Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with Atisha’s instruction to watch body, speech, and mind, Geshe Pema Tsering uses this 44-minute session to show how even casual words create karma — careless speech can destroy another person’s virtue as much as one’s own. He briefly reviews the three levels of Lamrim motivation before opening the precious human rebirth section, outlining its three aspects: recognition, meaningfulness, and rarity. The bulk of the commentary works through the first four of the eight freedoms — freedom from hell, hungry ghost, animal, and long-life god realms — with vivid comparisons throughout. A striking image: long-life gods so intoxicated by pleasure they are conscious only at birth and death, with almost no window to practice Dharma. He closes with a practical turn: a zoo visit can be transformed into bodhicitta practice by contemplating the suffering of animals and dedicating merit toward their liberation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 LR 2002 03 05.mp3
UUID: f42a94bc-f526-4e02-abfe-86a8e7289e12
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Lam Rim 2002 Bodhisattva Deeds (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-03-05
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.5 minutes
Words: ~3,499
So as the master Jowo Je Atisha have said in his teachings, look specifically to your mind. And also to look to your speech and at least what he said in his teachings is something real, truth, because we create different, what do you call, different karmas out of our speech. Like, we say different things and different creates different karmas. So we have to be very mindful with our body, with our speech and with our mind, how we react towards somebody and how we think.
So in a way, this is a thing that we have to use our mind, a part of mind to check ourself, how our state of mind is and part of the mind look, be aware of how you speak to others and analyze in that way. Otherwise, we come to create many negativities or negative karma. So if you don’t be mindful with your mind and you just be mindless or in a sense not being mindful with your mind, then you if you were to speak a lot of things to other people, that might cause anger other people or disturb others mind. And if the other people gets angry, others get angry, then that destroys their virtue as well as other’s virtue too. So that’s how we come to create negative action.
And and that’s why it’s important to be aware of our mind all the time. So while you’re alone in your place or wherever you are, you should analyze your mind or check your mind how it is reacting or how you’re thinking. So it’s good that we be aware or mindful with our mind how we we think and also always being aware of how we are reacting towards others. And if you don’t do like that, then most of the time we, our mind, are what we call distracted by the negative influence such as anger, hatred, and so forth. And that’s how we come to create many negative karma.
So if we are not aware of how we are reacting or doing our karmas or actions, then we won’t be aware of what kind of karma we have created or we have done. So because it’s very easy to create karmas or commit actions. So as soon as you do something or think something, you have already created a karma. So that’s why it is very important to be aware of what you do and how you do. Plus karmas, they are different like three or four different kinds of karma.
In a way, in the sense of that a full karma, a half karma or like in that way you have different karmas you are creating every time you do something. So such as a complete karma, first part, the intention comes out. And that is a type of karma you create already, the intention to do something. And then the act part comes out. And then when you’re actually doing it, the act, then there’s the acting karma which is you have also that also is completed.
And then, then when you completed the act completely, then you have created a complete karma in a way that those different level of karma in the sense of like fully one like karma that you have created. So because of that, when you are alone in your room or wherever, not with many people, then sit down and analyze your mind and check where your mind is going towards. Is it going towards negative karma or positive karma? If it’s going towards negative thoughts, then control your mind and and bring it in or be mindful with what you do. So now for instance, here we are listening to Lamrim teachings.
And to listen to these teachings or these Dharma teachings, we have to have a good motivation. And as probably you already know, those three levels of motivations, The small, the medium, and the great level of great scope or the practitioner’s motivation. One those three has to be there. One of those motivation has to be there to listen to these kind of teachings. So here we, most of the time, we take the highest motivation And that is the great motivation of a great beings.
And who train themselves as to be bodhisattvas. So we also are training or trying to be that. And and with that motivation, we should have that motivation. So even to get that far, to have that great motivation, that bodhicitta motivation, you have to go through the smaller part, like you have to climb up. So you have to know or go through the first and second step to get to the highest one.
So that means that as in the lower scopes or lower levels of motivations, you have to contemplate the sufferings of the lower realms, those different states of sufferings in the cyclic existence. And you have to really contemplate on those. So contemplating oneself also being in these different state of sufferings and then applying that same logic to other beings, other sentient beings, that how others also go through the same kind of sufferings. And when you think of others, then that’s where you generate your compassion, compassion towards. And that’s the starting of the great scope, the greatest scope or the great motivation.
So contemplating on these sufferings that others are going through, generating great compassion towards that, and I myself will free them, free all those sentient beings who are suffering from that state of suffering. And to do that, I need to achieve full enlightenment, the Buddhahood. So in order to enlighten all beings, I will do that. So that’s kind of motivation you should generate and please do a short meditation on that. Okay.
[After meditation] I hope your meditation went well. So going back to teaching, the guru yoga or the guru devotion part of the is pretty much completed. So now after doing the practice of guru devotion, now what’s next is how you take the essence of the teachings. And that part is explained, categorized in two parts, which is recognizing the precious human body. And how After recognizing it, how we take the essence or take the teachings into the how we train ourselves onto the path, on on those two subjects.
So as how when you start any practice, it is same as taught in the guru yoga practice or guru devotion practice. That to start with good motivation and then after that the actual part, the actual part of the practice, to do the actual part of the practice and then complete with the dedication. So that the way how it is done, that those That’s the sequence how it goes is same with the rest. So now it stresses the important of we have to recognize this precious human body. That’s very important.
Recognizing it being precious. Otherwise, you might lose it without using it in a meaningful way. So so recognizing it being precious is very important. So because our life, how we spend every day is mostly we’re engaged in all the activities. Mainly thinking for the very purpose of this life.
And we engage in different activities. So if we just do that much, work for the concern of this very life, then it means we have actually wasted this precious human rebirth. So so recognizing, yeah, this precious human rebirth and that one have obtained, one have this precious human rebirth right now, when one recognize all these qualities, then at the end of the actually recognizing it, you have a, what do call, a joyful feeling within you that I have this now, this opportunity or I have this precious human birth with with me now. So we are very fortunate now. Are very lucky to have this precious human birth.
And we know that and we are pleased about it. But but we don’t know. But we the next thing is we don’t know how long it will last. You say, because it’s impermanent, it disintegrates moment by moment. So it doesn’t last long.
So So then after knowing this or getting the realization of impermanence, that how easily this precious human body that we have can be lost. And if you first part, having the joy of knowing the joy knowing that one have this body and one have this joyful feeling. And second part, is knowing that it doesn’t last long and it can perish or disintegrate in a moment, in a second. So And having that fear that we lose right away. So these two, what do you call, understanding is very, sort of a key important for us in our practices.
So now, first part is recognizing it, how precious this human body is. And And second part is how meaningful it is. How meaningful it is. And then third part is how difficult or how rare it is be found again. So these three part, Geshe-la said, he will explain one by one after that.
So when we say we have we have we have this precious human rebirth, which have such and such qualities. And what this means is we have a human rebirth, by the way. We have a human rebirth and we have to recognize that. So when we say like this human rebirth, the precious human rebirth, it has its own qualities, is known as the eight freedoms together and the ten endowments.
They are the like the eight total or eighteen qualities that we have. And that’s why it is said the precious human rebirth. So if we don’t know these qualities, then then we haven’t actually found out what is precious human rebirth. So if we haven’t realized or recognized how precious this human birth is, then we don’t know how, what great things it can do. So we we we can’t actually complete the like, what we want to do.
So as an example, like if you don’t recognize that object whatever it is being a gold. If it’s actually gold but if you don’t realize that it is being it’s a gold, then if you are poor, you don’t know what to do it and you will be poor forever. You don’t because you don’t know it is it is a gold. So so recognizing it’s important. And now we talk about has to be have freedom.
What what is freedom means? In this case, the eight freedoms is having the freedom to do the practice of Dharma. That that is what it means by freedom. So the eight freedoms are explained in two parts which is freedom from non-human existence and freedom within human beings, within human existence. From within yeah.
human existence. Sorry. So before freedom, which is from non-human existence is that we are not we are free and that we are not born in hell, hell realms. And also the second one, we are free from not being born in the hungry ghost realms. And then also we are free from being born in the animal realms. And then we are free also that we are not born as a long life god. So those are the four freedoms. So if we are in these four stages, those four different stages, say if we’re in the hell realms, then there’s no chance for us to practice Dharma. We are completely under the control of those true sufferings, the hot and cold.
So for example, if we put a fire on our head, we will just fully, we are completely under the suffering of heat that we won’t be able to do anything else. We want to get rid of that suffering and just think about the suffering. So similar to that, like in the hell beings, once we are born in the hell realm, the suffering of hot and cold constantly we are under control of that. So there’s no even a little time for us to practice that. So for us right here, right now, we are not like that.
So we have this freedom or we have this choice to practice. Also we have the time to practice. And only thing that is keeping us behind is not doing it. So here we also should realize that that we are very fortunate and that we are not in one of those suffering state One of those state of sufferings, hot or cold sufferings. We’re not experiencing that right now and we are free of that.
So we should What do call? We should feel ourself think that we are very fortunate to be to to have this this choice. So then the second thing that we are free from being born in the hungry ghost realm. So that in the hungry spirit realm the spirits are constantly very hungry and looking for food like all the time. Like they go through very strong suffering of hunger.
So for example, when we are very hungry and that time we also want food and we don’t think about I’m going to listen to the teachings. We want to have more food. I want to go and get food. So so that that type of like a suffering that we go through is very little compared to what the hungry ghosts go through. So so same thing.
Now the second part, that too, we should be very feeling very fortunate that through the blessings of the refuge objects, through the blessings of our good actions, we are we don’t have to go through these sufferings and feel fortunate about that. So then next one up is not being born in the animal realms. So same thing when if we are born in the animal realms, again, as an animal, don’t have the chance like we do to listen to the Dharma teachings and to practice it and so on. Don’t have that, what do call, chance as we do. So if you think about the sufferings of the animal realms, then the suffering of eating each other.
The stronger ones, it’s the weaker one or the bigger one is the little one. So that’s where that’s how that’s the chain of suffering that they go through in the animal world. So when we are now talking about these different state of sufferings, we shouldn’t just think about that and just see something out there the others are going through and as a form of entertainment or something or just Don’t just think it is there and don’t care about it. Don’t shouldn’t do that. And now what we have to look inside ourself in our mind and see how fortunate that we are not going through the same things.
And how is it that we are not going through the same type of suffering they are going through? And how come it is like that? Then there are these different parts like avoiding doing non virtuous actions. That by avoiding doing the non virtuous actions we come to be free from those state of sufferings. So we have to realize that too.
So for example, if we go and see the animals, we might see, oh, there’s a good snake or this one is a nice looking animal or this one is nice looking creature or so on. That’s how normally how we tend to look towards others or the other animals. And then when we look like that, then whatever thought comes in good and bad, then that creates, what do you call, leads our mind towards those actions. So to create good karmas and to create bad karmas. So so because we go and see these different things.
We go to the zoo or different place to entertain ourselves. And when we go there, and now what we have to realize is that how we react towards them or how how we How is our intention, the intention or the motivation when we are getting entertained by those animals or those other beings. So if you are aware of that, then even going to those entertainment places can or can be a Dharma practice, can be transformed into practice. So so if you think carefully or be aware of how you react towards them, being mindful with your mind, then say one animal might be suffering. And if you think what types of sufferings those animals go through.
And then deeper than that, like how all sentient beings are mother in one of our lives. So in thinking in that way, then you can broaden your actual motivation or intention, and then you can or lead your action towards the practice. So so then thinking that of these different state of suffering that they are going through and that that the same with other sentient beings, those we see and those we don’t. There’s lots of them around and all of them have become mothers in one of our lives. Then broadening, thinking how all of them are like our present mothers.
And then I don’t want them to suffer and I want to free them from this state of suffering, generating that kind of great mind, known as the superior intention, generating that mind towards them. And I want to free them from that state of suffering. It’s important for us to generate. So so then contemplating or thinking or meditating on those state of suffering that they are going through and I want to lead them or I want to free them all from that state of sufferings and lead them to the state of Buddhahood. And then how you lead them is that you the way you whatever virtue that you have done, whatever good action that you have done, you dedicate the merit towards the benefit of them.
Like through the power of my virtue, may they achieve the full enlightened state. In that way, if you think and if you practice in that way, then all your action during that part becomes a cause for generating the great mind bodhicitta. So that’s why as he’s listening, even we go out to see some entertainment or whatever, that can be transformed into our practice. So that applies to anything that you do outside, go out doing whatever you do. So you analyze what you are doing and generating this great mind or the intention to help them.
Then that applies to everything that you do every day of what you are doing. So then the fourth one which we are free from, which is free from being born in a long life gods. So with the long life gods is the seventeen levels of states of gods. And then when you divide those states of god, the formless god and the form gods. So known as the formless gods are known as the long life gods.
So when we say being born someone is born into the long life gods, in the state of long life gods, then the very moment when whoever is born there, the being is born there, that time it realizes that it’s being born in the long life god realm. And the second moment, it’s completely absorbed into the pleasure of that god realm. So it doesn’t think anything else other than the pleasure of that realm. So the long life gods are completely intoxicated with their pleasures. Like when we get completely drunk, we are in that state of blissed out or whatever.
So similar that they are completely blissed out in their enjoyment. So this being born in one of these formless god realms, what you come to The one thing the being come to realize is that when they are born there, they just have a realization that, oh, they are born there. And the rest of their time, they are completely in the with their pleasures. And at the very end when they are dying, then they realize, oh, I’m dying. So that’s the only two part they come to realize.
So then when you talk about the gods from the first concentration, second concentration, third, fourth, there are four levels of concentration known as the realms of gods. And very few of those gods have the chance to listen to Dharma teachings. Very few of them. And how they listen to the teachings is because they have very strong imprints, such that just the sound of a river running through, the noise of the river, or some other sound, they hear that as teachings. That’s how they come to receive teachings. And that’s very few of those gods who are able to listen to the teachings.
So the rest of the other gods, they’re fully intoxicated or blissed out with their pleasures. And they don’t think anything else other than that. And they don’t think about doing Dharma practice too.