Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute commentary, Geshe Pema Tsering opens with a sharp warning: praying “may I abide until all beings are free” while secretly hoping the aspiration fast-tracks your own Buddhahood is a self-deception that blocks bodhicitta from forming. He introduces the Eight Verses of Training the Mind by Kadampa master Langri Thangpa, working through the first two stanzas with a Dalai Lama commentary as guide. The first verse — holding all beings more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel — is unpacked concretely: unlike a magical jewel that grants material goods for one lifetime, sentient beings supply the causes for both everyday happiness and Buddhahood. He acknowledges how distant genuine other-cherishing feels, then explains why habit is both obstacle and solution: the mind does what it is trained to do, so sustained daily effort — not occasional five-minute sessions — gradually shifts the default. Suited to practitioners already grounded in renunciation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 TT 2004 08 10.mp3
UUID: 9624f6e7-ee8f-4a0a-a5d0-1e8d80d13dd2
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: DB Thought Transformation (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-08-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.2 minutes
Words: ~4,124
The Dalai Lama has written a prayer or has composed a prayer? That was a great hiccup. The Dalai Lama has composed a prayer in which he said, he said, for as long as space endures and sentient beings which occupy it, may I also be able to abide in order to dispel their suffering. So what this actually means is that he’s hoping or he’s praying or he’s aspiring to be able to abide, to continue to exist, to continue to be of benefit to all sentient beings as long as there is any one being experiencing suffering, as long as there is one person who is experiencing suffering or creating the causes for suffering, the the prayer is to be able to do something to relieve their suffering. So this prayer of the Dalai Lama is something that we should also try to develop in our mind.
Now the reason that we need to develop this prayer in our mind is that we all want to be happy. And the best type of happiness that we can develop in our mind stream is the happiness of a Buddha. This prayer describes the motivation of bodhicitta, the wish to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. It’s only by this motivation that we can actually achieve this final happiness of Buddhahood. It’s only through the motivation or the aspiration that’s contained within this prayer that we can actually attain true happiness for ourselves also.
So you may take from this prayer, where it says, as long as sentient beings need help, while as long as sentient beings are experiencing suffering, may I also abide. The aspirant or the person making the prayer is actually seeking not to achieve Buddhahood until everyone has achieved Buddhahood, until all other beings have attained that state. This may actually be contained in the prayer, but it’s not going to happen if that is the true motivation for the person saying the prayer. So, they may be praying to abide until all sentient beings have achieved enlightenment. But by the power of this prayer, by the strength of this prayer, they’ll actually if this is a true aspiration of theirs, they’ll actually achieve Buddhahood very quickly compared to anyone else who doesn’t have this aspiration.
So if by having this prayer, by developing this idea and this aspiration, then everything that we do with this motivation actually becomes a very powerful force for us to attain enlightenment. But we shouldn’t necessarily be thinking by praying in this way remain in order to help all sentient beings. Therefore, I’m actually not going to have to remain because I’m going to become a Buddha and get out of here. We shouldn’t be thinking in this way. We be tricking ourselves like this.
If we say, I want to abide until all sentient beings have experienced suffering, we’ve got to mean it, even if we know in the back of our mind that that prayer itself will make it that we don’t have to experience any more suffering, and we don’t have to abide. So we can’t trick ourselves by thinking, Okay, I’ll pray this way, but really, in actual fact, I’m gonna become a Buddha first. Right? Because by wanting to become a Buddha first, you don’t become a Buddha first. So if if you’re thinking it’s the prayer is actually along the lines of may I abide, may I stay in saṃsāra until all sentient beings have achieved nirvana, until all sentient beings have ceased to experience suffering.
If you’re actually thinking while you’re saying this, I’m saying this because I know I can become a Buddha first, and I can become a Buddha really quickly by thinking this, but I don’t actually mean it, then what you’re doing is inhibiting your ability to completely selflessly give to others. As a bodhisattva, you’re even able to give away your body or your being with complete happiness because you’re able to benefit others. If you’re working for the benefit of others without self grasping, this is what happens. If you have this trick in your mind where you’re saying, I’m thinking this, but I don’t really mean it because I want to become a Buddha first, you’re stopping your ability to become a Buddha. So if you’re able to completely give up your own benefit, the idea of working for your own benefit and have all your thoughts directed towards all other sentient beings, working for the idea benefiting them, then you also give up the idea of becoming a Buddha first or becoming enlightened first.
You’re doing everything for the benefit of all others. And if you’re able to do that, that’s when you actually develop the mind of bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment, the mind working towards enlightenment. Therefore, the motivation we should be developing in this instance is that we’re doing whatever it is that we’re doing in order to establish all sentient beings in a state beyond sorrow, in the state of Buddhahood. It isn’t about us it isn’t about what we can get out of it it’s about how we can help all other sentient beings. In this case, we should think that I am studying this eight verses of mind training in order that I can help all sentient beings be established in the state of a Buddha.
In this way, we are totally getting rid of working for our own benefit and focusing on others. So we should meditate on this for a few minutes. Okay. So this evening, we’re going to be looking at the poem or the prayer, which is usually called the eight verses of training the mind or the eight verses of mental transformation. Now this text, prayer was written by a Kadampa Geshe called Langri Thangpa, and it’s called Eight Verses of Training the Mind.
It’s strange. Anyway, having trouble translating this because he said it’s called the eight verses training the mind because it’s eight verses about training the mind, but he said it in different ways. Yeah. Yeah. So what we’re actually training the mind in, however, is changing our self-cherishing mind into a other cherishing mind.
So this is what we’re trying to train our mind in to. What training the mind in this instance means is that by habituating ourselves with the concept of cherishing others as opposed to holding on to a self-cherishing attitude. This practice is actually based on practices that are already done in the lower scope, that is, the development of renunciation and the perception of saṃsāra as being a negative situation that we want to get out of. This, as a Mahāyāna practice or an altruistic vehicle practice, is done on the basis of that understanding. As a preliminary, we already need to have done training in renunciation and seeing the faults of saṃsāra before we can properly do that verses of properly training the mind training, specifically the eight verses.
So the first verse of these eight stanzas of training the mind says, with the determination to accomplish the highest welfare for all sentient beings who surpass even a wish fulfilling jewel, I will hold them supremely dear, or I will always hold them supremely dear. Now, the reason that sentient beings will be considered higher than a wish granting jewel to the person who is making this prayer is because it is through sentient beings or in dependence on sentient beings, that one is able to create the causes for any experience of happiness we may have and also for achieving the ultimate happiness of Buddhahood. This comes about through sentient beings, so we are eternally indebted to sentient beings for this opportunity. When it says with determination to accomplish the highest welfare for sentient beings, what this is referring to is the wish to establish them in a state beyond sorrow, which is to establish them as Buddhas. So when it says the the highest wish for all sentient beings, that’s what it’s talking about.
So Geshe is gonna base his teaching on this prayer from a on a commentary that was given by the Dalai Lama about this prayer. In this commentary, the Dalai Lama starts off by saying, Let alone neglecting sentient beings. The Dalai Lama is talking about this first verse from the prayer, and he says, Let alone neglecting sentient beings, which is what we usually do, we have to not only start paying attention to them, but we have to consider that they are the cause for us to establish both temporary and ultimate happiness. In being like this, all other beings, all other people, all other persons are actually more precious to us than a jewel that could grant any wish that we could think of. Because have or they are the basis by which we can achieve final enlightenment and any type of temporal happiness we could want, then we really need to consider them to be very hold them very precious or hold them very dear.
Okay. So it says that sentient beings are more precious to us than a wish fulfilling jewel because they are able to give us both our temporary and ultimate wishes. Now, temporary wishes means that any positive experience that we may experience in this lifetime, or any material happiness that we can experience in this lifetime, comes about as a result of positive karma accumulated in the past through being kind to sentient beings, so therefore they give us their temporary happiness. The ultimate happiness that they can afford us is through practicing generosity so forth to sentient beings. We are able to achieve the state of Buddha or the state of nirvana.
Therefore, this way, sentient beings have given us the ultimate gift. A wish fulfilling jewel is a jewel that has the ability generate anything that we can ask of it. Any material thing that we can ask of it, this jewel can provide. But it can only give us happiness in one lifetime. It can only create happiness that lasts for one lifetime while the material things still abide.
If we want to find happiness, it’s going to continue on through future lifetimes and actually attain the state of ultimate happiness, which is nirvana or Buddhahood, then we need something greater than a wish fulfilling jewel. This way, sentient beings, being the source of all of our virtue and merit and our path to Buddhahood are more precious to us than any wish fulfilling jewel. So because of this, we should consider others to be more precious than what we should cherish others more than ourselves. And it’s very important for our development that we can start doing that. So this idea of holding others more precious than ourselves may be appealing, but we also may think that we do do that, and that’s obviously not the case.
If we watch the way that we think, then we’ll find that most of our thoughts are are about ourselves and how to make ourselves happy, and we don’t consider other sentient beings very much at all. Even if we are thinking of other sentient beings, then we’re usually thinking of sentient beings or or people that are close to us our friends, our family, our our pets. We’re thinking of beings that have some kind of connection to us, therefore, that we give them importance because of that connection. Ultimately, that happiness their happiness reflects on our happiness, so it still comes from self grasping. If we do think of beings as being important, it’s usually for what we can get from them.
We even go to the extent of seeing the animal products that we can get from animals. Like, we consider chickens to be important because of their eggs or cows to be important because of their milk. And we don’t actually think about the beings themselves. We think about which ways we can use them in order to make ourselves happy. So if we’re watching the way that our mind works at the moment, then we it comes to us that, developing bodhicitta or the mind working for the benefit of all sense other sentient beings and not ourselves is a is a way off.
It’s something that we’re going to put in a lot have to put in a lot of effort to develop. If we’re watching the way that our minds operate, they’re so engrossed in self that to change them is going to take a grand effort. For starters, if we watch the way we react to food, if we’re eating meat, we don’t think, ‘I wonder what these animals suffered in order for me to get this food’, ‘I wonder what kind of life they led’, ‘I wonder what kind of illnesses they had to endure’, ‘I wonder how they died. We don’t think of these things usually. We’re just thinking of what we want to eat.
So the whole idea of turning that around completely so we’re thinking continually of others and not thinking of ourselves, which is the mind of bodhicitta, is something that is that can seem a very long way off. So not only is it difficult for us to develop this mind focusing on others, it’s also difficult it can be difficult for us to contemplate the positive qualities of focusing on others. It’s difficult for us to turn our mind away from focusing on ourselves and considering ourselves to be very important. If we want to develop a mind that’s focusing on others, that’s working for the benefit of others, then what we need to do is get rid of or stop our tendencies towards self focus or working for our own benefit and we need to see the faults of working for our own benefit before we can actually see the benefits of working for others So we can’t in order to develop one kind of way of thinking, we need to stop the other one. In order to develop this understanding to develop an understanding of why it’s much more important to cherish others or why we should be cherishing others above ourselves, we need to look at who gives us the most benefit: our self grasping, by self-cherishing, or other beings.
So, the first thing that we need to look at in that case then is how sentient beings benefit us. It describes the ways that they benefit us three ways: in the beginning, in the middle, and the end. Now, the way that sentient beings help us in the middle is that it is in dependence on sentient beings that we’re actually able to develop the altruistic aspiration towards enlightenment. If we didn’t have sentient beings, there would be no way we could develop the bodhicitta mind or the mind of enlightenment. In the middle, we need sentient beings in order to practice the path.
If we don’t have sentient being if we didn’t have sentient beings, there was no way there would be no way for us to practice the the actions of the Bodhisattva, generosity and and so and for this for our minds of enlightenment and our positive qualities to improve. In the middle, it also depends on sentient beings. In the end, also, the development of Buddhahood or the achievement of Buddhahood depends on our relationship with sentient beings as well because it is for the sake of all sentient beings that we can actually achieve Buddhahood. So, therefore, the focus and it says the focus of the earnest practitioner, should be as a base and as a as a root, all sentient beings. It’s from the kindness of all sentient beings that we are able to achieve Buddhahood, that we are able to practice anything that’s going to make us experience any kind of happiness.
In this way, sentient beings truly are more precious to us than anything else we may encounter. So because of this, we need to really think about all sentient beings or all other beings with respect, kindness and love. With respect, meaning that we shouldn’t be dismissive of them or look down on them and with love and kindness in it that we shouldn’t feel a negative or destructive thoughts about them or towards them, or we shouldn’t show them towards them. That is. That is?
Yeah. Because of the way that our mind is at the moment, full of delusions, then we may develop the idea that, how am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to have this mind that works for the benefit of all sentient beings when I’m so confounded by destructive emotions and self grasping? Geshe-la goes, Yeah, that’s possible to think that way. In fact, I think that way quite a lot.
Then he said, it’s not a logical way to think. The reason that it’s not a logical way to think and it’s not a helpful way to think is that the mind does what it’s used to. So at the moment, the mind is used to cherishing itself. But if we habituate ourselves with the idea of cherishing others, then we can start to cherish others. So the the as as well as the mind doesn’t as well as the mind being able to do what it’s used to, it’s difficult for the mind to do what it’s not used to.
So, if we don’t have a habit of thinking of others and we have a habit of cherishing ourselves, then it’s going to be difficult for us to develop this idea of cherishing others, we can get used to it. So this isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight, and it’s not something that’s not going to happen without persistent application. If we keep having this idea of, I say the Bodhisattva prayer, or I pray to develop bodhicitta occasionally, and we think about five minutes here or five minutes there, we’re not going to develop this mind that cherishes others. It’s something that we need to put in a lot of time, so it’s not going happen in a year or five years or even six years, especially if we’re only doing five minutes a day. We need to really, like, work on it for a long time before we become completely habituated into focusing on others.
That is. The other thing with the mind is, though, too, when we start habituating ourselves, when we start putting in effort to develop this mind that cherishes others and subdue the mind that cherishes self, then it actually becomes easier and easier to practice this. Anything that we don’t have a habit of doing, when we start trying to develop that habit, can be difficult. But once we develop a habit of doing something, then actually performing that action, it becomes a lot easier. So, based on this reason, if you have no habit for it, it is difficult, but nothing gets harder with practice.
So this is something we can understand because there are many things that we started doing in the past that were difficult when we started doing them. But as we have continued to do them, they become easier and easier. So this insight isn’t something that’s completely going to be very difficult for us to develop. We can understand that habits make things easier or that if we get used to it, if you get used to something, that eventually we can do it without even really thinking about it. So the thing that stops us from being able to develop this habit of focusing on others, and thing that makes it one of the things that makes it difficult for us to develop this habit is our distractions.
Now the main thing that can distract us from this task is the perception that we’re unable to accomplish it. If we think, I can’t develop this mind that cherishes others, it’s impossible for me to develop this idea of looking at others before myself. I’m so engrossed in selfishness, then we’re not going to be able to do it. This thought is actually a negative, afflictive emotion that doesn’t help us any. We need to get rid of that thought that we can’t do it because we can do it.
Through focusing on it again and again and putting in effort, we will be able to achieve it. This distractive thought, I can’t do it, this form of laziness that we have, its antidote is effort. And if we put in the effort, then we will be able to develop this habit of thinking of others. So the the culprit behind this idea that we can’t do it, the culprit behind this idea that we’re not good enough to develop bodhicitta or that we’re not good enough to think of others is self grasping or is is selfishness. And the the idea that selfishness has or the plan that selfishness has is that it’s too hard.
So if I think I can’t do it, then I don’t have to try. The selfishness is hanging out in our minds, or guess, to say it’s like, yeah, hanging out is the right word. It’s kind of not to the fore, but it’s somewhere in the background, just hanging around. And every time we try and put in effort, it goes, well, you may not be able to do it, so why try? Alright?
So and it’s easier for us if we’re being selfish. It’s easier for us to do that in a very relaxed way, alright? And to to to to just hang out and do nothing. But this if we can we need to get rid of that idea that I I can’t do it, so therefore I might as well do nothing, because that’s really a self grasping attitude that’s making us think that. So the next verse of the prayer says, whenever I associate with others, I will learn to think of as the lowest among all and respectfully hold others to be supreme from the very depths of my heart.
I looked at the commentary, but I didn’t actually look at the translation of the verse, and some of it seems a bit wordy. Anyway, whenever I associate with others, that means that anytime that we go anywhere with anyone, and anytime that we are friends with anyone, when we accompany anyone, when we talk to anyone, then at those times when we try to think of it, should try and think of ourselves as being lower than them, not as important as the person that we’re talking to. And if we have this attitude, then we’ll think that if we have this attitude that we’re lower, then we automatically have the idea that others are more important than ourselves. And through doing this, then we will hold others to be more important than ourselves. Now by doing this, by viewing ourselves as being lowest amongst all when we accompany anyone, when we do anything with anyone, doesn’t mean that we actually become lowest amongst all.
In fact, this this perception of humility or this true humility that we’re developing through this actually gives us great qualities for ourselves. But what we’re trying to do here is start a fight with our self-cherishing. Alright? We’re trying to get rid of our self-cherishing. We’re trying to get even chuck it away.
And in order for us to chuck our self-cherishing away, we have to do something that’s gonna that’s gonna get at it. And self-cherishing and all this selfishness doesn’t like to be considered inferior, doesn’t like to be considered the lowest of all. So by viewing ourselves as the lowest of all, what we’re doing is stopping stopping the strength of self-cherishing, stopping the strength of selfishness. And through stopping the strength of selfishness, in the same process, we are starting to cherish others more, developing our cherishing for others more. This one.
Their own welfare, seeking happiness for ourselves then what happens then is that we’re stuck within that kind of box of selfishness that we’re only looking at what happens to ourselves and anything little that happens to ourselves is considered very negative Besides that, if we are stuck within the box of looking towards ourselves only, then anything that we do is going to create negative results. Anything that we do with an attitude of helping ourselves is actually a cause for us to experience suffering. Because it’s negative karma to be selfish. Through focusing on self, we don’t actually help ourselves and we don’t help anyone else either.