Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A thought experiment opens this 35-minute session: if you feel tired during bodhicitta practice and welcome it as proof you are serving sentient beings, you may be making progress — if you just want to stop, probably not. Geshe Pema Tsering uses this to explain the Tibetan etymology of Bodhisattva as “brave being,” arguing that genuine bodhicitta produces fearlessness in every situation, including hell realms. He then works through why enlightenment requires a vast scope — focusing on all sentient beings, eliminating every instance of self-cherishing across all beings, and developing all the qualities of Buddhahood simultaneously. A frank student exchange on managing fatigue draws Geshe-la’s hard line, citing Milarepa and the Buddha as models of sustained effort, then closes with the story of Śāntideva, who appeared to only eat and sleep at Nālānda but was always practicing in his mind.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2005 04 12b Bodhisattvas Way of Life.mp3
UUID: 99385055-0dbd-4e8e-a28f-de58bcbcbe37
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2005 Mar -2007 (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-04-12
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 35.4 minutes
Words: ~2,438
So I guess just that we can see our own experience with this. If we sit in there going, I’m meditating on bodhicitta, so I can attain enlightenment for all sentient beings, and we can sit there doing that for a while. And then if we get tired, we think we don’t go, woo hoo, I’m tired. That means I’m getting I’m taking on the suffering of others. Go, I’m tired.
Don’t want do it anymore. We really were developing bodhicitta, we go, yes, I’m tired. That’s great. But instead, we think, I’m tired. I wanna do it anymore.
That’s like way, we know that there’s these two different forces against each other. Mhmm. So if if we’re trying to develop bodhicitta, we’re trying to develop the ability to focus on others and not to focus on ourselves, to be, working for others benefit and not to be thinking about ourselves all the time. So if we really are getting somewhere with our bodhicitta practice, it means not only will we think, Yes, I’m really tired. That’s okay.
I don’t mind. I’m working for sentient beings. But we’d be really happy to give our body away. We’d be doing we’d have the same enthusiasm about being born in hell. We’d be thinking, Yes, hell.
Great. Get to help sentient beings. Bring it on. Right? So there’s this, if you’re working for sentient beings, that’s the kind of enthusiasm that you have for all situations because you’re able to, help sentient beings in those situations.
It means that you become very brave. It means that if you’re focused on all sentient beings that you are there is no sense of shrinking from things. There is no, oh, that’s not going to feel that comfortable for me or I’m not going to enjoy that. Everything that we do is approached with a bravery and enthusiasm if we’re working for other beings and not focused on ourselves. So this is why in Tibetan, which isn’t in English or Sanskrit, but anyway, the word for Bodhisattva is the hero of the enlightened mind.
Now, this syllable that means hero, the pa. I guess I keep going the pa, and I’m going, I can’t translate pa. It’s not in English, but anyway. The pa in the in the in Jangchub Sempa, it’s a bit more for Bodhisattva, is is there because of that heroic aspect, because the Bodhisattvas aren’t, afraid. Right?
If you’re working for others, you’re not afraid. You’re you’re you enthusiastically do whatever it takes to attain enlightenment and to eliminate other beings suffering. He says, in Geshe-la, we don’t have the in English. Alright. Sorry.
I said it isn’t in English. You don’t say the heroic one of the enlightened mind. We say, and it’s not in Sanskrit either. Geshe-la goes, you’re not translating into Sanskrit. You’re translating into English.
He goes, you don’t have a word for brave in English? I was like, yeah, but not in the word. So, anyway, he said, if you have a word for brave in English, tell them it means brave. Okay? So it means brave.
They’re brave beings. Yeah. Okay. So you have what you said. You have a word for brave.
You have a word for hero. Yeah. That’s what they are. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. So then, that’s it. Time time is up for that. And if anyone has any questions, I’m just gonna leave. Yep.
Here, your hand looks like it’s itching. Hang on. He’s been mushrooming for a while. You can have the next one. No.
No. You’re here. Go. Go. So the point tonight you are talking about is to experience suffering for other way of what is that about to develop?
Patience. Okay. Enlightenment. Right? And the way that you attain enlightenment is by focusing on all sentient beings.
Getting all sentient beings out of saṃsāra. Leading all sentient beings to Buddhahood. You can’t attain enlightenment by focusing on one person. It doesn’t work. Right?
Because the No. By focusing on yourself. On yourself. On your own enlightenment. You can’t attain enlightenment by just focusing on yourself because it’s too limited a motivation.
Yeah? You can’t expect something that is only focused on one being to have the vast result of Buddhahood. Alright? So, therefore, in order for us to attain Buddhahood, we need to be focused on all sentient beings. And in order for us to lead all sentient beings to Buddhahood, we need to attain enlightenment.
Alright. The the two things work together. So the if we were working towards enlightenment in order to lead all sentient beings to enlightenment, alright, then whatever happens is okay. Yeah. If we experience suffering, that’s fine.
If we don’t experience suffering, that’s fine. The point isn’t to experience suffering, the point is to become a Buddha. Yeah? So in order for us to attain enlightenment, we need to have an incredibly strong mind, an incredibly strong motivation or, incredibly strong focus. So the the strongest focus that we can have is and the main thing that that this enables us to do is is to focus on two things.
We’re trying to get rid of get rid of negativity and develop positivity. Now, if we are focused on attaining enlightenment in order to lead all sentient beings to enlightenment, then that means in terms of negativity, getting rid of negative states or afflicted states, the main thing that we need to look at is getting rid of self-cherishing. Alright? But the instances or the, the things that come out of self-cherishing in one individual is countless. But we’re looking at getting rid of all of the negative states of clinging or self-cherishing in all sentient beings.
So if you’re one being it’s countless, the vastness of the the vastness of what we’re trying to achieve in terms of all sentient beings is uncountable, uncountable. Right? So that’s the one hand. That’s what we’re trying to get rid of. The other side of it, if we look at the positive qualities of a Buddha, they’re uncountable.
Right? One Buddha. But we’re trying to lead all sentient beings to that state. So the positive qualities that we are trying to develop is incredibly vast. So that means that from this perspective, the vaster that we make our mind, the vaster our perception, the more profound the results.
So if we’re looking at getting rid of all negativities, all self-cherishing, all grasping from all sentient beings and developing all positive qualities for all sentient beings, that’s about as vast as our mind can get. Alright? And then the results of that is Buddhahood. So this mind of working towards enlightenment for the benefit of sentient beings is that that in order to lead all sentient beings to enlightenment is is is is bodhicitta, is the mind of enlightenment, that which leads to enlightenment. So we’re talking about the benefits of bodhicitta this evening.
So this sums it up then. The bodhicitta wishes to get rid of every single instance of delusion, of ignorance that leads to suffering, every single instant of it in all sentient beings. And it seeks to to do and so then you have like it’s a massive thing that your Geshe-la is going, you collect it all up. Right? I can’t do it.
I can’t imitate him. But yeah, there was a collection of getting rid of all of those things. Right? So that’s a very strong force. And then you’re also seeking to develop all the positive qualities.
All of the positive qualities of Buddhahood in each and every sentient being. When you think about the force of all of that together and the two of them coming together, then that’s most the the most forceful mind that you could have. Alright? And that’s the kind of mind that you need in order to attain enlightenment. That’s the benefits of bodhicitta that it gets it’s working.
It’s an energy or a a momentum. Yeah? A momentum to get rid of all negative states and achieve all positive states in all beings. Hang on. This poor guy has had his hand up for like three.
Okay. Every time I put his hand up, Geshe will start talking again, but one second. Yeah. Sure. Sure.
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Then that you might get that that feeling. So I’m just wondering, so, yeah, how do you How do you balance it?
Yeah. I need to know that. Sorry. It’s not that I’m not liking the answer. It’s just that I was looking for a more practical result response.
Okay. Okay. So Geshe-la said. Right? Okay.
But the problem isn’t so much the problem I’m trying to remember everything, but the problem isn’t so much that I can’t remember everything because I’m tired. Anyway, the problem isn’t so much that we get tired, right? Is that being tired is a problem for us. Right? So the reason that we get tired is because we are attached to feeling comfortable.
And, if we really don’t want to get tired then we need to work at developing bodhicitta and developing, renunciation. Because if we were working to develop them we will get tired less. Alright? So that the weighted there’s not so much to think of it’s not so much to think of, oh, I’m tired and I’ve worked too much for sentient beings. Now I have to rest and look after myself.
It’s it’s thinking how do I be patient with being tired? Alright? How do I be patient with being tired? Alright? So in that way, if we keep working in that way, then, we’ll be able to withstand more and more and more, and being tired won’t be as much of an issue for us.
So anyway, because I really resonated with this this experience, I said to Geshe-la, but what happens in the meantime? You know? Like, what if we’re so tired we can’t think properly? And then what are we supposed to do? Aren’t we allowed to rest?
And he said he said, working hard doesn’t kill you, you know. Being tired doesn’t kill you, you know. Did Jetsün Milarepa die because he was tired? Did the Buddha die when he did the six years of, hard work? I don’t think so.
So he said that, working hard for others isn’t gonna kill you. And so if it’s not gonna kill you, then keep at it. I said, sometimes you just get so tired, you cannot do anything. You can’t think, you can’t practice, you can’t do anything. And he goes, right.
So you have a rest. And the more you rest, the longer Buddha gets away. The longer it takes to become a Buddha. Okay. So Geshe-la says, as far as he knows, the only two beings that achieved enlightened full, complete enlightenment in this realm without going into like a like pure realms and so on or in the Bardo.
The only two that he’s heard of attaining complete full enlightenment in this lifetime like us were the Buddha and Milarepa. Right? There’s many other beings that attained in the Bardo or attained in different states. And he goes, now look at how hard they worked. I said, yeah, but they didn’t have to translate.
Anyway, So I said, even if we think I’m just having a little rest so my mind can be fresh, I can again work for the benefit of the sentient beings. And he goes, really? That’s why you rest? Yes. Oh, hang on.
Hang on. Hang on. It’s Heather’s turn. He’s not giving an inch on that tonight. It’s such a big motivation.
Uh-huh. As only two people have achieved it. Anyway? Uh-huh. You asked me to repeat all the questions for the tape, didn’t you?
I’m just trying to think of how that would work. That’s alright. I’m just Too late. No. No.
No. No. No. It’s fine. I don’t I don’t think I can repeat it, though.
Yeah. I’ve only got six months Okay. Well okay. So Geshe-la said, that’s what it just said in the text. He said, if you meditate well on bodhicitta, it’s not just saying that you won’t end up in the hells in your next life.
It’s saying that from now until you attain enlightenment, you’re not going to the hells. If you meditate well in bodhicitta. These are the benefits of bodhicitta. It gives you the it it it does everything for this life and the next life and every life until you attain enlightenment. Joe, are you gonna try and figure out a way we can get a rest?
If you’re lying in bed thinking about bodhicitta and emptiness. Yes. Okay. So Śāntideva was renowned as the the person who ate, shot, and slept. Alright?
And he he he was a great and all of the other pandits, all of the other scholars in Nālānda thought he was lazy. And he was actually doing these three things with of and he became alright. Yeah. He became enlightened from it. He didn’t do anything but these three Uh-huh.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So when people looked it in, they saw someone who was eating, someone who was sleeping, and someone who was going to the toilet. Alright?
That’s all they saw. That That it was what was going on in his head. So it’s not actually that you have to do physical activities. Should always be working with your mind. He was always thinking of others, working for the benefit of others, focusing on emptiness and so on.
Yes. I’m just trying to figure out how to translate self obsessed. Okay. The thing that you’re doing is watching your own mind to make sure that you’re thinking of others and not thinking of yourself. Alright?
So, you’ll be paying attention to yourself, but the reason that you’re paying attention to yourself is to make sure that you’re thinking of others. Alright? So if you if that’s why you’re looking at yourself, then you’re not going to become self obsessed. So you’re sitting there thinking, am I thinking of myself? Am I thinking of others?
Is that okay, Joe? And so if you’re thinking about others when you’re meditating, they’re not in your presence, so they’re not going to cause any reaction. But if you go out and meet people, you can meet people that are like you can see you see as your enemy or that get get, annoy you. So that’s of course, that’s gonna provoke a reaction, make it more difficult.