Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 34-minute session, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen works through five of the eighteen Bodhisattva root vows from the Akshayamati Sūtra: praising yourself while belittling others; lying about spiritual achievements; misappropriating the sangha’s property; a monk with corrupt morality inducing sincere practitioners to abandon their discipline; and abandoning the aspiration to become a Bodhisattva. Rather than abstract principles, each vow is grounded in concrete scenarios—stolen sangha property given as official ransom, false realization claims made to assembled practitioners, the distinction between aspiring to the Bodhisattva path and practicing it. He combines precise ethical analysis with vivid example. Pitched to practitioners already engaged with Bodhisattva vows and their ethical implications.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 FoP.mp3
UUID: 99239af4-b297-4773-b4cb-747f6b96cd24
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Foundation of Practice (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1996 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 34.5 minutes
Words: ~2,027
So the reason why there are these three three vehicle or three paths which are taught, that of the Hearer vehicle, that of the Pratyekabuddha vehicle, and that of the Mahāyānist vehicle. Why Buddha taught these three vehicle is to lead the disciples, which is skillful means. That is to those who are unable to, what do say, practice or able to comprehend the teachings of the great vehicle or the Mahāyāna teaching, to them it’s shown Pratyekabuddha vehicle. And those who are even that are unable to comprehend that, to them, the hearer’s vehicle which is being taught. So these three vehicles which are taught to, what is it, to be able to practice the highest or the the great vehicle.
So so then the eleventh one, which which here the text is usually using in the that text which is known as the Akshaymati Sūtra which explains the thirteen root vows. The thirteen and the eleventh one, that of the thirteen is same as the very first one. That is the very first one which is explained from the Bodhisattva grounds, praising oneself and belittling the others. Yeah. So then the next one or the twelfth one is is telling lie telling lie that is having let’s say, which is having supernatural achievements or telling lie that I have high realizations here.
So so then to to break this vow, there has to be someone next to you who can who can fully understand what you are telling. So, like, we we we are able to understand all the meanings that you are explaining. So so and then like telling lie to that person which I have, I would say, practiced the emptiness and gained the realization of emptiness and saying that out of my kindness or compassion that I show you the teachings of emptiness what I have realized and tell explain to him or the person one have understood. And and as soon as the other person like understand or gets all the meaning, then you would say you break that So like, only emptiness, but any other, like, high attainment such as saying that even though one hasn’t achieved or gained the realization of bodhicitta, saying that I have gained the realization on bodhicitta, or even though one haven’t achieved clairvoyance, telling that I have achieved the clairvoyance, and telling others that this and making others understand what one is telling, then that point where you come to break this vow, this root vow. So whoever the person who tells this lie, to break this vow has to be one who have received vows.
And if the person is also who have taken the vows, then this person receives those the one who who have taken the vows, he or she also receives, like, breaking two vows. One is that of the forty Vajrasattva vows and one of that of the forty Bodhisattva ones. Oh, the So then the next one, the thirteen one, which is what do you call it? Taking the belongings or the property of the refuge objects. So So this one, how one can to break this vow is that, say, in the country there are kings and ministers.
And then if the king and the minister came together and let’s say, giving as a punishment to the ordained ones, like those who have took in ordination, they and they set up a punishment. So so then, you know, it’s that the first thing, the the king and the ministers, they have punished one of the sangha members and the Sangha members have nothing to give for what they have been punished for. So then the Sangha member goes and lets someone else, send someone else to take the belongings or the property of refuge objects such as the property or the belongings of the Buddha, Dharma, or the other Sangha members. Let them steal that. Then that thing what what is in the stolen is a what is a stolen property.
So so then whatever that thing which has been stolen from some of Sangha members by the person, he takes it and gives it to the to the to that monk or the ordained person. And then he takes that thing as a, what do say, he takes that thing to the king or to the minister who have punished and asked to bring these things. Then as soon as the minister takes that, the minister also receives breaking one of the root vow of the bodhisattvas. And then when the ministers give it to the king, then king two receives the vow of breaking the root and for king two receives the fault of breaking the root vow is this one. So so this this root vows is, like, unlikely to us because in order to break this root, one has to be someone who is powerful, able to like, one has to be powerful which able to cause someone to do these things.
So so that again, these two, which in the earlier, they are one which is stealing the properties of refuge object. Object. And then now there’s also one which just came up which is like taking the properties of the refuge object. These two are also different. So the the earlier one, which is stolen by oneself, property of refuge object, or caused other twist steal.
So So this part, the latter one, which is like as a punishment, someone someone else cause the the Sangha member to do to to do to take or to steal the belongings of the refuge of refuge objects. So the next one, which is the one or the fourteen one, which is holding corrupt morality, holding a corrupt morality. So so this part which they they need to be like, say two person. One who is giving this punishment and that is who we are taking Bodhisattva laws. And the second one, the person who say if a the person is fully ordained monks.
So so the so the the fully ordained monk is one who is doing meditations on bodhicitta. So if they are that Buddhist monk is doing meditations on bodhicitta and so on. Oh. And and And then like making the other person which making that monk, fully ordained monk to, what is it, to abandon his or her practice. And making many rules which causing fully ordained monks to, what do you say, to accumulate many delusions?
So which in short that causing someone to abandon their practice, we are doing different meditation practice causing them to leave or abandon their practice and giving many rules on top of that to which those rules make them accumulate many here. So so and and on top of that, like, taking the belongings of taking the belongings of as the example who are doing meditations on meditations and taking his or her belongings and giving to someone else who are just reciting prayers, like giving to them of the other’s belonging, then one breaks this vow. So in this sūtra, is known as the Akshay Goche Sūtra, in the these the fourteen of the eighteen root vows which have been explained. But then one of them, what is it, one of them is the same as the first one which is the first root vow that is explained in Bodhisattva grounds. The first one like praising oneself and belittling the others.
So that one, that one, if you take that one out, then it it comes out to be thirteen thirteen one. The thirteen was the root So so so when we take one is the same as the the the that of the, let’s say, bodhisattva grounds, which is explained from the bodhisattva grounds. And there’s only thirteen now, which is to make fourteen. Now there’s one one which you take it from that of the the sūtra for the skillful ones. From there, there’s one of the vows I explained from there.
So so so that one, the one of the one of the of the that has been explained in the sūtra, known as sūtra which is for the skillful one, is the last eighteen one. That is the root of abandon. So so abandoning this root which is abandoning bodhicitta. Here, of bodhicitta, there are of two kinds. That is the aspiration of bodhicitta and the engaging bodhicitta.
So of these two, in the teaching, it says abandoning bodhicitta means like abandoning the first one that of the aspiration of bodhicitta. So so when we the first one, when when one gives up the aspiration of the bodhicitta, then no way one can continue the next bodhicitta which is the engaging bodhicitta. So it is more the same, it’s the same which is saying abandoning or giving up the the aspiration of bodhicitta means giving up bodhicitta. So how you abandoned the aspiration of bodhicitta or the bodhicitta is that as the deeds or the practice that is performed by Bodhisattvas, are known as the practice of six or the ten perfections. So practicing, like studying or practicing the ten perfections.
And if one feels that I won’t be able to perfect or do all the practice on ten perfections. And if one generate this kind of thoughts saying that I won’t be able to do this practice this practice on ten perfections, which are known as the deeds of the bodhisattvas, then when you think, when you have this thought coming into one, then that’s the point where you abandon the or the aspirational mind. So even though we are unable to do this, like, able to do all the practice of the Bodhisattvas or the six perfections or the ten perfections, one shouldn’t give up this mind. Saying that give up this mind which, what do say, for the sake of others, will always, like, for the sake of others, I will always practice this. You should always have this thought.
You shouldn’t give up this thought. So the aspirational mind or the bodhicitta, which is known as the state of the mind which the wish to go wish to go to the wish that you have or the first part of the wish that you’re wanting to go to see the holy places such as Bodh Gaya. So that that wish, the first part of the wish, which is known as like that is that’s like the aspirational mind. So the aspirational bodhicitta which is the wish to go, and then the engaging bodhicitta which is known as actually going to the place. Is all to say.
These are the two examples which is given for this two, like the aspiration of bodhicitta and the engaging bodhicitta? Oh, yeah. So these eighteen are known as the eighteen root vows of the Bodhisattvas. So of of these eighteen, the except of two two of the eighteen root vows, are they are what is it? The common branches which all all has to have, these eighteen.
So those common branches will be explained in the next teachings. So we stop here tonight, and we do some questions. So person who reads book, for example, on emptiness or on emptiness, the person whoever composed the book is specifically like sort of teaching emptiness to that person. So breaking this rule about especially like, for example, when there’s this kind of gathering and if one is to teach emptiness, even the person have no belief in emptiness teaching. Like not even examining, taking that.
Whether the person have belief or not just explaining everything on emptiness. And that is like, that might fall like breaking the root vows. Because we don’t know whether the person might have, what is it, that person whoever is hearing the teaching might generate faith or generate a wrong view towards it. Any? Other question?
So can we stop here? So we do the dedication prayer for his holiness that’s sorry. The long life prayer of his holiness that’s on page ten. And the dedication prayers on page number five, number eight and nine.