Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute session from his Bodhisattva Deeds series, Geshe Pema Tsering takes up aspiration as the root of all Dharma practice, citing two sutras to establish that results always reflect the quality of intention behind them. He traces karma’s logic through a sūtra parable of a king at death: karma alone follows like a shadow; possessions, relatives, and retinue are all left behind. A Q&A then probes whether ordinary happiness is itself suffering, and Geshe-la answers with the image of organisms thriving in a ditch — just as we see their misery while they feel none, Buddhas and Arhats look at our condition the same way. He closes by distinguishing genuine happiness, accessible only from the second moment of the path of seeing, from the refined but still-samsaric bliss that calm abiding and special insight can produce.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 66 BD 2002 09 05.mp3
UUID: f67f88bc-26cd-4625-8469-7a8b82ca55bb
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Deeds (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-09-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.0 minutes
Words: ~3,148
The fact that exists in in general and keep cultivating those and not and not working, and have not worked for others. By saying this, I regret for myself that I’ve never worked for others. So, yeah. Right. So great master has set forth that and up till now.
So in in the previous life that he has never had any practices, you know, have done any practice and and and and, yeah, haven’t developed any aspiration to practice positive action or the Dharma, to do practice Dharma in my previous life. And even at this stage, you know, I can’t can’t really develop a real aspiration to practice Dharma. Right? And and and and besides that, you know, yeah, proper aspiration to practice Dharma and instead, I’m still working and, yeah, liking happiness and cultivating the causes for the sufferings of cyclic existence. So so if one who is with the sharp who is clever or intelligent, then should develop aspiration to practice, should develop a huge aspiration to to to practice Dharma.
And it is important to have important to cultivate develop a huge aspiration to practice Dharma. Aspiration because lord Buddha it is because lord Buddha Śākyamūni has said had stated that the the aspiration is the root for all the happiness and and and the practice of Dharma or, yeah, positive actions. So therefore, the sūtra called the Sūtra Requested by Lodro Gyamtso has set forth that the aspiration is the root of all the Dharma or all the positive actions because positive actions like doing prostrations, reciting reciting prayers or memorizing texts, meditation, so forth. So whatever the practices one does, the root of those practices is aspiration.
And then the sūtra called called the Yeah. The the sūtra called the fields of Mañjuśrī. It said it thought that that yes. Just word to word here. The all the the the dharmas are conditioned, and and the aspiration is the root of all those all the dharmas.
And whatever aspiration, the results will be similar to it. So which means that all the all the dharmas and the phenomena, they come they are the root they’re born from the conditions, which is here the condition is aspiration. And so according to the aspiration so whatever the aspiration is, then one the result will be according to the aspiration because what it means if the aspiration is to achieve the the worthiness, happiness, and so forth, and that will make one to work or cultivate to attend those. And as if one has the aspiration to attain the happiness of liberation and Buddhahood, then one will work according to the cultivate positive actions so forth to attain. And yeah.
Cultivate positive actions and so forth. And the result of doing so will be Buddhahood. So speaking of this, then how so how how to cultivate the aspiration to perform a To to to cultivate to give rise to the phenomenas or results, then it is the aspiration or the the the conviction towards law of karma and and should know that that by seeing that the post the result of the positive actions will be a happiness and the negative actions will be the suffering. By knowing this and the individual results of the individual causes and by by having this conviction and the law of cause and if it’s a law of karma, then one can develop a a a more aspiration to perform a, yeah, individual actions. So and so should have should develop a conviction or faith in the law of karma, the cause and effect.
So how to develop the law of cause and effect then should think about the the the the nature, should think about one should think of the sufferings of the sentient beings and the physical sufferings and the mental sufferings as well as, you know, one has has has attachment towards the close ones, relatives, and and attachment towards one’s wealth and possessions and have suffering. One suffers also. So, yeah, suffering from being separated from those dear ones and one’s possessions, as well as suffering of meeting with unpleasant things, like unwanted sufferings. So those are the results of one’s actions — the results of the negative karmas. So therefore, one should recall the results of the negative actions — those unwanted sufferings.
And by seeing the sufferings of the negative action and should abandon all the causes for the sufferings, like negative actions, and and should have faith in in conviction in developing the the positive actions because the results of the positive actions will be happiness. So by cult by collecting positive actions, and in and due to this, as a result, one will have a good rebirth and happy and should and will have happiness in future life, as well as one will meet with a person who will encourage you towards the higher path or towards happiness. Alright.
So so to see the the results of the positive actions and the non virtuous actions. Yeah. And and and see those, you know, the sentient beings, you know, those who those who cultivate the negative action all the time. They do wish happiness, but they have no choice. The law of the karma is very strict.
And and because of their actions and the karma history, and wherever they take rebirth, those beings who have who cultivates negative action all the time. And wherever they take a rebirth, they will not be they they won’t be free from the sufferings. Yeah. And will have go through a number of sufferings like, you know, being tortured by the weapons or suffered by the different types of illnesses like chronic disease and so forth. So therefore, by knowing this, the the the positive the happiness, the pleasant results of the positive action and the the unpleasant result of the non virtuous actions.
So by seeing this, then one should have developed a huge aspiration to cultivate in the practices of taking and abandoning, which is taking or cultivating all the positive actions and giving up or abandoning the non virtuous actions. And so, therefore, the lord Buddha Śākyamūni in his sūtra called the instruction or advice to the king. And said for the that when king dies and travels, and when he he travels along by himself, and and he can’t take his possessions, his relatives, even his fellow citizens, not a single. And who just travels by himself and who will go with him. It is the karma which always sticks with him like the shadow of the body and never be separated with him and travels with him and and and will give the give rise to the results of the actions, the happiness of the positives and the negative and the sufferings of the non virtuous actions.
So should, yeah, should cultivate and and collect the positive actions as much as one can. And the more powerful positive actions with a huge effort and cultivate the the the the numbers of all powerful positive actions as much as like one can. And by collecting the very powerful positive actions, and as a result, one will have one will one one can take rebirth in the the the pure land and to okay. Pure land. And and and and the advantage of being rebirth in the pure land is there everything is just perfect.
And and very, you know, we’ll have all this, you know, the happiness that that one will have. One one yet to in terms of taking rebirth, one doesn’t need to go through the pains of being, you know, being in the mother’s womb, etcetera and etcetera. And so when when when one takes rebirth, they want just born in the lotus. And and and as for the and and will have beautiful figure or a body with nice smells and shouldn’t and and the all the the the foods one takes are not ordinary food like which we take and and and like because for example yeah. And then in terms of sound, not just the ordinary sound.
They have they they hear the beautiful sounds of the teachings of the the Lord Buddha Śākyamūni so called the the the the sixty melodious speeches of the Lord Buddha Śākyamūni and so forth. So the one has all this advantage and have this pleasant result if if one takes rebirth in the pure land. So therefore, you know, if one cultivates lots of positive actions, very powerful positive actions, and results will be even more pleasant that one can take rebirth in different realms like like the pure land. If one yep. In the Pure Land, so in terms of Pure Land, it is very vast that, you know, say they call like the one with the happiness.
If one take rebirth in that, one can yeah. And one will be in one can sit in the front of the Buddha Amitābha and can receive the teachings. And then it and they call it the Pure Land, the one is also the Pure Land as well, that one one one will be with the Dakinis and have all these numbers of teachings. As well as if one born in the land of called the Potala, which is not the Potala Palace in Lhasa, as Potala is Potala is the land of Avalokiteśvara. So if one is born in that Potala land, then one can have teachings from Ārya Tārā.
So by knowing this, and this recall the benefits of practicing or the benefits of cultivating the positive action and should and along with a huge effort should cultivate the positive action as much as one can. So next week, we swapped now. We jumped same page, but we jumped to the second, the part which is collecting the self-confidence that finishes all the results of the positive actions. And what we are skipping is we’re skipping the results of the non virtuous actions. And Geshe-la said that it’s not really pleasant and no one really wants to hear it.
Any questions? Please. Yeah. I had a question during the motivation because you talked about happiness and whether that’s whether we regard it as suffering or or happiness. Yeah.
And my question I have always regarded happiness as as not the suffering, but the suffering, but the change, the fact that the happiness won’t last as what is suffering. But, I guess, last seemed to indicate that the actual happiness was even suffering. Yeah. So which you Yes. Uh-huh.
Yeah. So there’s the happiness and then the and then the end of happiness. Geshe-la is sort of, like, guessing what you’re telling. Love it. Well, I have asked you a question already from the very beginning of the teaching that motivation part that you know?
And we’re saying that happiness is suffering all the time. And I have asked you a question, can you really agree with it or not? And nobody says anything. And and and because Geshe-la he himself think that that is not a suffering, it’s a happiness. But it says it in reality, in in in yeah.
In reality, it is they are suffering. Yeah. So what he’s saying is that the the world happiness. The happiness which we experiences. And and and so that so actually, all the happiness we experience, those they are suffering because they are in the nature of suffering.
But for us, we don’t understand. We can’t see the real nature of suffering, which is suffering. And I have explained demonstrated the example that it is like the little, you know, organisms in the ditch or what it’s called, you know. And and so and for them, they they they are not suffering at all. And because we we we understand, we can see they are suffering.
And but for them, they’re very happy. You know, they’re not suffering, you know. In a nice place and lots of food and etcetera and etcetera. But for us, we can see that they are suffering because not in a pleasant place and not eating some not really eating any pleasant at all. And and and and yeah.
So we we can see all this, but so life wise, you know, life yeah. Life lost little insects. We little organisms. We don’t see our own sufferings. And but when so when Buddhists and Buddhists so Buddhists and the Arhat beings look at us, it is like the way looking at that on those little organisms.
So so little creatures. So it is like that. So we we are really suffering, but for them, they can see, but we don’t see. Right. Yeah.
If we were to ask to stay in that hole along with those creatures and eat what they eat, do you think you are either that is the happiness or you are experiencing happiness? No. You never know, and we should try. Yes. Yes, in the past, has any of us if we have, how can we treat it?
We can treat that. We treat it in memory if we have. And, yes, in the past yep. We yeah.
There is no place in between. And, yeah, we can most likely say that we have never been born in the pure land because it is not that easy to take rebirth in a pure land. In order to take rebirth in a pure land, one one has to have a huge, you know, strong root foundation of the positive actions and have a very have made numbers of prayers. And because and yep. The to to take rebirth in the pure and we can say because if we have been born in the Pure Land in the past, we can yeah.
Ninety nine percent ninety nine point nine percent, you know, we can say that we won’t be here. And because because each and every Pure Land, there is a real Buddha, there are Buddhas, and one have opportunity, are fortunate to see the Buddhas face to face and and sit in front of the Buddhas and receive teachings. And and and by having all this opportunity, we we always go up, up, up, and probably around, you know, to the liberation or a buddhahood. And lastly, yeah.
And, yeah, so the yeah, the liberation sorry. The Pure Land is not not the place of the cyclic existence, you know, or in the sense out. No? The real happiness. Yep.
Yep. The the unenlightened sentient being can experience real happiness, but it has to be a supreme supreme being either of the part of the the who have reached the path of seeing and the path of either the lesser vehicle’s part or the Mahāyāna part, the part of no. It can path of accumulation, part of preparation, and path of seeing, you know, and path of meditation and no more learning. These are the five paths. So those five paths of the Hīnayāna, lesser what you call the Arhats and solitary realizers, and the Mahayanas.
So who when when they receive the path of seeing, then they are no more ordinary being. We call the supreme being, but they are not fully enlightened yet. So but they can but not just and it’s not just good enough to reach just the path of seeing. Call this the the the the second moment of the path of seeing, not the first moment. When one just attains the path of seeing, one can’t experience it yet.
Second of the path of seeing, then they experience the real happiness. But they are not yet fully enlightened beings. And but but the ordinary the those who are called the ordinary being and who are in the path below the path of seeing can’t experience the real happiness. And yeah. So the yeah.
But the ordinary being and as well as the path below the path of seeing, they don’t experience the real happiness yet. But but but they are they can experience a type of happiness which is hundred and thousand times better than the happiness which we experience that through the path, through the path, through the practices. And when they attain the the calm abiding and the the special insight, By attaining those two, then one can have the the mental and physical pliancy. And and but having attained that and so, you know, there is a happiness which is a hundred times better than ours. But they are still the happiness of cyclic existence — still suffering.
It’s very hard to account for, Yeah. Well so it is very difficult to understand. And and and and yet the law of the karma, the cause and effect is not something easy to understand. And and especially the ordinary person like us can really understand the real nature of the law of karma, cause and effect. But but and and and it has been stated, and the results of the positive actions and the negative actions.
And and and and this is how the lord Buddha Śākyamūni has set forth. And one should have faith and conviction is because in the law of karma, it’s that it’s just the Buddha has set forth and and the the teachings of the law of karma and I and and believe them, check them as as a true because because those are the speech of Buddha Śākyamūni or Lord Buddha. And Lord Buddha Śākyamūni is the one who never tells lie and and is a valid teacher so that and there is no wrong in taking the yep. Sorry. They believing in the and or have conviction in the law of cause and effect that that that at this for us, only a person we don’t understand.
And on the top of that, we have we have a thought. Is there any you know? Is is there really is law of cause and effect? You know? And and and as yeah.
There’s yeah. There is completely no existence of law of karma, which is very bad to have and should not develop that. That’s called wrong views then. And and and they also have a doubt whether is there or not, you know. So you should not develop a doubt as well.
Whether you can practice or not, it’s a different case. Right? It entirely depends on individual. But at least, you know, should not be, you know, have the wrong views and the doubts about, you know, that should should should have conviction and and the law of karma is fixed and it’s true that the Lord Buddha Śākyamūni set forth. And he is a valid teacher who never tells lie.
And but whether you can practice or not, it’s up to you. Yeah.