Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Rejoicing as a merit-accumulation practice opens this 45-minute commentary, with Geshe Pema Tsering citing a Kadampa teaching that rejoicing in another’s virtue earns you equal merit — or at least half — depending on your relative realization. Working through Chapter 3 of Śāntideva’s Bodhisattva Way of Life, he first reviews the Four Noble Truths as the foundation of all practice, then picks up the four remaining preparatory practices for developing bodhicitta: rejoicing, requesting teachings, requesting teachers not to pass away, and dedicating merit. The bulk of the session unpacks rejoicing in three tiers — in causes of higher rebirth, in Hīnayāna liberation, and in the results and causes of Mahāyāna enlightenment. He closes with a doctrinal distinction: the six virtues only become the six perfections when bodhicitta motivates each action.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 19 Guide.mp3
UUID: 63fbed66-cc9e-4395-8f39-f95d8a41ff3a
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2002 Month 01-03 (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.7 minutes
Words: ~2,632
Oh, yeah. So the lord Buddha Śākyamūni has stated that should recognize all the sufferings and abandon all the origin of the suffering, meditate on the path, and actualize the cessation or attain the cessation mode. It is very important for oneself to understand or recognize all the suffering because because if one doesn’t, then due to this, one cultivates numbers of actions under the influence of disturbing emotions. So therefore, you know, you should not cultivate any actions under the influence of disturbing emotions. So in order to avoid that once you recognize what are the sufferings and by knowing so the one will one understand or yeah, one understand that both self and others do not wish to suffer or do not wish sufferings and in order to avoid that then by developing unwanted or not wishing unhappiness or suffering and one will develop a mind wishing to abandon the suffering.
So and by by having developed such a mind wishing to abandon all the sufferings, and what are the sufferings? What first for to in in order to do so, one needs to abandon the the cause causes of the sufferings, which are the actions and and disturbing emotions. So so should abandon those, yeah, the causes of the causes of the suffering and and to origin of the suffering. There are true origin of the suffering, so called the suffering the origin of the sufferings and the and and the the origin of the action. Yeah.
And to to abandon those two or the sources of these two causes of the suffering, one needs to meditate on the path. Yep. So and yeah. So one should meditate on the path. And what are the paths?
According to the the lesser vehicle then one meditates on the path on the selflessness of the person and the selflessness of phenomena. And according to the Mahāyāna path then additional to those two, one meditates on six perfections, path of six perfections, bodhicitta, and the wisdom realizing emptiness. Yeah. And by true meditation on those parts, then one one one attains or one one yeah. One attains or actualize the the cessation which is free of all free free free of sufferings, which is free of suffering.
So, therefore, the the main source, the main the beginning of the practice is to recognize all the sufferings. And in order so to know the sufferings it’s important for examine on oneself and and especially on those happiness one one thinks that those are happiness, but if one go through the through great details, even one’s happiness are the suffering. So by knowing that oneself is going through huge suffering, then then the they direct one’s mind towards the sentient beings and should also recognize that not only oneself, the other others, motherly sentient beings are also going through huge suffering. So by seeing all these motherly sentient beings undergoes through huge suffering and develop a wish to free all these motherly sentient beings from this from from sufferings and yeah, to train or meditate on such a wish or such a thought, and through this one goes through step by step through the seven point cause and effect instructions which are by taking a step from recognizing sentient being as one’s mother, repaying their kind kindness, so forth. And you should develop a courage courage within oneself that that that that one will take entire responsibility to to bring all these motherly sentient beings free from entire entire sufferings and bring bring to the ultimate state of happiness, or state of ultimate happiness.
And So yeah. So you’re taking all the entire responsibility to bring sentient beings free from sufferings is is called special intention. And by by having developed such a special intention then every kind of each and every actions or positive actions one have cultivated dedicate and dedicate all these virtues for the sake virtues towards the attainment of enlightenment for the sake of motherly sentient beings, and on such mind one should meditate. So now we are today, we’re beginning the third chapter, which is awakening the mind. So now for the first one, it has many divisions.
The, yep, the first the third chapter as the actual teaching and the division yeah, it has the two, the preparatory and the preliminary or the preparatory teachings and actual pledge and and then for the first one, for the preparatory, it has So and for the first one, the preliminary or a preparatory practice, it has two divisions, which is the first one is called the the engaging or the yep. The subject is to talk on the topic. Has the four preliminary sorry. It has the way to cultivate the the cultivate the merit to in order to attain bodhicitta within oneself, And the second and and number two is the training or cultivating the the the the actual cause to develop a bodhicitta. And the first one for the four subdivisions of the division.
The first one, the way of cultivating the merit, it has eight parts, and out of eight, we have finished the four part, which is making offerings, prostrations, refuge, and purification. So out of those eight, you know, we have finished the four. We we finished four, which are making offerings, prostrations, refuge, and purification. Now the rest of the four are rejoicing, requesting to turn the wheel of Dharma, requesting not to enter parinirvana, and dedicating all the merits for the attainment of enlightened And now we are on to the the the the first one. So first of the four, which is rejoice yeah.
Rejoicing now. So as for the rejoicing part, there are two subdivisions. One is for rejoicing for the attainment of the the higher rebirth. So we have to have it. Yeah.
Higher rebirth. And the second one is called the nirvana. And and the first four verses, number one two three four, which you have in the text teach yep. Explains the first one, which is attainment of the the higher rebirth. So, yeah, the first one, as we said, rejoicing towards the higher rebirths or rebirths of humans and the gods.
The reason why one rejoice for the human and the god rebirth is because one goes through huge sufferings and so forth, and then and there are worse suffering than the human rebirth and the the the god. And when one attain the god and human rebirth, there is a suffering, but it’s not as bad as the other one. It’s kind of like a place where one takes bit of a rest. So where one rejoice here is rejoice here for the course, which which gives rebirth towards the human and the god god human and the god rebirth. So to all the positive actions or the causes, actions which give rebirth of human and the gods, the way one rejoice because because those the causes gives the contaminated happiness of contaminated happiness of human and the god rebirth.
So briefly speaking, then all these positive actions, those have cultivated, which the positive actions which project the human and the god and higher rebirth, yep, and the higher rebirth are the one here, the the great master rejoices. So the reason why one here rejoices because all these actions, so all these results are the contaminated happiness that humans and the god undergoes through. Even though even though they are contaminated happiness, but it’s still the result of the positive actions.
So this is the reason why one may rejoice towards those causes. So the great master Śāntideva has rejoiced for those causes which gives the happiness, the contaminated happiness of the human and the gods. And and the reason why he rejoices because they are the result of the positive actions. So because the great master, he himself rejoice for those causes, so we here should try to get to to to rejoice towards those positive actions like the great master did. And the practice of rejoicing is very, very effective practice and and in it’s very helpful and quite easy to perform so, and and it’s also the best one of the best method one can cultivate numbers of numbers of merits.
Even the great masters of Kadampa has stated that among the collections of merit, the rejoicing is the utmost because because because if say when one rejoice for the positive action of somebody, if the person is equal has equal realization with you, then you can one receives the same amount of merit the person has cultivated. If person has a higher realization, then one at least gets the half the merit. And as for the the second now we’re on to the second division, which is rejoicing towards the nirvana or liberation. And for that one, it has two parts, the resorting towards the nirvana of lower realm, that’s a lower vehicle, and the Mahāyāna vehicle, Hīnayāna and the Mahāyāna. And, yep, rejoicing towards the liberation or the nirvana of the lesser vehicle.
And those the next four verses from the fifth till the eighth shows the how where or how one rejoice towards the attain towards the nirvana of Hīnayāna according to Hīnayāna schools. And here the the Hīnayāna, they are the the liberation or nirvana of Harrius and the solitary realizers. And likewise, here, great master one here here, rejoice towards the causes of the the causes of the, you know, the nirvana, the the lower way called nirvana, causes of lower way called nirvana. And and for example, like to attend to attain nirvana according to the the Hīnayāna Schools, what are the causes? Causes like one is to have the training of three, the three trainings, and and four noble truths.
So because one needs to attain those nirvana through training in the three trainings, like training in ethical discipline, concentration or concentration or contemplation, and the wisdom. So one needs to train in the training of three in the three trainings. For example, like training the ethical training in the ethical discipline, one needs to train in the abandonment of ten non-virtues, and the concentration is like all the practices of meditation, and for the wisdom according to the person of the first stage which we say or the first action, one needs to be trained in the wisdom of wisdom wisdom realizing impermanence from from wisdom realizing impermanence till wisdom real the self realizing selflessness of the person. So as for the four noble truths, there are two types of four noble truths. Says that the common Four Noble Truths and the uncommon one.
You know? So so called the common and the uncommon are Noble Truths. So the Four Noble actual Four Noble Truths are the same, the suffering, origin of the suffering, path, and cessation, but it has been classified into two, the gross and the subtle, the gross one, and and the subtle the subtle ones comes in from the the point of view of the consequentialist or a person the the consequentialist middle way school, they talked about the So which is the uncommon four noble truths that comes through the consequential system of middle way school. So where one here rejoices is just towards the causes which give birth to liberation or the nirvana or the Hīnayāna schools. So when we say here the Hīnayāna Hīnayāna schools, one rejoice towards the causes of attainment of nirvana, both the hearers and the solitary realizer schools.
So this is that one is so here concludes the first subdivision of so which which is we’re rejoicing towards the towards the the the Hīnayāna liberation. And now towards the towards the rejoicing towards attainment, the liberation of Mahāyāna liberation, and for this it has two divisions, They’re saying the divisions, they’re rejoicing towards the result and rejoicing towards the cause. So, yep. And the the next two verses shows rejoicing towards the result of the Mahāyāna, is Yeah. Nine and ten.
Got it. So so we are on to the first division, which is rejoicing towards the results. So as for the results, there are many results like people like Buddha himself, the result enlightenment, enlightenment, the Buddha, and and towards results like Buddha, the great compassion, and omniscience, and the four kayas, like the four bodies, so forth, four bodies of the Buddhas. These are the results and where one will rejoice. And the rejoicing, second one, the rejoicing towards the cause.
And so the course are the the causes are, yep, the ten ten grounds ten grounds and the five paths of the Bodhisattvas. Ten grounds and the five paths of the great vehicle are the causes. So the next four verses actually are starting from the verse so I’m not reading. I’m just showing the numbers.
Right? From verse eleven, from eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen are the part where one rejoice towards the causes. And the the summary meaning of all those four lines, and four verses are alike when rejoicing towards the causes and what are the causes to attain all this enlightenment the four bodies of the Buddhas and so forth are all the virtuous actions one cultivated from beginning, from the meditating on the equanimity up till the attainment of, bodhicitta, and one rejoice towards all the actions as well as the person who have people who have meditated on those paths as well as those who have cultivated by meditation on those path. So those are the the causes where one rejoices. So the all the actions of the bodhisattvas are the causes to attain enlightenment, and their and their practices like in the six perfections and are the one they are also the one which leads one towards enlightenment.
So these are all these positive actions which are the causes which are causes to attain enlightenment, where one rejoices. So there’s a very tricky part here to say is that the practice of generosity and so forth, the six, is one way of saying, and other one is called the practice of perfection of generosity and so forth six. There is a difference between those two. When when we say the the practices of generosity and so forth, six, that refers to six practices of generosity and so forth, and that can be done or those practice can be done and also available for the lower vehicle like the Hīnayāna and the solitary realizers and the hearers as well as those the person like us, you know, for ordinary beings. So the practices which we do live from generosity till the end, and the sixth sixth generosity, all this generosity, maintaining ethical discipline, patience, concentration, so forth, which we do, we practice, but those are the six those but those are not six six perfections.
But if those six practices, the practice of generosity, ethical discipline, patience, concentration, the the enthusiastic effort and the wisdom. If those practices are performed or practices are uphold by the bodhicitta or or altruistic intention, then those six practices become the six perfections. And as for the sixth sixth perfection, there are many ways of of interpretation. For example, like, according to the the consequentialist Madhyamaka, the Prāsaṇgika school, they they said that the the the practices of six perfections are available or are there in the bodhisattvas, but the six perfections are not there because the six perfections are all only available or or only in the state of Buddhahood, not not not in the path, not yet in the level of Bodhisattvas and so forth. So Bodhisattvas, they have a practice of six perfections, but they don’t have.