Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute talk, Geshe Pema Tsering works through the enthusiastic-effort chapter of Śāntideva’s Bodhisattva Way of Life, beginning with a precise definition: effort is not bodily exertion but a mental factor that voluntarily and happily engages in virtue — reluctant practice, like monastery children forced to memorize texts, yields far weaker results. He then examines three types of laziness, paying most attention to the first: attachment to rest and sleep. His antidote draws on impermanence — being lazy while the lord of death is always at your side is, he says, no different from a buffalo lying contentedly while the butcher sharpens his knife nearby. A Q&A period closes the session, covering contaminated versus uncontaminated positive actions and why direct realization of emptiness is the threshold between them.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 Guide 2002 08 22.mp3
UUID: f14cca38-fc85-4879-b218-1b6f5d8f646b
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-08-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.2 minutes
Words: ~2,713
Which is, yeah, of course, number one. So what it means is one should cultivate the enthusiasm or I keep having a word enthusiastic effort now. And it is because if one if one wishes the wishes the the enlightenment, then should cultivate the enthusiasm because enlightenment enlightenment or Buddhahood is entirely dependent on one’s effort. And because it is like, for example, it is like a butter lamp and the moving of the lamp is entirely depends on the wind or a breeze. If there is a wind or a breeze, it will move the flame off the lamp.
And likewise, with the enthusiastic effort then things will develop like the bodhicitta the bodhicitta will develop and then enlightenment will be attained and get closer and closer. And and and yep. So if one does not have the enthusiastic effort, then no matter how much sharp faculty or wisdom one has, the wisdom is of no use. There’s a saying in the Tibetan saying that without enthusiastic effort, wisdom is like a corpse, dead body. And and also in the Candrakīrti in his middle way, the the Madhyamaka text set forth that that the only the good qualities are so, yep, all the qualities comes from the enthusiastic effort.
And which means yep. So if you if one has the enthusiastic effort, then there is nothing is impossible that which can’t be attained or, yep, attained. So in order to complete the two yeah. It’s still from the Middle Way core, the Candrakīrti set forth. Yeah.
And middle way. The and also that, you know, to attain enlightenment too, one has to accomplish both the accumulations, which is accumulation of wisdom and the merit. And without having enthusiastic effort, the one can’t. So so the enthusiastic effort if enthusiastic effort will will will complete both accumulations of wisdom and merit. Right?
But now to the second division that explaining in details the mode of cultivating the enthusiastic effort has and it has three subdivisions, which is the the the definition or the the nature of the enthusiastic effort and into the individual ones. Yeah? Uh-huh. And and abandoning. The abandoning the opposite of the enthusiastic effort, which is laziness.
And the third one is cultivating the positive side or yep. Positive side of the enthusiastic effort. Yeah. So, like, positive side, which is wisdom and concentration. And now to the first subdivision, which is the definition of the effort, which is the effort is the the mental factor or a secondary mind, which is happy to cultivate which is happy for or happy to cultivate the positive actions.
So it’s all set at the mental continuum I’m sorry, mental factor which happily cultivate or goes after the positive actions. So we we we think, you know, all these hard works, you know, the the body, speech, the mind. Sorry. Body and the speech. You know, very hard work, you know, she thinks, you know, thinks it’s enthusiastic effort, but actually the enthusiastic these are the influence or actions of the enthusiastic effort.
The enthusiastic effort is the internal one, internal matter, which is it’s the it’s a mental factor, secondary mind. And that is very happy to involve or engage in the positive actions. So with that enthusiastic effort, it is happy to involve and that induces the actions to the body and the speech. It’s like wise we said in the that was sorry, the Tuesday class that the definition of the giving or generosity is the generosity is the mental factor as well which is happy, happy happy for giving. So, yeah, enthusiastic effort is, you know, it’s a mental factor as yeah.
A mental factor and that is very happily voluntarily without any influence or a force, know, voluntarily happy to engage in a positive action. And just by, you know, performing a positive action or cultivating, yeah, the merit or positive action doesn’t necessarily be an enthusiastic effort because, for example, like in monastery and little kids in the monastery, you know, they don’t want to sometimes, but they’re forced to. But teachers in a discipline, they recite, memorize the text, like, reluctantly. So that is and they are performing a positive action, but it’s not enthusiastic effort, not voluntarily. Yeah.
Right. Yep. So some people misunderstand when you say enthusiastic effort. It means it’s just the bodily actions. Know?
Right. Right. The reason Right. And it those actions have a different the greatness in their results in terms of the one which is voluntarily happily in a cultivate and one is reluctantly in a perform plan. As we said, little kid.
The result of those two are huge difference. Yep. And now to the second division, which is ex yep. Explaining the the the positive sorry. Opposite side of the enthusiastic effort, which said it’s the laziness.
And to explain that, it has two subdivisions, which is, you know, the recognizing the the laziness and its causes. Yeah. It’s yeah. Recognizing the laziness, its causes, and its results. And the and the second one is and applying explaining the how to abandon the the laziness through applying the antidotes.
And and that has And that has been explained in and like Texas, one word in three lines, This is seven lines. So I’ll just cut. But some good things. Twenty. It’s starting from the worst two from the second line.
You know? So it’s opposing factors are explained from that to the end of the third. Yeah. This one? And I explained to you the the the laziness.
It has three types of laziness. First was this laziness of yep. The laziness of laziness of not yep. The the the the mental, the both both the man the body and the mind to be in or not serviceable. And the second one is the laziness of attaching towards the bad actions or yeah being not performing positive ones and engaging in the negative sides.
And then the third one is laziness of of being pulling oneself back in the sense saying: Well, I can’t do that and such and such about cultivating positive actions and then just being being lazy and underestimating oneself that I’m sure I can’t do that, you know, etcetera. And the first one is the laziness of being the body and mind not be serviceable, which means it’s actually those type of laziness that one is so attached to to what’s this happiness by, you body bodily and mentally so relaxed and lie down and, like, in sleep and just attach it to very relaxing, you know, and and don’t not, you know, making use and not using body and the mind anyway. Just, you know, cool down. It’s yeah. That sort of type, the laziness.
Yeah. Yeah. This is a type of this is one type of laziness and which which is to be abandoned. But whereas for us, you know, we are we consider them as a happiness and wanted to achieve it or cultivate it. Now working so hard and then have enough funds to and save up, save up, save up, and one day I’ll retire and get relaxed.
And that’s we try to do that, achieve that. In reality, that’s one type of laziness. Don’t think of retiring. And, also, it’s the the craving towards the the the happiness or the pleasure of sleep, it’s laziness. So those are No.
No. So those are under the first the laziness, you know, the the, you know, attachment towards the pleasure of sleep or being relaxed, you know, not doing anything and even yeah. Think yeah. One not thinking about the sufferings of saṃsāra. And even if one thinks so, no.
But just don’t bother to, you know, overcome the sufferings. These are the laziness. Yeah. So, yep, these these are the demonstrations of the first of the three sorry, of the three types of laziness. The one is, you know, the the craving towards the happiness of being relaxed or not doing anything.
And the second one is being craving towards happiness of, you know, the sleep. And so and the the third one is happy yeah. The craving towards happiness of the cyclic existence and not recalling this, yep, sufferings of the cyclic existence. These are the three types of sorry, laziness. And now to the the second one, subdivisions.
First, yeah, which is how to cultivate the the the cultivate the antidotes to abandon the laziness and which has also the three yeah. Three Three divisions, Like, you know, there are three types of antidotes for the three types of laziness. And to to explain the first antidote, which is antidote towards the the first laziness, which is laziness towards, you know, being relaxed and so forth. And that has been explained in the yep. Explained in the next eleven verses starting from the number fourth, I guess.
Yeah. Three and a half. Four. Two three. Yep.
Till number fourteenth. And, yeah, so what it means is that, you know, that one should not be lazy and and and apply enthusiastic effort to to to cut, yeah, towards the positive actions because because it is it is very full or sad of one to be lazy and be still attached to it, the the pleasure of the sleeps and so forth. Now, by knowingly that knowingly knowingly that that they are the negative actions and not to perform so because and we like like, once once the the animal or or yeah. Yeah. The animal’s been caught by the hunters, it is hundred percent sure they will be slaughtered.
So likewise, after having received the rebirth and that is be sure that we that we have to die. And by knowing this, you know, and still being relaxed, sleeping, and attachment to the happiness is the crazy thing to do so. Therefore, by knowing this, you know, should not be lazy and see, you know, you have seen the people dying, your relatives, ancestors and so forth, and like them, we will one day have to go through it and have to go through the lot of the death. So therefore, by knowing this, it should not be attached towards the happiness of the happiness of the sleeps. And and and yeah.
It is not appropriate or not suitable. Not yeah. Not appropriate to be attached towards the the happiness of the sleeps. Yep. So and Oh, yeah.
Should be yeah. So should not Yeah. Should not be lazy and and attached towards the the pleasure of the sleep or laziness. And it is like, for example, by knowing that you that the the hunter or the, yeah, the murderer in front of you and killing some yeah. This killing the murderer is killing somebody.
Yeah. But that it is it is sure that you are going you are in a number second. But knowing it’s going to killing you and still, you know, just sleeping next to the tequila, you know, the serial killer. If you see it there, then it’s a crazy thing to do. It’s it is it is it is then doing such action is no more different than a buffalo, so he says.
The buffalo because because we are the the lord of the death is within us, always with us. It’s a matter of a time to get you. And it’s always there with you. And by knowing the lord of the dead is with you and still not, you know, cultivating applying it enthusiastic effort and cultivate the positive action and just relaxing and being sleep. And so yeah.
Relaxing and sleeping next to the lord of the dead is a crazy thing to do. It’s like a buffalo. If one do such, then it become like a buffalo. The reason why I said buffalo is because the buffalo is is so relaxed and the butcher is next to him or next to the buffalo and and, you know, sharpening his knives or, you know, knife. And the buffalo still remains calm and relaxed.
And then if the butcher fortunately gives a little something to eat, and they just, you know, be very get closer to the butcher and then happily eats it, but didn’t know it’s going to kill her. So likewise, so doing so, you know, by knowing that the Lord of the death is within us and always with us and and knowing that it is there and you’re still sleeping and being lazy is a very inappropriate and foolish to do. Yeah. And we’ll stop here. Yeah.
We’re waiting for questions. Oh, sorry. Yeah. No. Yep.
Contaminate it. Yeah. Is that the contaminated happiness or contaminated positive actions I said something wrong? I think contaminated positive actions. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. The the contaminated positive actions is to most of the time, the our positive actions, the the the the the the virtuous or positive actions we perform are the contaminated positive actions because we can we can excuse me. We can dedicate all those contaminated contaminated positive actions become a cause to attain enlightenment or a liberation, but, you know, but they are not the contaminate sorry, uncontaminated actions because the contaminate yeah. So contaminated positive actions, you know, as a result it will produce the contaminated happiness like the the higher rebirth of humans and the gods and as well as all this happiness we receive even though they are the suffering of change.
They don’t remain happy all the time. So on to become one’s actions, positive actions to be uncontaminated uncontaminated yep. Uncontaminated positive actions or action is that to do so, one needs to have the direct realization of emptiness. So whenever one has the direct realization of emptiness, then any actions or any positive actions one cultivates, then those actions become uncontaminated actions. Is that okay?
So therefore so unless one has attained or one has realized emptiness or realized emptiness directly, then the the all the virtuous one can one has one cultivates are the contaminated positive contaminated and not uncontaminated. The Geshe-la has already explained here that the the when you realize emptiness directly and after having realized emptiness directly, then all your actions, positive actions, are are or become uncontaminated actions up until then, then all the actions you have put the positive actions are the the contaminated positive actions and yep. So Yeah. Yeah. That’s right.
This word. Yeah. And, yeah, the difference in the result is the contaminated positive action will produce the contaminated happiness, and the uncontaminated positive actions will produce uncontaminate happiness for result. But sorry. It’s actually yeah.
The results of uncontaminated positive actions will be only uncontaminated happiness, whereas for the results of the positive sorry, contaminated positive actions will be both. It could it it it it the result of that that could be a boat which is contaminated happiness or and the an an uncontaminated happiness because the the the sorry. The deposit the the act uncontaminated positive actions, it they can become a causes to attain enlightenment too as a result, which is the an uncontaminated result. And and it also will have the contaminated happiness result, which is like the the human rebirth and higher rebirth that we’ve got and so forth. Whereas the the result of the uncontaminated positive actions will be uncontaminated happiness for a result.
The result would be uncontaminated, which means that result is the very stable and the reliable ultimate results. Is there It is one of the main antidote to the laziness. If one has the true and real and the very good understanding of the impermanence and of death, It will make you restless from laziness. Laziness? Yeah.
And Mhmm. And about the death as well? Okay. Okay. Okay.
This what? Yep. One can say, yeah, they are the the it is a result of those the previous laziness and the ignorance and due to this of not making making the understanding of the practices or teachings as well as not, I don’t know, very keen to perform, like, do practices, etcetera. Those are the results of the previous laziness and the ignorance.