Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Starting from a line in Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośa — “from intention come all actions of body and speech” — Geshe Pema Tsering unpacks how unexamined intentions drive mostly negative karma, and how the happiness we ordinarily pursue is in fact a form of suffering. In this 45-minute session, he maps the prerequisites for genuine liberation: calm abiding, ethics, and the ten virtuous actions. The commentary continues with the third and fourth of the four black dharmas to abandon — harsh speech toward bodhicitta holders, and pretending to virtues one lacks. Geshe-la then describes bodhicitta as an alchemist’s elixir that turns any positive action into a cause for Buddhahood, distinguishes aspirational from engaging bodhicitta, and opens the six perfections with generosity: giving Dharma, protecting beings from fear, and offering material support.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 31 2004 06 15 RG.mp3
UUID: d954acc7-a412-4d7b-bbdf-15f9cf7e5d67
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Essence of Refined Gold (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-06-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~3,375
So in the Abhidharmakośa, which is a text by Vasubandhu, an Indian saint, then he said, From intention come all the actions of body and speech. Now, what this is referring to is the definition of karma, or what propels karma. Now, a lot of the time we talk about karma. We talk about mental karma, verbal karma and physical karma actions performed by body, speech and mind. But it’s good to get a clear understanding of what we’re actually referring to here.
And what Vasubandhu was referring to in this quote from the Abhidharmakośa is that karma is actually driven by intention. The definition of it is a mental factor called intention. So there’s all these different types of mental factors that accompany consciousness, and one of them is a mental factor called intention. So, this is how we create karma of body, speech, mind, by continually not thinking about what we’re thinking, not concentrating on what we are thinking, and therefore we are propelled by uncontrolled intentions to perform mostly negative actions. So we re constantly having this intention to do something or other, movement of mind towards something or other.
Because we’re not aware of it, because we don’t think about it, most of the things that we usually propel to do or move towards doing are negative. So, most of the thoughts that we have, most of the that the things that our mind moves towards, most of the intentions that we have, to do some things to make our self feel good, whether that be through getting happiness or profit or money or whatever it is, then it’s all about making the self feel happy. This is, in fact, a mistake mistake because we can’t make the self happy because the self is based on a misapprehension of reality. So, if we’re concentrating on the idea of self, then we can never actually experience true happiness. So when we think about happiness, the way that our mind usually thinks about happiness or we ponder on it is with reference or we think about attaining happiness of samsaric nature, like happiness we’re going to experience as a god or a human, all of the good things that we can experience in the human realm or the god realm.
That’s what we focus on, and that’s what we try and work towards when we think, I want to be happy. A happiness, which is actually the suffering of change or pervasive suffering that they’re still included within saṃsāra. So we are constantly striving towards a form of suffering because we don’t understand what it is to experience true happiness. And if we watch our minds, then we’ll find that most of the things we think, most of the things that we do, most of the work we do, most of the way we invest our time is in pursuit of one of these forms of suffering. So this means that most of the work that we put in, most of the effort that we put into things is actually we’re putting into generating the causes for experiencing more of saṃsāra.
Even though we may think that it’s happiness, we’re actually creating the causes to experience more suffering. This is something that is a habit that is very strongly integrated into our being that we’ve had since beginningless time up until now. We’ve had this constant working towards trying to make the self happy. So what we need to do then is realize not only the nature of the so called happiness that we’re striving towards that is actually suffering, but also the nature of true happiness, which is liberation from saṃsāra. So, if we can recognize liberation from saṃsāra, then we can know what we’re working towards.
We can get an understanding of nirvana and what it is that we should actually be working towards. In order for us to achieve that, we need certain things. First of all, we need what’s called quiescence, or calm abiding śamatha, which is being able to single pointedly concentrate the mind. If we don’t have this type of concentrated ability, then we can’t develop the insights we need, the qualities that we need. So in this way, we need to do a lot of meditation in order to attain nirvana.
Okay. We also need to understand the Buddha’s teachings. We need to develop an appreciation and an understanding for the things that the Buddha explained, not only to be able to understand them intellectually through hearing them and studying them, but we also need to try and apply those teachings, and having applied them then to meditate on them to solidify that understanding or to habituate ourselves with that understanding. This includes the practice of ethics. If we have integrated the Buddha s description of ethics, then that also creates the causes for us to achieve the true happiness, which is either personal liberation or Buddhahood.
So from all of Buddha’s teachings, some of which are complicated and very difficult to understand, if we want to start progressing along the path, then we can start to work with the understanding of the path and the foundation of qualities, which is an understanding of the ten non virtuous actions, that we need to abandon the ten non virtuous actions and practice the ten virtuous actions. Basically, we have to start with behaviour, with the way we behave ourselves, our behaviour and our ethics. If we can put those into effect, if we can start practising in this way, then we can develop these qualities. There’s nothing in the ten non-virtuous actions that we can’t understand. It’s not like it’s difficult for us to get our heads around that.
So we should think, I’m going to try and learn to practice the ten virtuous actions, abandon the ten non virtuous actions, and may whatever I’m doing now be a cause for me to start by focusing on that and then progress along the path to become a fully enlightened Buddha, and in that way be of enormous benefit to the greatest amount of beings. We should think, For the benefit of all sentient beings, may I become a Buddha. We should meditate on that for a couple of minutes. So we were going through the did I not have that on at all? No.
Were going through the four black dharmas, and we’re up to the third of the black dharmas, which can stop us from developing our bodhisattva motivation, so we need to abandon them. The third of the black dharmas is to speak harshly with anger to someone who has developed the mahayana attitude, and that is the bodhicitta. So anyone who has developed the bodhicitta, we shouldn’t speak with anger or harsh words towards them because this is considered a very negative action. The way that we can stop ourselves from behaving in this way is to develop what’s called discriminating awareness. We can understand that the beings who have developed the bodhicitta are doing whatever it is that they’re doing in order to benefit all sentient beings.
Because of this, then we should think of words as being like teachings towards us and rely upon them with discrimination, through discrimination I should say, rely upon them through discrimination. So the in this way, we can stop ourselves from performing the black deed of a of having angry words towards Okay. So in order for us to bring this about, then what we need to do in this context is to perform the practice of realizing that seeing all sentient beings purely, that is focusing on the qualities and the inherent goodness of all sentient beings, how that all sentient beings in past lives have shown us great kindness, have been our mothers. Not only that, but in dependence on sentient beings, then we’re able to achieve Buddhahood. There are these two different aspects that we have relied on sentient beings for.
They have shown us great kindness in the past, and we need to rely on them in order to attain Buddhahood. In this way, we should have great respect and think about the qualities of other sentient beings and try to see them as purely as possible. We don’t know whether another being actually has the realizations of bodhicitta or not, so we should try and remember to treat all beings as if they have bodhicitta. This doesn’t mean, however, that we should assume all other beings have qualities that can lead us to enlightenment. I was like, That sounds like we should be following Saddam Hussein around because he could have bodhicitta.
Geshe-la said, No, you have to use your discrimination. You just think they may have bodhicitta, so you don’t be disrespectful towards them, but you don’t necessarily have to agree with everything they say. Or do you? This one. Then the last of the four black dharmas that we should try and avoid is being hypocritical and false with sentient beings.
Now, this word that’s translated here as hypocritical, What that actually means is to to try and hide your faults. The this very technical definition in Tibetan. So it means that if you try and hide your faults from other people and pretend that you don’t have faults when you do, then that’s what this translator here is hypocritical. The other one is to be false is the opposite of that. It’s this word that means to pretend that you have qualities when you don’t.
If you’re trying to confuse people or literally spin their head around by saying that you have qualities that you don’t, and that can confuse them or hiding your faults from them. So we should try to do whatever it takes not to behave like this with regards to sentient beings and to think as honestly as possible. So in this way, then we should try really hard to be honest in all our dealings with sentient beings. And one way that we can try and remember to be honest in all our deal dealings with sentient beings is to focus on how kind they have been to us in the past. May be to us in this lifetime.
Certain beings may be to us in this lifetime. Also, we need to rely on all sentient beings to develop the merit we need to become a Buddha. So if we think about their kindness, then we’re going to want to be honest with them. Okay. So the translation of this says, Development of the bodhicitta, the thought of enlightenment, is the central pillar of Mahāyāna practice.
This means that if we don’t have the Mahāyāna mind or bodhicitta, then any of our Mahāyāna practices don’t hold up very well. It’s like the main pole of a tent. If you don’t have the middle pole of a tent, it’s difficult for the rest of the tent to stay out based on the smaller poles at the side, so it’s said to be the mainstay for the practices of the Mahāyāna. In this way, we need to realize what the foundations doing or what the central pillar of Mahāyāna practice is. This is it’s the foundation of the Bodhisattva activities, which is a very easy translation because it says something more like, Is the foundation for the waves
Which is a mixed metaphor, hey, foundation for the waves of the Bodhisattva activities. So the reason it’s called a foundation end base is because it acts as the way to develop it and also base because it’s the thing that holds up or the motivation for what are called the Bodhisattva activities. Bodhisattva activities consist of the six perfections and also the four ways of taming disciples, or taming the minds of disciples. So these activities are all based, again, on bodhicitta. And it’s an elixir producing the gold of merit and wisdom.
Now, this elixir that produces gold sounds like an alchemist stone. Whatever it touches turns to gold, a philosopher’s stone. So when the elixir touches anything, then it turns from its ordinary substance into gold. Now, the reason that bodhicitta is said to be like this is that if someone possesses bodhicitta, then any meritorious actions, any positive actions that they do, any development of wisdom that they have, that they generate, all turns into being a cause for Buddhahood. An action that may be more ordinary without bodhicitta becomes a very, very powerful force with bodhicitta.
So this is why it’s said to be like this elixir that produces gold. That bodhicitta is also said to be mine holding the infinite varieties of goodness. It’s actually talking about it’s not just any types of goodness it’s said to be the stores or the collections of goodness. So each of us has a collection of goodness within us, but this is said to be any type of goodness, any virtuous action that one can perform is found in bodhicitta. This is what it was saying: found in the mine that is bodhicitta, the store of treasure that is bodhicitta.
So it’s all collected within this. So you could say it s a mine, a treasure in which all of the variety of good actions you can possibly perform are subsumed. And the other thing with this particular treasure trove or this particular mine is that it never runs out. It’s not like it’s got a fixed amount of gold in there that we can take out of it. It’s continually So I’m struggling with these metaphors, sorry.
Yeah. A mine that never runs out. Yes. And then this one. So because of this, then it said that courageous followers of the Buddha or courageous bodhisattvas hold the practice of bodhicitta to be their central practice.
They hold it at their heart because it’s a central practice. So if you want to be a follower of the Buddha, if you want to become like the Buddha, then the practice that needs to be performed is that you develop, first of all, develop bodhicitta, and then once you’ve developed bodhicitta, you go on to practice the six perfections. And if you do this, if you develop a Bodhisattva and then practice the six perfections, then that is the course of becoming a Buddha. It’s not like the Buddha did this, but if we do it, that’s not going to happen. It’s not like the Buddha had one outcome and we all have another.
If we do exactly what the Buddha did, then we will become a Buddha. In this way, it’s not good enough just to develop bodhicitta. Also need to practice the six perfections. So then we may think then that just developing the bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment, is enough. That if we develop the idea of wanting to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of sentient beings, then we’re sorted, and that’s all we need to do.
But that’s not actually the case, because developing the idea of achieving enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings is only what’s called aspirational bodhicitta it’s only a wish to do something. It’s not actually putting that wish into action in any way, actually engaging with that. So it’s not enough just to wish to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings We also need to do something about it. So so this means that we shouldn’t just have the idea of having the aspiration to become a Buddha. We actually need to put that into practice by taking on the commitment of what’s called engaging bodhicitta engaging or active bodhicitta, and this is performing the tasks that we need to do in order to become a Buddha, not just wishing that we were a Buddha.
It’s the same if we want to get money. We may have this idea, Okay, if I want to get money then I need to go to work. But if we just sit around thinking about how we get money if we go to work and we don’t actually go to work, then we don’t get any money. Right? We actually need to go out and do the works in order for us to get money.
So sitting around wishing that we wishing that we could get money from going to work isn’t going to get us money. So the practice that we need to actually engage in to become a Buddha, the practice of the bodhisattvas involves actually doing things in the same way that if we want to get money for a job, we actually have to go out and perform the job we can’t just think about it. And so that actual practice that’s involved with becoming a Buddha and is the practice of bodhisattvas, the behaviour of bodhisattvas, is said to be the six perfections, the six paramitas or the six transcendent actions, I guess, and also the four ways of taming disciples. So that is what benefits self and others. The six perfections are the perfection of giving, of generosity, perfection of ethics, the perfection of patience, the perfection of effort, the perfection of meditation, and the perfection of Okay.
So from amongst the six perfections that we need to look at, the first of these is the perfection of generosity. Now, how to train in the perfection of generosity is described by, first of all, developing the right motivation. So if one would think or we would think, in order for me to achieve Buddhahood to benefit all sentient beings, I’m about to do whatever it is we’re going to do. And then we’re able to give, first of all, Dharma to those who do not have Dharma. There are many people in the world that don’t understand religion or spirituality in any way.
If we’re able to explain this to them or to give them understanding in an unmistaken way, then this is supposed to be one of the practices of the perfection of giving. So this is the main way that we can practice generosity by giving Dharma, but there’s other ways that we can do practice generosity. One of the ways we can practice generosity is to give protection from fear to beings involved in war, people involved in war, to give them protection from war. Also, to give them protection from the fear of wild animals that may attack them and ghosts if we can give people protection from wild animals and ghosts. Also, there are many different non animate things that can cause harm to people fire and water and so forth.
If we can give people protection from the fear of those things happening, that’s another way we can practice generosity. So this sounds like we have to do a lot of work, and it’s very difficult for us to protect everybody from all of the problems that can come to them on the planet, on Earth. We don’t have the power to do that anyway. Can’t personally necessarily stop wars happening or stop earthquakes happening or whatever it is that we could do to protect these large numbers of human beings or different beings. But we can do little things to help without much effort.
For example, if we were to move a bug or an ant out of the way of harm, we do that with the motivation that we’re doing it in order to attain enlightenment for the benefit of sentient beings, and that becomes a practice of the perfection of giving as well, giving protection from fear, in this case to ants or bugs or whatever it is that we’re doing. So there’s another way that we can also practice the perfection of giving, and that is through giving food, drink, a place to sleep, medicine, wealth, to beings if we’re able to do it without regret. If we do something with a sense of miserliness or with this idea of getting something in return, then it’s not the practice of the perfection of giving. So if we develop the right motivation, we’re able to give material things without regret, then this is also the practice of the perfection of giving.