Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with Śāntideva’s doctor analogy — if we need physicians for ordinary illness, how much more do we need Buddha’s guidance for mental afflictions — Geshe Pema Tsering uses this image to frame a 45-minute examination of karma and effort. He develops it into a diagnosis of laziness: ordinary practitioners are like children refusing medicine because they cannot see its benefit, while realized beings take it willingly. The antidote, he argues, is joyful effort, grounded in the reminder that Milarepa’s mind was no different from ours at the start. The commentary then moves to the ten non-virtuous actions, focusing in detail on the three of body — killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct — tracing the craving behind each and the karmic cost of not abandoning them. Aimed at beginners working through the basics of Buddhist ethics.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 DB K 2003 11 11.mp3
UUID: 9dddb8f3-b184-43b8-b1d4-1805baae6b88
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: DB Karma (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-11-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.9 minutes
Words: ~3,802
Hello? Hello? In the second chapter of the Bodhicaryāvatāra by Śāntideva, he says from fear of normal illnesses we follow the words or follow the instructions of a doctor therefore if have if we’re suffering from the hundreds of negative emotions like desire and so forth then it’s needless to say we need an expert doctor. Now what this means is when we have an ordinary illness when we have a headache, we have a backache, when we have some kind of cold, when we have the even if we had TB or something like that then we need to go to a normal doctor and to get their instructions to get treatment from a normal doctor but it’s not enough just to go to a normal doctor and listen to what they say we actually have to take the medicine that they give us and behave in a way that accords with what they said and we can do what they said otherwise we don’t recover from the illness. It’s not enough for us to just go and ask their advice we actually have to do what they say and take the medicine that they give us.
If that’s the case for an ordinary illnesses then we don’t really need to say how much more so this is for diseases of the mental diseases of negative emotions that cause us to suffer in many many different ways. So if have to go to a doctor in order to get rid of normal diseases then if we have problems like we have attachment and hatred and anger and all of the negative emotions we may have, the hundreds of different emotions we negative emotions we may have, then we need to rely on what the Buddha said, what the teachers said in terms of how to practice in order to get rid of those negative emotions. And this is so obvious it doesn’t need to be said. In this way, if we’re sick, then we look to get help from taking medicine if we’ve a normal illness. But if we’re a little kid and a doctor gives us medicine to eat and we haven’t thought about it, then we’re not going to want to eat the medicine.
Little kids don’t think medicine is very yummy. They don’t like it. They don’t think, Oh, I want to eat that. They think, I don’t want anything to do with it. Now the reason that they don’t want anything to do with it and they’re not into eating medicine is because or taking medicine is because they haven’t thought about it.
They haven’t thought about the consequences of not taking the medicine and they don’t see the qualities that the medicine has in that it could make them get better. They just think I don’t like the taste, therefore I don’t want to do it. If people are old and they’ve thought about illnesses a lot, then if someone if a doctor gives them medicine then they’re definitely going to take it. If they’re going to see the benefits of taking it, they’re to be worried about the consequences of not taking it and they’ll take it even though they don’t like the taste of it or they don’t like the experience in order to get better so because they understand, because they’ve thought about the process then they’re happy about taking the medicine because they understand it will make them better Okay. So beings like Aryas, beings who have realized the nature of reality, they’re foe destroyers and Buddhas, bodhisattvas, all of these people are like adults in that they took the medicine.
They did whatever the Buddha asked them has described them to do that will get rid of their negative afflictive emotions and enable them to achieve the the outcomes of achieving liberation or Buddhahood or enlightenment in all different forms. They took the medicine, they did what they were supposed to do and they enjoyed doing it because they saw the benefits that they were going to get from practicing Dharma, from doing what the Buddha has explained. So they’re like the adults who understand the benefit of the medicine and understand the faults of not taking the medicine. We on the other hand as ordinary beings are a bit like little children in that we don’t like the taste of the medicine, we don’t like putting in the effort in order to practice and the same as when you say to young kids, This medicine is good for you, they may not believe you and they may complain about having to taste it having to take the medicine, so we’re a bit like that. We think, Oh, I really don’t know about that.
We have doubts about it and if we do actually start trying to meditate and start trying to practice and it gets hard, then we think, No, I’m not very fussed about this. So we’re a lot like the little children because we don’t understand. We haven’t understood the benefits of doing it and we don’t understand the faults of not doing it. So what we need to do is to train ourselves into seeing the benefits and understanding the faults of not practicing. Okay.
The problem is we have is that we don’t understand the qualities and the real condition or the real situation of being enlightened or achieving or achieving nirvana. We don’t understand how good that is. We don’t think about it enough. We don’t focus on the qualities in order to develop faith in it, because we’re not talking we and we’re caught up in happiness that isn’t true happiness. There’s only, very limited and fleeting happiness when the final happiness is perfect happiness, is is possible for us to achieve.
We just don’t understand what that actually is, and we’re caught up in in in trying to achieve little happinesses. Now, if we understood, the true happiness, it wouldn’t be any problem working towards it. But instead, we have these doubts about it. We think, is it really like that? Is it maybe it’s not as good as they say and maybe it isn’t going to make isn’t going to be worth working towards.
We have all these doubts about the final enlightenment, the final happiness that is enlightenment. So because we have these doubts, when it comes to actually putting putting things into practice, doing what the Buddha said to do, doing what the the arhats and bodhisattvas and so forth said to do, then we find it kinda difficult, we think, oh, so I have to do so many things, I have to try and develop renunciation, I have to have refuge, I have to become I have to develop compassion, and then I need to realize emptiness, so much work. You just think, oh that’s so much work and I don’t really think I can do it myself, and then we get just really tired and bored with the whole idea, and so so yeah, so this, that mind that’s going, oh man, there’s so much to do and there’s no way I can do that, is actually a type of laziness, it’s a type of distraction that our mind has trying to kid ourselves into staying where we are instead of actually putting the effort So this is this is laziness. This is tricking ourselves, this mind that thinks that we can’t do it and it’s too hard and it’s not worth it.
What we need to do in order to get rid of this laziness is cultivate the antidote to laziness. The antidote to laziness is this joyous effort or getting on with it with a happy mind. So when we’re doing this, we get on with it, we understand the qualities of enlightenment, then we’ll be inspired to keep going. And if we think that we can’t do it, then we just have to think, well, Milarepa did it and the Buddha did Buddha Śākyamūni did it, and there was absolutely no difference between, what their minds and our minds when they started off. The only difference is that they worked on the path, they did all the hard work, and they achieved realizations and and got on with it.
And Milarepa represents one who has done it in one lifetime. So if he did it in one lifetime, then we can definitely do it. So we have to keep we have to remind ourselves of of this thinking there’s no way that there’s no way that our minds are by their nature different from the minds of Buddha Śākyamūni and Milarepa so in the same way that they did it then we’re able to do it so how we keep ourselves working on the path is by recognising laziness and putting in effort when we know laziness has come when we know that we’re being lazy. So we apply the antidote to this laziness once we’ve recognised it? So if we do this, if we practice the path in the same way that these people did, then there’s no doubt that we can have the same realizations, we can have the same understandings, we can develop the same sense of happiness that they did.
There’s no doubt about that. It’s not like there’s a variant in the in the process. And so, we know this from our experience as well. We know that when when we keep working at something that it gets easier and easier and our understanding becomes clearer and clearer. So that is if we notice we will notice it from doing meditation.
We also notice it from doing or trying to study anything else. But when we start doing it, it’s difficult, but the more we get used to it, the easier it gets until eventually it becomes second nature and we don’t even have to think about it anymore. So this is the same process that happens in the Buddhist spiritual path. We start off with dealing with things and they’re very difficult, but the more we progress, the easier the understanding comes about. This is the way it works.
The more that we think about something, the more we meditate on something, the more we learn about something, the subtler our understanding becomes. It becomes subtler and subtler and subtler and subtler until we develop complete understanding of it. So this is what we need to do mainly with the three principal aspects of the path. We need to do this with renunciation, we need to do this with bodhicitta and we need to do it with the perfect view, the understanding of emptiness. So for example, with renunciation, we understand renunciation better now than we did before, so we can see that our understanding even now has become more subtle.
The first time we heard renunciation, we’re thinking, what’s that? I don’t understand what that is. And the more we’ve heard about it, the more we know about it. So now we hear one word and we can recognize it. We recognize the concept surrounding it.
That’s the same with bodhicitta. The first time we hear the word bodhicitta, it it sounds like strange word, we don’t know what it means, we don’t understand its context, but when we keep hearing things about it, then we develop this understanding with it and also with emptiness. First emptiness is a very strange thing and then eventually our understanding becomes more subtle. For example, with renunciation, we may start off not understanding the word, but if we keep thinking about it and we keep thinking about the concept of suffering and how there is no happiness in saṃsāra, that that there is that all of saṃsāra is suffering in one form or another, we keep having this idea then, through that idea, through this through familiarizing ourself with this idea and it becoming more subtle, eventually that idea of the suffering of saṃsāra will turn into renunciation and turning away from saṃsāra through the process of familiarization, through the process of meditation. Okay, so that’s the way it is.
Not only us, but all sentient beings are stuck in the different types of sufferings of saṃsāra. That’s the experience that us and all other beings have, this heavy suffering. In order for all sentient beings to get out of that experience, in order for us to be able to show all sentient beings how not to experience that kind of suffering, then we need to achieve enlightenment ourselves. We need to become a Buddha ourselves. In order to take or lead all sentient beings to that state beyond sorrow, we need to get there in order in order to show them how they can do it.
Now that mind, way that we think when we have this idea, I’m going to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings in order to establish them, in that kind of happiness, in order to lead them to that kind of happiness, that mind, is bodhicitta. So that’s the the that uncontived thought is bodhicitta. So we need to concentrate or meditate on that that thought thought then for a few minutes. Okay. So you should think I am going to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings but at the same time as we’re concentrating on this concept of achieving this that enlightened state in order to lead all beings to a place beyond sorrow then we should also remember that the beings and ourselves in that state don’t exactly exist the way that they appear to us as existing, so we should remember that all of these things aren’t inherently existent, that they are merely labeled groups of causes and conditions, and we should have that concept in mind while we’re meditating on bodhicitta.
So so we should think that the virtuous act virtuous actions that we’ve done, virtuous karma we’ve accumulated is mixed up, mixed into the virtuous karma of the five different types of beings. That is all the virtuous karma that all normal beings have created, all hearers have created, all solitary realisers, all bodhisattvas and all Buddhas, all the virtuous things that they have done, all the karma, the positive karma they’ve created is mixed in with our positive karma and that we rejoice in all of that positive karma and that that will be a cause for us to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient So now meditate on that, please. Okay. So this evening, we’re talking about getting rid of negative karma and accumulating positive karma. There’s a line from a prayer that says, Since beginningless time until now, all of the ten non virtuous actions that I’ve accumulated and the five heinous actions that I’ve accumulated, I regret and try and purify.
Geshe-la said that we probably haven’t done any of the five or many of the five heinous actions in this lifetime. I said, yeah. Don’t remember killing my parents. So and then he and then he said, So we haven’t done those in this lifetime, so it’s probably best to concentrate on the the ten non virtuous actions, how to stop doing the ten non virtuous actions and and try and start acting in the ten virtuous ways. This is the most important practice for people, for us, as beginners in trying to develop understanding.
The practising of the ten virtuous actions and the abandoning the ten non virtuous actions is the is the most important thing for us to do. Okay. So the ten non the the ten non virtues are divided into three non virtues of body, four non virtues of speech, and three non virtues of mind or or mental activity. And the three and four and three makes ten so that’s the ten non virtues. They’re divided into the different ways that we can create negative actions.
The first of the ten non virtues is the non virtuous action of killing. Now in general, with the non non virtuous actions, what they are are things that we need to abandon doing. And in actual fact, abandoning the ten non-virtuous actions isn’t that hard a thing to do. We shouldn’t think that it’s too hard for us to do because we can do it. It’s it’s not a difficult as it’s not a difficult thing to do if we keep, working at it.
It is, you know, it is hard. It’s like hard work, but it’s not difficult. Does that make sense? In terms of it’s hard work to do it, but it’s not difficult to conceive of an idea. Yeah?
So we need to keep reminding ourselves that we are able to do it. And it’s also very easy for us to know what the ten non virtues are and that we need to abandon them. It’s very easy for us to understand these intellectually. Okay. So the three non virtues of of of body, for example, are easy for us to understand.
They’re easy for us to reap benefits from, and we won’t die if we stop doing them. For the first one, is the non virtue of killing. Now, it’s fairly easy for us not to kill, to stop or refrain from actively or purposely killing things is fairly easy for us to do. It’s not that much of a hardship for us to stop killing. And when where we’re not doing it, we reap the benefits of it.
Our life will become longer by the act of not killing. We’re accumulating positive karma by the act of not killing. It’s a constant constant positive thing that we’re doing by not killing. So this that’s easy for us to do. It’s not that difficult for us to work at, and if we understood the rewards, we would be very happy about refraining from killing.
The second one, not stealing. Now, not stealing is pretty easy for us to understand as well. Not stealing is considered a positive thing. If we don’t steal things, then people consider us to be a good person. It’s generally accepted that stealing isn’t good, And we understand the benefits of not stealing.
Benefit of not stealing means that other people we are not making other people suffer by taking their things, depriving them of things they may need, and we’re not setting up a situation where people will steal from us or consider us badly and again it’s not that difficult for us not to steal yeah it’s not that difficult for us to refrain from stealing and we can do understand the concept of not stealing fairly easy easily, and it’s fairly easy for us to not to refrain from doing it. The third one, sexual misconduct, which Geshe-la was using the the word this just meant sex. So to refrain from that, he said is easy and it doesn’t kill you, and it’s beneficial if you’re able to do it. The reason that it may be to refrain from it is because we don’t see the benefits of it and we don’t see how much desires and attachment come along with it. It again isn’t gonna kill us by refraining from it.
Yes? So all of these three things are not that difficult to stop doing, don’t kill us, and they have enormous benefits. Okay. So I don’t know how to say this. Okay.
So sexual activity is by its nature supposed to be a negative action, but the intensity of that negativity varies by what the intention is and what the action actually is. Breaking of fidelity and hurting people, things like that are much heavier negativities than just that actual physical act. But the physical act is said to be still a negativity because it comes about from desire and because it’s a desire that’s driving it, then it breeds patterns patterns of desire that cannot be ultimately satisfied so all these things are negative by their nature and the reason that we don’t understand how to we don’t we don’t it’s hard for us to stop doing them as we don’t understand the positive outcomes from from refraining from these things. Like, if we’re going to kill something, then we usually kill things in order to eat their meat, in order to sell the meat, in order to make use of it, to fill some kind of desires in this way whether it’s for food or for money or whatever it is. The only reason that people steal is because of greed and because of attachment to physical objects.
There’s no other reason to steal apart from some kind of attachment. And also with sexual sex or sexual misconduct, people do all sorts of things and all sorts of negative actions and all sorts of spend a whole lot of time in the pursuit of sex. And so this is said to be like a setting up a pattern that is is is un can never be completely fulfilled because you’re doing a whole lot of work for not much pleasure. You’re doing a whole lot of work and then the pleasure doesn’t last very long, so it’s a continual cycle. It’s said to be a negative in the fact that it sets up for craving.
Right? So and people, through through not being able to control those cravings, do a lot of things that hurt others and hurt themselves. So this is this is why I said said to be negative in that way. Okay. So the reason that we still engage in these negative actions and we aren’t able to abandon them is that we don’t understand the negative results of these actions and we don’t understand the positive consequences from abandoning them.
For example, with killing, the reason that we’re killing is in order to get this temporary benefit from eating or from getting some kind of reward from that action. Now we don’t understand that in fact the direct result of killing in whatever form it takes is for our life to be shortened, for us to have heaps of trouble getting a human rebirth in the next lifetime by taking others lives then attaining a precious human rebirth next time is almost impossible and it makes it even attaining any kind of human rebirth in many lifetimes to come very difficult. Apart from that it also means that in a temporary sense we develop enemies of some form or another it means that we’re setting the pattern for having enemies and having problems and having lots of animosity around us in the short term as well