Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Pema Tsering opens this nearly two-hour Lam Rim session with a close reading of the confession limb of the seven-limb prayer, unpacking what genuine regret requires — not vague discomfort but an intensity compared to watching a companion die from poisoned food. He walks through the four opponent powers (support, regret, restraint, and antidote), using images of saṃsāra as a bed of needles and life’s pleasures as honey on a razor blade to sharpen the motivation for purification. He then turns to the rejoicing limb, explaining how mentally joining one’s small merit to the vast virtue of all Buddhas and bodhisattvas yields immense results with little effort. A lively Q&A covers whether one can sin and confess repeatedly, how the 2008 China earthquake illustrates shared karmic exposure, how anger amplifies even minor negative acts, and what causes a precious human rebirth.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 14 2008 05 15 BP (2).mp3
UUID: 13467e62-4cc3-4416-be66-50bc25369677
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Lam Rim (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2008-05-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 122.7 minutes
Words: ~8,529
So then we we stopped at we were studying the seven-limb prayer, and we stopped at the limb, which is a confession, confession of negative actions. And Geshe-la was in the beginning of that of the topic saying the confession of negative actions is set out in the stanza which starts with desire. And then we have one of the translations that I have here is saying, so whatever things I have done with my body, speech, and mind under the influence of attachment, desire, hostility, or ignorance. I confess each and every one of them. So then, Geshe-la was in this explaining again the the meaning of the Tibetan words.
So then saying whatever actions one has performed motivated by any of the three by by attachment or hatred or ignorance. Whatever negative actions one has performed by these, all of them, one is whatever they whatever they may be, I I will confess all of them. And Geshe-la was saying one confesses by, first of all, generating that thought which thinks, oh, this is not okay. This is not alright, which is a genuine thought of regret. And in having developed this genuine regret, then one also develops the determination not to perform those actions again, the vow, the determination not to perform them again, to restrain oneself in performing them.
So then, Geshe-la went for the for the the the rest of the commentary, in dependence on the cause the causes, which are the three poisons, which Geshe-la has already mentioned, and by means of the three bases, are the body, speech, and mind, their nature is that I have done them, that is that I have actually created them, that I have made others create them, that I have induced others to create them, and that I have rejoiced in those created by others. All of which are generated are generally subsumed under whatever I have done, all of this. So if through recollecting their faults, you regret those done previously and sincerely confess them with a mind of restraining from them in the future, the increase of these done earlier and the continuity of future occurrences will be severed. So Geshe lah is saying there is not much more explained in the text. There’s only really those lines.
And Geshe-la says this is just such an important topic that Geshe-la wants to speak more about it. He wants to say more about it. So Geshe-la was reading. So then those actions that I have directly performed, those actions which I have those negativities which I have directly performed, those negativities which I have induced, others have performed, those negativities which others have performed and I have rejoiced on them. So Geshe-la was then saying, well, if we usually, we think to ourselves, usually, we think to ourselves, we without seriously looking into into what is occurring within us, we think to ourselves that we we do not perform much negativity.
We don’t engage in much negativities. Oh, I You know, we live we live our life pretty alright without engaging in much negativities, but the the truth of the matter is that we engage in a lot of negativities. And Geshe lah is saying, if we seriously put our minds to it, we will be able to understand how we have performed so many negativities. And Geshe-la is saying, so Geshe-la was saying, so we hear the teachings, but we cannot understand. And whatever is that we hear, we cannot keep in mind.
Even though we can And and again and and so then we we we hear the teachings and we study the teachings and we cannot understand, we cannot keep them in mind when we contemplate them. And when we meditate, we cannot attain any realization. And all this is is comes about due to the negativities that we have performed. Also said also, we can see that by the fact that we meet with many undesirable situations and that we however much we search, we seek for the desirable for the things that we desire, we cannot meet with the most characteristic of happiness, performing activities. Geshe-la was saying we have we have also performed virtues, but we have been around for since beginningless time, we have been going around like this.
And Geshe-la was saying, and of all these lives that we have gone through, you know, we have performed very little virtue, and we have continually performed many negativities, engaged in many negativities. And, Geshe-la was saying, again, we we have we have been born in in immemorial times. We have been born in all of our birth in in in in hell realms and the hungry ghost realms as animals, all the three lower realms. There’s nothing but negativity being produced in those existences. And then, again, even when we are born as human beings, there are so very few who actually engage in Dharma spiritual practice.
And just like it’s just so rare. And most most most people, they engage in so many negativities. And Geshe-la was saying we are just like, And Geshe-la was saying give you an analogy, which I haven’t heard before. Maybe Jampa can help to translate better, he’s saying that our birth our birth as as a human being, especially as a human being in contact with the dharma. It’s like it’s it’s it’s like the it’s like the sun.
In that the sun obscures all other all other how do say? Obliterates all other stars. You cannot see the other stars. Even though they are they are there, you cannot see. So most of the time, we should acknowledge that we are born in the lower realms of existence.
Is that okay? Does that make sense? We have to realize, we have to understand that we have actually engaged in many negativities. And the results of negative actions is is only suffering, is nothing but suffering. And and if if the negativity is a great negativity, then we are the result of that is a birth in the hell realm.
If it is a middling of negative or middle intensity, then the result is birth in the hungry ghost realms. If it is of a small intensity, then a lesser intensity, then the result is born as an animal. And if if the karma, if the accumulation of actions is mixed, then we are born as human beings. And so then, Geshe-la is gonna say, so then we have to understand how we have actually performed many negativities. Geshe lah was saying, it’s important that having gaining gaining have gained this understanding this understanding, we develop a healthy in this context where there’s a healthy sense of fear, fear of this negativity, fear of performing, ever engaging in these negativities again.
So we have out of this healthy sense of fear, this this informed fear, then we determine, we engage in ways to avoid to avoid them. So one one of the methods that we use to deal with this negativity is to purify this negativity is the practice of confession as we have been just looking. So if by practicing confession, we cannot get rid of the themselves, but we can get rid of the ripening results of them. We can either diminish or read or or or completely eradicate the ripening results or stop the ripening results. So then there are these three different intensities of negative.
It’s greater, medium, and small. And we can we can then we can then purify them through the process of confession and diminish or eradicate them. So, Geshe lah, as I say now, when we are practicing confession, we are trying to purify the negativity. It’s it’s important that we have all the opponent or the so called four opponent powers present. If they are all of them are not present, then we won’t be able to effectively purify them.
But when they are all present, then there’s no negativity that can’t stand their force. So, Geshe-la is saying, so what are these four opponent powers? The first one then is the power of the basis or the power of support. And Geshe-la is saying, since the negativities that we created are created, they are generated in relationship to either the Buddhas or sentient beings, to either enlightened beings or sentient beings, then it is in relation to them that we perform those negativities. Then the basis, the support for our purification in this system of ours, in this system that we in this tradition that we are studying is is stipulated stipulated as going for refuge, going for refuge in the Three Jewels giving rise, generating the mind of enlightenment.
So Geshe-la was saying, so we go for refuge, take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, and then we and then we generate the mind of enlightenment, that wish to alleviate all sentient beings from every suffering. And in the same way that if we fall if we fall on the ground and we use the ground as a support for us to stand up again, in the same way when we we incur a downfall in relationship or when we perform a negativity in relationship to either the Buddha or sentient beings, and again, we use the Three Jewels and the mind of enlightenment and support for the purification of those negativities. Is that okay? So then, Geshe-la was then saying, now again, so we need a very good refuge, a very good mind of refuge, and we need a very good bodhicitta.
And then these two are already difficult enough, Geshe-la was gonna say. They are very difficult to accomplish. In order to accomplish the mind refuge, we need to accomplish the two causes of the mind of refuge. Geshe-la was gonna say, the first cause is is is a constructive fear of the suffering of the lower realms of birth in the lower realms of existence. And then the second cause is then a a conviction in that the Three Jewels have the power to protect us from this suffering.
So, again, again, Geshe-la is saying. We have to develop that that fear of the lower realms of existence. And and even though we are able, Geshe-la is saying, even though we are we are actually able to generate that fear of the lower realms of existence because the suffering of the lower realms is obvious. This is the suffering of suffering, and and we can easily see it. We are still unable to to realize the suffering of the whole of cyclic existence.
We’re still unable to realize that the the so called happinesses of cyclic existence are actually the nature of suffering, that they are that they are completely unreliable, and that they are changing from moment to moment. One moment, it is a pleasant feeling. In another moment, it is suffering. And and also, are completely propelled by contaminated actions and afflictive emotions and conceptions. And that’s that’s why they said to be so unreliable.
So then and Geshe-la is explaining. So because we do not have because we are unable to to see this pleasant phenomenon of cyclic existence as in the nature of suffering because we are unable to give rise to the to the fear of the whole of cyclic existence, then our refuge is is is not pure refuge. In order to be pure refuge, Geshe-la would say one has to have not only the suffering of the lower realms of existence, but also of the whole of cyclic existence. So because we do not have this fear of the whole of cyclic existence, then our refuge is not not complete. Is trying to explain to us by by means of an illustration how we how we perceive our lives, how we do we fail to perceive the suffering of of our lives within our lives.
So Geshe-la was saying. Take, for example, now this this earthquake in China and this big what is that? Cyclone. Cyclone cyclone in in in Burma and all these thousands of people suffering. And we see that on the television.
Right? It’s shown it’s being shown everywhere. We see that on the television, and we think to ourselves, poor poor people, they are suffering so much. And we say that was was on on the basis that we we on the conception that our lives that we are okay. That we are we are alright, that we are not suffering, that we are well.
And that’s how we think, and we think, wow, they are really suffering. And we think and and we fail to understand that we are in the same boat. Yes. I was just saying that, but but the the truth of the matter is that their situation and our situation is is not different at all. It is exactly the same.
We are all in the nature of suffering. All our lives are in the nature of suffering. Even though we are not experiencing the same sufferings that they experience right now, we we have also accumulated the causes for experiencing such suffering. And if we do not purify those causes through through practice of confession, then we will experience the same amount of suffering, the same intensity of suffering. It’s all what I’m saying.
The fact of the matter is that all saṃsāra beings within the within the whole of saṃsāra, they are all in the same situation. We are all in the same suffering situation. And Geshe-la is quoting a saying, which I’m not sure if I have if I have heard it before or not, but it’s saying that cyclic existence, saṃsāra, is like the tip of a needle. There’s nothing but suffering there. Even if you can stand on it, it’s it’s only, let’s say, the prick of of the needle, the the suffering, the the pain of the prick of the needle.
Is that correct? Saying that not only one one needle, like, a whole bunch of needles. If you were to sit and stand in a whole bunch of needles, would it would it be any any good at all? It would be only suffering. And it’s the same the same for for cyclic existence.
And then there’s another saying I was I was reminding the Geshe-la of that says that with regards to the pleasures of cyclic existence, it says it’s like a razor blade, a very sharp razor blade covered in honey. And if you you lick that, you you know, it it is sweet, but it’s it was made as a lot of pain. And this is this is the same with all the happiness of cyclic existence. So then we are unable to see to perceive that the whole cyclic existence is in the nature of suffering, just like those illustrations point out. And Geshe-la is saying because of that, we are unable to generate that fear.
We are unable to develop a fear revulsion towards the whole of cyclic existence. And and of the two cause and so then we have an incomplete refuge, minor refuge. Of the two causes of refuge. One of them is fear of the lower realms of existence, but also of the whole of cyclic existence. And because we are unable to develop this fear of the whole of cyclic existence, revulsion for the whole of cyclic existence, then we do not have all the causes for refuge itself. So then and also the other cause of of the minor refuge is the certainty that the only thing that can protect us from the sufferings of the lower realms or the whole cyclic existence are the Three Jewels.
And again, we do not have that conviction. We do not have that mind with that conviction. So, Geshe-la was just saying, so we need we need to do a lot of study or listening and and a lot of contemplation, a lot of meditation. We need to see all the all the qualities, all the very good qualities, and all of the Three Jewels. We just have to see how the Three Jewels are free of all faults and are endowed with all good qualities and how they can they can free us from all they can liberate us from all the sufferings and so forth.
And we can only accomplish that through a lot of listening, for a lot of study, for a lot of contemplation, and a lot of meditation. And then to the point that we have we develop what is called an unwavering faith in the Three Jewels, an unmoved unmovable unmovable faith in the Three Jewels. Geshe-la was saying. Just merely how to say? How can I say that?
Just casually contemplating the Three Jewels and saying, oh, how how nice they are, how beautiful they are, and so forth. That’s not enough. One needs to develop what is called the unwavering faith. So then the result depends on its causes. So if the causes of refuge are all there, all complete, perfect and complete, then the refuge will will come as a result, all perfect and complete.
And if the causes are not all perfect and complete, all fulfilled, then again, the the refuge will also the result will also be imperfect and incomplete. And then, so then, of the two supports, that the power of support of the two the two things that we need, one is the refuge, and the other one is the bodhicitta. And, again, bodhicitta is the mind that wishes to benefit all sentient beings and attain enlightenment to accomplish that. So then it is the bodhicitta with the two two aspects. There’s two aspects to the bodhicitta.
So Geshe-la has already taught extensively about bodhicitta and and these two aspects, so he won’t he won’t elaborate on on on it right now. And then so then the second power, so we we have the power of support, the first one. The second power is the power of regret. Again, if we do not have regret, we cannot properly purify those negativities. So then, in a sense of what is regret?
Regret is a mind that understands understands what what what are negativities, recognizes those negativities, knows that the results of negative actions is is nothing but suffering. And then having understood that, realizes that the negative actions that one has performed are not okay. That is this not this this is no it’s not alright. And and generation regret towards that. No.
I shouldn’t have done that. And Geshe-la was saying, and one has to generate this regret with the same intensity that one would think about. Geshe-la was giving an illustration. Take, for example, the three of us. Geshe-la was saying we were drinking tea together.
We were eating the same food together, and the food was poison. So then after they finished eating, then Jampa Gendun died of the poison. I got sick, and then the Geshe-la was still there. He still had he’s he’s really worried. He sees that Jampa Gendun has died.
He he sees that I’m really sick, and then he thinks to himself, you know, jeez. His food was poison. He’s really he’s really worried, and he’s really afraid. And this is a with a very, very much with a lot of intensity, he generates this thought. And we have to regret our negative actions with the same intensity as if that was happening to us.
And Geshe-la is saying. And and the same applies to all other sentient beings in the same the same way that there there was this analogy that Geshe-la was giving. The same applies to all sentient beings due to the negative actions that beings have performed. Many people have died, and many many of the beings that that have died have been born in the hell realms or have been born in the hungry ghost realms or have been born as animals. So then now that we are born as human beings, now is the time for us to to purify those negativities.
Okay? Again, the same way in the same manner that we have in the illustration in the same way that in the illustration I’m missing the words. So in the same way that one was very afraid of of the poison and the situation, again, have to be afraid of our negative the results of our negative actions. Geshe-la was saying we have to understand that from negative actions, only thing that follows is suffering. And this we have to purify, Geshe-la was saying, we have to know, we have to understand suffering, we have to purify it.
So then the cause the causes of suffering are our own negativities. Having understood that the causes of suffering are our own negativities, if there if there are no causes of suffering, if one does not perform negativities, then one does not experience the result. We does not experience suffering. And and with this understanding, we we have to confess. We have to purify our negativities.
The restraint. So having properly generated regret, then what will naturally follow from from from that is restraint. So then, if one fully generates regret or properly generates regret, then one will have proper restraint. We’ll come out of it naturally. If one does not properly generate regret, then we will not have proper restraint.
Geshe-la is saying, take for example, drinking beer. So when we we drink beer, and Geshe-la was saying, if if we after we have drank the beer, we realize how bad it is, how harmful it is, how negative it can be, how harmful it can be. If we generate a strong understanding, a strong regret, then we will determine ourselves, I won’t drink beer anymore. And if and and we’ve had this strong determination, strong restraint, and we won’t drink it. Now if after we drink beer, we think casually, you know, you know, that wasn’t good, but one does not generate strong regret, then one might say, you know, I won’t drink anymore.
But the next time one just smells the beer, will immediately grab it and drink it again. So then the fourth so then this is the the the third power, the power of restraint. And now the fourth power is the power of the antidote. And the antidote the power of the antidote is any virtuous action, any any virtue. So was saying, having applied the the three previous powers, the moment one practices virtue as a fourth power, then that will counteract the negative effects of the negativity that one has performed.
They will function as an antidote to the negativities. So, again, I was gonna say, there are and there are different, how can I say that, different categories of negativities, and the different ways to purify each one of them? So then, for example, there are the negativities which which are contradictions of one’s commitments in Samayas or tantric commitments in Samayas. So then if one has contradicted one’s commitments in Samayas, then one has to perform, for example, the purification of Vajrasattva. And then there is the downfalls of the Bodhisattva vows, and one confesses those downfalls of those of of of of the Bodhisattva vows.
Then there is, again, the downfalls of the vows of individual liberation. One performs the so called sojong, the purification restoration rituals. Then there is the those the performance of those actions which are naturally negative, and then when this applies these four powers as they are. And for the most part, these purification practices from Vajrasattva, Bodhisattva vows, and Prātimokṣa vows, they all include the four opponent powers. Is that okay?
And Geshe was quoting a verse, when somebody disagrees you with some of the words, Geshe-la was then just saying, so the intelligent ones, the learned ones, even though they might perform heavy negativities, they become how can I say? They become light. Literally, that’s the word. They become light. And the and the ignorant ones.
What? The stupid ones. Yeah. The ignorant ones, even though they perform light misdeeds, they become very heavy. And Geshe-la was the same because the wise ones, intelligent ones, they they by force of their purification, their confession, they transform those negatives that are heavy into light ones.
And and the ignorant ones, the stupid ones, because they do not purify the negativities. The negativities proliferate. They increase. Their power increase. And again, so then this distinction between the the hearer in this in this quote, this distinction between intelligent ones and the ignorant ones is made on the basis of their knowledge of purification and confession.
So then the intelligent ones, because they they they purify, they they confess their negativities, then the ripening results of those negativities are diminished or or pretty much eradicated. And the ignorant ones because they do not know because they lack the knowledge of of purification or confession, and instead they remain rejoicing in their acts, then the results increase, the negative results increase. And Geshe-la was saying, with regards to the expression purify negativities, so what is it that we are talking about when we say to purify negativities? Geshe-la was saying, is is is is it? What is it that we are referring to when we say to eradicate the negative, just to purify the negative, as Geshe-la was saying, to purify negativity means what purifies negativity is that which harms the ripening results, ripening effects of those negative actions.
That’s what is meant. Is that okay? Can you just say that again? That which purifies negativity is that which harms the ripening results of those negative actions, which are the causes. So, Geshe-la was just repeating, that which harms the or or or the harm that is done to the ripening results of those negative actions, that is purifying negativities.
I was gonna say, now if we practice our purification, our confession, with all the four opponent powers complete, then we will be able to completely stop the ripening results of those negative actions. Now if our confession is is average, if our confession is is not done very properly or strongly, then the ripening results of those negative actions will, at the very least, they will diminish in intensity. And then now if if our confession is done in a bit of a of a weak manner, Geshe-la was saying, and then even though we might not be able to to harm or derive any results and diminish them, at the very least, they will not increase. On this one. Is that okay?
So then then Geshe-la was saying, so then this is how we purify the negativities. And Geshe-la was saying, of all of this. The most important thing in all of it is to be able to understand, to recognize negative actions. Geshe-la is saying, it’s important to understand that negative actions are determined. The quality of one’s actions is determined by one’s motivation.
So if one is performing a negative action or not depends on on the quality of one’s motivation or of of one’s intention or motivation. So one has to so it comes down, Geshe-la was saying, to guarding, to watching over one’s mind and seeing what is going on in one’s mind. Now, Geshe-la was gonna say, now if in terms of purification, also, if if we were to realize the natural state of phenomena, the the way the phenomena exist, then we will be able to completely eradicate all the negativities. So then So if one if one realizes emptiness, if one has that mind that realizes emptiness, then that mind can completely eradicate all the negativities. And that happens because all negativities arise out of ignorance.
It is because of our ignorance of the way that phenomena exist, our ignorance of the natural state of phenomena, that one then holds that which is bad as being good and holds that which is good as being bad, and out of that one engages in all sorts of activities, out of attachment and aversion, one engages in all sorts of activities and performs all sorts of contaminated actions. And then so then the mind that realizes emptiness, the mind that realizes the way that phenomena exist, because the mind that realizes the natural state of phenomena then perceives phenomena in a correct fashion, in a non mistaken fashion, and then perceives that which is good as being good and that which is bad as being bad and can then stop oneself from performing negativity. So then, Geshe-la was saying, whatever negativity one has performed in the past, then one purifies them through the by means of the four opponent powers and by a contemplation of of. And then in the future, one will not engage in any more negativities. Oh, yeah.
Is that okay? So then so then this is then the the limb, the branch of confession of the seven-limb prayer. This one is the limb of confession. Now we fall to the next limb, which is the rejoicing. In Geshe-la was starting to read the beginnings of the conquerors of the ten directions.
It’s making reference to a verse which reads something like this. I rejoice in all merit, whatever it may be, of all the conquerors of the ten directions, the conquerors’ children, the Pratyekabuddha, those with more to learn, those with no more no more to learn, and all ordinary beings. Is that okay? So then again, the is saying we when I was explaining what the conquerors refers to all the Buddhas, the conquerors’ children refers to all Bodhisattvas, and the hearers, the solitary realizers, and all ordinary beings. Again, we rejoice and recollects all the benefits and the virtues of of these five types of beings, and one develops delight and joy in their virtue.
There is there is very little said here about rejoicing. So then we we are so we are told to recollect the benefits of the virtues of the five types of beings, of these five types of beings, and then meditate in this cultivate this joy, this delight in the in the virtue. Geshe-la was saying, okay. It’s very little said here, but this is this is a this is a big thing. I mean, we’re talking about rejoicing in all the virtues of of all the Buddhas of the ten directions.
I mean, take one single Buddha, and we’re talking about virtues, the accumulation of virtues for for eons for a very huge amount of time. Now it this is only one Buddha. Now if you take all the Buddhas of all the ten directions, of each one of the ten directions, and there’s a lot of virtue there. And I was saying, on top of that, we have also the bodhisattvas, and the hearers, and the solitary realizers, all these great virtues, and the virtues of all ordinary beings also. We’re talking about an an an immense amount of virtue.
This is a big thing. Take all this virtue and then cultivate joy in that. Take delight in that. And Geshe-la was saying. So then when when things of of all this virtue, of all this Buddhism was happening and so forth, it’s like the oceans.
It’s all the oceans. And one’s virtue, just like a bit of water in one’s hand and one and and and by doing that, we just it’s like throwing our virtue in the ocean, our little bit of water in the ocean. It becomes one with all that virtue all the virtue, the virtue, the virtue. We take all that together, and we dedicate to for the benefit, for the enlightenment of all sentient beings. And if we do that, then the results is going to are are going to be as great.
It’s going to be immense. So then even though we we can only accomplish just a little bit of virtue by by putting our virtue together with the virtue of all this this immeasurable virtue of all these great beings of all these beings, then and and dedicating that, then we we get as as great results as my we get very great results, and we do that by the force of this rejoicing or the force of this delight. Do you know how to translate that properly? So, Geshe-la was just saying something. So it is rejoicing rejoicing Rejoicing in virtues is said to be supreme. Geshe-la was just saying it it takes it takes no effort.
Everybody knows how to do it, and and and the results are are are great, are fantastic. Geshe-la was saying, if if one, you know, just lies down and wants one rejoice in taking delighting in the in all the virtues of all these five types of being, of all these great beings. You know, one one produces a lot of merit out of that, and it’s just so easy to do that. There’s no there’s no you know, everybody knows how to do that. And guess what I was saying, one has to contemplate in order to be able to to take delight and rejoice in all those those virtues, one has to contemplate the results of those virtues.
The results of virtues’ actions is only happiness, and the results of all these great virtues of all these five types of beings is gonna lead to to liberation and enlightenment. And and so contemplating the benefits of these virtues, recollecting the benefits of these virtues, then one rejoices in that. Geshe-la was gonna say, if one does not think about the results of those virtuous actions, then one won’t be able to to properly rejoice or delight in those actions. And that’s it for today. Geshe-la wants to stop here and he’s wondering if you have any questions.
I I’m sorry. I didn’t hear. I didn’t Is it is it the ocean of virtue related in other way to the Merritt field? To the merit field. The ocean of virtue.
You can can make a relationship with these two these two images if you want. You can stop what I’m saying. The the the the all the virtues of all the the gurus and the masters of of the merit field are are like an ocean also, as great as and and vast as the oceans also. So you can make this relationship if you want. And then you take all of that and you dedicate to the merit, the benefit of all those countries.
So then, Geshe-la was saying, just just clarifying, this is just to illustrate To illustrate how how vast and how big those merits are, it’s just an image to illustrate how vast and and and big and great those merits are. It’s not you can make a relationship if you want. You’re free to make this relationship, but it was just to illustrate how vast those merits are. Is that okay? Yes?
In all no matter what negative action we can do in this So no matter how neg what ever negative actions we can do, we can say it’s okay. I can purify it. So can you can you repeat that again? Because I I sorry. I didn’t.
We commit negative actions. We commit negative actions. So given that we can purify them Yes. Is there a right for me to commit some today and then purify tomorrow? I can go and do it.
So what’s the question? That is the question. Do you reckon that’s alright? Well, but is that wrong? If one if one thinks in this way, Geshe-la was to say because I was I was trying to convey what you’re saying because I’m not thinking very clearly.
So so I was saying, say, if you go to drink beer tonight and confess it tomorrow morning, and and and then again, Geshe-la wasn’t saying, oh, so you think, I’ll to bring I’ll go to drink beer tonight, and I’ll confess it tomorrow morning. Again, tomorrow when tomorrow comes, you’re gonna do the same thing. Oh, I’ll confess it tomorrow or just go drink another beer and then again and again. So if you do like this, you won’t really get any confession, are you? Because you repeated it.
No. So I guess that was saying, you know, what we have to do instead is is think, you know, today, I won’t I won’t do this this negative deed. You know, I’ll do it tomorrow. And again, when tomorrow comes, you do the same thing. Today, won’t do it.
I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll do it another day. And it keeps on procrastinating one’s negative deeds in this way. If you work in this way, then you will be able to arrest all negativities. So there is these two these two approaches to to confession.
So then you can say, oh, I’ll I’ll do it today and I’ll confess it tomorrow. I’ll purify it tomorrow. And then when tomorrow comes, you just don’t do it. And and and you have already performed the action today, so it doesn’t quite work. Now if you can the the nice way to go about it, the good way to go about it is if you can procrastinate your negative actions.
Can say, just keep on pushing with how do say pushing with the belly? Mhmm. You know? Yes. Our minds are very narrow.
We cannot imagine, you know, it’s completely completely stopping from performing all negativities, all negative deeds. So have to we have to think we have to think in the short term, which I was gonna say. We have to think small and think, you know, I’ll I’ll stop doing them today. Today, I won’t perform any negativity. And then again, the next day, you know.
And in this way, we we are able to to stop all of them gradually. And that’s a nice way to go about it. Of beer, for example, when things are today, I wanna drink beer, and then again tomorrow, you say, again, I want to drink beer, and then day after day, and then after when you see you have done one month, you know, you have gone through one month without drinking beer, and then you have enough strength to think, you know, maybe I want to drink beer for the next few months or the next year or so or just stop it altogether. Yeah? Oh, yeah.
I wanna go back to the example of China that we talked about, the earthquake in China, and trying to understand how we relate to that. If negatives are the cause of suffering, and we’re trying to understand negatives sort of at the whole of cyclic existence, Looking at the suffering that’s happening in China, should we also be trying to understand the whole of that suffering as if it was occurring to ourselves or to our loved ones? So rather than say, oh, yeah. Poor people over there and not really taking it fully on board, should we, in some ways, try and take on the full amount of suffering that people like that are are suffering as if it were our own? And then, I guess, how do we prepare ourselves to take on on that amount of suffering if that’s if that’s the right approach?
I’m I’m not quite sure if I understand what’s what’s what is it that you’re you’re trying to understand. Should I should I just ask if if regarding that that suffering that is going on in China and Burma right now. Yes. Should I should I take that suffering onto my should I attempt to take that suffering onto myself? Is that what you is that all you’re trying to ask?
No. In in order to try and understand How is it that we are suffering as much as how is it that we are in the same boat? If if our aim is to unchant understand suffering and negativity sort of in a whole of cyclic existence, not just on an individual basis and not just myself or one if we’re trying to do it in in a whole, so whether a large scale suffering like that, I guess that helps you understand the whole. So I’m I’m I’m Still coming to me. Do you think you could translate that?
Because I I’m having trouble with some words that you are using, and I think I understand what what your question is. But the words that you are using are if I try to use them literally, and I won’t be able to convey the meaning. So I will try I will try to I’ll try something here. So then, look, I was trying to you were talking about the whole of of the cyclic existence, the whole of the suffering cyclic existence as if that was a a distant entity from each one’s individual suffering. The whole is a sum of the individual sufferings of all of us.
So because all of us are suffering, and and you’re trying to figure out how is it that their situation and our situation is the same. And Geshe-la was saying it is the same from the point of view of of karma of of karma, of the law of cause and effect. It is the same from the perspective that we have accumulated. We, all of us, we have accumulated the same causes that leads that that led them to experience these results that they’re experiencing now. Even though we are not experiencing the same results right now, we do have accumulated the causes.
We can rest assure we can we can rest pretty assured of that, that we have accumulated the causes. And if we do not purify those causes now, we will experience exactly the same results that they are experiencing right now, eventually. And that’s that’s what it means. We are all, all of us, all beings, we are overpowered by contaminated actions and afflictive emotions and conceptions. We are all caught up in this net of samsaric suffering and this lack of freedom and so forth.
Is word is saṃsāra. Is the beings, samsaric beings, or beings within cyclic existence. So all beings with exactly existence, they are like this. They are under the power of contaminated actions, and afflictions and conceptions. And all beings in cyclic existence are subject to the same to the same sufferings.
Maybe not just at the same time, but we are all subject to the same sufferings. Geshe-la explaining how we misinterpret karma. The word in Tibetan is le. Le in Sanskrit is karma. In in English is action.
How we, how do you say, overlook the power of our actions. And we think we think very little of the actions that we perform. We think that we do not accumulate karma. We do not accumulate negative karma. We do not perform negative actions.
But just, you know, just having one insect, you know, biting us, and then out of anger, you know, with an impatient mind and out of anger, we just slap it dead. And that is karma. There is a negative action, and you’re going to experience the the result of that action. Cause and effect. Cause and effect.
And so we we overlook those things. We think, oh, you know, I don’t. I don’t perform actions. We are performing actions all the time. For example, in the case of anger, when we’re motivated by anger, know, when we just killed an insect, but because of that anger, that action becomes very powerful.
And generally speaking, would say anger is very bad. Anger is something which is very harmful because any action we might do out of anger, that action would the power of that action, the result that it will bring is will be greatly intensified by that anger. Does that make any sense? So then you you you probably understood what was going on. This is I’m gonna say, so if if if I kill the insect out of anger, I’m impatient, I’m angry, I kill an insect, then that’s relatively small act becomes very much intensified by the anger.
Now if if I’m if I do not get angry, and I just, how do you say, brush it off, then again, then one has not performed the action, one has not killed it. But if if one accidentally was brushing off the insect, one accidentally kills the insect, I say, still you have performed the act of killing. That action in itself is negative, but one was not motivated by anger. And in that case, then the the result is not going to be as strong as the one that was motivated by anger. Is that making sense?
But we still experience the result of killing. Okay? Is that okay? Making sense? Okay.
Yeah? Yeah. One last question. Hell realms and, you know, we sort of worked our way up, so to speak. I wish we can’t fix it.
I don’t know if I came from up or down. But at some well, that’s what I sort of find a bit hard to like, you know, in a hell realm or a hungry ghost realm or whatever animal realm, I I understand it’s really, really hard to to do positive stuff to get out of that. So if you’ve got to a human birth, and then you if someone’s got to a human birth and then you would think that they would not do something so absolutely terrible that they go back to a hell realm or Mhmm. You know what I mean? If you of developed a certain amount of positive merit and understanding presumably to get to a human rebirth, You know, something in the consciousness must be there to Wouldn’t it be lovely if it was that way?
So, Geshe-la is saying, it is not quite the way that you you are thinking of you are thinking of it. We have no way to tell where we were in our previous lives. If we were in the lower realms and the higher realms, there’s no way to tell. What we know is that now we are born as human beings and that comes out of mixed karma and that we do have accumulated, we do have in our so called mental continuum all the causes for being born again, time and again, in all realms of existence. And of all those causes, we have mostly the causes to be reborn in the lower realms of existence.
So if we do not take the point now in this life to purify those negative causes, we will inevitably, at one point or another in time, end up in the lower realms of existence. Now we were born as human beings and the human birth is a very good support or basis for practice. And it’s a very good support because as a human being, as human beings, we are able to purify the negativities. As human beings, we are able to accomplish virtues. So that’s we have to take this opportunity now to do that, to do just that.
Is that answering your question? Yeah. Yeah. Say that again? Yes?
And Geshe-la was saying. So right now, we were born as human beings. We were born as we have this precious human rebirth. And Geshe-la was saying as hell beings, animals, and so forth, the beings from the lower realms, they they are not able to create the causes causes for a rebirth as a as a human being. Only humans and gods can can accumulate the causes of rebirth as a human being.
We have to have practice the ten virtues and the six perfections and one has to have made pure aspirational prayers, and those are very difficult causes, very difficult to accomplish. Only humans and Gods can accomplish that. Geshe-la was just quoting some some verses and saying explaining that, you know, it is it is ethical conduct or or or practice of morality that causes us to be born as humans and gods. And on the on the basis of that on that of the moral conduct, of that ethical conduct, then one practices perfection and makes pure aspirational prayers. And that’s this is the only way one can accomplish a pure precious human rebirth.
So Geshe-la is saying if if if we do wish to be born as human beings in the future, then, you know, we can just we could we can just guard against one non virtue. We have the ten non virtues. Right? And if we just guard against one non virtue, we are already accomplishing a cause to be born in the future as a human being. But that doesn’t guarantee that we will be born that we will attain a precious human rebirth with all the freedom and opportunities that we have right now.
So in order to accomplish that, we need to practice perfect moral conduct, and we need to practice these perfections, and we need to make pure aspirational prayers. Only in this way we can attain a precious human rebirth with all the freedoms and opportunities that we enjoy with. And again, just just I was just bring to mind, even though our present human rebirth as it is, with all the freedoms and opportunities that we have, was caused by the actions of a previous human rebirth, which and and in which life we have, again, performed pure morality and these perfections and made pure aspirational prayers. Again, there is no there is no saying saying where we were born before, wherever wherever else we have been born before, and there is no telling where we are going to be born in the future. We we we do not know.
You know, it doesn’t come in a specific order. And Geshe-la was the same quote in another verse saying, if you want to know where you have been in the past, look at your present conditions, your present body. And then you will know, you know, by by looking at your life as it is right now, you will know what actions you have performed in the past by by looking at the results you are experiencing now. If you want to know where you’re going to be born in the future, then look at your your mind. Again, if you are practicing virtue and and these perfections and so forth, then you you will have a a good rebirth in the future.
If you’re only engaged in negativities and and bad motivation and so forth, then you will know that you experience a bad rebirth in the future. Oh, yeah. That is one. Is that okay? Okay.
Yeah.