Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 101-minute session, Geshe Pema Tsering opens with a provocation: attending a refuge ceremony does not make you a Buddhist — refuge is a state of mind, the instinctive turning toward the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha the way a frightened child runs to its parents. He maps the three levels of refuge motivation, argues the highest (attaining Buddhahood for all beings) subsumes the other two and is the only one worth deliberately cultivating, and illustrates the rarity of genuine refuge with Atisha’s observation on arriving at a vast Tibetan monastery: everything Buddhist in sight, but no Buddhists. The session then turns to Śāntideva’s text, unpacking two verses on bodhicitta — its two-part definition, its power to transform self-obsession into joyful service, and why the Buddhas themselves call it the most direct path. A closing Q&A addresses how to sustain compassionate practice without burning out.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2005 03 22 Bodhisattvas Way of Life.mp3
UUID: 5b70dfe0-49c6-4751-9419-d9c92954823b
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2005 Mar -2007 (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-03-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 101.0 minutes
Words: ~8,609
In order for us to actually go for refuge to the Three Jewels, we need to know what the Three Jewels are, and we need to know what refuge is. Otherwise, we may say, I go for refuge to the Three Jewels, but we’re not actually doing it. And another thing to remember to get clear is that refuge isn’t a ceremony that you go to and repeat something after a teacher and then end up with refuge. It’s a state of mind. What you get when you go and have a ceremony in front of a teacher, a refuge vow.
And you only maintain your refuge vows as long as you maintain refuge. So refuge is a state of mind, it’s not just a vow. And if you have this state of mind where you go for refuge to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, whether you’ve taken vows from a teacher or not doesn’t make that much difference. The process is one of having a mind that’s turned towards the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha for protection from suffering.
Now, this isn’t — it isn’t — it can’t be equated with just having going to a ceremony. So to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, we first need to go to a Buddhist center. So, therefore, I must be a Buddhist, but it’s not the way it works. And, you know, a Buddhist by doing Buddhist-y things. You’re a Buddhist by having refuge, whether you have refuge or not.
If you have refuge, you’re a Buddhist. If you don’t, no matter whether you do Buddhist meditation, you read Buddhist texts, you go to a Buddhist center, you do Buddhist pujas, you have Buddhist a Buddhist mala doesn’t make you a Buddhist. So, if we have refuge, then whatever we do is Dharma practice. If we have refuge, then, we’re going to approach everything as, whether something that we should be taking up or something we should be abandoning so we’ll be incorporating Dharma practice into all aspects of our life. And then, so whether we have refuge or not depends on whether we’re whether we have refuge or not determines whether we’re a Buddhist or not.
And then from there, there’s these three different levels of Buddhist practice that we can do. The Buddhist practice of the three different types of motivation. There is the lowest motivation that we seek to attain a good rebirth and the middling motivation that we attain liberation and nirvana for ourselves and the highest motivation that we we attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. So the the basis for whether what we’re practicing is Buddhism or not depends on whether we have we do it with refuge, whether we have this idea of refuge. So then after that the level of the practice that we’re doing again depends on our motivation.
Depends on the reason that we’re doing it for. So if we don’t have one of those these three different types of motivation for doing a practice, then it’s not Dharma. And if we don’t have a sense of refuge taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, then it’s not Buddhist. Alright. So without these two ideas behind our activities, then we can’t call what we’re doing Dharma, and we can’t call what we’re doing Buddhism.
And so Geshe said, so I guess then it’s probably called sociology. And and I thought I missed it and said, what? And and he said, you know, where you go to a university and you study about a culture or a religion and and you look at it to try and understand what they do and they say and everything, that, sociology. Okay, so then there’s three different levels of refuge that we can have. We can have the refuge of a lower capacity being, the refuge of a middle-capacity being, the refuge of a high-capacity being, or they are small, medium, or high motivation or great motivation.
Now, there’s something that I just realized that doesn’t translate. The next bit he says is based on this thing that doesn’t translate, right? So I just have to say what it is that doesn’t translate. There’s this word in Tibetan that sometimes translated as refuge and sometimes translated as going for refuge. Alright?
But in the way that Tibetan works, you can put a verb and a noun together and make a new word. Right? So their word that’s usually translated as refuge literally means going for refuge. Alright. So I have going for refuge.
Alright. Doesn’t sound right in English, but it is the way it means in Tibetan. Okay. So there’s a different levels of going for refuge. Yeah.
And there’s different levels we can have this idea of going for refuge. So the first of these is this according to the the lowest scope being, right? So the idea that the lowest scope being has in terms of going for refuge is that they are seeking protection from the suffering of the lower realms. So that in their next in their next rebirth, they want to be born as a human or a god and not experience the suffering of the lower realms. So they go to the Buddha’s Dharma and Sangha for refuge from that from that experience or that that that outcome.
So the reason I was making sure that you got this idea of go to refuge, right, is it because you have to go there in order to get it. Yeah. So this idea of going to the Buddha’s teaching, going to the Dharma, going to the Sangha, going to the to the Buddha. Right? So Mr.
Geshe said, If you go towards the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha with the idea that they can grant you protection, then that’s the process of refuge. It’s not just give me protection. It’s going to them for protection. Does that make Okay. So, the next level up of refuge is the refuge is the middle-capacity being.
Now these beings look at the situation that the those with the the lower motivation have and think, you know, I can ask for protection and I can I can look to the Buddha’s teachings and the path of Buddha the Buddhas have shown us for protection from the lower the lower realms? But if I do that and I am reborn in a as a human or a god in the next life, that’s not gonna last forever. Know, it’s only a temporary, it’s only a temporary, it’s only a temporary stay of what, it will eventually happen of going back into the lower realms. So it’s not enough just to get a a rebirth as a god or human. Have to find a way of getting out of the cycle of saṃsāra altogether.
If I totally want to get rid of my suffering, it’s not enough just to want to be reborn in a higher realm. I have to find a way to get to eliminate the prospect of suffering, in the lower realms altogether and also the the peculiar sufferings of the, the god in human realms as well. So I need a way to get out of saṃsāra completely. So in this sense, they are asking, the Buddhas for protection, and there is a sense of please protect me, but it has these two aspects to it. They go to the Buddhas for protection.
In the same way as if there was a person who had a lot of power in a country. If you’re in a situation where you knew someone who’s very powerful somewhere and you had a problem and they could protect you from the results of that problem. So this person has the ability to stop stop you experiencing something that may be difficult for you to experience you go to that person and say please help me alright please grant me protection from what could happen to me so in the same way you would go to say a minister or the head of police or something to do that, you go to the Buddha who has the ability to protect us from the sufferings of the lower realms and saṃsāra. So the beings of their greatest capacity, or their greatest motivation have a even vaster, idea about refuge than those who are seeking, refuge, from saṃsāra and to attain nirvana because their idea is this if I attain nirvana for myself if I manage to eliminate all the suffering that I could potentially experience and all the causes of suffering and experience great peace that isn’t gonna help anyone else in any way right and so by me getting rid of suffering for myself that’s only a very limited outcome because I’m not working to get other beings out of that state at all.
And so they realize the, the limits that are put is put on, the, individual liberation working towards individual liberation. And their view becomes much vaster because they think, well, if I if I just did it for myself that’s a bit embarrassing, isn’t it? I’m just working towards, my own happiness and I look around and there’s always other people in suffering and, intense suffering and in the past they’ve been my mother and my friends and my family and they’ve helped me out. So there’s not one being who hasn’t helped me out and then it’s like it’s no, it’s just too I’m too ashamed to sit here and enjoy my happiness while they all suffer. Right?
So then having thought about this, they’re motivated to work towards complete enlightenment so that they can lead all sentient beings without exception out of that state of suffering to complete enlightenment. So in this way they’re not just focusing on their own happiness but on the happiness of all sentient beings. The extinguishing of suffering of all sentient beings. And this is the reason that they turn to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. So we out of these three different motivations, the one that we should try and develop is the motivation of the greatest capacity.
That is to work towards enlightenment in order to lead all sentient beings out of sorrow and establish them as Buddhas. So this may be difficult for us to develop an idea of this at the moment especially if we watch our minds and realize how much we grasp onto this idea self and cherish the self. But it’s something that we can train in and it’s something that we can get better and better at. We can get better and better at thinking of others and, not focusing on ourself as much. And then by training ourselves in this way by focusing on this idea of, working towards enlightenment in order to lead all sentient beings out of suffering and we can get so used to the idea that it becomes spontaneous and natural for us.
So the other thing is that it’s a bit pointless to focus on the lower motivations considering that they are all subsumed within this highest of motivations. If we have the highest of motivations, if we’re working towards enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, we end up achieving enlightenment for ourselves we attain individual liberation we attain a good rebirth we can even become happier in this lifetime so it seems a bit point pointless to just focus on a smaller goal when all of the smaller goals are subsumed into the largest of goals or the grandest of goals. So in this way, if we focus on attaining enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, then it is of most benefit in to most beings and, in in this way becomes more vastly beneficial than any of the other motivations. So the other thing is that we should remember when we say to reach enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, as sentient beings, we’re included within that all sentient beings, group. It’s not like we say I’m going to reach enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings except me.
Yeah. And when you say you were reaching enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, you’re included within the group. So in this way an individual’s desires or goals the ultimate goals are fulfilled in this way as well. So we should remember that as well. If we ever have this idea of what about me, then we remember while I’m part of the group.
Okay? And so then, taking this all into account and when we say these prayers when we say the the refuge prayers, especially the there’s prayer that says I go for refuge to the Guru, go for refuge to the Buddha, I go for refuge to the Dharma, go for refuge to the Sangha. We shouldn’t just be saying it, shouldn’t just be mouthing it, we shouldn’t just be, going through the words. We should really try feel that state from our from the bottom of our hearts and we should try and generate this idea to feel that sense of refuge of protection and have the same response to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as a child does when they’re in danger. So if you watch it when a child’s in danger or if you can remember being a child when you’re in danger, you run to your parents because you expect protection from them and you’re almost guaranteed that they’re going to protect you.
Alright. So you have this, instinctual and intuitive reaction to run to your parents for protection. And this is this is what the mind of refuge is like is a instinctual or intuitive reaction to the sufferings sufferings of other beings the sufferings of the lower realms is to to run to the to the Buddha the Dharma and the Sangha to to go towards the Buddha and the Dharma and the Sangha for protection from this suffering. So this is the kind of mind that we’re working to develop when we are focusing on refuge and saying refuge prayers, doing refuge practices. So, if we have this idea that in order for me to become a Buddha, in order for me to lead all sentient beings out of suffering, then the only way I can do this is to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha to develop understanding of what the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha is to put the Buddha’s teachings into practice to follow the path because this is the protection that The Buddha, Dharma and Sangha offer and therefore become a Buddha and be able to lead all sentient beings out of their suffering.
And if we have this idea if we have this idea of I’m going for protection to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha become a Buddha and to lead all sentient beings out of suffering. To establish them as Buddhas, then, that’s when we become, fully qualified Buddhists and, not only fully qualified Buddhist, but fully qualified Buddhists of the highest highest order because we have this motivation to work for the benefit of all sentient beings and not just ourselves. And with that motivation, with that way of thinking, if we just go for a walk, if we go here or there or go to shops or whatever it is we’re doing, we’re doing it as Buddhists of the highest order or of the highest motivation. So Geshe said that, maybe we shouldn’t just think that Buddhists are the only people with refuge either, because, Christians or other beings who have faith in a, in a in some kind of jewel. Doesn’t really translate, does it?
Who have faith in some kind of a higher being or some kind of guess I said that it seems to him that Christians go for refuge to Jesus because they’re looking to Jesus for protection for guidance for a way out of suffering alright so this is just as much a refuge for them as the Three Jewels are a refuge for Buddhists so and he would think then that the number of Christians that actually do view Jesus in this way and looking to Jesus as a way out of suffering, looking to Jesus as a way to be kind to other beings to develop compassion for other beings is pretty rare, right? As opposed to people who just culturally, Christian. And he said, this is same for Buddhists. You can meet an awful lot of Buddhists and not many of them who actually have that true sense of sorry, you can meet an awful lot of cultural Buddhists who don’t have that true sense of refuge in their in their heart. So it’s something that we need to work at generating, it’s not something that just comes about.
Okay. So so this idea of refuge is something that’s really needs to be cultivated, and it’s something that we really need to believe in in order for it to work. Alright. So, I guess I said it’s like if, if if we went to someone who we didn’t really think could help us, but we just kind of asked them by the by if that help us, then they’re gonna think, oh, what’s the point? Don’t actually think I’m gonna I can help them anyway.
So you said for example, if you went to a if you went to a minister or something like that. This word means minister like a important person in charge you has lots of power. Right? And you went to them and you had this like offhand way of saying, look, know, I really wanna help you. I I really want you to help me, but I don’t think you can really help me you know really dismissive of their ability, then, they’re not actually going to be able to help you properly because you’re not putting your faith in them to help you.
Alright, so you’re just making a flippant flippant comment and you’re not actually relying on them. So they can say I can help you if you do this this and this and this yeah but if you just go to them and with this idea of maybe they can help me maybe they can’t and I you know I might listen to what they say I may not right then they’re not gonna be able to help you then I think what’s the point yeah there’s no point explaining to them what they have to do in order to get out of this situation because, they don’t they don’t gonna listen to me anyway. Alright. So if this, this very benefit beneficent, and, what do you call it? Altruistic minister, which I was trying to to guess, so they’re pretty rare in Australia.
Is it has this idea of a he’s going, you know, good good ministers. I’m like, Okay. So if this if if we do find someone like this, someone that we can rely on, and they say, I can get you out of your situation if you follow this instruction, this instruction, and this instruction. Right? We have to have faith that what they’re telling us will work you know even in order to commit to it and in order to commit to them and even in fact in order in order to mean it when we say please help me right we need to have faith in their ability to lead us out of that situation in order to really mean it when we say that, right.
So it’s the same process that we’re going through when we’re developing refuge. We have to really believe that we’ve by following the Buddhist instructions we can get, to Buddhahood, to liberation, to a to a good rebirth. Alright. Otherwise we’re just saying it. We’re just saying the words.
We’re not actually meaning it and it’s not refuge. Alright. So, when you have this idea when you really believe that someone can help you and all you have to do to get out of that situation is do what they say and and you can see how that would work, then the way that you turn to them is the same way that a child will turn to their parents for protection from some kind of outside danger that they don’t understand right they’ll go instinctually to their parents. So this is what we need to try and generate in terms of developing refuge. So in Buddhism, this whole process is called refuge.
It’s called going for refuge. You turn towards the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, in order to, find the way, out of suffering to to look for protection from suffering. And this, turning towards the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha is the, same as the same reaction as a child would have if they’re in danger running towards their parents. And so they have it. Geshe-la says that he thinks they have it in Christianity and other religions.
They just don’t give it the same name. They may call it finding salvation or give it other names, but they don’t don’t call it refuge. It’s a similar process believing that this these jewels, these Three Jewels or whether it’s an individual jewel or the Three Jewels can get you out of suffering and lead you to happiness in of these levels is the process of going for refuge. So, it’s a bit difficult for us to develop this refuge. It’s something that we need to work at.
And one of the reasons is we have difficulty developing refuge is because, there’s only been one, what’s called a supreme emanation body of a Buddha who’s been around who came to Earth that we know about. Right? The Buddha Śākyamūni. It’s the only one that we have like a historical record of that we can relate to. And not only is he the only one that has come to earth and manifest fully as a Buddha, but he died.
Alright? And he died a long time ago, or he went into paranivana as exactly what Geshe-la said a long, long time ago. So he’s not around. So he never met the Buddha. Yeah.
And then it’s the same thing with Jesus. He thinks that it’d be difficult for people to have really strong faith in Jesus because they never met Jesus. He died a long time ago too. Right? And so because these beings aren’t around here, then this idea of having faith in and going for refuge to someone we’ve never met, alright, someone we’re just hearing about, is something that can be difficult for us to generate the idea Okay.
But just the first thing is that just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean that they’re not around. Alright? It doesn’t mean that they’re continually working not continually working to benefit us. And, just because we weren’t born at the same time as them doesn’t mean that we can’t practice what they preached. Alright?
Doesn’t mean we can’t take up the tools that they left behind for us to use. So if we can take up the tools that the Buddha left for us and when he said do this, don’t do follow this path, don’t follow this path, and we can start putting that into practice, then we can actually start to see how it works. And by starting to see how it works, we can start to develop faith and start to develop a sense of trust. So, if we’re able to have this sense, if we have to, based on our experience and based on our understanding, to have this sense of faith or the ability to depend or seek refuge from the Buddha’s teachings and the Sangha, then this is refuge. And if we’re able to do this because we want to benefit all sentient beings by attaining Buddhahood and it’s the refuge of the greatest of beings.
And then we can call ourselves Buddhists. So therefore Buddhists are quite proud Because it’s a bit difficult to be one. So this is is rare and there’s this story about the Indian pundit, Atisha, when he first went to Tibet, he came to this huge monastery and he goes, well, this is strange. There’s these massive Buddhist buildings, and there’s all these Buddhist iconography, but there’s no Buddhists. And it was a monastery full of monks.
Because Atisha had clairvoyance, he could read people’s minds, so he said, this is strange. There’s all these everything that’s considered really holy by Buddhists, but no Buddhists. So if you wanna be Buddhist, then please develop a clear understanding of what the Three Jewels are and work on developing that understanding training your mind to go to the Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha for refuge. Okay. So having thought of all of that and think then please try and develop this idea, because I want to have the vastest of motivations and the vastest of refuges.
And then please, have the idea that in order to attain enlightenment, in order to lead all sentient beings out of suffering, then you are going to, listen to the teaching and develop be able to practice in accordance with the teachings and progress on the path to Buddhahood and then meditate on the idea for a couple of minutes. So, in the text, we are looking at verse number seven which says, the mighty Buddha’s, pondering for many ages has seen that this and only this will save the boundless multitudes and bring them easily to supreme joy. So this is, under a section called the potential to accomplish supreme bliss. So under that heading comes this verse. Now, what this means when it says the mighty Buddha’s pondering for many ages have seen that this and only this will save the boundless multitudes and bring them easily to supreme joy or, supreme bliss, is that the Buddhas have had a lot of time to, think about or to look at, what is going to be most beneficial to sentient beings.
What is going to lead people to Buddhahood? What is going to enable no. What is going to lead people to Buddhahood and as Buddhas enable them to work for the benefit of all sentient beings. So having contemplated, and having achieved that state themselves, then they assert or they say in their texts, that the best way to attain Buddhahood is to practice bodhicitta, to practice the, mind of enlightenment. So there’s many different paths in Buddhism and there’s many different, areas that we could concentrate on.
There’s many different, things that we need to develop. We need to develop an understanding of emptiness. We need to develop, tranquility. We need to develop, special insight. We need to develop an understanding of impermanence.
We need to develop an understanding of suffering. There’s all of these things that are parts of the Buddhist path. And even though there’s all these things that are parts of the Buddhist path that we need to work on, the Buddhas themselves has said that out of all of these different practices, the most direct and the, most beneficial beneficial is the practice of bodhicitta. So this is what the first this is what this verse refers to. And this is also what’s given as one of the main reasons to put effort into developing bodhicitta.
Another why bodhicitta so incredibly incredibly powerful in, eliminating suffering and, develop and establishing beings in great bliss, is that, it transforms beings who are so obsessed with their own happiness that they don’t even like it when someone pulls out one of their hairs all right a strand of hair into beings that will undergo any kind of suffering happily in order to be a benefit to sentient beings. All right so before you develop bodhicitta if you’re like us now someone came and pulled our hair out we wouldn’t be very happy about it. And it’s not a very big thing to have your hair pulled out. If you’ve transformed the way you’re thinking and you’re working for the benefit of others as opposed to working for your own happiness for your own experience of joy and comfort yeah then having your hair pulled out will be not a problem someone wants to if chopping up your body will help beings then not a problem. If you’re working for the benefit of others completely through bodhicitta all of these things you’ll do happily there’s no there’s no suffering associated with discomfort that comes from working for other beings alright so in this way and through transforming our focus from self to other we experience great happiness.
Anything that we can do to help others brings us great happiness. Anything that we can do to, eliminate other suffering will bring you great happiness when you’re a Bodhisattva. So this way, Bodhisattvas are very happy people. They get to do things for beings all the time and they don’t worry about, their their own suffering. So they they by developing bodhicitta were transformed from someone who doesn’t who can’t bear the austerities of having a hair pulled out, into someone who can constantly work, happily and, even very, joyfully, for the benefit of all sentient beings.
They’re able to do that. Being with bodhicitta are able to do that. Okay. So, another way. Sorry.
I just guess I said, do you understand what I’m saying? I said, yes. I just don’t understand how that fits with anything that’s on the page. And so he said, that’s because you’re not reading it properly. And, so we had just had a wee discussion about why I wasn’t reading it properly.
Okay. So another so that’s just in case you’re wondering what that was about. So it’s it’s says that not only sentient beings become very happy people or happy beings when they develop bodhicitta because they very happy about working for others but having bodhicitta you don’t create the causes for being reborn in the lower realms alright so this is another way they experience happiness they go from one experience of happiness to another experience of happiness in the higher realms and as their bodhicitta increases their experience of happiness and doing these actions increases as well. So then it says given all of these qualities don’t be lazy who who who will be lazy no given all these qualities qualities, who would be lazy about trying to attain it? So, Geshe says, I can answer that.
I know who would be lazy about not attaining it. Us. Because we don’t know its benefits and we don’t understand its benefits properly and we don’t, know what’s wrong with the not having it, so we tend to be a bit lazy about trying to achieve it. So if we wanna know what if we wanna have a clear idea in our head about what the mind of enlightenment is or the bodhicitta is, then we can think of it having these two different parts. The first part is that we want all sentient beings to be free of suffering, right?
And the second part is that in order to bring that about we need to become Buddhas ourselves. So these two elements to one motivating thought is the mind of bodhicitta. The bodhicitta. Okay. Saying ‘Himalayan mountains’ in English doesn’t work.
So you we actually talk about bodhicitta. Bodhi meaning enlightenment, over and over again. But, it’s good to know what it means, because we may just have a vague idea of what it means or think that it’s possibly a good thing. And that’s if in order to have a clear understanding of what bodhicitta is then, we should perhaps look at its definition. So the definition for bodhicitta that its defining characteristics, are described as being: Okay.
So Okay. So, Them Is it what they do with these definitions actually trying to like, it’s like I’m packing a suitcase when you try and translate a definition. You know, what’s that syllable mean? What’s that syllable mean? Alright.
So to try and do it, and this is rough, so please don’t take this as a final word. Okay. For the benefit of others, the the mind generated how would you say it? The mind generated for the benefit of others. Oh, okay.
Because this is a play on words as well, which is difficult to translate because this is word which literally means the mind generated. There’s also a synonym of. So, yes. The mind that you that’s like maybe inspired inspired by the by benefiting others. Alright?
That seeks to establish them in a seeks to establish them in the final enlightenment by first attaining enlightenment for for for one’s own self. How’s that? Okay. The mind inspired or generated by wishing to benefit in other benefit others by establishing them in the final enlightenment by attaining enlightenment first for one’s own self. Yeah?
It’s technical. Yes. And I’m probably not gonna say it the same way three times. Is the mind inspired by or generated by wishing to benefit others or help others by establishing them in the complete enlightenment, which is Buddhahood. Yeah.
And then the second lying is that’s the first line, right? And it says, and which then in order to bring this about attaining complete perfect enlightenment for oneself. On this one. This one. Oh yeah.
So, then the next section of the text deals with the title the potential to accomplish whatever one wishes and this is described in the next verse which is verse eight of the root text, of the original text which says, those who wish to overcome the sorrows of their lives and put to flight the pain and suffering of beings. Those who wish to win such great beatitude should never turn their back on bodhicitta. Mhmm. Mhmm. Right.
So, the sorrows of their lives. Now, this is something that we need to look at because, have the sorrows of our lives isn’t something that we think about very often and all the different experiences of sorrow that we have, whether they be the sorrow of losing happiness, the sorrow inherent in gaining happiness because we’re going to lose it or manifest sorrow or just the sorrow of suffering of being someone who has, the aggregates form and feelings and so on. It’s not something that we recognize often. So it’s something that we need to work at to, to recognize. So if you want if you’ve recognized that you’re experience in saṃsāra and you wanna get rid of that pain and suffering, not for yourself, but for all sentient beings, then, and you want, and so and in getting rid of that, suffering, you want to experience great happiness or great beatitude that have hit.
Then you shouldn’t ever give up on bodhicitta because it’s through bodhicitta that you’re going to be able to bring this about. Right. So this verse actually gives us a reason for meditating on bodhicitta because it is the best way for us to benefit ourselves and others. Now, the motivation of those who are the middle scope of being, that is those who are working towards liberation from themselves, may enable them that the results of that path may enable them to get rid of suffering for themselves. But it is very limited compared to the motivation of the higher scope which has the ability to put to flight, the sufferings of of so many hundreds of millions of sentient beings.
And so in this way, it is only bodhicitta that has the ability, to a to grant the the wishes of sentient beings, and that is all sentient beings, not just for one person who’s working towards personal liberation. So in this way it brings sentient beings all that they want. It also brings individuals all that they want and it brings along with it a definite the practice of bodhicitta and the development of bodhicitta bring along with it the sort of What do you call them? Fringe benefit that you are I’m just trying to think of any other way to translate it, that you are definitely going to be reborn, in the higher realms, from that state up until you enlightenment. In this way there is all these different there’s hundreds of different benefits, of bodhicitta and more than we can imagine.
And, not only for ourselves, but also for other sentient beings. So we shouldn’t just thanks. We shouldn’t just try and develop a bodhicitta and then not keep working at it. bodhicitta is, something that we should never turn our backs on. It’s something that we should always keep developing.
And even once we have a sense of uncontrived bodhicitta, there’s something that happens spontaneously, in our mind. We need to keep developing bodhicitta then as well, because it can get greater and greater and greater even from that point onwards. So it’s something that we should never stop meditating on and it’s something that we should always says never stop meditating is a double negative, right, which means that we should always meditate on it. And just so you know, you can have double negatives in Tibetan. So the idea is that you should never give up on it, you should never send it away, you should never, throw it away and, you should never let it disintegrate in terms of even when you have it, have some sense of bodhicitta in your mind stream don’t let it fade away and don’t let it go backwards keep trying to improve and strengthen the mind of enlightenment.
I said, so again, though. We got three two verses, and he goes, well, that’s quite a bit. Oh, yeah. If you have any questions. You don’t have to ask anything in case that just cracks up.
So By the way, my dictionary says what the bodhi means. Bodhi. Bodhi means to be aware and to know what a path is and something like that. Bodhi. What not bodhi.
Bodhi. Bodhi. Yeah. Yeah. Hang on it.
Hey, Monty. Yeah. Hang on. We’ve got a problem. Because body is in a Tibetan word.
Yeah. When is this translated through my Yeah. No. No. No.
No. It’s and it’s probably a very good machine. Okay, so Geshe said, well, he would think that that’s a good meaning for bodhi because mean Buddhists know all. Right? Buddhists know all.
So it means that they know. It means to know. Right? To to have woken up from some from clouds and to understand things. Woken up from clouds.
To come out from behind clouds of not knowing and know everything. So in that way, thinks that, this word bodhi and the word the way they translate it in Tibetan is makes sense. It means the it’s another way saying enlightenment. It’s to know. But to but Buddhists know all phenomena.
Yeah. So, then the two words bodhi and chitta. Bodhi is this description of enlightenment of knowing, of not having obscurations to knowledge and not having obscurations of negative states of mind. And then the chitta is the mind. Mind.
So it means like the mind striving for that state. The mind working towards that state. So that’s the way the two parts of the word come together. By the way, just just just by the way. By the way.
One of my Uh-huh. Is. He says for what we can do, nothing is against the truth.
Okay. So if you said that if someone comes up and calls you a thief Thief. A thief? Yeah. Oh.
Said, but that doesn’t make sense because someone could come up and from you and then they would say that their things were yours. Alright? And that’s doing something that doesn’t accord with the truth. So in this way, then you you would have to say that a thief if what you’re saying holds true, then you would have to say that a thief saying this stuff’s mine, it doesn’t belong to him, is truth. By the way, from what I understand what is true of me.
You’re talking about Yes. Yeah. He said his point was that most of what we do doesn’t actually doesn’t accord with the path. Doesn’t go along with the path. Most of what we do contradicts the path.
Yeah. What was the original statement again, George? Can you say it again? For what we can do, nothing against the truth but for the truth. For what we can do, nothing is against the truth, but it’s for the truth.
But for the truth. But he’s he’s picking it up and Okay, if I retranslate it as whatever we can do, nothing can go against or can contradict. Right? Ultimate truth. Yeah.
It works. He can he goes, yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Because ultimate truth is emptiness.
Of course, that makes sense. Right? So, yeah. Yes. I’m sure it makes sense, but I don’t know.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Did everyone hear that? No.
So she said that what she’s finding now is if she’s trying to I hope I get this right now. If she’s trying to work for the for other people and in working for other people experiences a sense of discomfort, yeah, or and then that can lead to an unhappiness and a and a bit of a depression or a sinking, a mental sort of sinking. Is that what you mean? Yeah. So, how do you deal with that situation?
Yeah. How do you deal with that situation? And and and oh, sorry. And it and it, can lead to laziness through having a a sense of depression can lead to laziness, not wanting to do anything. Yeah?
Right? Right. This is why I try and translate it straight away, so don’t forget. Okay. So Geshe-la said, yeah.
We do have to put that kind of circle to a stop and then he said now the first thing is to remember, he said to look at what you do and see how often you get tired when you’re doing something for yourself. Alright, how often you do something for yourself until you get tired and how you don’t necessarily resent that. Right, so that’s the first thing to look at. The second thing is to, don’t do things for other people till you get so tired that you develop laziness and resent it. All right.
He said to do things until you’re tired and then stop yeah and then rest and relook at the situation, develop another look at your motivation again look at why you’re doing these things remind yourself of doing it and then start again. If you keep doing it until you’re way tired then you’re not going to be able do it properly and you’re going to become resentful. So in order to break the cycle, stop, refocus, look at why you’re doing it, and then you feel motivated to do it again. Because the problem is that if you keep wearing yourself out from doing things, then at some stage, you’re gonna think, forget it. I don’t want anything to do with it.
Yeah. Are you talking about the motivation or the practices? Okay, so, the practices that are associated with the, lower and middling beings, right, Or the lower middling motivations are what’s called common practices and that they are common to the lower capacities and the higher capacities, right? So it’s not as if they are something that is specific to any stage of the development through those three levels. Okay, so what this means is that the lower and middling scopes of the Lamrim practices are actually part of the practices of a higher scope being.
So it’s not as if someone with one motivation does one thing, someone with another motivation does another thing and someone with a higher motivation does another thing. They’re called common because they’re common to all three scopes, right? So the practices associated with the two lesser motivations are actually part of the practice of a being with the highest motivation. They’re the basis for that. So it’s not that you should think this motivation accords with this and this is it doesn’t feel right and I that this one I should be doing the other practices because the whole three sections are all part of the practice of someone with the highest motivation.
Right? They’re what’s called the Ngöndro, or the preliminary practices to that to the practices that are uncommon practices of someone with a higher motivation. Right? So you do the whole path with a higher motivation, right? But in order to so you you do it within a rough idea and then through meditation and through learning about it your your bodhicitta becomes stronger because the more that you for example the more that you focus on suffering of the lower realms the stronger your bodhicitta becomes.
The more that you focus on getting out of saṃsāra the stronger your bodhicitta becomes. Alright so you start with a rough idea and that’s your motivation and the more that you work through this path the more intense and the more solidified your understandings become. So the motivation is the same for the whole path And the that you so which is bodhicitta, right? And that you work through the different stages in order to get to the end of the path. I’m sorry.
Okay, so for example, he said, abandoning the ten non virtuous actions and practicing the ten virtuous actions is a practice associated with the lower scope. If you abandon the ten non virtuous actions however with the idea I’m abandoning these negative actions in order to attain enlightenment that practice of the ten virtuous actions becomes a higher scope practice. But isn’t it that fear is an important part of renunciation. But if I was, you know, totally identifying or aiming for the highest motivation Mhmm. To to take with things to enlightenment.
You know, meditating in the lower realms, instead of having fear of going there myself Mhmm. Would want to you’re not even here to put Sure. Sure. Mind going there to to be able to benefit. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. No. No. It’s Yeah.
That’s alright. I understand that. Okay. But the thing is, without renunciation, you don’t have bodhicitta, right? So, you can’t develop bodhicitta without the fear of the lower realms and the fear of Samsāra.
So, in order to develop uncontrived spontaneous bodhicitta, you need to, so you can think in order to attain enlightenment, I need to have this fear of the lower realms. And actually, there’s two distinct things what you’re talking about. The first thing is being reborn into the lower realms through karma cause and effect which you have no control over and the second one is seeking to go there to benefit beings. Two different things. So the idea of attaining bodhicitta, having the motivation of the highest scope is that you will have that you seek to attain highest enlightenment in order to get all sentient beings out of out of suffering right and if you don’t have a fear of suffering yourself or a fear of suffering for other beings to experience that then there’s no way that that bodhicitta comes about.
It’s based on this idea of not wanting to experience that suffering, right? So therefore you in terms of the way you’re going through the practice if you’re focusing on the lower realms you’re thinking I need to have this fear of the lower realms in order to develop in order to develop renunciation in order to develop bodhicitta in order to lead all sentient beings in order to become a Buddha and lead all sentient beings out of suffering. I mean, I guess you just go through all the meditations and teachings and teachings to develop that fear and that motivation. That high motivation is really just a contrived one at the moment. Uh-huh.
Because we have to start at the very beginning Uh-huh. For those meditations and teachings to really clearly understand Uh-huh. The realizations of the most basic — learning the meditations and teachings — are not basic, but, you know, they are the beginning. Uh-huh.
You know, the beginning But I think that you’ve gotten two things muddled up, though. And the Alright. So so the thing is, you you start with this end motivation. I wanna reach enlightenment to benefit all sentient beings. And then you start working back from there to see where you’re at.
Alright? Okay. I want to reach enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Do I have an uncontrived motivation to get there? No.
What’s the next step back? Why don’t I have an uncontrived motivation? Because I consider myself to be too important. Alright. So I’m holding on to myself and cherishing myself.
Okay. So then so because I’m holding on to myself and cherishing myself then what what do I naturally fear? Alright, so then you look at looking at fear of the lower realms. So you work back to the place you start with the end goal and you work back to the place where you’re at and then you meditate on that stage. So Geshe-la said to ask you if you are abiding in the happiness of Samsāra.
I don’t know why. So because the thing is, the thing that you’re afraid of is uncontrolled rebirth in the lower realms and the experience of suffering because of uncontrolled rebirth. And that fear lasts all the way. That’s why you wanna attain Buddhahood, to get other beings out of that state. The, wish to be reborn in the lower realms in order to benefit beings is something totally different.
It’s not uncontrolled. It’s not something that you don’t that you do unhappily. So bodhisattvas are really happy about being reborn in lower realms. It’s not something that they experience as suffering, something they experience as happiness. So what you’re trying to develop fear of is, the uncontrolled uncontrolled rebirth that you and other beings experience and that fear or that aversion to, that that state is something that you work on as Buddha as well.
But it yeah. Okay. I’m it’s it’s probably everyone else is going to sleep. But no. Okay.
What? So guess it said that your motivation for practicing the entire path including the first motivations and developing fear of the lower realms should be bodhicitta. So you don’t adapt or take on the lowest motivation. You always have the highest motivation. And then in order to bring that motive to bring the end goal about you start meditating at the beginning but you don’t ever take on the motivation of the lower scope you do you take on the practices but not the motivation I like you.
No. It’s like it’s cool. It’s because it’s like I’m doing a lot. So I Joe, did you have a hand up? He said.
No. Don’t know. Oh, yeah. He said he saw he saw your hand up. Oh, it doesn’t mean he’s having it.
So if you don’t, then it’s probably finished.