Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 14.5-minute session, Geshe Pema Tsering opens with a surprising claim: Buddhahood is not a mystical endpoint but the logical conclusion of a step-by-step process — from karma, through analysis of selflessness, to the point where all grasping dissolves and only compassion for others remains. He then draws a careful three-way distinction between generosity (giving to those with less), a present (to an equal), and an offering (to one with more qualities), and explains how to frame each mentally — visualising the gift as greater, holding the three spheres as non-inherently existent, and dedicating the act toward awakening. A personal anecdote about Geshe passing donations straight to others in front of the giver grounds the teaching in lived example.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 BS GtL 2005 02 27.mp3
UUID: d420ba1a-443c-42cd-9b32-123966e78af1
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: DB Bodhisattva Guide to Life (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-02-27
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 14.5 minutes
Words: ~1,171
Okay. So I guess they said yes. What you said is absolutely Alright? If we look at it to start off with, we can’t see Buddhism. Sorry.
We can’t see Buddhahood. Alright? But if we look at it to start off with, we can’t see anything. Alright? And we need to investigate until we come to that point.
So we start the way that the path is explained is to first of all look at karma. The causes have effects. And if we look at that a lot, we come to this certainty about that. We can develop this understanding that a positive action should have a positive result, a negative action has a negative result. We started working from that basis, the next thing that comes through analysis we develop an understanding of is selflessness.
First of you investigate karma, try and experience karma, develop an understanding of karma, and therefore you have clarity about it. Right? Then you look at selflessness. And you can look at selflessness logically. You can say there is no reason why there should be a self.
It’s something that we work with. Yeah? But it’s not something that there is any reason for having a self. Right? If we investigate, there really is no self.
Okay? So we have a logical approach to selflessness. And the logical thing to do after that is to go then what? Right? If you don’t have a self-cherishing or you don’t have a self grasping mind, what happens to neurosis?
What happens to negative states? And if you’ve realized through your meditation that there is no self, right? There’s no asthma, there is nothing that needs to be protected or in that way, then the neurosis disappear. There is no grasping, there is no aversion, they just disappear. It’s all gone.
Right? So if that’s still making sense, right? Then we need to think, okay, what’s left? If you’ve completely gotten rid of all negative qualities and at the same time you’ve been working to for others because if there’s no self then you’re focusing on others. What is that?
In essence, that’s Buddhahood. When you ve gotten rid of negative states and when you ve developed positive states, that s Buddhahood. So when you first look at it, it doesn’t look like it’s a logical thing but it isn’t as if it’s some mystical thing that’s separated from that process. It’s just the end result of the process. So when you’re first looking at karma, you’re not looking at Buddhahood.
But if you keep progressing further through that and you can see it’s like the logical next step after all those processes. So the idea of offering to the Buddha is very much a part of the path, but it’s not something that’s considered generosity. Generosity is something that you give to those who need. So therefore, to give to the Buddha isn’t generosity as an offering. Alright?
So if someone is in more need than you, that’s generosity. If someone’s in less need than you, that’s an offering. So whether something is offering or whether it’s generosity depends on what it’s been given to. So if someone’s so if something’s like If someone has more qualities than you, more things than you, needs less than you, then you would be making an offering. Alright?
If someone’s, because let’s say, someone’s the same as you, you would be giving a present. Alright? And if someone has less than you, then you’d be practicing generosity. Focusing on. But Geshe-la said you shouldn’t be thinking this person is less than me therefore I should give them something, all right?
What you should be thinking there at that instant is trying to visualize what you’re giving as being a lot more than what you’re giving. So that’s like a more positive statement. And also there’s the person who s receiving what it is that you re giving, the thing that you are giving and yourself are all not inherently existent. So you think by giving this I attain Buddhahood and benefit all sentient beings that they all may be relieved from suffering. So that’s if it’s the case.
If it’s someone that’s equal to you, then you think that they’re both suffering, that may you both attain Buddhahood. And if it’s someone that’s like a teacher or something, then you think, by making an offering, may I receive the benefits of this teacher this being’s realizations. Okay. He thinks that you always find someone who needs something. Right?
So the idea of giving is to give it to give to those who need. So if someone says, I don’t want it, then that means that they don’t need. Right? Now the only time that you give, you usually give to to beings who don’t who hang on. The only time you usually give to beings who don’t who who don’t need what you’re giving, right, is if you’re making an offering.
Alright? And he said, now if you’re giving something to a teacher or monk who’s a good teacher or a monk and they don’t need what you’re offering, they will probably take anyway because that gives you the opportunity to make merit, all right, so to do something positive. But they should give it to someone else pretty well straight away. So that they that you’ll see that all the time. People will take things and then give it away pretty much straight or it will be used for something else.
And so in that way, they have a misunderstanding that they and they may not need what you’re giving, but they will take it anyway just to to help you out and then they can get the merit as well from handing it around. I had to explain to Geshe when I first came here that he shouldn’t give away presents that people gave him in front of them. Because people would give him a present and he just handed over and I was just people would just be going, He s like, thanks. Here, you have that or give it to someone else. And he said, We do that all the time in the monastery.
Someone will give something and it will just keep getting passed around the group. So however much you think about it, that’s however much it’s like however much you think you’re giving, then that’s what you’re yeah. So you should take it with the idea that please may this be a cause for them to perfect the giving perfection of giving, to perfect giving and become a Buddha. And then if so, therefore, if you’re taking it, then you think, my my taking is made this benefit this person. Right?
If you then if you need it, use it. If you don’t, give it to someone else. Yeah. And not in Australia anyway. Yes.
Okay. That’s So in the morning prayer section, twenty six. Yeah. Same. Same.
It’s page twenty six.