Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A student’s blunt challenge opens this 22-minute Q&A: if you know you will almost certainly break a vow again, is it not simply a lie to take it? Geshe Pema Tsering explains that sincere confession followed by a renewed vow carries real benefit, even when the cycle repeats, provided the commitment is genuine rather than merely verbal — just saying the words without meaning them does not constitute proper confession. A second question asks what happens when a well-intentioned action makes a situation worse. He clarifies that virtue is determined by motivation, not outcome: if someone with wrong views misreads a kind act as harmful, that does not change its moral quality. Suited to students in the Bodhisattva Way of Life series wrestling with the gap between ethical aspiration and daily conduct.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2005 09 20Bodhisattvas Q&A.mp3
UUID: 2d6bcb56-de70-4b4f-99cc-043238f63d32
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2005 Mar -2007 (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-09-20
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 22.2 minutes
Words: ~905
Like say you have, like you say you have sort of unkindness to people and you think oh well I’m going be more kind and open to people. And you know it’s going be very difficult because it’s quite complicated. So you still make the vow anyhow relationship with this. So what what what should you do? That’s the question.
Question is if you even if you can’t even if you know to make to make the vow, you may not fulfill it. Laso, laso, and then — yeah. Should you take the vow anyway? Yes. Laso, laso.
Okay. So, yes, this is a put forth your your point. So it’s a it’s a negativity that we are very much habituated with, and then we we confess. We make the vow of not doing it again. But then we end up doing it again, and then Geshe-la says, okay.
This and then you are again accumulating non-virtue. But then again, you confess, and again, you take the vow. And this is gonna happen again and again according to Geshe-la, and there is benefit in it, he says. It’s just But I was gonna ask the same question. It seems like a lie to say, I will never do this again.
Say, malicious thoughts when you still have not good control — Laso — over your thoughts. So it’s still okay to vow even though you’re fairly sure of your own weakness and that you will still do it. Laso. So what’s the question?
It seems like a lie to me to vow that I will never again do this thing when I am fairly sure that I will, even though I don’t want to. Okay. So the answer is that if we just just saying just saying the the just saying, like, for example, I’m not going to have evil thoughts towards somebody else, or I’m not going to steal anything else. Just saying it, but then then not meaning it with with one’s heart or mind. And then when something I know some So if if you’re just just saying it and not meaning it, and then some something that you are attached to comes about and you you do the the evil deed again, so that’s that’s no good on it.
So that’s that won’t make make up for a a proper confession. Did you understand? I sort of understand what’s a positive action, but as soon as I thought of I understand vaguely what a positive action is. A positive action. Yes.
But as soon as involved, if I make an action and involve involve with a people Yes. And seem like seems like some sometime, depending on the people, I I created or I don’t know if they created, but makes the situation worse. Am I creating a positive action or negative action? You know, some sometime I even I think I am creating a positive action. Yes.
But, you know, that depend on the situation of of people. And we have a misunderstanding. That makes it worse. It makes it worse. This is I sometime I made a, you know, this situation.
Okay. So what was the question? Yeah. This is sometimes he thinks he’s making a positive action. Laso?
Yeah. But the situation becomes worse. Turns out to be worse. Laso. So it turns out to be worse.
Less. So am I creating — The intention is good. Mhmm. This this this with a good motivation, even though I have a good motivation. So it’s creating positive action.
Laso. Laso. Laso. We don’t seem to understand that if you have a good motivation and you’re you’re thinking that you are doing a virtuous deed, we don’t seem to understand how how is the the situation going turning out worse. Which situation is that?
He’s asking. Because if you have a good motivation, and then the situation turns out worse, which situation is that? He’s asking. Example. You know?
What what’s happening if I make some kind action towards them, and but if because they have a wrong view, they think that’s not right. Misunderstand. Laso. Laso. Laso.
This is for example. For example, Okay. Okay. So it doesn’t matter. If if this is the the situation, and you have a good motivation, you are doing a virtuous deed, but somebody else who has a wrong view says that you’re not doing a virtuous deed, it doesn’t matter.
So you don’t have to worry about it. If your motivation is good, then you’re doing virtuous deed. It doesn’t matter what the other person is saying. Right.
That’s pretty good. Yeah. Geshe-la goes on to explain that if you are doing a virtuous deed, and then somebody else comes and says — if you’re doing something that is actually a virtuous deed, and somebody else comes and says, “Oh, this is no good,” that doesn’t change the fact that you are doing a virtuous deed. It is still a virtuous deed. And if you are doing something that is non virtue, and somebody comes and says that that is good, that won’t change the fact that that is non virtue.
So, does that mean, you know, positive that the idea of positivity subsisting within our actions, not the This is difficult question. Hmm. We can finish. Finish now?
It’s okay? Yeah. Finish. So somebody Here, I’ll pass it. Yeah.
Thank you.