Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with a sūtra: “if you want to know what you were doing in the past, look at the body you have now; if you want to know where you’ll be in the future, look at the mind you have now,” Geshe Pema Tsering uses this 70.7-minute session to bridge Chapters One and Two of Śāntideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. He argues that self-cherishing pervades even innocent-seeming acts — rice, cotton, and dairy all come at other beings’ expense — and reframes meditation as habit-forming familiarization rather than occasional reflection. He then introduces Chapter Two, explaining why “Confession” is too narrow a translation for a chapter covering all practices that remove obstacles to Dharma, walks through the seven-limb prayer’s structure, and unpacks the opening verses on offerings to the Three Jewels, including the doctrinal identity of each Jewel and three categories of offering.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2005 05 31 Bodhisattvas Way of Life.mp3
UUID: 2842666b-75e0-471c-91dc-8cf6e68fdda5
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2005 Mar -2007 (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-05-31
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 70.7 minutes
Words: ~6,942
Uh-huh. So the Buddha, in one of his sutras said, if you want to know what you were doing in the past, look at the body you have now. If you wanna know where you’ll be in the future, look at the mind you have now. Okay. So that means then, if we’re in a situation now that we have the leisure and the opportunity—
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Alright. So in order for us to have a rebirth now, which has leisure leisure time, that is the time in which we can practice Dharma, and the opportunity to practice Dharma. This means that we have to have had a rebirth in our previous lifetime where we created the causes for the rebirth that we have now. Now the things that act as a cause for having a life in which we have the time and the opportunity to practice Dharma are first of all to have been practicing the six perfections, the practice of the six paramita. Then to have made stainless prayers, to attain enlightenment and also to have had good ethics, to have had a practice of good ethics.
So this means that we must have had a human rebirth in our past life where we were able to practice these things. Alright? So if we want to know where we were in the path, we can actually get have a pretty good guess of where we were in the path from where we are now. If we have the opportunity to practice Dharma, that means we must have had the opportunity to create the causes to practice Dharma now in our previous lifetime. Where we were the lifetime before that, then that’s anybody’s guess.
But where where we were in the last lifetime, we can we can estimate where we were. If we wanna know where we’re going to be in our future lives, then we need to look at the way we think. We need to look at what we do with our minds. We need to look at whether we spend our time trying to do virtuous activities or whether we spend our time engaged in, unvirtuous activities or in activities that cause, suffering. So depending on what we’re doing with our minds now, then we sorry.
If we look at what we’re doing with our minds now, then we can have a good idea about where we’re going to be in a future lifetime. If we start watching our minds, if we start becoming mindful of the way we think, then we’ll start noticing that that most of the things that we think about are not that positive. Most of the things that we think about aren’t virtuous aren’t virtuous. This is because most of the things that we think about are to do with this lifetime, how to make ourselves happy and comfortable in this lifetime, and how to win in this lifetime, how to get an advantage for ourselves in this lifetime. And, you know, and many times, we’re not thinking of how we can get help other people, but how we ourselves can be in a a good position in this only in this lifetime.
So this is what the way that we naturally think if we don’t try and do anything with our minds. If we don’t try and train our minds, then we naturally have this, inclination to thinking about ourselves to trying to make ourselves comfortable and happy. If we start training our mind so we can change the way we think, change the way we think. That we can start training our mind so we think of others, so we think of future lifetimes. And one of the ways that we do this is by reminding ourselves of the pointlessness of, getting ourselves situation in this lifetime of the pointlessness of working out working for wealth and stature and things like that.
So if we keep thinking about these things, then this will make us focus on at least our future lives. So if we think about this and if we start looking at not just this lifetime, but what’s gonna happen in future lifetimes, then we’re not going to have a harmful mind. We’re not going to go to the extreme of wanting to hurt other people to make ourselves feel better, to get things for ourselves. We’re not going to want to do anything that’s going to, do things for ourselves at others’ expense. And most of the time that’s if we don’t watch it, what we we think.
We think how can I get this for myself and not think about others? Right? But if we’re focusing on this idea of the of the of the of coming back in the next lifetime, of having to take a rebirth in dependence on the positive or negative karma that we’ve accumulated, then we’re not going to want to do something that’s going to hurt others and gives us short term satisfaction. It’s not going be as important because we’re going to be looking at the karmic repercussions of what we do as opposed to the short term sensual pleasure that we may get from doing these things. Alright.
So there’s there’s lots of things that we do that we’re just thinking about ourselves and we don’t take into consideration other beings. And we need to keep reminding ourselves of these things. So even if we have to keep doing some of these things, that we actually understand what it is that we’re doing, that we’re not just acting, instinctively to do things for ourselves and and not think about other beings. And there’s there’s very simple things that we do that harm other beings that we don’t think about. For example, we eat meat.
Alright? And this is the it obviously not we’re obviously not doing that to benefit the animals. Yeah? We eat eggs and we may not think about this, but they’re taking a chicken’s eggs isn’t that nice for the chicken. We eat milk, which isn’t produced for us.
It’s produced for baby cows. Alright? We we do all of these things without thinking about it, without thinking about how we are doing something for ourselves and we’re not and we’re not taking into consideration the other beings that we’re affecting by performing these actions. And they’re very simple actions. It’s not as if it’s a complicated mental structure complicated mental process that we’re kidding ourselves that we’re not hurting others.
There’s even things that we think that are completely faultless that we do for ourselves to maintain our bodies and everything like eating, again, rice and eating flour that we think some people think, Well, I’m not going to eat meat because because that’s harming an animal. But if I eat rice and flour, then that’s fine. I’m not hurting anyone then. But it’s not the case. If we think about it, every mouthful of rice or bread that we have comes about through suffering to other beings.
So, doesn’t just appear in shops, it comes from a field and in order for the rice to be taken from the field, first of all, a farmer has to put in the hard work to get it done. So, it’s not nice for them to have to plow fields and sow rice. And then when they’re harvesting the rice, it’s not as if there’s no bugs aren’t killed in that process. Or it’s not as if there’s aren’t any other small animals that are harmed by harvesting their rice. And then there’s people in the factories that sift it and put it in bags and everything.
There’s a lot of labor involved in us getting our rice. And it’s the same with the bread or the flour that we eat. There’s all beings harmed or put under put in difficult situations to bring about the rice and the the rice and the bread that we eat. And in some people’s minds, think, oh, I’m going to be a vegetarian and therefore I’m not going to hurt anyone by what I do for myself, for how I sustain my body. If I don’t eat meat, if I don’t eat these things, then my existence isn’t going to hurt anyone else.
But it’s not actually the case. The fact that we have a physical body and we need to sustain this physical body means that we harm others. Alright? So we harm other beings by having a physical body that we need to sustain and there’s not anything that we can actually have, any possession that we can hold onto that isn’t hurting others, that that by getting it, we haven’t harmed others in some way. So it’s not just the food that we have that that we eat that we need to eat to survive and that inflicts on sentient beings.
The clothes that we have also come at the expense of other beings. So, if we look at the clothes we wear, they’re made from leather, which comes from sentient beings, or cotton, which has to be picked by someone, and in the picking process, how many bugs are killed? Or it comes from from wool. So if we think about it, if we were a sheep, we’d like to be shorn. Right?
So, now there’s there’s all of these different things that are made that that are that the clothes we wear are made from. And it’s not just the the beings who provide us with this the material that we clothe ourselves in, but also the humans that are involved in the process of getting it to us. It’s not as if it just appears as a piece of clothing that we can wear. There is a whole process involved in getting the clothes to us where people have to undergo different types of hardship. It’s not something they necessarily enjoy to do to get these clothes to us.
It’s both clothes and food, things that we take for granted that we don’t think are harming anyone, that actually come at the expense of either hardship or death to other beings. This is the way that we that their existence or having the existence we have means we have to behave. So this is another way of showing us that these things that we treasure, we treasure them from them because we’re attached to them, not because they are good things in themselves. So many of the things that we have, many of the possessions that we have, many of the things that we use actually harm other beings in some way or another. They either kill them or harm them in the process of getting them to us.
But we don’t take this into consideration. The way that we usually react to things, the things that we use in our life is with self-cherishing and attachment. You know, this idea of it’s about me. I want this. So if I want this, I need this.
I’m gonna take it. And we’re not thinking, okay, really need to have this but, there’s all these beings involved in the process and there’s all these things that went on for me to get this. We don’t think about that. We’re just I want this. So this self-cherishing and grasping and the attachment that comes with that is our usual motivation for doing things, and we don’t take into consideration the other beings who are involved in the process of getting these things to us.
Mhmm. So what we’re dealing with, what the motivating force for us getting all these things is is this sense of self. If we think I, I, I, then the next step after thinking I, I, I is I want or I need or this is what I need to do or whatever it is. So, this thought of I, the holding on to the idea of I and therefore the things that belong to me or the things that should belong to me means that we are motivated by our own happiness. With this I, we keep thinking this, I want to be happy.
I don’t want to experience suffering. Because we want to be happy, we grasp onto all of these things, we take all of these things to try and make ourselves happy. But because in grasping onto these things, trying to make ourselves happy, we’re being inconsiderate towards all other beings and we’re trying to take to sorry, being inconsiderate towards all the other beings that are taking that thing affected and we’re thinking of how to make ourselves happy solely and in the short term, it means that even though we’re trying to make ourselves happy by taking all these things, by grasping onto all of these things, we’re actually causing creating the causes for suffering. We’re creating the causes to to that we’re creating negative karma by being inconsiderate of others and this negative karma will create suffering for us in the future. So we want to be happy, grasp onto things, but that grasping, that inconsideration is actually what causes us more suffering in the future.
So these things aren’t really gonna make us happy. The things that we grasp after aren’t gonna make us happy. They’re only grasping after them only creates the causes for suffering. So if we really want to make ourselves happy, we have to train our minds, we have to change our minds around so we’re not thinking in this way. That we recognize that grasping after these things is a cause for suffering and that we recognize that it’s only by helping others, working for others that we actually create happiness.
And this is what we need to keep reminding ourselves, keep going over. And it doesn’t help if we think this about once every so often we go, Oh, that’s right. I should think about others. It doesn’t work this way. The word that’s usually translated into English as meditation has connotations in Tibetan of familiarization.
It means reminding yourself of things. It it is a it’s a so Geshe-la made a pun that I don’t know how to translate, but it’s from a similar root. The word comes from the similar root as the word habit. Alright? So to create so by meditating, you’re creating a habit.
So that’s something that you’re you’re creating new habits for yourself and getting rid of old habits. And so he said meditation should be a habit, which sounds good in Tibetan. Anyway, meditation is a habit. If we make meditation a habit, then our habits become better better and we do these things habitually. Then, if we keep thinking about this again and again, if we keep thinking about this idea of faults of grasping onto things, that in the same way as we want to experience happiness, all the other beings that we’re looking over in order to get our own happiness, they also want to experience happiness.
It’s not like, their happiness doesn’t matter as much as ours. But if we keep reminding ourselves of this, then we come to see that grasping after these things are is is is actually a cause for suffering for ourselves and and for others. So we’ll we’ll become definite about this. Our understanding of this will become clear and our belief in it will become definite. And then we’ll What So, what we’re trying to achieve here is very difficult.
We’re trying to change the way that we think completely, to change it around from being about us to being about others. And that’s a very difficult thing to undertake. At the moment, everything that we do is focused on protecting ourselves, making ourselves happy. And in order for us to truly be happy, we have to turn our mind around so that we’re thinking about others, we’re working for others. And in actual fact, this idea of the mind of bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment may seem like a, you know, that’d be a great thing to do.
But what the this in essence, this idea contains is the ability to give away even your physical body for the benefit to benefit other beings. So that’s so that’s that’s how strong this motivation to attain enlightenment to benefit all sentient beings is. In in so much that our bodies which we treasure so dearly now, are just seen as just something else that we can give away to to benefit other sentient beings. Okay. So So basically, it comes down to karma.
The main main thing that we need to focus on or develop an understanding of is karma. That negative actions have negative results, positive actions have positive results. So when we do something for ourselves, out of attachment to ourselves, and in doing that we harm others, then that’s negative action. If we do something that’s that we if we do something an action of body, speech, or mind in which we seek to help others, then that’s a positive action. So it’s about what we’re thinking.
It’s what it’s what our motivation for doing any activity is. If we do something because we think, I want this for me, and I don’t care what’s gonna happen to any other beings, then that’s negative. If we’re trying to motivate ourselves to think of others, then that’s a positive action. So, if we watch our mind and if we watch what people do, most of the time, very close to all of the time, when they do an action that harms others, harm others to try and make themselves happy. And most of the time when we want to make ourselves happy, we harm others.
Alright? So we do things at the, at the expense of others. We do things at the expense of others. So we need to watch what we’re doing, and we need to think about karma. We need to think about the consequences of what we’re doing and the reasons for which we’re doing them.
In this way, it’s pretty simple. It’s very clear cut. What we need to understand is that by doing doing something positive, we experience happiness. So if we do something and we want to help others or to be beneficial to others, we’re going to experience happiness as a result of that. If we do something that’s positive, if we do something that’s helpful, then we experience, helpful positive things for ourselves.
And if we do something when even though it may be motivated by a wish to make ourselves happy, that is harmful, that is, selfish, that is negative in its intention then the results of that can only be suffering despite the fact that we may be doing it to try and make ourselves happy. So if we want to be happy, we should be helpful and beneficial. And if we don’t want to experience suffering, then we should stop harming. Alright. So, as it all comes down to our mind, what we need to do is to train our mind to remind ourselves that that whatever we can do that’s positive we should do in order to attain enlightenment because when we’re enlightened we can really be of benefit to all sentient beings and lead them out of suffering.
And so Geshe-la said, as all sentient beings don’t want to experience suffering and want to experience happiness, then we should meditate on that and try and make sure that’s our motivation for listening to the teachings. But it’s not enough just to meditate on it in a couple of minutes during the teachings when he said meditate on it, he said. Whenever you get a chance, whenever you have an opportunity, whenever you remember, try and motivate yourself, try and remind yourself of this motivation. Not just, every so often in your teaching, but whenever you can. It’s really important, to try and make sure that this is your motivation for doing, whatever it is you’re doing.
Okay. All right. So last week, we finished the first chapter of the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, which is called the benefits or the reasons for developing bodhicitta. And this week, we start with the second chapter of the same text, the Bodhicaryāvatāra, which is called Confession or the Purification of Negativity, the Purification of bad karma. So this section, the second chapter, comes under, the heading this the heading heading of the practices the actual practices of the training of a Bodhisattva of the sorry.
Of the training in the two bodhicittas. Alright? So this has two sections. There is the development of bodhicitta and then the practices of the paramita or perfections that are involved once you’ve developed bodhicitta. This first one, the development of actual bodhicitta has two sections as well.
The first one is the limbs of practice or the stages of practice which are prostration, offering, refuge, and then the four powers of of purification. And these are said to be These are the first three limbs of the seven limb seven limb seven limb activities, which we say at the beginning of the teachings, the seven-limb prayer. And they those three are said to be to get rid of or to purify the negative conditions or the conditions which are are not conducive to practicing Dharma. Alright. So those are the first three.
And then the other four which we have rejoicing and requesting the Buddhas to remain until saṃsāra ends. I just did too much of a shortcut. These these four are said to be the things that you do in order to create the positive conditions or the conducive conditions to practicing Dharma. Okay.
Yeah. So basically, we have the seven limb prayers, the first three limbs, prostrating, presenting offerings, and declaring negativities or purifying negativities are done in order to get rid of conditions that aren’t conducive to practicing Dharma and attaining enlightenment. And then the last four which is rejoicing in the merit of other beings, getting happy about other people doing good things, requesting Buddhas to remain until the end of cyclic existence, asking them to teach the Dharma, and dedicating our merits our merit, said to be the things that we do in order to create positive conditions for practicing Dharma and attaining Buddhahood. Mhmm. This one?
Mhmm. Okay. So there’s these two different sections then. We have the section which contains the first three of these seven limbs, which is pro prostrating offering and going sorry. Prostrating offering, going for refuge, and performing the other of the four purifications.
Now, this is is called the getting rid of the conditions or purifying the conditions that aren’t conducive to attaining Buddhahood. And this is what this chapter’s about. Alright? The confession. The because this yeah.
Sorry. I’m having a little bit of a roadblock in the traveling from Tibetan into English thing. Okay. Alright. This is the reason for my roadblock.
They have called this chapter confession. And this I don’t know what you guys understand by a confession, the English word, but for me, it means saying I did something wrong. Right? Okay. Now, the Tibetan word that they have chose to translate as confession actually covers a lot more than that.
Right? It covers all those things that I was just saying, getting rid of conditions that are not conducive to attaining Buddhahood through practice. So the whole process of getting rid of negative situations is what they’ve translated as just confession. So confession is actually a part of it. Confession is this idea of I’m not going I’ve done something negative.
I’m going to I’m sorry I did it. I’m gonna try and refrain from doing it in the future. Alright? That is part of this process of, changing our minds around, so that we don’t have any negative situations that could stop us from practicing Dharma, but it’s only a part of it. Right?
And so this chapter should could perhaps be called it could be called the preliminaries which involve the elimination of conditions unconducive to the practice of Buddhist of practice of Dharma through purification, prostrations, and offerings and refuge, which is probably why they translate it as confession because that’d be too long. Alright? Okay. So then after we’ve gotten through that big title, it has two sections, the text and then the text title. Right?
So we’re gonna do the text first. And the text has three sections. That so this chapter has three sections. The first is offerings. The second is prostrations.
The third is refuge. And the fourth is confession. Okay? So there’s four different sections to this confession. Offerings, prostration.
Mhmm. Mhmm. Okay. So there’s four sections, offering, prostrating, refuge, and purification within this chapter. The first of these, which is making offerings, has two different sections.
It starts off with a description of why you should make offerings and then goes into the actual process of making offerings and what you should offer and so on. So the reasons why you should make offerings is described in the first verse, which says, to the Buddha’s thus gone those thus gone, and to the sacred law, immaculate, supreme, rare, and to the Buddha’s offspring, oceans of good qualities, that I may gain this precious attitude, I make a perfect offering. So what this is talking about, the precious attitude is bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment. So in order to develop the mind of enlightenment, what you need to do or a good way to develop this to get the positive karma that you need before you can develop this is to make offerings, to the the Buddhas or the Tathagatas. And also it says the Sangha.
Okay. Now I have one verse in Tibetan poetry and one verse in something approximating English poetry, and then I have commentary, and I’m trying to put them all together. So if I’m pulling faces, I apologize. So the bit that Geshe-la started off with is the bit that says, that’s why I make gain this precious attitude. I make a perfect offering.
So the idea is that you’re offering by the process of making offerings, you’re creating positive merit that will lead you to a developing bodhicitta. Now who the person the the beings or things to whom you’re making the offerings are the Three Jewels. And they’re described here by the first one is, to the Buddha’s, those thus gone. So the that that is those who have attained enlightenment, thus gone, thus gone to enlightenment. And the sacred law is the Dharma.
And and then it says the bit where it says immaculate supreme and rare, it’s actually talking about the law and the Buddhas. Right? So the Buddhas and the law and the and the Dharma are both said to be immaculate, supreme, and rare. And then it says, and to the Buddha’s offspring. Now the Buddha’s offspring is actually a synonym for saying the bodhisattvas, those who are following the Buddha’s path.
So the Buddha’s offspring who are perhaps oceans of good qualities. Alright? So it’s talking about the Buddha’s offsprings and oceans of good qualities is another way of saying the Sangha jewel. So in the first line, we have the Buddha jewel. The second line, we have the Dharma jewel.
In the third line, we have the Sangha jewel. So in order to so this verse is saying in order to attain in order to develop bodhicitta, I make offerings, perfect offerings to to the Three Jewels. Right. So then we move on to the actual process of making offerings. Now the process of making offerings involves three different aspects.
First of all, what we’re giving, and then the motivation with which we give it, and then the actual process of giving and what that entails. So if we’re going to make an offering, then we should try and give the best that we can. We should try and make it a real act of giving, as opposed to, something that we don’t care about. So, to to try and give what we can. And then the in terms of the thought, the reason the the motivation for us making this offering should be that we’re doing it in order to attain Buddhahood, in order to be of benefit to all sentient beings.
Alright? So the the motivation with which we do it, the thought with which we do it, should we should try and make it bodhicitta. So all that we’re doing all that we are making this offering in order to develop bodhicitta. Alright? So our motivation needs to be that.
And then the actual action. The actual action is described as being humility or respect. The actual action of making an offering is said to be one of humility or respect. So you’re not giving down to people who don’t need it who who need it. You’re it’s an it’s a it’s said to be an act of humility and respect.
So the first thing that we need to look at is the reason out of these. The first thing we need to look at is the reason we would want to make offerings. The reason that we would make offerings is in order to develop the mind, the precious mind that is the source for the collection of all goodness of all sentient beings. So what this means is that the mind of enlightenment, the bodhicitta, is the source of all is the source of the collection of goodness of all beings. Now, what that mean?
Okay. So, this expression in Tibetan says the collection of all goodness. Right? A sentence in English and two two two syllables in Tibetan. So what it is is this it’s another way of saying Buddhahood because the only thing that has collected all goodness is Buddha.
So what we’re saying is in order we’re we’re giving or making this offering in an order to develop the mind that is the source for all sentient beings to attain Buddhahood. So it is through bodhicitta, through the mind of enlightenment that we ourselves can attain Buddhahood and it is through the mind of enlightenment that we can develop the qualities of all the paths and grounds that lead to Buddhahood and not only for ourselves but as we progress through these different stages to Buddhahood and attain enlightenment, we’re able to lead other sentient beings through the paths to enlightenment, lead them or show them how to develop these qualities. So in this way, the mind of enlightenment is said to be the source of the collection of good or the source of the collection of all positive qualities because it’s through this that in ourselves and others, all positive qualities develop. So in order for us to start this process by developing the mind of enlightenment for ourselves, we’re making these offerings. Uh-huh.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Alright. So the next thing that we need to look at then is the beings to whom we are making the offering or what it is to whom we are making the offering. I’m not sure you can say that.
Anyway, you say, the beings to whom we’re making the offerings or what it is to which we are making the offerings. Right. I’m gonna relearn English. Alright. So, to put it simply, this is the Three Jewels, the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha.
But if we have a more specific idea of what the Three Jewels are, then that means that when we are making the offerings we can be more clear about the recipients of our offerings. So, the first of these, the Buddha jewel is said to be all those who all those Buddha Aryas who have gone beyond saṃsāra and nirvana and have attained Buddhahood. Alright? So this is what we have in the idea of a Buddha, one who abides in thusness. So there’s no separation between Buddhas and their experience of the real of of our ultimate reality.
Then the next thing that we have is we’re making offerings to the Dharma jewel, the the the from the Three Jewels to the Dharma. Now how the Dharma is actually described is as the It is the true paths and true cessation of the Mahāyāna vehicle that are unstained with, sorry, are free from adventitious stains and abide naturally. Right? That’s the Dharma jewel. And Alright.
So Alright. So what this means basically is you’re talking about true paths and true cessations. Do you guys all know what true paths and true cessations are? Mhmm. So, a true path is the realizations in the mental continuum of beings who have realized ultimate reality or have realized ultimate truth.
So this means that when beings develop a perception of emptiness or a direct realization of emptiness, that the way that they perceive all things isn’t stained. There is no stain This is what this stainless It says free from adventitious stains. They don’t perceive things with the stains of ignorance. They perceive them as they actually are, as opposed to seeing them through the confusion of their own delusions. Alright?
So the clear realizations of beings who have realized emptiness directly are said to be true paths. Okay? And true cessation is the things that they’ve given up in order to develop those qualities. So they’ve given up. They’re holding onto things as being inherently existent, and they’ve given up holding on to themselves as being an individual identity that exists from its own side.
They’ve given up those ideas. The cessation of those wrong views is said to be the true cessations. Alright? Alright. So when we’re talking about the true paths and true cessation, we’re actually talking about the last two of the four noble truths.
Yeah? So, you know, you have the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, you have the truth of the path, and the truth of sorry, the truth of of cessation and then the truth of the path. So the truth of cessation is the lack of grasping onto inherent objects. Alright? It’s things as being inherently existent.
So it’s it’s a quality in the continuum of certain beings. And the true path is is the realizations, the the minds that realize this lack of inherent existence. So the true paths and true cessation that are described as the last two of the four noble truths are actually said to be the Dharma jewel. Alright? So when you go for your refuge to the Dharma jewel, what you’re going for refuge to is these true paths and these true cessation.
Then, Sangha. Alright. So there we have the Buddha, the Dharma, and the next thing is the Sangha. Now, when you go for a refuge to the Sangha and the object that you make offerings to the when you talk about the Sangha or the Sangha jewel, you’re talking about the beings in whose continuum you have true paths and true cessations. So realized beings.
People who have beings who have realized, ultimate reality and have ceased to hold on to things as being inherently existent. So this is talking about people like Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, and all the other, Buddhas, the Buddhas to be and the bodhisattvas that are said to be the, offspring of the Buddhas. Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm. So the next thing then is the actual process of making offerings. So what we’re talking about is the reasons why you make offerings and the beings to whom you make the offerings.
Now the actual process of making offerings has three different sections. The first is making offerings. Sorry. Alright. The first thing is making making Uh-huh.
Offerings of things that don’t have an owner. And the second one is making an offering of our bodies. And the third one is making a offerings that are mentally manifested. Mentally manifested? Alright.
So I guess you said, for the first one it means, it’s not it’s it’s not things that you’re gonna be grasping at and saying that’s mine. I don’t really wanna give it away, but I think I should. Alright? So if you start giving away, the idea of I’m making an offering of all the beautiful smells in the world or I’m making an offering of all of the nice places that people can go for a walk and all of those things. Right?
There’s no idea that, oh, now I get to give away someone else’s stuff. Right? Or there’s no idea of, like, I’m really good for giving away my own things. So if you get the first one is giving things that aren’t owned. Alright?
Because if you give things that aren’t owned, there’s no sense of self-cherishing or self grasping involved in the process. Okay. So the last one could be perhaps a better way to translate it would be to say making offerings of our imaginings. Yes? So the when we offer mandala, for example, we have this idea that there’s a big mountain and there’s four continents around it and there’s a sun and a moon, but it’s something that we’re just imagining.
It’s not something that we’re actually creating. So the last type of offering we have is ones that we have that just come that we’ve just imagined. If I sit like this, I’ll stop pinging the mic. Alright. So within this first section, which is making offerings of things that aren’t owned by anyone, there is again three sections.
So the first one is the things that you should offer. Now, the second one is the way to make the offerings. And the third one is the reason why it’s a good idea to make offerings of things that aren’t owned by anyone. Okay? So the first of these then is the what you should offer, substances to be offered.
So this is actually in verse number two where it says, I offer every fruit and flower and every kind of healing medicine and all the precious things the world affords with all pure waters of refreshment. So the precious thing the world affords is anything that you can find in the world that’s precious. So, we’re talking about all the gold that you can find in the world, all the silver that you can find in the world, or the other mineral deposits that could possibly be of use to anyone. When we talk about healing medicines, there’s so many different medicines that can benefit people in so many different ways. And some of them are actually pleasant as well.
So, we have the idea of offering all those as well. And and then and then we have the idea of of of offering pure water. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Said he thought Adelaide water was quite good.
I said if you compare it to India, I guess. Okay. And so so it goes on to describe in the next two and a half verses some more things that we can make offerings of. So every mountain rich and filled with jewels. So this is the idea of the of mountains having this refers to the idea of mountains having minds not minds, but treasure within them that hasn’t been mined.
Alright? I can’t remember the word used for it. Anyway, all sweet and lovely forest groves, the trees of heaven garlanded with blossoms and heavy and branches heavy laden with their fruit. The perfumed fragrance of the realms of gods and men, all incense, wishing trees, and trees of gems. All crops that grow without the tiller’s care and every sumptuous object worthy to be offered.
Lakes and mears adorned with lotuses, all enlivened with the sweet-voiced cries of water birds. So this doesn’t mean that we go and take the botanical gardens from the Adelaide City Council and make an offering over to the Buddha. Alright? It means that when you’re there, that you can have the idea of it’s there in front of you, I’m making an offering of this to the Buddha, and it’s not as if the government can’t keep using it. Alright?
So you just have the idea of when you see something beautiful, when you go to a nice garden or a nice picnic spot, you you offer the the experience of being there. You offer the the beauty of it to the to the Buddha, the Dharma, in that way, you’re not really taking it from anyone. Alright? So you’re just making an offering of the experience of the of the beauty. So this means that But if if we see something beautiful and we’re enjoying a beautiful view, right, that it’s it’s it’s kind of sneaky view because we can make an offering of it and give it to the Buddhas, no police are gonna come and get us.
Anyone has any questions and there was someone before you hear me. Yeah. Before but in