Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 37-minute Q&A session, Geshe Pema Tsering fields questions from an ongoing Bodhisattva Way of Life commentary. He opens with a striking empathy exercise — imagine being crushed by an elephant, then consider the mosquito — to explain why we kill insects or eat meat without registering their suffering, and what to do when a friend acts harmfully: dissuade if possible; if not, simply meditate on compassion for all involved. A question on hell realms links the severity of future rebirth there to the gravity of the anger behind harmful acts. The sharpest exchange distinguishes anger aimed at one’s own afflictions, which destroys them and is therefore wholesome, from anger aimed at sentient beings, which produces bad karma. A final question addresses Buddha’s omniscience as the complete removal of all obscurations to knowledge.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2006 01 24Q Bodhisattvas Way of Life.mp3
UUID: 5f5a1dab-93e4-434a-aee9-20dbc5a66969
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2005 Mar -2007 (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2006-01-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 37.0 minutes
Words: ~1,661
Peter? Questions? Okay. How would I say that? Then it’s done this is in last, there’s not much to it.
If if somebody is is trying to make us engage in non virtuous deeds such as such misconduct, then knowing that understanding that, oh, this is a non virtuous a non virtuous deed. So that I won’t do that. And when thinking this way, when just don’t do it. One understands that it is non virtuous deed, recognize it as such and doesn’t engage in the in the action. Okay?
So then, Geshe-la is saying, the reason we keep on engaging in these non-virtuous deeds is is because we do not understand that engaging in them, we will experience suffering in the future. Because not understanding that they will bring suffering to us, then we we keep on engaging this non virtuous deeds, whatever they are, even killing killing a small insect. You know? Because we do not understand that this will actually bring suffering to us, then we keep on killing whatever insects. So that’s because we do not think when, for example, Geshe-la was giving the example of a mosquito.
When it’s biting us and we we get angry and we immediately without thinking, we immediately kill it. So then he says, because we haven’t thought about it, and then we we kill it. But if we if we try to put ourselves in the place of of the mosquito, then we would understand that the suffering involved, then we wouldn’t want we would not kill it. So, again, I’ll say, give the example. For example, if there was a big elephant and he was to step on us, then if we imagine that, we then we will understand how how it is for the mosquito.
And then thinking in this way, we will not. So, again again, we when we are eating meat or when we’re eating fish or when we’re eating chicken, we do we we just we we eat them, and we do not think about it. We do not think about the sufferings that they have been through. We we take the legs of the chicken, and we play with them, and we break them apart and whatever, and we do all that without thinking anything about it. So then again, Geshe-la is talking about, for example, the fishes.
When we eat fishes and when we and and we think about he’s he’s he’s telling us about the these big boats, fishing boats, and all those fishermen. They they are they are working, and they never stop to think about the suffering that the fishes are going through or whatever diseases or whatever sufferings they are experiencing. They just keep on working and killing them, and and they never stop to think about it. And this is this is a Geshe-la said, this is a great negativity. So then well, again, I said in in such a situation, we should we should do whatever we can we should do whatever whatever is we can in order for neither of them to to get killed or to die.
Yeah. So then Gela is saying that, for example, in such a case, there is there is no place for getting angry with anybody or anything. You shouldn’t get angry. You should do whatever you can for, your friend, not to do the not to engage in negative deed. But if he does engage, then you just leave it.
And at the worst case possibility, I mean, in the worst case scenario, then what you do is you meditate on compassion, compassion for your friend, compassion for animals, because also it’s in the nature of being an animal to eat each other. So you do what you can, but if you cannot, just leave it. And on top of that, you can meditate on compassion. You have compassion. They’re going through such suffering and so forth and so forth.
Okay? Next question.
I’m I’m gonna I’m gonna ask you a question. But I’m going first, I’m going to put forth one thing that I’m not going to ask. Okay? One thing that I’m not going to ask. Inferno and Purgatorio are Christian concepts.
Okay? That Geshe-la will not know about it. Okay? And I’m not, going to explain to him right now because it’s gonna take a very long time. Okay?
There are in in Buddhist tradition, there are eighteen hells, eighteen different hells. Okay? Inferno and Purgatorio are Christian hells. Okay? So I’m going to ask a question about anger and hell realms.
Okay? But not infernal and purgatory. Okay? So then so then explain. So I explained to him a bit what what you had asked.
Okay? So he says there are different kinds of hell. Okay? And according to the the to the intensity intensity or to the to the gravity of the anger and the action that was involved with that anger, then you will be reborn in a different hell. And once you are born in the hell realm, it is definitely very difficult to get out of there.
Okay? So then because it is very difficult to get to to get out of hell, to be free from hell, then we should do whatever we can now not to be reborn there, not to get not to to to get a how do you say, to be born in the hell realm. Yeah. Next question. The anger that destroys the afflictions, what kind of karma does that produce?
What kind of karma does it produce? The the mind that holds a grudge towards afflictive emotions, that’s a good mind. And the result, what you get is that you get rid of the afflictive emotions, and that’s good. Now, the mind that holds a grudge towards all the sentient beings, the people, or animals, or whatever, that’s a bad mind. And then you get bad out of it.
You get bad karma. You get suffering in the future. Okay? So you you don’t want to know about the mind that holds a grudge towards anger. You want to know?
Rancor? Yeah. Which which is isn’t it the same as holding a grudge? It’s the same, isn’t it?
No? Okay. So then okay. So there is a I I use both words. Okay?
Holding a grudge and and and being angry towards afflictive emotions. Okay? So I asked him what are the qualities of these minds that hold a grudge towards afflictive emotions? What are the qualities of this mind that that get angry towards afflictive emotions? So he says, what what distinguish this sort of mind from from a mind that holds a grudge or gets angry with other sentient beings, for example, is the fact that, as was explained before in the text, is the fact that this mind is is actually going to is being used as a means to destroy the afflictive emotions.
The holding this this anger towards afflictive emotions, this begrudging afflictive emotions is a means to destroy the afflictive emotions. And because of that, they are good because they are destroying afflictive emotions. Now, if we if we hold a grudge or get angry with another sentient being, another person who is in fact kind to us, and as even the all other sentient beings, as we have seen in many other classes and teachings of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, they are kind to us. They show only kindness to us.
All every happiness that we have depends on them and so forth. And if we hold a grudge towards them, and if we get angry towards them, then this is a bad thing. This is a real negativity. Do you understand the difference? So that is in relation to the fact of that one is being used as a means to destroy the afflictive emotions.
Okay? Okay. Yeah. Sure. So then, Geshe-la just explained that the Buddha is someone who has absolutely no faults, who has accomplished all virtues and all excellences, and is also one who is omniscient.
He is one who has abandoned all obscurations to knowledge. So we, we as ordinary beings, we we cannot know, for example, what is behind this wall. But the Buddha can know everything. He knows everything anywhere, anytime. There’s nothing that he does not know.
Is that okay? So then can I explain the rest of this? There are the so called obscurations to to knowledge. And then Geshe-la says, there are many things that we do not know. And but the Buddha himself, he has abandoned.
He has he has rid himself of all obscurations to knowledge. So because of that, there’s nothing that he does not know. So for example, quite interesting now. So, realizing, we we do not know, for example, what is behind our heads. We cannot see.
Right? So we don’t know what is right behind our heads. But so what is all those things that we do not know? There are so many things. So for example, the letter a from the from from the alphabet.
So when we are little kids, we we do not know what is the letter a, but then we learn what we see the letter a, we identify it as the letter a. So then we do not have anymore after learning the letter a, we do not have anymore the obscuration to knowledge to the letter a. We do not have ignorance of the letter a. So then and like this, there are many other things that we do not know. And every time we, for example, we have something with our eye consciousness, and then we we know this something, and we eliminate the obscuration to knowledge of that particular phenomenon.
And like this like this, we have many obscurations to knowledge, but the Buddha has abandoned all of them. Okay.