Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A story of a Tantric practitioner killed through his own self-cherishing — his greed for a house setting off a chain of events that ends with his death — gives Geshe Pema Tsering’s 45-minute commentary its sharpest illustration. The session moves through two linked topics: why we fail to find happiness despite relentless striving (we confuse suffering of change for the real thing, having never identified that only liberation and Buddhahood are genuine happiness); then the distinction between self-cherishing and self-grasping, before turning to the qualities that cherishing others produces. Śāntideva’s verse contrasting Buddhas with ordinary beings drives the pivot home, and the talk closes with the image of sentient beings as harvest field and wish-granting gem — the source of every good thing we receive.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 D BC 2004 06 15.mp3
UUID: 0feca594-2877-49bc-94d0-29373463f1e7
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: DB How to Develop Bodhichitta (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-06-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.1 minutes
Words: ~4,421
So in the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Śāntideva said something like, you’ve been striving for eons to try and please self-cherishing, but all you’ve gotten from this is nothing but suffering. So what this is referring to is that because of our grasping itself, because of our sense of I that we have this idea of I need this and I do this and so forth we’ve been trying to satiate that I for many eons but for all of the work that we’ve put in, the hard work we’ve done in order to make ourselves happy or to make that I happy we haven’t been able to achieve anything from all that hard work but sorrow and so he was saying that by focusing on the I by focusing on the sense of self-cherishing by focusing on what we can get out of a situation as opposed to thinking of others, we’ve only managed to create suffering for ourselves. Anyway. It’s just that you don’t need to listen to him anyway. If you can hear me, then he said that’s fine.
So if we focus on this, if we look at this, then we can see that this actually the case and what Śāntideva was saying is actually the case If we look at the way that we think all of the things that we focus on is how to try and make ourselves happy in terms of filling material needs that are propelled or instigated by this sense of self-cherishing or grasping itself. So if we happen to be born as a human then we spend all our life trying to find human happiness. We try and spend all our life trying to create the kind of situations that we think will give us happiness. We are looking to have the right food and drinks and protection and material objects and the kind of happy situations that we think will give us happiness and if we’re born as an animal then it’s a similar situation we’re constantly looking for food and drink in order to satiate ourselves so this is based on this sense of I there’s this constant striving for happiness but actually no happiness comes from it So the problem is that we don’t actually know what real happiness is.
So we’re constantly looking after these or searching after or working towards obtaining these objects or these situations that we feel are going to give us happiness but they don’t actually give us happiness. Don’t understand what true happiness is so we settle for something that we think resembles happiness as a short term kind of happiness. But this happiness that we’re actually searching after because we don’t understand what true happiness is, the happiness that we search after is a form of suffering. It’s suffering of change or it’s the ignorance that leads to all pervasive suffering so we’re striving after happiness but what we’re actually really doing through our ignorance is striving after something that looks like happiness but is actually suffering and as we’re striving after suffering then all we’re going to experience is suffering whether it’s through being by our very existence being pervaded by pervasive suffering or whether it’s through us trying to establish what we think is happiness but is actually suffering of change. So even if we do something virtuous, if we do something positive and helpful towards others or towards ourselves then if our motivation for doing that is that we’re going to achieve some kind of temporary happiness, then we’ll we can we will only achieve temporary happiness from that virtuous action.
So what we need to learn and what we need to understand is what is actual true happiness instead of the things that we perceive as happiness at the moment which are actually suffering and we need to so we need to know what true happiness is and we need to know what true happiness’s causes are because if we know the causes of true happiness and what true happiness is then we can achieve that instead of creating the causes for suffering which we’re doing at the moment. So from a Buddhist point of view, from the Buddhist Dharma point of view then the only way that we can know true happiness and that we can know the causes of true happiness is to to look at the words of the the Buddha. So from a Buddha’s point of view, this is the only way to do it is to look at the teachings of the Buddha and to discover what is true happiness and what are the causes of true happiness, what are the ways that we can achieve true happiness. But it’s actually difficult even to understand what it is that we need to do. It’s difficult to develop this understanding.
It’s not something that we can just let happen to us. It’s something that we actually have to put effort into. We have to put effort into looking at the causes of happiness looking at what true happiness is learning about it and then we have to meditate on it in order to develop that understanding within ourselves so we shouldn’t think that we’ll just instantly know what it is that we need to do in order to be happy We need to we need to learn about it. We need to look at it logically and we need or reasonably, and then we need to meditate on it. So we need to put a lot of work in to develop this understanding.
But guess what I think is that even as Buddhists, most of the time, we don’t we’re not actually looking for what true happiness is. Our idea of happiness, even though we may consider ourselves Buddhists, our idea of happiness is usually things and what can make us happy in this lifetime. So whether it’s a material possessions whether it’s the right food whether it’s being having a happy mind whether it’s not having illness whether it’s having the right circumstances in life to make us happy. Whatever it is that’s good in Samsāra that’s what we’re after all right. That’s what we tend to focus on.
That’s what we are usually working towards Angus has said that’s at least what he thinks that people do So in all of the things we do including our Dharma practice tend to have this focus on them that we re doing this Dharma practice in order to make ourselves happy in the short term or we re doing our Dharma practice in order to get things out of that situation when to get praise to get some kind of material benefit or whatever we may be able to get from it. And so whether it’s a we’re trying to do dumb practice or we’re working or whatever we’re doing, whether we have to tell lies in order to get it, whether we have to deceive people in order to get it. We do all of these things in order to try and make ourselves happy because of this sense of self-cherishing, this idea of ourselves being very important, all of the things that we do becomes we we do from that point of view, from this point of view of ourselves being important, so we wanna make ourselves happy. So the the main problem is the main fault that we’ve got is that we don’t know what true happiness is.
And because we can’t differentiate true happiness, then we can’t strive towards that we can’t work towards something that we don’t understand or that we don’t know what it is and so that’s what we need to focus on is like to try and know what true happiness is so if we follow the Buddhist idea then true happiness is either achieving Buddhahood or achieving personal liberation. Only through getting completely rid of our afflictive emotions and suffering can we achieve true happiness. So if we understand that that is true happiness and everything else that we re doing isn t happiness, it s actually a form of suffering, we will focus everything that we re doing towards this. Everything that we do will try and make that a cause for us to achieve personal liberation or Buddhahood because we understand that that’s true happiness. So what we need to know is what is true happiness.
If we know what true happiness is, then that’s what we’ll work towards. So this idea of knowing what true happiness is isn’t something that’s very specific to the Mahāyāna or altruistic vehicle. And it may be beneficial to us to remember that although we may consider ourselves to be Mahāyāna or altruistic vehicle practitioners, it’s not a good idea to look down on the practices of the hinayana or the foundation vehicle because we need those as well. If we don’t have those, then we can’t do the mahayana practices. Practices.
So this idea of true happiness is something that is common to both of these vehicles or both of these paths. What we need to remember is that in the Mahāyāna path, then there’s two different types of happiness that we can achieve that is liberation and Buddhahood. So apart from them in the Mahāyāna tradition apart from them there is no true happiness so that’s what we need to be working towards. So if we consider ourselves to be Mahāyāna people, then not Mahāyāna practitioners or Mahāyāna Buddhists. We need to know what it is that we are actually striving for as Mahāyāna Buddhists, and not just as Mahāyāna Buddhists but just as Buddhists.
If we’re going to call ourselves Buddhists, then we need to know what a Buddhist does or what a Buddhist needs to practice. And what a Buddhist needs to practice is to work towards achieving Buddhahood or personal liberation. So that means that we need to know what it is that we’re working towards. So it’s not enough just to be thinking of ourselves as Buddhists. We actually have to do something about it.
We actually have to understand what it is that we need to work towards and we need to then start working towards that. So in this way we should think, Okay, I’m going to listen to these teachings. I’m going to think about this text that’s been explained. From hearing this and listening to this, I’m going to develop understanding of that, practice in accordance with it, and this will be a cause for me to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. We should meditate on that idea for a couple of minutes.
So we should think that by listening to these teachings and doing this practice in accordance with that, may that become a cause for me to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, and through that, may all sentient beings actually become enlightened. We should think, well, whatever it takes in order for me to become a Buddha, however much hard work I have to do, whether it’s giving away my body or whatever it is, May I be able to do that? May I be able to become Buddha after doing all that hard work? May this be a cause for that? So I should meditate on that for a few minutes.
Because that pains in the yell at me. Alright. So last week, I I don’t know where she’s went. Tried to repeat a story that Geshe-la was telling me three times I think and I stuffed it up every time and he very patiently went through it with me afterwards including acting out some parts of it. So I think I’ve got it now, so I have to tell you, Okay?
Because I looked it up in English and it didn’t make any sense in English either. I’m like, What? Anyway, so there was a man who was a Ngakpa, which is a Tantric practitioner, a practitioner of Chöd, which is a practice where you sever all your clinging. Anyway, but you don’t do it really. Anyway, so he wanted to go and live in this house, but there was actually a one type of malevolent ghost living in this house, right, which is called a tsen.
Yeah? And so this particular type of ghost was living in this house. And he wanted the house for himself. So because he had this, like, greed for the house and self-cherishing, he did all these practices to chuck the ghost out, right? So then the ghost is really annoyed at him for getting him, chucking him out of the house.
I think I had this bit done last time. Alright, anyway. So he chucked him out of the house and he starts doing his tantric practices in the house, right? And the ghost can’t actually get at him because he’s protected by the practices that he’s doing and the way that he set up the house and everything. The ghost can’t attack him.
So what the ghost does is he starts creating trouble all around in the area, right. So he goes around starting fights between people and things, yeah. And he particularly starts a fight between this man’s two main sponsors. Okay. This was tricky to get.
Okay. So he starts a fight between this man’s two main sponsors by confusing each of them that the other one is trying to steal from them. Okay, so they start like arguing with each other. All right. And so then the guy comes down to mediate between the two sponsors that are fighting with each other and one of the sponsors kills him.
So the moral of the story is that it’s actually his self grasping that killed him. Did we get that? He’s bit a bit a he’s a he’s But it was a bit complicated for me anyway. I’m like, what ghost? Who did what?
I didn’t understand last week, but Geshe-la finally very patiently went through it with me. So last week we actually talked about which this story was part of was the we’re talking about was the faults of self-cherishing. So when we talk about self-cherishing, we need to differentiate between that and something else that we usually call self grasping or grasping an inherent self. Now, there’s a bit of difference between these two things, although they tend to come together in the way that we think. So self-cherishing is this idea that we ourselves are really important.
We’re the boss, we’re the president, we’re the head minister, we’re the ones in charge, we’re the ones that are the most that should be the focus for everybody else. This sense of self importance and focusing on self that we tend to have in our mind. This is self-cherishing. Now there’s a difference between self-cherishing and grasping itself or self, yeah self grasping, although they come together. Now self grasping is holding onto this idea that we exist as an inherently existent self or as an inherently existent thing.
That there’s something about us that exists in dependence upon causes and conditions and is an entity into and unto itself. Okay, so that’s grasping itself. Grasping itself and self-cherishing come together usually because after we have this idea of existing inherently then we have this idea of being important, but they’re not the same thing. So that was a that’s like a we’ve done a brief overview of what are the faults of cherishing self and how self-cherishing comes about. And now we need to look at what the qualities of cherishing others are, how cherishing others or focusing on others develops good qualities in ourselves and the benefits it can have.
Okay. So with regards to this contemplating good qualities of cherishing others Śāntideva from Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life said, All worldly happiness to be found comes from wishing others happiness. So he’s talking about any positive experience that we have in saṃsāra. The only way that we can have that kind of positive experience is from doing things for others, from creating a virtue by focusing on others. That’s the only way we can experience happiness.
And also in the Guru Puja it says I see that cherishing these other beings my mother’s is the thought that leads to happiness and the door to infinite qualities and a mind training text again says meditate on the greater kindness of all So what all this is referring to is that anytime that we experience happiness or anytime that we experience positive rebirth whether it be as a god or a human and any of the things that we get in those rebirths that make us happy. So for example if we’re born as a god then we get lots of good things that we feel very attached to so all of those good things and all of the things that we get as a human all of these things that we use that make us happy all of them come about because of our focusing on others of us doing something virtuous of helping others so the very bodies that we’re born into that are pleasant rebirth and also the things that come along in those lifetimes to make us happy, all of this comes about through doing good for others. It comes about from cherishing others.
So by cherishing others we do things. We do positive things. Like, for example, by cherishing others we abandon killing others. Through abandoning killing others we create the causes for having a long life ourselves. So in this way we can see that focusing on others gives us a positive outcome there.
And also if we cherish others we don’t steal from them we don’t coerce them into giving us things they don’t want to. So that means that through cherishing others again we’re creating the circumstances for ourselves to do something positive well, we are doing something positive which creates the circumstances for us to experience wealth and to not to want for anything in that lifetime. So there’s two different ways that cherishing others give us that benefit us. So this works for if we abandon killing and if we abandon miserliness, so therefore we’re generous to others and protect their lives as opposed to taking them then we are benefit from them in these ways. We end up with a long life and we end up with material possessions through the workings of cause and effect.
But that’s to be specific. But, in general, we could also say that any happiness that we experience in this lifetime comes about because we have created a positive cause. And the only way that we can create a positive cause is by doing something for others. So by doing something for others, doing a virtuous action, then we experience the results of that virtuous action, which is happiness. So we may think, wait a minute, if I’m going to stop killing people, I’m the one that’s doing it, so I’m the one who’s going to get the benefit from that situation.
If I’m not going to steal from people, then I’m the one who gave up stealing, so I’m the one I should be focusing on because I’m the one who did the good thing, right? Then we may think that it doesn’t really depend on other beings, whether we do virtuous actions or not. Depends on ourselves. We can do virtuous actions whether we from our own initiative. It doesn’t depend on other beings, right?
So we don’t think that they necessarily grant us kindness or they don’t actually what’s the word they don’t actually act as the source of our happiness because we’re the ones who have to do something positive ourselves. So we can think, It’s all about me. I’m the one who did the positive things, so I’m the one who’s going to experience happiness. But in actual fact, you can’t perform anything positive if you don’t have anything to perform that positive thing on or about, right? You can’t give anyone something if there’s no one to give anything to.
You can’t stop killing people if there’s no one to stop killing. Any of the virtuous actions that we perform, we do those virtuous actions in dependence upon other beings. If there’s no one else, we can’t do anything virtuous. So I guess the things that Śāntideva he said Śāntideva got it completely right with this next verse, and It explains it and you don’t really need to even think about it that much more than listening to this verse, which says: What more need to be said? Look at the difference between ordinary beings who work for their own ends and the Munis or the Buddhas who benefit others.
So that’s what basically comes down to. If you want to know what the difference between looking towards yourself and looking towards others is, look at the difference between Buddhas and ordinary beings. Ordinary beings focus on themselves and look where it gets them. Buddhas focus on others and look where it’s got them. So this is the clearest differentiation that we can have between those who work for themselves and those who work for others is by looking at the difference between Buddhas and ordinary beings.
Okay. So if we want to look at this and we can see that a long time ago the Buddha and ourselves were exactly the same. This is talking about historical Buddha here. The Buddha and ourselves were exactly the same. We were both wandering in Samsāra, thrown around by causes and conditions and the karma we created and our afflictive emotions.
Exactly the same. The Buddha was reborn many, many, many times in all different states. Sometimes he was a human, sometimes he was, in hell, sometimes he was born as a god. All of these things had exactly the same kind of existence as we do now. And at that stage, there was absolutely no difference between the way that he behaved or they behaved and the way that his different reincarnations behaved and the way that we behaved.
There’s absolutely no difference. But at some point, the Buddha, in his development towards Buddhahood, stopped focusing on himself and started focusing on others. He started focusing on what would make others happy instead of focusing on what would make himself happy and this self-cherishing. So by getting rid of self-cherishing, he totally turned around the way that he was doing things and then was able to work towards Buddhahood. So his path towards Buddhahood started from the idea cherishing others and getting rid of self-cherishing.
We haven’t managed to do that yet. We’re still in the stage of cherishing ourselves and not focusing on others, which means we’re still in Samsāra. We’re still in this continuous cycle of birth after birth after birth after birth and different types of suffering. Geshe-la said, At least if you’re like him you’re getting blown around by your karma and the results of the negative emotions that we have. So and this is the difference between the Buddha and us is this focus.
So focus because we haven’t been able to get rid of this idea of ourselves being incredibly important and because even in our dreams we have this idea of self-cherishing, we have this idea of wanting to make ourselves happy, even even in our dreams, we’re focusing we’re focused on that. Because we haven’t been able to get rid of that and focus on others, we’re still in saṃsāra. The Buddha was able to get rid of The Buddha stopped focusing on himself and started focusing on others started working towards others benefit as opposed to his own benefit and because he was able to do this he was able to progress along the paths and become a Buddha. If we can do that, we can behave like the Buddha, if we can turn the way we think around the same way the Buddha turned the way he thought around then we too can become Buddhas. If we behave like the Buddha did then we become a Buddha.
It just comes down to what we’re focused on, whether we’re focused on self or whether we’re focused on others. So the way that we need to start looking at other sentient beings is as if they were a field in which all our food and drink and all of the things that we need to sustain us are grown or to even see them as being like a wish granting gem. And they’re said to be like a field in which all the food and drink we need is grown because every positive thing that can happen to us can only happen to us through sentient beings because of sentient beings. So in this way they are the cause for us to experience the field from which we can harvest anything positive or any of the good things that happen to us in Samsāra. They’re They’re also said to be like a wish granting gem because the whole idea of a wish granting gem is something that delivers exactly what you can think of anything that you can think of it delivers something like that Alright so anything that we can positive anything that we can want we can get what we want by being positive towards sentient beings and anything that we we get actually comes about through sentient beings.
So in this way they’re said to be like a wish granting gem also. There’s an example in here that’s based on tsampa, but I guess it’s gonna change it to rice because he thinks he’ll be able to relate to it better. He said that if we want to eat rice, if we have some rice in front of us and we want to have it for dinner, then we have to recognise how much work came into getting that rice to us, how many beings actually were involved in delivering us this rice, right? So we have the people that planted the rice and there’s people who have to harvest the rice and then there’s people who have to transport the rice and there’s people that have to get the husk off the rice and then package it and then deliver.