Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 35-minute session, Geshe Pema Tsering opens with a sharp reminder: the Lord of Death gives no advance warning and waits for no one, making deferred purification a form of foolishness. He works methodically through why non-virtuous actions should not be cultivated for any reason — not for relatives, enemies, or wealth — because all such connections are as impermanent as a dream: the parents and partners of past lives are unrecognizable today, and today’s loved ones will be equally unknown in the next. He draws on Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend, written to a king, and on Asaṇga to show that only karma accompanies one at death. A Q&A closes the session, clarifying that long-life initiations remove obstacles to completing one’s existing karmic lifespan rather than extending it.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 15 BD 2002 03 07.mp3
UUID: 515bd135-2c92-424f-9721-3ebaa95c29ee
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Deeds (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-03-07
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 34.6 minutes
Words: ~2,195
So yeah. And one should constantly purify the non virtuous actions. It is because the lord of death will never tell you or warns you or gives you the advance warning. Say, oh, you haven’t done this positive action, so I will wait for you, or you haven’t confessed or purified the negative actions, so I will wait. He never does it.
He or she never does it. And so so therefore, one should purify all the non virtuous actions. If not, one knows that if one just indulge in the happiness of the cyclic existence or or the the cyclic existence, and later on, one will have one will undergo through the suffering of aging, death, sickness, illness, and harms from the enemies and so forth. And finally, he dies. And at that moment, he dies through great regret and great suffering.
So therefore so by knowing all these sufferings one will and one one one have faced and one will undergo through. By knowing so, and if one still does not practice and confess one so purify all purify one’s non virtuous action, and such person is is is very say say such such person is called a very fool person or a foolish person. So, therefore, one should not cultivate one should not cultivate any type of non virtuous actions or, yeah, non virtuous actions and neither for one’s own purposes nor for the others, like for the benefit of parents, relatives, or or through the enemies, you know, causing harms and so forth. One should not cultivate any kind of non virtuous actions because the because because relatives’ enemies are the are the are are very temporary and and they are occasional. You know?
Time to time, they are relatives. Time to time, they are not. So it’s just and and but, therefore, one should not. They will never stay as one’s relatives in in all the lifetime. It’s a it’s a momentarily.
And therefore therefore, one should not cultivate any kind of nonversus action because they change — sometimes relative, sometimes not. But they never stay with one all the time. Whereas negative actions or non virtuous actions, cultivate is always with you. So by knowing so, should not cultivate any type of non virtuous actions. And not only that no.
So not only all those relatives so forth changes or enemies changes, even the the ones and so one one has to travel by oneself, one’s relatives, one’s dear, one’s one’s wealth and so forth. One day, there will be a day that one has to live individually or just for one own, leaves everything back. So therefore, by knowing this, one should realize now onward that up till now, one has cultivated all these numbers of non virtuous actions by not understanding such what we have just said. Now today, this is the moment I understood or I understand that that I will be the only person to travel by my own at the very end. So by knowing this now onward, I will not cultivate any kind of non virtuous actions either for my own purpose or others and so forth.
Right. Yep. So and up till now, one has cultivate one one has cultivated all those numbers of non-virtuous actions, unknowingly or with lack of understanding. And now one should feel regrets that, you know, what that one has done because and by knowing, I want you to understand or realize here that all all those, you know, non virtuous actions that one has cultivated either for oneself or for others, like relatives or through enemies and or or for one’s one’s cultivate for one’s wealth and so forth. And now I want you to know that because at the time of death, none of those will help one or support one.
And one will be the one who undergoes through what one has done, and one will take all the non virtuous actions what one has cultivated. So by and and they are not at all not they’re not they will not help one at all. By knowing this, one should regret for the non-virtuous actions. So and so so, yeah, one should not cultivate any kind of non-virtuous actions just due to or because for for the happiness of temporary happiness or or the the the worldly happiness because it has no use and it has no essence. It is like but because at the time of death, one one can take nothing with one one can take nothing.
It is like, say, one had a wonderful or fantastic dream, and in the dream, one has one lived for hundred years, And always within this hundred years, you know, have happy all the time and great wealth and enjoyment so forth. And then and in the in the very morning when one wakes up and there’s nothing they want, it’s not first thing’s for sure one hasn’t lived for hundred years. And secondly, all this happiness or wealth, what one has in one dream, it’s not there. So it is like that, and there is no essence at all. So should not cultivate any negative or non-virtuous actions just to attain the worldly happiness or temporary happiness.
Because all those are like the same as the same like the dream because in the past, in the previous lives, you know, one one has one own parent, partner, or husband, wife, children, relatives, so forth. But at this stage, it’s like a dream. In this life, one can’t recognize where are they and they are not with you. So it’s more it’s it’s it’s the same as the dream one Just we demonstrated. So all these are like a like the dream, you know, like like the previous parents’ relatives.
Like a dream now. This life, you don’t have it. And then these relatives and parents so forth are like like the dream as well. But in the next life, one will not know who are they, where are they. So therefore, one should one should not cultivate any kind of non virtuous action because of them.
Because at the time of death, one passes, one travels by one’s one by one’s own or single, and and none of them will come can’t and will not come with you. And what happens what what one will have is what all the actions one has cultivated. All these non virtuous actions one have cultivated will be with with you for all the time. So yep. So in to in order to prove that, the great master Ārya Nāgārjuna, in his letter to a friend, which was a text written as a letter to a friend who was a king.
And he stated that that the king, you should not cultivate any negative non virtuous actions and, yeah, any any non virtuous actions on on behalf of the this the the ministers, the guests, your your wife, your son, fellow citizens, or your yeah. Fellow citizens, so forth. Because because you will be the only one who who will undergoes through the suffering of all those non virtuous actions, and none of them will go. So it is you who under will face the suffering in future that therefore should not cultivate any kind of non-virtuous actions just because of those people. So and also the great master Ārya Asaṇga has stated that the Buddhas said all the unbearable sufferings of bad migrations are the result of one’s negative actions, which was stated by the Buddhas.
So and not committing any kind of committing or cultivating any non virtuous actions even at the cost of life is the the action of the bodhisattvas or it’s deed of the bodhisattvas. This is what the great master Ārya Asaṇga stated. So sufferings like like lower in the lower realms, one have in the hell have the suffering of hot and cold, hungry ghosts have the suffering of hungers, and the animals have confusion, and so forth. So all these are the results of non-virtuous actions which are stated by the Buddhas. So in in all the time, one should think that one one should think that one shouldn’t be cultivating any kind of non any not any non virtuous actions because up till now, without understanding or through yeah.
Without knowingly, zero, and one cultivates one has cultivated numbers of non virtuous actions through through confusion or ignorance, attachment, and hatred. And now I have realized that that that I want that I should not I should not I should not cultivate non virtuous actions because because since from the day I was born or has not stopped for a moment or without distraction, without changing. So the each and every moment from the date of birth, one goes through changes momentarily every second. And and then later on and and, yeah, one goes through the distractions or changes in one older and older, and one can there is no way that one can add or prolong one’s lifespan. So therefore, because one dies not stays even for a moment, stays the same even for a moment moment and goes through distractions every second and gradually reach the time that one dies.
So therefore therefore, I should one should realize or I or one should not cultivate any sorts of non virtuous actions. And and the Buddha’s in his the sūtra the ancient sutras has said has stated that the the the cyclic existence is like the autumn clouds never stays same, always moves and changes. And the birth and the death of the sentient beings is like watching a play. You know? In the play, people dancing changes in new costume.
Every second, it change and so forth. So birth and the death of the sentient beings are like watching a play. And the lives life the life of the sentient beings is like the lightning in the sky. And it and it quickly passes or like it travels. It quickly travels very fast or quickly travels like the the the stone thrown from the cliff.
No. This one? No. So in Tibetan, do you use it? Yeah.
So and also Sūtra stated that even even a great man and the very strong, brave man who has like a legendary man. You know? And and my feel I’m strong, brave, great fighter, so forth. I can’t do this. I, you know, can’t be defeated and so forth.
But whatever strong or great person he or she may be, but at the end, can’t have any excuses and will get in the hands of Lord of Death. We’ll stop here today. Any do you have questions? I’m gonna take, a few questions if you have. Pardon?
Yeah. Okay. Yep. Right. Because it depends on the on one’s projecting karma.
So we are the result of projected in this life by our projecting karma, and it entirely depends on the the strength or the power of that projecting karma. If you have cultivated the if you have a projecting karma that leads you to have for one month, You will stay for a month. And if you have a projecting karma that leads you it will last for a hundred years, and you will stay for a hundred years. So therefore, it’s entirely depends on one’s causes. So if one have cultivated in previous life to have a karma to stay for hundred years, one will stay hundred years.
This is how that one can add on one’s life. Yeah. This one. But but but we do, like, receive the long life initiations or or long life and so forth. But those the practices doesn’t mean that one’s adding or prolonging one’s life or adding one’s life span.
What it does is because if one has one has a karma to live for fifty years, one has already cultivated that karma, But between those last fifty years life span, what certain obstacles comes through like being in a war, get shot, get stabbed, killed, so ill, so forth. That could happen. So one may, like, one stay for forty years and started to die on and can’t stay and missing those ten years. So receiving all those empowerments, the long life empowerments, long life pujas, so forth is to get rid of the the obstacles and making sure that one will stay for fifty years as one’s karma. No.
So yeah. And through if one is able to do a pure practices and receive, you know, the long life initiations and and long life pujas and and cultivate and all this lead to lead the proper practices, one may be able to stay or have a lifespan according to one’s karma. Say, for example, was to live for fifty years. But if one fails to have a proper practice, one one can still fail to live for fifty years, may die before that. That can be possible.
Yeah. What what what exactly was your question? Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
I’m right. Please. Finish. Yeah. Yeah.
It’s a dedication prayer.