Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 9-minute talk, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen addresses the most common pitfall for new practitioners: burning out from over-enthusiasm. He illustrates it with a Tibetan folk joke about the “Buddha of three days” — someone who practices intensely for three days, then abandons the path entirely, leaving not even a trace of effort. His core message: real progress comes from gentle, gradual effort, like a river’s steady flow, not from fanatic intensity. On practice mechanics: pick one discipline you can sustain rather than attempting everything in the texts; postpone difficult disciplines for later; let your practice become something you enjoy rather than a burden. Buddha taught “do it gradually” — this protects consistency and long-term commitment. For anyone beginning their Dharma practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 LtK no date.mp3
UUID: 345d4665-bcb6-4162-9948-d2cf07fda5f5
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Letter to a King (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1984 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 9.5 minutes
Words: ~1,241
From the different sort of angles of, you know, angles of dealing, or, you know, dealing in terms of practising Dharma and so forth. And basically I believe that, you know, practising Dharma is absolutely one’s personal choice. It is not very much an unwanted imposition or martial law. It is, you know, totally up to one’s choice to do it. Right?
So and it’s also important when you sort of — when you say you want to practise Dharma, you read the books, and you find in the book so many, you know, dos and don’ts. At that time, you think, oh, the book says so, so I have to do all of these things. And at that time, you can’t possibly, you know, keep going with that sort of thing. Then you might collapse. So it is a good idea.
Don’t become, you know, too finicky or too fanatical about the whole thing. Try to, you know, have a very gradual — having the sense of gradualness in terms of dealing, practising Dharma or reading the book — is very important. K. Do you think it’s reasonable? So and when you read the books, or when you’re trying to sort of practise something by reading, then you might come across, you know, you should be doing this and this.
You shouldn’t be doing this and that. So when you find that, you should not be, you know, sort of too extreme about the whole thing. Maybe if they say it’s good either not to kill, then you must try to practise not to kill. The one is enough. You know?
Try to do that, you know, as much as you can. So when you see some days, when you see a long list of, you know, things that you can’t do in terms of practising, you say, oh, it’s too many things. I cannot possibly keep this. So you say, oh, it’s better to forget the whole thing. You say forget it.
Then that’s not good either. That is causing you, you know, another problem. So whatever you think you can do, just do it, you know, depending on how much you can do it. Or in terms of practising something, you know, also, whatever you think, whatever you think it is manageable, then you try to manage.
And things you can’t sort of manage, leave them for a while. Especially, you know, we have some certain vows, you know, or precepts — you know, not to kill entities — such as upasakas, or monks, or nuns and so forth. So in terms of those practices, you have to be very careful, because you have guaranteed that you want to keep that sort of thing, or you want to have that sort of commitment. So in that respect, it’s a good idea to try to keep them intact. Every time Buddha gave a teaching, he always used to especially emphasise: do it gradually.
Do it gradually. So it has a special significance that whenever we are trying to, you know, do something in terms of practice or whatever, we have to do it according to how much we can take, and how much our mind can keep with it — or something that is beyond our understanding. You see? Just because it has been said in the scripture, if you become too excited about it, then it’s no good. You see?
So whatever your mind says — yes, I can keep with this, and yes, I can physically take this much or carry this much burden — so then you carry that much. You see? And things you can’t carry, then don’t try to attempt. You know, the Tibetan greatest scholar — so he sort of expressed in his various poetic or lyrical form. So he said: the person who, out of too much excitement, tries to practise — even ignoring one’s food and so forth — for three days.
Right? For three days. And after that, gives up the whole practice altogether, its trace makes it all completely nonexistent. So it means that some people, you know, when they sort of learn something new, or when they have to practise, they become too finicky about it. They become too obsessed with it.
They want to do it, too excited. They wanna do it, and I wanna do it. Even they sort of, you know, ignore their food, and they don’t sort of eat their food. They oh, I have to practise it. And they keep doing this for three days.
Three — after that, they become too tired. As they say: oh, can’t be bothered. It’s too difficult. Can’t be bothered. So then they give up the whole practice, you see, the whole practice. And not only giving it up, even they haven’t left a bit of trace of what they have done in three days madly.
So he said people who sort of deal, who approach the practice in that sort of restless way — for these people it’s basically or virtually hopeless. They are not of any hopes. So therefore you must, you know — or you must practise with that sort of, you know, enthusiasm or zeal which is like the flow of a river. It’s very gentle, and it keeps going, keeps going. That’s how you have to progress.
Then you never, you know, sort of come to a point where it’s impossible. Yeah. Okay. It’s a Tibetan traditional sort of folk joke that, you know, this sort of person is the Buddha of three days. I said: when you are being referred to as the Buddha of three days, it means you are virtually hopeless.
It says you are hopeless because you want to become Buddha in three days. In human history, there’s no such Buddha. There’s — yeah. Think it is — therefore, it’s very important, you know, not to get too excited about the whole thing. Whatever you find easy to practise, whatever you find, you know, to train your mind in, you do it.
Your training should be very gentle and very soft. You know? So do it very slowly and slowly. You see? Then after a while, you get real — you get to know your practice, and you find its own, you know, sort of its own sort of touch of class or whatever.
So then you never sort of — you become sort of, how to say, disliking — or disagreeing with what you have done. Rather, you like it, you know, and you start to enjoy what you’re doing. So once you’re, you know, enjoying what you’re doing in a small, slow process, then it becomes a part of your practice. It will never sort of — you know, how to say — it will never go away from you.
Mhmm. Whatever you do in terms of practising, so it’s very important to have a right attitude in the beginning, or right motivation in the beginning, you see. And at the end, have a right or proper dedication, you know, and that is also very important. So during this course, I mean, we have been somewhat engaged in the sort of Dharma activities such as you are listening or meditating or I’m giving teaching and so forth. So at the end, we will have really good dedications of what we did, and I think that’s all.