Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Pema Tsering uses a verse from the Guru Puja — “restrain our mindstreams with pure bodhisattva vows” — as the anchor for this 46-minute session, unpacking why every Buddha of past, present, and future has had to travel this single path. A substantial portion demystifies what “blessing” actually means: not supernatural conferral, but the gradual mind-transformation that results from genuinely applying a teacher’s instructions — a lineage of transmission traceable back to the Buddha himself. He then introduces the six perfections (generosity, ethics, patience, diligence, concentration, and wisdom) as the practical curriculum of bodhisattva training, and issues a pointed warning: taking the aspirational bodhisattva vow without acting on it is worse than never having taken it. A brief closing exchange covers equanimity and Tonglen as entry points for extending concern beyond oneself to all beings.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 BV 2005 02 13.mp3
UUID: 16e0f46a-f95a-40c9-b699-cf603fc46459
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva vows (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-02-13
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.7 minutes
Words: ~3,947
So please, before listening to the teachings, develop the most appropriate motivation, which is that by listening to descriptions of the six perfections, that will develop the ability to practice these six perfections. By practicing the six perfections in order to benefit all sentient beings, will become fully enlightened Buddhas and then be of utmost benefit to all sentient beings. So if you develop this motivation for listening to the teachings, then that will be good. Last week we went through the eighteen sections of the bodhisattvas the engaged bodhisattvas vows. There’s also said to be forty six pieces of advice that come along with these eighteen parts to the engaged bodhisattva vows.
There are many different pieces of advice in there that we can look at if we want Many other texts describe these forty six different pieces of advice that help Bodhisattvas to become Buddhas. Although they are described in detail in other places, we don’t need to go into those in complete detail because their essence can be distilled down to the six perfections that this text begins to go through from this section onwards. In general, should say that the three main practices of a Bodhisattva are to uphold the ethics of the Bodhisattva vows, to practice or to behave ethically in accordance with the Dharma, and the third thing is to work for the benefit of all sentient beings. So there are three different parts: bodhisattva vows themselves, the practice of virtue, and the idea of working for the benefit of others. These are the three things that a bodhisattva should focus on most specifically.
Keeping all this in mind, keeping the idea of the eighteen parts of the Bodhisattva vow, the pieces of advice that a Bodhisattva needs to take into account, and these three main things: the practice of ethics, the practice of virtue, and the practice of benefitting others. Should keep these in mind when we get to the next verse of the Guru Puja, which says: seek your blessings that we may eagerly endeavor to put into practice the three Mahāyāna moral codes and restrain our mindstreams with pure bodhisattva vows. This is a single path journey by all victorious ones of the three times. So we should be concentrating on the ideas of what a bodhisattva does, and these are three main principles of a bodhisattva’s activities when we say this first. Mhmm.
Okay. So looking at this verse in more detail. Right. So looking at this verse in more detail, it doesn’t looking at it in more detail, the way that they’ve translated it into English isn’t the same order. Anyway, the last line is the first line in Tibetan.
It says, The single path journey by all the victorious ones is the three times. Now, victorious one is another way for saying a Buddha. And when it says a single path, it means that there is no other way of attaining Buddhahood. You can’t attain Buddhahood without adopting the bodhisattva vow, without working for others instead of just focusing on ourselves. So three times that refers to the Buddhas of the past, Buddhas of the present, and the people who will become Buddhas in the future.
Anyone who wants to become a Buddha or has become a Buddha, and there are many beings who have, then they have had to adopt the practices of a bodhisattva. They have had to take on this vow to work for other beings before themselves and put in effort to make this come about. By doing this, they follow the path to Buddhahood. Way that they do this is by, first of all, as it says in this verse, restrain our mindstreams with pure attva vows. So that is, if you are maintaining the vows of a bodhisattva, the essence of which is to benefit others, to work for the benefit of others, is going to stop us from letting our mind out of control.
If we’re focusing on benefiting others, if we are putting in effort to make that our main motivation, then we’re not going to get caught up in neurotic thoughts, passions, and performing actions that are not beneficial to ourselves or others. Then it says to put into practice the three Mahāyāna moral codes, so in order to bind the mind, in order to not bind us in suppress, but bind us in control, in order to be able to control our own minds, then we need to put into practice these three different types of ethics that we were just talking about before: the ethic of keeping the vows, the ethic of practicing virtue, and the ethic of working for others. So if we put in a lot of effort to develop these three different types of ethics, then we are going to become Buddhas. That’s the way that the path to Buddhahood works. Problem being that it’s very difficult for us to do that at the moment.
That isn’t the way we work. We don’t work by focusing on others. The motivation for most of our actions is to benefit ourselves. We don’t have this pure intention to benefit others spontaneously present in our mind stream. We tend to have a motivation to benefit ourselves spontaneously present our monitoring.
So we need to ask for a way to transform that. The practice that is talking about in this specific guru yoga, our puja, is that you are asking for blessings of the teacher, the the hang on one second. Okay. So the the idea of this practice then is that we are So the idea of this practice, Guru Puja, in this session is that we’re going through the stages of the path to enlightenment. And in every stage of the path to enlightenment, we think about what it is that we need to achieve in that stage of the path.
And then we’re visualizing in front of us the Guru. Now the Guru in this instance is the Guru, the Lama or the Teacher. Now the Guru, the Lama, or the Teacher in this instance is the combination of the essential qualities of the person who teaches, His Holiness the Buddha Śākyamūni, and Lama Tsongkhapa being in unison. So that means that we are focusing on the essential and enlightening quality of these beings and seeing them as being inseparable. In the fact that they all lead us to Buddhahood, they are inseparable.
We focus on being led to Buddhahood by these beings, by the Buddha, Lama Tsongkhapa, our teachers. We see that as the focus for our meditation. Because we haven’t developed this stage in our practice, we see that these teachers are blessing our mind stream so that we develop this understanding. This idea of blessing in the Buddhist context that means transforming our mind. To be blessed is to have your mind transformed.
It means that we’re visualizing the enlightening capacity of these beings coming into our mind stream and transforming our mind stream, and not only our mind stream, but the mind streams of all other sentient beings. So, to be blessed is to be transformed. So, we imagine the enlightening capacity of the Buddha, Lama Tsongkhapa, and the Teacher descending into our mind in the form of these different colored lights. So it’s a visualization designed to bring about a transformation. We visualize the lights coming in into our mind streams and the mind streams of other sentient beings, and getting rid of anything that may be an obstacle to them developing this understanding.
Getting rid of anything that may impede their development of bodhicitta and their ability to hold the ethics of a bodhisattva. We visualize these five colored lights coming from the teachers, and represents their capacity to transform our understanding and get rid of that which isn’t going to help us, and encourage that which is going to help us. So we visualise this going on while we’re saying this verse. Specifically in relation to this verse, we’re thinking about having our mind transformed so that we can have the ability to abide in the ethics of a bodhisattva. So this this idea of being blessed by the teachers isn’t a process of some some some absolute power that comes along and transforms our mind in an instant.
The process of having our mind stream blessed is having our mind stream transformed by the knowledge of the path. This comes about because the Buddha taught the path to enlightenment, and the other teachers that have followed the Buddha’s example took on these teachings, developed understanding of these teachings, contemplated them, put them into practice, and developed realizations from them. In this process, they transformed the way they looked at things, transformed the way that their minds worked, and they ceased to be beings who created the causes for suffering and became beings who created the causes for happiness and for the benefit of others. At the moment, our mind streams aren’t quite right. We grasp at things as being permanent we grasp at things as being inherently existent.
We don’t have this spontaneous wish to benefit others we tend to have a spontaneous wish to benefit ourselves. In order to turn a mind like ours into a mind like a Buddha’s, we need to undergo a process of transformation. This process of transformation is brought to us or comes to us via the Buddha, via the teachers, via the beings who have passed on this tradition. Through their explanations, through their showing us the path in many different ways, we are able to transform our mind. This is a process of blessing.
This is a process of what is being talked about in this prayer, the transformation of the mind. Through the way being shown to us by the Buddha and the teachers, teachings, we are able to transform our mind from that which isn’t going to help us into what is going to help us. This process of benefiting us in this way, this process of transforming us in this way is called blessings. By focusing on what the Buddha taught, by developing understandings of it, by putting that into practice, our minds are transformed. This, then, is the Buddha’s blessing.
It’s not as if they can go, I bless you, and we’re fixed. We need to actually take on board what they’ve said and then transform our mind, and then this way we receive the blessing. When we are visualizing in this way, we have a symbolic representation of this process. We’re visualizing a symbolic representation of this process of transformation through blessing. The reason then that they explained that the blessings of the teacher are said to be the same as the blessings of the Buddha is that the blessings of the teacher come from the Buddha.
The Buddha passed down this process of transformation to his students and then to their students and down to the people that teach us today. If there were no Buddha’s teachings, if there were no Buddha’s Dharma, we wouldn’t be receiving any of these teachings. So in this way, the blessings of the Buddha and the blessings of the Lama are said, we visualize them as being inseparable, because we’re talking about a lineage that has been passed down from the Buddha. And if there was no Buddha, there would be no teachings. The Buddha is said to be the source of all of the teachings that we receive.
We visualize the teachings inseparable from the Buddha as being the same being in order to focus on the idea that it’s the Dharma that’s transforming us, the Dharma that’s passed down from teacher to teacher. So the teachers passed down to us are the Buddha’s teachings, which was passed down to them, and so on. So in order to focus on that transmission, on the continuation of the Buddha’s teachings, then we focus on the teacher as being the same as the Buddha. But we don’t get blessings from teachers by saying, Oh, they’re so sweet, or by focusing on majestic qualities or something. You get teachers’ blessings by I guess you’ll say it’s not like they can pass over a sweet to you when you eat it, and that’s it.
Or it’s not like you don’t get the teacher’s blessings by focusing on how good looking they are, or focusing on how majestic or any of those superficial qualities. You get the teacher’s blessings by taking on what they’re saying and using it to transform your mind. It’s not a matter of just sitting there thinking how nice these people are or how much you like them or how sweet they are or whatever it’s a matter of actually putting into practice what they say by using what they say to transform your mind. So that’s the teacher’s blessings, that’s the Buddha’s blessings. It’s not a sweet feeling or a they’re so impressive feeling it’s actually transforming your mind by their teachings.
So the importance of this bodhisattva vow, the importance of taking on a vow to work for the benefit of others and not just to work for the benefit of self, is fundamental to the Mahāyāna Buddhist path. No matter what practices of the sutras and tantras that you may engage in, if they are not based on the Bodhisattva’s vow, they don’t lead to Buddhahood. All the Buddhas of the past, all the Buddhas of the present and the Buddhas of the future will attain that state by taking on the bodhisattva vow. It’s not something that you can get around. All of the practices that lead to Buddhahood are based on it.
They’re based on this idea of focusing on others, working for the benefit of all sentient beings and not just for the benefit of self. So the the these kind of practices, this idea of turning our minds around so that they focus on other sentient beings and not ourselves, is very difficult. It’s very difficult to transform very selfish minds into selfless minds. Because of this reason, are a lot of different explanations, and it takes a lot of hard work to become a Buddha. If it didn’t take a lot of hard work, then everybody would be able to do it instantly.
But this isn’t the case. We need to have a very thorough process of transformation in order to bring about Buddhahood. Because it takes a very thorough transformation of the mind, we need to understand what we are doing properly. This means looking extensively at the teachings of the Buddha, developing understanding of them through listening to teachings, studying the Buddha s teachings, and then being able to put them into practice through both contemplation and meditation. But the upside is that if we do do this, if we do train in this way, if we do contemplate in this way, if we do meditate in this way, then you do become a Buddha.
Following the path of the Buddhas of the past, you can become a Buddha. And so in brief, these practices are described as being the practices of the vows, because the practice of the bodhisattva vows I was wondering where I could find where he’s up to. Sorry, I just realized I’m going, Where is he up to? I’m like, Geshe-la, where are we up to! I was like, I can understand what Geshe was saying, but it doesn’t fit with anything that’s on my piece of paper, and it was on the other side!
Anyway, the vows are focused on, the Bodhisattva Vow is focused on so heavily, because it represents the essence of all of these teachings. All of the things that you need to do to become a Buddha are condensed into the Bodhisattva vows. The Bodhisattva vows are the essence of what it is that you need to do to become a Buddha. If you are able to train in them, if you are able to focus on them, then that enables you to progress along the path to becoming a Buddha without getting sidetracked. So that was the description of how to take the bodhisattva vows and why the Bodhisattva vows are important, and the process that we go through through aspiration and engagement of Bodhisattva vows.
The next section of this text relates to how to put into practice the training of a Bodhisattva, how to train as a Bodhisattva. Within this section there are again two sections, the first of which is the actual way to train as a Bodhisattva, and then in particular the second section is in particular the view of the Mādhyamika, the view of the vast view of the middle way that enables one to do those practices as perfection. Within the first section, that is the trainings of a Bodhisattva, there are six sections, and these are what are called the six perfections or the six paramitas. The six paramitas are the paramitas or the perfection of giving or generosity. The second one is the perfection or the paramita of ethics.
The third is the perfection or the paramita of patience. The fourth is the perfection of diligence. The fifth is the perfection of meditative concentration, and the sixth is the perfection of wisdom. The actions of the bodhisattva, the way of a bodhisattva, is said to be very important in order to attain Buddhahood, because activity or engaging in actions or undertaking practice is the actual path to attaining enlightenment. It’s not enough just to have the aspirational vows to become a Bodhisattva and not actually doing anything about it.
It’s not enough just to have this wish, I want to become a Bodhisattva to benefit all sentient beings, and then do anything about it. In fact, if you’ve taken the aspirational bodhisattva vow, that is, if you’ve taken on the vow to become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings, then if you don’t do anything about it, this is considered worse than not having taken the vow in the first place. So you can’t just have an idea or wish, I want to become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings and not do anything about it. There is a sure way to lose that wish and to develop confusion in your mind. If your focus for doing things or your motivation for doing something is to benefit all beings, and then you don’t do anything that benefits all beings, this becomes a source for developing instability of mind.
Sorry. And then as it says in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, it says, What have I vowed to do? Is talking about the Bodhisattva Vow. I have vowed to act in order to benefit all sentient beings, and that is all sentient beings without exception. So I need to work to remember or to not leave even one out.
So in order for us to take a Bodhisattva vow, we have to have this idea of sentient If we leave one sentient being out of that vow, if we have this idea of working for all sentient beings except for that person or that being, then we don’t actually take the Bodhisattva vow. But if we do take this vow, if we do take on this commitment to work for the benefit of all sentient beings, then we have to find ways to actually do that, to work for all beings’ benefit. The only way that we can really work for all beings’ benefit is through practicing the six perfections. Do you have a pen? Okay.
No pen. No pen. Come on. I’ll use my watch. Okay.
Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you very much. Alright. So if you have any questions, you can ask me.
Alright. And if you don’t have questions, you don’t have to ask them. I said, I don’t think they have questions, and they do have questions. No? No.
Didn’t bother me crossing your mouth. Yeah. Doing that it doesn’t it shouldn’t matter to. And he said, you know, and of course, it’s if it wasn’t so hard, we wouldn’t be here doing this. We’d always do it.
Right? We it it wouldn’t be easy. We would have sort of do all that. But we’re against the habits of development in so many different lifetimes. So it’s not something that’s going to happen.
It’s not something that we can go oh I’m going to keep like this. Have a new type of mind or a new type of way of thinking. It’s just going to end the habit of lifetime. We need to you know train yeah, like, oh, here we go. We’re back.
I don’t know what happened. I felt like I was like a my six year old was like, I get it. Okay. Okay. Is it alright now?
Yeah. Okay. Now I’ve gotta remember what he said. Right. So yeah.
Yes. Equanimity and Tonglen would help. Giving and taking meditation would help. But it’s important to start off that idea with equanimity, the idea of Tonglen with equanimity. In the same way that we experience suffering and don’t want to experience suffering, all sentient beings are experiencing suffering and don’t want to experience suffering.
They are trying to find ways to make themselves happy and not succeeding at it, in the same way that we have been trying to make ourselves happy forever and haven’t succeeded at it. Even though we make ourselves happy for a short time, we experience suffering again and again. Given that this is the situation, it would make more sense to work for more beings than just one. If we are working for ourselves, may get to a stage where we are always happy and we’ve gotten rid of all our neurosis for only one being. The benefit of helping one being as compared to the benefit of working for all beings is incomparable.
The more beings that we can think of that we’re working for, the greater our motivation is, the greater our capacity is, and the greater our the results of our endeavor will be. So this an equanimity. Being equanimous in wanting to be free from suffering and to experience happiness in the same way as we do. So we work from that basis. Then we should start to think about how all these beings who don’t want to experience suffering have been so kind to us in different ways.
One way we can think about this or approach that is that if we’ve had countless previous lifetimes and we’ve been born in many different situations, then that means that all beings at one stage or another have been our mother or our father or someone who has been very close to us and treated us very kindly. Even though we view them at the moment as an enemy or a stranger, at some stage in some past life they have been very kind to us, and we should try and remember that in the same way that our parents or people who are close to us in this lifetime are being kind to us. If we can’t do that, if our mind won’t let us concentrate on beings from other lifetimes that we’ve been close to, then another way of looking at kindness of beings or how kind everyone is to us is to look at the ways that they benefit us in this lifetime. So we may not think that many beings have helped us out in this lifetime, but we need to think