Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A Guru Puja verse on making the most of a precious human life opens this 75-minute session on Śāntideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, in which Geshe Pema Tsering tackles a frustration common among practitioners: years of study and prayer yet feeling no blessings. He reframes blessings as gradual mind-change — the impulse to spare a bug, the pause before anger — and uses a bucket-filling-drop-by-drop image to argue for patient, long-term practice rather than expecting quick results. A wry anecdote about Tibetans calling Bodhisattvas “stupid” for not looking after themselves anchors the contrast between worldly self-cherishing and the Buddha’s limitless concern for all beings. The commentary then moves into Chapter 2: offering one’s body to the Buddhas, a Tibetan pun linking scripture with command, and a visualisation through the offering sequence — crystal bathing chamber, scented water from jewelled vases, fine towels, robes, and perfumed ointments.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2005 06 14 Bodhisattvas Way of Life.mp3
UUID: c312f446-4b3e-4c40-8f4b-d49e95e66016
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2005 Mar -2007 (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-06-14
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 74.8 minutes
Words: ~6,323
Oh. In the Guru Puja, one section says: Bless me to see that this life has no meaning, that I cannot take the essence from it and to strive to make the most of it by focusing on future lives. And so what this is talking about is that anything that we can achieve in this lifetime is going to be of limited, create limited happiness for us if it is only focused on this lifetime. If we use this lifetime, however, to at least focus on our future lives, then we are making the most of our opportunity that we have. So when we talk about not focusing on this lifetime, we’re talking about not focusing on, the limited happiness that we can achieve for ourselves in this lifetime.
So, the, the physical and temporary achievements that we may be able to succeed in. So the rank and having a nice house and so on. So these aren’t going to be any benefit to us for for very long. So in this prayer, it’s encouraging us to understand that and start focusing on future lives at least. Instead, it encourages us to try and make the most of this life to take the essence of it or to take the essence from it.
I’m not quite sure that that makes sense. Okay. So, yeah, it’s literally translated as taking the essence, but apparently, means, like I just said, making the best of it. Getting the most from the situation as we possibly can. So, in the case of making the best of the situation that we have at the moment, as we have a precious human rebirth, the best best thing that we can do with this rebirth is to focus on and work towards the attainment of Buddhahood.
If this isn’t something that we feel we can motivate ourselves to do, then we could also focus on achieving personal liberation from Samsāra. And if these these two things are not something that we feel like we can motivate ourselves to do, at least we could work to attain a positive rebirth and, not end up in lower realms where we would experience intense suffering. Translated is, May the please bless me to develop this understanding. But this word that’s translated as blessing could also be translated as inspire or please purify my mind able to or lift my mind so that I be able to focus on doing this. So what this refers to is a fact that we find it difficult, we may find it difficult to develop this motivation for ourselves without that kind of inspiration, without that without having our our mental capacities lifted.
So turning to the the guru and asking for inspiration in this way is actually also a form of refuge, of taking refuge in something. Because if we see the Guru or the teacher as representing the Buddha and the Dhamma and the Sangha, then when we ask for inspiration, when we ask for guidance, then the asking for guidance or the asking for inspiration is actually a form of refuge. So the reason that we turn our focus towards the guru, the beings that we see as the embodiment of the Three Jewels and ask for this inspiration is that because of the habitual tendencies that we have, it’s highly unlikely that we’re gonna, think this way ourselves. It’s highly unlikely that we’re actually going to go going to think, oh, I’m going to work towards Buddhahood without that inspiration. It’s not something that we tend towards.
Left to our own devices, we’re much more likely to think about ourselves in the short term than we are to think about all sentient beings in the long term. So what we’re actually asking for inspiration to do then, what we’re actually trying to develop the ability to do in when it says to take the essence from this life or to make the most of this life. It is to develop the attitude of the beginning, middle and end scope. And the way that we practice these is threefold. First of all, through listening or studying, and then secondly through contemplating, and thirdly through meditation on these points.
And so this is what the Buddha taught, and this is what the embodiment of the Three Jewels teaches, is this idea of the path to enlightenment, how to attain enlightenment or how to attain liberation or how to attain a good rebirth. And when we talk about the inspiration or the blessings of the teacher or the Buddha or the Three Jewels, we’re talking about the ability it has to change our minds. We’re talking about the strength that we can gain from putting these things into practice. It’s not anything other than that. These blessings, inspiration is nothing other than the Three Jewels’ ability to change our minds, to develop our minds.
So so so sometimes there’s a tendency Alright. So there’s a tendency amongst people to think, you know, I’ve done a lot of meditation and I’ve offered a lot of made a lot of offerings and I spent a lot of time thinking about the Dharma and and I’ve requested the Three Jewels and I’ve requested the teachers a lot. I’ve been sitting there asking them for a lot of things and up until this point, I’ve had no blessings. There there is a tendency, not just yeah. There there’s a tendency for people to think and guesses that he thinks that it’s probably because they’re expecting something magical to happen.
Expecting that blessings is some kind of magical occurrence. Uh-huh. And he thinks that this is the only reason that they would be thinking this is because they haven’t thought about it properly. They haven’t investigated. They haven’t investigated their experiences properly.
But if they think about how they were before, they encountered the Buddhist teachings and how they’ve changed now, then they’ll see the blessings, they’ll see the inspiration, that has come to them through the Buddhist teachings. They’ll see it every time that they stop themselves from standing on a bug, and they’ll see it every time that they, try and refrain from getting angry because they understand the negative consequences of anger. So, time this happens, every time someone thinks I shouldn’t kill this bug or I really shouldn’t be angry, it doesn’t help anything, that’s the blessings inspiration of the Buddha. That’s the Buddha’s Three Jewels in action. And so we have received many blessings or much inspiration from the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha if we think about it in this way.
So this is the process that happens, but this isn’t the way that we usually think. We’re a little bit cheeky. Is that was it? Strutting? We’re like, hang on.
Wait a minute. I can’t remember. There’s this word. Like, I still don’t know how to translate. Cocky, that’s the word.
Alright. Thank you. A little bit cocky when you sit there going, wait a minute. I’ve worked hard. I’ve done my meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings.
I’ve prayed a lot. Why haven’t I I got realizations. Why can’t I read other people’s minds? What’s going on? I haven’t I haven’t received any blessings.
I haven’t received any inspiration yet. And so this is the way that we approach it. We think, I’ve done the hard work. Why don’t I have the results now? And this isn’t the way it works.
It’s a very gradual process. It’s something that we work towards. And if we look at what we’ve achieved today, then we’ll realize that there is there is a progression there. We have developed some. It’s just that we haven’t developed perhaps perhaps to this to that that high level, but it takes an awful lot of very hard work over a very long time to develop to that level.
So the approach we more need to have is one of the the long term. We need to be thinking that this is a gradual process. It’s something that we need to work at and develop our understanding of over the long term. And we can see how we’ve benefited from it already and that process that we’ve gone through, the developing of a the the more subtle understanding that we’ve developed, that will continue to develop. We’ll continue to have a subtler and subtler understanding of the teachings.
And we just go over things and we think about them, we learn about them again and again, we think about them again and again, we meditate on them again and again, and our understanding of them becomes subtler and subtler and subtler. So we look at the ten non virtuous actions and how to abandon them, and we look at the three higher trainings, and we look at developing renunciation from Samsāra and we then we think about other beings and for the sake of other beings develop this idea of attaining enlightenment and then the work of the six perfections of a Bodhisattva or the six Paramitas of a Bodhisattva. We develop those ideas again and again and again, and our understanding of them becomes subtler and subtler. And now the way that our understanding affects the way that we behave, affects our meditation becomes subtler and subtler and subtler. But it’s a vast project or an extensive project that we need to work at little by little by little and not have expectations that it’s going to happen incredibly quickly.
It’s the same thing as if we were trying to fill up bucket with one drop of water at a time. Then we’re not going to notice that there’s much water in the bucket when we’ve put a couple of drops in. But if we continue to drop, water in the bucket, if we continue to put a drop, of water in the bucket after another one after another one after another one, at some point the bucket gets filled, but it doesn’t happen instantly. So taking into account that that’s the process by which we develop, realization and it’s something that we need to understand as a long term situation which we can then relax about and relax into. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Mhmm. We start by having a rough understanding of something or maybe we even start with no understanding. If someone had put this book in front of us and we knew nothing of Buddhism, then it wouldn’t make much sense to us. We could look at the guides to the Buddhist way of life and think, what are they talking about?
But then if we keep going over it again and again and we listen to more teachings on it and we contemplate it more and we meditate on it more, then our understanding of, the points that are discussed in this text become and easier and we become more familiar with them and that has an effect on the way that we approach things and the way that we, do things. So and then once we’ve sorted one thing out, then we move on to another thing. Once we’ve we understand one thing, we can move on to another thing. So it’s this gradual, relaxed process that we’re going through where we like I said, in a in a relaxed manner, we let things sink in, and then when they make sense, we go on to the next thing, and again, we let them sink in, then we go on to the next thing. The things that we’re looking at, emptiness and bodhicitta, aren’t easy to get our heads around.
They’re not something that comes easily to us, and there’s not things that are easy even to understand conceptually. There are things that we need to keep working at to keep her developing and understanding of and then they’ll get easier and easier and easier. And it’s the same with the entire path. In the beginning, it doesn’t when we start on even the lowest parts of the path, they may seem complicated and difficult to understand, but then that’ll become easier and we’ll move on and the next section will get easier and so on. It’s the same as when we’re learning how to write.
When we start learning how to write, we look at a squiggle on the page and someone tells us that’s an a and we’re thinking how is that an a? What does it mean to be an a? And we don’t understand why it’s an a at all. Yeah. And then we become really familiar with the a and then b and c and all the rest of the alphabet.
And we’ve become so familiar with it now that we don’t even need to focus on the individual letters to understand what they mean. We can have one glimpse of them and we understand them in context. We don’t need to focus on their shape, don’t focus on their sound. We can look at them in context and we understand it. So it’s the same with the path.
It’s the same with all of the realizations that you develop on the Buddhist path. They start off as difficult, complicated things we don’t quite understand. But eventually, they become so familiar and so easy for us that we understand them not only individually but in context. And it it definitely is the case with the things we learn about when we’re looking at Buddhism. Take for example, bodhicitta and the way that we train our minds or cleanse our attitudes so that they align with bodhicitta.
In order for us to do this, we need to have a clear understanding of what we’re doing. And when we first think about it, the the prayer, I seek to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings makes not a lot of sense. We find ourselves thinking, what on earth is a sentient being? And why would I want to attain enlightenment? And if if I am going to attain enlightenment, why am I doing it for other people?
You know, how am I supposed to help them? Why don’t I just do it for myself? Alright. We’d have all of these thoughts going in our head, but the more we learn, more we look at things, then we develop a deeper understanding of what enlightenment is, what sentient beings are, why we should be working for their benefit, all of these things. And we develop our understanding of them.
So I guess, sir, says he remembers people when he was in his in the area he grew up in. And on one second. Alright. I said, is was this at the time of the communist? And he said, no.
No. It’s just the Tibetans shooting their mouths off. Anyway, there was a couple of people around the area who grew up in what would say, know, out of everybody, Bodhisattvas are the stupidest. You know? They don’t even they’re so stupid.
They can’t figure out how to look after themselves. You know, if you can’t look after yourself, how are gonna look after other people? How are gonna do anything for anyone else? They’re they’re so stupid. If you don’t look after yourself, what’s wrong with you?
And he says he’s heard it. He couldn’t figure out if they were joking or not, but he remembers hearing it. So he thinks that it that’s not a common idea that is not only a sorry. He doesn’t think this is idea was only found people with these ideas were only found in his area. Right?
It wasn’t restricted to his valley. Was a there’s people most people with a worldly view have this idea. And if you look at what your parents tell you, most of it is this. Your parents tell you to, look after yourselves, learn to look after yourselves, get a good job, get a good education so you can have a good job, make sure that you’re set up in life, make sure that you have all the physical things you need. Most of the things that parents tell their children is how to look after themselves.
I mean, training to give them is how to look after themselves. It’s not how to look after others. And at school. Mhmm. Well, not only the our parents, but also our schools and the the environment that we’re brought up in, the culture that we’re brought up in, it all tells us to look after yourself and to make sure you get a good education so you’ll get a good wage so you can buy things for yourself and those people who are close to you, so then they’ll be happy, so you’ll be happy.
It’s all about how to make yourself, feel good or how to make yourself rich, so that you’ll be able to make yourself feel good. This is the main focus for everything. And if someone if if there is this idea of someone who isn’t looking after themselves, who isn’t, focused on making thing making their life making that lifetime important or making the best of that lifetime in a worldly way, then people don’t have a lot of respect for them. They don’t think of them as being very good people. They think of them as being like, fritters and stuff.
So it gets to say he thinks people without the inspiration that comes from the Buddha’s teachings will think like this. That’s the natural way that we’re going to think. Given that they haven’t been taught that in the same way that they want to be happy that all other sentient beings want to be happy, and there’s no no being in existence that actually seeks out suffering. All beings wanna be happy. And not only this, but all of the happiness that we experience comes about because of the kindness of other beings.
It comes about because of the things that we’ve done for other beings and also the act the acts of kindness that they’ve shown towards us. So they all want to be happy and that we are we are in debt to their kindness. And it’s there’s so there’s the Buddha taught that cherishing others was important, and worldly dharmas teach us that cherishing ourselves is important. And the extent that people will go to go to go to in order to cherish themselves is very oh, it’s very extensive. I can’t think of another word.
Anyway, it’s it’s extreme. They will kill for themselves. They will kill them. They will sacrifice their bodies for themselves. They just may call it different things.
Like for example, someone will lose their will sacrifice their life for their country. But this is just an extension of themselves or they sacrifice their their life or other people’s lives for their family or or for a cause or any of these things. But if you think about it, that’s all about self-cherishing. There’s there’s there isn’t much selflessness in these acts. It’s about my family, my country, my ideals, my my view of the world.
And you know that it’s it’s a selfish view because it’s limited. It’s always about the people on my side versus the people on the other side. The people that are close to me versus the people that aren’t close to me. And because it’s limited in this extent, then we see that it’s not really about serving others, it’s about serving an extension of our selves. The Buddha’s idea of other is limitless.
And most of the time, if people are doing things for others and their ideas is limited, then that shows that it’s actually an extension of themselves. But if we keep training ourselves, then we’ll come to understand that it’s more beneficial to focus on others than it is to focus on ourselves. We’ll come to understand that we can actually achieve happiness through focusing on others and we’re not going to achieve it by focusing on ourselves, we’re just creating more suffering. And our ability to understand this and the practices that we can do to try and bring this to be, to try and put this to try and develop this understanding. They’re all the blessings of the Buddha.
That understanding, the implementation of that understanding, that’s all the Buddha’s blessings or the Buddha’s inspiration working within us. So now that you have the inspiration of the Buddhas, now that you have come into contact with these things, then please focus on this idea for a couple of minutes. That what you’re doing will enable you to develop by listening to these teachings will enable you to develop understanding of the guide of the way of the Bodhisattva, put that understanding into practice and attain enlightenment and lead all sentient beings out of suffering. So with the idea of setting a motivation to listen to the teachings, please focus on that for a few minutes. Oh, yeah.
Alright. So we’re up to the part which is offering one’s own body. We’re going through the offering sections, and we’re up to this stage. I was offering one’s own body. Okay.
The two the two verses that we’re looking at here, verse number eight and nine from chapter two, and they say, the Buddhas and the Buddhas’ Bodhisattva children. I offer them myself throughout my lives. Supreme courageous ones accept me totally, for with devotion I will be your servant. For if you will accept me, I will be a benefit to all and freed from fear. I’ll go beyond the evils of my past and ever after turn my face from them.
Right. So the process that we’re going through here is one in which we are offering ourselves to the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas. And we ask them to please accept us and accept this offering. And what we’re doing there is consciously or the word that they use here is autonomously. So with complete autonomy over our actions, we are deciding to give ourselves to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
So as a as someone who is in control of that, to give ourselves to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. And what that entails is abandoning abandoning any thoughts of our self. This is what the process of offering yourself to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas entails. Abandoning selfish thoughts and to try and develop the supreme mind that that try and develop the supreme mind that characterizes them. The reason we would do something like this is because of faith and respect.
We wish to abandon negative actions and become the servant of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in that we seek to do everything that they tell us. God. Everything that they tell us. Okay. So there’s a bit of a untranslatable pun here.
Again, there’s this word There’s a there’s a word in Tibetan that’s and it’s the same that’s in. As in as and also, it’s the same. Yeah? And it means it means generally, means the word of the Buddha. Alright?
So the sutras are called the ka, but it also has this other meaning of being a command. So the words of the Buddha have this other kind of meaning to them in Tibetan, which is that they are commands — they are orders that the Buddha gave to behave in a certain way. Right? Now, so here it’s using this word and in in using this word, it means that from it’s saying in one point you are trying to follow the orders of the Buddha, but it’s also got this idea of following the scriptures of the Buddha, not just following the words of the Buddha.
So it has this double meaning. Alright? So that it’s following orders, but the orders are also following the sutras. Does that make sense? Or following the instructions.
Alright. So that’s the essence. That’s the way that you become a servant. Mhmm. Alright.
So what does one do after one has offered oneself to the Buddha? Sort of ones in one sentence, but anyway. It says that after offering ourselves to Buddha, we become free from fear. Now the reason that we become free from fear after offering ourselves to Buddha as a slave, as a servant, is that the Buddha’s are free from fear. The Buddha’s have no fear.
And so if we see ourselves as, the slaves of fearless ones, it means that we have protection from fearfulness. We are, under the protection. As a as a slave, there in one hand you’ve offered yourself completely, but on the other hand, you’re under that person’s protection, and they’re they’re responsible for you. Alright? So in this way, you’re under the protection or under the under the yeah.
Sorry. Second second pun of the evening. I’m not not even sure if I’m using that word right. Anyway, there’s there’s this word in Tibetan, which is what is usually translated as refuge, but it also means protection. Like, so or so because it works from both sides.
Right? So it’s you’re under the protection or you have the refuge you have refuge in, the person that you’ve offered yourself to. Alright? So here it’s being used to say you’re under their protection, but it also has this sense of you’ve taken refuge in them. Yeah?
Okay. So having so you you are being protected by, the fearless ones, and the things that you’re protected from the fear you’re protected from is the fear of existence and the fear of creating negative actions that will lead to suffering. And the things that you are also protected from are thoughts which aren’t beneficial to sentient beings. Alright? So by offering yourself to the Buddhas, you become free from any thoughts that may be selfish or any thoughts that may be may lead to the perpetuation of saṃsāra or the perpetuation of suffering.
This giving yourself to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, it also has the ability or the strength to separate you from the negative actions that you have performed in the past. So this is why the last two lines of this second verse, which was verse number nine, say, I’ll go beyond the evils of my past and ever after turn my face from them. So you’re you’re separating yourself from the habits that cause you to behave negatively, and in doing so, you’re lessening the strength of the repercussions of those negative actions. All right. So the the thing that you’re promising to do here is to stop repeating the negative actions that you’ve done in the past by offering yourself to the Buddhas and following their orders.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be free from the repercussions of the negative actions that you’ve done in the past, but the main focus for this chapter is on confession. Confession. So this is why it’s saying this to begin with, and then it later goes on to describe the process of confession, which would lead to the purification of these negative activities. This one. Mhmm.
Mhmm. So the next session is emanated offerings. So we’ve been through offering naturally occurring substances and offering one’s own body, and the next section is mentally emanated offerings. There’s two sections in mentally emanated offerings. There is mentally emanated offerings which are surpassable, and there are mentally emanated offerings which are which are unsurpassable.
Unsurpassable. Right. So things that you can give that are pretty good, are usually surpassable, and offering your wisdom and the accumulations of your merit is said to be the unsurpassable offerings. Mhmm. Okay.
So examples of Of surpassable offerings are offering bathing, offering clothing, clothing, offering ornaments. And this is when I was cracking up for it because it says this word chupo, I said, guess what does that mean? He said, unguent. But now that I look at that, it’s the it’s the verb for things that you apply. So I think that they’re usually translate it as as like ointments or something like that, you know?
Or yeah. Okay. Yeah. No. I said they actually make Vaseline, I think, from the byproducts of petrol, so I’m not sure you wanna be offering that to a Buddha.
You go, no. No. No. Offer good things. So so, yeah, things that you apply, like creams and things like that.
Yeah? So this is a basil. Yeah. Basil, certainly. Yeah.
And then flowers, incense, food, candles, crystal palaces. These are things that were immensely forming. Umbrellas, music, and things that you can offer without interruption. So things that you can anything that you the the the so you can offer these things once or you can continue to offer them. Right?
So, yeah, they’re all things that are surpass surpassable in terms of offerings. Mhmm. Mhmm. So within the first one of these, which is the offering bathing or offering water, there’s three different sections. There’s the site for their washing themselves or their ablutions, the way to perform the bathing and a towel.
Alright? So these are the three things that you offer to the the Buddhas in terms of offering water or offering a bath. And this is talked about in the next verse, which is number ten, verse ten of chapter number two. A bathing chamber excellently fragrant with floors of crystal, radiant and clear, with graceful pillars shimmering with gems, all hum about with gleaming canopies of pearls. Uh-huh.
Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm. Imagining for a Buddha, their bathing chamber should have first of all, the fragrances that they smell in there should be very pleasing for them. So you’re imagining something.
You don’t have to you don’t have to restrain your imaginings, if that makes sense. Then, the floor of the bath chamber, should be made from crystal. The idea of making things from crystal is that everything’s pure, that you see everything clearly and purely. And then you imagine that the the pillars that are holding up the the crystal roof and come from the crystal floor. Sorry.
There are — there’s no crystal roof. The pillars that come up from the crystal floor are said to be shimmering with gems. Shimmering with gems that are pleasing to the senses. So that the the people will the the experience of being around the gems would lift people’s mind is the idea. And then the last part of the bathhouse is a canopy on top.
So I still said there’s a canopy on top on the ceiling up there. So that’s what the cover of the bathhouse is. But instead of being made from material, it’s made from pearls. So you have jeweled pillars up on the side then a canopy that’s made from pearls as a on the top of the hanging off the pillars, and then a crystal floor. Yeah?
So Geshe goes, that’s not any old house, is it? So you gotta think about this kind of house. Shower. Because it’s a shower. It’s a shower.
Shower. Shower. Yes. The next bit is a shower. Okay.
So the next section is where you how the way to perform the bathing ceremony, and this is looked at in verse the next verse, which is verse number eleven. There the blissful Buddhas in their heirs, alike I’ll bathe with many a precious vase, abrim with water sweet and pleasant, to all-entrancing strains of melody and Okay. I have a wee bit of a problem here because I think they have done a quite poetic translation of this verse, and Geshe-la explained it very specifically, and it doesn’t quite fit with the translation. So first of all, we have blissful Buddhas, which is fine. That’s the Sughatas.
It’s the way they’ve translated the word Sugata. And their heirs, which is the Bodhisattvas, and we’re offering a bath to them. Now, we offer them a bath by, pouring water that is said to be scented water. So it says here it’s sweet and pleasant. The actual word is the word for incense.
So, so it’s but not like incense that you burn. Incense can come or this word that’s translated as incense can come in many different forms, including, you know, smelly stuff you put in pot. And I asked Geshe-la if that was if we could say essential oils. Well, keen, he got, yeah. Yeah.
That’s it. Basically it. Right? So the water that you’re offering them is beautifully scented, and you’re offering it from gold gold vases with jewels all over it, and and it’s exactly the right temperature, and you’re you’re pouring it on them as a way for them to take a shower. And then while this is happening, there’s entertainment for them, because there is, melody and song.
So this is two separate words, in Tibetan. There’s one word for a melody, people who, are playing instruments and so on. And then there’s this other word for a traditional form of poet like of of sung poetry, basically. So traditional this is the word for traditional songs. Now so this it says many different types are playing for their entertainment while you’re giving them the bath.
This one. Mhmm. Mhmm. Okay. So the next two lines then deal with the towel, which is the third part of the offering of bath.
And these say, with cloths of unexampled quality, with peerless perfumed towels, I will dry them. So this is the final part of the the bath in that you’re giving or you’re drying the the the Buddhas and the Buddha’s heirs with these beautiful cloths, which she says it’s there. There’s nothing like these cloths that you’re that’s what unexampled means. There’s nothing like these cloths that you’re drying them with that that exist apart from these cloths. And they are perfectly clean.
They are completely free of any smells, and, they’re very soft. Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm. So in the commentary, it says about the towels that they they this is the last part of the offering of the of the bath.
You’re offering to the bodies of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas a cloth like nothing you’ve ever found before, and it is incredibly soft, incredibly clean, and smells incredibly good. And And it it dries them perfectly well as well, it says. So after giving them the bath, the next thing that we offer them is clothes. And this is described in the next three lines, which is the end of verse twelve and the first line of verse thirteen. And it says, and offer splendid scented clothes, well dyed and of surpassing excellence with different garments light and supple.
So the the the basic point is that we’re trying to give them the best clothing that we could conjure up in our imagination. And they these should have a very good shape. And the other thing that talks about here is that they should be dyed well or they their their color should be dyed well, which is obviously going to be something that was very important in ancient India, or middle the India of the Middle Ages because this isn’t something that was always the case that their clothes were dyed well. And, they weren’t necessarily the best of colors. To have brightly colored clothes then was a was a a rarity.
So the fact that so you’re imagining all different colors, clothes dyed in all different colors, and done very well. So that you’re offering a variety of different clothes. And all of the clothes that you’re offering are made from the finest fabrics. They have they smell beautiful. They’re tailored or shaped well, and they’re soft to the touch.
The next thing that we’re offering them after the clothes is ornaments. And this is continues on in in verse, thirteen. And a hundred beautiful ornaments I will grace the sublime, their heirs. No. I’m sorry.
I just got a bit confused because in the commentary, it says, and, but then it says in the text. So I guess it said, think of everybody. So you have hundreds of beautiful adornments. And in Tibetan, it actually says and so forth, which I guess they didn’t need to say if they had hundreds of beautiful adornments. And it means things like earrings, bracelets, anklets, any of the the kind of jewelry that you see, bodhisattvas or Buddhas in this aspect wearing any of those jewels.
So that you offer all of these things. And is a Bodhisattva who is one of the Buddha’s students. Is another way of saying — another way of saying Bodhisattva. One? Uh-huh.
Mhmm. Alright. So the next one is, I think in the notes that I’ve got here, they translated it as scents, which makes sense with but I guess it covers more than just the scents or perfume because it’s anything that is beneficial to the body. And hopefully, you’re going to offer them things that are beneficial to the body, like ointments and creams that smell good, he said. So think and this is why this verse specifically talks about the smell of these.
Alright. So the verse says, and with a sumptuous fragrance that pervades a thousand million worlds, I will anoint the bodies of the Buddhas, light and gleaming bright like a pure and burnished gold. So in summary, I will anoint the bodies of Buddhas with ointments, lighting and gleaming bright like pure and burnished gold. Okay. So we can finish there.
And if anyone has any questions. I think she’ll have questions. Heather’s got a hand up. This is beautiful. It takes a bit straight out of India.
Hang on one second. Can you change the city? Yeah. Straight out of India in my garage.