Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A student’s question — if an enlightened being perceives everything as bliss and emptiness, where is the bliss when watching a snake eat a mouse? — anchors this 26-minute session by Geshe Pema Tsering on the Grounds and Paths curriculum. He first distinguishes the subtle tantric winds (described as the mount of every mind) from ordinary breath, explaining that completion-stage practice involves the most refined minds and winds — specifically those realizing emptiness directly. He then develops a sky-and-clouds image in dialogue with students: ignorance clouds the mind as clouds obscure the sky, but realizing the selflessness of the person — rather than tackling innumerable individual ignorances one by one — dissolves all other ignorances at once. Suited to practitioners with some tantric background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 30 2006 03 23 G and P (2).mp3
UUID: f137871c-c237-4c99-a3cf-19ae3346feb6
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Grounds & Paths (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2006-03-23
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 26.0 minutes
Words: ~1,611
I was just saying that it’s very difficult. This text is very difficult. Even though I I I can know the words by the different areas and everything, it’s very hard to grasp the meaning of the of the text itself. Itself. When you’re saying that the means aren’t the breadth, but if you’re talking about the means, if they’re not the breadth, what are the means?
Loss. So then Gala is is is is saying to then it’s not it is not it is not the breath. And when we talk about meditation, wind meditation, we’re not talking about meditation upon the breath. The breath is something that’s very coarse when when when in the tantric text, when we’re referring to the to to the winds, we’re referring to something very subtle, which which accompanies every mind, which is the mount of of of of every mind, each and every mind. And then when we are talking about when we are talking specifically in in this in this context of the tantra, when we talk about meditation on on on on the winds and so forth, we are not talking about just any mind also.
We are talking about very subtle minds. We are talking about the minds that realize emptiness. And then, like, in the same way, very subtle winds that that accompany those accompany those minds. Yes. Yeah.
That’s it. So, again, I made made made emphasized when we talk about wings, we’re talking about that thing which is which is accompanying the mind or which is the mount of the mind. Yeah. Subtle one. Very subtle one.
There are different sorts of pronouns or so. It’s one word. It’s one word with two different meanings. One word in Tibetan, two different meanings in in English. So it’s all very difficult.
This is this talk about completion stage is all very difficult. We haven’t we have not even realized emptiness itself. And and without having realized emptiness, there is no way to to practice and understand the the completion stage. So it’s very difficult. You know?
So then even so even though it is difficult, then we should we should, in order to to plant, the imprints in our minds, we should think of we should reflect on this and see and think that it is in this way. It is it is like that. It is like this. imprints, they imprint. Yeah?
Complete. Uh-huh. Completion. Completization. So so it’s it’s like to complete is the final stage where you complete something.
You say compression stage. Completion stage. Is that correct? Completion? Completion.
Completion. It’s Yeah. Completion It’s the exit. Yeah. My exit, not not not good.
It’s the two exits. That’s it. That was easy. No. No.
No. Superior. I don’t know why they do that. Look. This very it didn’t come out so well.
I’m sure she’s she’s making a revision of this text, and it’s going to come out beautifully. But the word that she’s that is translated as superior here is Pakpa, which is referring to Ārya Nāgārjuna. It’s the system of Ārya Nāgārjuna, the the Guhyasamāja tantra or the system of Ārya Nāgārjuna. Have have two different systems of Guhyasamāja, and the main one is the the Guhyasamāja of Ārya Nāgārjuna and the the word Pakpa, which was translated as which was here as superior. But I didn’t bring my book.
I have a book from the the Tibetan Library of Works and Archives, which is with a translation of of the root text and commentary of the Guhyasamāja Tantra of Ārya Nāgārjuna. Los. I just noticed that a couple of times. Worries. No worries.
One more question maybe. Marika, you’re aspiring today? Okay. Are you? I’m I’m not.
I don’t understand anything. I know nothing. It’s not a bad question. It’s just like a big decision. So it’s like an enlightened being who is going to perceive every object as a manifestation of bliss and emptiness, but then it perceives, for example, suffering, a snake eating a mouse.
Yeah. Where’s the bliss in that? This one. Yes. How am I going to say this?
Not I’m not I’m not conveying I’m not sure if I’m conveying the meaning of of the question. So he he cut me short, and he was saying that, well, the Buddha, he doesn’t experience any suffering. Even though he sees the suffering, he does not he himself does not experience suffering. He only happens in bliss. So he’s saying that the Buddha, well, he doesn’t experience any suffering whatsoever.
He he experienced nothing but but happiness and bliss. And but also the Buddha is someone who has brought to completion or to perfection compassion completion. I’m sorry. Completion. He he brought compassion to completion.
So so at all times, yeah, he does experience compassion also. But then you have to we have to yeah. Then you have to realize the tantra path. What Guy is saying is that we this is this this what we are studying here, even though we’re able to practice or realize this or fully understand this, we we have at least to believe that this is so. And then we plant this imprint of of of the tantra in our mind streams.
In the future, we can meet it and study and understand it. That’s what he meant when he said that. Okay? But in order to see everything as bliss and emptiness, then you have to be able to practice that, isn’t it? So then a very good answer.
So I was asking I was asking, what what how do we do how do we do in order to to achieve this this this goal of perceiving things as bliss and emptiness. So now we have to realize emptiness. We have to realize emptiness. If we realize emptiness, then we will then the phenomena will appear in in that in that way. I guess the experience in place is result of completely removing the cloud out of the sky in order to observe the the sky.
Yeah. Clearly, isn’t isn’t it? It’s it’s like removing all the afflictive emotions. All the clouds out of the sky. Yeah.
But but what what what what are you comparing the clouds to? The cloud. The cloud. What what are the clouds? What do you think about it?
What if you No. It’s not what I think. You’d have to tell me what you think so I can translate it to Geshe-la. So the the sky is the mind, and the clouds are what? Disturbing emotions, conceptions.
And then if we clear away all the afflictive emotions, and then we have happiness and bliss. Is that it? Yeah. Yeah. We usually cannot see the clear, you know, wow because of the, you know, the afflict and emotions.
Yes. Yes. Cloudy mind. Yes. Yes.
That’s that what you mean? Yeah. Okay. I can understand. So it is it is like that.
It is like that. So if if you can So then if you can if you can eliminate all those things that disturb one’s mind, then, yes, then you experience happiness, a bliss. Yeah. Like like that, like clearing the sky. So then so then the mind is is like the sky, and the the the clouds that obscure the sky are are like are like ignorance.
Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. So then if you can get rid of that ignorance, it’s like getting rid of the clouds, and it’s like you can see everything clearly then. And then it’s like realizing emptiness, and then one must realize emptiness then.
There there are so then so then says there there is a a coarse and and subtle ignorances yeah. Kinds of ignorance. And then there is, for example, as as a as an example of a course type of ignorance, there is the for example, when when we do not know the alphabet, we do not we do not know the letter a, so we we have ignorance of the letter a. But then if we learn by a book or something, then we learn we know we get to know the letter a, then we have eliminated the ignorance of the letter a, and then have the letter b and again, for each letter. So this is a coarse way of ignorance, coarse type of ignorance.
And there are and then in this way, you can assess, in this way, there are innumerable things that we are ignorant of. Okay? So then can I say so then it is if if we’re if we if we are to eliminate every, how to say, to get rid of every ignorance one by one, then it’s going to be extremely difficult because they are innumerable? It’s going to be but so then what we have to do then is to realize selflessness, the ignorance of of conception of of self. Because all other ignorance come from that one.
So we must realize selflessness. Okay? Selflessness. Selflessness. Cool.
Good news. So then so then there is there is the this emptiness of the person person and emptiness of phenomena. There are two two kinds of emptiness. And then so if if we are to realize the emptiness of phenomena one by one, it is going to take an infinite amount of time. But then so if then we must we must eliminate the ignorance of self grasping by realizing the emptiness of the person, the selflessness, and then have realizing realizing that we realize all other emptinesses.
Which is good news, isn’t it? Okay? Okay.