Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen opens with a sūtra quote: whatever harms sentient beings harms Buddha himself. He explains how abandoning harm is the foundation of all Buddhist practice, regardless of level, because the root of all negativity is self-cherishing. He then explores suffering in higher realms—demigods experience intense jealousy competing with wealthier gods, fighting wars they inevitably lose. Gods themselves are not free from pain; they are classified into desire realm, form realm, and formless realm, each with different types of suffering. The highest gods experience ten signs of impending death. Throughout, he explains why recognizing these sufferings is essential for generating renunciation and the wish to escape conditioned existence. Suitable for those beginning study of the Graduated Path.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 29 GP 1996 06 23.mp3
UUID: 7f91f892-9dde-4ce0-bd2c-ee0146ea934a
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Graduated Path (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1996-06-23
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.6 minutes
Words: ~2,470
Quoting a line from the sūtra where Buddha said that whatever is harmful to the sentient beings, it is harmful to me too. And whatever is helpful or beneficial to other sentient beings, that is beneficial to me too. So in these two lines, what is what Buddha is explaining is that whether one is practicing Dharma or not, one shouldn’t harm sentient beings. So with us as a practitioner, we have to avoid harming on sentient beings such as being a Mahāyānist, yeah, we have to abandon harming other sentient beings. Even if you look into the lower vehicles, which is that of hearers and Pratyekabuddha.
Even in the hearers, they are known as the ordinary one and the special ones, which both even the ordinary hearers, they have to avoid harming sentient beings. So so all of these practitioners has to abandon harming other sentient beings. And the reason why even the very ordinary hearers have to abandon harming other sentient beings is that that the aim of their practice is to achieve the highest states such as human and god, or their ultimate aim be liberation from saṃsāra where in order to achieve these these goals, one have to abandon as a foundation which is harming other sentient beings. So, which is harmful, things which are harmful to other sentient beings are known as those negative actions that we perform through our body, speech, mind. They are known as that of body, negative actions that we commit through our body and speech are total of seven, which is caused by the four mental negative actions.
So, with us, we are known as minor scope practitioner. So, being a minor scope practitioner, we have to totally abandon, I would say, harming other sentient beings. So so because of that reason that Buddha in his teaching says that whatever is harmful to others in changing, it’s harmful to me. So so how, like, harming sentient beings is also harming oneself as a Buddha himself is that that as an example, for example, a bird to fly in the in the the space It can fly depending on the earth or it flies in this space. And the reason it flies in this space is searching for food.
And it always, the food that the birds find always depends on the earth. So as as example that depends whatever to find any food has to depend on the earth. Similar to that where there are many beings who have achieved high realizations, such as Buddha achieving the enlightened state. All all these came about depending upon sentient beings. So so when when there is when when sentient being experience happiness, then all the Buddhas are pleased.
And when sentient beings experience suffering, then all the all the all the Buddhas or all the enlightened beings are displeased or not pleased. And and So so as the sentient beings experience suffering that Buddhas are not pleased or displeased, that so we should that we should avoid harming sentient beings. And if if if you if you are unable to abandon that if you are unable to abandon harming sentient beings, then not, let’s say, not harming them. Yeah. So in in his his holiness’s advice saying that the teachings Buddhist teachings can be summarized into two lines, which says that well, first line, which is not to harm sentient beings.
And then and then the second line, which is if you can’t help not to harm them in these two line Buddhist teachings. All all the Buddhist teachings are summarized. So so as all the all the past Buddhists can all all the past Buddhists can to achieve the enlightened state in dependence upon sentient beings, which is benefiting the sentient beings or dependent on on that. They come to achieve the fully enlightened state. So so we too, like, follow follow their step, which which if we if we are we are unable to, like, follow properly, then just, like, imitating them, like, doing try to do things what they have done.
And if we are able to do that, then then it shows that taking this human body, precious human body, or taking this human body becomes meaningful. So so as you said that the root of all all all negativities or negative actions or the wrongdoing is the self-cherishing thought. And this thought that we need to apply or we need to damage this thought as much as possible, the self-cherishing thought, and work on the thought that wishing to bring happiness to others without the sense of near and farness. And developing that thought is what makes our body, speech, and mind more tamed or subdued. So so, like, you know, the enlightened beings or the Buddhas and sentient beings, if you if you if we do compare their kindness, then we can’t point one is more kind than the other.
They are equal in giving kind kindness to us. So, sentient beings are very kind to us. And, they are very kind to us because all our temporal happiness and ultimate happiness depends upon sentient beings such as the temporal happiness like the food and shelter through the we we get all these through the kindness of other sentient beings and the ultimate happiness such as the state of Buddhahood or the bodhicitta too. All these will come to achieve or generate this mind and dependence upon sentient beings kindness. So thinking that without having the thought of near and far, thinking all sentient beings and may all sentient beings, like, generating this thought that may all sentient being have happiness.
So I’m setting up this mind which I do this practice or I listen to the teachings in order to lead all sentient beings into the state of happiness and taking that responsibility upon oneself. And whenever you do your practice, wherever you are, taking that responsibility and performing your practice. And even now right now that we are I listen to the teaching in order to understand the teaching. The reason is to lead all sentient beings other sentient beings to the enlightened state or the Buddhahood. So for that purpose, I listen to the teaching.
Like setting up this motivation and we do short meditation. So pass on the additional expand sufferings of human beings? So the reason all these different kinds of sufferings can explain here is that, for example, some might think why we need to know all these different kinds of sufferings. Might think there’s no point of knowing these. But the reason why all these are explained here is that we are known as the one we’re seeking for liberation.
And to achieve that state of liberation, we to become free from all types of suffering. And in order become free from all type of suffering, need to apply antidotes towards these different types of suffering. And to apply antidotes, first of we need to recognize what types of, how many types of sufferings or which are the sufferings. So for that purpose, and explanations on suffering comes about. So in the in the small scope where the being the beings mainly aim to achieve the high state such as human and god.
But in the medium scope, the being is not satisfied with that. But they want to become free from all types of sufferings, which is to achieve the state which is known as the cessation of sufferings or the liberation. So so to achieve that state, we need to to achieve to achieve this state of the liberation or this state free of suffering. We need to know, you know, like, we need to know all these sufferings. So so so we need to recognize all these sufferings of different state, which is in order to generate the thought of renunciation, the state of human beings, human states, like one one need to recognize all the sufferings of human beings, all different kinds of sufferings of human.
And in order to, like, in order to, again, generate renunciation to the gods and demigods, we have to we have to recognize these different state of suffering in those levels that are gods and demigods. Yeah. So today, Geshe-la will explain briefly on the sufferings of demigods and the gods. So so the small scope being on the small scopes aims to achieve the high states such as humans and gods. But that state, the human and god state, achieving that, aiming for that state is only not to be reborn in the lower states and that of the three lower states.
But in that state, like human and god state, doesn’t mean it’s completely free of suffering. It is it is in this in the circle of, like, in the circle of suffering. So so even being born as as the gods, known as the in the in the realm of demigods, they are too taking line from the teachings of Nāgārjuna, known as the text, known as the friendly letter. In it Nāgārjuna explains that demigods are still demigod still experience the the great suffering and, like, mental suffering such as among themselves, among the demigods themselves. Some are more stronger, some are more weaker.
And the weaker one have weaker one, and Also, the stronger one, both of them have great mental sufferings. So so even though if if the some of the demigods, even if they, you know, don’t have great mental sufferings, on on that in in that life, it’s said that they they won’t be able to achieve they won’t be able to achieve the the the path of seeing, which is they won’t be able to gain a direct realization into emptiness. Yeah. So both of that are gods and demigods unable to realize emptiness directly in that life. That’s because they are, what I say, dealt by karmic obscurations, strong karmic obscurations.
So they have very strong karmic obscurations, which is like they might have committed the five major heinous crimes or the five minor heinous crimes. Either of these, if they have done these the heinous crime, then they have like, a strong kind of obscurations. So the demigods which are explained as those who are similar to the gods in different teachings. Some teachings says they are gods but but some teaching, it says also there are nagas. So so comparing the gods and the demigods, the gods are known as much more richer in possessions as well.
And also in the, what you call, glory. They are much much greater than the demigods. So so also, like, in the demonic gods, among the demi gods, there are many beautiful, I wanna say, demi gods demi goddesses or demigods women. So, many of them are taken by the gods. And because of that, they have strong sufferings of fight among among these gods and demigods.
And and all the time, like, continuously, they go they go to they have strong sufferings of getting jealous. So, like, as an example, say in the earth or among the human beings, if one’s self is very rich and say one of one’s enemy who is in the next door which happens to become much richer than oneself, there’s strong mental suffering that that person goes through which strong sense or the jealous that the person had towards the other person. Even on that human level they have this intense or strong sufferings. If you were to see that type of suffering among the demigods then it’s much what to say? That sense of suffering of jealousy is much, what to say, much bigger, much bigger than that.
So so because of that intense jealous that getting intense jealous towards the wealth of gods, that they go into war with them and said that the gods, because of their karma, unless their head got chopped, they won’t die. So so then the demigods are known as similar to that of human. If They are like a strike by any weapons, any part of the body, get killed. And so in this way if we compare with the strength of the gods and the demigods in their fightings, Even even in the in the fight, the demigods lose. So so as we see in the in the in the world when when there is war, then people go through strong sufferings like mentally as well as physically.
We go through great sufferings. And if we were to compare that to similar type of sufferings among the gods and the demigods, their sufferings that they go through during the war is like hundred or thousand times greater than that of ours. So if we wish, if we do our practice aiming to achieve the state of God, then just knowing this suffering, being born as a God, getting reborn in the God’s realm, we still go through these different types of sufferings. So so, like, as it is explained here, the the gods are much wealthier and much much stronger than that of the demigods. And if one wishes to be born as a as a god, then even among the gods, they are not free of sufferings.
They still have great sufferings. Experience great sufferings. So of the of the gods, they are generally classified into two that are the gods of the desire realms and the gods of the upper realms. So so the the gods of the upper realms, sorry, of the desire realm there are six levels of gods. And then that of the upper realms, the form realm, there are seventeen levels of gods.
And the formless realm, there are four four levels of Gods. So so the gods of the desire realm have the sufferings of death like we do. And that god of the upper realms, they have the sufferings of, what do say, like signs of death. Like suffering of the signs of death. So those are sign of death that is experienced by the gods of the upper realms explained of ten kind ten ten types, which is explained by Nāgārjuna.
Five that have, you know, five that is closer close ones and five that of the distant ones. Yeah. So one of the sign is that the Digital. Like, the the color or the the what do you call? The brightness of the body, what do say, weakens.
And the next kind of sign of of death, sorry, is not wanting to sit the seat which belongs to one, not wishing to sit on that. So as another sign of death, which is that the flower garland, which, what do say, fades and becomes old, which as soon as the flower got in.