Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute session, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen anchors the Graduated Path in a foundational Buddha principle: harm to others is harm to oneself, benefit to others is benefit to oneself. He explains why this understanding is essential to all Buddhist practice—from seeking a precious human rebirth to the aspiration to free all beings. The heart of his teaching shifts the mind away from self-cherishing toward genuine care for others. He then moves to the essential framework: recognizing suffering across human, demigod, and god realms. Using concrete examples—jealousy among demigods competing with gods, the eventual death even of gods despite their long lives—he shows how no samsaric state, however elevated, offers lasting happiness. This understanding sparks renunciation and drives practitioners toward genuine liberation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 41 GP 1996 08 11.mp3
UUID: a3394634-c320-41ce-a53c-c6a8b69e0602
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Graduated Path (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1996-08-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.4 minutes
Words: ~2,265
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 Buddha is explaining is that whether one is practicing Dharma or not, one shouldn’t harm sentient beings. So with us as practitioner, we have to avoid harming other sentient beings such as being a, Mahāyānist, 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, 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 the the aim of their practice is to achieve the highest state such as human and God or their ultimate aim might be liberation from saṃsāra. In order to achieve these goals, one has to abandon as a foundation which is harming other sentient beings. So, that which is harmful, things which are harmful to other sentient beings are known as those negative actions that we perform to our body, body, speech, mind.
They are known as that of body, negative actions that we commit through our body and speech are a total of seven is caused by before mental negative actions. So, with us, we are known as a Mahāyānist practitioner. So, being a mindfulness practitioner, we have to totally abandon, I would say, harming other sentient beings. So so because of that reason that Buddha in in his teaching says that whatever is harmful to others indeed it is 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 in the space It can fly depending on the earth or it flies in this space.
And the reason it fly in this space is is that searching for food, and it always the food that the birds finds always depends on the earth. So as an example that depends whatever to find any food has to depend on the earth. Similar to that, with the way there are many things we have achieved high realizations, such as achieving the arhat state. All all these came about depending upon sentient beings. So, sentient beings experience happiness, then all the Buddhas are pleased.
And when sentient beings experience suffering, then all the Buddhas or the enlightened beings are displeased or not pleased. And and So, sentient beings experience suffering that Buddhas are not pleased or displeased, so 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. So, 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 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 Buddhas came all all the past Buddhas came to achieve the enlightened state in dependence upon sentient beings, which is benefiting the sentient beings. Depending on on that, they come to achieve the fully enlightened state. So so so we too follow their step which if we are unable to follow properly then just imitating them, like trying to do things what they have done. If we are able to do that, the then it shows that taking this human body, precious human body, or taking this human body becomes meaningful.
So so as I said that the root of all all negativities or negative actions or the wrongdoing is the self-cherishing thought. And to this thought that we need to apply, 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 far ness. Developing that thought is what makes our body, speech and mind more tamed or subdued. So, like 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 to the get all this 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 the sentient beings kindness. 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 beings have happiness. So setting up this mind which I do this practice or I listen to the teachings in order to lead all sentient beings into state of happiness. Taking that responsibility upon oneself and whenever you do your practice wherever you are, taking that responsibility and performing your practice.
Right now, 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 the past Sunday, it should explain the sufferings of human So the reason all these different kinds of sufferings can for example, some might think why we need to know all these different kinds of sufferings. Might think there’s no point of knowing this.
The reason why all this I explain here is that we are known as the one we’re seeking for liberation And to achieve that state of liberation, need to become free from all types of sufferings. And in order to become free from all type of suffering we need to apply antidotes towards these different types of suffering. Apply antidotes first off we need to recognize how many types of suffering or what are which are the sufferings. So so for that purpose, like, all like, the explanations on suffering comes about. So in the the small scope where the being the beings mainly aim to achieve the high states 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 to achieve that state, need to achieve this state or the liberation or this state free of suffering. We need to know, you know, like, we need to know all these sufferings. 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, one need to recognize all the sufferings of human beings, all different kinds of sufferings of human. And in order to again generate renunciation to the gods and demigods, we have to recognize these different state of sufferings in those levels, gods and demigods. So to take this level, explain briefly on the sufferings of demigods and the gods.
So so the small scope, the 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 conscious state doesn’t mean it’s completely free of suffering. It is it is in the circle of, like, in the circle of suffering. So, even being born as the gods in the realm of demigods, there too as taking line from the teachings of Nāgārjuna, known as the texts known as the friendly letter.
In it, Nāgārjuna explains that the demigods still experience the great suffering and mental suffering such as among themselves, among the demigods themselves. Are more stronger, some are more weaker. And the weaker one, and also the stronger one, both of them have great mental sufferings. So, though some of the demigods, even if they don’t have great mental sufferings, in that life they won’t be able to achieve the path of seeing, which is they won’t be able to gain a direct realization into emptiness. Yeah.
So, gods and demi gods unable to realize emptiness directly in that life. That’s because they are, what I say, dealt by obstructions, strong obstructions. So, they have very strong karmic which is like they might have committed the five major crimes or the five minor crimes. If they have done these the heinous crime, then they have a strong karmic obscurations. So the demigods which are those who are similar to the gods in different teachings.
Some teachings says they are gods but some teachings it says also they are nagas. So, comparing the gods and the demigods, the gods are known as much more richer in possessions, wealth. And also in their glory, they are much much greater than the demigods. So so also, like, in the demi gods, among the demi gods, are many beautiful demigod, demigodesses or women. Many of them are taken by the gods.
And because of that, they have strong sufferings of fight among these gods and demigods. And all the time, like continuously, they have strong sufferings of getting jealous. So, like, as an example, in the earth or among human beings, if If one’s self is very rich and say one of one’s enemies in the next door which becomes much richer than oneself. Then there is a strong mental suffering that the person goes through which sends a jealous that the person had towards the other person where 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, that sense of suffering, jealousy is 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 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 they get killed. 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 world when there is war, then people go through strong sufferings like mentally as well as physically. We go through great sufferings. And if we compare that 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, as it is explained here, the gods are much wealthier and much stronger than that of the demigods.
And if one wishes to be born as a god, then even among the gods, they are not free of sufferings. They still have great sufferings, experience great sufferings. So, 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 desired realm there are six levels of gods and then that of the upper realms, the form realms, are seventeen levels of Gods. And with the formless realm, there are four levels of Gods.
The gods of the desire realm have the sufferings of death like we do. And that god of the upper they have the sufferings of what do you say, like signs of death, like suffering of the signs of death. So those are the sign of death that is experienced by the gods of the upper realms explained of ten types which is explained by Nāgārjuna. Five is closer, close ones and five that are of the distant ones. So one of the sign is that the Digital.
Like, the color or the, what do call, the brightness of the body, weakens. Next kind of sign of suffering, sign of death, sorry, is not want to sit a seat which belongs to one, not wishing to sit on that. So as another sign of death which is that the flower garland which fades and becomes old.