Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The central puzzle of this 9.6-minute closing exchange is whether stages on the path to enlightenment are truly uncountable or simply too many to enumerate. Geshe Pema Tsering traces how realization of emptiness moves through the five paths: inferential in accumulation, growing subtler through preparation, direct on the path of seeing, then through the many gradations of meditation. A student presses: if we cannot count the stages, how can anyone become a Buddha? Geshe’s answer is precise — there is a definite limit; what we lack is the capacity to count it, not the possibility of reaching it. A second question asks whether sadhana practice benefits practitioners who cannot yet clearly visualize the deity; the answer is yes: each session leaves an imprint, even without full accomplishment.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 24 2006 03 02 G and P (2).mp3
UUID: 093d87c3-cc7c-4199-9496-a521b7a35e0b
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Grounds & Paths (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2006-03-02
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 9.6 minutes
Words: ~695
Inferential inferential combination, we have this this this inferential realization of of emptiness in the path of accumulation. And then this realization gets subtler more subtle and subtle, and then we get into the path of preparation. And, again, the path of preparation gets more subtle and subtle until in the path of seeing, we realize it directly. And then that mind that realize realizes emptiness directly. Again, it goes from many stages of subtlety up to.
There’s no there’s no number to it. Yeah. Is it correct to say that again? Again, there is no number to it. The the the that mind that realizes emptiness inferentially cannot, for example, cannot abandon the objects of abandonment of the path of meditation, for example.
So and and then until we we we attain a mind that is able to abandon those objects of abandonment of the path of meditation, then we have to go through many stages of subtlety. And then even then, when we reach that’s the path of meditation, we have to go through so many different stages, and we have to realize calm abiding and so forth. And there’s so many different states of mind that go get get subtler subtler. Can I say that the word subtler subtler and subtler? Last question.
Yes. So so, okay, you you you don’t go for the and your mind gets relaxed and and it’s beneficial. You ask yourself then it’s it’s beneficial. It says that’s it’s okay. It’s beneficial.
But then I’m not sure if I understood exactly. This is a it is beneficial. And I asked him, so how how is it? How does it benefit us? He says, well, if meditate one day, one time, then you you leave one imprint.
If you meditate two times, you leave two imprints on your mind. Like this, it is beneficial. Okay? He says, yeah, even though we meditate on this sadhanas, and then the deities, we cannot fully accomplish the deity or visualize, observe, clear the deity and so forth because we need to have realized the mind of enlightenment and emptiness and so forth. And we have not we do not have that.
So we cannot accomplish the sadhanas. We cannot yeah. We cannot accomplish the sadhanas. Okay? Chris, you wanted to ask a question?
Yeah. Yeah. Treat. Yeah. Yeah.
It is. It is. I don’t even need to ask him. It is. He was just saying that there’s so many that you cannot count.
He was just making reference to the fact that there are really too many. The the the word he used and the way he used, I was just making reference to that. Is this that what you wanted to know? Okay. There must be a limit.
I mean, otherwise, we cannot get enlightened, isn’t it? There will be no Buddha. Yes. He he didn’t even say it was used a word, which is to say that we cannot put a number to it. Understand?
We cannot enumerate it. We cannot we’re not able to count it. We cannot count it. Just referring to our capacity, not being able we not able to count it. Every day is a new Every day is a new day.
To be sure, yes. Well, yeah. Until Until you know. Until you know everything. Yes.
Until we There’s an end. There’s a limit. Until you attain enlightenment because the Buddha himself knows everything. Right? Can but can can we we stop?
Can we stop today, please? And we we can continue this conversation some other time. Until we attain enlightenment, we always have to learn. But when we attain enlightenment, we know everything. If you are a Buddha, you know everything.
That’s the meaning of being a Buddha, being omniscient, being fully enlightened. You know everything. If you are a Buddha, you know every every phenomenon, everything there is, even even the stars at the end of the other side of the universe. There’s just future and past. Everything.
Cool? That’s fun? Yeah? I’m still I don’t appreciate it, but I make some. Makes some.
Oh, man. Best thing is to achieve enlightenment.