Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A student’s question about permanent versus impermanent phenomena drives this 13-minute Q&A from Geshe Pema Tsering’s Introduction to Buddhism course. He draws a sharp distinction between compounded things — which depend on causes and conditions and therefore constantly change — and uncompounded space, which neither changes nor acts, and which he notes scientists have no concept of. The discussion moves through Buddhist cosmology: outer space and its elements operate within uncompounded space but are subject to karma; the earth arises and ceases, yet the elements never fully disappear (the finest level of existence is always wind or air). He also touches on dependent origination based on parts versus causes and conditions, and on how karma and afflictive emotions drive rebirth even when a world-system collapses. Suited to students working through foundational Buddhist philosophy.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 13 ItB 2003 03 31.mp3
UUID: 0edb2eb6-730d-4b80-92d7-73bd4bf9dc75
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: IB Introduction to Buddhism (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2003-03-31
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 13.4 minutes
Words: ~627
Yeah. It is. Yeah. So if something is impermanent, it has to be a functioning thing, which means it has to depend on causes and conditions, and it also means that it’s in a constant state of change. That’s what impermanent means, constantly changing, not static.
For something to not be like that, for something to be permanent, it can’t come about based on causes and conditions. That uncompounded space cannot change in shape or size it’s not changing it doesn’t do anything because it doesn’t depend on causes and conditions so therefore there’s no change in the way it behaves The space that we usually refer to as space actually will come under, out of those five, it will come under wind or air. So that’s the thing that can then change the elements in the air and everything. So getting bigger and the getting smaller of the different elements within different parts of space as in outer space or whatever then they operate in the space of uncompounded space the space that they abide is uncompounded space so uncompounded space itself doesn’t get bigger and smaller but the things that are going on in it in that space can change under the influence of karma and causes and conditions, so therefore they change and get bigger and smaller. He doesn’t think scientists know about uncompounded space. There’s not any real connection between the truth of cessation and uncompounded space, but they are similar in that they are both permanent.
It was actually linked to selflessness, the last of the four truths of suffering, it was describing dependent origination dependent origination based on parts as opposed to dependent origination based on causes and conditions Yep. Uh-huh. Yeah. Uh-huh. What do you mean manifest and unmanifest?
Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not. Yeah, they believe that everything has a time where it exists and it doesn’t exist. Like, for example, the earth has a time when it didn’t exist and what earth will now exist and will again not exist. No, at the finest point there is air or wind and that’s the most subtle that non existence goes in terms of the elements I don’t have a clue, though. I’m just translating.
Ether is encountered as a physical element, right? So, the mere absence of all of that, of all existence would mean that uncompounded space still existed because it is the absence of the others, it’s like the thing that it abides in. But the finest the universal existence usually gets to is air. If it was completely to be gone there would still be ether or this uncompounded space but in the terms of the world coming into existence and going out there’s usually still air He doesn’t think that it’s possible for there to be a time when there is nothing in existence. Yeah.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah. Right. Sometimes it’s there.
Sometimes Yeah. You can change it. Uh-huh. Because they are sentient beings, then there is cause karma and condition cause sorry, gotta get my tongue back in my mouth, karma and afflictive emotions. By a power of karma and afflictive emotions, then people will be reborn and by the power of their karma, then there will also be places to be born.
If the earth doesn’t exist, all the people on the earth will be born in other existences because their karma doesn’t get exhausted. I don’t think so. So if there’s yeah. No more questions? We’ve explained a couple of times and he said, When is it?
What? When? Where? Before you pass to someone else. No.
Just try to get your answer back. Oh, yeah. He said, whatever you guys want me to teach, I’ll teach. Yeah. Did you get off?
No.