, oh, you look like a hungry ghost or giving this those different names.
So then these are the causes and at the very time of death, the person becomes very hungry and get attached to food. So so then that’s how one is getting into the realm of hungry ghost. And then thirdly, how one gets reborn in the animal realms is that not having like a respect, not having respect in the person who is giving the Dharma teachings and not having respect in the in the Dharma teaching itself. Among among pure friends. Like among the among human beings.
Like giving the nickname of animals. Like calling them like like two different names of animals. That too cause becomes a cause for to be born in the animal So in short, like the heaviest negative actions, like the act of killing. If it’s the heaviest one then that causes one to take the birth into the hell realms. And the medium type of negative actions causes one to take the birth into the hungry ghost realms and then small negative actions causes one to be reborn into the animal realms.
So, like, taking the life or or killing like, killing human beings are regarded the most heavy act act of killing. And, like, killing a small insect is is to killing of killing killing or taking life of another being, but not not heavy as killing human beings. So then then the human beings and the desire realms, their causes are the positive karmas. And the positive karmas cause one to be, one takes reborn into human beings and the gods of the desire realms. And how it happens is that the positive karma meets or contacts with the object of the desire And then the person gets attached to the the being gets attached to the object of the desire realms.
The form, sound, taste and so on. And then out of that, one gets reborn into human realms or the gods’ realms. So then similarly, like the gods of the upper realms to get reborn there by desiring those pleasures of those limbs. Like the pleasure that you gain out of concentration practice. And that are those concentration practice.
And you get attached to that of pleasure of the concentration practice and you get born into one gets re born into the gods of the upper realms. So this karma that makes that acts as a cause to get reborn into the upper realms, to the upper realms of the god’s limb. That is known as the immoviable karma. So why it’s called immovie is because as a human being, for example, if the human is going to take a rebirth into the lower realms, like when the human being dies, has to go through the intermediate state. So so that if the human being have karma to be born into the lower realms, then then, like, when it’s in the intermediate state is still his or her karma can be can be changed.
And that is through the power of the Lama or the guru, through the power of ritual, through the power of mantras, through these, his or her can be changed. So then the karma that which becomes a cause for one to be reborn into the gods of the upper realm can’t can cannot be changed. Can’t be changed. It cannot be changed in this way. So because of that, it is known as the immovable karma.
So the the neighboring health and the two it’s explained in very detail, but Geshe-la here said we’ll give one short story. So so there was there was one guru or Lama. I don’t remember his name, but was traveling quite far. And he came across the oceans and then came to this place where there was a temple, and in the temple there were a dakini sitting on a throne inside the temple. And around there, there were three hungry ghosts, like three hungry ghosts sitting around the the king.
So so so then the dakini got up from the throne when he when he when she saw the Lama coming in and invited the Lama inside and then let the Lama sit on the throne and then, like, offered, like she was been traveling long distance that offered tea and and food and so on. So so then then she also told to the Lama that made the all the all the sulfur, food and drinks. And then told to the Lama, if if these hungry ghosts, if they ask you to give food, don’t give don’t give them any food. So so then, though she the dakini told the Lama not to give, but the Lama, out of his compassion, he happened to give some of the food to the hungry ghost. And and and then while the hungry ghost went there, he ate the food.
Like, one of them choked, and another one had a fire coming from its mouth, and another one had problem with stomach. So so then so then Lama was surprised and asked the dakini what is the story, how it happened. And then the dakini told the Lama saying that it was a long time in the past. They were a family and they have two children, like son and daughter. So so in that family, that happened that the father and the son one day later went out on the daytime to do some work.
And then while the mother and his daughter, they were living in the in the house, there are some arhats arhats, like, known as the hearers. They came along and for for begging. And at that time, the mother gave them lots of food and offered him food and drinks. And and then and and then they left. And then when when the father and son returned, the mother told them that what she did, and and she was rejoicing in her her action.
So so so then so then the father asked her actually what she what she did. And then she was explained the mother explained. The father said that the they came along and then I offered them food and all this. And there were all the father then son and daughter there listening. And then instead of rejoicing in her action, they did the opposite.
Didn’t like which they said, may this may he have fire in his mouth or may he be choked. Each one said each Each thing, one thing. And as a result of their saying that these they are born into the hungry ghost at that time. So then the mother herself knew that didn’t like, and they they said this bad bad words, which mother’s mother knew, and then she made her prayers. If if she do make a prayer that she may be reborn into the Dakini land, that she may she would be reborn in the Dakini land, but she made this prayers that may I be born wherever they are, where they wherever they will be reborn and be together.
So so because of her prayer, she was again reborn as the king around in circle of these three others. So so similarly, like, date date every day when we