Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A candid admission opens this 45-minute commentary: Geshe Pema Tsering confesses that despite years of practice he still cannot fully see past the apparent attractions of saṃsāra — like a farmer who has planted wheat yet prays desperately for rice. From that honest starting point, he works through a verse on renunciation, explaining why samsaric pleasures cannot satisfy and act as doorways to suffering through the three root poisons — ignorance, attachment, and anger — and why renunciation is the indispensable seed without which no amount of prayer produces liberation. He then traces how renunciation leads to compassion, bodhicitta, and the direct perception of emptiness. The session closes with the Lamrim lineage and the story of Ānanda, the Buddha’s attendant who memorised every teaching yet had to be expelled from the monastery before he finally practised and achieved arhatship.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 PP 2003 07 22.mp3
UUID: 24a2d927-0cfe-4f3c-9b03-1b55d100d92d
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: DB Presenting the path (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-07-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.7 minutes
Words: ~3,897
Cannot satisfy it is the door to all suffering it cannot be trusted let striving for the bliss of freedom grow strongly within me inspire me thus so what this means is that no matter how many things that we get in saṃsāra no matter how many things that we strive for and actually receive the rewards of as long as they are samsaric are are of a samsaric nature then they can never satisfy us they can’t stop us suffering in any way they can never completely stave off our desires so in and in actual fact not only can they not stop us desiring things they are in themselves the door or the cause for us to suffer hence then we can’t rely on them at all there’s no way that we can rely on them to grant us happiness so once we’ve realized that then we need to develop in our minds the thought to search or strive for liberation from saṃsāra or in in we need to develop that thought in our mind and then, work towards it. And then in his prayer they’re actually he’s actually asking to be blessed by his teacher to actually develop this thought so he can actually leave saṃsāra so not only is he asking and not only is he understanding that there is no happiness in saṃsāra and trying to develop the thought to leave to leave saṃsāra, but he’s being blessed.
He’s asking for blessings so that he can see things thus. And I guess that’s said and this is exactly right, what he’s saying in this, in this prayer. Because we think about it, nothing that we get that is is an object, that we have in the samsaric existence can actually satisfy us. Take food for example. No matter how delicious food is, it’s only going to do us good today.
We’re going to eat it today, we have to go and find some more food for tomorrow. So it doesn’t matter quite how delicious it is, it’s only going to satisfy us for one day. The next day we have to go out and try and find food again and again and so on. And it’s not just food that works like this. Any of our objects that we accrue or accumulate, it only lasts for a short time.
We may have a comfortable bed to stay in tonight, a comfortable place to live, but we don’t know if it’s going to be there tomorrow or if at some stage we’re not going to be able to stay there. So whether it’s food, whether it’s where we live, whether it’s the other items that we have accumulated, none of these things can actually stop our thirst for samsaric objects. None of these things can satiate us properly. So therefore, we can’t place any trust in them. So and not only do these things not only are those things unable to satisfy us, but they also act as the door or the cause for us to experience the three different types of suffering, whether it’s pervasive suffering, suffering of change or the suffering of suffering.
These things act as a cause for us to experience those and how they do that is by the fact that we are desiring things because of our desiring then we have grasping at things so if we desire desire food then we grasp at the idea of food if we desire a nice house then we grasp at the idea of a house and if we desire a car then we also grasp at the idea of having a car grasping is the cause for rebirth grasping is the thing that makes us take take rebirth so therefore our grasping at things is the thing that causes us to continually experience samsaric existence because of our grasping then we also have other afflictive emotions come about. If because of our grasping, if we don’t get something that we’re after, then we may experience anger. If we do get everything we’re after and we think we’re doing pretty good, then we may experience pride about how good we’re doing. All of these things are the causes for us to experience more suffering in the future. They’re also the cause for the three root poisons and the three root poisons are the main reason that we keep cycling in Samsāra.
So this idea that we have of satiating our suffering is actually the thing that leads us to experience more suffering. So they cannot satisfy us, but they’re also the door to suffering, therefore they can’t be trusted. Now, reason they can’t be trusted is because, for chasing after the desires, this is how we accumulate karma. This is the reason that we experience more suffering, because we accumulate karma by way of, mainly these three poisons. Now, the three root poisons are ignorance, attachment, and hatred now or anger.
Now, the by by these three poisons, then we are led into creating negative karma. The negative karma in in in turn then in in makes us experience more suffering and the more suffering we experience then part of that is our desire, to be free from suffering and to experience happiness, but we do it in the wrong way and go after our desires, and therefore we accumulate more karma, which in turn leads us to experience more suffering. So we start with this ignorance, ignorance about the true nature of reality the way that things really are. We start because we have a fogginess or a non understanding about the way that things really are. Now from our fogginess then experience or we see things in a different way to the way that they actually are and because of this we develop desires or we develop attachments.
Now what desire or attachment actually is is the thought in our minds that we don’t want to suffer that we want to experience something pleasant we want to experience, comfort we want to have something good happen to us we have all these desires or attachments to a specific type of situation happening to us so because we don’t understand the true nature of reality we see things as being in another way and because we see them as being in another way we develop this mind grasping at things because we think the things we’re grasping at will make us happy. So then along with this desire or this attachment comes desire or attachment’s friend which is anger. Now the way that this anger works is that we think that the things that we desire and the things that we are attached to will make us happy and will make us will satiate us so because we want to protect those things and because we want to strive after those things when they get taken away from us we feel angry we feel angry at the people that take them away from us or the situations that take our desired objects away from us we get angry at them because we’re ignorant and because we don’t know the real nature of reality then we don’t understand that it’s never a situation or a person that can actually take things away from us unhappy the only person that can ever make us unhappy is ourselves the only person that creates situations that we’re unhappy in is ourselves but because we don’t see this clearly we think that an external object or an external person is the thing that’s making us unhappy and we get angry at those people or that situation and from our anger at that situation or those people then we create more negative karma which will create it will cause us to experience more suffering or more causes to get angry in the future.
The next thing about these samsaric happinesses that we may experience or these things that we desire in samsaras that they they can’t be trusted, they’re not reliable, they’re not something that continually makes us happy they’re they’re having their very nature changed so even if they may make us happy at the beginning they don’t continue to make us happy there are certain things like the happiness of liberation or the compassion these other kinds of minds that are actually reliable if we focus on them then they can actually make us happy if we develop them but these happinesses, these samsaric experiences that we are cling to they’re not reliable they don’t last they don’t actually satisfy us they just continually create causes for us to experience more suffering, so they’re in no way reliable. So so these things that we may get, these samsaric things that we may get, these samsaric experiences we may get are not reliable that we can’t trust or rely on them for example if some there’s a person who thinks that they’re in they’re so rich that it’s okay they’re so rich that their money is never gonna run out and they can rely on that for forever because they have no doubts about that but that may not actually be the case I mean there are some instances where incredibly rich people lose all their money for some reason overnight and even if this doesn’t happen even if someone does manage to remain incredibly rich for the rest of their life there if they get sick if they get really ill then their money can’t help them and eventually when they die their money can’t help them so even these incredible amounts of money can’t help people really.
They can only they they are only a temporary thing and they can’t actually, satisfy anyone properly. So having understood this, having understood that nothing in saṃsāra or none of the things in saṃsāra can make us happy or make us satisfied, then, the the author then goes on to say, so what I need to do is is develop a mind that’s striving towards liberation or striving towards achieving Buddhahood. Because by developing a mind that is striving towards liberation or Buddhahood, I can actually find something that’s reliable. So then not then he says, please bless me or please, yeah, please bless me to be able to develop this mind and to strive towards these things because they’re the only things that are actually going to going to give reliable happiness or reliable satisfaction. So in the same way that the author has described this process, then we have to do something similar to this.
If we truly examine and look at the positive or the happy things that make us happy in Samsāra then we will see that they are not reliable we will see that they can’t actually satisfy us. And because we’ve seen this clearly, then we will turn our mind away from those things. We will our mind won’t strive after those things anymore. And once we’ve developed this mind that has turned away from the pleasures of Samsāra, then the development of renunciation is easy because renunciation comes about once the mind has turned away from saṃsāra. But it’s difficult for us to do this because we may think about the fact that the good things, the excellent things, the objects and the experiences of saṃsāra, we may think about the fact that they lack true qualities that they’re not something that we can trust that they can’t satisfy us.
We may be able to think about that but in actual fact the way that we see them is that we see them as being full of qualities we don’t see them their lack of qualities instead we see that they have qualities that we need to strive after so because we keep seeing these things as being something we want to strive after then the door to liberation the door to developing renunciation is shut to us As long as we see the things of saṃsāra to have qualities they don’t, and we don’t see the true qualities of liberation, then this door will be closed to us. So Geshe-la says, for him, this creates a very strange situation because, on the one hand, he can’t see past the he can’t see clearly that samsaric things don’t have qualities. When he looks at things of saṃsāra, he thinks, yeah, that’s really nice. I like that. And he can’t see the lack of qualities.
He can’t turn his mind away from it on on the one hand. On the other hand, he tries to spend a lot of time concentrating on the good qualities of liberation, the good qualities of Buddhahood and he sees all these amazing qualities in that in those states that he would like to work towards. So, on the one hand, there’s this not being able to see past the samsaric, happiness, and then on the other hand, he he would love to have the ability to work towards Buddhahood. So these two thoughts kind of crash into each other, he said. They they bang up against each other in his head because they don’t actually fit together properly.
So he said that that makes it really difficult and strange for him because he he can’t at the moment see past the the the happiness of Samsāra. He can’t see it as being suffering as much as he he keeps thinking about it, keeps thinking about it, and he can get to it sometimes, but then his mind comes back to, not being completely fed up with Samsāra. So he’s having trouble developing renunciation with that. And at the same time, he really doesn’t wanna stay in saṃsāra and wants to get out of it. So he he he can’t develop renunciation on one side, and then he can see the qualities of renunciation on the other.
So so he feels like he’s in he he’s experiencing this strange thing where he thinks, I wanna achieve I really wanna achieve nirvana. I really wanna achieve nirvana. I really wanna achieve liberation. And it’d be so good to be able to do that, to develop renunciation completely. And then he thinks about that, and then something else will come up, he’ll think, oh, that’s really nice, and that’s one of the places of of Samsāra.
So he finds his mind going over there, and he can’t develop renunciation. So there’s these two things going on his head, so I think he basically came down to the idea that developing renunciation is hard. He says it isn’t the same for the old people, but for him, it feels like because he he can’t see past the the the, you know, the qualities of saṃsāra, he can’t see past them. It doesn’t matter how much he prays or how much he meditates or how much he does his different practices, if he can’t see past them, then he’s not going to be able to achieve renunciation. So he thinks he’s a bit like a person who has planted wheat seeds in a field and he’s praying really hard that it turns into rice.
And so, he’s got the wrong seeds in there, but he’s going, Please, please, please, may I achieve a liberation? May I be able to achieve Buddhahood? And he’s praying and he’s trying to dedicate everything to that. But, it doesn’t matter how much you pray. If you have him planted rice seeds, you don’t get rice.
So he’s he’s having planted wheat seeds. He’s praying desperately that they turn into rice. But he said, no. It’s not the same for everybody. So, he said if he really wanted to achieve if he was doing it right, he would have planted the seeds that were going to come out as, that were gonna grow as liberation and the seed that’s gonna grow as liberation is renunciation.
So if you have renunciation, then that will turn into liberation. But if you don’t have renunciation, no matter how much you pray for liberation, then it won’t come about. So if you want to establish if you want to achieve nirvana, if you want to achieve liberation, then you have to have the right seed, which is renunciation, and then you also have to have the right conditions that go along with that seed. And then by all of these together, you will achieve renunciation. So if you wanna develop liberation or if you want to achieve liberation, then you need renunciation.
So in order to develop renunciation, then we really have to think about the shortcomings of saṃsāra, the faults of saṃsāra, the fact that nothing in saṃsāra lasts, that everything is impermanent, the fact that, there’s nothing in saṃsāra that can actually satiate us we have to think about again and again the three different types of suffering and how we’re experiencing them we really need to concentrate on these because it’s from understanding these properly then we develop renunciation and from renunciation, even with renunciation we have the seed of liberation. So this is what we need to do. We need to concentrate on these things so we can develop renunciation. Once we’ve developed renunciation, after we’ve understood renunciation for ourselves, then we can develop compassion for all beings because we can see that they’re still experiencing the same type of suffering from compassion comes bodhicitta and once we’ve developed this idea of bodhicitta in our minds then we will create enough merit to be able to see emptiness directly and by all of these three in combination we’ll be able to achieve Buddhahood. So then we have to see that all sentient beings, not just ourselves, but all sentient beings have the ability to experience happiness or to experience suffering they just don’t know how to experience happiness properly so they keep chasing after suffering the only way for them to experience complete happiness is for them to be able to attain Buddhahood But in order for that to come about, then they need people to show them what how to achieve happiness and how to steer away from suffering.
So in order to be able to show them what to do, then we need to achieve Buddhahood ourselves. So we need to be able to strive towards Buddhahood with the intention of achieving it in order to help all sentient beings. So that mind that we want to achieve Buddhahood in order to stop all sentient beings experiencing suffering is what we should be focusing on. So if we can try and get that idea in our head and then concentrate or meditate on it for a few minutes. So today, we’re going to talk about we’re going to talk about lineage in terms of where the teachings come from.
Now, what we’re going to be discussing here is, in fact, the lineage of the of the Lamrim teachings or the graduated path teachings and where the where they came from. The main thing that we will need need to remember at this stage is that the the three main points of the graduated path or Lamrim teachings are renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness. These are also encompassing what is called the motivations of the three different scopes of person, that being the small scope, the middling scope and the great scope. So these three people and three main points are the main essence of the Lamrim or graduated path teachings. So the the or the graduated path teachings, if you wanna know where they actually come from, then they come from the teachings of the Buddha.
But the teachings of the Buddha are so vast that if we looked at them all, we wouldn’t be able to understand them all. So, from all of the teachings of the Buddha, what we have in the Lamrim, or the Graduated Path teachings, is the essence of the teachings of the Buddha put in such a way that we can actually understand them. And so at the moment, we think of the the Lamrim teachings as being in a book mainly. We think of it as relating to a book that we can read. But, actually, at time of the Buddha, there were no books.
The Buddha didn’t write anything down. He spoke the words. The difference then at that time was that most of the people he was speaking to were arhats or foe destroyers. They had amazing abilities. So he didn’t actually need to write anything down because they never forgot anything, and they never missed anything.
They had this amazing ability to be able to remember everything without any, discrepancy or any any faults. So there was no need to write everything down. Okay. So after the Buddha went around and he taught everybody according to their dispensations and taught them all these different all the different teachings that they needed. And at this time, he had an attendant called Ānanda.
Ānanda was his cousin, and he came with him everywhere he went. He worked as his attendant. After the Buddha passed into parinirvana, another monk was appointed as his regent. Now this other monk that was appointed as his regent had clairvoyance and he could see into the minds of all those around him And he saw that Ānanda hadn’t actually achieved arhatship. There were about five hundred monks there that had achieved arhatship or had realized nirvana, but Ānanda had never done it.
Ānanda knew all the teachings of the Buddha, but he hadn’t he hadn’t the ability to see them clearly because he didn’t have he hadn’t achieved liberation or he hadn’t achieved nirvana himself. So at that stage, the the Buddha had told his regent not to pass into parinirvana himself until everything was established properly. He said, People aren’t allowed pass away until the teachings are established properly. So this regent took this as his responsibility, and as he looked around, the person who knew the most of the Buddha’s teachings, Ānanda, realized that Ānanda hadn’t actually practiced what the Buddha had told him to practice, even though he’d spent all his time with the Buddha and had listened to all his teachings. So, they were all staying in this monastery, and the Buddha’s regent actually kicked Ānanda out of the monastery.
He said, get out of here. You’re not worthy to be in the presence of the Buddha. You haven’t practiced what he told you to. Go away. Get out.
You’re not coming back. Right? So the Ānanda, he he he Geshe-la actually said, chucked him out. They chucked him out of the monastery, and at this stage Ānanda went and meditated. He actually put the Buddha’s teachings into practice and achieved arhatship, achieved nirvana.
He realized what the Buddha had taught him, and at that stage, because he had memorized he had the ability to memorize all the Buddha’s teachings and now had the insight into them, then they decided to collate the Buddha’s teachings, and they collated them into the the three baskets and then later wrote them all down. So after after this, after Ānanda had achieved arhatship, then they had what was called a council, the first council, that went through the teachings of the Buddha.