Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The image of a runaway elephant tied to a meditation post — drawn from Bhāvaviveka’s Heart of the Middle Way — frames Geshe Pema Tsering’s 45-minute session on karma, motivation, and concentration. He opens with a four-line verse summing up the Buddha’s entire teaching, then explains why most karma is negative and why human happiness is ultimately unreliable, illustrated by a darkly comic pig-rearing analogy. From there he maps the three levels of motivation: good rebirth, personal liberation, and bodhicitta — the aspiration to achieve Buddhahood for all beings — showing that the highest motivation automatically yields the lesser ones, as a fruit tree also gives shade. The talk closes with the mechanics of calm abiding: a stable object of meditation, awareness as the mental “rope,” and wisdom as the “hook” that tames the wandering mind.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 MP 2003 05 20.mp3
UUID: f3ed32ef-e4dd-47ca-9487-18e49aa71717
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: DB Mind and its potential (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-05-20
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~4,135
In the Sūtra of the Buddha on ethical conduct. It’s called. The Buddha said not to do any evil whatsoever, to go to cultivate virtue and everything admirable and to fully purify one’s mind. This is the teaching of the Lord Buddha. So it is said that this this quote, this this teaching from Buddha, it encompasses both the wisdom of of being a scripture so it’s it has it’s a it came from the word of the Buddha so therefore it’s a sūtra it also has the wisdom of realization in it because it shows the path of of realization and the way to work with one’s mind. So it’s said to have these two different aspects to it.
So we shouldn’t just think of it as a quote from Buddha, we should also think of it as something that we can apply practically to our minds. So that we should try to refrain from doing anything negative, and we should try and cultivate in our mind everything that’s good, and we should try and completely completely purify our mind, completely control our minds. And if we do this, then we’re acting in accordance with the Buddha’s teachings. So the reason that he said the first two lines, that is not to do any evil or bad things whatsoever and to cultivate good things and everything admirable, was that in the first instance if we do things that are evil that are bad then we’re going to have to deal with the consequences of those actions and that is we’re going to experience suffering. So in order not to experience suffering we shouldn’t do anything negative.
And on the other hand, cultivate virtue, we do positive things, then the result of those positive actions will be happiness. So therefore, that is something that we should try and cultivate in our minds because we will have this wanted result of actually experiencing pleasure instead of pain. So there isn’t any being in existence from the smallest of insects insects up into a Buddha themselves who who wants to suffer and what doesn’t want to be happy. All beings want to experience happiness and don’t want to suffer. It’s something that’s inherent in the existence of a being.
If you you can’t if you look around, you can’t find any being or even conceive of a being who would desire to suffer and not want to have have pleasure or happiness. So in this way, all beings from the smallest of insects up until Buddhas are exactly the same. They all have the same quality. So so what this is talking about is is the law of karma. In that if we have done something negative in the past, then we experience the results of that karma as suffering in the present.
And if we do something negative in the present then we will experience the results of that negative karma as suffering in the future. Likewise, if we do something positive, if we try and cultivate some kind of virtue, then we’ll experience the results of that virtue in the future as a pleasurable or a happy experience. If we’ve done something positive in the past, then that comes to us now as a positive experience. The trick is that it’s actually really difficult to do to do good things. It’s very easy for us to do negative things.
We have conditioned our mind to to to go after negative things pretty easily. And if we actually want to work at creating something positive, that is something that we really have to work at. So that means that most of the karma that we’re actually creating is negative. Because actually, what we are actually experiencing as pleasure or happiness in this realm or indeed if we got reborn in the God realms, what is experiencing as happiness in those realms is actually not true happiness. It’s what’s called the suffering of change, in that it starts off happiness, but it doesn’t increase the happiness doesn’t increase.
It it reverts back into suffering of one one form or another. The only way that happiness keeps increasing, the only true happiness, the only ultimate is if we achieve liberation or if we achieve if we achieve nirvana or liberation from suffering or if we achieve indeed the state of a Buddha. And in those instances, any happiness that we have keeps increasing and there is no chance of it diminishing. Up until that state, any happiness that we experience is temporary and not actually worth worrying about that much. Okay.
So when we if we look at it in terms of temporary and how things happen temporarily, then we do experience happiness. We can if we are only talking in terms of a small amount of time, then we can say, okay. That’s happiness. But if we look at it more clinically and we investigate more thoroughly, then even amongst the human world, even the richest, the most loved, the most happy person in this world who has everything going for them and nothing at all goes wrong in their lives is going to die, and they’re not gonna live more than about a hundred years. That’s, like, best case scenario.
So this person who’s reaching a hundred years of age has had the most amazing life with so much wealth and so much love and so much good experiences and hasn’t really heard of suffering very much. They get to about a hundred, maybe even a hundred and ten. And then they get to this stage, and they’re going to have to suffer. They’re going to have to die, there has to be it can’t go on forever. So even this the best possible experience that we can have as a human has a time span on it, a time limit on it.
It can’t go on forever. And and therefore, we can’t really call it a true happiness because it’s only temporary. So if we look at it this way then, even the the best pleasure or happiness that we can have in the in the worlds of humans or gods, then this is only a temporary experience. At the most, it’s gonna last a hundred years. It can’t last forever so therefore it’s not reliable it’s not something that we can rely on in terms of happiness so therefore we can’t really call it true happiness because it’s unreliable the only way that we can find reliable happiness is by liberating our selves from saṃsāra or cyclic existence or a negative mind stream and our negative emotions.
That’s the only way that we can find true happiness, by doing this or achieving Buddhahood. So the way that we should look at it is like a pig. And a pig a lot of a life of a pig is is an interesting lot because at the start, they’re given a really nice place to live, and they have people that are like their servants who come around and give them food. And and they think that it’s a fantastic existence because all they have to do is roll around in the mud, and people give them food, and they’re, like, really happy, and they’re thinking, wow. This is great.
So that’s so that’s the way it is. But then at the end, someone comes along and kills them and eats their meat. So the purpose of them that that they were being nurtured for was in in fact in order to be killed at the end. So so at this stage when the pig gets killed, its calmer has its karma for being treated well has has run out, and that’s the same for us. We may have all of these pleasurable experiences and be pretty happy with our life in general, but at some point the karma for that happiness is going to run out, and then we will have to experience other experiences of suffering of some kind or another.
So because we don’t know properly how to accumulate virtue or how to do positive things and what constitutes a negative thing, we actually spend most of our life creating negativities by having negative minds and developing negative attitudes towards things. So what this actually leads to is that at the end of our lives, if we haven’t done enough positive things in our life, then we may not have the positive karma to take rebirth in a positive life next time. So we have to be very careful that we’re using opportunity of our lives now in a positive manner to create a positive karma for it to take us into a positive rebirth. If not, then our karma will just be extinguished, it will run out, and then we could come back in a not so nice life in the next life. So we should be very careful very careful to make the most of the opportunity we have now having gotten such good conditions in this life to make sure that we don’t end up in a negative rebirth in the next life.
So the best way for us to accumulate positive karma in this life is to practice some kind of Dharma, to do some kind of spiritual practice. Whether something becomes spiritual practice or not depends on the motivation that we have for doing that practice, for doing the thing that we’re doing. So if we do something with the motivation that by this positive action may I take rebirth in the next life as a god or a human, then that’s a type of Dharma practice, albeit the lowest type of Dharma practice because it’s got the smallest motivation. If we can do better than that and we can work with the motivation that by doing this positive action may I free myself from suffering and achieve nirvana or peace, then that’s a a better type of motivation. And if we get even better than that motivation is the idea that by doing this positive action may attain complete enlightenment and be of the best benefit to all sentient beings, to all beings, then that’s the best motivation that we can have to practice a virtuous action or to practice a spiritual some sort of spiritual practice.
So there’s three different motivations that we can have in order to make whatever we’re doing a spiritual practice or a dharmic practice, but we have to make sure we’ve got at least the bottom the bottom type that is to be born as a god or a human. If we don’t have that motivation, what we’re doing isn’t a Dharma practice, isn’t a spiritual practice. So if we do something if we try and do a positive action, and our motivation for doing this positive action is that in the next life, we will attain the rebirth of a god or a human, then that action that we’re doing becomes a cause for us to take to have positive rebirth in our next life. If we do something with a motivation that may this be a cause for me to attain nirvana or have this cessation of suffering or peace then whatever that action is we’ve done becomes a cause for us to have achieved that liberation. But if we’re just doing something to have it a benefit for this life, then it doesn’t become a Dharma practice and it only can have a temporary benefit for us in this life.
So it all comes down to what our motivation is. Whether whether whether what we’re doing or not is positive or not, it comes down to what our motivation for doing it is. So for example, if you’re reading this book by the Dalai Lama or we’re doing some reading of spiritual book, then that’s actually a positive action. If we think when we’re reading this, By reading this, may I achieve Buddhahood and have an awakened mind and be of the best benefit to all beings, then that becomes a cause for us to achieve that goal. If we’re while we’re reading it, we think, well, by reading this, may I have no more suffering and be liberated from saṃsāra?
Then that a cause for that to happen. And if while we’re reading it, we think, may I have come back in my next life as a as a god or a human and have a really good rebirth, then reading this book becomes a cause for that to happen. But if we’re just reading it but when we’re reading it, we think, may I’m reading this so I can become an expert on Buddhism in this life, then it doesn’t have much of an outcome. It doesn’t help us that much. So if if we’re if we think while we are doing any kind of reading of a spiritual book, while we’re contemplating anything, while we’re trying to meditate, while we’re off making offerings, while we’re trying to do prostrations, then if we have thought while we’re doing this, I’m doing this in order to achieve Buddhahood, to achieve the awakened mind, in order to be of the best benefit to all sentient beings, and I’m doing it in order to achieve this quickly, then that thought becomes a very, very strong motivation.
It becomes what’s called a bodhicitta or the heart of enlightenment. It becomes the strongest force for us to achieve enlightenment. So if we do anything with that motivation, then that’s the best motivation that we could possibly have in order to, yeah, to motivate ourselves. So if we have this as our focus, if we have our focus that the highest focus we can possibly get our mind around is that we achieve fully in awakening and by doing so can be of the most benefit to all beings, right? And then this isn’t the only benefit that we get.
Yeah? So we said before that there was these different things that we could use as a motivation like having a good rebirth and achieving liberation from suffering. If we’re focusing on achieving Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings, then these things will come about as well, and we will also get benefits in this life. We’ll be happier and more peaceful people. It’s the same thing as if you have a seed, for example an apple seed.
The reason that you usually plant an apple seed is to get fruit, right? And that’s the main reason for planting an apple seed. But along with the fruit you also get a trunk, you get leaves, you get branches, you can also get shade if the sun’s hot. But they weren’t the the main reason that you planted the tree. So in the same way, if we’re meditating on Buddhahood sorry, if we’re our motivation is to achieve Buddhahood, we will also achieve liberation from suffering.
We will also achieve a good rebirth in our next life, and we’ll also achieve happiness in this life and a happier mind in this life, but they aren’t our main focus for doing something. So if we can think that by listening to these teachings on spiritual path, Geshe-la said from his side from teaching them, so either listening to them or teaching them, then that’s a meritorious thing, that’s a positive thing that we’re doing. So once we’ve established that as a positive thing, then we try and think, may this be a cause for me to achieve enlightenment to be of the best benefit to all sentient beings? And try and meditate on that thought just for a couple of minutes. So the fact that we’re doing this is a positive action.
It’s not something that we could necessarily measure. But if we also add to that motivation, that we also think by the cause of doing this and also by the cause of rejoicing in the positive actions of the five types of beings that is Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, people with different levels of realisations and everyday people trying to do good things. If we try and get in our head there how positive all of that stuff that everybody’s doing is and have a heart of rejoicing about it, feel positive about it. So if we have that rejoicing in combination with the dedication dedicating the merits for what we’re doing now and say those two things together, may they be a cause for me to achieve enlightenment, then that could be the that that becomes a very powerful, motivation for us to do anything. And so if we can meditate on that now.
Oh, yeah. Okay. So Sorry. I remember who said it. There’s In a text called The Heart of the Middle Way by Bhāvaviveka, he puts forth the metaphor, a metaphor like this saying, securely tie the wayward elephant of the mind to the firm pillar of the object of meditation with the rope of mindfulness.
Break it in with the hooks of wisdom. Now what they’re saying in this bit is that minds are like elephants that don’t sit in one place, they charge around hither and thither and don’t usually concentrate it on one thing. So in order to try and control our elephant like mind, then we have to apply mindfulness or sorry, we have to attach our mind to the thing that we’re meditating on which is like a pillar. So the object of our meditation, the object of our concentration should be a pillar that we’ve tied our elephant mind to. So when you’re dealing with elephants, you’ve got to make sure that you have a very and you’re tying them to a post.
You’ve got to make sure, a, that the post is very steady because they’re they’re not the the lightest of animals, and You’ve got to make sure that the rope is very, very steady, is very, very thick and isn’t likely to break. Once you’ve got them firmly attached to the rope, in order to stop them getting excited in the one place, then they also in India have to use hooks to kind of break them in to tame the mind to to to tame the elephants into staying in the one place. Now what this is saying is that our mind is is like this out of control elephant that keeps going anywhere it wants to and we don’t have any control over it. So first of all we need to establish a very firm grip on our mind by placing it on a very steady objective meditation. So something that we can rely on that the objective meditation will be steady.
Once we have established our mind on a firm objective meditation then we have to oh, hang on. I’ve forgotten what the rope is. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. So the rope is like a representation of our mindfulness, our awareness, our awareness of what we’re thinking. Alright, so once we’ve tied it once we have it tied to this pole then we have to keep being aware of what we’re thinking about otherwise we can’t concentrate on what it is we’re supposed to be meditating on. So once we’ve got it focused on one thing then we have to use the wisdom insightful wisdom to understand the process of what’s happening properly.
So once we have our mind in one place, we then have to apply wisdom to understand what that place is properly, and this is the same in in and to control our minds. And this is the same process as once we’ve got the elephant tied to the post, we then have to use hooks in order to break it in. Okay. So what we’re actually trying to achieve here is that we can subdue our minds enough that we can get our minds to do what we want our minds to do and to concentrate on things that we want our minds to concentrate on in order to have more control over our minds. Now in order to do this, first of all, we need to remember to recognize what our mind is.
Now we already went through this. Our mind the definition of our mind is that it’s clear and knowing, so that’s what we’re working with. We’re working with something that manifests as clear and knowing. Then once we’ve recognised what mind is, have to try and think about what our mind does, what our normal minds do in a day to day world. And if we look at this, then we see that most of the things that we think about actually come from ignorance ignorance about true reality.
And because of our ignorance about the nature of reality, we then get caught up in our desires and our aversions and our plans and our ideas about how to make things better or worse. And therefore we don’t have any control over our minds. So and what we need to do is to try and get control over our minds so we can use our minds for positive things and work on gaining good karma instead of getting caught up in our usual thoughts which we don’t have any control over. So what we’re after is pliancy of mind. We’re after a state of mind where our mind will do what we want it to do as opposed to what it wants it to do, as opposed to running after whatever it feels it wants to run after.
So in order to achieve this we have to do these concentration we have to concentrate on the positive things that we’re doing and in order to be able to concentrate on the positive things that we are doing we need to be aware of what it is that we ‘re doing, what it is that we’re thinking from moment to moment. Now there’s a state of mind that they talk about in in Buddhism called calm abiding or śamatha, which is when we have complete control over our mind. Can concentrate single pointedly on one thing. Now if we haven’t achieved this meditative concentration, if we haven’t achieved calm abiding then it’s almost impossible for us to control what our mind is doing. So if we have achieved calm abiding we can then use our mind for things that are positive things that suit our mind and then get rid of the things that are harmful to us and that don’t actually suit our minds.
Okay. So in order for us to develop this calm abiding we do placement meditation practices. For example if we were going to take emptiness or the true nature of reality as our focus for meditation and that’s something that we can say is a stable object of meditation. It’s something that we can we could rely on in terms of doing a meditation practice focusing on that right. So we’ve taken emptiness we’re focusing on emptiness.
Now our focus on emptiness is what we call a main mind or a main consciousness. It’s something that we’re focusing on completely. And then, if our mind wanders from that, if our focus wanders from this thing that we’re focusing on, then we have what’s called a mental factor or another little bit of our mind, a bit to the side of our mind, which is like the rope, which is the awareness, which is like a rope. Awareness is what’s called a mental factor as opposed to a main mind. And so if our main mind wanders from its focus, then this awareness, this self awareness can say, hey.
Wait a minute. Where are you going? And and and it’s it acts like the rope and ties it back to the post when which is referring to the elephant metaphor again. And so then with this awareness tying the mind back to the post of object of meditation then we also have another little corner of our mind that has the wisdom that can look into what it is we’re meditating on to analyse whether it’s true or not. So that’s like breaking in meditation with the hooks of wisdom as we said in the quote earlier.
So we have our main mind focusing on an object in these two little corners of our mind that make us aware act as a self awareness of what we’re doing and then look into the object that we’re meditating on and give us wisdom. So this isn’t just with emptiness as a meditation, a base of meditation, or an objective meditation. We could also choose to meditate on impermanence. And so in