Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 25-minute session, Geshe Pema Tsering opens by defining two obstacles in meditation — sinking (a contracted, unclear mind) and excitement (a wandering mind) — and explains how meditating on subtle drops counteracts both. The discussion then turns to calm abiding: important, but not a prerequisite in the Gelug approach, since Highest Yoga Tantra brings it about naturally. The session’s central argument is that bodhichitta underlies everything — even Kālacakra yields no result without the mind of enlightenment as its foundation. Geshe-la then addresses the Dalai Lama’s recent Kālacakra initiation in India, explaining that blessings extend even to those who only thought of attending, before closing on the significance of Om Ah Hum as an imprint of the body, speech, and mind of all deities.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 23 2006 02 16 G and P.mp3
UUID: 0ad72db4-0ff5-4457-ac85-d674b0a19375
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Grounds & Paths (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2006-02-16
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 24.9 minutes
Words: ~1,379
Before. Okay? No. No. Bring it on.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
So then gonna first explain so, okay, what is he first explained what is this. Los. Then first explain what is this sinking and what is this excitement. So sinking is the mind that that becomes maybe contracted and and and without clarity. And then an excitement is the mind that cannot stay put in one object.
It’s always run going away to other objects. So in order to do that, we meditate on the on the subtle drops. And then I asked, then is is there any special place? So for example, if you want to stop sinking, do have to meditate on the subtle drop on the navel? And they said, no, no, no.
Any any of these parts? Any more questions? You, Marika, you have no? Yeah? Not yet.
Not yet. So then Geshe-la is saying, so if you can accomplish calm abiding, accomplishing a calm abiding is very good because once one accomplishes calm abiding, then it’s very easy to accomplish everything else. So it’s very easy to accomplish whatever object of meditation you are meditating on is going to be very easy to accomplish even if it is a deity yoga or anything else. But then I asked, so but in in Gena’s from Gelug’s point of view, do they need do do do the students need to accomplish calm abiding first? And he says, no.
There is no need to accomplish calm abiding first because once one is practicing tantra by practicing Highest Yoga Tantra, one will accomplish calm abiding through this practice of Highest Yoga Tantra, the visualization Generally, very difficult to accomplish these these meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings. But then Geshe-la says, whatever it is that one’s individual practice is, it is alright to do that practice. It’s okay just doing that practice, whatever it is that one does. So then he says that in the tantra, are many, many meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and many techniques and so forth. But he says there is no meditation that is superior.
There is no meditation superior to the mind of enlightenment, meditating on the mind of enlightenment. So yeah. So then so then Geshe-la says, there’s many, many Highest Yoga Tantras. There is Kālacakra and and Yeah. And then Avalokiteśvara, Tārā, and so many deities, and you think of the and then you you study this one and that one, and you read that one and this one.
And this is main thing is that they all all this has to be done from from from the point of view of the mind of enlightenment. All of them, all these things come they are they are practiced from the point of view of having accomplished the of of having the. So then can I say so but now because we are all beginners, for us, there is nothing more difficult than than practicing, how do you say, practicing meditating on the mind of enlightenment is already very difficult? Okay? So then at all times when So then at all times we should be practicing, we should be meditating on the mind of enlightenment.
I mean, if you can accomplish that, bring that about, then whatever else we meditate, if we can accomplish the mind of enlightenment, then whatever else we meditate after that will come about easily. I love Geshe-la. He says these things. He says that if you don’t have the mind of enlightenment, then it doesn’t matter how great the tantra is. If it is Kālacakra tantra, then it’s going to be just, you know, nothing special.
You know? Nothing no result will will come out of it. So he says that he he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know about it. No.
So he said he doesn’t believe that. So this is a high soccer tantrum. It’s highest. There’s nothing. It’s in the very top, in the very peak, on the very, how to say, topmost of all, very difficult.
It’s not easy. If it was easy, then, you know, many would have accomplished it. And I was saying, oh, then if it was easy, and then after the teaching, I’m going to Shambhala. So it says if there is not a cause if the cause isn’t there, then the result will not follow. So it says if if the one does not have the mind of enlightenment, we’ll not be able to accomplish the result of the Kālacakra.
So then you’re to say, so then, you know, those very high practices and so forth. They’re very difficult. We will not accomplish it. But then if you go to the teaching, then you hear the sounds of those the words that are being said. And then that lays an imprint on one’s mind stream.
And then it says, it’s very small benefit. Very small. It’s benefit. Very small. He says, no.
It’s not a waste of time because it’s the Dalai Lama. And when many people come together, and surely, amongst amongst those peoples, there are bodhisattvas who are able to to obtain the empowerment. And then still imprints are laid on everybody else. So he says, no, it is not a waste of time. So then in Geshe-la is saying that the Dalai Lama gave this Kālacakra Kālacakra empowerment now in India, and the Dalai Lama said that even those even those who thought about coming to receive the Kālacakra empowerment from Tibet, or from Australia, from America, from all over the world, even those who thought but did not arrive, I mean, they will get great blessings.
Geshe-la says that the the lama said that he will make aspirational prayers for all those people, and all the the great lamas who were there, the Kālacakra initiation, also making making aspirational prayers for all those beings who were there and who those those even those who merely thought of coming, but they didn’t didn’t arrive. So then said that even even if you couldn’t come to the initiation, then you should meditate on the mind of enlightenment, should meditate on emptiness, you should make aspirational prayers, and then the the Dalai Lama himself, he said, I myself will make aspirational prayers. And like this, it’s not like it’s not that you are going to obtain empowerment, but you are going to obtain get great blessings. Okay? So then Geshe-la says that when we go there to when we go to see the Lama, we see only the Dalai Lama, we just see the looking at the lama.
But there are many people guess that there are many beings who come who can when they are when they are when the Dalai Lama is doing the initiation, the Kālacakra initiation, and he’s visual and he’s visualizing the deity and and the mandala and everything. And then this is some people, some of these great beings, they do not see the they see the Kālacakra himself. So then, again, I’m saying that the same way when the Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche was giving the Kālacakra empowerment. So if if the if there is someone in there who has realization, who is ārya being and so forth, and he follows all the he has all the conditions. He follows the rituals.
He knows the rituals and visualization so forth, and he follows all the instructions, then it will be beneficial in the same way. Okay? He said it. So he says he doesn’t know he doesn’t know about it. He doesn’t know much he doesn’t know about the Kālacakra.
He seems to be implying that it’s for all tantric practices. You cover everything. Doesn’t know about it. Yeah. Okay.
So then, Geshe-la thinks he thinks that he was he was probably referring to the root mantra, but that this Om Ah Hum is very is very important because it refers to body body, speech, mind of all the deities. And then, yeah, it’s very powerful. Yeah. Definitely very powerful. It’s like a like an imprint of body, speech, and mind of the deity.
Okay. You ready? You done? So you want to ask a question here? Yeah.
Shall we finish today?