Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with the Buddha’s three-line summary — “abandon all evil deeds, accumulate all virtues, and tame your mind” — Geshe Pema Tsering uses this 44-minute session to prepare practitioners for an upcoming group calm abiding retreat at Kangaroo Island, Australia. He first walks through three levels of motivation, explaining why aiming for Buddhahood for the sake of all beings is the only truly sufficient basis for practice, and why lesser motivations — personal liberation or simply a good rebirth — fall short. The second half turns practical: drawing on Maitreya’s Ornament of the Sutras, Geshe-la works through six conditions a retreat site must meet — good provisions, consecrated ground, compatible companions, minimal distraction — checking each against Kangaroo Island with dry good humor. Suited for practitioners preparing for their first extended calm abiding retreat.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 17 CAR 2002 10 08.mp3
UUID: 710efaaf-f20d-4dbd-a7ba-d79862f94bb0
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Calm Abiding Retreat (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-10-08
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.8 minutes
Words: ~3,478
So is this on? Yeah. So we’re gonna start with guess I wanted to start with a quote from the Buddha, and the quote is, abandon all evil deeds and accumulate all virtues and tame your mind. This is the teachings of the Buddha. And and why does it say abandon abandon all evil deeds and accumulate all positive actions?
Because a ban because doing evil deeds leads to suffering, and nobody wants to suffer. And by accumulating positive actions, we achieve peace and happiness, and everybody wants to achieve peace and happiness. And how do we how do we go about doing this? How do we abandon evil deeds and accumulate positive actions? We do this by taming our mind.
And this is why it says in the next section, tame your mind. And so this is the whole process that Buddha has set forward in his teachings, and this is why the last line says, this is the teaching of the Buddha. And so what do we have to do? We have to try and abide in the teachings of the Buddha. And the teachings of the Buddha and the teachings of the Buddha are to do as he said and abandon abandon the bad deeds and accumulate positive actions.
And we do this by relying on our mind. It is our mind. It’s not the actual actions that bring us forward. It’s our minds that we rely on to do this. And how do we actually take this to its further extreme?
How do we do this completely? By achieving Buddhahood as the Buddha set forward in his teachings. And even though it says this in the teachings, we may not necessarily be able to do that completely at this stage. We can’t abandon all bad deeds, and we can’t accumulate all virtues because we don’t have it in our power. So what we’re supposed to do at this stage is to do the best we can to if we can do big good deeds, do big good deeds.
And if we can only do small good deeds, do small good deeds. But just do the best you can, and then the from the momentum from that, it will carry us through. So for example, in a few weeks, we’re going to meditate for a few days on calm abiding. And this meditation itself is is a good deed. So what we need to do is to motivate ourselves properly so this good deed reaches its fullest potential.
So when we talk about that is this one, isn’t it? How do I fix it? No. Okay. Right.
So when we’re talking about establishing a motivation, there’s three different ways that we can establish our motivation. There’s the big motivation, the middling motivation, and the small motivation. And apart from these three motivations, there basically is no motivation. Anything that we do apart from these three doesn’t come into the category of motivation. So the big motivation, grandest of motivations, is to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.
The middling motivation is to achieve liberation for oneself. And the smallest of motivations that is still considered a motivation is to achieve a good rebirth and a precious human rebirth in our next life. And so because of our afflictive emotions and our karma, we actually spend most of our time in this life looking for trying to our motivation is usually about this life. It’s about accumulating wealth. It’s about having a pleasant stay and enjoying ourselves here.
And this isn’t actually a very good motivation. This is a motivation that only brings about a small result. It only brings about small pleasures and a small amount of non suffering or pleasantness, and therefore, it’s not very beneficial to us. So we’re only gonna live in this body for at most a hundred years, and this isn’t very long, and then we’re gonna die. And then nothing that we’ve none of the effort that we’ve put into establishing a pleasant life for this life we can carry through with us.
So therefore, it’s wasted. And therefore, if we look at what we said before about all our actions in this life being based on getting pleasures for this life, then we’re basically wasting a lot of our time trying to establish comfort that isn’t going to stay. And if we look at all the things that we accumulate, that means that if we look at all the things we accumulate in this life, then they themselves also have the nature of suffering. We have put in a lot of effort to get them, and then they don’t last, they fade, they don’t give us a lasting happiness, so therefore they themselves are in the nature of suffering. If we look at therefore, so if our bodies and our things and everything that we focus on in this life is going to eventually cause us suffering, there’s really no point to focusing on this, and we should try and focus on the next life and turn around our attachment to this life.
Turn it yeah. Turn it around so it’s not there. So therefore, we should set our motivations in this way. The best of motivations is to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. And if that’s not possible, then we should try and aim for the state of no more suffering for ourselves.
And if that’s not possible, then we should try and aim for in our next life to be born as, as the texts say, as a god or a human. So this the smallest of motivations, this motivation to be born in the next life as a god or a human, isn’t really a very uplifted motivation because even if we’re born as a god or a human in your next life, then we’re still in saṃsāra. We’re still going through the cycle of death and rebirth and we’re still suffering. It’s not an end to anything. It’s only a beginning to something more.
And therefore, it’s really not a good motivation to focus on before we start doing any practice. And so then if we move up to the next level of motivation, the motivation to achieve liberation from suffering for oneself, when we’re talking about this, we don’t actually know what we’re talking about. We don’t understand it properly. We understand that there is some kind of happiness and some kind of pleasantness that lasts forever, we don’t really have a grip on it. Whereas if we talk about the happiness of being a god or a human in terms of referring it to the other rebirths which aren’t very nice, then we can say, oh, that’s pleasant.
I can see that that’s pleasant. And so it gives us something that we definitely know about. So and therefore but what we if we do know that being born as a human or a god is like a pleasant experience, and that the experience of self liberation or nirvana is more pleasant than that, then that gives us a reference point. And it’s also something that doesn’t end. But even having said that, this second level of motivation to achieve nirvana for oneself it’s still not that good because you’re leaving people behind.
You’re not thinking about anyone else. And this limits that motivation to a certain extent. So therefore, the only motivation that is pure, that is strong enough, is the motivation to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. And so also if if we are trying to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings and do we succeed in our aim, then we are not only in a place where we’re not suffering anymore and our suffering has ceased forever, but we can also look at the sufferings of other people and the best way to help them. We know the best way to help them in their mind and the way for them to get out of saṃsāra like we know the palm of our hand in the same way.
We can see them, their sufferings and the way for them to get out of saṃsāra the same way we can just look at our hand. And so the main way that we achieve Buddhahood is through the two ways of path and method and wisdom. Is that the normal way I think it’s translated? Method and wisdom. If we have no method and we have no wisdom, then we have no way of achieving Buddhahood.
And at the moment, we don’t really have much method and wisdom, Geshe-la says, but what we can do is train our minds, and then then gradually, we get more method and more wisdom, and the momentum builds up. So if we’re beginners, then the first thing that we have to study beginners like us who are stopping, then the first thing we have to study is the mind of bodhicitta, the the mind wishing wishing to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. So the way that we can try and develop this wish to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings is to first to recognize our own suffering, to understand our own suffering very well and to know where we are going with that and how we’re going to keep circling in saṃsāra. And then after we understand our own suffering, then we can see that all other sentient beings have the same suffering as us. And we can look forward to achieving Buddhahood to liberate all of those beings as well as ourselves from this cycle of suffering.
So then we have this wish to separate beings from suffering. And this wish if we have this wish to separate all beings from suffering, then we have to understand that the only way for us to do this, the only way for us to separate all beings from suffering is to achieve Buddhahood, so we get the urgency and the mind that focuses on achieving Buddhahood for all sentient beings. Okay. And so therefore, if we want to separate other beings from suffering, we have to understand, we think, oh, they’re suffering like me, and each and every one of them is suffering like me, and I don’t want them to be suffering. And because I don’t want them to be suffering, I have to achieve Buddhahood.
If I want to achieve Buddhahood, then I have to And that’s now. And so now we have to meditate. Yeah. So we’re not gonna do much meditation because Geshe thinks we’re tired. We’ll get tired.
So today we’re going to talk about calm abiding because in a couple of weeks we’re going to do a retreat on calm abiding and we have to know how to prepare properly for that. So we’re going to Kangaroo Island, and we’re going to meditate on calm abiding at Kangaroo Island. So when we’re talking about the preparations that we have to do before meditating on calm abiding, the first thing that we have to do is stay in a place that’s in accordance with our needs. Geshe was saying that at this stage Kangaroo Island is a place that is in accordance with our needs. And this is the first of a division of six different things that you need in order to prepare for a calm abiding retreat.
Hang on. I have written down so I don’t have to remember them. Alright. The first one is that you should be dwelling in a conducive place. You should have few wants.
You should be content. You should have completely abandoned the many demands of society. And you should have pure ethics and completely abandon conceptual thoughts such as desire. Okay. So the the first division of these being a place that is in accordance is a conducive place for calm abiding meditation.
And there’s a quote from the Ornament of the Sutras, which is a text written by Maitreya that says, how do we tell if somewhere is conducive to developing calm abiding? This place should be somewhere where the wise men, the people who hold wisdom of the past, meditated. It should be somewhere which has good provisions, is a sound place, has good earth and surroundings, and we’re somewhere where you have good friends as well. And this is something that will satisfy the mind of a yogi, is what the quote from the Ornament of the Sutras says. Now Geshe-la says that when we talk about someone who is a being holding wisdom, what we mean is someone who has developed śamatha or has developed calm abiding, has stayed in that place beforehand.
Someone must have consecrated the place by doing this. And he gets to the says that that our place that that fits all these criteria is Kangaroo Island. So the place that we go to meditate should be somewhere which has good provisions readily available. If these provisions are not readily available, then we have to keep going down to the it says in here to the market, but to the shops perhaps to keep filling up our supplies. And if that happens, then there’s no way that we can try and achieve calm abiding.
And it’s so the text says that in collecting our provisions of food and etcetera, we don’t we shouldn’t rely on wrong livelihood in order to do this. Otherwise, it’s not a good start to the retreat. And we shouldn’t have some some provisions that have come about by a have come about by someone doing a great misdeed to get us these provisions. But Geshe-la says that’s pretty easy for us because the people at Kangaroo Island are doing all the preparations, and we don’t have to worry about it. And so the next part of the text says that we should be staying in a place that has been has been made holy by the holy beings of the past.
The holy beings of the past having gone there and meditated, the ground has become consecrated. And therefore, for beginners, there it is much easier to meditate, and they get the blessings of the people who have gone there beforehand. Geshe-la says, Kangaroo Island, while we don’t know whether the blessed beings in the past have gone there to meditate or not, he does know for certain that Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khensur Rinpoche have both been there and said many aspirational prayers sanctified the place and said it was a good place. So we can rely on these these beings having gone there to to pave the way for us to follow. So the next qualification is that the place we’re having retreat at should have, is that it shouldn’t be a place where someone lives who has caused a schism in the sangha, which is a really profound which is a really profound bad deed.
But there isn’t anyone guess, because I said there isn’t anyone there that’s done It also should be a shouldn’t be a place where there’s wild animals that can eat us. Now Geshe-la says he doesn’t think that there’s wild animals at Kangaroo Island, but there’s a lot of trees. So there might be some snakes, and there’s definitely should be kangaroos, but he doesn’t think that we’re in any danger. The other the next thing is that there shouldn’t be any thieves there, and he’s pretty sure there’s no thieves there. And the other requirement is that there isn’t any how would you translate this?
Ghosts or other beings who want to do us harm. And Geshe-la says he’s been there, and he doesn’t think there’s any of them. There should also be people who are willing to support the people doing retreat and to offer generosity to them, and he said that that’s definitely there as well. So the the next requirement is the place that we’re should if if it does have unhuman things that want to harm us, unhuman ghosts, etc, that want to harm us, then we should try and subdue them by very gentle means, because otherwise they can become agitated and harm us. Geshe-la says he’s sure that there’s no unhuman beings there that want to hurt us.
Then it says that the place shouldn’t be cold or hot, and he doesn’t think it’s really cold or really hot. He’s not sure, but he’s pretty sure it should be fine with that. Also that the water is suitable, and he said that he thinks the water should be suitable there as well. The next section says that when we are in retreat, we should be staying with friends or companions that are of like mind to us. Says that they can be from two or above, or up to two friends, but they should be someone whose, the expression is, whose shadow is the same as ours.
But it means people that we are in accordance with, as said, in in mind and intellect. People that we’re not going to have conflict with in that way. So so the the when it says that we should be in accordance in mind and and intellect with people, he says it’s quite easy for us because because we are if we’re Buddhists, then we have the same view. We accept the same principles, and we principles, and we have a definite refuge in the Three Jewels. Therefore, then our minds are similar.
Geshe-la has been said that we don’t don’t dress the same, though, because he wears monks’ robes, and we don’t. Don’t know what the animals are doing, but anyway. We it’s a bit so that in that way, we’re a little bit different. But apart from that, then most of the things most of our viewpoints and everything accord because of this reliance on the Three Jewels, and therefore, it’s not a problem. The text also says that if someone is a beginner, it’s not really a good idea for them to meditate by themselves because it can in fact be dangerous for their mental stability.
And in that case, if everyone has the same type of mind stream, then to have three or more people is a good idea. And if everybody’s mind stream is in accordance, then it doesn’t really matter how many people meditating together. But however many people are meditating together, the best thing to rely on, it says, is to put a curtain. And is to put some material in between you and the next person so then you can’t see out of the corner of your eye what they’re doing and they can’t see what you’re doing, and you don’t get distracted by the actions of the people around you. Alright.
So we shouldn’t be doing retreat with people that we see as equal. People the literal translation is people that we don’t have to put in effort around, so people that you feel really relaxed around. And Geshe-la said, this is if we hang around with these kind of people, then we end up playing and laughing and not concentrating on what we’re doing. And this isn’t really helpful for our meditation. So it then says that the place that we meditate should also be a place without a lot of people, because if there’s a lot of people going to and fro in the daytime, then they can create a lot of noise which can distract us.
And also in the nighttime, shouldn’t be dogs or water making noise around where we are to try and distract us from our practice, and we don’t know where the kangaroos make noise at night. But he said, don’t know if they make noise. But he doesn’t think there’s any dogs at the place we’re going. So the the next section says that the author of the text, Pabongka Rinpoche, his lama, his teacher told him that in order to meditate on śamatha, on calm abiding, you should be someone who understands what calm abiding is, someone who has studied it. Geshe-la said that we should have studied calm abiding before we go and do this retreat, we have some understanding of it before we start. So Geshe-la says that when we’re on the retreat, we’re going to do the actual studies in the calm abiding, so this fulfills those requirements.
But he doesn’t think that we’re going to get the whole full story about calm abiding because he’s taking us through the text, and he doesn’t know anything. So if we’re going to meditate on on calm abiding, we have to become experts in in calm abiding in order to understand what we’re doing properly.