Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A Tibetan expression — “don’t have a black face” — gives this 42-minute session its memorable opening, as Geshe Pema Tsering completes the four ways a bodhisattva benefits trainees: giving generously to build trust, teaching with a warm smiling manner, encouraging students to actually live the teachings, and living those teachings yourself rather than preaching one thing and doing another. A lively Q&A follows, covering the seven-point meditation posture, breath-counting as a settling practice, and the critical distinction between calm abiding and insight into emptiness — calm abiding alone cannot free you from saṃsāra. A question on the difference between emptiness and selflessness draws out a careful contrast between two major Buddhist philosophical schools, rounded off by discussion of whether renunciation requires understanding emptiness at all.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 35 2004 06 29 RG.mp3
UUID: 4bd09766-ff1b-41d8-b108-3617659be6c0
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Essence of Refined Gold (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-06-29
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 42.4 minutes
Words: ~3,313
Okay. So this was the description of the six perfections. Now our bodhisattva practices the six perfections in order to attain Buddhahood, in order to attain Buddhahood to benefit all sentient beings. This is what says establishes their own purpose. They become Buddhas.
But as they are bodhisattvas and working for the benefit of all sentient beings, they’re not just working for their own Buddhahood they have to work for the benefit of all other sentient beings at the same time so the six perfections are what they do in order to achieve buddhahood themselves and therefore be able to benefit all sentient beings to a greater capacity But then along with this comes what are called the four ways of benefiting trainees or the four ways of benefiting disciples or sentient beings who wish to have instruction. So the first of these is said to be first of all they need to have the motivation that they’re doing this in order to liberate all sentient beings from suffering. The motivation of bodhicitta, then they should first of all do what’s called practice supportive generosity towards one’s entourage of trainees. Geshe-la said this basically means giving people stuff, alright? So as much as you can, as much as you’re able to give, give.
And if you give, people like you. So it’s developing trust in the people that are listening to you. It’s creating a positive environment for them. The second way of benefiting trainees is it says, then after you’ve established this good relationship with the students, then you need to inspire them with your teachings. Now the way that it instructs to do this is to make sure that you don’t have a serious like, I guess, a frowning face.
Like, there’s this expression in Tibetan, a black face. That means like a stormy face. Don’t have a very stormy face. You should laugh. You should be happy.
You should be showing the yeah. No like storm clouds on the face. So and speak to them gently. So it means to like have a laughing happy presentation and speak to them gently about the gently and clearly about the six perfections. This is how you you instruct students so you don’t scare them.
So so then it says to yeah. And it it says to to teach the Dharma sweetly and nicely. So then not only do you teach the Dharma in this way but then you also try and encourage the people who are learning to practice in accordance with what they are learning or have learnt so you’re not only teaching them the way to practice the perfections, but you’re also encouraging them to live in accordance with these teachings. The other thing to remember is that even though teaching Dharma is actually practicing generosity from your side, then it actually combines the two things. You’re practicing generosity by giving Dharma, but you’re also doing this thing of training disciples by or giving to disciples, so it’s benefiting the disciple and yourself.
So the fourth one is then that you not only instruct and help others to practice the teachings, but you also must live your life in accordance with the teachings. So it’s not good enough to have this idea of teaching and instructing people in a way to behave and then going off and not behaving that way yourself you have to actually live in accordance with the teachings otherwise you’re not really helping the people that you were said to be that you’re trying to be helping because they will be disillusioned by your activities. So the fourth of the ways to help or instruct disciples is to live in accordance with the teachings yourself. So and then it says, you should in every possible way develop these four profound methods of benefiting others. So we can stop there.
Three was encouraging them to practice in accordance with the teachings, other people. So we probably have one day left of this text. We’ll do combining Samādhi and wisdom. And And then also and and then the what is combining method of with with meditation and wisdom, and then a little bit on tantra. That’s it.
We’re finishing. Do well, please stop. I asked Geshe-la if I said I’m not thinking yesterday and he goes, yep. So if you have questions.
Yeah. That is. That is. Uh-uh. Okay.
The That is. There’s the position for meditating the best position for meditating is said to be what’s called the hang on one sec. I’ve gotta make sure that I’m I’m Okay. Just in case people didn’t couldn’t sit like me, can’t couldn’t sit in the vajra posture. Yeah.
Yeah. Feet. So the best way to sit when you’re meditating is in what’s called the seven points, seven pointed posture of I forgot his name. Yeah, that’s it. So there’s seven points to that.
You have to have a straight back. Your legs should be in the full lotus position if you can manage it, if not, the half lotus position. Your tongue should be in your mouth, touching the palate of your mouth with your mouth slightly open, but or your lips just touching. Your eyes should be I’m trying to remember them all. Your eyes should be looking down just on top of your nose.
Yeah? Straight back. Oh, your head head should be tipped forward, and your arms should be like this. Yeah. One on top of the other.
I think that’s seven. Yeah. Yeah. Stress. Yeah.
But oh, there. But said if you can’t sit in the full vajra posture, don’t worry about that. You can just cross your legs, and even if you sit on a chair, that’s fine because the main thing is to have straight back and watch what you’re thinking. The reason the Buddha s one of the reasons that Buddha s say to sit like this is because of the stability that it gives your body and it enables you to meditate clearly. If, for example, you tried to meditate lying down, you’d be so comfortable you’d probably fall asleep, and it’d be difficult to keep concentration.
So the main thing is what you’re doing with your mind, sitting in these kind of postures helps you to to to stabilize your mind in that way. Uh-huh. I don’t know. Could you take medicine for it? Or going to see a doctor?
Hey, doctor. Thank you. I said, what about exercises? Would exercises help? And he goes, well, some exercises will help, and other exercises will hurt more.
So if you can get exercise that helps, that’d be good, stretching and stuff. Yoga. Thank you, Marcel. Mm-mm. Mm-mm.
So it might actually be coming from your mind because all the illnesses we have come from our mind because we develop causes for illnesses from our mind. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take medicine for Yeah. He wasn’t necessarily talking about Western medicine. But he said I said, like because I think she said, you don’t wanna take Western medicine. Go to medicine.
Why would you not wanna take medicine? I said, because Western medicine can disbalance you as opposed to putting you into balance. And he was like, oh, yeah. That makes sense. It gets rid of the pain, but throws you off in other places.
He said, and also try sitting in a different way. If it’s hurting you, just sit in one way. Just move a little bit. You move a little bit, it might help to ease the pain. Yeah, Dennis.
Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah.
Uh-huh. Sure. Sorry. I keep laughing because people say these in the text. I go, oh, that’s my mind.
Geshe-la said to make sure that you always start your meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings with breathing meditation and counting the breath for as much as you can until you until your mind’s stable. You did the same snot, so can I ask what if that takes years? Nice. He said, so what you do is then you meditate on the breath in the beginning and try and count in the breath, and then this comes down the mind to a certain degree. Once the mind feels calm and the proliferation has stopped, yeah, then you go on to your meditation.
If it comes back, you go back to counting the breath. So, yeah, every time that you start thinking too much, you go back to counting the breath. Yeah? Okay. So the thing that gets you out of cyclic existence isn’t calm abiding.
Alright? What you need to do is to develop calm abiding and then in dependence on that stable mind, start looking at the nature of reality We’re practicing special insight. Once you’ve perceived the nature of reality, once you’ve have an understanding of emptiness of inherent existence, you cease to have what’s called the ignorance grasping at inherent existence. Right? So once you understand there is no inherent existence, you don’t grasp that inherent existence, which is this ignorance.
The ignorance that grasps is it inherent existence is the first link in the twelve links of dependent origination and how you get reborn in Samsāra. If you don’t have that link, then you can choose your rebirth. If you do have that, then you can’t choose your rebirth. So calm abiding isn’t the thing that stops you being reborn in Samsāra. In fact, we’ve all probably achieved calm abiding heaps of times before and then lost it.
So if you develop an insight of emptiness, yeah, based on calm abiding, then you don’t have a cause to be reborn in Samsāra without without your direction, your direction. Calm abiding. Right. Okay. I’m sorry, okay, I have to clarify this.
This is what happens when you deal with Geshe-la. If you’re someone who has, you have to have directly perceived the lack of inherent existence of all phenomena in order to get rid of the ignorance of grasp at true existence. So therefore, you can’t just be an Ārya or someone who’s realized the path of seeing to do that. You either have to be a bodhisattva who’s realized the nature of reality or a someone who’s completed the Hīnayāna path. Someone who’s completed the Hīnayāna path doesn’t have bodhicitta, so therefore, they aren’t going to be coming back to help anyone.
Alright? So the only people that you’re dealing with that would choose to reincarnate even though they don’t have the karma to reincarnate Mahāyāna, Bodhisattvas who perceive the nature of reality. Right? They have to be specific. And these guys or women choose their rebirth in dependence on whether it will be most benefit, whether it will benefit people, right?
So they have the ability through clairvoyance to perceive situations and see where their rebirth will benefit most beings in the best way. So then they therefore search for a rebirth, which will do that. And once they found that, then they take rebirth in order to benefit being. So what happens with those who understand the nature of reality, right? So they see how the way things are.
They don’t have any idea of working for their own benefit. They’re only concerned with working for the benefit of others and in the same way that when we get something that makes us happy we feel like happy about that we yeah then Bodhisattvas if they’re working for others are happy so they’re not interested in their own suffering they don’t experience personal suffering. So they can be reborn in any existence, in any place, and be happy about it as long as they are benefiting sentient beings. If they are not benefiting sentient beings, there is no point to them being there. So they take rebirth in a situation in whatever realm it’s in where they can be of benefit.
And that’s the motivation for their rebirth. That’s the cause for their rebirth is to spontaneously benefit beings. On the other hand, beings on the Hīnayāna path have great attainments, great understanding. They even develop an understanding of emptiness, the emptiness of self, but they don’t have this bodhicitta motivation. They don’t have the idea of working for others.
They don’t get their happiness from working for others. They get their happiness from working towards nirvana for themselves. So they don’t take rebirth in situations where they’re going to benefit beings because there’s no motivation for them to do that. But they don’t It’s okay. Okay.
So the all of the experiences that one has in a in a bardo and and it’s interesting because I said to Geshe-la, in a bardo and he goes which bardo and I said the one in between birth and rebirth because there’s like a gazillion different ones all of those experiences that one has in that state are because of karma right and if you don’t have any active karma as Bodhisattvas who perceive the nature of reality have, then they don’t experience any of those hallucinations that other people do in that state. So they can actually choose before they die, where is the best place for them to be reborn or what’s the best course of action for them to take. So they have this idea of spontaneously working for the benefit of others. They have a direction that they’re going into depending on others’ karma. Yeah.
You do have to still look for matching parents, but you don’t necessarily have to look for the matching cause that’s attraction by desire. Right? So you think, okay, if I’m born through those people, then I can be a benefit. So I said that but there’s been instances of that, like with like, Tulkus, some Tulkus. Right?
I’ve gone up to women and said, I’ll see you in a couple of years. And then said and then, like, have been reborn as their son. Like, they’ve given them direct instructions. I’m I’m coming to visit. And then they die, and they’ll say, why did they tell me he’s coming to visit?
And they and then they get pregnant. Like that. There’s so there there there’s I guess I said, yeah. But even, like, thinking about that limited because they can see anywhere, and they’re constantly looking for how to benefit sentient beings. They just manifest or or go get reborn in order to benefit sentient beings.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Any other questions? Chris? Yeah.
No. You said that’s fine. No. Yeah. Yeah.
It has, and you we still got five minutes. You’re doing well. No. No. It’s good.
I was just teasing you. What’s the difference between emptiness and selflessness? Right. An easy question. Finish the tale.
It depends on which school you’re talking from. Right? If you talk from the point of view of the prasangika school, then actually the selflessness is a form of emptiness, but you wouldn’t say that selflessness is emptiness. Alright? And so the lack of an inherently existent self is selflessness.
It’s also emptiness, The emptiness is self. Right? That’s from the point of view of of the prasangika school. Right? But there is other types of selflessness that you can realize that don’t come from that perspective.
So for example, if you’re looking at it from the Consequentialist, no, wrong — the Autonomous school or the Svatāntrika school then they have this idea that selflessness and emptiness are separate ideas and selflessness is actually the non existence of a self that is separate from the aggregates or part of the aggregates and it isn’t necessarily defined as the lack of inherent existence. In their view then selflessness is a separate thing from emptiness. So it depend and then all the different schools have a different description of selflessness and a different description of emptiness.
But from the prasangika point of view, the selflessness is a form of emptiness. Oh, and now I just had to clarify something in case you walk away with confusion is that Geshe-la was talking about, in the teaching, was talking about the difference between ultimate truth, realizing ultimate truth, realizing relative truth. When he was talking about ultimate truth, said realizing the emptiness of phenomena, the Prāsaṇgika view that realizing the emptiness of phenomena, and that selflessness according to the Svatāntrika view is actually from the Prāsaṇgika point of view a conventional truth. So that selflessness there is the selflessness which from the Prāsaṇgika point of view is a relative truth. Did you get that?
Alright. Okay. So you don’t have to have I’m I’m using my hands because I have to remember all the bits that I fit. Okay. You don’t have to have a realization of emptiness to develop renunciation.
You can have a realization of emptiness to develop renunciation, but you can’t have a direct realization of emptiness before you develop renunciation okay alright now there’s all these different types of selflessness that you can also realize you can realize Sautrāntika selflessness, Svatāntrika selflessness, Cittamātra selflessness and prasangika selflessness prasangika self is emptiness. It’s the same thing. But you can realize, for example, the the lack of an autonomous singular permanent entity. Alright? The atma, the lack of an atma there.
That is selflessness, a form of selflessness. It’s not Prāsaṇgika selflessness, but it’s a form of selflessness. And if you realize that, then you realize the faults of saṃsāra. So you can realize all but you could realize emptiness and realize the faults of saṃsāra, but not realize emptiness directly. Have an understanding of emptiness.
Alright? So there’s all these different types of selflessness that you can realize. Right? But to truly understand the problems of of saṃsāra, the faults of saṃsāra, you need to have an have an understanding of one of them. Okay.
So Okay. So, guess, I said the reason that he said this he said this he developed this idea that no. The reason that he taught that we really need to focus on selflessness in order to develop renunciation is because of the way we intellectualize things and we understand things, right? So that’s one way of doing it, right? But you can be in a state where you just realize Samsāra sucks, right?
There is this like, it’s completely faulty and there’s no positive qualities in it. And you just think I want out of here. Right? And you develop that mind so strongly that it doesn’t ever leave you. Yeah.
And you can have renunciation with that without having a clue about selflessness or or liberate. Oh, but you have to have the idea of working towards liberation. And then you think, okay. How do I develop liberation? I need to understand selflessness.
I need to understand emptiness. Right? So you can develop the the disgust with saṃsāra and then figure out how to get out of saṃsāra. So the disgust with saṃsāra, not wanting anything to do with it is renunciation. Yeah.
So you can actually develop the the you cannot have an understanding of selflessness at all and just develop a disgust with saṃsāra and then work on an understanding of selflessness that will get you out of saṃsāra. Alright? You can do it that way. But you can also do it to the state where you by understanding selflessness that will engender disgust in saṃsāra. Alright?
So there’s these different ways of doing it. But that to actually come about a disgust with saṃsāra without understanding selflessness is rare, but it is possible. So if you’re asking one question when you say, should we do it this way? Then yes. Right?
It does it pervade all beings? It’s a different question. Does that make sense? Yeah. So that’s probably the case.
Is that okay?