Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The central doctrinal puzzle in this 28-minute Q&A from Geshe Pema Tsering’s Grounds and Paths series: why must a practitioner realize emptiness before truly seeing the deity? Geshe-la explains that because the deity’s nature and the mind that realizes emptiness share the same nature, the vision cannot arise without that realization — reached through the union of calm abiding and special insight. The session opens with which siddhis best-caliber disciples should prioritize, then moves through the Vajra Master’s role and the empowerment that authorizes one to bestow it on others, how deity lineages all converge on a single essence (illustrated with Chenrezig), the flower-throwing ritual within the mandala ceremony, and the eight categories of individual liberation vows. Suited to practitioners already engaged in tantric study.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 2005 11 03 G and P (2).mp3
UUID: 671c65c4-2682-45e0-88f9-e4823d61dcb4
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Grounds & Paths (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-11-03
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 28.1 minutes
Words: ~1,324
So I was asking again, okay, because it wasn’t clear to me. So again, so this so it’s the way to attain siddhis, okay? And then Geshe-la says, the text says, there are many ways to attain siddhis through absorption and recitation and the fire puja and so forth. And then I ask him, so from those, what does it refer to in the Tibetan text from those? And then he says from those three, okay, so having done those three, and then one is able to accomplish the bodies of a Buddha’s and the power of Bodhisattva and so forth.
One is able to to, how do you say, how do you say, accomplish the the great seal of the body of a Buddha, which ends up ends up like being able to behold a vision of a Buddha. And then so this this is the practice of the best kind of disciples of followers and those who are are wiser, who are best among the disciples, they start with this, how to say, they start they would start to try the beginning, they would do that and not engage in other siddhis. It says that accomplishing this accomplishing this this this siddhis, they are the best siddhis to be accomplished. Accomplished. Okay?
Okay? So now we leave it here today. You can ask questions, please. No. No.
I I will you want to know if that is so? So then, Geshe-la is saying that what Geshe-la is saying is that in order to to be able to see the deity, one has to no. One one has to one one have to be able to one have to have accomplished. One has to have accomplished the union of calm abiding and special insight. And if one can do that, then one can certainly realize emptiness.
When it accomplished calm abiding and special insight, one will be able to see the deity. One is it’s easy to realize emptiness in the meanwhile. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. So let’s see. Nice one. Nice one. One.
Let’s see. So what what is the relationship? Okay. So Geshe-la says that visualizing the deity and realizing it And so we have to understand You are mistaken on a non-affirming negation, and and the deity is is an affirmative. But if the deity is an affirmative.
So they’re not the same in the sense, but can I explain that? What is the relation then of these two is that if one can accomplish this meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings the way they are explained, then one will accomplish when we have accomplished the union of calm abiding and special insight. And from emptiness, So can I say that not having realized emptiness, we won’t be able to to see the deity? Because the deity, by having the the nature, the same nature of that that mind that realizes emptiness, so without that mind, realize emptiness, there wouldn’t be the deity. That’s what the honest understanding you know.
Okay? You’re in the middle. Oh, it’s the same. Yeah. You see?
Yeah, yeah. And affirming. No. And then how to say, having realized the union of calm abiding and special insight, and we can realize emptiness. But what can I say is that the deity has to come from that that mind that realizes emptiness?
Because the nature of the deity and and the nature of the mind that realizes emptiness are the same, so that there must be the mind that realizes emptiness. Without the mind that realizes emptiness, you cannot see the deity. That’s what I’m Geshe-la just said right now. Yes. That’s it pretty much.
Any more questions? Feels like like you’re still in the dark. So is this the Geshe-la say, is is the lama who actually bestows the empowerment? So okay. So what is the Vajra Master?
The Vajra Master is the person who bestows empowerment. Then I ask him, so what is the empowerment of the Vajra Master? The power of the Vajra Master is an empowerment that allows one bestow empowerment. So and again, I say, so one takes this empowerment, then one does the approximation. And after having accomplished the approximation, one can and then one can bestow this empowerment on others.
Okay? Yes. Which Buddha goes with which family? I don’t know. I can do I can do that.
Let me just see if I can get the the words in Tibetan. He he doesn’t know right now. He has to look on the on the another text. He says it’s not in this text. He doesn’t he doesn’t he has to look in another text.
This is our many, many divisions into families, into about one hundred families and and into five families and one family. So yes, we’re going to say that every deity has many lineages related to it. But the meaning, the central meaning of the essence of all of them will be that central deity. So for example, if it talks about Chenrezig has many lineages in relation to it, but the meaning of all those lineages will be Chenrezig himself. And for the Buddha family, for the Buddhas, again, the the meaning of all that will be the Buddha himself.
Yes. What is it? I can’t remember now. There is these three main deities. And there’s one deity that I can’t remember the the translation now of this deity.
So he mentioned there’s one deity, for example, which can be there’s many lineages in relating to in relation to to this deity, and it could be it could be put forth as one hundred lineages, it could be put forth as five lineages, three lineages, one lineages. But the essence of all these divisions of lineages is that deity itself. Yes. I don’t remember that. Okay.
Okay. Oh. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. One one So in a sense, like a it’s like a it’s like doing the the mandala. So when during the ceremony, during the ritual, so everybody has a receives a flower, and then when when pray, so may the may the flower fall upon the deity which will be most beneficial for me. One prays like this. And then at one point, the vajra master will say, so now you can throw the flowers, and then you you will throw the flower.
That’s it. No. No. Yes. Inside the Mandala, there are many deities.
And then you pray, everyone prays, may the flower fall upon the deity, which is most beneficial for me. I pray like this, and then the master says, now you throw the flower and then throw the flower. So then if there is a lot of people, for example, then not everybody can do that one by one. So then the or someone who was elected will go and do that for everyone. And wherever the flower falls, everyone has to.
Okay? Yes. The flower is just like it’s like it’s an offering. You know what mean? Like, we we make our flower offerings.
So it’s it’s like it’s like making an offering. That’s why we use the flower. It’s not a flower. It’s okay, but it’s better to offer a flower. Yeah.
We have a beautiful pantry. Louis, would it be possible for us to have that out? Yeah. It’s okay. Your job’s opening.
My closet. Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. Last question.
Last question. Last question. It’s a. But what Geshe-la says is that there are eight kinds of vows: monks, nuns, and and and and one day vows and novices and and how to say, lay lay vows. But then so, yeah, those those are the individual liberation vows, the.
But can I say that as as laypeople, some laypeople, they do do not take? So they just take the and the lay vows. Okay? Plus. This one.
This? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.