Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 44-minute Lamrim commentary, Geshe Pema Tsering opens by unpacking a paradox at the heart of Nāgārjuna’s thought: both saṃsāra and nirvana lack even an atom of inherent existence, yet cause and effect and dependent arising remain completely unfailing. He shows how these two truths are mutually illuminating rather than contradictory — grasping one leads naturally to the other. He then examines self-grasping closely: the relentless “I, I, I” that pursues happiness through desire and anger, thereby perpetuating the very causes of suffering, and why understanding emptiness is the only antidote capable of uprooting all afflictive emotions at once, something bodhicitta alone cannot do. The session then turns to the Lamrim’s middling-scope motivation, introducing renunciation from all of saṃsāra, the Three Higher Trainings, and the Seven Jewels of the Aryas, with particular attention to why unwavering faith in cause and effect underpins the entire path.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 09 PP 2004 08 12.mp3
UUID: 99edd636-9b32-40c7-8862-fad14734175d
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: DB Presenting the path (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-08-12
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 43.9 minutes
Words: ~3,602
So what this means, it is saṃsāra. Samsāra is everything we experience. And nirvana being not just nirvana, but the state of a Buddha, all the qualities of a Buddha, and all the qualities of Ārya beings, all the qualities of beings who have realized their lack of true existence. All of those qualities as well are all completely devoid of any substantial existence. They’re completely devoid of any inherent existence.
There there is not even an atom or there’s not even the smallest particle in either of these spheres that is truly existent, that is existent, naturally existent. They all, are merely labeled. But that’s not the way that they appear to us. The way that they appear to us because we haven’t realized the true nature of reality, the way that they appear to us is as if they are truly existent, as if they are inherently existent. So the next line that says, while cause and effect and dependent arising are unfailing.
Now what that refers to is, first of all, cause and effect being unfailing means that every time that we do a positive action that that will absolutely with no doubt with no exception result in happiness of some kind or another as its result In the same way, negative actions in terms of cause and effect are also unfailing in that every time we do a negative action then that will, without any exceptions and without any doubt, cause us to experience some kind of suffering that is true for all phenomena and for all actions there is no exception then dependent arising now dependent arising being unfailing means that there is no phenomena that doesn’t exist because of something else existing. The word in Tibetan is literally arising from a base or a dependent having relation to a base or having relation to something it depends on. So if that’s the case then we need this base. There needs to be some base that causes things to exist. Now there’s two different types of bases.
There can be a base that’s what’s called a condition base and a base that’s called a cause base. Something can come into existence because of a cause, or it can come into existence because of conditions or a combination of these things. There’s nothing that comes into existence just by itself. Everything comes into existence in dependence on some other thing, in dependence on some other base. So not only do we need to establish these two things that we we need to establish that these two things are not only not contradictory, but they are, in fact, complementary to each other.
They if you understand one of them, you understand the other. Now the two things are, on the one hand, that saṃsāra nirvana lack even an atom of true existence, and on the other hand that, cause and effect and dependent arising are unfailing. So we have to understand how these two things work together. So if we start by understanding if we understand, first of all, dependent arising, that things arise, be or exist, because of causes and conditions, and then on onto those bases of causes and conditions, we place a label, and that’s how things exist. If we understand this, then we will understand that things that saṃsāra nirvana lack even an atom of true existence.
We’ll understand that there’s nothing truly existent. Then we’ll understand emptiness. And likewise, if we understand emptiness, then we’ll have to then we’ll understand how things actually are, and that is that they are that they are as a result of cause and effect and as a result of dependent arising, we we merely label things. So these two things work symbiotically with each other order to show us different ways of understanding existence. And this is what said to be the most important thing about Nāgārjuna’s thought.
The main thing that he he propounded, the main the main, focus of his teachings was to describe how, the lack of true existence, depending arising in cause and effect, have fit together and don’t contradict each other. So then by understanding the the importance of Nāgārjuna’s thought, understanding the main focus of his thought, then we will understand emptiness. Now by understanding emptiness directly, we will also cease to have the ignorance that grasps at the true existence of of reality. Because this ignorance, this base ignorance which is grasping at true existence and the wisdom understanding emptiness are, in fact, exact opposites. Because this wisdom understanding emptiness acts as a direct antidote to grasping at true existence.
You can’t have one without the other. So self grasping is destroyed by the mind that understands emptiness. They act as a they they are not able to both exist at the same time. So this understanding of emptiness, the understanding, direct understanding of emptiness means that we will understand that mind grasping at true reality is a a wrong view or mistaken idea. Once we’ve understood that mind grasping at reality, at at the true existence of reality, is a a mistaken idea, then we won’t have this sense of self grasping anymore.
We’ll stop to grasp at the two selves as being inherently existent. So the two selves being the self of persons and the self of things. Now because of our grasping at these two selves as being truly existent, the self of persons and the self of things, then we have all different types of negative emotions come about, negative thought patterns, which cause us to create negative karma. So this idea of me me and thinking that phenomena exist truly as well is is this grasping at true existence and realizing emptiness will be the direct antidote to that conception or wrong conception? Okay.
So, this understanding of emptiness, realizing emptiness directly means that we can get rid of all of our negative thoughts, negative emotions completely. Until we realize emptiness, we can’t start doing that completely. Before we realise emptiness, we can actually stop some of the negative emotions from coming about for a temporary period of time and hit one at a time, but we can’t get rid of them all completely until we understand the lack of the things that they’re grasping to or angry at, etc. So before we understand emptiness directly, then we can, for example, get rid of temporarily get rid of anger and desire and pride and all these things by focusing on their antidote so for example we can get rid of anger by focusing on compassion but we can only get rid of it a small for that for the amount of time that we’re focusing on that and we can’t get rid of it completely and while we’re getting rid of that we can’t for example work on desire at the same time we can only work on one thing at a time now by getting to the root of all of these this grasping at true reality, then we can get rid of all the negative emotions completely by understanding emptiness.
So so we really need this this mind that understands emptiness in order to achieve liberation, in order to achieve Buddhahood. If we don’t have this mind understanding emptiness, then there’s no way that we can completely get rid of our negative emotions, and therefore there’s no way that we can achieve the, cessation of suffering. So, other things that we may develop, for example, bodhicitta or loving compassion, loving kindness and compassion. Now these are all incredibly important things and incredibly powerful things, but they can’t by themselves take us all the way to liberation or Buddhahood because they don’t have the ability to get rid of our afflictive emotions or our negative thoughts. They they can’t completely get rid of those.
So because we need this understanding of emptiness in order to realise liberation, in order to realise Buddhahood, then it’s something we definitely need to focus on. It’s something we need definitely need to meditate on and eventually need to realize. So in order for us to understand emptiness, we need to understand what it is that we have to abandon, what it is that we have to see through, in order to understand emptiness properly. So this thing that we need to see through is what’s called self grasping. If we want to know what the root cause of all our negative emotions is, then it’s this ignorance of true existence, the ignorance of true existence and the grasping that we have at ourselves.
Now self grasping is a feeling of I, I, I that we have when we think about making ourselves happy and trying to avoid suffering. We have this feeling all the time of I don’t want to suffer, I want to be happy. And then there’s this strong feeling of I that comes up. It’s grasping that we have this sense of I as being a truly existent, truly established thing is the root cause of all of the afflictive emotions. So in order for us to be able to see the emptiness, we have to establish what it is first.
So it’s this feeling that we have a very solid sense of ourselves that we know comes up when we are placed in a situation where we have the opportunity to have happiness and the opportunity to get rid of unhappiness. So this I, this sense of me, me, me that we have, if we watch it, then we’ll see that this this this feeling that we have that we are truly established I or truly established me that needs things, if we watch that, then that me that we’re grasping at wants absolutely nothing to do with suffering and everything to do with happiness at all costs. If we think if we if we were just watching that that sense of I, then if we had the ability to have every single happiness in the world, then that I would want it. And it that I would not want to have even the slightest amount of suffering. It would just it would seek to have all the good things in the whole world for itself if it if it had the ability to do that.
And even, like, a tiny bit of suffering would upset it, so it would want nothing to do with any of any suffering at all. And the thing is that the self doesn’t realize that in order for it to be be completely happy and not experiencing suffering anymore, then it has to realize that it doesn’t exist. It’s the only way. It’s but it doesn’t realize this. And instead, where this this eye, this grasping itself, instead works in order to try and make itself happy in ways that aren’t very positive or aren’t very clever.
It tries to make itself happy by doing things that are actually going to be the cause for suffering. So in order to make yourself happy, it has desire, it has anger, it has pride, it has all these negative emotions, and by them, it creates negative karma, which will result in suffering. So it it is constantly grasping at these things that will things will make it happy but are, in fact, making it suffering. And the only way I can truly make we can truly make ourselves happy is by realizing that this self that we’re grasping at doesn’t exist. So it’s a it’s a difficult situation for So so what happens instead of trying to understand the lack of its inheriting existence, because we have this self grasping in us, we tend to if we experience even a little bit of suffering, then we get angry about it and create negative karma that’s gonna create more suffering in the future.
And if we have a little bit of happiness, then we grasp at it. We have this desirous grasping at it, which means we will experience suffering in the future. So instead of trying to see the true nature of ourselves and see the lack of inherent existence there, then because of this grasping it or reeling from suffering and pleasure, then we continue to keep cycling in Samsāra. We continue to keep creating the causes to cycle more and more in Samsāra. So we don’t so in order for us to truly experience happiness and for us to truly get separated from suffering, truly become separated from suffering, then we have to realize emptiness directly.
It’s the only way for us to be able to do it. So instead of creating the causes to keep cycling in Samsāra, then we’ve got to try and create the causes or create the situation for us to be able to realize emptiness directly. Now this may be a bit difficult for us at the moment because we don’t have a lot of time or a lot of, we don’t have the right situation in order to be able to meditate all day every day for heaps of years like Milarepa in the cave. We don’t have that situation. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t work towards this goal anyway.
We just have to try and make everything that we do, a cause. It may and we have to pray that this will be whatever it is we’re doing will become a cause for us to be able to see emptiness directly. So if we keep doing virtuous things and we keep dedicating that virtuous thing towards understanding emptiness in order to achieve Buddhahood, order to benefit all sentient beings, then everything that we do becomes a cause for that and to come about. So if it doesn’t come about in this lifetime, then maybe the next lifetime or the lifetime after that. Because we don’t have the conditions to realize emptiness now doesn’t mean that we can’t do it at some stage in the future.
So, all phenomenon don’t exist the way that they appear to us as existing. They appear to us as being inherently existent, and they aren’t inherently existent. In the same way, when we think about achieving Buddhahood or Buddhahood, then we think of that as being a truly existing thing, and it isn’t. It’s a merely labeled thing. It doesn’t exist inherently from its side.
It just is labeled as as being Buddhahood. So if we think, okay. What I’m doing now is is may that cause me to create merit to achieve Buddhahood, then we have to remember that Buddhahood is merely labeled. It’s a terminologically, designated thing. And so we should think, okay.
I wanna work towards Buddhahood, which is terminologically designated, in order to benefit all sentient beings and, oh, they’re terminologically designated or merely labeled as well. And the person on and me who’s doing it, yeah, I’m merely labeled as well. And may I quickly quickly, which is a merely labeled concept, has a, Buddhahood, which is, which is terminologically designated or merely labeled in order to benefit all sentient beings who are also merely labeled. So we should try and think on this thought as well and meditate on this thought for a few minutes. You think you saw him going to the bell.
So tonight, we’re going to talk about the, middle middle motivation or the beings of middling capacity in the Lam Rim or graduated path teachings. Now, last week, we did the things of the motivation for the beings of the lowest capacity, which was the motivation focusing on abandoning the causes for the lower realms, and the cause for that being the collection of karma of collecting the ten non-virtues. Now, in general, when we talk about the motivation for the beings of middling capacity, then we refer to we’re referring to ways to generate the mind seeking liberation from Samsāra. The main ways that are described as the ways for the generating the mind seeking liberation from Samsāra is focusing on the three higher trainings and focusing on the four noble truths. So the so the main thing that we’re trying to generate with regards to the motivation of the middling beings is the mind seeking, liberation from saṃsāra.
Now, or or the mind seeking to be renounced of saṃsāra. We were talking about that with reference to the motivation for beings of lower capacity as well. But in that case, it was referring to developing the idea of renouncing the, the lower realms or the lower realms of existence. In terms of, this presentation, the middle in capacity presentation, then we are developing renunciation for the whole of Samsāra, seeing the faults of Samsāra, the cause and result of Samsāra, and developing renunciation from the whole of saṃsāra. This mind seeking to seek liberation is called renunciation.
So the mind seeking to achieve this cessation of suffering, cessation of causes of suffering is called renunciation from saṃsāra, the whole saṃsāra. Okay. So So the main the main focus that the main focus of the motivation for the beings of middling capacity is developing renunciation, the mind as seeking liberation as opposed to searching after happiness and saṃsāra. This is the main focus, of the whole scope and the main practice. But in terms of how to develop this practice or how to actually achieve this realisation then it’s said that there’s these different practices that people can do in order to reach the end practice.
The first, and these are called the three higher trainings and also the seven jewels of the aryas. So the three higher trainings are the trainings in ethics, the trainings in meditation and the training in wisdom. The three the seven jewels of the Aryas is faith, having faith, having ethics again, studying, practicing giving and so forth. Shame, which is this idea of, from ourselves feeling that we don’t wanna do something negative and we wanna do things positive. Embarrassment, which is thinking that we wanna do something positive and don’t wanna do something negative because of what other people may think.
And the final seventh the seventh jewel of the aryas is wisdom, is a development of wisdom. So there’s these two different divisions of the different trainings or that are done in order to develop this, mind seeking liberation or renunciation in the scope of the middle beings. So all of these practices are done in order to develop the mind of renunciation from saṃsāra, the mind seeking liberation. So just doing those practices by themselves doesn’t make them middle scope practices. But if they’re being done in order to develop this renunciation, then they’re middle scope practices.
Okay. So from amongst these seven jewels of the Aryas or seven jewels of the supreme beings, now the first four seem they don’t seem that difficult for us. Okay? We’ve got faith. We have faith within the Three Jewels.
That one doesn’t seem that hard. Practicing ethics doesn’t seem that hard. It’s just being ethical. Studying or listening to teachings doesn’t seem that hard. Even generosity may not seem that difficult.
Then it goes, okay. Do I have to go from there to renunciation? And then we think, oh, renunciation, now that’s hard. Okay. The trick is, though, that these aren’t any old we’re not talking about any old faith, any old ethical practice, any old study or any old giving, here.
In in in particular, with reference to faith, it said that there’s two different types of faith. There’s, the faith of the sharp faculty being and the faith of the dull faculty being. Now the faith of the, dull faculty being is faith that still has doubts associated with it. So, if there’s ever any doubts with regards to our faith, then we don’t have the faith of the sharp faculty being, is completely devoid of any doubt and incredibly stable. So getting rid of these doubts is with regards to our faith faith is really difficult.
Okay. There’s also different types of faith that we can have. We can have or there’s different things that we can have faith in. So we can have faith in the Buddha. We can have faith in the Three Jewels.
We can have faith in cause and effect. We can have faith in the Aryas or people with realisations. We can have faith in the fact that different paths that people can go on, five you know, five paths of the three vehicles. We can have faith in that. There’s we can have faith in the qualities of the Buddhas.
We can have faith in the qualities of the teachers. This all of these different things we can use as a basis for faith. So there’s many different things that we can have faith in relation to. The two the two specific ones we need to focus on, especially with reference to this scope, is the, faith in the workings of cause and effect and faith in the Three Jewels. These are the two things that we need to develop, the steadfast, faith in.
So with regards to faith in cause and effect, what having really strong faith in cause and effect does is stop us from doing anything negative. Because if we have really strong faith in cause and effect, then we’ll understand that any negative thing we do will result in suffering, so we won’t wanna do it. So, developing really strong faith in cause and effect stops us from doing anything negative.