Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Using the image of a newly appointed minister who must accept the responsibilities that come with office, Geshe Pema Tsering opens this 46-minute commentary by pressing home the personal accountability each practitioner bears for securing a good rebirth. He then maps the full architecture of Śāntideva’s text chapter by chapter — why confession must precede bodhicitta (cleaning house before a world-conquering king arrives), how the awareness and vigilance chapters build mindfulness and ethics as foundations, and where the six perfections fall across chapters six through ten. The Q&A explores two precise topics: the difference between productive fear of saṃsāra as a spur to renunciation versus paralytic anxiety, and a careful three-way breakdown of meditation — bhavana or gom (familiarising the mind with an object), samadhi (the mental factor of concentration), and dhyana or samten (calm abiding, single-pointed focus). Suited to practitioners already working through the Bodhicaryāvatāra.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 18 WBS 2005 03 08.mp3
UUID: 8a82bb60-e169-4b25-9606-29bcbb7ac04b
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2005 Feb-Mar (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-03-08
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.7 minutes
Words: ~3,524
Chill out and try and make myself feel a bit happy and relaxed and, you know, just cruise along. Right? We can have that attitude if we haven’t thought about just how precious and just how unusual it is for us to have this experience that we have now. And if we think about just how difficult it is for us to reduplicate the causes that would have taken for us to get the experience that we have now so that it will happen in the future, this may encourage us to practice Dharma more and not and feel embarrassed about wasting the opportunity we have. So if we think about it though, then we think, alright, I really have to do I have to make the most of this opportunity.
I have to do all I can and practice all the Dharma that I can in order to hopefully have a better lifetime next time around and at least have a similar lifetime to the one I’m having now and not be going backwards. So we should be working really hard achieve that state because that’s kind of the responsibility that we need to take on. That’s the responsibility that comes with the opportunity that we have with this precious human rebirth. It is our responsibility to do that. We can’t say it’s up to someone else to achieve our next rebirth for us.
It’s not anyone else’s responsibility. We’re the only people who can take on that responsibility and see it through. So it’s like we have been appointed the minister of some country or the representative of some country. With the honor of being appointed to this position, we also have to assume a lot of responsibility. The thing is, if we don’t accept our responsibilities and we don’t work to improve the lot of the country that we have been appointed the head of, we’re not going to stay the head of that country for very long.
At some point, everyone’s going to say, We don’t want you anymore if we’re not accepting our responsibilities. It’s the same thing with this lifetime that we have. If we don’t accept the responsibilities that come with the honor of having a precious human rebirth, then we can lose that opportunity. It’s not up to anyone else to make sure that we end up with a good rebirth. It’s our responsibility.
It’s not up to anyone else. In the same way as if someone is running a country, it’s up to them to make sure that everything goes well for the country. In this way, we can’t try and pan it on to someone else, and we can’t think that it’s not something that we shouldn’t do, because we can’t rely on anyone else to get us to a good rebirth it’s up to us. That means we need to work really hard to practice generosity, need to work really hard to to to make stainless prayers. We need to work really hard to keep our ethics to keep our ethics pure and to be to be moral moral beings.
Okay. So this was in the section that’s called imploring the reader to take the essence of this lifetime, this precious human rebirth. The next section says explaining how to take the essence, and that has two different sections, the first of which is a general presentation of how to take the essence from this lifetime, and the second one is an explanation of each topic individually. In terms of a general explanation of how to take the essence from this lifetime from a precious human rebirth, then it said that in this commentary, in the Śāntideva commentary, he is talking specifically about the practice of beings of the greatest capacity. Mhmm.
Within the graduated path, there’s three different levels of motivation and three different types of practices for three different types of being, the lesser beings, the middling beings, the greater beings. Now in this text, Śāntideva is actually only giving instructions to the beings of greater capacity for the development of bodhicitta and the practice of bodhicitta. But in order to be able to practice bodhicitta and to particularly be able to practice the perfections which are the path for bodhisattvas to follow in order to become buddhas, then you first of all need to have developed the practices or trained in the practices of the lower and middling scope beings. Okay. So in this text, in Śāntideva’s text, he actually it focuses on the practices of Bodhisattvas, which is the practice of those with the greatest capacity or the greater beings.
But in the beginning of his description of the practices of bodhisattvas, his first chapter the encouragement to develop bodhicitta, or it explains in order to encourage people to want to become bodhisattvas, he explains just how good bodhicitta is and how good the practice of bodhisattvas are. Now one of the causes for the development of bodhisattvas is the practices of the lesser and middling beings. And because of this, this is a he explains the in brief, the lesser and middling the practices of the lesser and middling beings in this chapter as a way of describing how to develop a bodhicitta. Mhmm. This one.
Mhmm. Okay. So This one. Oh, yeah. It’s like I understand.
It’s just sometimes I think it’s best to think before I speak. Okay, so the general explanation of the lower types of practices is contained within the first chapter, is called The Excellence of bodhicitta. After this first chapter, which describes not only the preliminary practices but the excellence of Bodhisattva, Santadeva then goes on to write a chapter that’s called confession. Now this confession is a is an act of purification, and this act of purification is is said to be like cleaning house. Right?
Now the metaphor that it’s got here is it said that if a a wheel-turning king, now a wheel-turning king or is someone who is in charge of the whole world. Right? So not just any ordinary king, but a king who has the power all over the world. Right? Now, if they were gonna come into your house before they got there, you do a bit of cleaning up.
Right? And this is what this confession is likened to. So before the king of the world comes into your house, you want to clean up. Now, Likewise, bodhicitta is said to be even more important than the King of the world. Before you want to generate bodhicitta in your mind stream, you want to clean it up a little bit.
In order to clean up our mind streams, in order to clean up the way we think, the first process you do is called purification. That’s what Śāntideva deals with in Chapter two of his text, which is called confession. By confessing the negative deeds, you’re purifying the mind stream before you invite bodhicitta into the mind stream. So that’s the first section of this section. Also, the King of the world comes into your home, you’d want to prepare some things as well for the king when he gets there.
This is called accumulation of merit. Before the development of bodhicitta, you need to confess negative tendencies and negative actions in the mind. You also want to accumulate all the positive qualities in order bodhicitta to develop, as the metaphor goes, in order for the king to feel comfortable in your home. This is what’s called Chapter two and Chapter three in the book. The first one, Chapter two, deals with confession and purifying.
Chapter three, which is called commitment in this translation, deals with the accumulation of the right circumstances and specifically the development of the Bodhisattva vow in order for bodhisattva to come about. Mhmm. Okay. So the next chapter, the one that’s called awareness or conscientiousness. And now the reason we need to have that is the the next chapter is this after you having developed bodhicitta, it’s not going to do us very much good if we then let that bodhicitta disintegrate and we don’t encourage it and strengthen it.
Now in order for us to strengthen and encourage our bodhicitta, we need to practice conscientiousness or awareness. We need to be aware of what it is we’re doing. If we’re going to practice the six perfections, if we’re going to practice the three higher trainings, then we need to be able to focus on these things and be mindful of what we’re doing and not let our practice be overcome by negative states of mind. And so this awareness or this conscientiousness is described in the next chapter, which is chapter number four. Okay.
Right. Now so after after being made aware of awareness, the the next chapter actually deals with vigilance or vigilance is a chapter that looks specifically Hang on one second. Uh-huh. Mhmm. Okay.
So okay. So in the in it’s in the next one that’s the title vigilance. This vigilance is actually a chapter that is about ethics. Alright? So now reason that the chapter about ethics is called vigilance is that we need these two things which are called mindfulness and awareness in order to practice vigilance.
Mindfulness and awareness in order to practice ethics. So you practice ethics by being vigilant. You are vigilant when you have awareness of what you’re doing or introspection of what you’re doing and also mindfulness of what you’re doing. So mindfulness introspection lead to ethics and this is described in the chapter that’s called vigilance. After that it’s a little more straightforward.
And the next chapter, chapter number six is the third of the perfections is patience. Chapter number seven is called heroic perseverance or diligence. Chapter number eight is called meditation, perfection and meditation. Chapter number nine is called wisdom. Now in chapter number ten, actually it actually deals with it.
Although it’s a chapter focused on dedication, it actually describes the process by which you give away all of your roots of virtue, your possessions and your body. In this way, the perfection of generosity is actually described in detail in chapter number ten. Okay. So in this way, the way to protect bodhicitta and the way to develop bodhicitta is described in all of these verses. And the result, which is Buddhahood, is specifically described in chapter number nine, which is called wisdom.
This is the result of the Bodhisattva path, which is Buddhahood. Okay. So we’ve stopped there for this evening. And if you have questions, you’re allowed to ask them. Yes.
Okay. Geshe-la said that it’s very easy to see the pointlessness of something and keep on with it. Right? To think this is pointless and keep doing it, that’s very easy. So in order to counteract our strong tendencies towards saṃsāra, we really need to have a fear of saṃsāra.
We really need to know what it’s about, and if we really knew what it was about, we’d be afraid. Unless you are afraid of saṃsāra, you don’t know what it’s about. Based on that fear, want to get out of there. You want to leave saṃsāra, and that’s the mind of renunciation or definite emergence, which is how you achieve nirvana. Okay.
But this isn’t I was just explaining to Geshe-la that the idea of being afraid is something that we tend to look negatively at in Western societies because we have this idea of living in fear abiding, staying in one place going, I’m afraid. Guess it’s like, no. That’s not what I’m talking about. It’s not as if you go, I’m afraid, and I’m not gonna do anything about it. Alright?
It’s being afraid, getting out of there. Alright? So the energy is focused on getting out of there. The energy is not focused on being afraid. It’s be recognizing what you’re afraid of, looking for ways out.
Yeah. But that was very sweet because you looked around to see if anyone else had a question. It was very sweet. Is there anyone? One more.
But yeah. Do you wanna go first? This follows on very quickly. This also relates to the the the motivation to get me out of this mess. Sure.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But when I think about trying to generate anxiety about, you know, if I don’t do it now Yeah. Yeah. And I never get this this I’m not gonna get totally lost.
Right. Right. You know? Because, you know, and and so how how do you work with that? I don’t know about this generate I’m worried that I mistranslated this generating anxiety, because anxiety seems to me to be a word that indicates a state where you’re you’re living agitatedly, and that’s not what it’s supposed to be about.
Because I I have I mean, I have a certain amount of, called, the idiot state. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Things are gonna turn out okay.
Okay. Okay. So Geshe-la said that if you can actually think in that that way, then that’s really good. He said, the problem is that unless you have a very strong habituated tendency to thinking that way, then it’s more likely that at the time of death you would be thinking about something you’re attached to rather than Rinpoche making it okay. So if you do manage to have that thought at the time of death, you’re okay.
But because of our natural tendency to be attached to saṃsāra, that may be a problem. But that actual thought itself, I can rely on this person, they can show me the way out of here, is faith, and that’s a good thing. It’s a very positive thing to have that thought. The thing is that we need to, through looking at the Lam Rim, that thought actually strengthens. Okay.
So Geshe said, okay, that that if you die with that thought, okay, Rinpoche is gonna make everything okay, then that’s actually a sign of faith. That’s a thought of faith, and that will make sure that in your next lifetime, you’re reborn with a precious human rebirth. Right? It can it can it can get you through to the next lifetime. The problem is that you can’t be certain what the new you is going to do.
So, in order for you to have attained that state, you must have made this a stainless prayer that I have faith that Rinpoche can make it okay. This is a very powerful prayer, it can lead to having a precious human rebirth. But you can’t be sure that what you’re going to be in the next lifetime will be someone who practices Dharma all the time, who’s to take the opportunity to do all they can to attain nirvana. So it’s good to have that thought. It’s also good to be focused on achieving nirvana, achieving Buddhahood, because actions done with that motivation are a lot more of a stable are a lot stabler as a cause for attaining nirvana than moments of faith at the moment of death.
Okay. Very good. Okay. So actions motivated by bodhicitta or the wish to attain nirvana, yeah, are a lot more stable. I don’t know if you can say that a lot more stable.
Yeah. A lot stable or I think I said before. A lot more stable. Yeah. Then moments of faith at the time of death.
Yes. If they saw the mind. The Buddhas have not seen the mind. Yeah. Okay.
Now meditation, right, is I’m not sure which language it comes from. Right? But it has many meanings in English as well. Yeah? And Okay.
Now there are three main words in Sanskrit and Tibetan that are sometimes translated as meditation in English because English is bereft of good words to describe these processes. Alright? And the word meditation in English can mean everything from, you know, the ways that we talk about it in terms of Zen meditation to there’s a book called the meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings of Descartes about his thoughts. So there’s all sorts of stuff in English too. Thankfully, it’s a lot more specific in Tibetan and Sanskrit.
In Tibetan and Sanskrit, there are three words that can be described as meditation. The first of these is what’s called Bhavana in Sanskrit or Gom in Tibetan and has nothing to do with a Gompa and is a literally means to mix your mind with something. Right? Now what this process of mixing your mind with something means is to thoroughly familiarize yourself, your mind with something. Right?
It’s not that your mind and the object that is focusing on become irrevocably mixed. It is that your your ability to know something becomes clearer and clearer. Right? So if something hasn’t been, like, mixed into your mind stream, it’s difficult to bring that object to mind. Right?
It’s a bit difficult to think of that object. So for example, at the moment, because we haven’t focused on and developed and habituated ourselves to understand emptiness, to bring to mind the concept of emptiness is difficult. Let alone to bring to mind the direct realization of emptiness. To mix your mind with something, to incorporate something into your continuum so that the understanding of that comes about easily is this first thing that’s translated as meditation which is bhavana in Sanskrit or gom in Tibetan. Okay?
That’s the first type of meditation. The second word that sometimes translated is meditation meditative concentration, all right, is Samādhi. Samādhi. Samādhi in Sanskrit, in Tibetan, and it means it’s a mental Okay. Sorry.
There’s it’s ting nge dzin in Tibetan and samadhi in sanskrit now what this is is a mental factor so that’s a part of the mind which is able to concentrate right so it’s the ability to concentrate now we all have the ability to concentrate okay so it’s a that for any part of the mind where we focus on an object yeah is another is called meditative concentration okay now the third the third type of meditation the third word that sometimes translated as meditation is dhyana in Sanskrit and samten in Tibetan, and it literally in Tibetan means a stable mind. Once we attain what is called tranquility or calm abiding, and this is real dhyana or real samten, okay? And that is the ability to focus single pointedly on an object of whenever we want to, and the investigation of the mind and the object that the mind is focusing on is all included within this idea of dhyana or samten. Right now all of us have samadhi and this meditative concentration. We probably don’t have a tranquilly-abiding mind or the dhyana level of meditative concentration.
But we may have the things that are like that, some of that ability to concentrate in that way. This way, habituating yourself with something, mixing your mind with an object is a form of meditation. The ability to concentrate is a form of meditation. Being able to single pointedly focus on one object without distraction is a form of meditation. All those things are described as meditation in English because it’s a crap language for it.
The question I had isn’t anything to do with sitting. It’s just it’s the question I had during the week, and it’s basically the language and just memory. Uh-huh. What I wanted to know is does the English language in some way actually block our mind? Because you listen to Geshe-la talk Mhmm.
And it’s like it’s like a song. It’s like it’s more flowing. Right? If you look at the English language, it’s very rigid and very mechanical. Yeah.
So what I’m wondering is if in some way very rigid and mechanical too. Yeah? Does language make a difference So I guess you can’t stop your understanding because if you know English, then you’re gonna think be able to think in more different ways than if you didn’t know English. Alright? So your ability to think in different ways is dependent on your understanding of English.
Alright? Yeah. That’s If you didn’t have English, you’d be stuffed, basically. No. What I mean is does language Mhmm.
Block our block the flow of our mind stream in any way? But he said this that he just answered. He said, no. It’s not possible. If you have the ability to think in in words Mhmm.
Yeah, then that’s obviously not gonna block the flow of your of your thoughts. It’s going to be a base for you which on which you can think. Heidi, do you mean that because I’ve had this question myself. Do you mean that by kind of hanging something off a particular meaning or a particular I just said I don’t know English. Yeah?
And I said that, if you’re like in my personal experience, think that trying to understand, he said can you can you translate everything I say into English?