Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 44-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen guides practitioners through developing genuine compassion. Rather than demanding immediate compassion for all sentient beings, he offers a practical approach: start with people around you who suffer, feel their difficulty, and let a natural wish arise to help them be free. He then addresses a key obstacle—our deep habit of self-cherishing, the root of mental disturbance and disconnection. The remedy, he emphasizes, is not waiting for external conditions to improve but changing our way of thinking through patience and understanding. He supports this with a memorable image: just as one wears shoes to walk safely over thorns rather than covering all the thorns, we must develop inner transformation instead of trying to control the world. For practitioners exploring Buddhist philosophy.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 IBP no date.mp3
UUID: 14c6f3be-10d6-499c-94b2-e1c5184b4454
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1983 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.0 minutes
Words: ~5,550
So yesterday, what we discussed was was about result or what, what kind of, you know, result or kind of achievement, in terms of the goal of spirituality such as, you know, Buddhahood, things like that. And we did try to cover a little bit, what sort of ground or what sort of how to say? What sort of basis that we have we have which makes everyone’s qualified qualified to achieve that sort of result in terms of, you know, the basic basic sense of intelligence or the Buddha nature or explaining that the the basic nature of the mind is very cognitive luminosity. To actualize to actualize to actualize this nature of the mind into the ultimate state of, you know, buddhahood buddhahood, there are two sort of, you know, main means to make this goal possible, and that is according to Buddhism’s Buddhism, the method and the wisdoms. So I say applying these two categories of practices, then everyone utilizes the basic potential of the mind into into the becoming of buddhahood.
So and then normally normally, the study of the Buddhism is a study of one’s own mind. So and it is very noticeable that, sometimes we find that our mind is very gentle and very nice and very calm. So as a consequence of that, we find our body or the behaviors of our mentality, our body, speech are also very calm and nice. But sometime due to the some kind of disturbance, we find that the mind of human beings or the mind of everyone is so agitated, so ignorant, so violent. So as a result of that, we find whole activities of how do say the whole activities or the behaviors of the mind or mentality and the body and speech are also likewise.
So, therefore therefore, the Buddhist techniques or the Buddhist tech teachings, which is teaching, which is me sorry, method is normally try to, you know, try to calm down or try to pacify the agitation of the mind and try to and try to try to get this mind towards or try to make this mind understand its basic quality. So how to say it? From that point of, you know, from that point of angle of trying to work out with the mind is according to Buddhist teaching or according to Buddhism, it is called methods. So in a short word, the method side of Buddhist teaching or the Buddhist teaching is the pacifications of the mind or in other word, bringing out ultimate quality of the mind into the real actions. So, anyway, when one starts to work with the mind in terms of Buddhisms in terms of Buddhisms, so there could be a two ways.
See, two two ways. So the one is one way is the people beginning to, you know, concerned with their own suffering or the problems, you see, and try to or want to get out of that problems, you see. So people who starts practicing with that sort of goals has somewhat or slightly different means. And another person or some other people wanted to, you know, work with their mind, you know, or try to bring out that ultimate quality of the mind in terms of, you know, in terms of benefiting all other people or all other sentient being, not just for oneself. So so depending on the depending on the start point or the start, you know, start, how to say, start aim, there could be slightly difference in in the actual methods.
That’s good. Yeah. Thank you, sir. So the person, you see, person who starts the practicing who starts practicing with the goal of, you know, with the goal of bringing out the ultimate quality of the mind in terms of, you know, helping other people or helping other sentient beings is according to, you know, according to Buddhism terminology, it’s called it’s called bodhicitta, it’s a bodhicitta, or altruisms or a mind wishing to achieve enlightenment. That enlightenment enlightenment means bringing on ultimate quality or the basic sense of intelligence of the mentality into actual reality.
And this state of mind or this wish or the bodhicitta or altruism according to Buddhism means one must develop all these, you know, altruisms will be resulted after having thought of, you know, thought of wishing or thought of helping or benefiting other. And so how to say wishing to help other wishing to help other does not come, you know, does not come automatically. It has to be come through the basic sense of compassion for other. So developing or the cultivation of the the cultivation of the compassion or the sense of compassion for other is a very strong exercise of mentality which which makes the basic quality of the mind shine. You see?
Shine. That’s right. Yeah. So this exercise from one point, the exercising the mind through the cultivations of the cultivation of the sense of compassion is method to pacify the mind. So so there are, you know, different ways or the different levels of exercising the mind or exercising the mentality through through the through developing or cultivating the sense of compassion for other.
So every mind now has the potential, the basic seed of developing or cultivating the sense of compassion or the compassion for other. So, however, it depends upon the exercise actual exercise or actual practice of the compassion. Working hard on this, it’s not possible to develop that sort of mental quality. So to begin working in terms of exercising the mind through through developing compassion has to be first being aware of the problems or the suffering or the trouble of other people or other sentient beings. So according to the Buddhisms, the meaning of compassion is, by being aware of the suffering or the problems of other and develop a thought wishing to free that people or that that people or other sentient beings free from this, you know, experiencing problem or suffering or whatever.
So as to sort of actually start working with the exercise or the practice of compassion first of all. For instance, if you see someone who is really suffering and having lots of problem or someone who is experiencing some kind of physical problems, you see, then you think of that problems and you feel that sort of suffering. You see, when you’re aware of the suffering and the problem of that people, then you start to, you know, sort of feel that, you know, that person should be free of their problems or sufferings, whatever. So, you know, the start of, you know, developing compassion is the awareness of the problem of other people or other sentient beings. You see?
So when you see someone suffering, and if you think and if you be aware and think more and more how that that people or that person is suffering. You see, suffering or what sort of problems that other person is undergoing. You see? So when you think and and be more aware of that, then you’re beginning to feel some kind of sympathy that, you know, that person should be free from that form of what can I do to make that person free? When that sort of feeling arises and that is, you know, the beginning of, you know, development of, you know, sense of compassion, you see.
And that’s how one, you know, try to bring out that basic seed of compassion, which ultimately, which eventually pacifies the whole defilements of the mentality, which obscures the basic sense of, you know, intelligence which underlie it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking, you know, the philosophy of the Buddhist teachings, it says that one must develop the compassions for entire sentient beings or, you know, for entire living beings.
You see? So to begin or to actualize, you know, such sort of thing when people start or one when it starts, you know, practicing compassion is almost impossible or it seems some kind of beyond the reach of one’s capability. Oh, it seems to be very, very, you know, monumental task. You know? However, Buddhism does say that one does not have to straight away, you know, think of entire sentient being.
You can start, you know, start feeling the sense of compassion by being aware of the problem or the suffering that you know the person who you know or the living beings who you know or the living beings, the person who are who are around you and facing some kind of problem. So in that way, you or one can, you know, exercise the mind and able to, you know, bring out, you know, the the real nature or real quality of the mind. That’s me. So when we sort of, you know when we speak from the point of view of the totality practice of the compassions in terms of Buddhisms, we might perhaps find it is somewhat ridiculous. You know?
If you are asked to have a compassion for the person or people who are much more better off than you or who are much more physically better or in a physically better looking than yourself or financially, from every s point of view, you find someone much more better than you see yourself. So, you know, asking someone to, you know, have a compassion for that sort of people, then it is hard to believe. Yeah. I know. Yeah.
It’s sort of, you know, hard to believe or, you know, hard to take on because if someone is, you know, stronger or better than or more sort of good looking or whatever, and if you are asked to have a compassion for that person, you might say, how am I supposed to, you know, develop compassion for that since in every aspect he he is much better off or well off than me. Yeah. From, you know, looking from the different angles of thinking, you know, then you you you can, you know, develop, you know, sense of compassion for the people, the person who is every from from how to say, from every point of view of, you know Yeah. Life that you find who who find better than yourself. So the an exercise an exercise of the mind through developing our cultivations, a sense of compassion.
You know? Compassions sort of can cover all sentient beings. You know? And since the meaning meaning of the compassion is sympathy, you know, developed through through being aware of the problem, the suffering of other people. You see?
So even though, you know, someone is much more richer than yourself and much more better off than yourself, however, when you think or when you look at them through the different perspectives, then you do find that they also have a lots of problems, and they also have a lots of suffering. And they are, by any means, not suffering or problem proof. They have a lot of for instance, from the point of view of suffering, you know, from the such as, you know, basic dissatisfaction of life, you know, base So from that point of view, almost everybody is same in terms of experiencing suffering or the problems. For for instance, if someone is, you know, is on his deathbed and he is suffering from the sense of fear or sense of dislike of being, you know, dying. You see, he doesn’t like that.
And and the peep people or person who is really healthy, nice, richer than yourself, better than yourself. But, you know, in terms of the how to say? In terms of experiencing experiencing eventuality of death is exactly the same. The person who is healthy also one day have to experience that sort of feeling, that sort of anxiety or whatever feeling that the person who is dying is experiencing. You see?
And and the person who is very healthy, you know, maybe temporarily he is healthy, but he is also bound to, you know, become sick or bound to, you know, become fall into some kind of tragedy. You see? So from you from you when you think from that sort of from that point of view or from that sort of thinking angle, then you do find that even someone is very rich, nice, healthy, also are, in actual fact subject to suffering or experiencing problem difficulties and things like that. So with that point of view you can also you know develop you know sense of feeling of the compassion and through which you become more tolerant towards them and less, you know, sort of jealous about them, things like that. That’s good.
Can you say anything? According to Buddhism, the meaning of the compassion means, you know, being aware or, you know, a sympathy develop, you know, through looking at the problems that other people are facing. So it’s not something that, you know, we unthinkingly or, you know, sort of un being unthoughtfully say, oh, he’s a pro or something or not sort of thinking like that. It means the problems you feel sort of, you know, how to say sense of, you know, helping or sense of wishing that someone should free from the problems. You see, from that point of view, everybody is a subject of your compassion.
Everybody is, you know, every people or every person is subject of, you know, your sense of love, your sort of, you know, how to say feelings. Yeah. Good feelings, I mean. Yeah. Yeah.
That and There are, you see, as we said, in sort of different levels of exercise of the mind or mentality through developing a sense of compassion. So so everyone can, you know, sort of everyone everyone can practice or everybody can exercise their mentality, you know, mentality through, you know, cultivation of the sense of the compassion, you know, you know, that how much they can do, you see. It not does not demand that everybody should reach to our I mean, this sort of that high level or this level or that level. It’s not. According to one’s own psychological makeup or or according to one’s own mental capability or ab ability or, you know, temperament or dispositions, one can, you know, start practicing compassion.
You see, maybe two people, three people, one person, even though maybe you start for oneself. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. You said it.
Great beings are highly spiritual highly, you know, realized beings. You see, they also, you know, sort of they reached to, you know, re they reached to such sort of, you know, state of the goal of their spirituality is you know? Or in another word, they begin their practice in exactly or from the similar position that at the moment we are in. You see, they also first, you know, started working with, you know, very small group of people who are suffering or whatever, you see. And that way, they slowly, slowly, you know, practice, and they eventually bring out the full strength of, you know, compassions through which they are able to benefit, you know, so many people and so many sentient beings.
And that’s how we have also to do. So as we said, altruisms, you see, our, yeah, our bodhicitta has to sort of come through the compassion because if we don’t care for other people, for their problems and suffering, then there’s no way that one can develop kind of a sense of, you know, that I will help them or they they must be free from their problems. You see? Therefore, when one develops a sense of a compassion, then one becomes, you know, somewhat determined to at least, you know, wish that I will help other people. And that’s how, you know, the harmony and everything comes about in the every community or, you know, or in amongst all entire sentient beings.
So therefore, you see, all people is are entitled or all people are the subject of your compassions in terms of their suffering, you see. And they are also, you know, sort of how to say it. You could, you know, how to say develop compassion for other people. Even from thinking that, you know, how much, you know, you have depend on other peoples and what almost whatever you do, whatever you enjoy, somewhat, you know, has to come through all other peoples. See?
And so therefore and from that point of view, also, you can, you know, develop a compassion for other people from that sort of somewhat, you know, sense of gratitude. And and also you have to feel or you have to sort of, how to say, develop loving kindness, you know, to other people. Once you begin to, you know so actually, according to the technique of developing the sense of compassion, you see that the loving kindness is also very important, you see. So when you see someone as very lovable, then you have a better chance of developing compassion for that. Yeah.
So, I mean, you see, developing, you know, the developing compassions or feeling more feeling compassionate to other people or to other sentient being is does not have to necessarily think from the point of view of their problem, of their suffering. So to be very, very honest, we also have to, you know, develop the sense of compassion for other people or other sentient beings. Even in terms of, you know, how does it in terms of feeling or in terms of gratitude. You see, when we came out or when we are born upon this earth, you see, we are very much dependent upon many other peoples. For instance, we are dependent upon our parents, our father, or our mother, or our mom and dad.
You see, if the we are if it wasn’t for this sort of help, we will we wouldn’t be, you know, in this sort of condition. Okay. If somebody else, you know, sort of adopts you still, you know, you could say that, you know, parents are not necessary. Somebody else could adopt. Doesn’t matter if that person or we are also dependent upon that person.
You see? So from that point of view, you know, you can think that they are very, very helpful or other people are helpful. So I must feel, you know, sort of a compassion or I must help other people as in terms of repaying my sort of, you know, how to say, a debt of kindness or help or whatever. So that is another aspect of in exercising the mentality with regards to bringing out the actuality or the, you know, the basic quality of the mind through through, how to say, through cultivating the sense of compassion. Yeah.
That means that that means that you retain when you talk. I mean, they are as we said, you know, we have a more sort of advanced techniques of developing the compassion. The less advanced techniques are the way of developing or cultivating the sense of compassion, you see. So okay. If you could, you know, sort of withstand the pressure of the techniques or the or the pressure of actual applying the techniques, and that’s great.
You know, we will achieve a big success. So if we can’t, then we will, you know, sort of start from the very, very how to say it? Very how to say it? We start from a very little examples or from very small start, not a big, maybe one or people or people who are around you, try to feel more tolerate, try to feel more compassion toward them. So if we do if we start, you know, start the work from that level or from that point, even it is a very little, you know, it will bring help.
You see, it will bring help, bring happiness, and so forth among the society in a very broader sense to all other sentient being. And and this understanding, you see, understanding is the only way of bringing peace and happiness. Mhmm. Yes. So the exercise, the practice of exercising the mind, mind through the compassions is the actual actual method of, you know, cleansing the mind, and it’s very helpful oneself and for other too.
So, you know and if we could not if we could not, you see, do the practice of, you know, or if we could not extend the sense of compassion for entire peoples. But at least, you know, we must try to understand this basic situations of our own mind, you see, our own mind. And, you know, helping other people or not helping other people or be good persons or wrong a bad person is actually stems from your the way of thinking. You see, it depends upon the mind. So, I mean, as you know that, you know, I mean, there were great people who are very kind or they’re many highly realized beings who are very kind.
So these people, you know, sort of what actually they did was, you know, sort of change their style of thinking, you know, Their style of thinking. They change or they reverse style of thinking to the general people. You see, general people’s way of thinking. So, mistakenly, way of thinking is the actual cause of problems or suffering that we don’t wish for. You see?
So, normally, you see, whenever we are overcome with emotional affliction such as ignorance or such as anger and so forth, you see, whenever we feel some or whenever we experience problem or suffering or whenever things does not go as you planned or as we planned, so we tend to blame the cause of that thing very much on external things or on onto other people. If you are feeling very angry, you sort of, you know, tend to sort of tend to sort of blame that somebody else, you know, has caused this problem to you or somebody else has, you know, made you upset. If it wasn’t for that person, I wouldn’t be upset. So and all the problems, you see, come according to Buddhism. You know?
It stems from the the way of your thinking, you see, way of looking at the things. So at the moment, you see, we have we lack a tremendous amount of, you know, the sense of compassion for other, and we have a tremendous amount of cherishing for oneself. We always think that I must be, you know, number one, we should be treated as VIP or whatever, or I am the best. You know? So you always sort of cherish for yourself.
And when when sort of a slight things, you know, hurts or harms or does not please that wish of cherishing yourself, then you begin to feel upset or you begin to experience, you know, suffering or problems, you see. So when when you have a less sort of self-cherishing and have a more sense of compassion for other, then there is less chance of feeling, you know, depressed or less chance of suffering, less chance of being hurt by some kind of activity of other people. That’s. When sort of, you know, how to say, when we feel angry or when the anger arises in the mind, it causes agiteachings or disturbance in the mentality, you see. So well, of course, there are, you know, sort of two factors as one is, you know, being caused by the, you know, by the activities of other people or maybe somebody has said some kind of, you know, nasty thing.
So and one thing is, of course, a rather the form, the mistaken way of thinking. Mistaken way of how do you say? Thinking. Yep. That’s right.
Yeah. It is. Yeah. We know that nobody wishes for, you know, problems or suffering, and everybody equally wishes for the happiness, and everybody wants, you know, the peace in their mentality and quiet, nice, gentle in the mind. Nobody wants they are being angry and upset.
You see? So now the solution is if somebody wants to be miserable and that’s different matter. You see? If somebody does not want to be miserable, then you see, you know, as a method to do that is or if you wait, you know, to seize the external cause which causing us in a problem, then it is almost sort of impossible for us, you know, you know, to achieve that sort of peace of the mind. You see?
Or we wait, you know, all the nasty people to finish or or all the evil people, all the evil thing. Whatever to finish or to cease, then it’s almost impossible to achieve the peace of the mind. You see now for the problems we are facing that we don’t want, you see, is the only, you know, exercising our mind or, you know, how to say, reprogramming or programming the way of thinking, you see. If we don’t, you know, sort of bring that sort of, you know, psychological adapteachings, then it is very hard to, you know, achieve achieve, you know, state of calm or peace in mind or in in general, you know, sort of disharmony among the people or whatever, you see. So in in ancient time, many sort of, you know, great sages or great yogis or great practitioner or great or good people or nice person, you know, they did achieve that sort of state of the mind.
You see? And that this only way their only way or method of achieving that sort of thing is is not that at that time that they were not any evil people. They are not any sort of, you know, how to say, sort of harmful people or harmful conditions. At that time, everything was like a paradise. Not it’s not like that in ancient time.
It wasn’t like a paradise. There were enough people to get you into trouble or there were enough people who are I mean, you see, who sort of always think of doing naughty things. You see? However, those great people or those great saint did manage to, you know, achieve that sort of, you know, that sort of ultimate state of the mind. Why?
Because they did they changed way of thinking that the common people do, you see, or common people did. What? What did? Things. Mhmm.
I think it would be sort of very good example to say in terms of, you know, how to say, in terms of elaborating the meaning which I was trying to say. Because if some someone, you know, wanted to go to certain places or if someone wants to go for a very long walk into the bushes or something like that. Right? And the whole bushes is, you know, filled with some kind of prickles. How do call the prickles?
Freckles or thorns or rockets, that sort of thing. And if if one is, you know, planning that, oh, these things or these prickle will hurt me, you see, so I will buy a huge leather and I cover them and and I walk onto them so it won’t hurt me. You see, if somebody is thinking that sort of thing and it is almost impossible, he can never ever do that. So instead, you know, he go to a kind of, you know, super supermarket or something like that, buy a nice strong slipper or shoes put onto his foot. Right?
Then he he can go for a long walks. Nothing would happen to his, how to say, foot, or those prickles cannot hurt his foot. So and loss. That’s the reason. Social money is You know, I mean, if there are so many people who always say bad thing about you and things like that, supposing if some someone has got a very good patience, you see, for him, their sort of those sort of action won’t harm him, you know.
They cannot disturb him, you see. From the point of view of, you know, the conditions of causing or or from the point of view of, you know, the conditions to drive normal people mad. Yeah? But people who have a kind of patience or who have more understanding, even though that sort of, you know, action cannot drive him mad, cannot drive him, you know, crazy or not, whatever. Yeah.
That’s right. If one has good understanding, such as patience and things like that, then no matter whatever, you know, sort of physical things or whatever sort of harmful action that somebody is trying to charge onto you, it won’t or it cannot disturb you, you see. Why? Because you have a patience. You know how to say.
You know the reality. So and the reason okay. The reason why we cannot sort of, you know, do that sort of thing or the reason why we cannot have a patience or the reason why we are easily disturbed by that sort of actions or the harmful actions of other people or whatever is because basically we have a strong, you know, wish, a strong sort of self-cherishing, you know. We always we always think that I should be, you know, should not be harmed no matter thousands and millions of people died or I should be sort of, you know you have or everybody sort of thinks that oneself should be treated properly. So and just a one way of thinking or one-sided thinking that I should be should be treated or should be looked after properly and not thinking other for other people.
So so, therefore, according to the Buddhism, this is the main thing that actually causing a lot of problem for us. You see? So as to, you know, to reverse that, it’s I mean, if we said, oh, we should ignore ourselves and we should look after other people, or we should completely ignore ourselves and completely, you know, sort of help or try to do something nice for other people. Maybe it’s quite hard. We cannot do such things straight away.
So but at least we must sort of realize that I like happiness. I wish or I desire for happiness. So is all other people. So is all other sentient being. Exactly wish for the happiness, you see.
And I don’t want unhappiness. I don’t want suffering. So similarly, all other people, my friend or my fellow countrymen or other sentient being also don’t want unhappiness exactly same as me. So then at least, you know, you must sort of try to think that that or at least you sort of try that that if he is trying to kill an animal or something like that, you just think that, oh, he doesn’t want to be killed or I don’t want to be killed. So maybe he or whoever has don’t want to be killed, so I shouldn’t kill that.
So at least one can have that sort of realization, and that will, you know, really help. Yeah. So the self-cherishing, you know, or or wanting always good things for oneself and somewhat ignoring other people, that sort of attitude is basically cause of the problem, and that sort of, you know, leads us to into into the experience of the suffering and the problems. So if if, you know, someone is wishing for the happiness or the peace, for nice atmosphere or very harmony, you know, within one’s mind or within the family or within the country or within the world or among the entire sentient beings. If that person is not able to let go of his attitude of self-cherishing and it is hard to bring that sort of atmosphere or to bring that sort of, you know, how to say peace?
Because if one always sort of, you know, thinks or if one’s, you know, sense of criteria is, you know, the benefit or, you know, goodness for only oneself. Or if one always someone think, oh, I should be, you know, first person who do this, or I must not be harmed, then it’s hard to have a sense of tolerance to other. And when the sense of tolerance for other is lacked and it’s hard to communicate properly, once the track of communication has gone wrong, then it’s hard to have nice collaborations for any kind of work or for any kind of things. You see? And so therefore, if everyone in this world is able to let go of somewhat their attitude of thinking for own for themselves or for their for their some of their own group, then, you know, there is a great possibility of bringing the happiness or, you know, banning all those sort of harmful activity, you know, which is now causing a great danger to the people of this world.
Unless, you know, sort of unless everybody become more aware of their sort of attitude of self-cherishing or just wanting the great things for oneself or for people who are related with yourself, then