Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Pema Tsering opens this 47-minute session with a surprisingly detailed treatment of sleep as a Buddhist practice. Drawing on instructions to adopt the Buddha’s parinirvana posture — lying on the right side, right palm beneath the face — divide the night into thirds, and sleep only four hours, he explains how going to bed with bodhicitta or deity-yoga meditation transforms an ordinary night into accumulated merit, since sleep, classified as a secondary affliction, takes on the colour of whatever motivation precedes it. He then turns to the fourth subdivision of the Bodhisattva Deeds text: the boundless scope of bodhisattva activity, daily commitments such as the six-session practice and the 35-Buddha confession, and encouragement to study Śāntideva’s Compendium of All Practice alongside other Mahāyāna sutras. The session ends with a direct challenge: mere understanding is worthless unless put into practice — like a patient who reads the prescription but never takes the medicine.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 45 BD 2002 07 25.mp3
UUID: 8d90af13-3bde-4c7a-a1b2-855327a17436
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Deeds (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-07-25
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.8 minutes
Words: ~2,827
Right. The the purpose of taking all these actions, like pay respect and prostrations, and showing the the person with a huge respect with the using one’s hands, all hands softly and very slow, gently, is because because if one do not do in that way, what happens is the fault is there might be danger of not controlling or being conscious about one’s the the any actions of the body, speech, and mind because it’s so quick, one’s body actions. Yep. Not guiding one’s body, speech, and mind, and also become a disrespect danger of becoming a disrespect for others.
Yeah. And and when one in sleep when one sleep should should sleep in a proper gesture or position like the way the Lord Buddha Śākyamūni showed during the final deed, the the deed of entering parinirvana. And and and out of so when one sleeps, should divide the evening or a night into three groups. So it’s like like twelve hours one night, and divided that into three and should sleep only one third of the night, which means that becomes four hours and sleep only four hours. And after that, just get up and do the meditation and so forth.
So when one go to sleep, should be should lay one’s body in the lion posture of lord Buddha Śākyamūni’s the final deed, the entering parinirvana that one’s right side of the the direction could be anyway according to one’s choice. And and when one sleep There has lie the right side of the body on the on the on the bed and placing the right hand or a palm under one’s head or face and leaving the hand left hand, yeah, touching the left thigh. And then then and when one goes to sleep, one should should should always, yeah, to develop a proper motivation that which is very important that because and that one just before one go to sleep, just recall the the the the actions one have performed in this particular day and thinking and rejoice for those the positive actions what one have done and and and rejoice that and then dedicate all the virtues or a merit one have gained today for the betterment of entire beings. And and and and and go to sleep with a good motivation by taking refuge or or bodhicitta. And and, yeah, bodhicitta, developing bodhicitta.
Or if the person is doing a tantric practitioner or does meditation on the the deity yoga, then go to sleep with the the the the meditation on deity yoga. And by doing this and going to sleep with such motivation motivation that the entire sleep will become a a a positive sleep or a positive action. And and, yep, The setting, checking one’s mind and going to sleep with a good motivation is very important. And it is an easy practice with huge benefit, and one should always do it because sleep is called one of the secondary disturbing emotions — among the other types of disturbing emotions, sleep is called a secondary affliction, which means sleep can be influenced very easily, which means if one goes to sleep with a negative thought, entire sleep will be under the negative.
And if it’s one goes to sleep with a positive thought, entire sleep will go by influenced by the positive actions or positive thought, and they the the time one spent in the sleep will become a positive action or a thought. And, likewise, if one simply sleep with a neutral mind or not thinking anything, then entire sleep will become a neutral sleep or action. So we should try to do yeah. Try to do yeah. To develop a good motivation just before one goes to sleep.
And it’s very important, especially, yeah, to setting up the motivation just before the sleep as well as rejoicing for for the positive actions of oneself and others. And these two, the practice are very easy practice. We say one can do this practice without any difficulty and can receive huge benefits out of those practices. And then also when in in the morning, the moment one awakes and should not wake with a negative thought or should not wake up unconsciously. So the moment one is awake should produce a good motivation by thinking that, well, I’m still alive.
I’m awake, and these are the good signs. And it’s very fortunate to be still alive that in the morning, and now I shall take, you know, take the refuge and develop a altruistic intention and and will will will do a positive action or yep. The Positive action and to, yeah, to benefit both self and others for this whole day. You should have a motive to develop a proper motivation to do a right thing on the particular day. Yeah.
You can always. You know? So it is very important to develop a strong and positive motivation. So to in in order to cultivate a very powerful huge merit or a powerful positive action, one from the very beginning, one should have a proper motivation. And during the actual practice, should should engage and involve in the actions happily.
You know? And and and at the end, with the conclusion, make the proper dedication and prayers. So by doing all this, having the the any actions which consist of this proper motivation, actual practice, and the conclusion of what which is dedication, then the action one performs become a very strong and powerful action. So he he concluded the third division, and now we reached the fourth The fourth sub sub fourth division or subdivision, which is the practice of benefiting others. Got it.
So Got it. And now in the earlier three divisions, the earlier three divisions were about benefiting with material gifts, giving teachings, and showing how to protect from disrespect. And now third, the fourth one is showing the the the practices of cultivating happiness in other ways, which means beside those earlier three divisions, and which has the actual explanation and the concluding of the chapter. Right.
The first one is explaining the actual meaning of that particular fourth division. Has been explained by the the one next one verse, which is seven. So the sūtra says that if one has to explain the activities or deeds of the bodhisattvas. Yeah. Says that the activities and the deeds of the Bodhisattvas are limitless.
If one try to do count or think of activities of the Bodhisattvas, they are limitless. It is very hard to perform at this stage for us. But what one needs to do here is one should, you know, always guide one’s mind and never be careless, and try to cultivate the bodhisattva deeds as much as one can, even though one can’t exactly perform all the activities of bodhisattvas because they are beyond our knowledge and beyond, you know, our knowledge and they are numberless, limitless. But should cultivate as much as one can by meditating on bodhicitta, cultivating renunciation, love and compassion. And also, in all the six in all the time, the six-session practice should be performed — three times in the day and three in the nighttime.
And should make praise for the Triple Gem. And then recite the confession sutras, which are the the the, yeah, purification practice. recite the purification or confession sūtra, which is the the practice of thirty five confession of thirty five Buddhas who recite the text and take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, generates the bodhicitta and should and repent or regret towards negative actions one had performed and and should confess all those, yep, confess all those negativities, then in all the time, being maintain very alert and in and with the great joy and and and enthusiastic effort should cultivate renunciation, bodhicitta and correct views. Yep. Yep.
And we yeah. And and and maintain and, yeah, listen to the teachings and maintain all the the the positive actions of, like, leading ethical disciplines of of of it could be the, yeah, one’s vows taking or or the ethical discipline of not committing ten non virtuous actions and doing one’s sadhana — daily commitments or practices. So you should develop altruistic intention like the bodhisattvas did and engage in the deeds of the bodhisattvas. The bodhisattvas are are perfected and and skilled in entire fields, says the the five skills of philosophies, which means says it is if it’s not not just study in the Buddhist philosophies, one should do in other philosophies, like like the like paintings, Yeah. Yep.
Medicines and so forth. And and because if any actions been so should perform those actions, train those fields with the with the motivation of altruistic intention, then any actions one performs uphold by the bodhicitta, then all those actions will become a cause towards enlightenment. So any actions performed with altruistic intentions will become very powerful actions, and one cultivates a huge amount of merit from those actions.
And those merits will become a cause for the attainment of enlightenment for the sake of entire sentient beings. And and in all the time, any action one do, one study or one meditate and so forth, any action one performs, one should do it for the sake of others, and one is studying because it’s for the others, for the the in order to help others. And and and and, yep, and with this motivation or with such intention, then one actions will become a very powerful actions, and those will become a cause to the attainment of enlightenment and should never have performed any actions, and that is for the individual purpose. And and when the actions and practice been done and any virtues one one have cultivated, a merit one cultivate from the practice should always make the dedication make the dedication praise at the end of the any practices, and those dedications should be for the attainment of enlightenment that enlightenment that is to help in order to help sentient beings. And yeah.
And in all the time that that in all the time, I want to maintain or the ones the gurus, the masters teachings. Teachings of the Buddhas, one’s vows, the bodhisattvas, the bodhicitta or bodhisattva vows. So should maintain those in within one all the time and should never let go of those even at the course of one’s life. Got it. Got it.
So and, also, should always read the act always read the text or read the advice of the bodhisattvas. But this particular text with the bodhisattvas the deeds of bodhisattvas as well as other teachings of the buddhas. Yeah. Buddhist the teachings or precepts and yeah. All these sutras of the of the Mahāyāna sutras.
So one should read all the text and try to to generate or perform the actions or deeds of the Buddhist So it is because in the the the Mahāyāna Sutras sutras in the Mahāyāna Sutras, they have explained the numbers the the widely you know, the the explanations of on the bodhisattva’s deeds are very widely explained. So, therefore, one should read, try to read the Mahāyāna Sutras and and and learn as much as one can to to develop the deeds of the Bodhisattvas first. Got it. And so, therefore, if one trains or cult trains in the cultivation of altruistic intention or bodhicitta from the very beginning, it is very it is very important. It’s good for one to read the Akshayamati sūtra because the Akshayamati sūtra — like this text on engaging in the bodhisattva deeds — has explained numbers of the Bodhisattva’s deeds or actions like six perfections and so forth. And likewise Oh, happy. And and and also the the content because the content because con compendium of all practice, the compendium of all practice has even greater explanation or wider even more intense, detailed explanation on the practice of the bodhisattva deeds. So yeah. You should read all these sutras to acknowledge and to study the Bodhisattva’s deeds.
Like the Akshayana sūtra as well as a compendium of all practice, which is also composed and written by the great master Śāntideva himself. And saying that if one is still if one still does not or cannot understand the vivid understanding on the Bodhisattva deeds, then should should try to should read the text called the compendium of all practice or compendium of knowledge, and it has more clearer explanation. There are lots of compendium of knowledge or practices. So say compendium of all practices should read it again and again. That is by the great master Śāntideva himself.
So there are other compendium of knowledge or for all practices composed by Ārya Asaṇga and also here is also mentioned Nāgārjuna’s compendium of practice or knowledge, mainly translated as a compendium of knowledge. Yeah. We should read the compendium of knowledge as well. It says actually, compendium of sūtra. So briefly speaking, then whatever text you read, all these texts explained earlier, numbers of the text we mentioned in the earlier, yep, sec session, that that whatever one one should always when one read, should do what the text says, which tells one to do, and what should be abandoned.
By doing so, then it will help one to to to produce and develop the deeds of the Bodhisattvas and will also protect one from the non virtuous actions that or which will forbid or protect one from doing the non virtuous actions. And in all the time, should should should try to engage in the practices or in the deeds of Bodhisattvas as much as one can. And now the the second division, which is the concluding the the chapter or, yeah, the chapter, which has been explained by the next two verse. That is, of course, next to hundred and eight and hundred and nine. So the concluding the chapter here.
So it’s been explained by the next two verse. And so the meaning is that that in all the time, one should maintain very alert, be mindful, very yeah. Being should should be be very mindful and being alert that and and through reading the text and in for, yeah, of one’s action that any actions you know, what what whether the actions to be can be done or suitable to do or not. As so basically speaking, then whatever text says want to do should try to do it, do those actions, and those who are not to be performed avoid those actions and and and and do the perform the actions with with with guiding one’s mind or or with the mindfulness and the mental alertness. And, yep, should should study and read all those texts.
And and just by me studying and reading the text is not enough that that it’s knowing what are what the practices are is not enough. Whatever one study and and and studied the text or understand the practice and bring all the understanding into practice through meditation or implements one’s knowledge, then it will help. It will become a very effective and useful. Otherwise, just for mere understanding saying, yep. This is it.
This is that, and not contemplating and not implementing the or one’s knowledge, then it won’t be helpful. So just by mere understanding on the teaching is not enough and won’t be effective or helpful unless one implements one’s teaching, the understanding of the teachings or the deeds of the bodhisattvas, it will become like this. For example, the the if the person is sick and then goes to the doctor and examine and and get the prescriptions and and understand what one’s disease is from the prescription or what doctor says. So just by reading the medicinal medicine text and so forth is not good enough to cure the disease. And and in order to cure one’s disease, one needs to to know the know the disease and get that medicine and consume the medicine, and that will help.
Otherwise, knowing one’s yeah. One knows what one’s suff disease is and then and what the treatment is, and one does not go through the treatment, then it won’t be helpful. So likewise, the understanding of the teaching is not good enough or won’t be effective unless one brings them implement or bring the understanding into the practice of meditation. So Geshe-la said that it is so true that just from mere understanding and knowing what the bodhisattva’s deeds are is not good enough or not very effective unless one practices it. It is like it is like and when we eat when we receive the medicine and eat it, and then you can see its effect — it’s very beneficial.