Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Pema Tsering opens this 46-minute commentary on Śāntideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life with the story of its author’s disappearance mid-teaching at Nālānda — his body invisible but his voice still audible — and how monks later found his other texts hidden in the ceiling of his cell. He then unpacks the text’s first verse, explaining what “gone to bliss” means and how a Buddha’s abandonment of both afflictive and knowledge obscurations exceeds an arhat’s. The bulk of the session traces the step-by-step sequence for generating bodhicitta: establishing the beginninglessness of mind, recognizing all beings as former mothers, recalling their kindness, then building through great love and great compassion to the full aspiration for Buddhahood. A Q&A closes with convictional inference — why wealth traces to generosity through the Buddha’s word rather than direct observation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 BD 2002 01 31.mp3
UUID: 86d832f5-bc31-4445-ae03-f05cfdfb4086
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Deeds (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-01-31
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.2 minutes
Words: ~3,238
Way. But because he had blessed his speech, through the blessing of his speech, what he was saying could still be heard by the audience, especially by the the five hundred pandits who were in the audience. Even though he wasn’t visible, they couldn’t see him. Yep. And then amongst the audience, there were those who were great scholars, who had had the the capacity of remembering without forgetting.
And those those scholars later, after Śāntideva completely left the area, completely disappeared, went back to their rooms and wrote down word for word the entire text. Also, within the text itself, he made reference to other works that he’d composed, the work called Śikṣāsamuccaya and another work called Sūtrasamuccaya. And these texts were composed, but they weren’t actually published. But that was within the body of the text that he composed called the Bodhicaryāvatāra. So because in what he taught, there was reference to this text called Śikṣāsamuccaya and another text called Sūtrasamuccaya.
The scholars who were there in Nālānda thought, well, wait a minute. We haven’t heard of these texts. Where do they exist? And as they discussed the matter amongst themselves, they none of them, it was found out, ever heard of these texts, and so they didn’t know what to do in order to further explore the issues raised by the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Anyway, then they heard some some time again after that Śāntideva had gone to the south, in fact, to a stupa, a shrine by the name of Palden or the glorious stupa.
And then so the monks in Nālānda nominated two representatives to go to the south to this glorious stupa in order to invite Śāntideva back to Nālānda. Also, there was some debate amongst the scholars in Nālānda about just how many chapters existed in the text, And some were saying that there were nine chapters. Others were saying there were ten chapters. So there was dispute, therefore, about just how long the text was and exactly what it contained. So, also, the the monks in Nālānda had some dispute about just how many chapters there were in the original text.
So they asked the two representatives to invite Śāntideva back to Nālānda and also to question him on how many chapters there were in the original text, and then also to question him about these other texts that he referred to in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, the text called Śikṣāsamuccaya or Sūtrasamuccaya. And they set off. These two monks went to the south, and they got to the the stupa called Palden stupa. And then they found Śāntideva. And having found Śāntideva, they made heartfelt requests for him to return to Nālānda.
But however much they requested, Śāntideva declined the offer to return. So they put in put the question just how many chapters there were in the original text, and he said, actually, there are ten chapters, so it has a full ten chapters. And they asked him, well, what about these texts you refer to, the Śikṣāsamuccaya and the Sūtrasamuccaya? And Śāntideva said, those two texts do exist, and you’ll find them in the ceiling of my cell in Nālānda. If you look there, you’ll find the texts have been written, and I’ve placed them in the ceiling there.
And so the monks then returned. So then the monks returned to Nālānda, and then they examined the ceiling of Śāntideva’s cell. And sure enough, there were these two texts that had been composed by Śāntideva. So then they looked and they found that they conformed with what was said in the Bodhicaryāvatāra. So then from that time onwards, Nālānda had the complete set of three texts composed by Śāntideva.
So in fact, in the story of Śāntideva, there’s a a great amount, but there’s probably not time to go into detail on this. In fact, after that, Śāntideva himself would travel around India, and he’d especially visit areas where there was famine or disease and so on in order to assist the people undergoing, those, difficult experiences and so forth. However, we don’t have enough time at present to really go through all those or to even begin those. So we need we put those to one side for the present. So the name of the text itself is Bodhicaryāvatāra or in fact a guide to the bodhisattva’s way of life.
So here it is, a guide to the bodhisattva’s way of life. So here, the the main it’s a guide to the deeds of the bodhisattva or the practices of the bodhisattva. So the main practices, he referred to the practice of the six perfections. So here it’s dealing with the deeds of the bodhisattvas. And so it’s dealing with the six perfections that are engaged by bodhisattva.
And primarily, it’s dealing with the way of generating bodhicitta itself. It doesn’t directly deal or explicitly deal with the practices of a lower scope of the the smaller vehicle. However, the smaller vehicle is taught indirectly or implicitly. Now in the beginning of the text in Tibetan, firstly, it has the name of the text in Sanskrit, which is Bodhisattvacharyavatara. And then after that, it’s got the name in Tibetan, which is Jangchub Sempe Chöpa.
And these were not actually composed by Śāntideva himself. These were placed these words were placed there by later Tibetan translators. So then after that, there is a verse of homage or a line of homage that doesn’t actually and the line of homage is I prostrate to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Did you give Geshe-la back the section of text that was photocopied? So in fact, here we have an initially, there’s a verse included by the translators which says, Tibetan. It doesn’t it’s not included within the English translation, but it says, I prostrate to the Buddhas all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
This indicates that this text is included within the sūtra basket, the sūtra pitaka. Otherwise, there are many other types of homage that are paid at this point which indicate which basket the teaching belongs to. For instance, the all all knowing Buddha or to Mañjuśrī and so on. That’s here it indicates that it belongs to the Sūtra Pitaka itself. Then we have the first verse which is respect respectfully, I prostrate myself to the Sugatas who are endowed with the dharmakaya, as well as their noble sons and all worthy of veneration.
So then starting with verse one, respectfully, I prostrate myself to the Sugatas who are endowed with the dharmakaya. So here, it’s endowed here also refers to being endowed with comprehension and endowed with abandonment. So possessing all all the modes of comprehension of a Buddha and possessing all the modes of abandonment of what should be abandoned by a completely enlightened Buddha. So therefore, they’re endowed by those two things. So here, respectfully, Śāntideva prostrates to the Sugatas with those endowments, endowed with such a dharmakaya, as well as to the noble sons, to all the bodhisattvas, and then also to those worthy of veneration.
So those worthy of veneration, including the arhats and those on the paths leading to the state of an arahat, to objects of veneration that exist in the world like stupas and texts and so forth. In fact, all possible worthy objects of veneration are included here in this first verse. So here, one respectfully prostrates to the Sugatas. Those who have gone to bliss, Sugata meaning those gone to bliss, and those gone to bliss actually possess all the qualities that are sought to be acquired, and they’ve also abandoned all the obscurations, such as the affliction, such as, ignorance and hatred, anger, attachment, greed, delusion, and so forth, jealousy, pride, all of those manifest and unmanifest seed latent obscurations which should be abandoned, have been abandoned, and all the qualities of comprehension and the accumulations of merit and so forth that should have been acquired, have been acquired, by the Sugatas. So therefore, they’re worthy of veneration.
So here, the Sugata is possessing abandonment, is the type of abandonment in which regeneration of the objects to be abandoned is impossible. So that type of abandonment or elimination of obscurations is unexcelled abandonment or elimination, which excels the abandonment achieved in other systems or in the systems of other teachers. On the other hand, if one talks about elimination or abandonment without exception, that is a type of abandonment that is achieved by liberated beings such as the arhats, the foe destroyers, and so on. Their abandonment is termed abandonment without exception. And in fact, for the liberated beings, the arhats, because they have abandoned afflictions without exception, they’re called those who possess abandonment without exception.
However, they have not eliminated knowledge obscurations. However, the abandonment of a Buddha, of a being who’s gone to bliss, is superior type of abandonment because they abandon not only afflictions or the afflictive obscurations, but also knowledge obscurations. So one who’s gone to bliss possesses or is endowed with both abandonment and comprehension. So also in terms of comprehension, there are different levels of comprehension. There is comprehension itself.
There’s comprehension without exception, and also there’s perfect comprehension. So the mind of a Buddha, which is an omniscient mind, possesses these three levels of, comprehension. So here, comprehension in terms of being omniscient, then comprehension without exception is comprehension of everything, without exception. That is, relative and ultimate dharmas or the diverse dharmas that exist in the universe plus the profound dharmas that exist in the universe and so on. Then in talking about the noble sons or the sons of the conquerors, so this refers to the bodhisattvas.
So noble sons here or the sons of the conquerors are given that name because they themselves in future will become conquerors. So, they are the cause of attaining the state of a conqueror. The bodhisattvas eventually become Buddhas. So therefore, they’re given this name of the sons or the daughters of conquerors. No.
Bodhisattvas themselves are so called because they possess the mind of enlightenment. They possess bodhicitta. So therefore, in possessing bodhicitta, they become bodhisattvas. The mind of bodhicitta itself arises from great compassion.
So it’s produced or generated from great compassion. So therefore, for ourselves in practicing to generate bodhicitta, what we need to examine is whether we’ve established great compassion or not in our continuum. And then in generating great compassion, one initially then needs to generate the mind understanding all beings to be one’s mother, the kindness of those beings as one’s mother, repaying the kindness of those beings who were one’s mother in the past, then in developing love that’s attracted to all sentient beings so that one develops initially, even before those, this sense of evenness towards all sentient beings and equanimity. Prior to great compassion, there is great love. Prior to great love, there is the wish to repay the kindness of other sentient beings.
So that wish to repay the kindness generates great love. In order to develop the wish to repay the kindness of other sentient beings, one needs to remember or take to mind the kindness. Remember the kindness of all mother sentient beings. In order to remember the kindness of all mother sentient beings, one initially has to ascertain that all beings have been our mother in the past. Then in establishing all beings as being one’s mother, one needs to establish the nature of the mind as being beginningless.
And then within the beginningless ness of the mind, at some point, every being that exists has been our mother. And in fact, not only once, but countless times over. And in fact, there’s no, it’s not possible to actually estimate how many times each and every being in the universe has been our mother. So therefore, one reflects that, this life is a result of previous life. That previous life is a result of the life before that.
That life is a result of the life before that. So therefore, the awareness itself that’s present in these lives is generated by prior states of awareness. And however far one goes back, there is awareness that acts as the cause, producing later states of awareness. So in this way, we observe how consciousness arises from life to life and conditions, earlier consciousness conditions later consciousness. Even in this life, we can see the awareness that we have at present, and we realize that our current awareness is conditioned by the awareness we had yesterday, last year, when we were children, when we were very small, when we were in the womb, when we’re in the intermediate state, when we’re in the past life, and so forth.
So our current awareness is conditioned by previous states of awareness that go back into the past. So in fact, if we investigate ourselves, where did the present mind come from, and we take this back moment by moment, day by day, and so forth, life by life, it’s not possible to come to a particular time and say, well, that was the first moment of consciousness. And in fact, even if we approached a Buddha, even a Buddha would not be able to say that that was the first moment of consciousness, from which all later consciousness arose. So because of that, therefore, awareness is regarded as beginningless. So because awareness is beginningless, so also our rebirths are beginningless.
So in fact, we are beginningless, and even if we just take one sentient being, then it’s it’s not possible to calculate just how many times they’ve been our mother. So in fact, by thinking in this way, then we can establish the beginninglessness of our awareness and the fact that we’ve taken countless past rebirths. And in fact, all all beings have been our mother. So then in reflecting in this way, we can see that by establishing the beginninglessness of the mind, we can establish that all beings have been our mother. And then in dependence on that, we can reflect on their kindness and the need then to repay their kindness.
And then through understanding the need to repay their kindness, then we begin to generate great love towards all sentient beings, then great compassion, then the mind of superior intention or universal responsibility towards all beings, then the mind of bodhicitta, which enters the path of accumulation, then we develop a path of preparation, path of seeing, path of meditation, and then a path of no more learning, which is the state of a Buddha. So in investigating this way, we can see the entire path. And then in investigating the path in this way, we investigate whether, in fact, we have the seed within us, the potential within us to actually attain the state of a Buddha. So at present, we notice that we’ve only experienced saṃsāra, the affliction of saṃsāra to this point. And in experiencing saṃsāra, we are engaged in establishing virtue and through virtue, attaining at least human rebirth in future and so on.
But our aspiration to get beyond the entire process of saṃsāra to actually attain a state of a Buddha and so on, that aspiration is still not very strong. However, we need to in examining our situation and realizing our actual situation, we need to fully develop this potential we have for Buddhahood and, in fact, attain the state of a Buddha Buddha in which our potential is completely awakened in order to be able to help sentient beings. So in fact, when we investigate the nature of the path and the nature of how a being becomes a Buddha, we see that the the Buddhas themselves were once like us. And through their actions, they have attained, the complete development of their potential, become fully awakened Buddhas. In other religions, there are various assertions such as the assertion of a permanent god or a creative being who is permanent and so on.
And in that, in those assertions, there is no assertion that a Buddha at one stage or a god at one stage was similar to ourselves and afflicted and troubled in the same way that that we experience life. So it’s not so easy for beings who accept other philosophies to be able to see or understand the path. And so therefore No. So in fact, within the Buddhist system, the Buddha has mentioned that it in in the past, he was similar to ourselves, unenlightened and an unenlightened and afflicted sentient being, an afflicted samsaric being. And through his efforts and so forth, he’s attained a state of enlightenment, which is something that every being can do, and there is a path to do it by which, it is achieved, and that is, achieved through establishing the proper causes to achieve the path.
It’s not simply done out of a blessing of a permanent creative being and so on. There is, in fact, a very clear path, presented, and the Buddha himself has actually, employed that path. And much of the teachings of the Buddha is concerned with actually describing how this path is to be practiced. But it’s the way that path should be practiced is not simply to be accepted, as the Buddha taught it. In fact, as the Buddha said, monks and scholars, just as you test gold by burning, scratching, and rubbing rubbing it, so to test what I say, don’t accept it merely out of respect.
So in accordance with that advice, we should critically examine everything that the Buddha said to see if it does conform with common sense and so on. And in fact, we should apply the three measures or the three means of testing the words of a Buddha so that that what the Buddha taught, which is obvious, that should be obvious to our sensory awareness. And what the Buddha taught, which was slightly hidden or about topics which was slightly hidden, that should be provable by our own, inference, our logic and inference. And that which the Buddha taught which was, highly hidden or extremely hidden, such as law of cause and effect and so forth, that should be established through applying convictional inference, or inference established through the power of conviction. So in fact, there are very open means for establishing the paths that are set down by the Buddha himself.
Is that how is that? Is that easily understandable? So if there are any questions, in relation to the subject matter this evening? Can you explain a little more about convictional inference? Inference.
Convictional inference or inference that arises through the power of conviction is employed to understand those things which are extremely hidden, such as the fact that we become wealthy through generosity. Wealth only arises through the practice of generosity. Because establishing that wealth arises from generosity requires insight into the law of cause and effect. And the Buddha himself did make that statement that from virtue comes happiness, from generosity comes resources or wealth. And if we contemplate that statement by the Buddha with the reasoning that it it it is proper to accept it because it is a scriptural statement that is not harmed by the three types of examination, then that is sufficient, to establish comprehension of that, that wealth comes from generosity and nothing else.
Oh, yeah. No. Lam Rim, actually