Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute session, Geshe Pema Tsering opens with a pointed test of real renunciation: would a motorbike starting beside your meditation seat make you stop, or spur you on? He uses this to show how much Dharma practice is saṃsāra-management in disguise, then builds the logical chain from recognizing suffering to renunciation, compassion, and bodhicitta — sharpened by the image of meditating on compassion for all beings while reflexively swatting a mosquito. He frames bodhicitta as habit, cultivable the same way negative tendencies built up over countless lifetimes. The session then introduces Śāntideva — dismissed by his peers as idle, secretly practicing highest tantra — before turning to a structural analysis of the Bodhicaryāvatāra: its four-part outline, the etymology of its title across Sanskrit, Tibetan, and English, and the homage conventions that assign texts to different sections of the Buddhist canon. Suited to students beginning a close study of Śāntideva’s text.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 WBS 2005 02 08.mp3
UUID: 996b53ec-cc5b-46b8-81db-da8a56cab035
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2005 Feb-Mar (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-02-08
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.7 minutes
Words: ~3,960
Mhmm. So we have this general idea that because we’re Buddhists, we want to achieve nirvana, and we want to get out of saṃsāra. It’s just a general idea that we work with. It’s a belief system that we have. It’s not something that we actually experience most of the time, though.
It’s not something that if we watch our mind, we’ll notice ourselves actually working from the basis of most of the time. If we watch our mind, then we’ll see that most of what we think about, most of what we do, even when we’re doing what we consider to be Dharma or even when we’re doing whatever we consider to be religious practice, we’ll see that most of the time that isn’t based on this idea of getting towards nirvana. It’s not based on the idea of making ourselves happy in saṃsāra. So if we’re we should be focusing our practice. We should be focusing our meditations and teachings on getting out of saṃsāra and attaining nirvana.
So that means when we meditate, that should be the reason we’re doing it. When we are prostrating, when we are looking at texts, we should be doing it. We should also be trying to learn as much about the faults of Samsāra and as much about the positive qualities of nirvana as possible. We go through this process again and again. Developing certainty about the faults of saṃsāra and the positive qualities of nirvana isn’t something that happens overnight.
It’s something we need to keep working at. This is why we have so many thoughts, even when we are doing Dharma practices that have nothing to do with Dharma. So many thoughts that aren’t focused on attaining nirvana. So Geshe-la said, for example, if you had true renunciation, if you were truly working towards nirvana and had turned your back on saṃsāra, then when you’re meditating, you wouldn’t be annoyed by people starting motorbikes up right next to your meditation space. So at the moment, if we’re meditating and someone starts a motorcycle near where we’re meditating, our first thought is, Oh, they interrupted my meditation.
I don’t feel comfortable now. I’m not going to do it. Right? But if we had renunciation from Samsāra, this would not be a reason to interrupt our meditation. If we had renunciation from Samsāra, that would be just one more reason that we were going to keep meditating, to keep focusing on what it is that we need to be concentrating on.
Discomfort that was caused by the noise of the motorcycle next to meditation space, and it wouldn’t be a reason for us to give up. It would be a reason to spur us on. So giving up meditations and teachings and doing it when adverse circumstances come about like this is actually self striving for saṃsāra. It’s trying to make ourselves feel comfortable in saṃsāra, as opposed to working towards nirvana. If we can’t handle little bits of discomfort because we’re so attached to this idea of comfort, to the idea of trying to make ourselves comfortable in saṃsāra, then we’re not going to get out of saṃsāra.
We’re not going to attain nirvana. So we need to develop certainty to certainty as to purpose in our purpose, and certainty as in towards what we are certainty about what we are striving for. So without understanding properly the faults of saṃsāra, without looking at what’s wrong with our situation at the moment, without looking at what’s wrong with striving after for these glimpses of happiness that don’t actually make us truly happy. Without recognizing that, we can’t develop renunciation. Without developing renunciation, we can’t actually develop compassion, because compassion is based on the idea or is the idea of trying to of the wish for others to be free from suffering.
And if we can’t recognize suffering for what it is, if we can’t recognize how saṃsāra is pervaded by suffering, then we can’t we don’t know what we want others to be separated from. We can’t see clearly what would make others happy. So without this idea of recognizing suffering, we can’t develop a renunciation. Without renunciation, we can’t develop true compassion. And without compassion, we don’t develop the mind of enlightenment that spurs us toward attaining enlightenment.
So in this way, recognizing the faults of saṃsāra is the root of all of these understandings. So in order to develop bodhicitta, we need to know what bodhicitta is. The best way for us to understand bodhicitta is that it’s the mind or the thought to attain enlightenment so we can liberate all sentient beings from suffering. Now, if we want to do this, we need to know what it is we’re liberating them from, so this is why we need to understand suffering. This means that if we want to develop compassion, if we want to develop bodhicitta, if we want to work towards enlightenment in order to lead all sentient beings that are suffering, the thing we need to understand is what suffering is and recognize it properly so we are not mistaking suffering for happiness and striving after suffering when we think we’re striving after happiness.
So these are really important things. It’s very difficult for us to develop this understanding of working towards enlightenment for all sentient beings. It’s much easier for us to tell ourselves that we are Buddhist, we are Mahayanas, and we are meditating on compassion, than it is to actually do it, than it is to actually focus on this. It’s much easier for us to tell ourselves that we are good people, we meditate on love, meditate on compassion. We’re trying to develop renunciation than it is to actually do it, to actually focus on this, to put in the hard work.
We may even find that we’re sitting there telling ourselves that we’re good Buddhists, and we’re meditating on compassion. We’re focusing on all sentient beings and how we all want them to be happy, and then we get bitten by a mosquito. Our natural response is to kill the mosquito, get off me, or to stop it biting us and to slap them into the mosquito. That’s our inherent tendency. So we’re sitting here meditating on all sentient beings, but we’re just about to kill one.
And this doesn’t it shows us how much work we have to do. If our natural response is to try and get rid of a being, and at the same time we’re meditating on all sentient beings, trying to rid all sentient beings from suffering, then that kind of shows us we have a lot of work to do. And it shows us that we need to put in a lot of effort, and it’s not something that we’re going to attain easily. So although that it’s difficult for us to develop our mind to think in this way, although it’s difficult for us to train our mind to or encourage our mind to think of others before ourselves, then and to work towards enlightenment in order to be of benefit to to all other beings, Its difficulty shouldn’t be something that stops us from trying to do this if we think about its benefits, though. It is difficult to develop a mind that thinks in this way, but the benefits of developing a mind that thinks in this way are so enormous.
If we’re thinking of how we can help one person or one being, then that’s a really beneficial state of mind to be in. But if we’re thinking of how we can help all beings, the countless beings in all different states, experiencing all different types of lives, then think about how beneficial this type of mind is, this way of thinking is, how vast this view is. Even though it is very difficult for us to spontaneously develop a way of thinking where we spontaneously are working for the benefit of all sentient beings at all times, even working towards that in a very small capacity is still enormously beneficial. So because of the benefits of thinking in this way, of developing this way, of looking at things, we should really try to develop bodhicitta. So however much we are able to meditate on bodhicitta, however much we are able accustomize our mind to this idea of attaining enlightenment in order to be of benefit to all beings in the best possible way.
That is going to however much we can do it, we should do it. Because even the slightest habituation towards this way of thinking is going to help us. Even the slightest tendency to think in this way is going to change the general flow of our mind, the general stream of our mind. So what we’re working with here is tendencies or habits. And if we develop the more that we can develop the habit of thinking of others, the more that we can develop a tendency towards this mind of bodhicitta, this mind of working towards enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, then that is going to benefit us.
And so in the same way that now we find it very easy to get angry, to be attached to things, to want things, to have these kind of negative states of mind. Then we can develop the mind of bodhicitta to come about in the same way. The reason that we have jealousy and pride and attachment and all these things at the moment is because we have the habit of having all of them. So if we we’ve had the habit of having all of them because we’ve been this way for countless lifetimes. Now if we develop start developing another way of thinking, we start developing the mind of bodhicitta and habituate ourselves towards that way of thinking, then that becomes a habit.
Eventually, it will be just as easy for us to think of others and be working towards enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings as it is for us at the moment to think of ourselves. So we are able to through by the force of habit, we’re able to change the way that we perceive things. Try and think all sentient beings, all beings are just the same as me in that they want to be happy and don’t want to experience any suffering. In order to show them how to experience true happiness and to be completely free from suffering, then I need to become a Buddha. In order to bring that about, I’m going to develop this mind of enlightenment, this idea of working towards enlightenment to be of benefit to all sentient beings.
So we should try and meditate on that idea for a couple of minutes. So let us meditate on the lack of inherent existence, or self, within us that we can’t find when we look for it. Now in the second turning of the wheel, he focused the Buddha focused mainly on this idea of emptiness. In the first turning of the wheel, he saw many different things, the whole of the Four Noble Truths. The second turning of the wheel, he focused on the idea emptiness and and taught the Prajñāpāramitā, the Perfection of Wisdom sutras.
Here, he not only taught the emptiness of self, but he also taught the emptiness of phenomena. And so although the objects weren’t as broad as the teachings in the first turning of the wheel, the breadth was just as broad because it covered all phenomena. So, yeah, this second turning of the wheel was extrapolated on later by two Indian masters or scholars called Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti. And they both extrapolated on the Buddha’s teachings on this perfection of wisdom or this emptiness emptiness doctrine or lack of doctrine. And in the third turning of the wheel, the last of the three turnings of the wheel, we have the Buddha taught what is called the methods of practice or the ways in which we can incorporate the bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment, and other practices into the path towards enlightenment.
And so the reason that these three turning of the wheel are described at the beginning of this text oops. Sorry. Oh, Oh, well. Oh, cool. Sorry.
And if you write at the back, it wasn’t that clear anyway. So the so the reason that these are three different turnings of the wheel are described at the beginning of this text is because they are water they are what Santadeva focuses on in this text. He talks about the methods for becoming enlightened, the mind of enlightenment, and the things that we need to develop understanding of. And the other thing to remember is that from the that this also emphasizes is that from the school that the author Geshe-la is talking from’s point of view, that the Buddha taught emptiness in all three turnings of the wheel. So, in general, this teaching, the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, is an overview of these three turnings of the wheel, in that it encompasses all of the Buddha’s teachings, the essential parts of all of the Buddha’s teachings.
In particular, it’s said to be part of the Mahāyāna discourses or the Mahāyāna teachings of the Buddha. And in particular, Mahāyāna teachings of the Buddha that describe the behavior or the practices that those who have taken on the vows of a bodhisattva and are trying to work towards Buddhahood in order to benefit all sentient beings should be engaging in. This means it has it gives a specific description of the behavior or the deeds or the way of the the sons of the victors, which is another way of saying our bodhisattvas, and in particular, what they should practice, the the the different parts or the the different parts of their practice so that they can become fully enlightened Buddhas. Now the author of this commentary, the author of this text, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Life, someone called the master or the teacher. He was a teacher.
It says he was a teacher and a pandit, a teacher and a scholar. Śāntideva I can’t speak. Was about to say it in Tibetan. Shiwatso in Tibetan, or Śāntideva in Sanskrit. Śāntideva was an expert at both practicing the six perfections of a bodhisattva and also practicing secret mantra practices.
He’s described as someone who was so proficient at his Bodhisattva practices or so had so thoroughly incorporated the teachings of bodhicitta that he was very he never did anything for his own benefit. He always did everything he did was always for others’ benefit. And so even if that had come down to him giving away his own body, he was said to have been very happy to do that because he was so unattached to anything that was his or himself that he really enjoyed doing anything that was going to be beneficial to anybody and everybody else. That was a general description of his character character. Now, a more particular description of his character is that he was someone who practiced high who achieved enlightenment by practicing highest secret mantra or secret tantric practices.
And in this case, there was definitely an emphasis on the secret part of Śāntideva’s practice because everybody that came in contact with him thought he was a lazy bum. All he did all day was sleep and he wasn’t worth really paying any attention to because he was so lazy. But in fact, he was secretly doing all these practices and attained enlightenment doing all these practices. It’s just that until he delivered this teaching, no one actually knew what he was doing. Okay.
So now this text, the Bodhicaryāvatāra, is usually taught in four different sections. The first of these sections is called an explanation of the meaning of the title. The second is what’s called the Bodhisattva’s homage, so the homage that was added to the text in order to be able to categorize it properly by those who translated it from Sanskrit into Tibetan. The third section of this text is what’s called the meaning of the text. The majority of this text actually focuses on this stage, what the Bodhicaryāvatāra actually means.
The last part of the commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra deals with the dedication. At the end of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, there is one chapter that is a dedication of the merit that was accumulated through writing the text. So from amongst these four different sections, the largest by far is a commentary on the text itself. Okay. So the first thing that we need to deal with is what the title means.
So the title of this text in Sanskrit is called the Bodhicaryāvatāra. And its name in Tibetan is. So very literal translation of these two terms, these two titles, the Sanskrit and the Tibetan, is an entry or yeah. An entry into the behavior, of bodhisattvas. And now, this word bodhisattvas has two different parts to a body meaning, enlightenment and sattva meaning being.
So when someone looks at this title, they will understand that this book or this text contains a description of that which needs to be practiced by those who wish to become Buddhas. Someone who has entered into the path of a bodhisattva, entered into the behavior or started behaving like a bodhisattva is someone who is striving towards Buddhahood. This in particular refers to what are called the six perfections or the six paramitas, the six different focuses, the six things that bodhisattvas focus on in order to become Buddhas. So the behavior of Bodhisattvas or the way of the Bodhisattva actually refers to these six perfections. People should know from this title that this is what this text is going to be about, the six perfections.
Okay. And so this title, the Bodhicaryāvatāra, sorry, is a Sanskrit title. Now there’s four different the Tibetans categorized the languages of India in that time into four different languages, one of which was Sanskrit and this language is said to be in this title is said to be in Sanskrit. The first part of the title that says Bodhi is translated into Tibetan as Changchub and into English usually as Enlightenment. Geshe-la said, they’ve only put two and you have to translate three.
He said, was teaching how they translate it from Sanskrit into Tibetan, and in order to translate how they’ve translated it from Sanskrit into Tibetan, you have to translate it into English. So he said, You have to turn two into three. Alright? So, here we go. So bodhi in Sanskrit becomes changchub in Tibetan, which is usually translated as enlightenment in English.
The next two or the next part, sattva in Sanskrit is translated as Sempa in Tibetan, and we may translate that as being or hero. So it’s either the hero of enlightenment or the being of enlightenment. It’s another it’s a way to translate bodhisattva bodhisattva. The next part of the in Tibetan is no. Sorry.
Sanskrit is this word charya. In Tibetan, the Tibetans pronounce the Sanskrit as tsarya, and they translate it as spyod pa. Alright? And it means behavior, activities. And the last part of the word is avatar in Sanskrit, in Tibetan, and entry or that which enters into it’s the same avatar.
Avatar is, like, sometimes used as a word to mean a the physical embodiment of something as well, like the avatar Krishna and stuff. So, yeah, there you go. Three languages. This one. Yeah.
Yeah. So when we look at texts, we usually divide them into parts. Dealing with the title is what’s called a preliminary to the first part. So the first part of a text actually starts with what’s called the translator’s homage. Now the translator’s homage in this instance is the first line of the Bodhicaryāvatāra in most translations, where it says, Homage to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
So the reason that the Tibetan translator added this homage to the beginning of the Bodhicaryāvatāra is so it can be categorized into the section of the Buddha’s teachings that’s called the Sūtra Pitaka or the basket of the sutras, the basket of discourses. Now the reason that they would have categorized this text in the sūtra pitaka or the basket or the section of the Buddha’s teachings that deals with discourses is because its main intent is to unravel the thought of the Buddha or to explain the thought of the Buddha the thoughts of the Buddha to get at what the Buddha was really talking about. So because this is the main focus for this text, then this is why is put inside the sūtra basket. And because it’s put inside the sūtra basket, then the translator adds this homage, which is the homage to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas so it can easily be recognized as being part of the sūtra basket. So if a text is supposed to be considered within the the the discourses of the Buddha, the sutras of the Buddha, Then it starts off with this homage homage to all Buddhas and bodhisattvas.
If a text is going it should be considered within the, Abhidharma, the metaphysicals psychological teachings of the Buddha, then or this then it should be then it’s I’ll start that again. If it’s in the Abhidharma, the Abhidharma is the metaphysical psychological teachings of the Buddha, and the homage that the text in this section have is to Mañjuśrī. So it says, instead of saying homage to all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, it says homage to Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Alright? So if it has homage to Mañjuśrī, you know that it goes in the Abhidharma section.
And if it is part of the Vinaya teachings, the teachings on ethics and discipline, then it starts off by saying homage to the omniscient one. So if you can recognize these different homages, then you can recognize which section of the Buddha’s teachings you are dealing with when you look at a text, and this enables you to have a certain amount of background with which to approach the text. Okay. Okay. So another way of approaching this text is by how long it is.
Oftentimes when people discuss text, they’ll say the sūtra in eight thousand lines or the sūtra in seven thousand lines or fifty lines or whatever it is. So in this case, this text actually has three hundred verses. A verse is called a shloka in Sanskrit and Tibetan, and it refers to four a four lined sub subsection of a chapter. So oftentimes, you can understand the contents of the text by dividing it into certain shloka sections like the first four hundred shlokas, second two hundred shlokas or something like that. They don’t actually do that with this text, they do it with chapters instead.
So there’s different chapters in this in this text. But it says it may be worth mentioning that there is three hundred verses in this text. Okay. So that means we’ve done with the title and the homage, and now we’re up to the actual main bit of the commentary, which is the commentary to the text itself. Now we start looking at the text.
Within this section where we look at the text, there’s also two different sections. The first section is the