Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A student’s question about the Tibetan word translated as “grasping” anchors this brief 8-minute exchange with Geshe Pema Tsering on Śāntideva’s Bodhisattva Way of Life. Through a lively classroom discussion, Geshe-la uses the image of a starving monkey clutching a mango to show that the same Tibetan term covers both desperate clinging and casual mental focus — the difference is intensity, not type — and that the underlying motivation in all cases is attachment. Two further student questions follow: one on blissful meditation states, which Geshe-la warns can be harmful when not grounded in bodhicitta or an understanding of emptiness; and one on Śāntideva’s opening homage to the Three Jewels, taken as a model of the humility every aspiring bodhisattva must cultivate.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 WBS 2005 02 08.mp3
UUID: 977e2b41-b708-4c7a-aac1-1b58b3fe8d51
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: 8.1 minutes
Words: ~633
Mhmm. So would you say grasping is like a whole yeah. Desperateness. Yeah. I thought of a way to ask this question.
Right? Okay? But it’s a bit lateral thinking. Okay? So you have to bear with me.
Alright. Okay. So I don’t know if this helps. Right? But I just said, Geshe-la, if a monkey doesn’t eat for three days and it finally gets a mango, the way that it holds on to that mango, well, would this be this word that I’m translating as grasping?
He said yes and I said so if our mind focuses on the cup is that the same word and he said yes alright so it’s the same word that they’re using for the monkey grasping at the mango after not eating for three days and our mind looking at a cup. Alright? So it’s the same. So I don’t know if that means that we have a distinction in English between grasping and holding that is not in Tibetan. Yeah?
Or it is which it could be. Or that our mind is what it’s doing is holding on to very tightly. So I just tried to explain to Geshe-la what the discussion was and how we have these two words, and one means to like really hold on to something and to grasp at it, so it’s like a monkey who hasn’t eaten for three days, and the other is much more gentle. He said, Well, in fact, there’s different strengths of this word that’s translated as grasping or holding. If a monkey hasn’t eaten for three days, they’re gonna really hold on to the mango, and then when they’ve eaten and they’re full, they’re still gonna keep their hands on it, but they’re not gonna be as intent on their holding on to the mangoes beforehand.
So but Geshe-la said, the the motivation is the same. The motivation is attachment. Way that the mind is working is still grasping at an object. The motivation, whether it be a positive motivation and it be this sense of faith, the way you’re holding on very tightly to an object to get out of saṃsāra or the other thing, the motivation is still attachment of some form. Alright?
So the the it’s still thinking I need that. So that does bring a sense of desperation. Yeah. They yeah. But there’s two people held up their hands at the same time, so they’re both they’d both be very short.
Only if it if you want. Very quickly. Yes? Go. Okay.
So the states that we can attain in meditation that we shouldn’t cling to, all right, blissed out states that don’t help anyone. What we should be striving towards is Buddhahood, which is of benefit for all sentient beings. If we’re striving towards Buddhahood, then we need to be striving towards Buddhahood. Eventually, we realize the non duality of that state, but we need to be striving towards it. Being blissed out in meditation is not worth striving towards.
It’s a different thing. Okay, so there’s different states that you can attain in meditation, and some of them are very blissful. If they are not combined with bodhicitta or a realization of emptiness, they can also be destructive. Yes? So guess the things that they they are like instructions because if someone is such a great Buddhist like Śāntideva and they’re starting off something that they do with a homage to the Buddha’s Dharma and the Sangha, and they are prostrating themselves to this and also praising the Buddha’s Dharma and the Sangha.
If we want to behave like Bodhisattvas, then we have to have that kind of humility as well. So as an example of humility, I think it’s a very important thing to pay attention to.