Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Here is the draft paragraph:
A student’s question about whether to realize emptiness before practicing the Six Perfections anchors this 12-minute Q&A with Geshe Pema Tsering. His answer is pragmatic: the order does not matter — practice whichever perfection is most accessible at any given moment, moving between generosity, morality, patience, alertness, concentration, and wisdom in whatever sequence suits. What does matter is that each practice be held within the motivation to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings; without that intention, no practice qualifies as a true perfection. The session closes with brief etymologies of the main Tibetan Buddhist school names: Nyingma (the old tradition), Sakya (named after the grey soil near its founding monastery), and Kagyu (those who preserve Marpa’s lineage). Suited to practitioners already familiar with Mahāyāna concepts.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2006 03 07Q Bodhisattvas Way of Life.mp3
UUID: e8d9266b-746c-4169-b19b-8fc8c257de7e
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2005 Mar -2007 (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2006-03-07
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 12.2 minutes
Words: ~893
We can we can do that. We’re just thinking that in order to to benefit all sentient beings, in order to attain enlightenment for the sake of benefiting all sentient beings, I’m now going to engage in in this work, in this activity, and then whatever activity it is. And if we can if we can do that at all times, then whatever activities we are engaging in is going to be turned into the causes of enlightenment. And then whatever whatever whatever it is that we do, whatever it is that we get, you know, and then I I earn this money for the sake of all sentient beings and so on, etcetera, etcetera. Yes?
You want to know why we Which way we should approach, So first either should we first realize emptiness and then practice them? Or should we first practice them and then in order to realize So then the guy says, it doesn’t matter which one which one you do first. You do whatever it is that you are able to do. If if, for example, if one if you’re not able to realize emptiness, then you won’t be able to accomplish the the the paramita of wisdom, the perfection of wisdom. But but it it doesn’t matter.
You do anyway in in in in in any way. You you keep on practicing your other paramita, and you keep on meditating on emptiness altogether. As as as much as you are able to do, you do. Okay? So then, I guess, whatever it is that is more comfortable for you to do because there is, for example, there are the five the five first perfection.
There is generosity, morality, let’s say, alertness, patience, and concentration. So whatever because this this each one of them refers to a different mind, so each one can can only come one at a time. So whatever it is that you are able to do at any given moment, whatever it is that’s more comfortable for you to meditate at any given moment, let you do. But you say, each one is a different mind. You’re using a different mind.
Yeah. Different mind. I’m like, So then, Geshe-la says, so then it doesn’t matter the order in which you practice them. You don’t need to practice as it is expounded in the text, first generosity and then morality and so forth. You don’t need to practice in that order.
You you do, you practice whatever of this perfections is more comfortable or or easier for you to to accomplish first that you do. But in order for them to be called perfection, perfection of patience, perfection of morality, whatever it is, in order to be called perfection, important thing that you must have is the motivation of attaining enlightenment for the sake of benefiting of sentient beings. Because without these motivations, they will not be, you cannot call them perfections. So it doesn’t matter if once you have given rise to this motivation of benefiting sentient beings, of attaining enlightenment for the sake of benefiting sentient beings, then you can practice whatever it is that is more comfortable to you. You can start with the third one and then go to the second one and then go to the fifth one and go go to the first one.
It doesn’t matter. The order doesn’t matter. You do whatever it is that you are able to do at at any given moment. So then the first, the most important thing, and I’ll say this again, the most important thing is that we do that with the motivation of attaining enlightenment. So we think thinking now, I must attain enlightenment.
I must attain enlightenment. In order to accomplish that, I’m going to practice generosity. In order to accomplish enlightenment, I’m going to practice patience. In order to accomplish enlightenment, I’m going to meditate on wisdom. In order to accomplish enlightenment, I’m going to engage in joyous perseverance.
But the most important thing is the mind of enlightenment, okay? It doesn’t matter. Whatever you want to do. Yes? He said he has been there in many years before.
He has been there. So this year, he is not going. So then Geshe-la says he doesn’t know exactly. And then there’s a very traditional explanation of the meaning. So Nyingma is about accomplishing virtue. It’s the tradition that accomplishes virtue, the accomplishing of virtue that comes from the ancient teachings and so forth. Then Nyingma refers to — it comes from the word that means old, referring to the old tradition of the Nyingmas, which was the first tradition in Tibet. And then Sakya, it’s a it’s a word that refers to Sa, which is the earth, the soil, and Kya, which is the color of the soil where the where the first monastery of the Sakya was located, was in this place, which has this gray kind of soil, which is called Sakya. So the name comes because of that place. And then Kagyu is referring to those who follow the lineage of Marpa.
It refers to the teachings of the Buddha, and continuing and preserving the teachings of the Buddha. That’s the general knowledge of these four words. Geshe-la just gave a brief explanation there; we can elaborate a lot on that one.