Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using four vivid metaphors, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen explains how a practitioner progresses through the four mind generations of the ordinary bodhisattva path: earth (foundation for enlightenment), gold (unchanging yet capable of any form), waxing moon (ever-increasing virtue), and fire (burning the obscurations). In this 46-minute teaching, he opens with the Buddha’s urgent call to begin practice now, grounded in impermanence—our sixty-year life passes swiftly, and we constantly postpone practice for an imagined future. The four metaphors illustrate the journey from the path of accumulation to the path of preparation. Throughout, Geshe-la emphasizes pure motivation: practice should aim at enlightenment of all beings, not happiness in this life. Pitched at practitioners familiar with Mahāyāna framework.
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File: 19 P and G.mp3
UUID: abc80e2d-cb84-4048-aa52-53a1417a91a1
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Paths and Grounds (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1995 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.8 minutes
Words: ~1,831
Quoting from the sutras in the teachings that are taught by Buddha, which Buddha explains: one should right here at this moment start practising Dharma. So the reason that we should do the Dharma practice right at this moment is because all existing — all the existing — the three realms, known as the six migrators, or all beings, the container and the residents — all that they are disintegrates, they disappear or disintegrate like a cloud. And similarly, like everything changes, like the birth to death and the intermediate state, everything takes place as change. Takes changes.
So, even our life, that which disintegrates moment by moment. So it disintegrates very fast like a waterfall. Never ceasing. It is a disintegration. So because of that, Buddha advises us that we should engage in the Dharma practice right at this moment.
So we do have, you know, deep in our heart, we do have this wish to do the Dharma practice. And we do have this plan to do the Dharma practice, but we believe that we will do the Dharma practice tomorrow or next month or next year. So we always procrastinate. We always procrastinate the Dharma practice that we are doing.
So if we look at our life plans, then on average we live sixty years, and if we divide that sixty years, then like the first twenty years we spend our lifespan being small children where we don’t remember to do the Dharma practice. We spend like these twenty years in the very beginning. And then between the next twenty years, we engage or we do work to bring happiness in this life and engage in work and we spend those twenty years in between. And then the last twenty years, we think that we are unable to do the Dharma practice and just make good wishes to have a better human rebirth in our next life. And in this way, like, we spend our life.
So so we don’t know whether our next life will come first or tomorrow will come first. So so because of that we are giving this advice to do the Dharma practice right at this moment. At present, I am sitting on the throne and giving teachings. But tomorrow when I go to bed, tomorrow morning when I get up, there is nothing definite — whether I will be continuing this or not. There is always the possibility that I may go to my next life, which can be any of those realms.
Like it might also be one of those realms where all surroundings are very hot. All the places like a hot hell. So the Dharma, what we do, depends on our motivations. And so whatever you do, even during work, you can do your Dharma practice as much as possible. So whatever Dharma practice we do, it should be done purely, a pure Dharma.
It should be done purely, and that is — whatever we do, we shouldn’t aim our practice to gain happiness for this life, but should aim to gain happiness in our future life, and more than that, if possible, whatever we do we should do for the sake of others. Doing for the sake of others in order to achieve the fully enlightened state. So set up the motivation: I listen to these teachings in order to achieve a fully enlightened state for the sake of all mother sentient beings. So with this mind of bodhicitta, we meditate for one minute. So last week, Geshe-la explained the general explanations of the Mahāyāna path.
So so then now, tonight, we will be explaining those five paths, each individually. And the five Mahāyāna paths can be classified into two — that is the ordinary Mahāyāna path and the ārya Mahāyāna path. So so the ordinary Mahāyāna path, or ordinary bodhisattva path, is known as the knowledge of bodhisattvas, that which is gained through the practice of faith. So this ordinary Mahāyāna path or ordinary bodhisattva path — these mean the same thing — and which has two: the path of accumulation and the path of preparation. These two are known as the ordinary bodhisattva path.
Whoever has achieved these two paths is known as being on the ordinary bodhisattva path, but that doesn’t mean it is an ordinary person. So the one who at the very beginning enters into the Mahāyāna path — the Mahāyāna path of accumulation — that person is known as an ordinary being as well as an ordinary bodhisattva. So then the person who first of all follows the Hīnayāna path and achieves the Hīnayāna path of seeing or the Hīnayāna path of meditation, then if they enter into the Mahāyāna path — the Mahāyāna path of accumulation — they are known as ordinary bodhisattvas, but they are not necessarily ordinary persons. So if the follower or the person has entered the Mahāyāna path, then the person should be either an ordinary bodhisattva or an ārya bodhisattva.
It should be one of these two. So the practice is done on these two paths — the path of accumulation and the path of preparation — which are known as the path which is preoccupied with faith. So on these two stages — the path of accumulation and the path of preparation — the beings on these paths don’t have a direct realisation of emptiness, but they have the aspiration or the faith towards realising a direct realisation of emptiness. So with their faith or the aspiration, they practise on emptiness, and their understanding of emptiness is known as the generic image of emptiness, or also known as the sound generality of emptiness. Sound generality — sound and meaning — these two, the sound generality.
So the sound generality, or the sound image, which is — you have the appearance of the image through hearing the sound. As for example, when you hear the word ‘vase’, then just through hearing the word ‘vase’, you have the appearance of the vase in your mind. And similarly, like, when one hears the word ’emptiness’, then you have that aspect of emptiness in your mind. So the generic image, or in another translation known as the meaning generality, is realising the meanings.
So so on these two stages or on these two paths — accumulation and preparation — they don’t have a direct realisation of emptiness, but they have the realisation of emptiness through the generic image or the sound generality. So bodhicitta as explained by Maitreya in the text known as the Abhisamayālamkāra — the Abhisamayālamkāra, or the Ornament of Clear Realisation. In it, twenty-two different mind generations, or bodhicittas, are explained. So among these twenty-two mind generations, the first four are those which are preoccupied with faith. So these four mind generations are known as: first, the earth-like mind generation.
And similarly, the gold-like mind generation. And then the waxing-moon-like mind generation or bodhicitta. So then like the fourth last one is the fire-like bodhicitta or mind generation. So so the Mahāyāna path of accumulation is classified into three — the small, medium, and great. Among these three, the mind generation of the smallest — the small path of accumulation — is known as the earth-like mind generation.
So this earth-like mind generation is working for the welfare of others. So so the wish or the aspiration of that being to lead all sentient beings into the enlightened state. That mind generation has — what is it — that mind generation has similarities with the other types of mind generations. There are five similarities. So this mind generation is known as the earth-like mind generation.
And the reason for using the term ‘earth’ here is that in dependence upon the earth, one can grow grass, trees, and all the crops. Dependent upon the earth, all beings survive. So similar to the earth, this first mind generation — the earth-like mind generation — of the path of accumulation acts as a base for all the causes, for all the Mahāyāna achievements and the cause for the achievement of enlightenment. It is based on this mind.
So then the next mind generation is the gold-like mind generation. And that mind generation is the mind generation of the medium being on the path of accumulation. The path of accumulation. And it is also known as a continuous mind generation. So like gold, for example, whatever the goldsmith or the craftsman shapes can be shaped into any shape, like as a statue or as an ornament.
But the nature of the gold still stays as gold. And similarly, in dependence upon gold, it can also fulfil the wishes of beings. So similarly, how the gold can fulfil the wishes of beings, the mind generation of medium beings on the path of accumulation can also fulfil the wishes of their next life. And it brings about the result of the six perfections. So like the gold — even if it changes its shape, it stays as gold.
So this mind generation of the medium being on the path of accumulation never changes until it achieves the full enlightened state. So, for the small being on the path of accumulation, their mind generation can — like, they can lose their mind generation and give up the practice and can drop down into the lower paths. So then, the great being on the path of accumulations — his or her mind generation is known as the waxing-moon-like mind generation. So then that mind generation, which is known as the waxing-moon-like mind generation — if you look at the moon from the first day to the fifteenth, it always increases and becomes bigger and bigger. And similarly, from one to thirty on the month it goes all the way up, and that the being who has generated this mind and their virtuous deeds — the practice of the thirty-seven limbs of practice — always increases like the waxing moon always increases.
So then the next mind generation is the mind generation of the being on the path of preparation. Their mind generation is known as the fire-like mind generation. As an example, how fire consumes firewood. So the mind generation of the beings on the path of preparation consumes or burns the obscurations. So the two most obscurations — that obstruct one from achieving full liberation — are the delusions and the obscuration to omniscience.
And these two are also divided into two. That is the intellectually acquired delusions and the innate ones. So the intellectually acquired delusions — what is it? The intellectually acquired delusions — those which are manifestly present can be removed. It’s — sorry. They are removed on the path of preparation. So because of that, the mind generation on the path of preparation is known as the fire-like mind generation. So these are the four types of mind generations, which are the mind generations that are preoccupied with faith.