Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A Tibetan linguistic puzzle opens this 72-minute session: Geshe Pema Tsering explains that Tibetan has two distinct words for desire — samsaric craving versus faith-like aspiration toward liberation — where English has only one, distorting Atisha’s point that happiness comes only through freedom from desire. He shows how superimposing qualities onto objects that don’t possess them drives suffering, and why renunciation is the prerequisite for nirvana. The session then covers the four opponent powers for purifying negative karma, drawn from chapter two of Śāntideva’s text: regret, applying antidotes (sūtra study, emptiness meditation, mantra, prostrations to the Thirty-Five Buddhas), restraint from repeating the action, and reliance on bodhicitta and refuge. He emphasizes that genuine purification requires recalling a negative action in detail — the emotions, the recipient, the sequence — not a vague admission.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2005 08 09 Bodhisattvas Way of Life.mp3
UUID: 93d3b90b-055e-4dc6-8c95-60d4dfda0400
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2005 Mar -2007 (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-08-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 71.7 minutes
Words: ~6,372
So in the Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment — or was it? No. In the Precious Garland on bodhicitta, by Atisha, he said, you don’t get happy by desires. He said, you find true happiness through liberation from desire. Alright.
So in this way, we think we we say the desire or attachment is actually very faulty or it harms us a lot. Now the reason that it harms us a lot is because it’s attachment, it’s faults that keep us in saṃsāra. So in general, we’d also say that the mind that is incredibly attached is one that leads us into the lower realms or the realms where we experience intense suffering. But, it isn’t always the case that attachment leads us into the lower realms because attachment can also lead us into the higher realms. We can have an extreme attachment to being reborn as a human or a god and therefore, through that attachment, we use all of our positive merits to bring about that end.
So, can we can’t always say that attachment leads to lower realms or suffering states, but we can say that it leads to suffering because it perpetuates the cycle of Samsāra. And when we talk about being attached to, being born in the higher realms as a god or a human, it’s not actually the attachment that is the cause for the happiness we experience in those realms. The happiness we experience in those realms is a result of the positive things that we’ve done previous to that, but it is the attachment to being born as a as a human or a god that leads us to use up the positive potential from the things that we’ve done in the past, by taking a human rebirth or a God’s rebirth. So, the cause for us to experience happiness is always that we’ve done good. But the fact that we are attached to the idea of being a human or the idea of being a God can mean that the way that we use up our positive potential is channeled or directed by our attachment.
So this is why what they’re talking what Atisha was talking about in this verse where he said that desire never leads to happiness. He wasn’t talking about a general process by which happiness, we may desire a good rebirth, so we do things to get a good rebirth, to be reborn as a God or a human. He was talking about the nature of desire itself. He wasn’t talking about it in terms of being motivation for getting something that is positive. He was talking about the nature of desire itself and the nature of desire itself never leads to happiness.
If through desire for a good rebirth, we do positive things, if we do virtuous action, then that virtuous action may may help us, but it’s not the desire to get a good rebirth that’s doing it, that’s helping us out. It’s the actions we do, because of that desire. So, desire itself never leads to happiness. Sometimes, the desire for a good rebirth can be a cause for us to do something good, but by itself it never leads to happiness. So, yes.
So the second line, then, Atisha tells us to strive, for liberation. He tells us to to to work towards nirvana. And what working towards nirvana also entails is this concept of renunciation, of turning our back on the things that may keep us in saṃsāra that we may become attached to saṃsāra because of. So we can’t have renunciation or we can’t have this idea of definitely working towards nirvana without first getting rid of attachment. The two things don’t work together.
You can’t be attached to saṃsāra and have renunciation. So in order for us to get out of saṃsāra, we need to renounce the things that we’re attached to in saṃsāra. So this is what gives, puts forward as the second part of this statement. So the first was that we can’t find happiness through following our attachments, through following our desires. So if we really want to be happy, what we need to do is start to work towards liberation or nirvana.
Okay. I’m just struggling a bit here because there’s this something that I don’t think that I can say in English. So I’m just gonna have to, like, walk around it for a second. There’s a clear distinction in Tibetan between one word that means being attached to or desiring negative things like things that are gonna cause suffering and there’s a very another clear distinct word that is used to be attached to, things that are helpful, things that are going get us out of saṃsāra, things that are going to lead us to happiness. So, if I make any distinction between those two in English, it’s artificial because we don’t do it.
I’m trying to figure out how to to get around that. The attachment that we have to Samsāra and the things in Samsāra is said to be synonymous with desire. The attachment that we have to things outside of Samsāra, to practicing Dharma, to attaining liberation, to attaining Buddhahood, to working for the benefits of others is said to be synonymous with faith. Alright, so faith in the sense of having a liking or a clear understanding of how positive it is to attain that goal. So, that’s why Geshe-la explained the difference between the two of them, but I’m not sure that we actually have a word in English that connotates attachment or desire in a positive way and one that does it in a negative way.
We tend to lump them together and that’s not the case in Tibetan. There’s a very clear word for attachment and desire for negative things, and there’s another very clear word for attachment and desire for positive things. So not all attachments and desires that we know about are negative. It’s the ones that lead us into saṃsāra that are negative. So the difference between these two things is the it comes from the object to which we have attachment or the object that we desire.
So when it’s an object that’s gonna lead us back into Samsāra, that’s gonna cause suffering for us. What we do what we’ve done there is that we’ve attached qualities or superimposed qualities on an object that aren’t there. And the act of superimposing qualities on an object that isn’t there is a cause for suffering. So if we think that something or somebody or some situation is going to make us happy or is going to be a cause for us to attain happiness, then we’re superimposing something onto that object or that person that that isn’t there. And in superimposing something onto them, we’re setting up a situation where we’re going to experience suffering onto them or that that thing.
We’re setting up a situation where we’re going to experience suffering. On the other hand, when we aren’t superimposing something positive onto it, but it actually is positive, then being attached to that object or desiring that object isn’t going to let us down, isn’t going to make us experience suffering. So, if we are desirous or attached to the idea of attaining enlightenment or the idea of practicing Dharma, then these things actually have more qualities than we can perceive. So we’re not super imposing qualities onto them. We’re not even perceiving half of the qualities that they have.
So we’re gonna get more than we perceive, not less from them than we think. So, there’s something is a positive or negative attachment or positive or negative desire depending on whether the object is helpful or not, whether the object actually has the qualities we’re imputing on it. So I think that sometimes in order to differentiate these, translate one as attachment and desire and the other one as aspiration, but they’re in fact the same thing. You can aspire aspire for negative things and not or not all positive things. So, the things that we superimpose qualities onto that aren’t there and hold onto as a cause for happiness are the things we need to abandon.
Now the attachments in the state of being desirous or attached that we need to abandon. And the objects in which we don’t ascribe as much as they actually have or do actually have the qualities that we ascribe to them are things that we do actually need to to try and hold on to or to try and work towards. So the we need to to look at what it is that we are focused on in order to decide whether this desire or that attachment or that aspiration is positive or not. So the things that don’t have the qualities that we ascribe to them, that we superimpose on them, that we find ourselves attached to, that’s what we call instances or examples of the truth of suffering from the four noble truths. And the things that we are using to get out of saṃsāra and that do have the qualities that we that we can rely on to get out of saṃsāra to cause us happiness.
They are the truth of the path. So, one now that we understand what the process of the attachment to things that aren’t helpful is, we need to start becoming aware of that because we are we will find ourselves that we are attached. We are are desirous of many things that we superimposed qualities onto that can actually make us happy. And we start being able to perceive that if we start watching the way that we think. And we’ll find that we’re attached to things, we’re attached to people, we’re attached to situations, and then our mind chases after all of these things pretty constantly.
So the process by which we can overcome our attachments and desires to these things, to the truth, to instances of the truth of suffering is by becoming aware of it. And then recognizing that we are superimposing qualities onto these things that they don’t have. That we are saying this is going to make me happy or this is something that has this and this quality when they don’t. So once we go through the process of recognizing that they don’t have the qualities we’ve ascribed to them, then then we can see how a desire and attachment is going to cause us suffering and that we don’t wanna get involved in that. We don’t want to have desire and attachment.
So the problem with our desires and the problem with our the things that we’re attached to is that they do actually bring us a little bit of happiness and this is why, they become so problematic. If they didn’t make us happy at all or we didn’t get anything from them, then it wouldn’t be really hard for us to give them up. But the problem is that they do make us happy for a short amount of time and we become, become more desirous of that short experience of happiness because it didn’t last. So after having one experience of happiness that didn’t last, we become a slave to our desires by constantly chasing after more and more and more fleeting moments of happiness. So through the fact that we do get this little experience of happiness, we become trapped in a cycle of wanting more and more and more and more and more.
What we don’t recognize is the suffering that following after our desires is giving us. What we don’t recognize is that through establishing a pattern where we are trying to satiate ourself by these brief instances of happiness, then we are setting up a situation where we’re going to experience more suffering than the happiness that we experience. So we don’t we don’t recognize all the suffering. We recognize happiness and we hold on to the idea of the small moments of happiness we have, but we don’t recognize all the suffering that comes along with it as well. So what we need to do is recognize our desire when it happens.
Recognize the experience of a desire or attachment and recognize what it does to us. Recognize what effect it has on us. We need to understand that it is through our attachments, through our desires, and to things that aren’t gonna make us happy that we start to experience all of the other negative emotions. We start to experience jealousy. We start to experience arrogance.
We start to experience hatred or anger at the when things we want get taken away from us. Many of these things come from our desire for one thing or another, our attachment to something or another that that isn’t isn’t actually going to make us happy. So if we’re able to recognize that this is what’s happening, that we are influenced to this great extent by what we want, right, by what our desires are, by our attachments to things. Then we’ll be able to start seeing what an effect that has on us and the faults of that way of thinking. We’ll start seeing how destructive or how difficult that makes things for us.
And by recognizing not only when we have desires but what the faults of those desires are, how they harm us, then we’re going to be less and less under the influence of desire. We’re not going to want to become as involved with those ways of thinking. And then as we become less and less involved with our desires, with our attachments, then that gives us more space to actually help, to actually do positive things, to actually try and create positive potential. Mhmm. So this so this is why renunciation or this idea of turning away from saṃsāra is is such an important thing.
Because if we if we are able to develop that way of thinking, it means that the things that we do will have the space to do things where we’re working towards nirvana instead of using all our energies to follow our desires which keeps us in Samsāra. So by freeing ourselves up from our desires, that gives us the space to develop or the capacity to work towards nirvana. Without renunciation, we can’t work towards nirvana. Without without turning our back turning away from the attachments of saṃsāra, we can’t work towards the state of complete freedom from suffering. So we need to first of all understand what it is that we’re actually away from because what we’re walking away from is the faults is Samsāra which is completely faulty and the attachments that we have to the things in Samsāra are also completely faulty.
So through understanding that, we’re then able to turn our back on Samsāra and start focusing on focusing on nirvana or start focusing on liberation. So this is why Atisha in this verse said, you don’t find happiness through desire, you only find it through liberation. So what he’s talking about is that you can’t experience true happiness through following your desires, and you can’t get out of saṃsāra until you’ve realized that, until you’ve understood that you don’t find happiness in saṃsāra. So what we need to do then is to recognize the destructive potential of desires and how they don’t actually give us what we want anyway. And through recognizing this, then we’re able to see how faulty saṃsāra is and work towards this idea of liberation from saṃsāra, liberation from something that doesn’t have any positive aspects anyway.
So once we’ve come up with that idea that we can be freed from saṃsāra and we can turn that idea around so it’s not just focusing on ourselves, selves, but it’s focusing on all other sentient beings. And through the power of well, through potential of mind that comes about through focusing on all other sentient beings, can work towards full enlightenment. So we don’t have this state of bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment, this idea of working towards Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. We don’t have that idea spontaneously in our mind streams. So what this means is that we have to contrive or develop, that idea in our mind streams in order to do things with the motivation of bodhicitta.
We don’t spontaneously do everything that we are doing with this motivation. So if we want to do something that is going to be very positive or have an enormous amounts of positive potential arise from it, then it’s a it’s a good idea for us to to concentrate on the idea of developing bodhicitta or working towards enlightenment for the benefit of all before we do that action. Mhmm. So with this idea in mind then then we can perhaps think in order to attain enlightenment, to lead all other beings out of suffering, then I’m going to have a look at or have a listen to Gyaltsab Je’s commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra. And by listening to teaching on this may develop understanding of it, be able to put it into practice and attain enlightenment to benefit all beings.
And we should meditate on that for a few minutes. Did I forget? What’s line nine, stanza seven? It’s two, isn’t it? Thank you.
Yeah. Now I don’t I really don’t know where we are then. Yeah. Yeah. No.
I found it finally. It’s just that I’ve written in a light pencil, and it’s I couldn’t see where I’d written it. But I’m sorted now. Thanks. Okay.
They moved the order around. And I had this way of translating it that was four r’s so people can remember it. Now, I’m trying to figure out which one was which. Okay. So the first thing the first one that they talk about in this text is the behavior of completely cleansing or completely cleansing or completely bringing into understanding, coming to an understanding of all the things, all the aspects of the things that you’ve done.
So I guess that this would be recognition or a sense of regret as well. So, or regret. Yeah? That’s two R’s for one thing. It’s the first of the first of them.
The second is reliance. Of it, but it’s reliant no. Remedy. The remedy of using antidotes is the second. So the first one we have is reliance or regret.
No, sorry. Regret recognition is the first that looks at here and the second one is a remedy which is using antidotes. And the third is restraint, to restrain yourself from doing these actions again, the power of restraint. And the fourth fourth is the power of reliance. So there is these four different powers or these four different things that you can do in order to completely purify the negative karma that you have accumulated in the past.
So it starts with in according to this text, the idea of recognition or regret for what you’ve done. And then there is this idea of remedy or applying antidotes. And the third is the idea of restraining yourself from doing it again. And the fourth is relying on something. So it says then that through the power of these four actions, actions, through the power of the four, what are called the four opponent powers, any karma can be neutralized.
Right? So the the negative potential from any karma can be neutralized. It’s not completely gotten rid of because the seeds or the the seeds for that negative action continue on in your mind stream until you’re able to perceive emptiness. So it’s only through the realization of emptiness that you’re able to completely purify all your negative deeds, but you are able to neutralize or sterilize the seeds for negative results. So the potential for and for suffering to come about through practice these four opponent powers.
So it said then that there is two types of negative karma that we can accumulate. There is negative karma that we can accumulate that we will definitely experience the results of and there is negative karma we can accumulate that we will not necessarily definitely experience the results of. So if we do something that is a strong negative action, then, that is something that you would say is negative karma you definitely experience the results of. And if you do something that isn’t so strong, it’s just a fairly weak negative action, then you may not necessarily experience the results of that negative karma for a very very long time. So this purification practice however has the ability to purify both negative karma that you’re definitely going to experience and negative karma that you may not may not necessarily experience.
So it has the potential to stop it has the potential to stop you experiencing the results of all of the negative karma that you have accumulated in the past, and therefore, enable you to go on and realize emptiness and therefore and then when you’ve realized emptiness, completely purify even the seeds of the negative karma. Okay. Okay. So I just asked you, sir, what he what what he means by seeds. Because I said we don’t really have seeds in our mind’s streams because our minds and not seeds.
So what do you what do you mean by that? And he said he means the the imprints of an action. So the seed is a an imprint or a tendency that develops in the mind, through performing an action. So if I perform a negative action then I have a tendency to perform in the same negative action. So you habit yourself habituate us we habituate ourselves into performing certain actions.
So the seeds of negative actions are the habit of negative actions, the imprints of negative actions that could cause us to perform the same actions in the future. And we can only purify those completely once we’ve realized emptiness. Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm.
So the first of these is the power of regret or the power of recognition. And this means becoming to a through coming to a complete understanding of what we’ve done, and then we develop regret for our actions. Now the way that we develop regret for the negative things that we’ve done is by looking at what are called the three ways that negative karma or negative actions are generated or generate. So, the first way that negative karma generates is that, by performing a negative action, you create a potential or a continuous how do I put it? A continuous potential for negative outcome until that negative outcome comes about.
So, from the moment that you do something negative until the time that you experience the negative results of that action, there is a continual potentiality for suffering. Yeah? And then the second part of the way this negative actions or negative karma are generated is that they, without purification they definitely bring about results. So, is a definite ripening of negative karma without purification. So, the first thing is that there is this potential for negative, for suffering that comes about as soon as you commit a negative act and then its results will be experienced when this negative action ripens.
And the third type or the third aspect of a negative action is that is the is the power that has to perpetuate itself. So the force of the negative potential that continues on until the suffering is experienced generates itself along.. One moment of it perpetuates the next moment of it which perpetuates the next moment, yeah? And the rising of suffering comes about through the cause. So that force is said to be the third aspect of negative karma.
So we have the fact that there’s a continuation of the negative potential as soon as an act is committed. I’m sorry, here. I’m I’m being complicated when he’s doing this. No. The second the second the second part is that there there will be a result at the end of that negative that continuum of negative potentiality.
And the third is that, those things have the power of their own that will drive them on until the result of suffering comes about. Now, the reason that you think about these three different aspects of an that we think about these three different aspects of negative actions is that or the potential that comes about through performing a negative action is that without a strong or a clear understanding of just what suffering we’ve created for ourselves, it’s very difficult to develop regret for our actions. So, knowing that we’ve created a situation where where where we’ve created a cause for suffering, it’s very difficult for us to regret having done something negative through desire or negative through anger and so on. So, through looking at those things clearly, developing a clear understanding of those, then we can develop strong regret for what we’ve done. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Mhmm. Alright. So the second power is the power of remedy or antidotes. Usually, say antidotes because it starts with a, though.
I wanted to say remedy to make it easier to remember. So the remedies that we use for negative actions are described in the sūtra basket of the Buddhas, or the profound sūtra basket of the Buddhas. And there in this, it says to rely on or rely or meditate on certain actions, and this can act as a antidote or remedy to our negative the negative things we’ve done. If we think I’m doing something positive to remedy the negative thing I’ve done after recognizing that we’ve done something negative. So the examples of things that we can meditate on in order to purify negative actions are hang on one second.
Alright. So the first thing that it says is the to rely on the profound sūtra baskets. And so what this means is if we we can say, okay, I’m gonna read this sūtra as an antidote or as a penance for the negative things that I’ve done. Not sure if that word quite works, but as as some way of purifying the negative things that we’ve done that we’ve just recognized. We can also meditate on emptiness as a way of, purifying negative actions that we have done.
Then we can or we can recite mantras or we can it says rely on statues. And Geshe-la said this means to make offerings to statues, prostrate to statues, or pay homage to statues in some other in some other way. So by performing some action where we’re showing respect to statues of the Buddha, then this can be another way to purify negative actions that we’ve done when it’s combined with regret and the two other powers. This another way we can do it is to make offerings to to deserving beings or statues and so on. And the last way it says here is to rely on names.
Now what this is talking about is to recite the name of this certain text you can do where you recite the names of the Buddhas. And there’s also a practice called the Thirty-Five Buddhas practice where you recite the names of the thirty-five purification Buddhas while doing prostrations to them and so on. And so it could refer, it probably refers to this as well. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So the third third of the full powers of regret according to this text is the power of restraint. So the power of restraint means making a vow or it says here making a perfect vow that you won’t do the same thing in the future. So what this means is for in order for us to truly purify a negative action, we have to refrain from ever doing it again.
Yeah. So if we, have done something that’s negative and we try and and refrain from it, but we know that we’re not going to do it in the future that means that we haven’t totally purified that action. Alright. We’ve lessened the results of that action but the only way to totally purify an action is to have such strong regret that you don’t do it again in the future. So without having strong regret, you don’t actually purify something you’ve done.
And without no. And with strong regret, you’re not gonna wanna do it again. Yeah. So there is so if your regret isn’t strong enough to keep you from doing it again in the future, that means it wasn’t strong enough to purify the action either. So what this means is that we can have different levels of purification or different levels of these cleansing practices for our negative karma.
So we can do things where we lessen the negative karma that we’ve accumulated through having a certain amount of regret and applying a certain amount of antidotes. But in order to truly regret the negative things that we’ve done, then we have to have such strong regret that we can vow never to do them again. So that’s the third one. The fourth of the powers then is the reliance. And here it means relying on meditating or relying on sorry, relying on bodhicitta and relying on refuge.
So this means meditating on bodhicitta and refuge. When we’re doing the first of these four opponent powers that that was mentioned here, and this was the opponent power of regret and recognizing what we’re doing. We should we shouldn’t just have an eye a rough idea that we do something wrong. We need to go into specific details in our mind in order to develop strong regret for what we’ve done. So we need to remember exactly what it was that we did that was wrong.
The time when we did it, the reasons for us doing it, the beginning of when we did it, the actual action. So we have to go over in our head, the the things that were involved in the negative action, the, the process through which we went. Not just have a rough idea, I did this bad. We need go through the details to get a clear idea of what it is that we’re regretting. And then the next thing it says to remember is oh, sorry.
When we’re thinking about the action that we did, we need to remember what sort of emotions and destructive emotions came up with it, whether we experienced anger or jealousy or whatever it was that we were based that our action was based on. And then we need to try and remember what to whom or what our anger was directed. Yeah. So who was the recipient of our, negative emotion, and focus on them as well. And then it says, to remember in to remember in detail the things that you did.
So you go over we go over the action in general and then we remember the specifics. They’re trying to remember the negative emotions that were involved, the person or thing towards whom we were, doing this action, the beginning of it, the end of it, the time of it, the reason it happened. And by going through this, then it said that we can develop strong regret. If we just have a rough idea, then we’re not going to develop, strong regret for something we only have a rough idea about. Mhmm.
Okay. Alright. So the hang on. Sorry. Uh-huh.
Alright. So then it actually goes to the actual way that we’re supposed to meditate on these four and that we go into details in that with from the text of from Śāntideva’s text. So the first thing that we meditate on from these four is said to be recognition. So we can’t purify something that we haven’t recognized or regretted. So we the first thing that we look at is, the power of, complete recognition and, the development of regret.
That’s the first power power that we use. The second one we use then is the power of reliance. Relying on the meditation of bodhicitta and refuge. The third one that we look at is applying antidotes. The power of applying antidotes or a remedy.
And the fourth one that we use is the power of restraint, vowing not to do this action again. So the first of these then, the power of power of regret and restraint actually has four sections within the text. The first is, the way to develop regret recognizing the by recognizing the way you did something negative or the way negative things happened. The second thing or the way we did something negative or the ways negative things happened. The second part of this first power, it says to have refuge and develop and meditate on regret, by recognizing the destructive nature of negative actions.
And the third is, to meditate on regret by reminding ourselves of the way that our negative actions were completely pointless. And the fourth is to think on the way that negative actions are destructive. So this is the these these are the sections that deals with to look at developing regret. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Mhmm. Right. So from among among the four different sections that dealt with the first of the four antidotes, the first section which was the way to develop regret for recognizing just how we performed a negative action actually has four different sections as well, that are described in the Bodhicaryāvatāra. And the first is said to be, the way to develop or request understanding of the object which you want to purify in terms of the negative action you performed.
The second one is the way to purify oh, sorry. The general way to purify in terms of time, cause, aspect, and and so on. The third is the way to purify by seeing the power of the negative action in particular with reference to the object. And the fourth one is the way that negative actions have unwanted results. Right.
Oh. Yeah. And now we actually get something that makes sense because it’s in here. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Mhmm. So the first thing is the the to request to develop understanding of the process of creating negative actions and purifying negative actions. And this is described in verse well, this is what verse twenty seven of the second chapter of the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life is referring to when it says, to all the perfect Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in all directions where they may reside, to them who are the sovereigns of great mercy, I press my palms together, praying thus. Mhmm. Mhmm.
So this what this is basically talking about is the fact that you need something to confess to. You need something to say, please give me the strength to purify the negative actions that I’ve done. Alright? And in this instance, then you turn to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions in order to act as your witness, in order to inspire you to be able to purify the negative actions. So this is what this verse is talking about.
Mhmm. Okay. So the next thing that we’re looking at is the way the general way to purify negative actions by way of their what they like and their aspect of what they like, their cause and their time. And this is described in the next two verses of the this chapter, which is verse twenty eight and twenty nine, in which it says, in this and all other in all my other lifetimes, wandering in the round without beginning, blindly I have brought forth wickedness inciting others to commit the same. Inciting others.
Anyway, Alright. So in this and many other lifetimes, this mean this is talking to this is talking about all the lifetimes that we’ve lived and that it goes back forever. And we’ve been in so many different times, so many different bodies in so many different situations. And in all of those, we’ve done all sorts of negative things that we’ve had to experience the results of or will experience or could experience the results of. And wandering in the round, that is a poetic way of translating being in saṃsāra.
Without beginning is refers to the fact that these lifetimes don’t have a beginning. Blindly, I have brought forth wickedness. Now blindly means ignorantly. Without knowing what we’re doing, we do things that are going to harm us and cause cause us suffering. So we’ve brought forth wickedness is is another way of saying we’ve done negative things, inciting others to commit the same.
I can’t actually find that, but anyway, in Tibetan. Okay. I don’t know where the inciting others comes from, but I’m sure it’s in there somewhere. And then the next the next verse says, I have taken pleasure in such evil. So all that’s talking about is when we see other people doing negative things, not only have we done negative things ourselves, but when we’ve seen other people doing things that was gonna harm others, we’ve gone, oh great, good on you, and being very happy for them to have done negative things.
And then it says, tricked and over mastered by my ignorance. So, being completely confused and blinded by our ignorance, we do these things. And then the the verse says, now I see the blame of it in my heart, oh great protectors, I declare it. So it’s saying that now I know what I’ve done. Now I can see, the negative things that I’ve done in all these different lifetimes and I can see how destructive they were and I can see how they caused suffering.
So I’m going to to be brave enough to state that I’ve done these things. Okay. It’s my pencil over there, George. No? Yeah.
Is it yeah. That’s my pencil. Alright. So we can stop there.