Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with Śāntideva’s image of the body as a boat that, once lost midstream, is hard to replace, Geshe Pema Tsering uses this 45-minute session to lay out a complete framework for daily Dharma practice. He first distinguishes worldly from Dharmic motivation, walking through the three levels — seeking a good rebirth, striving for liberation from saṃsāra, and cultivating bodhicitta. The practical instruction then covers an entire day: an evening review of virtues and faults, prostrations before sleep, and falling asleep in refuge so that sleep itself becomes a virtuous action; then a morning sequence of rising with intention, washing, offering breakfast before eating, and shrine setup. The meditation session proper begins with refuge and bodhicitta, moves through the seven-limb prayer, and extends into Lamrim meditation when time allows.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 DP 2004 02 24.mp3
UUID: 421a38ea-ede4-44b1-8bec-710fa083afb5
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: DB Establishing a Daily Practice (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-02-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~4,018
In A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Śāntideva said, this boat of a body is a base for our achievements. It can take us across the ocean of suffering to the side of peace. But once it is lost, it is not easily found. So don’t be stupid and not use this opportunity. Okay, I think I made a mistake on the last line of that.
It was don’t be stupid and sleep through it. Okay, sleep through the lifetime, okay? Now, so what this means is if we think about it, then this is the way that things are. We need to contemplate so that we’ll understand that this is actually a true reflection of the way that our life is. It’s very, very difficult for us to have achieved what we have achieved in the form of this human body with all the leisures and endowments that we have.
And if we lose it without doing anything to without using it properly, then that it’s very difficult to find another situation like that. And it’s the same thing as if someone’s trying to get across a body of water whether it’s a river or an ocean or whatever it is, if halfway across the river or the ocean, they lose their boat, it’s very difficult for them to continue on that journey. So it’s like this body is like our boat in order to take us to a place where there’s no suffering. In the same way as if we were trying to cross a body of water. Now what we need to do then is we need to use this lifetime for something that’s actually going to benefit us instead of frittering it away, wasting it on things that won’t benefit us.
So this means that we should focus on trying to achieve things because in actual fact, this body that we have gives us the ability to actually attain Buddhahood. While it may be very difficult for us to achieve Buddhahood in this lifetime because of our situation or because of our lack of understanding while it may also be very difficult for us to achieve liberation in this lifetime because of our lack of understanding or our situation, If we practice Dharma, then it is fairly easy for us to attain a good human rebirth in the next lifetime. And through keeping on working through this lifetime and the next lifetime and lifetimes to come in not too many distant future and not too many lifetimes later, yeah, we can achieve liberation, we can achieve Buddhahood. It doesn’t have to be that far away. We just need to keep working at it.
So in this way then we need take advantage of the situation that we have now, and we need not to behave stupidly or behave ignorantly in not taking advantage of this lifetime that we have now. And we don’t want to sleep through a lifetime not seeing what we actually need to do. Now when Śāntideva exhorted us or told us to not to sleep, don’t be stupid and don’t go to sleep. He didn’t mean don’t go to sleep, make sure you go out and make a lot of money, do a lot of work, get some really nice food to eat, make sure you buy everything you need. That’s not what he was saying we need to stop sleeping in order to do.
What we need to wake up in order to do is to practice something that’s actually going to benefit us in the long term because any of the other things that we may be striving towards whether it’s a good food, lots of money or whatever it is, they don’t actually benefit us when it comes to dying. And when we die, it isn’t the end. Oh, no. And when we die, it isn’t the end of the story. When we die, our consciousness goes on to a new life.
So we need to do something that’s going to benefit us in the next life as well as this life. So that isn’t going and working really hard to get lots of money and anything like this. It’s something we need to do something that’s gonna benefit us in the next life as well. Okay. So what this means is that we need to exert ourselves to do things.
We need to to try and practice Dharma. And what it what it means to practice Dharma isn’t necessarily to do something that looks like a virtuous action. Something becomes a dharmic action or a Buddhist action or a positive action dependent on our not positive, it becomes an enormous benefit depending on our motivation. So it doesn’t depend on the actual action we’re doing, it depends on our motivation. Whether it’s we’re listening to the teachings, whether we’re meditating, contemplating, we’re doing some kind of personal practice, whether we are trying to do a positive action, whether like giving and so forth, whether we are listening, whether we are studying, whether we are practicing mind training, whatever it is that we’re doing, it becomes positive depending on our motivation, not the actual action we’re doing it for.
And if we watch our mind, then we’ll see that a lot of the time we actually do things in order to benefit ourselves in this lifetime. We do things with the idea that through doing this, I’m gonna make myself happier, through doing this I m going to make myself healthier, through doing this I m going to make myself more at peace and we re not focusing on future lifetimes. So something becomes a Dharma practice by the motivation of at least striving for a better rebirth and then from that motivation up through higher motivations. It doesn’t become a Dharma practice by being of a Dharma nature or Buddhist practice. So in actual fact if we do something with a motivation of benefiting this lifetime it’s a worldly action, it’s a limited action, it’s not something that actually will benefit us in terms of developing our mind stream.
The benefits from doing something with a motivation to benefit us in this lifetime are very limited because we’ve limited them in their scope by what we are seeking to achieve through them. So what we need to do is to develop an attitude seeking at least to attain a good rebirth. So what this means is we need to develop a motivation that is at least focused on the next lifetime. So what this means is that we do things with the motivation that this action that we’re carrying out will be a cause for us to achieve a positive rebirth as a god and a human and it will stop us from being reborn in the lower realms as animals and spirits and hell beings so with this motivation what we’re doing at least becomes a Dharmic action or it ceases to be a worldly action if possible however we should try and develop our motivation from there and have as our focus the fact that all of saṃsāra is by its nature suffering and we can focus on the faults of saṃsāra and realize that any kind of happiness saṃsāra isn’t true happiness and so therefore we need to strive to attain liberation from suffering or to attain nirvana or personal liberation so that’s the next type motivation that we can develop, the middling kind of motivation.
And then from there, if we can possibly extend it out, then we should think that all sentient beings are exactly the same as us in that don’t want to experience suffering and they want to be happy happy and not only that but they have all shown us great kindness in past lifetimes either by being our parents or being someone who show us showed us great kindness and so for us to turn our backs on these beings who have shown us great kindness isn’t a very good thing to do so in order to benefit all of these beings that have shown us great kindness then we really need to focus on achieving Buddhahood in order to show them how to stop suffering and lead them out of Samsāra. So that’s the that’s the motivation of bodhicitta. So we should think whatever it is that we’re able to do whatever positive action that we are able to perform may that be a cause for us to achieve enlightenment in order to benefit all sentient beings and so we should focus on trying to develop that motivation and contemplate or meditate on that for a few minutes Okay.
So today, we’re gonna talk about this evening, we’re gonna talk about the way to practice Dharma on a daily basis in general. Now, what we do most of the time in our day is work towards trying to find ourselves happiness in this life We go to work in order to establish ourselves in a comfortable manner in this lifetime. Now if we want to establish ourselves in a comfortable happy place in the next lifetimes then we need to practice Dharma. So we know how to make ourselves relatively happy in this lifetime. So in order to focus on the future, in future lifetimes, we need to practice Dharma and get to the things that most people that would come here this evening would want to know how to practice Dharma.
Okay. So if we want to if we want to be serious or if we want to work on implementing a Dharma into our daily lives, then what we should do is start this evening. Now between now and tomorrow evening there is a night and there is a day. So there’s two different parts to a twenty four hour period. And so if this evening, if we go home, get some food, sit in front of the telly, eat the food, fall asleep in front of the telly, then it’s very unlikely that we will do anything virtuous in that time.
If instead of those, if at least before we go to sleep, we have this idea of overview of the day. If we start before we go to sleep, if we have this idea, okay, what was it I did that was positive today? What virtuous actions did I do? How did I help? And so forth.
If we have like an overview of that and we get we like rejoice or become very happy or feel happy about the good things we’ve done in the day. And then after that, if we think, okay, what negative things did I do in the day? And we go over all the negative things that we did in the day and then we try and purify that or we develop regret for the negative things we’ve done in the day and do a purification. Sorry. Do some sort of focus for purification to get rid of those negative actions.
So then also if we can having done that, having had this quick review of what we’ve done during the daytime, if we then do three prostrations to the the images of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha that we have, then we can if then then it’s time to go to sleep. And then before we go to sleep, we shouldn’t just go try we shouldn’t just fall asleep with any old thoughts in mind. We should try and have some idea about what we’re thinking before we fall asleep and the best idea to fall asleep with is the idea of refuge. So we should have this idea of refuge or be contemplating that when we’re falling asleep and then think before having this idea of refuge and think, tomorrow morning when I wake up, may I be able to do positive things tomorrow? And so if we fall asleep with that idea, then that’s the best way to fall asleep.
So if we’re able to go to sleep with this positive mind, it means that the whole time we’re asleep, we’re doing something virtuous. Sleep becomes a virtuous action or a positive action, a way to create positive karma, sleeping by itself. All the time up until we wake up, we’re doing something positive. So it’s very good to have this idea of going to sleep with a positive mind and so having the idea of refuge as our thoughts as we go to sleep makes the whole sleep positive action. And so that’s why we do this process of overviewing the day of figuring out what we did that was positive and rejoicing in it, figuring out what’s negative and purifying it.
Then if we go to sleep with that state of mind, then the whole time until the morning becomes a virtuous action. So we kinda get a bonus if we do this because it means that the whole time we’re asleep we’re creating positive karma. And if we don’t do it and we go to sleep with a negative thought, it means that the whole time we’re asleep then we’re creating negative karma. And if we go to sleep with a neutral thought, means that we’re not we’re creating neutral karma or we’re in a neutral state the whole time we’re asleep. So it’s it’s kind of important to focus on what we think before we fall asleep because it’s an easy way to to get a lot of positive karma without having to do much.
Okay. So then after we’ve gone to sleep, when we wake up, then we should have this idea of as soon as we should wake up, try and generate the idea of going for refuge again and thinking that we’ll try and make the best of the day to do as many Dharma actions as we can in that day, even if we can’t do as many as we’d like to, to try and have this idea that we’d like to be able to do Dharma actions during that day. And the other thing is not to is when we wake up to get up. So I just had to double check this. It doesn’t mean that if you wake up at three o’clock in the morning, absolutely you have to get out of bed.
But it means that if when you wake up that you just don’t roll around, that you actually get up with the idea of doing things if if it’s between say five and seven thirty or something. Okay. Now the next best the best thing to do then after you’ve had this idea is to wash yourself, wash your face and wash your mouth at least because this is a way of waking yourself up properly. So if you wanna do whatever you wanna do, if you’re able to do this, then that’s a good way of refreshing yourself. And then put some water in the kettle.
Yeah. Because you can’t have a cup of tea without that hot water. Yeah. So Geshe-la said that if you do this, then that means once the while while the kettle is boiling, then that gives you the opportunity to go and offer water bowls and also to clean up if you need to clean up while while while your tea is getting made. Okay.
So at this stage, you have a choice. Right? And you can either, at this stage, eat your breakfast with your cup of tea. And but before you do that, if you wanna have your breakfast first, then make an offering. Make sure that you offer the the tea and the bread or whatever it is you’re eating for breakfast before you have it so then that makes that Dharma practice as well.
So there’s a prayer that says something like I offer this to the Buddha jewel and then I offer this to the Dharma jewel, offer this to the Sanga jewel, to all of the Three Jewels I make an offering. Goes something like that into them. So you can say this prayer, if not, you can just have this idea. I’m making an offering of this to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And then have your tea, have your food, or either swap that around and do meditation first or don’t do it or whatever.
Yeah. In that order. Oh. Okay. Now, so you can either do a process There’s different combinations of things that you can do in this process.
You can do a prostration before you make the water bowl offerings or you can do it before you start doing a meditation session depending on what it is that you’re able to do and what time you have to do things in the morning. Now in terms of doing a meditation session though the first aspect of the meditation session once you sit down on the cushion should always be going for refuge developing a sense of refuge before we start doing any kind of practice or any kind of meditation. So this means focusing on the qualities of the Three Jewels, the objects of refuge. So first of all, focus on the fact that of all of the Buddha’s qualities that the Buddha has completely got rid of all negativities and has completely developed all qualities. And so that’s what the Buddha is, the Buddha jewel that you go for refuge to.
And then there’s also the Dharma jewel is actually the realizations of it says Okay. Actually said to be It’s actually said to be definition is the true paths and true cessations in the mind of Ārya beings. Right? So it’s basically the realizations in the mind of those who have developed an insight into selflessness and above, any of those realizations. So that’s what the dharma jewel is.
And then the sangha jewel is the beings themselves who have those realizations. And so the idea is that these Three Jewels have the ability to protect us from experiencing the suffering that we may encounter in the future because of our negative actions in the past. And so we say, we have this idea of please until I’m enlightened, protect me and look after me. Please until I’m enlightened, protect me and look after me from the experiences that I may encounter because of my negative deeds in the past. So we have that idea of going for refuge and then the mind that comes up or the idea that comes up is a similar to the way that a young child would run to their parents if they’re in danger.
So we have this thing that’s called hopeful dependency. We have this idea that we are very hopeful about the idea that depending on these beings will grant us protection from experiencing the results or of the experiencing the continuation of negative karma or negative the results of negative karma. So after we’ve developed a sense of refuge, and then it’s important for us to focus on developing an idea of bodhicitta before we start doing any practice because that sets our motivation as the best motivation that we can possibly develop. This means having this idea that like me, all other beings don’t want to experience suffering and want to experience happiness. So in order for them to experience happiness, then I will strive to achieve Buddhahood to be able to, show them the way out of experiencing suffering.
Okay. So this means that by this stage, having if we needed to sweep sweeping and making offerings to the Buddhas and then sitting down developing refuge and bodhicitta it means that we’re up to the fourth stage of the six preparations that we were talking about in previous weeks and the fourth stage is to offer the and to offer the seven-limb prayer and mandalas and so forth. So from within the seven-limb prayer, we’ve already done the prostrations. We’ve already done the offerings. Yeah.
So and then from within the seven limbs, we’ve actually done the prostrations and we’ve done the offerings and we’re up to the part of purification. So through reciting the seven-limb prayer, we’re able to go through all of the different aspects of the seven limbs again. Too many numbers for my little brain, sorry about that. I’ve got to go back a little bit. Now the fourth one, they’re offering the mandalas and the seven limb prayers actually the fifth of the six preparations we’re talking about.
The fourth one is actually making requests to the merit field. Now we’ve actually done this as well because we have this idea of refuge of petitioning for refuge or of asking for refuge from our objective refuge. Now, we are focusing that refuge practice on the Three Jewels then that’s fine that’s our refuge field that’s our merit field if we are focusing that sense of refuge on a deity that we have faith in then that’s fine that deity is our refuge field if we want to elaborate and have the traditional idea of the refuge field with all the different teachers and all the different lineages and all the different visualizations involved then we’re able to do that and then request that for refuge but we’ve actually so through that idea of requesting or asking for refuge, then we have or going for refuge, we have done the fourth of the six preparations, which is requesting the Merit Field. Then we’re up to the fifth one. Sorry.
I got my numbers wrong. The fifth one, which is offering the seven-limb prayer and mandalas. Okay. So then we’re up to having taken refuge, developed bodhicitta, and then we start doing seven limb prayer, reciting the seven-limb prayer. Now within the seven-limb prayer there is obviously seven different limbs.
The first of which is this idea of prostration. The second of which is making offerings. The third of which is purification the fourth of which is rejoicing in the positive things that beings have done the fifth is requesting the Buddhas to turn the wheel of Dharma or to teach the Dharma the sixth one is requesting the Buddhas not to go into nirvana that is to stay and keep teaching us and the seventh one is to dedicate everything that we’ve done towards all beings attaining enlightenment now within that seven limb prayer there is many things that we could focus on, there is many different meditations or contemplations that we could develop, but how much we’re able to do depends on how much time we have. We have to look and be responsible about our time and figure out how much time we can actually spend on doing the practice in a day. Now if we want to do the shortest form we can do of this is the seven-limb prayer that we said at the beginning of the teachings which starts with the Günsang Drubpa.
And we can say that once to get the essence of the seven-limb prayer or we can say it again and again, or we can do meditations on each of the seven different limbs. Okay. So then after we’ve done these things, we have to look at the clock and decide how much time we’ve got. And if we’ve got enough time to then go on and do like a meditation practice or something that we a meditation on the Lamrim or a meditation practice, then we should do that. And if we don’t have enough time and we have to go to work, then we should go to work.
Okay. So then we probably have to go to work from, Geshe-la and I were just trying to estimate between about nine till about five. Right? Classic nine to five.