Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute talk, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen explains how motivation determines the fruit of spiritual practice. Opening with Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching on the precious human body moving toward inevitable death, he traces the path from reflecting on karma and rebirth through the crucial realization that all efforts depend on our motivation. He then unfolds bodhicitta—the mind of enlightenment for all beings—starting with equanimity meditation to equalize our thoughts toward all sentient beings. The session culminates in instruction on visualizing the merit field, recognizing its three essential aspects, and inviting wisdom beings through light rays that gather from all Buddha-realms and dissolve into each figure. For serious practitioners with training in Tibetan Buddhist visualization.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 LR 1995 07 02.mp3
UUID: d07f550b-dbcf-453b-a41d-82c950fa73b7
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995-07-02
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.1 minutes
Words: ~2,628
Quoting from the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa, a text called A Foundation of our Good Qualities, which explains that right now we have achieved this precious human body, which have all the eighteen qualities. Though we have found this precious human body, it’s it’s been always moving. It’s always been moving or changing like like the the waves of the water. So it moves continually and that is it moves towards the end which is the death. And we have to face the death.
And after death, where we go to, where we continue depends upon our karmas, and that depends upon our good karmas or the bad karma. So think looking in our past lives and the parts of this that whatever negativities that one have done, whatever non virtuous actions that one have done, one should feel regret about those actions and apply antidotes and apply antidote and conscientiousness or be careful with how you act in the coming time. Taking care of our future which is creating or accumulating the cause that leads one into the upper realms, the upper states. And if we are unable to collect these causes, then it’s definite that we fall into the lower states, lower realms. So whatever we do for our better rebirth and our future, it should be conjoined with good motivations.
The pure good motivations, you should engage in the practice. The practice of accumulating merit and and removing the negativities. So for example, like, we do meditations, every time we do meditations and how powerful, what type of result we get out of our meditations depends with our motivations, what type of motivation that we have. For example, if there are poor people to do meditations and depending upon their different kinds of motivations, have that type of level of result that is achieve. If it is like if a person is doing a meditation just for thinking for the benefit of this life, then he or she receives a result according to that.
And if a person who does a meditation thinking to achieve higher states or to be born in the higher realms in our future, then he or she receives that level of result. And if a person who does a meditation to become free from saṃsāra, then he or she receives that result. And if a person who does a meditation, like a completed thinking for others, doing a meditation to free all of the sentient from the state of suffering, then he or she also achieve that types of result. So we here are known as Mahāyāna practicing And as a Mahāyāna practitioner we should have always the Mahāyāna motivation. Which is the motivation, the bodhicitta motivation.
So a source of all all goodness. And it’s like like a medicine which removes all sickness? A path which is travelled by all the all the learned masters. So, if one engages in that practice, the purpose of self automatically comes along and that is the practice of bodhicitta, the practice of bodhicitta. And this is what one should try to generate, the thought of bodhicitta within one.
So the bodhicitta is doorway to Mahāyāna. So so before one generates the thought of bodhicitta within one, one one need to know what Mahāyāna is. So to know that, to ask what is Mahāyānist is that the one who practice on compassion, the practices the great compassion, which is which is the wish to free all sentient beings from the state of suffering. So to generate that great compassion within one’s continuum, one need to train one’s of all those different conditions or the causes, like recognizing all sentient beings as one’s mother and remembering their kindness and so on. So so and for that, to recognize all sentient beings as being one’s mother, one to level one’s thought towards the sentient beings.
The thought of is hatred and attachment towards sentient beings. You should equal that towards all sentient beings. So so we shouldn’t, like, change be divide divide change in being two, one as a object of hatred and one as an object of attachment. And the reason why we shouldn’t be doing that is because they are all equal, that wishing happiness and do not want suffer. So, from one side, sentient beings are So how one should think is once you think all sentient being being they’re very close one to one, very close one.
So should see all of them being very close to one. So so because of that, one shouldn’t bring these two two thought near and far. That is attachment and hatred towards them. So so the practice of equanimity is what we need at the very beginning to meditate on. So if we meditate on equanimity well well enough that, you know, if there’s no more no thought of near and far towards sentient beings.
If all of them see if you see all of all the sentient beings being very close to you, then on that as a foundation, on that base, you build the rest of the practice. So so on that on on that foundation, then you, like, generate the total bodhicitta. If if a genuine bodhicitta or if not, then, like, mentally create the thought of bodhicitta within you within you. So so that that motivation, the bodhicitta motivation shouldn’t be just just a word, but should try to gain some experience of of that bodhicitta from from from one’s mind, from the depth of mind. So so what the teaching that we are hearing here will be the teachings Mahāyāna’s teachings.
So in order to listen to Mahāyāna’s teaching, one needs Mahāyāna’s motivation. And that is the motivation of bodhicitta motivations. And we think bodhicitta and meditate for a short time. So in the past, shall explain the the central figure of the merit field and, like, complete explanation on the central figure. So so then the rest, like, the the surrounding deities are similar to that of the refuge merit field, which has been already explained.
So so we are not we are not Geshe-la is not going to repeat that again. So in short, the merit field that one have visualized is emanation of one’s root guru, one’s lama. So then, like the central figure, have visualized the incorporation of three deities, or three, and then around we visualized the five lineage Gurus or Lamas, and then another circle of bodhisattvas and the dharma protectors. So, all those, the surrounding lamas or bodhisattvas also has to be visualized in incorporation of all three things. And one should be able to these three things.
So one should have the three recognition is that when you see all the refuge field having incorporation of three things, which is one is that they have different aspect. They show you different aspect like bodhisattvas, different Pratyekabuddha and so on. They have the same nature. The first recognition is having the same nature of That is the central figure. So so so one should be able to one should be able to know within one’s mind that those refuge are, those merit fields, those different figures are as such and such, whatever those deities are, being real.
And one should one should one should be one should have this confidence that there are what do say? There are what what they are the real whatever the merit fields which you have visualized. So then the next is that you should have faith in the merit field by seeing qualities of those merit fields and should should make offerings. So one should be like a one should one should have these three recognitions to the merit field. So, if one have these two recognition of the of the merit field, then whoever that person may be won’t waste its time accumulating merit and purifying the negativities depending on this merit field.
So so as long as one engages in the practice of purifications and making offering to this merit field, even though offering the objects that you make offering to the objects, if they are if they are they are low quality. Though the quality of the object that one is offering is low quality because of the object because because of the merit field plus the good motivation, the bodhicitta motivation within one makes the practice of offering very powerful. So so after after visualizing the merit field, after having a complete visualization of merit field, one should then invite the wisdom beings. Inviting the wisdom beings are not that necessary. So you don’t you don’t one doesn’t need to do all the inviting, how to say, inviting rituals for the wisdom beings because just thinking the wisdom beings are there, that means they are all here.
So, in the sūtra, Buddha explains that whoever whoever have the faith in Buddha, there is the Buddha there. So same thing in Buddhist teachings. It explains that there’s no no place that you can point where there’s no Buddha. So saying that there’s no place that you can point where there’s no Buddha, you should like, that line or you should use you should use right now? And then if you use this lying saying that there’s no place where you can point or there’s no Buddha, if you use that line according to Tantric practice, then again, it has, you can use that practice more elaborately.
So the reason is that the state so the union state of Buddhahood. That is the union of body and mind. In in this context, body and mind. And whatever mind comes to realize, whatever mind comes to know, whatever mind perceives, there is the body too. So there is the body too.
So another explanation of that, the union state is the union of great bliss and emptiness. So wherever there’s there’s emptiness, there’s the great bliss. So it’s always union. So bliss here means the great bliss here means the wisdom that realizes the emptiness here. The wisdom that realizes the emptiness.
So the mind sorry. The bliss The bliss here means the mind realizing the the mind realizing the emptiness. So so that wherever that mind is, wherever that mind moves, wherever that mind is, wherever that mind pervades, yeah, is wherever that mind pervades, there is the body of the Buddha. So so so because of that, wherever you visualize the merit field, It is it is perceived it’s pervaded by the mind of the Buddha, so there is the the body of the Buddha too. So so in in in in front here, we said that also there there is Buddhas in front of us.
And if if to ask why don’t we see them? So why don’t we see them in front is because we are obscured by our karma. It’s it’s and the karmic obscurations obscures us from seeing it. But if we don’t have the obscurations, then wherever we visualize, we can actually see the merit field. So so as a as a history that how Asaṇga meditated on Maitreya Buddha for for twelve years.
And even for this twelve years of meditation, he still cannot see Maitreya Buddha, and that is because of the karmic obscurations. So as the visualization goes, for example, if we do visualize, then for the enlightened beings to come there needs no effort. Like like it it is like the the reflection of the moon in the water when there’s it’s like for the moon doesn’t need any effort to give its reflection in front of the water. So if one have if one visualize the merit field and if you think that there are actual merit field there, then this practice practice is what builds up our merit and the the accumulation of merit and the merit and the and the purification of of our obscurations. So that, for like, we invite the wisdom beings for these two purposes.
One is that even if one has visualized, one may have doubt that there isn’t the real merit field. To remove that doubt, one invite the wisdom beings, and secondly, So the second is that to to generate faith within one. For that purpose, one invite the the wisdom beings here. So how we should invite the wisdom beings is in a similar manner that how Makanda Samo have explained or have done, Makanda Samo have done this invitation practice. So so there are many different prayers or you can do when you invite the wisdom beings.
And the one maybe you are familiar with is the the prayers that comes from Guru Puja. So, one recites these prayers and then mentally, verbally one recites these prayers when one is inviting and mentally one think or what one think is that as one have visualized all the merit field, all the beings in the merit field in cooperation of three beings, incorporation of three beings. And then and the heart the heart the vajra heart in the form of a hum syllable at the heart. And that one, from there, of all those beings of the merit field, light imagine that light radiating out. So so like the light which is the five color light radiating from the heart of all those wisdom, all those merit beings of the merit field going into all the directions and sort of bringing back or hooking back all the all like, a full field of others from all all the directions. And this what is it?
This the hum syllable is known as the samaya beings. So so you you hook back a full field of merit from from all the directions of the Buddha field, and then all that absorbs and become one of that one you are visualizing. So so so again, that the the main that you have visualized the the field, like those merit field that you have invited into it. Again, from them, again visualizing them light rays light rays going out. There’s five color light rays going out.
And then all those and then which together with a full full one complete merit field goes out together with the light. And that that light those light again returns back and then absorbs or dissolves to the each to the each figure in your merit field. Those are the the the surrounding deities like, deities of your merit field. So so so now then the each of the beings in the merit field that you have visualized become becomes complete, which has complete merit field. And which that which you utilize that single merit field, like each one, single having incorporation of three thinking that they are the incorporation of three things, then if you think on that, then the power of blessings to you. It’s much more powerful.
So so you like, the invited deities that you have invited. Those are three type of deities that you invite. So one one one, you invite from one invite you invite those beings from their own, like, respective places. And then one place inside that you invite those deities is from called. So the Akanishtha state of here is the state which is explained according to sūtra where this state is the state where you achieve the Buddhahood according to sūtra from this state, the Akanishtha.
And then from the natural abode or natural places. So from these three yeah. From these three places, you invite those different beings. So so, like, according to Guru Puja, like, when you invite these beings, it’s in the group, it it is invite and the beings are invited from the natural places or natural abode.