Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A person pushing through a World Cup soccer crowd with a serious wound — staying alert, protecting the injury at every step — is Geshe Pema Tsering’s central image in this 36-minute Bodhisattva Deeds session for why guarding the mind demands even greater care than protecting a physical body. He builds the doctrinal foundation first: all virtuous qualities arise through training the mind, and while the six virtues can be practiced without bodhicitta, they cannot be perfected without it. Daily sadhana without mind-protection is hollow; consistent mindfulness through body, speech, and mind makes even harsh or tempting environments manageable. Bodhicitta, he stresses, is the one quality practitioners must never lose, even at the cost of material conditions or accumulated merit. The session closes with Q&A on patience as the defeat of anger, the necessity of wisdom realizing emptiness for liberation, and individual differences in morning meditation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 35 BD 2002 06 06.mp3
UUID: b8f49ffc-6dd6-478f-a50c-43c8f3764f4c
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Deeds (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-06-06
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 35.7 minutes
Words: ~2,295
So therefore, the entire the the attainment of virtuous qualities comes through mind or from mind. And and, yeah, bodhicitta is cultivated through one’s through one’s mind as well as perfection of six perfections and attaining completing completion of the so called the ten grounds and five paths are also true are perfected or attained through one’s mind, but through training one’s mind as well even for this the the happiness in the next life or so called the higher rebirth in the next life is also comes through protecting one’s mind. Now here is Okay. So there is two ways of saying the perfection yeah. The yep.
The perfection of generosity and so forth seeks, which is perfection generosity yeah. Ethical discipline, so forth, seeks perfection. And there’s a so called generosity and so forth. So there’s a difference of placing the perfection in the front. One is one are with the perfection and one is without, and and the six are without the perfection.
So the without perfection one can be completed or can be practiced or completed through practicing yeah, without bodhicitta. But in order to perfect the six perfection, one has or one should perform the practice or those practice should be uphold by the the bodhicitta or altruistic intention. Without bodhicitta, one will not perfect the six perfections.
But but but but without bodhis yeah. Repeating here. Without bodhicitta, one can attain the the generosity and so forth. Six generosity, ethical discipline, effort, and so yep. So, therefore, though it is very important for one to protect one’s mind, and the way of protecting one’s mind has been explained in the next five verses, the way we stopped last one.
So therefore, by saying all the the reasons, now one should one should try to protect one’s mind. And the the the the practice of protecting one’s mind is the best practice. Otherwise, without protecting one’s mind, then the the practices of, you know, doing one’s sadhana daily commitments and so forth are useless. So therefore, the one should, yep, one should not let the yeah. That’s right.
So out of the practice, the practice of practicing one’s mind is the the the ultimate practice one can do. And without protecting those, then then and without protecting, then there is not much use of having lots of commitments and so forth. And if one protects the one’s mind all the time, then then then then then the the practices like lots of commitment is not necessary. So therefore, therefore, therefore, should always guide one’s mind and be very careful with where one’s mind is directing, either towards the positive or a or a non virtuous actions. For example, one should yeah.
There is a bit of a correction here, but I don’t think it’s necessary in English because the the author here is explaining about the in the actual root text, the the particular one particular verse has had a couple of very ancient dialect. And for that particular because it’s a Tibetan word. And he’s saying that the particular verse has seen different actual explanation by the different people, But what it is, it is depends on you to examine. That’s what I said, but it’s already written in English translation. So so they’re talking about the the Tibetan spelling here.
Anyway, so and and at the end, the author says, the verse is speaking, then then once or what it means, the the verse, is one should be very careful and, yeah, and be, like, be be very careful like like a person who has a huge wound in in his or her body somewhere, either in the limbs and so forth, and and it happens to be in a very rush hour, Lots of crowded and so forth. And Geshe-la here says, this is World Cup soccer, and it’s restless. People just run here and there. So and then you happen. The person happened to be in the crowd.
So the person will be very careful with his or her wound in making sure nobody touch on this side and this side. So be very mindful. So likewise, always guard one’s mind like that person and then making sure if yeah. If if if true concentration, if if one finds one mind one’s mind is after after the non virtuous, then protect it, stop it, and not let go it after the non virtuous. And then if it’s in the positive actions or positive thought, then try to maintain it as long as one can.
So through this way, one protects the mind. Yeah. So if the person is very careful to protect the wound and and be, yeah, very mindful and and and protecting and not getting worse or harm to this wound, and in reality, we we don’t really need to pay attention for that. It’s rather better to be very mindful towards one’s mind, protect it even more than the wound because the wound is just a wound. And and if it’s been touched or scratched, it it will harm a little bit, not much, and and also be harmed for a little while or temporarily harmed.
Whereas if one does not protect one’s Protect the mind then and let it go after those non virtuous actions like three poisons, the the the attachment, desire attachment, or hatred and anger. Hold on. Yeah. Anger. And as a result of this, one will take rebirth in the hell realms and goes through huge suffering for all the time.
And those sufferings are are are are much more worse than just getting a scratch on one’s wound. It that’s and and and and, yeah, the sufferings in hell realms are like and sometimes just being you are being squeezed between two mountains in a moving, moving, moving. And So by thinking all the disadvantages of all the sufferings in lower rebirths, and by seeing this and see the see the disadvantage, and then and protect one’s mind, making sure that one will not be born in those places.
So therefore and so if one protects once the the the the mind or through not by by watching the three doors, body, speech, and mind, by being very mindful as well as applying very cautious or conscientious, then if one does all this, then no matter where one stays, no matter how yeah. Yeah. How many no matter No matter how we how one stays in a rough area, very violent area, for example, one one will not be harmed if one protects all the the three doors protect one’s mind and guide it through the three doors, then how how rough the place it is, but one one will not be harmed as well as where even even if one lives in the the the in the place where, yeah, where all the objects of attractions or the the desire or attachments are there. Like, if it’s a male crowd yeah. Being, you know, crowded, you know, the beautiful ladies or girls in the place or it’s a man.
Yeah. And if it’s a girl with a man, no matter how many attractions are there, if your mind has been been protected through three doors and and leading preserving all those the so, all the individual liberation vows, then one will not one will be well protected and don’t don’t need to be worried for the external attractions. It. Got it. It.
But Geshe-la says he’s not saying easy things here. And the the what yeah. Therefore, you know, it’s important for one to protect one’s mind and uphold the bodhicitta. And and it doesn’t matter if one loses all this the the conditions or facilities to sustain one’s life, like like like the food and shelter as well as, like or talking about frustrations for the, yeah, people, hierarchies. And and, yeah, being on a throne as well as, you know, yep, receiving gifts and and invitations for practices and so forth.
If one loses all this, doesn’t matter. Don’t worry. As well as even if one lose all the virtuous one is cultivated for the the individual liberation, don’t worry. If they lose it, let let go of those. But in all the time, one should be very careful that one that very careful not to lose the altruistic intention or a bodhicitta.
That is very important. That should be the one to protect. And if one by protecting those, if one loses others, like, which we have mentioned, doesn’t matter at all. And now to cover the second division, so we’ve lost the track, don’t we? Anyway, it’s it’s just the second yeah.
Probably sounds like the one of the main main divisions here. Second, now, the constituents as to how to protect the mind. And and also now and for the yeah, the second, the method of protecting the mind through being mindful. So it has, like, d the brief explanation and the the details explanation. So the the brief explanation was set for explained in the one the next single verse.
So we lost track, didn’t we? Has anybody been following when we said nine verses and ten verses? Twenty three. Yeah. Exactly.
You are the one. And and yeah. So, yeah, it was explained in verse twenty three, which is right. Yeah. Oh, you who wish to guard your your mind.
So saying that that the meaning of those is that one should be very mindful and always be be be alert that check one’s the actions of the three doors, body, speech, and mind, and examine acknowledge it through the mental alertness where they are directing to the positive or or sort of virtuous or non virtuous action and and and be and applying the great effort and and and being very yeah. Applying the true mental alertness, making sure they want the the minds are are the three doors, body, speech, and mind are into into the virtuous actions and and and and cultivate no matter I mean, how hard it is to protect the three the actions of the three doors. So I will guide them and even at the cost of one my life or one’s life. And this is how the I, the great I I, the Śāntideva, Zhiwa Lha in Tibetan, the Śāntideva has protected and and requesting here be by holding his two holding his hands together and and and and requesting us to to to guide the the the yep, the actions of the three doors. And and here comes the second subdivision of that one division, which is the detailed explanation, which will start next week.
Take a couple of questions. Did you understand? Yes. Yep. If you defeat the the anger sorry for that.
And the internal anger. By defeating anger, means then you will never be angry again at all, by defeating or destroying that anger, then then the external harms or enemies be be automatically defeated, that one will not be harmed at all times. Is that it? Best question. It is done through not getting angry.
Yeah. Being patient and, for example, like, enemy that if the person provokes you once or or hits you once and be patient, twice patient, you know, gradually that because you’re not responding for it and being patient is that the person will automatically stop later on who won’t retaliate or nothing’s going to happen. You know? No. No.
It is like, you know, ourselves, for example, you know, trying to harm somebody, and you try it once, and you and you think you harmed the person, but person didn’t change it or neglect what you your harm. Do it second time’s harm. And later on, you just give up, you know, feel instead, feel embarrassed that you caused something, but it’s not doing bad back to you. So this is how it goes in the same direction, you know, other direction. I think we said that to attain nirvana or mere liberation, which is free from cyclic existence, and the the buddhahood or enlightenment, enlightened state. Without wisdom realizing emptiness, one will not attain those.
So how what Geshe-la meant was so one should try by one should try to generate the wisdom realizing emptiness through protecting one’s mind. Right? Sorry about that. When I’m looking at trying to guide my mind and I find myself very often sleeping during the morning meditation. It’s yep.
It depends on persons, the so called elements, The the the the yeah. Yeah. The meeting of the external and internal elements. For example, like, some people, they say that their practice and so forth are better at the nighttime and evening than the morning. And some says in the morning is better than the evening.
So it it depends on the combination of personal internal elements and external elements. And we have you know, when we were young in monastery, and in the morning, we memorized the text. Some students said it is it is better for them not to have a cup of tea to go through and to memorize, yeah, to memorize the text. And one can it’s easier for them to memorize the text and and, yeah, it comes very easily and then had a cup of tea. And some said, no.
Without a cup of tea in the morning, it’s not staying in. You know? I can’t remember. So it depends on the individual. I’m feeling this.
No. So what about you? Latte. Okey dokey. I said, uh-uh.