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 teaches rejoicing in virtue—a core Lamrim practice for accumulating merit. He begins by establishing that our future rebirths depend entirely on present actions and thoughts, not divination. He then teaches rejoicing systematically: first in one’s own past virtue, then in others’, including enemies, which are merely mental labels. To illustrate how merit operates, he presents the story of five brothers with different gifts—beauty, craftsmanship, effort, wisdom, and merit—who find that fate depends far more on merit than talent. He addresses anger as the main obstacle to rejoicing, analysing it to show it has no solid target. Finally, he teaches that merit, not effort alone, determines success, illustrated by two business partners who start with equal capital yet achieve opposite outcomes. Pitched at Lamrim practitioners.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 Lam Rim 1995 09 10.mp3
UUID: 0caa26c8-2920-416b-9377-7afad030014d
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Lam Rim 1995 Jan-Dec (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995-09-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~2,215
Have collected all the causes for this body that we have. And then continue with two other lines saying that a bhikṣu, a fully ordained monk, not to — how would you say — not to fall down into saṃsāra, or not to fall down from the cliff in the future. So our past life, we have — a person has found this present body. So then where we go in our future, whether to the upper realms or to the lower realms, it’s totally dependent on this present body that we have. So where we will take birth in our future, we don’t have to do divinations or we don’t have to check in computers.
One can see how one lives — what actions we perform with our body and what kind of thought we have in our mind. So whatever virtuous actions we have done in the past, instead of feeling proud, if you rejoice in those actions, that is very good. So then second, like rejoicing in the virtue of others — others like one’s own enemy, friends, and strangers. And those are the five different beings that we explained before.
And rejoicing in these — in their virtue — like in those other people’s virtue, which plus reading also, like reading the lives of those past masters and rejoicing in them. And among these, rejoicing in the virtue of the enemy is a little hard. So with the enemy — the enemy too is non-inherently existing. The enemy exists there because we label them. So, same thing with the friend.
Friend doesn’t exist from its own side as a friend. It’s just a mere imputation of our mind. So in this way, with using these many different reasons, one can see that all sentient beings are one’s friend. So if one is to rejoice in their virtue — like those other beings’ virtue, what they have — the virtue of rejoicing in the virtue of what they have done in the past, what they are doing in the present, and the virtue that they will do in the future — if we rejoice in it, then that makes it possible for one to generate virtue that one has never generated in the past.
So, rejoicing in one’s own virtue is increasing virtue. And another master called Tsongkhapa — Tsongkhapa, sorry — explains or advises that if you want to collect virtue while you are lying down, then it’s to do this rejoicing in others’ virtue. So if one is to rejoice in others’ virtue, that is one of the best ways of accumulating merit. Accumulating merit is very important. And give a short history here.
There was a king who had five sons. So the five sons were given five different names. The first one is Sukha Top, which means having a beautiful appearance. And then second is Soy Top, which is — what do you call — one who is qualified in making something.
What do you say? And then third is called — that is one with great effort. And then the next one is one with great wisdom. And the last one, one with great merit. Yes. So five sons.
So each one had these different names and each one was explaining the importance of their name and because of that they didn’t — what is it — they didn’t get along. So then they didn’t get along. And finally, the one known as — what’s it? — one who is known as the power of merit. He said that all of that — the power of physical appearance, good physical appearance, and how to fix things.
Sorry. The craftsman and the rest, like all this effort and so on — through the power of merit. So they said all of these are through the power of merit. Even then, when that person — when the last one told that — even still they didn’t come along. So still then they didn’t get along.
So finally they decided to separate, go to different villages, each different villages. So the first two — the one with the beautiful appearance and one with the craftsman skills — these two didn’t become so wealthy, but they just had enough food to eat. So the one with the effort — with the effort — learned how to swim and then collected sandalwoods and made different things and then sold them. And lived his life.
And then the one with wisdom gathered the king and one of the householders in that town. Which is — at that time the king had taken the wealth of that householder three times. So the king again wanted to take the wealth of that householder, and if the wealth of the householder — I want to say — the wealth of the householder was heavier than the weight of an elephant, the king said he would take the wealth again, but if not then he won’t. So at that time it wasn’t easy to weigh the elephant. So then the one with wisdom, he made a boat out of animal skin and then put the elephant in the boat and together with the householder went to the king.
So I think I heard the story a little wrong, which is — what happened with this householder and king was that the king told the householder he needed to weigh the weight of an elephant. And at that time because to weigh the elephant is not easy, the wisdom person — one known as having great wisdom — came there and told the householder how to measure or how to weigh the elephant, which was: he made a big vat out of animal skin and then took it into the water and then put the elephant in and took it into the water where you could see the level where the water is on the skin. And took it to the king and then said, put stones and mud in — enough to fill it — and then showed the weight of the elephant. So because that householder was not able to show the weight of the elephant, the one with wisdom received like half of the wealth of that householder.
So then the last one — the person known as one with great merit. He lived in a poor family. But because of his merit, even at the beginning he lived in a poor family, later the family too became rich. So at that time, the one with great merit — in that village there was also a king and the king died and then the people gathered together to appoint another king and they discussed and they got an elephant where they placed a vase on the tongue of the elephant and let the elephant go around. And they said, whoever’s — on whoever’s crown the elephant leaves the vase — he will be appointed as king. So then the elephant went around in all the places and then finally left the vase on the head of the great merit person. And then they appointed him finally as king.
So all this happened because of his merit. So that he became the king there, and because of that, again, in one of his past lives — that too is because of his merit — in his past life he was another king in another place where at that time one of the solitary realizers or Pratyekabuddha came to him and where he, as king, offered him one umbrella and shoes. So because of that merit, he became king in that place. So that’s the short history, and if you have any questions.
So while one has this aggression or anger, when it is present, then it’s not easy to rejoice. So it’s the same thing as putting two heads in one small vase. So like this — at that time it is not possible to put two things in one pot.
And at that time when one has the aggression or anger there, one should analyze to whom one is feeling this aggression or anger. To whom do you feel aggression? If you feel aggression or anger towards oneself, then you just hit yourself. So it’s something that you should analyze — which part of oneself is one getting angry at?
To the hand or head or to different parts. So if you do something wrong and feel angry — what makes you do something is your hand. You should be angry towards your hand. But with the hand — there’s no point being angry towards the hand because our hand is moved by our mind.
So when we analyze in this way, then you cannot pinpoint a point where one has to feel angry. So there is no one point where one should feel angry — but then, because we ourselves are under the control of delusions and karma, we do get these things. We do get these things. But then, at that very time when one is having that, it’s not easy to get rid of it. But one should set the motivation from the beginning when one starts.
And then familiarize with this practice more and more. Then it can help get rid of this. So when we look to the final — when you analyze and come to the final — then it is the ego or the self-grasping. So when someone else is feeling angry towards one, what actually causes it is because of the self — what? — ego. So this happens because, for example, others have seeds or imprints to become angry, and oneself at that stage becomes the condition for that anger to happen. And because of that, this happens. So that’s how it happens. In other words, if the imprints or seed of the other person’s anger — if that is not met with the conditions — like with the seed, if it’s not met with the necessary conditions — it won’t give a sprout.
Same thing, if the condition is not there, then they won’t feel angry. So, for example, among partners, when somebody says that he or she is always angry with me and I don’t want to stay. You didn’t stay because one acts as a condition for the other’s anger. So it’s something like — if there’s, let’s say, a target, then others will sort of shoot. So if one is to know this, the friendship among husband and wife can improve.
So even forcing oneself to rejoice — making oneself rejoice in others’ virtue — is how it is also taught in the teachings. And just doing that is very good.
If it’s not explained to do that action — if someone is not explained to do that type of action — then it doesn’t come out without anything. So when one sees someone doing practice, like meditation or other practice, just rejoicing in their action — which is: it’s good that he’s doing meditation, may I be able to do like that? That is how you rejoice in others’ action. So same thing: if someone is feeding the birds, instead of thinking that they are doing a meaningless thing, if you think it’s a good action to do — then that is a virtuous action.
So it’s always how others see things like this. It’s up to them how people see. That’s how one should train one’s mind. That’s how one should think. So for example, the world and so on that we have is the result of our past actions — the action of giving and so on. So that is what as a practitioner one should accept as being the result of those actions. So it’s a result of those actions, but those results depend on how one enjoys it.
Depends on which way one enjoys it. It should be enjoyed in a right way. So the way how you enjoy it in the right way, probably you know that. So as it is a result of merit, but then what type of result it produces is dependent on how one enjoys it. Like, example — those who don’t practice, they may say anything.
And most of the time people think that the wealth that they have received is just because they themselves have been successful in doing those works. So that’s how people say, it’s because of their work. But you know, just to think that — let’s say two people have the same amount of money as capital to do some business and the profit they gain out of these two people is different. So the one with merit, even if he is not putting too much effort, he gets the profit. So same thing — the other one, that is the one without merit, instead of gaining profit or becoming successful, there is the possibility that one may lose the capital also.
So because of that, there is a saying which says: the wish of those with merit, their wish can get fulfilled. He said, we’ll stop here today. He said, Geshe-la, if you explain everything there, then next Sunday you won’t have anything to say.