Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with the Seven Point Mind Training verse “At the beginning and at the end, two actions are important,” Geshe Pema Tsering uses the first session of 2010 to lay motivational groundwork for a year-long Heart Sūtra series. In this nearly two-hour talk, he walks through the three grades of spiritual motivation — aiming at happy rebirths, liberation for oneself, or enlightenment for all beings — explaining why each lower aim ultimately falls short. He traces the root problem to self-cherishing, which rests on a mistaken belief in a truly existent self; his pizza-on-television analogy illustrates how phenomena appear solid and real but are only conventionally imputed. The session closes with a brief walk-through of the opening verses of the commentary text, “The Dual Light Illuminating the Meaning of the Heart Sūtra.” Suited to practitioners with some Lamrim background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2010 03 09 Heart Sūtra.mp3
UUID: 6f8cb17d-eae6-4902-8974-b4fb1c1fe412
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Heart Sūtra (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2010-03-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 115.7 minutes
Words: ~9,831
So this year is starting today very loud, isn’t it? This is starting today with the motivation. And he’s quoting a very well known little verse from the Seven Point Mind Training, which is, At the beginning and at the end, two actions are important. So this is explaining that if our motivation at the beginning of an activity, of an action is good, then that action is going to be good and is going to bring about good results. If our motivation is average, then again our action is going to have an average quality to it and is going to bring about average results.
If our motivation is poor, then the quality of our action is going to be poor and it’s going to bring about poor results. And that’s why then our motivations, the intentions and the motivation that we set before we engage in an action, in an activity, whatever activity that may be are so important. And that applies to every activity that we engage in, whatever they may be, even our worldly activities that we engage in, in everyday activities. Again, it works the same way. If our motivation is good, then we’re going get good results.
If our motivation is bad, then we’re going to get bad results. So motivation is important no matter what the endeavor may be. If it is with regards to present life, to this mundane worldly life, or if it is with regards to our spiritual aspirations, our motivation is of utmost importance. And then again, is even more, those motivations are even more important when we’re talking about dharma, when we’re talking about our spiritual growth, then the quality of our motivation is going to determine, to greatly determine the quality of our spiritual actions or of our spiritual endeavors. And generally speaking, when we’re talking about spiritual motivations, we have a general division of three types of motivations or three strengths of motivation or qualities of motivations.
And of these three quantities of motivation, the greatest of all, you know, the most, the supreme motivation that which brings the greatest results, has the greatest qualities. Then is the unsurpassed motivation that aspires, that is intent on establishing all sentient beings in the state of perfect complete enlightenment as a result of one’s action. So then one aspires that one’s actions bring about the enlightenment of all sentient beings, a perfect complete enlightenment of all sentient beings. And that is the greatest motivation there is, the best motivation there is. And then as for an average or a middling motivation, then we have the motivation that is intent on accomplishing temporal and ultimate happiness for oneself alone.
So it is a motivation that is intended of accomplishing the happiness of this life and the ultimate happiness of liberation, of one’s own liberation alone. So it is the motivation that is not intent on all sentient beings, but only on one’s own happiness alone. And that kind of motivation is an average type of motivation. It’s a middling type of motivation. Then motivation that is intent on attaining freedom or liberation for oneself.
And that again, that is the the second of the three types of motivation. And so then when one then engages in the spiritual activities with that motivation in mind, with one’s own liberation alone in mind, and that is the average motivation, the middling motivation. And then the lowest of the spiritual motivations, generally they are still spiritual, but the lowest of the three types of spiritual motivations is a motivation that is then is looking at enlightenment and liberation. And one is thinking to oneself is, this is too hard. Attaining liberation is hard.
Attaining liberation for oneself is hard. Enlightenment is even harder than that. Because it is too difficult, then I’m going to aim at something a bit easier than that. So I’m going to aim at attaining a happy rebirth in the future lifetime. So one then, instead of aspiring to attain the lasting happiness of liberation for oneself, or even the lasting happiness of liberation enlightenment for all sentient beings, then one only aspires to attain the temporal happiness of future lifetimes.
And then one engages in spiritual activities with that intention in mind. And one engages in spiritual activities aiming at accomplishing favorable or happy rebirths in the future. And Geshe-la was then saying, all these three types of motivation, they are not easy to bring about, to produce in one’s mind. They do not come naturally to us. It is not without exerting one’s self, exercising one self, training one self, or studying really hard that we’ll be able to develop any of these motivations, any type of such motivations.
Geshe-la was saying these motivations are very difficult to accomplish because all of them involve contemplating, you know, the sufferings of cyclic existence or some of the sufferings of cyclic existence or including contemplation on renunciation. Those are very difficult things to bring about. They are not second nature to us. They do not come naturally to us. What actually comes to us naturally at all times is the intention or the motivation of accomplishing the happiness is the so called happiness of this life of accomplishing, you know, freedom from illness and disease and accomplishing good health, of looking good, of acquiring tasty food or acquiring wealth and money or acquiring fame and success and career and what whatnot.
So possessions, all the so called excellent things of this life. Those are the kinds of goals that we set for ourselves naturally. They are second nature to us. These intentions, they come to us without us having to make any effort. We are naturally developing these intentions and putting forth these goals, setting forth these goals for us when we are about to engage in any activity there is.
So what we have to do when it comes to spiritual practice is arrest this kind of thinking, this kind of motivation that is thinking only about this present lifetime and the things of this life. So we have to stop those minds, those thoughts from taking over our activities, permeating our activities. And then we have to instead produce deliberately and produce any of the three types of spiritual motivations there are. So if we are able to, if we can, then we produce the motivation of enlightenment, the enlightenment of all sentient beings. If we don’t feel up to it, then we can endeavor to produce the motivation, the intention intention of accomplishing liberation from the entirety of exactly this for oneself alone.
Or if we’re not up to it, we can even aim at accomplishing the happiness of future lives, accomplishing good rebirths in future lives. And then when we all hear or we all say ourselves, you know, I’m practicing Dharma, I’m a spiritual practitioner, I’m a Dharma practitioner, I’m a Buddhist and whatnot. And what it really means to be a Buddhist, to be a Dharma practitioner, to be a spiritual practitioner is to, what it really is, that practice, what the practice really is about changing one’s thoughts, changing one’s mind. So it is about arresting that mind, those thoughts that are intent on the pleasures of this present lifetime alone, and then developing in its place, transforming that, turning that into a mind that is intent on accomplishing either the lasting, the everlasting happiness of liberation and enlightenment or enlightenment, or the happiness of future lives, the temporal happiness of future lives. And that’s what spiritual practice or Dharma practice or being Buddhist is all about.
So when we can stop the thoughts that are intent on the happiness of this life, the pleasures of this life, and instead we produce the thoughts that are intent on the happiness of future lives onwards, then that transformation takes place. That is what is working with one’s mind, transforming one’s mind is all about. So we are resting, stopping the goal, the intention of accomplishing the pleasures of this life and the intention of accomplishing happiness is still there, but we aim then at the happiness of future lives onwards or greater happiness in the future lives, not in the present lifetime, we’re not focusing the present lifetime. And that’s the change, the work that we are doing with our minds. So there is still a mind that is seeking happiness, wants happiness.
We just do not aim at accomplishing the happiness of this present lifetime alone. So that’s very, that’s being very short sighted. And we have to be very, we have to look very far ahead. We have to have a very vast intention or we have to think in the very, very long run. And we think we look ahead into many, many future lives or we look ahead into liberation or we look ahead into enlightenment, a long stretch of time.
And our intention has been very vast, our minds are very vast. So, have still the intention of accomplishing happiness, but it’s not the present, the happiness of this present lifetime. And that’s the change that we are doing with our thoughts, with our mind, with our intentions, our motivations. And then when we can change our thoughts in this manner that we are not aiming at accomplishing the happiness of this life, but aiming at accomplishing the happiness of future lives, then we have accomplished the motivation and the actions that we will follow it will be permitted by the motivation that lowest of all the three types of motivations, the small motivation. And then, but if we should look into it really seriously, we might, if you accomplish that motivation and you engage in special actions and motivation, you will accomplish that result.
That result will come about. You will accomplish happy rebirths in the future. But then when you stop to think about those happy rebirths, they’re not going to be any better than this rebirth that we have here right now. We’re not going to, we might accomplish many lifetimes in the happy realms of existences, hundreds or thousands of lifetimes. Those lifetimes may be very long, but in the end, they’re not going to be much better than this.
We’re not going to any real lasting, unchanging happiness. We are going to only accomplish the happiness that we already know, happiness of saṃsāra, this deceiving happiness of saṃsāra, this slippery happiness of saṃsāra, which is not real happiness. It’s a mixture. It’s always changing into suffering. So it is not real happiness.
It is actually suffering because it doesn’t stay as happiness, it doesn’t stay the same. It is not in the nature of happiness. If it wasn’t in the nature of happiness, it would remain as happiness. It is not in the nature of happiness. It is in the nature of suffering, so much so that every pleasure that we experience doesn’t last long and it turns into suffering.
It changes into suffering. So what we, ultimately speaking, when we strive to accomplish the happiness of future lives, what we are, what we would really be working for is the cause of more suffering, more of this, more of what we already know, which is not lasting unchanging happiness. So when we come to this understanding, then again, we set our aims a bit higher. And we think instead of accomplishing more of just these, then I ought to be exerting myself or endeavoring to accomplish real lasting, unchanging happiness. And then we aim then at the happiness of liberation, the liberation from the entirety of suffering of cyclic existence, the entirety of cyclic existence.
And when we develop that through our search, through our discernment, through our exercise of our discernment, then we come to this understanding and we develop this motivation, the middling, the average motivation, the middling motivation that aims at attaining lasting happiness, liberation for oneself. And Geshe-la is explaining that to produce such a motivation, this intention, this motivation of this middling average motivation is also called a mind that is intent on liberation, a mind that is intent on freedom for oneself. Now to produce this mind, if I was explaining, is something which is very difficult because in order to be able to produce a mind that is intent on attaining freedom from the entirety of cyclic existence, one has to develop an understanding of the sufferings of the entirety of cyclic existence. And to develop an understanding is something which is very, very hard, very, very difficult. And, Geshe-la was then just saying this, giving a quote: at the mouth of the lord of time, there is there is no all this seeming happiness is not really so.
So Geshe-la was explaining, in the entirety of cyclic existence, a lot of time when we look at the wheel of time or the wheel of cyclic existence, there is some depictions which have a big creature, and the entire wheel of cyclic existence is in its mouth. There’s a depiction back there. But in the entirety of that wheel of cyclic existence of the Samsāra, there is if all the, whatever seeming happens there may be is not really happiness. There is no real happiness. Everything that we call happiness or pleasure in cyclic existence is something that changes.
It is bound to change into suffering as such, those things are not in the nature of happiness, do not have happiness as its nature. As its nature, they have suffering so much so that they change into suffering all the time. They don’t last. They don’t remain as. So there’s only really in the entirety of fact, there is only suffering.
And that is an understanding that is very hard to develop to generate in one’s mind. And, Geshe-la, as I say, now if we are really serious and honest in our investigations, in our reasoning, we really think about the so called pleasures and happiness and the sufferings of cyclic existence, what is really happiness, what is really pleasure, what is really suffering and all that. If we really think about it, we will understand that these things that we call pleasures and happiness and whatnot, they are not really so. We will examine, we will investigate all the so called human happinesses or the godly heavenly happinesses, the so called godly heavenly happinesses. And if we really think about, we will understand, we will come to the clear understanding that they are not really happiness.
We only do not understand them as not being happiness when we are not seriously investigating because we do not seriously investigate or we don’t really seriously think about it. If we are if we were to seriously, honestly think about it, we would understand it. And then, Geshe-la goes on, if we keep on thinking about these motivations even further, if we bring our investigations, our reasonings about this, motivations even further, then we will come to realize that even liberation for oneself alone, it’s just, it’s not quite right, there’s something wrong about it. Because when we attain the happiness of nirvana, of liberation for oneself alone, we are really attaining only our own happiness alone. And that is just not quite right.
That is a bit, that very self centered and selfish of ourselves. And that is wrong. That is still tainted. And the fault of this type of motivation is that it is strengthened by this selfishness. It is the motivation of attaining liberation for oneself alone is tainted by this interest in one’s own happiness alone, which from its side it comes about from a distorted idea of oneself as being very important, as being more important than others, more precious than others.
And one is cherishing one’s happiness more than the happiness of others or even at the cost of the happiness of others. And that’s selfishness, that self centeredness, that this self interest is on, again, it is based on something even more fundamentally wrong and distorted, which is the conception of an inherently existent self, a truly existent self, a truly existent I or a truly existent whatever your name may be. May think of your name, a truly existent such and such. And that is wrong because when you stop to look at that which you call yourself, whatever your name is, you say your name, where is such and such. You look, you investigate where is it, how does it exist, does it exist, does it not exist.
When you look at it, when you seek that self, you don’t find anything. It doesn’t have any real existence from its own side. It’s not to say that it doesn’t exist altogether, it exists. It exists as an imputation, as a mere imputation, a conceptual imputation or a verbal imputation. It exists as merely imputed, the self exists as merely imputed by thought, by concept or word.
But from its own side, there is no independently existing self anywhere to be found. So that concept, that conception of an inherently existent self, a truly existent self is wrong, it’s a distortion. And then, and from that, the idea that oneself is more important than others, more precious than others and that one should seek the happiness of oneself is also distorted, is also wrong. And then that motivation that is aiming at one’s own freedom and liberation alone again is distorted and tainted and contaminated in this manner. And then so then and in the same manner that the self, our self does not exist in the way that it appears to exist as a solid independent entity or a truly existing entity or existing entity.
It appears to exist as such but it doesn’t exist as such. So in the same way that the self does not exist in the way that it appears to exist, the same applies to everything else. Others, other beings, other people also do not exist in the way that they appear to exist. They appear to exist as independent, separate, truly existing or inherent existence. And again, do not exist as such, and the suffering and the happiness and the liberation, all of it.
And this mind that understands that, understands that oneself and every other phenomena there is does not exist in the way that they appear to exist, is again is a fundamental realization that is absolutely necessary in order to attain liberation and enlightenment itself. If you want to attain liberation and enlightenment, we need to realize that things do not exist, that oneself and everything else does not exist in the way that they appear to exist. And that is what we refer to as the mind that realizes emptiness. The mind that realizes the emptiness of phenomena or the emptiness of self and In other words, the mind realizes the lack of an inherent existence of the self of the person or the lack of inherent existence of phenomena or other phenomena. So this is explaining, so this mind realizes then the lack of inherent existence itself or the lack of inherent existence of phenomena, then again, it a prerequisite.
I mean, it’s absolutely necessary in order to attain liberation itself. And so we understand that the concept, the conception or the mind that thinks of any entities itself is wrong. It’s a distorted mind, it’s a wrong mind. And from that, we have to go on further and contemplate how the mind that thinks of oneself as more precious or more important than other sentient beings is also wrong. We have to investigate that, that mind.
We have to look into it. And we have to come to understand eventually through our searching, through our seeking, we will come to understand that other oneself is only one being, while all other sentient beings are an infinite number of beings. And in terms of number, then all other sentient beings are clearly more important than oneself alone. So, happiness of all other sentient beings much more important than oneself alone. And then again, from this perspective, the perspective of the numbers alone, then we can see how all other are more important than oneself.
And that the conception of oneself is being more precious, that’s selfishness, how it is distorted in this manner. But then we can look also from another perspective, and we look at from the perspective of the kindness of all of these sentient beings. And we have to really look into it. We will see that every pleasure that we experience, every happiness that we experience, be it of this life or future lives, or even the happiness of liberation, or even the happiness of enlightenment, the greatest happiness of all, of comes in dependence on all other sentient beings. Without all other sentient beings, we don’t experience any pleasure or happiness whatsoever, not even liberation, not even enlightenment.
Liberation, enlightenment, every other happiness depends entirely on the kindness of others, depends entirely on other sentient beings. And from this perspective then, all other sentient beings are exceedingly, extremely, infinitely kind to us. And again, this perspective, then we see how this selfishness, this self-cherishing, the mind cherishes once happiness alone above all else, again, how it is distorted, how it is wrong. We developing this understanding, can then arrest this mind and then cultivate a mind that is intent on accomplishing, that cherishes the happiness of others more than one’s own happiness. And then again, and this is, again, is a major stepping stone.
Again, it’s a requisite of enlightenment to attain enlightenment itself. So then we can see then how this mind that is cherishing one’s own happiness alone is very wrong. It’s a very distorted, a very twisted mind because, in reality, every happiness that we have ever experienced, that we do experience, that we will ever experience comes in dependence on other sentient beings. And then others then are much more precious, much more important than oneself. And others happiness is to be cherished much more than one’s own happiness.
Also because every suffering that we experience, every suffering that we have ever experienced, that we do experience and that we will ever experience, comes in dependence on that mind is cherishing one’s own happiness above all else, more than anyone else. Comes in dependence on the mind that is cherishing oneself more than others. So we see how then others are the source of every happiness and one’s own interests. The search for one’s own interests, one’s own happiness is the source of every suffering. When we think of I, I think of I, me, Rodrigo or whatever your name may be, when you think of I, me, myself, really what we’re really thinking about, the first thing that comes naturally to mind is that we are our body, that I am this body.
Me, I myself is this body. And so, I want happiness. I want pleasure. I am hungry. I want food.
I am thirsty. I want something to drink. I am tired. I feel pain. I feel pleasure and all that.
What we’re really thinking about is that this I, the self, is this body. That is usually the case for the vast majority of us. English language is saying, so we think, I am going to work, I am going to rest, I am going to entertain or to I’m going to enjoy myself, I’m going to party, I’m going to What we are really thinking about is the body. But when we stop to think, to look into it, and to think about it, we will understand that the I, the self, is not the body. Right?
So the self, the I, is not the body. The body is the product of the union of the ovum of the mother with the sperm of the father. It’s the ovum and the sperm. There’s nothing It is entirely the product of the father and the mother. There’s nothing of ourselves in me.
So the I, the self, ourselves, are not our bodies. So when we look at it, we can see that this, the I is being imputed on the body. I, the thought, the concept of a self, myself, me, I is being imputed onto this basis, which is this physical body. Or it is or the word, the sound, I, myself. These words, the sounds, they are being imputed onto this basis, which is this physical body.
So, this self, this I, this me, which is only merely imputed, being imputed by thought, by concept, or merely by word, by sound. And the same fact applies to everything else there is. So, this self, I, me, myself, again exists only as a mere imputation of thought and word or sound, and the same applies to everything else, to others, other beings and other things. Also, they only exist again as mere imputation. They are imputed by thought or by by sound.
They do not have any real true existence from their own side. And so the same applies to our work, to our activities, to suffering, to happiness, and to the mechanics of cyclic existence of life. You know? And from from virtuous actions, what follow are pleasurable results or happy results non virtuous, harmful actions what follows are painful, harmful results. And all of it, all of these things, again, only have mis imputed existence.
Yet, there they are. They are functioning in this way. They do function. They are there. And then so we can see then how we can understand in this manner how orders are so very precious or so very important and infinitely more precious and important than ourselves than our own happiness alone Carissa.
And in this way, when we develop this understanding, we can stop. We can arrest the self interest, the selfishness, the self centeredness that is pursuing only one’s own happiness alone. And then we can, in its place, develop this mind, this heart, there is intent on accomplishing the welfare, the well-being, and the happiness of others. And when we can develop this understanding in this way that Geshe-la has been showing us step by step all the way to develop the understanding of the preciousness and the importance of all of the sentient beings, then we will have this intention. We will be able to develop the intention, the motivation of accomplishing the welfare and the happiness of all sentient beings.
And then we will engage in activities of that motivation, that one’s actions, one’s activities, then be the cause that will bring about the happiness, the well-being, the welfare of all sentient beings. And this is the greatest of all motivation, the motivation of enlightenment itself. And in this motivation, in this one great motivation of enlightenment, it is included all the benefits of lesser motivations. So, when you are working to accomplish the welfare of all sentient beings, you accomplish the happiness of enlightenment, the happiness of all sentient beings. And also, you accomplish every happiness there is involved in pursuing liberation for oneself alone.
You accomplish nirvana and all that. And also, you accomplish the happiness of future, happy rebirths in future lives. And also you accomplish the happiness of this present lifetime. All, every happiness there is comes automatically as a result of working for the happiness of all sentient beings, for the enlightenment of all sentient beings. And that’s why the mind of enlightenment, this intention, this motivation of enlightenment is the best, is the most is the greatest there is, is this supreme motivation because there’s so much good, I mean, there’s every good coming out of it.
And that’s why we usually emphasize it so much. That’s why it’s so important the beginning of every activity, spiritual activity or otherwise, that we develop this motivation. May my actions bring about the happiness of all sentient beings. This versus these actions that I’m going to endeavor to engage in now, bring about the happiness of all sentient beings, enlightenment of all sentient beings. May this, my listening to these teachings be the cause of the enlightenment of all sentient beings and everything else that we do.
So that’s why it’s so important we produce this motivation. If we are not up to it, if we don’t feel like we are able to do so, again, then we can endeavor to develop a motivation of attaining liberation for oneself alone. Again, if we are not up to it, we can develop the motivation of attaining the happiness of future lives. And if you are doing any of these three types of motivations, if you have any of these three types of motivations, then your actions are going to be spiritual, dharma, bodhis or otherwise, whatever your religion is, whatever your spirituality is. Now, if your motivation, if your intentions are focused on the happiness of this life, of the present life, then it doesn’t matter what action you are doing, they are not spiritual.
They are not Buddhist. Are just mundane, worldly actions. It doesn’t matter what it is because they bring about only the happiness of this life and nothing beyond this life. And that’s why motivation is so important. So then then then, Geshe-la is instructing us now to then to develop this motivation.
So then may my actions may my studies here now become the causes of the enlightenment of all sentient beings or in this manner, may the studies be the cause may attain enlightenment in this manner by means of these actions or comprehensive actions, we attain enlightenment so that I’d be able to establish all of the sentient beings in enlightenment itself. So we then recite the Heart Sūtra and we do the refuge prayer and we do the bodhicitta prayer and the four immeasurables and the seventeen prayers, and we do mandala offerings and so on. And then we’re going to listen to We start to listen to a teaching on the Heart Sūtra itself. So, may all these, again, may attain enlightenment by means of all these activities, may attain enlightenment so that I can establish all sentient beings in enlightenment. This is how we produce a motivation.
So we start with them with refuge and bodhicitta, and then we’re going to do the long mandala offering, and then the short ones. And Geshe-la is explaining that there’s one little four line verse that includes both refuge and bodhicitta. And the first two lines of that verse, So I go for refuge until enlightenment to the Buddha, the Dharma, the supreme assembly. So one is saying is that from now all the way until enlighten enlightenment, I I am going to follow. I’m going to take protection.
I’m going to take refuge in the Three Jewels, in the Buddha, the teachings of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme assembly of the followers of the Buddha, the Sangha. So again, the taking of refuge is again is one takes refuge in the Three Jewels which are then the Buddha, the Buddha Śākyamūni as we know it. The Dharma is the collection of teachings of the Buddha and the Supreme Assembly, the Sangha is the gathering of followers of the teaching, the practitioners of the teachings of the Buddha. And then one again is making this commitment, you know, that from now until enlightenment, I’m taking refuge in the Three Jewels, the Buddha, Dharma and Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Geshe-la is going into even more detail, saying again, when talk of the Buddha Jewel, again, it’s not only the Buddha Śākyamūni alone, but every Buddha there is.
And when we speak of the Buddhas, they are truly innumerable. They are uncountable. They are innumerable Buddhas, and we are taking refuge in all of them. And when we speak of the Dharma, we’re speaking of every true cessation and every true path that has been taught or that exists in the continuum of every Buddha. And when we speak of the Sangha, we are talking about every noble being, which are beings who have realized through paths and through true cessations in their own mind streams, in their own hearts.
So we’re talking about an innumerable amount of Buddhas, innumerable amount of dharmas, innumerable amount of Sangha. So we’re taking refuge in all of them through all times. So then the essence of refuge then is then one is making this commitment. Until I attain enlightenment, I am taking refuge in all of you, all of the Buddhas, the dharmas and the Sangha. And so and and we can also have the quality of our refuge determined by the quality of our motivation.
So here we have until I attain enlightenment, I’ll take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and supreme assembly. So that way our motivation here is enlightened, the enlightenment of oneself and all sentient beings. But we can also, we could have a lesser motivation. We’ll be saying until I attain liberation, I take refuge in the Three Jewels. Or even lesser than that, until I attain the happiness of future lives, I take refuge in the Three Jewels.
Again, the quality of our motivations can determine the quality of our refuge. And then the second half of that four line verse, the last two lines, So again, by my practice of listening or studying the teachings and all the perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. That is the bodhicitta part. When we talk about refuge and bodhicitta or refuge and the mind of enlightenment, that is the mind of enlightenment. There is the bodhicitta.
And then, Geshe-la was reciting a version of that verse which is slightly different. By my practice of generosity and the other perfections, may I attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. So that is the bodhicitta, that is the mind of enlightenment in which one is making the commitment that by one’s practice of the perfection of generosity, the by force of the merits of the virtue that one accrues from from from practicing generosity, may all beings attain enlightenment or by by the virtue, the merit that one creates by practicing morality, pure ethical conduct. Again, may all beings mere one attain or for the sake of all beings or by the practice of patience or by the practice of joyous effort or enthusiasm, enthusiastic effort, or by the practice of concentration or by the practice of wisdom. So by force of my practice of any of these six perfections and all of the six perfections, by force of the virtues of every virtue that I create by this means, by these actions, may I attain enlightenment for the sake of benefiting all beings.
Is And this then is the refuge in Buddhism that we are going to recite now. So, again, so Geshe-la is then instructing us then to do the refuge and bodhicitta. Then he instructed us to do it after that, the seven-limb prayer, which is on the next page. And then we do the long mandala offering, and then we do the two short mandala offering. And Geshe-la also wants to give a very brief explanation of the seven-limb prayer.
So, again, the seven-limb prayer, we have prostrations. We have offerings. We have the confession of negative deeds. We have a rejoicing in every virtue. We have a request to remain until the end of cyclic existence, and we have a request to turn the wheel of Dharma, that is to give teachings.
And then we have finally the dedication of merits. So we take refuge, we develop the mind of enlightenment, the bodhicitta, which is the commitment to practice virtuous actions and by the force of those virtues and enlightenment for the sake of benefiting all. And then we actually do the so called virtues action. The prayer is a collection of seven different actions that we do that will accomplish the merit that we need in order to attain enlightenment and benefit all beings. It’s a very powerful little verse of seven lines, contains and each line contains a very important practice, something very important for us to practice and to contemplate.
And then following from the seven-limb prayer, we have the mandala offering. And the mandala is the collection of everything that is precious, everything that is beautiful, everything that is pleasurable, everything that is good, everything that is excellent within cyclic existence and beyond. So we are putting everything together and we are offering it to the Three Jewels. And so then we start. This one?
No. That’s it. This one. One here. I got this.
So then we start with the Geshe-la is going for the text, and this is for the very title of the text that we going to study this month. The commentary on the Heart Sūtra, the Dual Light Illuminating the meaning of the Heart Sūtra. Geshe-la was then going through the explaining word by word, the title. So in Tibetan, the first two words that come are, is then the Heart Sūtra. Or the heart of wisdom, let me put it there.
It’s the heart of wisdom. And is the word that is translated as wisdom. So when we were talking just earlier, we were talking about the six perfections, and we’re talking about generosity, morality, morality, patience, enthusiastic effort, concentration and wisdom. So that’s the wisdom that we are talking about. And the heart, Nyingpo, it’s the heart, the essence, the very core of the meaning of the very essential meaning of wisdom, of all the wisdom Sutras, of all the Sutras that pertain to the perfection of wisdom.
And then the next word is the commentary. Commentary on the heart of wisdom sūtra. And a commentary, usually we have commentaries word by word or commentaries on the meaning or both. And this here that we are going to study, this very short commentary is on both, on words and the meaning of the Heart Sūtra. And then we this commentary is called the dual light illuminating the meaning.
So the meaning of the Heart Sūtra. And then the author is calling this commentary a jewel because when we think of jewels, think of something of extreme value that will be able to accomplish for us a larger number of things. We can accomplish a lot of power, fame, authority and wealth if we have a very precious jewel in our hands. So this commentary by clarifying, by elucidating the meaning of the Heart Sūtra will provide us again with a whole lot of good things. Because by realizing the meaning of such Sūtra as the Heart Sūtra, of the Wisdom Sūtra, we can attain liberation and enlightenment.
So this commentary which illuminates the meaning of the heart of wisdom sūtra, then it’s a jewel that is going to provide us with all the fortunes of liberation and enlightenment. And then Geshe lah moves on to the very first verse, which is again the verses, they are standard procedures in composing a text. The authors have to go through a certain predetermined steps. And so the first verse again reads like this: The bee of clear contentment comes from the good taste of the doctrine. May I be protected with excellent fortune by the supreme spiritual friend and and the glorious one who bears the banner of the subduer’s teachings.
So again, the author of this commentary is then making prostrations to his teacher and to his lineage of teachings and then emphasizing what his motivation here. And then so Geshe-la is going through those lines of the verse, the first verse. And so again, the author is then are comparing the instructions of the Kadampa, the old Kadampa teachers, as to honey,, as sweet as honey. One will derive contentment from One will be contented by then consuming this sweet honey of the doctrine. Again, the teachings of the Buddhas, the teachings of the great masters and so on.
And then I guess I went to the third line in which one is taking the author is then is going for refuge to the virtuous friend, the lamas, the guides on the spiritual path. And in this case, in particular, to his own root lama. He’s taking refuge. He’s making his singing praises to the doctor, to the great instructions and the masters, and he’s taking refuge and paying respect to his own teacher, And then the next four line verse reads like this, I pay homage with the crown of my head at the lotuses at the feet of the Munindra. The gold mountain of his form body is surrounded by the light of the major and minor marks of an enlightened being.
And in the ocean of sport of his auspicious speech are reflected the object of knowledge. The sun of his mind destroys the dark troubles of the world. And here he is praising and is paying respect to the Buddha himself. So he’s making prostrations and paying respect and reverence at the feet of the Buddha. So he’s making perception with his body, his speech, and his mind, and the feet of the Buddha.
So here in this verse, he’s making reference to the form body of the Buddha. And the form body of the Buddha, or you could say the physical body of the Buddha is a body which has all the major and minor marks of enlightenment. So there are many, many marks that symbolize the perfect enlightenment of a completely enlightened Buddha. So the form body of the Buddha has all the marks of a fully enlightened Buddha. And then again, he’s making reference to the enlightened speech of the Buddha, in the second line of the Tibetan version.
And he’s making a reference to the enlightened speech of the Buddha, which is the speech which brings about knowledge, realization of all objects of knowledge, which knows everything that is to be known. It’s the Dharma, is the true paths that lead that bring about the true cessation and so on. And then he’s making reference on the third line of the Tibetan verse. He’s making reference to the enlightened mind of the Buddha, the holy mind of the Buddha, which then illuminates, dispels with its light, dispels all the dark pains and the sufferings of the world in the same way that light dispels darkness. Then the light and mind of the Buddha dispels all the pains of the sufferings of saṃsāra.
And then the last line of that verse is the first line of the English version in which he’s then saying, you know, to the holy body, the holy speech and the holy mind of the Buddha, you know, the lotuses at his feet, I put I put my head there. And then the next verse, then he’s making he’s he sings: Goddess Sarasvati, grace with the glory of youth, like a goose playing in a lotus lake, remain happily in the clear pond of my unmurried mind and bestow upon me supreme courage. So then again, he’s making here, he’s singing praises and paying respect to his own personal deity, his own personal practice deity, yidam, which is Sarasvati in this case. He’s describing, singing praises to it and asking for her blessings, her protection, her guidance and so on. And then next, in the next line, and he says, I respectfully revere Nāgārjuna and Asaṇga, whom the conqueror himself in countless scriptures showered with showered with flowers of explicit praise, saying they are valid persons.
They are unmistaken. So again, how to say expounders of the teachings of the Buddha, who have been predicted by the Buddha himself and have been praised by the Buddha. The Buddha has said that their teachings are true, their explanations are true. And in the next verse, the author goes on to say, Although the bee of my mind cannot comprehend the vastness of the sky of topics of the profound perfection of wisdom, this discourse holding as much as can be taken with the point of a hair is made to refresh those who seek much hearing, those who seek much study. So here in this verse the author is then humbling himself, he’s then just acknowledging how very vast and how very profound and how very deep those teachings on the perfection of wisdom are.
And then he is humbling himself and saying, you know, like, someone like myself is not able able to grasp all this profound and vast meaning of the perfection of wisdom. But however much I am able, however much I have understood, however much I am able to understand, and he’s then liking that to whatever fits at the tip of however much can be holding at the point with a point of a hair. And then because it has helped helped him that even that little bit has helped him, then he is in the hopes that those who would be listening or studying his teaching would benefit just like he has benefited from this little understanding, whatever little understanding he can provide. So this is then we’re going to stop here today. And this then we started today with this text on the perfection of wisdom after all this great motivation.
That is a motivation that Geshe-la was giving really for the entire year because this is the very first teaching that Geshe-la giving to us in twenty ten. So that is a special occasion. And Geshe-la emphasizes as usually does the motivation and how it is important for us to have this motivation. So we just started with the beginning of the the text just so that we really get in touch with it. In the next three teachings, we will go for the whole of it.
It’s a small text, very complex, filled with technical terms. But now we have time for questions and answers. What’s the name of the text? Excuse me. The text is named the commentary on a Heart Sūtra, the dual light illuminating the meaning, which was composed by Tendar Lharampa.
And we have I found translation of this text on a book which is very hard to find. So we might try to make some copies for those who want to That whole thing. It just it’s just one little piece of the book, not the whole book. The text is very small. But if you think that just I’ll have copies for the next way.
Yeah. It’s just as big here, you see. Very, very complex. So we were going to really have to rely heavily on the guesses explanation to be able to understand it because very technical and very complex. If you have any questions regarding anything that you guys might have taught us today, please feel free to ask.
So, guys, he’s reiterating. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Or if you don’t have any questions, then don’t ask. So Geshe-la is explaining that because today, he was mostly working with the motivation. And naturally, there might not be much to ask.
But if something occurs to you that you feel is important that you need to ask, then go ahead. Attached to misery or sorrow that looks like a virtue but isn’t. It’s just attached onto sorrow. And so my my question is does what’s the question? Does Geshe-la mean that too?
Like like, that I consider my own happiness and that that somehow includes sorrow, like, that can get stuck on sorrow as a self-cherishing thing? Is that is that clear as a question? I I am guessing. I think I know where you’re coming from. So I will try I will attempt something here.
So in a sense, yes. In a sense, the self-cherishing does have something to do with being attached to suffering. Because really we are ignorant about what is and what is not What is and what is not happening. Because I wasn’t saying, don’t we aren’t we attached or don’t we cherish tasty food? Don’t we cherish money and so on?
Those things do not provide us with real happiness. Those things are not in the nature of happiness themselves. They are in the nature of suffering. And as such, then the self-cherishing, yes, it is in a sense, in a way, it is a cherishing of our own suffering. It is an attachment to our own suffering.
And Geshe-la has been explaining that the whole idea of liberation involves a realization, an understanding that every phenomena in saṃsāra is in the nature of suffering. And that is very, very, very, very difficult. And there’s nothing easy about attaining liberation in life because of that. Because we have to understand that those things that we like so much, that we want so much, they all really suffering. They’re not gonna provide us with any lasting and changing happiness.
So, this is why really obtaining liberation, developing that mind that is intent on attaining liberation is something which is very hard. Because we really have to, in order to be able to attain liberation, to develop the mind that is a hundred percent intent on liberation, we have contemplate what are the faults of all those things that we are pursuing, all those things that we like and dislike and everything else. All those things in saṃsāra. We have to see what are the faults, what are their shortcomings, how is it that they are deceiving us, how is it that they deceive us, and so on. And not only that, in order to be able to attain liberation, we also have to see how it is that they do not have any existence.
Any existence from their own side. Have to realize how they only have mere imputed existence. And Geshe-la likens this realization, or the feeling tone of realization, to the same feeling tone of the realization that we have when we watch a movie in the cinema or television, and we see the bad guys, and we dis dislike them. But we come to understand at the end of the movie that they’re not really real, and that those feelings, those thoughts, that relationship that we had with those characters, they’re not really real. So it’s sort of the same thing, sort of the same feeling tone.
It’s sort of the same process. And again, the classic example from Geshe Pema Tsering. When you see a pizza on the television screen, you don’t think of eating that pizza on the television screen. You might think of buying a real pizza, but you don’t think of eating that pizza on the telly. You know that that is not real.
And then, so again, and the same the same relationship is to be or the same process sort of is to be applied to every other phenomenon. When we look at that pizza in the television screen, that is appearing in television screen, we know that that is the product of a lot of causes and conditions. There, you know, there’s electricity, there’s wires, there’s all sorts of things going on there that produce the appearance of a pizza. But we know that pizza does not exist in the way that a pizza exists. We know that pizza does not exist in reality as it appears to exist.
We know we are aware of all the process behind it, of all the causation process behind it. So we are not attached to that pizza, even though we might actually want to go out and get one. All this talk about things do not exist in the way that people exist is crazy talk. Know, you see the things there? Can you see the chair there, the food there?
Can’t you feel the taste, the good taste or the bad taste? Can’t you feel the pleasure and the pain? You know, those things do exist. That’s the way how we think. It’s very hard for us to let’s allow this kind of talk in, you know, about things not existing the way that they appear to exist, existing truly, not existing here.
We have a very hard time accepting that. Okay? So and this is how it is. We’ve we need to see all the faults of cyclic existence, of samsaric phenomena. If we do not see the faults of all samsaric phenomena, we won’t be able to develop the mind that is intent on liberation, much less a mind that is intent on And just saying how we go about saying, I am a spiritual practitioner. I practice meditation.
I studied the Dharma and all that. Really how most of the time we do that, just because other people are doing it, we feel that if we don’t do it, we are not in. We’re not part of the in crowd or anything like that. Or we are too concerned with what other people will think and so on. So we want to cause a good impression.
We want to be able to please others or acquire some favors of sorts and so on. And that does not amount to real spiritual practice, to real Dharma. In order for our actions or our activities, our studies, our meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings and so on to be real spiritual practice, we really have to be intent on any of the three motivations that Geshe was talking about, either attaining enlightenment for the sake of benefiting all beings or attaining liberation for oneself alone, attaining nirvana for oneself alone, or attaining the happiness of future lives. But if one is concerned with pleasing others or obtaining favors or some fame in this life, then that is not really Dharma. That is not quite right.
So we have to change that. That’s the work that we have to do. That the task at hand. So whenever we are engaging in the so called spiritual activities, we think to ourselves or we say to ourselves and to others, you know, I must do some spiritual activity. I must make prostrations or sit down and meditate or read this text and all that.
We really have to look and work with the thoughts, our intentions, our motivations because if our motivation is not right, then we’re not going to get much out of it. It is not going to be of any great meaning. Those actions in and of themselves are not really of great benefit. What makes them of really great benefit is the motivation that we have behind them, that is propelling them. We might, And that’s why it’s so hard.
That’s why we say that Dharma practice, spiritual practice, is hard. It’s not easy because it involves changing the mind. Doing prostration is very easy. Sitting down, you know, closing our eyes and meditating. All these things are relatively easy.
Just reading a text. That’s relatively easy. Anyone can do that. If that was all that was necessary, then attaining liberation and enlightenment would be pretty easy. But it is not because it involves really our investigation.
We really have a very good look at our motivations and deep in our hearts. We have to be very honest and incisive look into our hearts, into our motivations. And that is hard. And to change those thought patterns, those mental habits that we have, those motivation habits that we have. That is hard.
Now if one is not able, if one feels like one is not up to the huge task of studying as much as we really need to study or engaging as much meditation and practice as we really need to, and really exerting ourselves in that. And we do have an option. There is an option there. There is an alternative there. So whatever little meditation or little study or even just reciting some mani mantras or just one mani mantra, if we can, before we perform the action itself, if we can give rise to the thought of enlightenment, the mind of enlightenment.
I’m gonna do this for the sake of all the enlightenment of all beings, for the sake of the happiness of all beings. If we can do that, then we do accomplish even if it is just a minute of meditation or just a minute recitation or just one mani mantra. If we can do that with just one moment of a really wholehearted motivation, really thinking about the enlightenment of all beings, then we do create an enormous amount of good. It’s a huge amount of merit. There’s There’s a lot of good coming out of it.
Yeah. Mhmm. So if someone said, look, no, it is not. It is not more difficult now than it was in the past. It is just as difficult with technology or not, with computers or not.
The idea really is that we work on our motivation. It doesn’t matter if we are working on computers or working on the or whatever. The idea is that we generate a wholehearted motivation. And if we have a good motivation, we can sit on the computer for eight hours a day, nine hours a day, and that’s gonna be good, that’s gonna be spiritual. If your motivation is right, then your action becomes right.
If your motivation is spiritual, your action becomes spiritual, and so on. So one’s ability or lack thereof of practicing Dharma or practicing spiritual activities depends entirely on oneself. It doesn’t depend on the outer circumstances. Up really. It’s up to each one of us to do the work with our minds, with our hearts.
So, you know, and that is, if I wasn’t saying sort of this is If one is a real good spiritual practitioner, a real good Dharma practitioner, then it doesn’t matter. The other circumstances make no difference. That person will be able to keep remain cultivating his or her heart in the spiritual path, in the spiritual practice in the Dharma. One will be able to not be influenced or negatively affected by the environment around herself or himself. Keep on practicing Dharma or spiritual practice.
Now, if one’s self is not a good Dharma practitioner or is not a good spiritual practitioner, then it doesn’t matter if everybody else in the whole universe is practicing Dharma, then one’s self would just fall asleep and take a nap or something. So it depends entirely on oneself. Shall we conclude with this?