Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 92-minute Sunday class, Geshe Kyab introduces absolute beginners to Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and practice by explaining the meaning behind everyday activities at the centre. He begins with who Buddha is—not a deity but an enlightened being—and clarifies that Śākyamūni Buddha attained enlightenment not through inherent nature but through practice and purification, opening the path for all sentient beings to do the same. The talk emphasizes Buddhist faith as informed conviction, not blind belief: students must learn before deciding to practice. Geshe Kyab then covers two foundational pillars—Buddhist view (dependent arising and emptiness) and Buddhist ethics (not harming any sentient being through body, speech, or mind)—and introduces the ten non-virtuous and ten virtuous actions as practical daily guides. He explains why the centre’s practices matter: prostrations humble pride and purify negative karma from all three doors; mantras like Om mani padme hum protect the mind and aspire to rebirth in the pure lands rather than samsaric realms. Throughout, he stresses mind training as essential psychology and links Buddhist ethics directly to happiness. A Q&A session addresses karma, reincarnation, hungry ghosts, and the framework of obvious, hidden, and extremely hidden phenomena to show which Buddhist teachings can be logically verified and which require trust in Buddha’s words. The class closes with meditation and dedication prayers.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Sunday #1.mp3
UUID: 496665b2-768f-4725-8978-8d5e5a93c1e1
Teacher: Geshe Kyab
Collection: Geshe Kyab Beginners Buddhism Sundays (Geshe Kyab)
Date: 2016 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 92.2 minutes
Words: ~8,925
Good morning, everybody. Mantra only. Thank you. So this class is very much basic Buddhist teaching or philosophy. So this class, I will teach you that in Buddhist temples, monasteries, and centers, we do some of the activities like making prostrations, saying mantras, and sutras.
It’s good to know before you do. If you don’t know the meaning of why we do prostrations, mantra recitations, circumambulations, we have statues, so many wall hanging thangkas. There are so many images and some new people when you come to the center, sometimes a little bit strange because of the different culture and tradition. But all these do have meanings, you know. So that’s why this particular class I thought maybe, you know, people, if you have time to come here and try to learn, then next time, if you would like to do the prostrations, mantra recitation things, then you need to decide whether you want to do it or not do it.
But learning is very important. Buddhism says, we call it faith and belief. But Buddhist perspective faith or belief is not just a blind faith or belief. Before you do believe or have some faith, whatever you are going to do, it’s very important to understand and learn.
So that’s called shintu yid la byed pa, to understand the meaning of prostration. Then next, if you really want to trust and have some faith in taking prostration, that’s your decision. But now you learn something. Then now you want to do it or not do it or having faith in that particular activity or not, that’s up to you. But it’s very important to learn first.
Okay? Try to understand, not just blind faith. Oh, my friends are going there doing these things. I will continue to do. That’s just a blind faith.
I mean, you know? It’s better to learn something first. Not only just learning, but try to understand. So that’s why this particular class I talked to Buddha House at SBC. So I thought maybe it’s a good idea to do this class.
But let’s see if you are not so interested, if you like to have more stronger teachings, I will do that. As I said last time, I’m here for you. Okay? So make a little comfortable. Don’t be too tight yourself.
So but learn. Today, several things I would like to express. First of all, Buddhism. There is a many, many boos in Buddhism. Buddha, Buddhism, bodhicitta, Bodhisattva, like that.
First Buddhism. Let’s say I will start Buddhism. Buddhism is religion. Buddhism. Two thousand five hundred fifty-three years before, Śākyamūni Buddha, which is the founder of Buddhism who established Buddhism in India.
As I mentioned before, he taught eighty-four thousand scriptures, sutric scriptures and tantric scriptures, eighty-four thousand altogether. But Buddhism also divided Mahāyāna Buddhism and Theravāda Buddhism which I also mentioned last time. But before that, who is really the Buddha? What does mean Buddha? So when you say Buddha, mostly our mental understanding is the Buddha that you see here.
Yes? Oh, that’s a Buddha. But Buddha is not only one Buddha. There are millions of Buddhas. Male Buddha, female Buddha, I mean there are millions of Buddhas in this world.
Maybe some of you are already Buddha, who knows? Maybe you came here as just an ordinary human being. You know, anybody can be Buddha. But it’s hard to recognize, how to understand. But here we have a statue.
This particular Buddha is called Śākyamūni Buddha who came into this world for us. There were already four or five Buddhas who were already dawned, came to this world, they served, and finished. I think it was six or seven Buddhas. It says there would be two thousand Buddhas who will appear in this world. When one particular Buddha’s teachings disappear from this world, the next Buddha will appear.
Before this Buddha, his teachings, he passed away. His teachings disappear from this world. Then world is going to be, I think, an evolution. Now sometimes people talk about the world is going to be ceased and the world is going to start again a new world. The world is going to be ceased by four elements: Earth element, water, fire, and wind element.
Then the world is totally destroyed. The new world will start. The new world starts at the same time new beings start. Then, the next Buddha will appear. So this happened.
Okay? Not right away. It takes time. After Śākyamūni Buddha, when Śākyamūni Buddha’s teachings disappeared from this world, still we have so many of his teachings exist. Then the next Buddha would be called Maitreya Buddha.
You may have some Maitreya Buddha statues? Yeah, over here, a small one. FPMT didn’t give you a big one? No, we missed out. Oh, see otherwise only you need to spend the shipping one. Otherwise, they are giving you free. They ran out.
Yeah? You must send an email. Non-discrimination. I’m just kidding. Anyway, Maitreya Buddha will appear after this Buddha’s teaching is finished from this world.
So Maitreya Buddha is the Maitreya is the love, great love. That’s the meaning of Maitreya. What I was giving you is a little idea about Śākyamūni Buddha or Buddha. Buddha means the being who is enlightened being, being who attains enlightenment. That is called Buddha being.
Buddha typically we call it Sangye. Buddha is the Sanskrit word. The English translation is the enlightenment being. So that is the call. What exactly is Buddha that much unique?
Buddha Sangye in Tibetan. Sang means Buddha eliminated all obscurations. Gye means to gain all knowledge. That is called Sangye. Buddha eliminated all obscurations, obstacles, which are mental afflictions, the obstacles or obscurations, and gained all knowledge.
That is the meaning of the Buddha. So anybody can be a Buddha. In order to be a Buddha, you must first eliminate all obscurations, then gain all knowledge, then will be one Buddha. So that’s why all these teachings we do here at the center to make different meditations and different mind training teachings. Why do we do all these teachings here?
Because we try to understand the obstacles. Try to understand all these obstacles like attachment, aversion, ignorance, jealousy, just name it. There are so many mental afflictions or obstacles. First, we must eliminate all the obstacles. Then, eventually, we gain all knowledge.
That’s why we do all these meditations, teachings, and sutras like that. In order to achieve enlightenment, we become Buddha. Buddha is our final destination. Life is, yeah, we’re born, we die, we are born again, you know, but the real destination is to become Buddha. That’s what you have to keep in your mind.
So Buddha is something like this, okay? Also, as I mentioned, there are millions of Buddhas in this world and other parts of the world too, everywhere like this. This particular Śākyamūni Buddha who founded Buddhism, he was actually born in a kingdom in India. Big, big, big kingdom. And his father was a very, very famous king.
But when Buddha was very young, his name wasn’t Śākyamūni because he wasn’t a monk at the time. He was called Siddhartha. When he was born, after some time, king invited one great Hindu master. They were called Sadhu in India. Sadhu came to the kingdom and the family asked what would be my son’s future life.
Sadhu was just meditating, meditating, and he said, Oh, this son is very, very great merit son. If he stayed in the kingdom, he would become a great king. He would rule over not only this world, but also other parts of the world too. Which the king wanted. And the next thing Sadhu said to the king, If he became a monk, he would become the master of the world.
But of course, the king wanted him to stay in the kingdom. Am I making a little noise? This one? Yes, because I moved my body. If he becomes a monk, he would become the master of the world.
But the king wanted him to stay in the kingdom and continue to carry on his lineage. Anyway, Siddhartha was very young, even at a young age, he was very much thinking all the time. He does not do things that young, you know, those princes and princesses, he doesn’t do that. He was all the time thinking, very much compassionate, loving. Anyway, then he grows.
And finally, the king, I think, he married. The king hired him one beautiful girl, and they married. Once, I think she gave birth to one son also. But then one day, he asked the king, I would like to go outside of the kingdom. Mostly, he was inside the kingdom, even though he went outside, not in the public area, in natural sites, in the countryside.
But he was saying, I would like to go to the city and town area. But King didn’t want him to go there and see all the things are going on in the kingdom, I mean, in the cities and towns. One book says that even the king was dyeing his hair to make it black to look younger, you know, because the king tried to keep him inside the kingdom because he had this great compassion. Anyway, one day he went to the town and city area, and he saw so many difficulties. People were working hard.
There are so many hard jobs. People are sick. People are dying. And this and that. Then he was just asking so many questions.
Am I not like that? Why is there such suffering? Each time he sees something unfortunate, he asks the chariot driver, why are these people working so hard? Why? Because they need to—he replied, driver replied, they need to work because they need to make money to support their friends and family.
And why am I not working? Because you are a prince, you have everything, you don’t need to do that. Then one time he saw one mother crying and her son was dying, very much sick. Why is she crying? Because she was crying because her son is sick.
Even he didn’t know what does mean sick. What do you mean sick? Because of the health problem. So why do I not have a health problem? Because you have so many doctors around you as a prince.
Another thing is he saw a very, very old man. Who is this? This is an old man who’s walking with a stick, a walker. Oh yes, this is an old man, and what do you mean? Once you are born in this world, one day you get old.
Am I going to get old? He said, Yes, if you live a long life, you will get old. And he saw death. People were carrying a dead body. What is that?
That’s a funeral. What is that? Once you’re born in this world, we get old and one day we die. So now they are carrying the funeral to cremate. What does mean death?
Death is when you die. And he explained everything. Wow, I’m going to die one day? The driver said, Yes, one day you will. But he came back.
Yes, excuse me. Finally, he saw one monk. What is that? Why is he wearing yellow like this? Oh, that man is a monk.
What does it mean monk? Monk is that they give up family life, then they become monk to serve other sentient beings, to help others. They understand the real reality of their life. You know? That’s it.
Something came back in Buddha’s mind. That’s exactly I’ve been seeking now. Just found it. Almost like a call for him, you know. So anyway, one day, Buddha escaped from the kingdom and he became a monk.
He devoted to one teacher. Of course, then he meditated and he meditated and he meditated. Finally, he gained enlightenment. So then he established Buddhism two thousand five hundred and fifty-three years before. Then he taught so many teachings around India, mostly India and Nepal.
So this is Buddha’s very short life story. But one thing that Buddha taught us that anybody can become a Buddha. That’s exactly it. Anybody can become Buddha, anybody able to eliminate the pain and suffering to gain knowledge is to become Buddha. If Buddha became an inherent Buddha, suddenly we wouldn’t have any encouragement.
Buddha is already Buddha, you know? But Buddha wasn’t like that. Śākyamūni Buddha went through some pain and suffering, but he understood really pain and suffering can be eliminated. Pain and suffering are just temporary, not permanent. It is impermanent.
Eventually it disappears. In order to eliminate the pain and suffering, there are some mind training we need to do. So that’s why the Buddha did everything and the Buddha eliminated pain and suffering. So Buddha gained enlightenment. So that’s beautiful.
Then he said, Learn my teachings. Learn my teachings and practice. Not, Oh, Buddha said so. Oh, Buddha taught us. Buddha said this.
Not only just the blind faith or blind trust or the blind belief perspective, no. If you really want to do something first, Buddha said, Learn my teachings. So that’s beautiful. Just learn. Not only just, Oh, Buddha says so.
No. Or the Dalai Lama says so. Just learn first, then decide, then practice. That’s the beauty in Buddhism, you know. Totally, no blind faith or trust or belief.
So that’s just Buddhism and Buddha, something like this. But in Buddhism, there are two things very, very important to understand: Buddhist view and Buddhist ethics. Sometimes I translate attitude or manners. Actually, ethics mean things, you know. Buddhist view is the dependent arising and emptiness.
That’s the Buddhist view. Everything is dependent arising. There is no such thing arises inherently or intrinsically or naturally. Everything arises depends on other factors. That’s the Buddhist view.
Buddhist ethics or attitude is not harming attitude or manners. That’s the Buddhist view and ethics or attitude, whatever you call it, something like this. When I say not harming, it is not harming to whom? Not harming to any beings, not only just human beings, though animals, small creatures, insects, worms, any beings. When I say any beings, it means any beings.
So beings who take a breath, inhalation and exhalation, are beings. But Buddhism does not consider plants and flowers as being. Some cultures do. We don’t. Being is something that is feeling suffering sometimes, sometimes feeling happiness, and something that possesses consciousness.
Plants and flowers do have certain living things, but they do not possess any consciousness. They have no feelings as pleasure and unpleasant, so to say neutral feelings. We do. Beings do feel sometimes pleasant, sometimes unpleasant, sometimes neutral feelings. That is called being.
Animals are also beings. Small creatures, ants, mosquitoes, bed bugs, they are also beings. They do feel pain and suffering. Sometimes they do feel happiness. So plants and flowers do not have that kind of categories.
So that’s why in Buddhism, we don’t consider plants and flowers being. Sentient beings, that’s what we call sentient beings and Buddha beings. Only two beings: sentient beings and Buddha beings. Buddha beings are enlightenment beings, beings who achieve enlightenment. Sentient beings are we are sentient beings.
We have not yet achieved enlightenment. Trying, trying we are. Sentient beings mean sometimes happiness, sometimes pain and suffering, sorrow, like that. So that’s we are the sentient beings going through like this since the beginning of this time until we become enlightened. So that’s called sentient beings.
Within the sentient beings, human beings, animal beings, hungry ghost beings, hell beings, and other realm beings. So this point is the point last time I mentioned three realms. Desire realm, form realm, formless realm. Within the desire realm, there are six different realms: animal realm, hungry ghost, hell realm. These belong to the lower realms, lower desired realm.
Human being, demigod, god realm, these are called upper realms. So, but we all are sentient beings. Some sentient beings do suffer a lot. Some sentient beings suffer less. Everything depends on mind training.
So that’s why in my Thursday class, I was giving you lojong, meaning mind training. Very, very important. I will repeat again, as I mentioned before, psychology. Why is psychology important? Why do people go to psychologists?
Because psychologists teach you how to think, how to react. Psychology here! That’s exactly the mind training. Buddhist perspective, all mind training teachings are considered as psychology. How beautiful!
If you do learn one particular mind training teaching, which I was giving you on Thursday, eight verses mind training teachings. Only eight verses. Within eight verses, we can get so much information. I may do this for two months, isn’t it? Two months, I think.
See? Usually, we can do it within one day, only eight verses. But I try to—this is the first time I’m here in the Buddha House. I thought maybe the Buddha House students may need some mind training teachings, you know, because Buddha House students are beautiful. Beautiful, lovely, but now you need to make it more beautiful, inside as well as outside.
So that’s why the mind training teaching is that if you train your mind, you look better because you are at peace, you are calm, and otherwise, if you get aggressive, if you get angry, even though you put so much makeup, you look not good. You look ugly because the anger is coming from the inside. So then people look ugly, red, eyes are going to be swollen, all these become red. Sometimes people get angry. See?
So mind training teachings not only make you beautiful inside, but also it will help you to be beautiful outside and be more healthy. So this is the point Dharma d-h-a-r-m-a. Dharma is really same as a mirror. It’s called dharma mirror. It’s same as when you look at the mirror.
Why do we look at the mirror every morning? Because you want to clean something. Without a mirror, you cannot clean your face if there is some kind of stains or dust on your face. But mirror is very important. Mirror will help you, Oh, okay, it’s here.
Take it out. See, Dharma mirror is all these Dharma teachings are the same as a mirror. If you do learn, you can see all your faults, you can see all your problems, obstacles. Also, you can learn all the antidotes, how to purify those obstacles. You can learn everything.
So that’s why the Buddhist teachings are—Dharma is the same as like a mirror. I call Dharma mirror. Am I saying my accent is mirror? Okay? Mind training is very, very important.
Even though it could be very, very simple, let’s say today, mantra. People love to say many, many mantras. There are many, many, many mantras. What does it mean mantra? Mantra: man is the mind.
Tra means protection. Mind protection. That is the meaning of the mantra. Among the mantras, there are many, many, many mantras. The most popular mantra is Avalokiteśvara’s mantra Om mani padme hum.
It has six syllables. Om mani padme hum. These six syllables correspond to six realms. Actually, if I give more details, it can correspond to six paramitas, but I don’t want to go into everything there. Let’s say, Om mani padme hum, six syllables.
Om mani padme hum, very, very popular mantra in Buddhism. Six syllables mantras correspond to six realms. Remember? Lower three realms, upper three realms. Repeat again.
Human being, demigod, god realms, upper. Animal, hungry ghost, hell realm lowers. When you say, Om mani padme hum many times, actually what you are saying is try to say, Om mani padme hum not to be reborn in these six realms, to be reborn in pure land. Because if you’re born within the six realms, so many pain and suffering needed to be gone through. So that’s why when you say, Om mani padme hum, many times, not only just yourself to not be reborn in six realms, but also other sentient beings.
Both. So that’s why we say, Om mani padme hum. Even though someone died, when you see some funerals, it’s good to say Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum means now that person is not reborn again in the saṃsāra, born in pure land. So that’s the meaning of the Om mani padme hum.
That’s called mind protection. So when you say Om mani padme hum, you need to think about it. But you can say Om mani padme hum, not only when you see some funerals, you can say every day, as much as you can, it will help you. As I said, mind protection. It means mind protection.
It will help you. This is one thing. We did say the long one here at the center. This is the long mantra for Avalokiteśvara, which is the Buddha of compassion. The short one is Om mani padme hum.
That’s the short one. I just tried to give you why we are saying the mantra. Of course, mostly the mantras are the lamas and deities and their names, because their names do have so many good meanings. We cannot just make mantras like ordinary names to translate into mantras. We cannot do that.
Names that the big, big, you know, those deities and lamas, they translate mantras. That’s what we call Tibetan name translation. Name translated into mantra. But mantra itself meaning mind protection. So that’s the meaning of the mantra.
So now, even when you are saying some mantras, it’s also mind training, isn’t it? See? You are not thinking anything, but you are thinking only goodness. So, that’s also what are giving some training to one’s mind. Now, the wishes I mentioned before, Buddhist view and Buddhist ethics.
Buddhist ethics or attitudes are not harming. As I mentioned before, not harming thoughts or sentient beings. Now, not harming not only from the physical, not harming from the physical, of course, verbally not harming, mentally not harming from body, speech, and mind. We have only three categories: body, speech, and mind not harming other sentient beings from body, from speech, from mind. So this is the point of ten non-virtuous actions.
Is very, very important. In Christian, they talk about the ten commandments. It is similar, but Buddhism gives you a little bit more details. But the ten commandments are also beautiful. Moses went to the high mountain, then God spoke to Moses.
Then finally, the big fire pierced. Then he found the ten commandments written on the stone. My understanding is that there were actually more than ten commandments, but the stone was broken or something. But those ten commandments are beautiful. If you do believe in God, whatever, the ten commandments are beautiful.
So in Buddhism, ten non-virtuous actions. Bodily non-virtuous actions are killing, stealing, sexual misconduct. Verbally: lying, slander, divisive speech, idle gossip, harsh speech. And mentally: covetousness, harmful intentions, and wrong views. So these are called ten non-virtuous actions. So we try to every day, as much as we can, not to commit ten non-virtuous actions. Less committing ten non-virtuous actions, that person would be much happier than the person who is committing more than ten non-virtuous actions.
Opposite of the ten non-virtuous actions are the ten virtuous actions: not killing, not stealing, not sexual misconduct, not lying, not divisive speech, not idle gossip, not harsh speech, no covetousness, no harmful intentions, no wrong views. Observing the ten non-virtuous actions is what they call ten virtuous actions. So that path, we try to really daily basis, as much as we can, try to really practice ten virtuous paths. That’s what we need to do. Sometimes it’s difficult, but our living world is a very crazy place.
You know, it’s not easy. But as much as we can, try to really, if you really are to commit ten non-virtuous actions, then don’t do it. Sometimes, accidentally, you know, things happen. As a normal human being, we make mistakes. Why not?
It’s not a big deal when people make mistakes. Normal people do make mistakes because we are not Buddha. If Buddha makes mistakes, then it’s very shocking. Normally, people make mistakes. What is the big deal?
That’s what we call ordinary beings. But when you make mistakes, the next step is to fix it. If you make some mistake physically, fix it. If you make some mistakes verbally, fix it. If you make some mistakes mentally, fix it.
That’s it. Don’t make the same mistakes again and again. Then all the time, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Then bad habits. So, okay, that’s what we need to do.
Making mistakes is not a big problem. Fix it. There are so many tools in Buddhist teachings. Apply those tools. As I mentioned before, Buddhist teachings are not only just believing in teaching.
Buddhist teachings are observing everything. So that’s why, first, you need to listen, then contemplate, then meditate, then practice. Practice means applying Buddhist teachings when things fall apart. Many, many things fall apart in our life. Sometimes we lose our friends and family.
Sometimes we get sick. Sometimes there are many, many things that happen. At the moment when things like that happen, all these Buddhist teachings now we need to apply. Not only just believing or having faith in the teaching, it’s wonderful, but that’s not enough. Apply.
So that’s why you could be your own psychologist. See, you could be your own psychologist. Otherwise, why do we need to learn all these teachings? It becomes very much complicated some of the teachings, meditations.
Whatever you learn, learn properly. It’s very, very important. Beginning, you need to learn everything properly. But in the beginning, if you learn something that is really not the proper learning, then that’s going to stick with you. That’s not good.
In the beginning, try to learn properly whatever is in its order. Try to catch that out. So then now, if you get something, it’s going to stick with you. Many people don’t do that. In the beginning they like to learn something, very strange things, you know, just feeling good.
Of course feeling good is important. Only feeling good is, as I said before, you don’t need to meditate. You need strong motivation. It’s called the spirit of enlightenment. You need that spirit, you need.
Enlightenment is your destination. Then whatever you do, things will be very good then. You will be much happier within this lifetime. Next lifetime, of course, if you do believe in future life, then of course there would be a much better life. But even if you do not believe in the next life, within this lifetime, you can be happy. You can be happy if you do train yourself.
Philosophy perspective. So this is the point I used to tell people that Buddhism is not only just religion. Buddhism is mostly philosophy, more logic, of course, than psychology and science of mind. Now, the next thing is prostration. Why do we bow down?
That’s called prostration. Why do we do that? There are many, many different ways people do prostrations. If you look at the Muslims, they have their own ways of bowing down. Christians and Catholics do have their own ways of bowing down, which is prostration.
And within Buddhism, also, we have many, many, many different ways of taking prostration. Some of the Chinese Buddhist temples, Theravāda Buddhist practitioners, they have their own ways of taking prostration. What we do here is typical Tibetan Buddhism. We do the short prostration, which is the regular one we do. Also, do the long one, full body, almost like a tree trunk just falling down like this.
But this regular one, we do only short prostrations. There are so many meanings to prostrations. When you put your left palm, it’s the left knee, you know. And when you put your right knee, the right palm, and when you put your forehead on the earth, there are many, many meanings. But of course, you know, each time when you touch your knees, palms, head, it’s very difficult to think about everything. But there are many meanings.
The main meaning is prostration, trying to put down pride, prideful mind. For instance, when a teacher does prostration, that meaning is when I prostrate and put down my knees, palms, and head on the earth, I am putting down my pride before I teach you. Free from pride. No more pride. Because pridefulness is not good.
It is nyes pa, not good. So before I teach, I put down all my pride and sit on the throne. That’s what I do. Students do prostrations. The same thing I would listen to Geshe-la’s teaching without my pride.
That’s why I would like to put down my pride on the earth to separate my mind and pride and try to separate. So then you want to listen to my teachings. Otherwise, if you are a prideful human being, when I teach, Oh, I know that. I know this. But eventually, I don’t think you know.
See? Because the prideful mind sometimes pushes you, oh, I know this, I know that. I don’t need to know. See? But then if you really know, then if somebody asks you questions, nothing.
Because of this prideful mind, sometimes that interrupts you or something like this. So that’s actually the meaning of prostration. Also, meaning of prostration is you can say all other mental afflictions, also putting down before you listen to the teaching. The main thing is pride. Also, it’s called body yoga.
Body yoga also. If you do prostration daily basis, it is beautiful. Also, is called purification. You are purifying the negative karma from body, speech, and mind. You are saying some mantra, which purifies the verbal non-virtuous action.
You are thinking your motivation is positive. You are purifying the non-virtuous actions of mental, which is negative karma from the mental. When you do this prostration from your body, knees, palms, and forehead, put down on the earth, you are purifying the bodily non-virtuous actions. How beautiful! So that’s why in the Tibetan society, many Tibetan people, we go to Bodh Gaya area, and we do these prostrations many, many, many times.
Three million, four million times. Months and months and months we sit there, we do this prostration. Also purification, because we must purify past negative karma. Otherwise, one negative karma is today, tomorrow again, and then it becomes harder and becomes stronger and stronger and stronger. Sometimes it’s very, very difficult to purify.
Okay? Good. Today you’ll learn the meaning of prostration. Now you know the meaning of prostration. Next time, whether you like to do this prostration or not, it’s your choice.
Same thing, you learn the meaning of the mantra: mind protection. Of course, learn some other things, too. That’s it. My class is finished. Go, any questions?
Anyone? Can I have a hot water? Yeah. Tea. Yeah.
Yes, please. No cold. Go. Go. I’m really curious about reincarnation.
I think about that a lot. Could you tell me about, you know, Dalai Lama, how he’s reincarnated lots of times? How come Buddha didn’t reincarnate like the first one? Actually the Buddha we don’t call reincarnation. Buddha is, I would like to say, manifestation.
Manifest. You know? Anyway, you are asking two or three different questions. You are asking—Yeah. Dharma.
I’ve watched— You want to know general reincarnation or what? Yeah. Just general reincarnation and also— Reincarnation is reincarnating. You are, you know? See, Dalai Lama reincarnated which is very different than regular people reincarnated.
Dalai Lama’s reincarnation is the past Dalai Lama passed away, then he purposely voluntarily reincarnated this fourteenth Dalai Lama. The thirteenth Dalai Lama passed away, then fourteenth Dalai Lama, that same Dalai Lama reborn again. For we, the human beings, ordinary human beings, sometimes we could reincarnate in animals, hungry ghosts, hell realms. Sometimes we can be able to reincarnate as the same human being but different gender, different family, different part of the world. Let’s say, what is your name?
Jamie. Jamie. Now Jamie is reborn, reincarnated this time in Australia, in Adelaide. Maybe next life Jamie could be born in Tibet or could be Indian, could be America, United States, or could be South America, could be any Asian countries, or could be the other part of the world. See?
So everything is whatever would be Jamie reincarnated. Now it’s in your own control. Now you have this choice whether you want to reincarnate a human being again, which is one of the best reincarnation one can get, or animal or other realms. Everything is in the palm of your hand. So that’s what we call your future is in the palm of your hand means that.
If you do more practice, if you do more purification, if you do more mind training teachings, so that means you are eliminating many obstacles. You will be reborn again a human being much, much higher than now, much more intelligent. So that means Jamie has a choice. Okay? Jamie is totally free will.
Nobody controls Jamie except Jamie. What about if I wanted to go to the Pure Lands or something? Exactly, so that’s why you need to come here once a week. That’s my point. You need to come once a week and also meditate.
There are many meditations Buddha was giving you and I’m giving you three different teachings. Even though it may be a little difficult for you, you know, but you need effort, you need patience, you need tolerance, and learn, listen first, you know, not enough listening. After listening, contemplate more, then meditate, then Jamie will be in pure land, and please help us. Okay, after that. Go, please.
Can we harm sentient beings in other realms like the hungry ghost realm, the hell realms? How can we harm them? We as in the human realm, how can we harm those? It’s difficult to harm the beings who are in hell realm. Difficult to harm them.
But how can we? I don’t think you can harm—you mean harm, yes? Well you said we have to keep not harmed by body, speech and mind. All sentient beings which includes the six realms. So how can we do— That’s true.
But we really cannot—they are directly harming and indirectly harmed. Directly and indirectly. If you do have bad thoughts about the beings who are in hell realm, you are indirectly harming them. But hungry ghost, of course human to another human we can harm directly, you know, and so the animals. It’s understandable.
But the hungry ghost in Buddhist book says when you walk, walk very, you know, don’t move too much your hands like this. They say there are so many hungry ghosts around us. Sometimes you could hit them but they are invisible but they are there, you know. So it says if you’re moving so much your hands, maybe better not to move so much your hands like when you walk, you know. So that’s what the book says.
Maybe we are harming them also, we are killing them, I don’t know. It’s hard to say. So it’s a literal translation that these realms exist. It’s not figuratively speaking. Yes, the Lamrim book says all these realms do exist.
Some of these realms do exist within the human realm also. That’s right. Very— Yes. Within the human realm. If you look at some part of Africa, it looks like a hungry ghost realm.
Big head, big stomach, very tiny neck, no feet, and there is so much suffering than the other part of the world. So some people really— I saw some people in India, some part it’s almost really hell realm. People are dying because of so much sun heat. No house, no shelters, nothing and on the side of the road people die away because of so much heat. Those are not really hell realm or a hungry ghost but they’re similar.
So to think that if I’m waving my hands around in the literal sense that would require blind faith, wouldn’t it? That would require blind faith or— yeah, blind faith that there are things there although they’re invisible. Right? Correct? Yes, but those are the—there’s nothing logic I can tell you.
That’s only Buddha says so. That means now whether you want to believe in Buddha or not, that’s up to you, you know. Could be blind faith but there are— I shouldn’t say blind faith. There are many things we can prove logically. Some of the things is that we need to go to Buddha’s words, what Buddha says.
Called the—my translation— Some of the obvious objects are obvious objects, objects that are very easy to deal with. Some objects are a little bit rare and a little bit more—how do I say it—very difficult to describe. So some objects like that in Buddhism and some objects more than that. I didn’t bring my translation book today. So those objects or objects which are more—the human can describe and those objects I think we need to go to the Buddha’s Sūtra, what Buddha says.
Then we need to believe, that’s it. There’s nothing logically we can prove. But next time I will bring you this exactly the translation. There are three different objects. Obvious one which is much easier.
These are the obvious objects and a little bit above another object and then more the extremely hidden object. So those are really we cannot just describe logically. So that point is let’s say about the karma. It’s very difficult. Only we can say good karma can give you a good result, bad karma can give you a bad result.
That’s it. But then how we accumulate good karma and bad karma, which lifetime—if you go this way it’s very difficult to see. Life is the beginning of the lesson how many lives we’ve drawn during those lifetime how many negative karma and positive karma we accumulated, what time, which date, these are we cannot just describe. In the realm of physics, once energy is created—creates positive energy by our actions, speech and mind—when we die, the body’s gone, that energy can’t be destroyed once created. It can only be transformed.
So physics in a way supports karma and reincarnation as well. Yeah. You call energy. That energy is translate—we call consciousness. That’s what we call energy, we call consciousness.
That consciousness carries on all the past karmic results, I mean imprint. Then when you take birth again, everything comes back. Results come back. Okay, yeah, anyone? Jen, go.
Geshe-la, could you tell me the protocol for when you offered the katas when you first came to Buddha House, could you just tell me how long we’re supposed to leave the katas there? You can bring kata to the teacher, your offering envelope, leave it on the table, do kata offering to the teacher. Sometimes teacher will give you back, sometimes teacher will keep, but one kata all the time lives here, which is, you know, director. One kata is good to be here all the time. Otherwise, other katas are when you bring, you have to bring kata open up, just put like this, leave envelope here, kata and just open to the teacher.
And teacher will give you back. Sometimes teacher keeps it. So we should keep just one of these katas? One kata should be all the time here on the table. Let’s say last time Buddha House director first time she did this kata. I think this one, you know, that kata is the—you know—lives here.
And other kata, not every kata should be here, not necessary. Just one better to be here. Sometimes people do all kata here but I will recommend one kata lives here and other katas come and the teacher will give it back. Leave envelope on the table. We cannot touch directly envelope.
No, that’s right. And also for the katas that you put on the texts and His Holiness, do we leave all of those here? Yes, same thing. Yes. Put one kata on top of there, you did there.
Same thing, his throne also one kata there, leave that kata all the time there. Sometimes kata is a little old, there’s some dusty or something—if something is dirty, you can clean it out or put new kata. Okay? Yes, thank you. Next time I will teach you water bowl offerings, you know, and so a little, little, little like that.
Okay? And then see. Okay. Anyone? Any questions?
Cool. We have ten minutes. Anything? I would like to know if a beginner can come to the Thursday class. Yes, yes.
You can come to Thursday class which is very nice to come to mind training teaching which is good. Beginning a little bit difficult but don’t worry, ask the question. You can come this class also. I’m giving you very basic Buddhist teachings. Okay?
Thank you. You can come any class actually. Come Thursday or come Tuesday. But you know, if you’re confused, write down, ask the question, what does that mean? This way you need to learn.
Geshe-la you mentioned in one of your classes last week about doing the mantra Om Arapacana Dhi. And so I did it you know and then found myself sometimes doing it as I was walking you know doing things—is that okay? Okay. Any time you can do. Okay.
You have to say as much long as you can. Until you can hold the breath. Right. That’s Mañjuśrī, you know, very strong energy you can get from here. Mañjuśrī is the wisdom buddha.
So you have to say many times. Also good for speaking also. Someone has a little problem speaking, it helps you many times. And all external speech or can you internally? Both, especially for this one it helps you the external, actually both internal and external.
I have one more question. Oh sure, go ahead. This morning I went to sit down and do my meditation and I was going to do that— Say it again. Om tare tuttare ture Svāhā.
Okay I will fix you. Om tare tuttare ture Svāhā. Could you repeat that please? Om tare tuttare— Your last one is this. I’m fixing you.
Is okay. Okay. Yes. Thank you. This is Green Tārā.
Yes. Om tare tuttare ture mama ayur punya jnana pushtim kuru Svāhā, White Tārā. Okay. But you are saying Green Tārā. Yes.
Om tare tuttare ture Svāhā. Svāhā, thank you. Okay. So then what I did, doing it the wrong way, I did that for a while. But your motivation is the right one.
Oh okay, good. I did that for a while and then I thought well now you sat down to do the other one. No no I was going to do Om Arapacana Dhi. But I started with the Tārā and then I put it down and then I went on to the other one. Now is that confusing?
I felt fine about it but is that— You can do, you can say many times it’s possible. After that you can say many times it’s okay. Thank you. Can support, you know, it’s no problem. But when you say, you need to think about the Mañjuśrī.
Yes. If you could visualize the Mañjuśrī over there. When you say, Om tare tuttare ture Svāhā, Green Tārā is there. Okay. But you can say both mantras, no problem.
Thank you Geshe-la. Okay, no questions. Now we are going to do a little meditation. Go ahead and meditate whatever meditation you do regularly. Can also do this breathing meditation in and out, very slowly from your nostril.
Maybe you can do this one, breathing one. In and out, in and out very, very slowly, not from your mouth. If you like it, you can make a mudrā like this in Tibetan Buddhist perspective. First, you bring your left palm and then right palm. Leave it like this way.
Two thumbs just touched. Bring near your nipple area this way. Your shoulder must be open up like this, not like this. Back must be erected. So then just go ahead and do this in and out very slowly, inhalation and exhalation.
Okay. Now, take a breath in from your left nostril, then close the left one, then breathe out from the right. We are going to do it three times. First, take in from the right nostril, then out from the left. When you do that, close the right one.
Okay? Go ahead. First, the right one, then take a breath in from the left. Then close the left nostril, then breathe out from the right. Same thing.
After three times, replace. Take a breath in from the right nostril, then close the right nostril, then breathe out from the left. Same thing, you can replace that. Okay. Now both nostrils.
Okay, thank you. Now— You asked me this question, I just meditated. I will give you the correct answer. Moving your hands kills the hungry ghost, that belief is the blind belief or not. Okay.
I gave you the answer. It was a translation problem. Now I have translation. It came in my mind. It’s called Buddhism, we call three phenomena.
First one is the obvious phenomena. You can see very easily. Second one is the hidden phenomena. The third one is the extremely hidden phenomena. Three things.
The first one is the obvious phenomena that you can see and touch. Is very easy to fix and perceive things. The hidden phenomena are more logic. You need logic to understand, not just blindly. What exactly is the meaning of the hidden phenomena?
I will give you one example. For instance, when you see the hill in Adelaide, there is some smoke. Now, you cannot see directly the fire, yes? But you need logic. Oh, there is smoke because there is a fire.
Without fire, no smoke. That’s called hidden phenomena. You must follow the logic in order to understand why there is smoke. Now you can say there is smoke because there is a fire. That type of phenomena is called hidden phenomena, so mostly you need to follow the logics.
There is a fire. There is a fire because there is smoke. Logically, smoke can be able to prove there is a fire. Logic. The last one you need to understand is an extremely hidden phenomenon.
Buddha said, Practice of generosity, giving practice, will give you the result as wealth. Money, wealth. Practice of generosity, result would be wealth. Practice of the morality or ethics, result would be the happiness result. The practice of patience, if you do practice patience, the result will be brightness, handsome man and beautiful woman inside as well as outside.
These are the Buddha’s sūtra. But you cannot just prove logically, isn’t it? We need to believe what Buddha says. Why? Because these are extremely hidden phenomena.
Similar to this moving hand killing the hungry ghost, so it’s my perspective. It’s an extremely hidden phenomenon. You cannot just see, you cannot just prove logically, but you only need to believe what the Buddha says. Now you need to judge whether it is a blind faith or not. That’s why in Buddhism we do have three phenomena.
Obvious phenomena, hidden phenomena, extremely hidden phenomena, same as karma is also. Let’s say now we all are here together having some good time, but why this happened? Not like a coincidence. This happened to be past lifetime. You and I both accumulated such a good karma together to come here to discuss.
My side is giving these teachings. Your students can listen to the teaching, enjoy the teaching, have some good time. So we all accumulate some good karma together. But then the question is when? No answer.
Which lifetime? Is it maybe the eighteenth century, the seventeenth century, or the tenth century, or the first century? When? We have no clue. It’s extremely hidden phenomena.
So that part is the only Buddha that can give you the answer. I will give you another example karma comes. Is it okay? Time is a little bit— Is it too much? There’s a story.
A long, long time ago when Buddha was alive, two thousand years before, one small monastery, one new monk came to the monastery and became a monk, and the monastery gave him one small room to sleep. Then he slept the first night and his head was on the wall, you know, like that. But the back side of the wall is empty. When he sleeps, he hears something is moving inside the wall. I hear that too in this apartment.
I think it’s a possum, I think. I don’t know. Maybe one day I will see and will destroy the wall and check it out what would be in the wall. Anyway, this monk was hearing every night that that was really interrupting his sleeping. Then one day he went to the monastery and said, I can hear something.
The monastery said, No, you cannot hear that. They didn’t listen to him. But again, he said, I couldn’t sleep. Then one day they went to the monastery abbot and sent another senior monk, Can you check it? And he said, Yes, he did hear something.
Something is here that somebody is moving coins from one side to another side, then again brings the coin back to this side like this. Like here, little bit the sound goes here moving coins. Then monastery abbot invited some strong monks and said, Destroy the wall. Check it out. They destroyed the wall and found one scorpion.
Anyway you understand what I mean. That animal was—and also inside that wall, there were so many coins, gold and silver. In ancient Indian times, they didn’t use paper money. They used only coins, gold like that. So many gold, coins, and silver.
It was a shock that they couldn’t do nothing at the moment and they invited Buddha. Why is this happening? Buddha just sat down and they all meditated. Buddha was meditating and Buddha said, oh, just karma. Scorpion, thank you.
You could be my teacher. Scorpion. Buddha says this scorpion used to be a monk in the monastery a long time ago, but now he is reborn as a scorpion. Why? Because when he was a monk, he was working for the monastery.
At the moment he raised so many funds and he didn’t give it to the monastery. He kept everything himself. But he hid all these coins inside the wall. Then one day he died, passed away. But then now he’s reborn, scorpion inside that wall.
That one is again, this kind of karma is the extremely hidden phenomena. Yes, it’s very difficult to describe with ordinary sentient beings but only Buddha can give this answer. But now somebody from the Buddha House needs to come to my apartment. I can hear every night, there are some things, who knows, maybe those ancient coins. We can pay Buddha House rent and everything when we get that one.
I’m just kidding. I think this one is what—or rats? Rats? It could be a rat. Inside the wall?
Yeah, I can hear. Yeah. Around where I live there are bandicoots, which sounds much nicer than rats. Yeah, it’s something that’s scratching. Anyway, hopefully it’s not scorpion or there are a lot of coins.
Would be wonderful for Buddha House, you know? Anyway, thank you very much for listening to my kind of story that I mentioned. Your question was wonderful. It’s a very good question that you are thinking. Okay, what is your name?
Annie. Thank you for your question, Annie. So now we are going to do a little dedication prayer from the gold book. Please look at the gold book. It’s on page number one hundred twenty.
The prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi. Lord Buddha, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is discord, unity.
Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is error, truth. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is sadness, joy. Where there is darkness, light.
O divine master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled (happiness for the ego) as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, in pardoning that we are pardoned. It is in dying (having practiced) that we are born to eternal life, from happiness to happiness and full enlightenment. May all beings effortlessly attain the transcendent, peaceful state of omniscient Buddhahood.
Thank you very much.