Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Watching a famous athlete on television, Geshe Pema Tsering asks: what is actually happening in your mind at that moment? In this 95-minute commentary on the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, he works through a verse on opposing afflictive emotions the instant they arise, using sports-watching — including his own candid account of reacting to the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony — as the central illustration. He explains how temporal antidotes (mindfulness and alertness) can avert coarse attachment and anger, while only wisdom realizing emptiness cuts their very seeds, and shows how a single well-applied contemplation can simultaneously generate renunciation, compassion, and causes for realizing emptiness. A Q&A closes with questions on whether one can become attached to dharma study, why motivation alone determines whether any action is spiritual, and how parents should respond when children want to play sport.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2008 08 10 37 PoB.mp3
UUID: 377a6757-882a-44b3-b2fa-215eac605cd5
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: 37 practices of a Bodhisattva (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2008-08-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 95.1 minutes
Words: ~6,222
So Geshe-la is instructing us then to give us a good motivation with intention then of of developing and giving rise to the mind of enlightenment with intention and of benefiting all sentient beings. Then one is going to study this mind training text and as much that proportion to how much one understands. One studies of this text, one practices, applies those teachings, and in this way one aims at attaining Buddhahood for the sake of benefiting all. And then we start with the the preliminary prayers, with the Heart Sūtra. Those resounding in their entirety along with the words of gods, humans, asuras, and Gandharvas, word of joy and highly praise that’s spoken by the Bhagavan.
Can we move on to the next page? I and all surrounding sentient beings go for refuge to the Buddha, go for refuge to the Dharma, go for refuge to the Sangha. We prostrate to the great mother Prajñāpāramitā, surrounded by all the children, by the assemblies of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the directions. By depending on my prostrations to all of you, may these words of truth be actualized. In the past, the deva king Indra dispelled the madas by reflecting the profound meaning of the wisdom gone beyond and reciting the profound words in daily recitation.
In that same way, I also reflect in the profound meaning of the great and recite the profound words in daily recitation. May all diseases, pure possessions, bad conditions, all the negative actions, that which happens due to past karma and immediate conditions, may all these be may become nonexistent, may be pacified. So we we start again a new chapter, which is one of the last ones of this text. It’s the topic is training in giving up negative emotions or negative conceptions and thoughts. And the root verse, Geshe-la was reading, goes like this.
When habituated to negative emotions, the can hardly reverse them, hardly oppose them. Therefore, as soon as attachment and so forth arise, it is a practice of bodhisattvas to, in the moment of mindfulness, take up the weapon like antidote and destroy negative emotions. Is that okay? So Geshe-la is telling us as it is right now, we are right now, the afflictive emotions and conceptions, they they have free reign over our minds. They they arise at all times, are rising in our minds, and we are not aware of them.
We we do not we are unable to see them or or to recognize them as such as for what they are. And what the text is telling us is that, again, we have been so habituated to it that they they just grow grow stronger. And what we have to do is for the force of mindful mindfulness and guarding alertness, it’s the compound word which is in root, in this translation, which is only as mindfulness, but it’s mindfulness and guarding alertness. With that, we have to recognize those afflictive emotion conceptions for what they are, for as afflictive emotion conceptions. And understanding the situation, can then apply into those and then and oppose them properly.
So, Geshe-la was saying what we shouldn’t do is is allow such afflictive emotions as attachment, for example, to just, have free rein, to just, go on increasing in their power and their strength and so forth. Because when, there comes a point when they are so strong that we’re gonna hardly ever be able to oppose them. And Geshe-la is going through the commentary to reverse. In the first sentence, it’s saying basically what Geshe-la just said. Again, such afflictive emotions as attachment and so forth, when they arise, we do not, whenever they arise, if we do not apply the antidotes and we let those afflictive emotion conceptions just be, I mean they grow, become so habituated with them that eventually when we we try to oppose them with the antidotes, it will it will be extremely difficult for us to accomplish that.
Geshe-la was reading the rest of the commentary which goes on saying that again what we if if that that being the case we should remain holding on to the mindfulness that does not forget all those things which are to be abandoned and those things which are to be given up. We should remain attentive, alert about the situation, what is going on in the three doors of body, speech mind, whatever it is that is going on we should remain alert to what’s going on there. And in this way such a being who has these qualities can then use these weapons which are these antidotes how to say to with great strength and great determination then defeat oppose these afflictive emotions conceptions. So then and this then is the way that oppose such afflictive emotions such as such as attachment and so forth. Right at the beginning when when they when they just arise, they oppose them with the proper antidotes and then give up those afflictive emotions.
So if you take for example, the three poisons of, attachment, anger and ignorance. And Geshe-la was saying, ignorance is very difficult for us to oppose, to apply the antidote because that involves realizing emptiness. But, as for the antidotes to attachment and aversion, they are relatively easy to apply. What challenging is that we do not even recognize attachment and hatred and anger and so forth for what they are, for attachment and anger.
But what is important then is that we, through the power of mindfulness and alertness, then we recognize them as such. And once we recognize them as such, and then applying the antidotes is not is not as difficult as as the antidote to to to ignorance. So it should be easier. Ignorance. Is relatively speaking, it is easy to avert the manifest forms of attachment and anger.
So when more coarse forms of attachment and anger. So we can oppose that. Relatively speaking, it’s easier for us to do that. Now what we are unable to do with this temporal relative antidotes is to completely eradicate even the very seeds and imprints of attachment and anger. In order to accomplish that we need to actually get rid of ignorance itself because ignorance is what originates, gives causes attachment and anger.
So we need to realize emptiness and get rid of ignorance itself in order to be able to read ourselves of even the very seeds and imprints of giving us an illustration.. For example, take a sportsman or, you know, a sports player. was saying, when we see when we’re watching a a or something, some some sports on on the telly or or in any way, and we see a famous sportsman sportsperson, you know, who who is fit and and handsome or beautiful and and, you know, all famous, rich and all that. And we immediately and and we think, oh, that’s such a good person.
And we immediately have this attachment, arising in in with regards to that relation to that person. And that is attachment. That that right then is attachment. And Geshe-la is saying so, at that moment that attachment arises, and Geshe-la explained, there is a sort of, something like a pleasant feeling or a sort of, something which is like a happiness arise in relation to that. We think to ourselves when we see such a famous, rich, healthy, handsome, beautiful person and all that, and we think, you know, we’re happy.
Think, I must have that. I must have that too. That attachment is speaking to us. I must have that too. And guess what I was saying right there and then, the very core of that thought is ignorance.
And so that is attachment. That is attachment. And we have to apply the antidote to that. And we have to start contemplating. Okay?
First recognize that is attachment. And then we we have to contemplate that even though that person is is a great player, a great sportsman, and is rich and famous, that is not really there’s not really any reliable happiness in that. That person’s experience is not stable. Happiness, that person’s experience is not going to last. In a few years from now, his health is going to deteriorate or maybe he’s gonna die.
His situation is gonna change. He had to work so much and so hard to get to the point where he he or she got. He had to accumulate so many negativities to get to the point where he or she got. And then one day the person’s gonna die and and it’s all gone. It’s all it’s all for it was all for nothing.
There’s no real happiness in that. There’s no real meaning in that. And again, even before the person dies, when the person grows old, again, the person is not gonna be a great player anymore. He’s not gonna be as healthy anymore. He’s not gonna be as famous anymore.
All that is gone. So all that didn’t last. All that was was not reliable. Saying, again, that person has worked so hard all of his life, all of her or his life, the person worked so hard to attain that status, that position. So much hard work involved in that.
And then when the person grows old, all that is gone. And even more so when the person dies, all that is gonna be left behind. There’s not nothing gonna be gonna be carried on. So all the all that effort, all that striving, all that struggle, Geshe-la was saying, was all meaningless. And Geshe-la was saying, this is how we have to think about this this attachment.
And Geshe-la was saying, so then having having understood how that person’s life is actually completely empty of any meaning, lacking in any meaning, again one has to contemplate one has to start developing compassion for that person. One has to think also that if that person had instead of spending all that time and effort and energy, all those years, developing that career or fame or whatever it is that the person was developing, if the person was applying him or herself to the dharma, that person would have turned out a great person, a great being, and would have accomplished so many good qualities. And that’s sad. That’s really a pity. The person wasted this opportunity.
And one develops compassion. It’s hard to compassion in this way. And then if we think in this way, in this fashion, then we will be able to avert that mind that was thinking in the beginning of this illustration that I should be like that person. I should attain those things that that person has attained. I I need those things for myself.
Right? Is that okay? And Geshe-la was saying. By thinking in this this in this line, as Geshe-la has been explaining us, then again, can we can not only avert attachment, but we also are also giving rise to compassion. And there’s already we ourselves accrue a lot of benefit out of that.
But not only that, by contemplating how this person’s life is empty of any meaning, that person wasted that life in the in the ways that Geshe-la was was describing us. Then again, we also started seeing the faults of cyclic existence, the shortcomings of cyclic existence, of life in saṃsāra. And in this way, we start also developing renunciation. So we not only have averted the negative emotion conceptions, as attachment, we have at the same time develop two positive qualities, compassion and renunciation in one strike. And Geshe-la was saying, and then if on top of of that, we contemplate that that also the fact that that person, that being who who we are thinking about does not exist in the way that he or she appears to exist if we contemplate that the person has no existence from his own side that even though it does not exist in the way it appears to exist, it is not the case that it does it does not exist at all.
It also exists in some way. If we contemplate that, And Geshe-la was then saying, if we contemplate in this way, then this sort of of contemplation also also harms, so to speak, ignorance. It’s gonna strike on ignorance. So when we contemplate that foundation of the thought of attachment, that things, you know, that he’s a great player, he’s famous, and I need that, I want to be like him, I need those things that he has, and so forth. And we contemplate that all that actually does not have inherent existence, does not exist in the way it appears to exist.
Then again we are harming ignorance and this way we are creating the causes for realizing emptiness on top of all that. And in this way, when we are watching that match or that sports on the television or whatever it may be that we’re watching, when we are watching it in this way, not only we have avoided the cultivation of afflictive emotions and conceptions, we have also developed the causes for renunciation. We have developed great compassion, the cause of cause of bodhicitta. And we have also cultivated the cause of of our realization of emptiness. So that that time that we spent watching television was then made greatly meaningful by that.
Okay. And Geshe-la is saying, no, if we were to watch again, we were to watch the the the match or or or watch the telly, and then this content just give in to such thoughts or how good it will be if I had that, if I were like that, or like this, and so forth. Then it’s just that’s only attachment. We’re only cultivating attachment. It’s only that that afflictive emotion to it.
And there are other instances when we see something that something or someone that we dislike, and we think, oh, that’s not good, and so forth. And again, that’s more afflictive emotion. Only more afflictive emotion. And Geshe-la was then saying, we do not really know how to watch television, or how to watch a match and so forth. If if how to say it?
Geshe-la was then saying, when they they when they watch, they watch in a completely different way. They know how to watch the TV. They know how to watch a match. We don’t know. They turn it into the path.
We don’t. No. He’s he’s he’s he’s equanimous towards all all people. We, on the other hand, we like one team and we dislike the other team. And so we have attachment and aversion in one strike.
And, Geshe lazul, as I say, also, with regards to the Olympics also like this, not only just the soccer match, but the Olympics, when when it is our nation that is walking into the the arena, the stadium. Then we are all happy. We’re all ecstatic and happy. And but while whilst we’re waiting, you know, whilst whilst our our nation is not there yet, we are we are waiting, and we are, like, annoyed with everybody else. And and guess I wasn’t saying, we we it is it is like this with myself.
I’m waiting for for the Indian team to arrive. I’m waiting for the Australian team. The Indian arrived right in the beginning, and the Australian’s taking a long time. And there’s all these Americans coming in, all these Chinese coming in. You know, so many Chinese, so many people, so many Chinese players, a lot of women and all that.
And all these things going in my mind, And this so then Geshe-la was saying, this is the way we we watch it. And Geshe-la was including himself. He said, and then and this is all and this is only attachment and aversion. There’s only attachment and aversion to it. Now, if it was an ārya bodhisattva, an ārya being, that the person, that ārya being, that noble being would be seeing all that as an illusion.
As having no no essence and no meaning in and of itself. And Geshe-la is pointing out to to an expression in the in the root in the root verse, which was poorly translated English that we have here, which says that immediately, we should immediately oppose with mindfulness and alertness, we should immediately oppose the afflictive emotion conception. So we should be constantly watchful. What is going on in our minds? And as soon as attachment and aversion arise, or any other afflicted emotion arise, we should oppose them.
And keep opposing them. When somebody or someone or a team that we like arises, then we are attached. When a team we dislike or somebody we dislike arises, we have aversion. And all these things we should be watchful of and and and and immediately oppose them. And Geshe-la was then also saying that when the when the Chinese were walking into the stadium yesterday and then all these these presidents and ministers of every country, they they stand up when their their own nation walks into the stadium.
And when the Chinese was were walking in, all the the the what’s what’s the name? Oh, really? What? Hu Hu Jintao. Jintao.
Hu Jintao was stood up with all the governors and then ministers and so forth. And Geshe-la was saying when he saw that he was this this very uncomfortable arose in his mind and his heart, Geshe-la was saying, really uncomfortable, really annoyed with that. And that’s all to do with hatred. Geshe-la was saying.
And and and and this is a is a sort of thing that we have to be watchful of. And Geshe-la is saying if if Geshe-la were, for example, to to to live under the governance of of the Chinese and and and to to accept those views and so forth, and the propaganda, and all that. So Geshe-la would see Hu Jintao in a different way, and would be actually liking him as a very famous, as a very benevolent governor, and so forth. And then instead, if that were the case, when Hu Jintao would stand up in in that occasion yesterday, he would instead of having the hatred that he was having, he would have the attachment. He would be like, you know, there’s our prime our prime minister, our great minister, and so forth.
And he would have attachment in the other hand. And Geshe-la is saying, in all this all this liking and disliking, there’s no ultimate there’s nothing real really. They have no substance whatsoever. And Geshe-la was saying, Geshe-la, from his own side, personally, you know, the person that he likes the most is the Dalai Lama. And then there’s one he doesn’t he doesn’t like.
But as a matter of fact, in from what was thinking in terms of this life alone, yeah, there’s absolutely no difference. Yeah. Absolutely the same, and that they both have a complete lack of of any they are both like like a dream, like an illusion. So what basically, what we have to do is be watchful of our minds. And then when whenever attachment arises, we shall have to recognize it as such, or anger, or any other thing.
We must recognize them for what they are. And we have to understand that there is no substance to what is occurring. There is no real existence, and there’s no real meaning to what is occurring and we have to apply the antidotes to them and in this way properly oppose them properly transform them so to speak We have to contemplate all those those beings, all those people that we are seeing, they’re not they’re not really our enemies. They they are all our friends. They are all really only benefiting us.
And the real enemy that we have is that I, which is the very foundation of those thoughts of attachment and aversion. Is that is that I the self. Geshe-la was saying this this is the enemy. This is what causes all these troubles, all these discomforts that we feel and so forth, these pains and sufferings that we feel. It’s the I, the thought of I and mine.
This is the end. This is everything that we have to abandon and we have to give up. And Geshe-la was saying again in a different order, but saying the same thing again and again, we have to see the I as being the real enemy. And every other sentient being every other sentient being, which is not the I, which is not the self, they are our friends and that they actually do benefit us. They are actually very kind to us.
And we have to understand that, and we have to realize how the the I is a very foundation of all these disturbing emotions and conceptions, of all this confusion that we have, of all these misunderstandings and deception and so forth. And we have to let go of this I. And then we start reading some further in the text. We have a quote from the Ornament of the Sutras, which says negative emotions and conceptions destroy ones oneself, they destroy sentient beings, and they destroy ethics. And again, Geshe-la was just just pointing out this is a pretty straightforward verse and how it actually so that the afflictive emotions such as attachment, for example, they do harm oneself.
We can easily see that. They make us engage in all sorts of negativities. Again, they do harm sentient beings. Again, out of attachment, we disregard whatever has happened to sentient beings. We cause harm to them, and we cause sentient beings to dislike us.
We cause them to engage in negativities, so we harm and destroy sentient beings. And also we destroy our own ethical or moral practice or conduct because when we engage in negativities, we engage in our virtues, then we are opposing the good virtues of of moral conduct. Again there’s another little quote from the Bodhisattva Way of Life, just one line of one verse, which says, all enemies such as craving, anger, and so forth. And the commentary goes on to tell us that all these negative emotions and concepts that produce in this life as well as in future lives, they produce all sorts of suffering, disturbance, of confusion, of mental, physical and mental suffering. And that and this we should be causing harm to oneself and to others and to to our practice of virtue to our future lives and so forth.
And that we should therefore make effort at giving up and letting go of this afflictive emotion and conceptions. And, Geshe-la, I was going for just for the last line of the commentary again saying that as as if that is the case, again, we should make effort to abandon, to give up all these these negative and afflictive emotions and conceptions, which are so, you know, so much we have which have so many shortcomings to them. And there’s another quote from the Bodhisattva Way of Life again which says, what Śāntideva Śāntideva says, my soul passion shall be from now on filled with bitterness to meet negative emotions in battle. Is that okay? Say it again.
My sole passion shall be now filled with fierceness, you could say, to meet negative emotions in battle. And Fierceness. Fierce. Sorry. And then again, just recognize when they arise, recognize the afflictive emotions for what they are and directly oppose them or, you know, firmly oppose them.
And we have still another quote from the Bodhisattva Way of Life, Negative emotions are abandoned with the eye of knowledge. Knowledge. Where will you go now when dispelled from my mind? And Geshe-la was saying again, as as for how to abandon, how to let go of those afflictive emotion conceptions, again, we if we we have to do that, we have we completely rid ourselves or or completely let go of afflictive emotion conceptions by by the power of of wisdom. The wisdom that realizes the emptiness.
And and and on a this is on an ultimate level. And on a temporal level, again, we avert the physical and emotional conceptions by the force of mindfulness and guarding alertness. And Geshe-la was reading from the commentary which is telling us again how we should avert, how should abandon, how we should give up those afflictive conceptions. Geshe-la was saying one has to place one’s mindfulness right at the gate of one’s mind, and as soon as the afflictive emotion concept is put the head out, we have to strike with the spear of those mindfulness and guarding alertness. I’m sorry.
And as soon as the afflictive emotions put their heads out, again, have to strike them with the spear of the antidote and avert them in this way. This one. And going through the rest of the comment saying otherwise, again, if we if we just let them be when they arise, and and they arise and we let them be without doing anything about it, they will grow stronger. And when the time come that we that we want to oppose them, we will have a hard time. And Geshe-la is saying this is how we actually do, this is how presently we behave, we act in relation to the We just let them be, and we have a hard time with them.
And then Geshe-la was saying, what we should do is, again, immediately oppose them as soon as they arise. And we are told here the commentary is telling us that the way to engage the afflictive emotion conceptions in battle is very well described in the chapter on perseverance on way of life. And we have a quote from that chapter, from my verse, which says, just as a known warrior approaches the source of an enemy on the battlefield, so shall I avoid the weapons of disturbing emotions and skillfully overcome these enemies. And Geshe-la was saying the same way that when we are fighting on the battlefield, we are skilled at averting the the enemy’s weapons and at striking the enemy. Again, one should be just as skilled at averting the harm of the afflictive emotion conception and striking their heart.
And then we have another quote again from the same chapter of the of life, another verse which says if someone drops the sword during the battle, he will, out of fear, swiftly take it up again. And in the same way, likewise, if we lose the weapon of mindfulness, we shall, terrified by the lower rounds of existence, retrieve it quickly. Okay? And and again, Geshe-la was going through the the commentary to those to those verses, they are saying exactly the same thing. Again, there’s absolutely no difference in the words.
If if again, If somebody were to lose his sword during the fight, again, that person would, by fear of getting hurt by the enemy, immediately engaging ways to quickly retrieve that sword. And in the same way, we should act in the same way in regards with the conceptions. If we lose our mindfulness and our alertness, again, we should, by fear of falling to the lower realms of existence, to the hells and so forth, we should immediately, quickly retrieve our mindfulness and alertness. Geshe-la was reading there’s not a verse in the Tibetan which is not in the English translation which is talking about a particular dish, which I’m I’m not sure what it is, which is sort of a sweet a sweet dish. And then, again, you have to you have to cook.
You have to boil these ingredients. And you have to be very watchful because it boils very quickly and it spills out of the pot and then the food is spoiled. So we have to remain constantly watchful of this, in the process of cooking this dish, otherwise spoil the whole thing. In the same way, we have to be constantly watchful of the afflictive emotion conceptions. Otherwise, they will spoil our future lives.
And also we have another verse in which it’s saying, just as I would quickly leap up if a snake came into my lap. Likewise, if if sleep and dullness overwhelm me, I will swiftly chase them away. And again, again, same way that we would immediately avert a snake, you know, promptly without any any waste of time. Again, the same way we should be weary of the afflictive emotion conceptions and avert them immediately just as quick. And then we have another quote for that.
And then we are told that this is this all these course, they point out how we should avert negative emotion conceptions as soon as they arise, at the very moment that they arise. And then we have another quote from Lama Atisha who says when negative emotions appear we need to remember the antidote. What need would there be for a dharma that lets negative emotions run wild? And then we have still another quote from Lama Atisha which says, one who destroys negative emotions with an antidote as soon as they arise, such a supreme being is truly a hero. And again and again just just because I was just saying in a different order the same thing.
Again, a hero is somebody who is then able to immediately avert afflictive emotion conceptions. One last quote from Lama Atisha which says we must crush all disturbing conceptions as soon as they arise and let our antidotes strike fatally. Yeah. There? Yes, I was asking if you have any questions.
Do you have question? No? No. No question? Yeah.
That’s that’s also attachment. Geshe-la was saying that that is also attachment. And when we we see somebody who is skilled in a particular sport or whatever that is, and we think to ourselves, oh, that’s very nice. That’s very good. And again, Geshe-la was saying the reality of it is that it’s all in the nature of suffering.
There’s no true existence to it, and it’s in the nature of suffering. Geshe-la was saying that that’s when we think, oh, that that person is so good, and then and that’s what we are labeling that person. That’s that’s we are the and a notion that we superimpose over that person, but that person is not actually so because as soon as a person grows old, all that skill is gone and even more so when the person is dead. So that skill is not really not really real. That goodness is not really real.
And the person has been practicing that sport and developing that skill since the person was very young, maybe since the person was ten, eleven years old. And all those years, in the end, it’s gonna be a waste of an entire lifetime where nothing meaningful has been accomplished. So if you can see that, you can see how very much of a great mistake it is, a great fault it is. And Geshe-la said we can see if we let that attachment reign over our minds again, also more attachment will arise, more aversion will arise, it’s a cause of much disturbing conceptions and much confusion in their minds and much suffering, much negativities. That person that that you’re appreciating the skills, that person him or herself also have been, all these years developing just more and more attachment, seeking more and more skill, more and more fame and power.
It’s just more and more attachment to to that person, and that’s and that’s all suffering. And then when a person with with greater skills or or good skills come around, the person is averse to them, and then again more negativities are created. There’s all a a whole bunch of suffering. And the only good thing about that skill is that that skill gives them money and they can buy food and that’s it. And then they become known as skilled, proficient in their professions and famous and all that, but it’s all lacking in any meaning.
It’s all empty. Have created, you know, fame, influence, but now have been influenced by compassion for children and furthering their fame and their influence So then Geshe-la was just saying first I’ll put what he said. And he was saying, yes. That’s that’s okay. The person uses that fame and skill and and money to help others.
That’s okay. But that person is most likely doing all that, having only this mind as a reference sorry, this life as a reference, doing in the context of this life alone. And again, the same applies for the illustration. Again, are going to benefit with regards to the things of this life, to their fame and the the good feel and all that. But, ultimately, again, there’s nothing coming out of it.
A little coming out of it. Wasn’t saying, ultimately, with regards to this life, it’s a very good thing, but ultimately, those things are not causes of liberation and enlightenment. So ultimately, they do not bring lasting happiness neither to themselves nor to others. I didn’t what about people who have gone famous? That’s what I actually you know, you work very hard to become a doctor or whatever.
It’s the same the same answer. It’s this there’s there’s there’s no nothing that you haven’t heard before here. Okay? It’s it’s the same answer that Geshe-la has given since three years ago and since I arrived here in Australia first. It depends on the motivation.
That’s what I meant. Yeah. That’s good. Depends on the motivation. If the motivation is good, then if they are clever enough, they are going to make those actions turn into the cause of liberation and enlightenment.
If they are doctors or if they’re waiters or it doesn’t matter what they are. If the motivation is this life, then it’s gonna be as meaningless as anything else that is done for this life. Yes. That’s what Buddha Dharma always says. Motivation, motivation, motivation.
Don’t forget that. I was just saying again, our actions become Dharma actions, become spiritual actions solely in dependence upon our motivations. Our actions, whatever actions they may be, they they are they become spiritual or worldly solely in dependence upon our motivations. It seems to me that Yes, sir. Sorry.
It seems to me that everything that you can create attachment. So just wondering whether it can be attached to learning. You can develop attachment towards everything. So you wonder if you can listen. No.
No. It seems to me because what you have interpreted from Ganla said, you know, if you watch a sport, actually, by watching the the sports person’s skills, actually, it’s kind of an attachment. So I’m just wondering if, you know, whether if we are I guess. And again it depends on your motivation. I was asking why is it that you are studying the Dharma?
If you are studying for the sake of this life, for fame and so forth, then yes, then attachment can arise towards that. If you are working and being faithful to the teachings and aiming at future lives, liberation, enlightenment, then there’s no way attachment can arise if you are doing that properly. And again, if if you are studying this text, thirty seven practices of Bodhisattvas, as have been studying, and you start, you know, developing the thoughts which are in line with with these teachings and start developing thoughts of compassion towards all beings and all that, and then that’s that’s not attachment. Now if, on the other hand, you start studying this text and you start talking about it with others so that you can have people admire you and like you and call you, say pleasant things to you and so forth and you get money and all that, then that’s attachment. What should you have done?
What what and what is the right attitude as a parent? I was I was I was saying, you have a daughter, and when she was young, she liked to play, I don’t know, netball or whatever it is that she was playing. And you and you encourage her to play because it’s healthy, it’s good for her health and all that. And you said, go go play. And Geshe-la cut me short and says, that’s alright.
There’s nothing wrong with that. You’re not you’re not thinking about liberation and enlightenment, but there’s there’s no harm coming out of it. The retentions were still good. If you say if you say a kid, you say you cannot play if you say to your daughter, cannot play netball. You have instead to accumulate the cause of liberation and enlightenment.
That’s not gonna work. It doesn’t work. Alright? They won’t they won’t do it. They will hate you forever.
You know? They’ll probably they’ll probably end up in hell because of that. Is that okay? You didn’t do anything wrong. Yeah.
Please.