Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with Tsongkhapa’s point that recalling death and karma prevents one from simply wandering through life, Geshe Pema Tsering maps the three Lamrim scopes in this 45-minute commentary. He traces how fear of impermanence draws a practitioner toward Dharma, how renunciation is the root of great compassion, and why bodhicitta cannot arise without it. Two methods for cultivating bodhicitta are compared — the sevenfold cause-and-effect instructions and equalizing and exchanging self and others — along with the distinction between analytical and placing meditation. He explains why the Lamrim trains through stages common to initial and middling capacity, using Milarepa’s one-lifetime enlightenment as the key example: possible only because he had completed all three scopes in a prior life. Geshe Pema closes with a stark warning that taking Highest Yoga Tantra empowerments without this foundation risks the vajra hell.
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File: 01 LR 2002 04 02.mp3
UUID: 1e6de108-27c0-45c9-908d-b461a65b9791
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Lam Rim 2002 Bodhisattva Deeds (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-04-02
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.2 minutes
Words: ~2,974
The great master Tsongkhapa has stated that if one recalls or yeah. If one recalls the death, then one will get prepared to travel for the next lives. And if one thinks of of law of karma or or action in it action law of causes and effect, then one will not simply waste it. So if one thinks of the law of causes and effect — if one thinks about or reminds oneself of the law of causes and effect — one will not stay simply wandering or won’t waste the time.
So according to this, it seems like if one recalls the the impermanence or death, then one will have a very good motivation by thinking so.. Because when one thinks of death, then one can see that or understand the nature of of impermanent, nature of impermanence, how uncertain the death occurs, as well as the changing momentarily, so forth. But thinking so, it develops fear within oneself. So by having but yeah. So it it it encourage ones to feel fear towards the impermanent and so forth.
And due to this, one will, it will help one to look for look for look look look for something which, which which frees oneself from that fear. So it is only the Dharma or practice which helps one to free from that fear, and that fear has been generated by seeing the impermanent nature of the uncertainty of death, momentarily changing of the person or of one’s life and and how one goes towards next rebirths, for example, like, bad migrations and so forth. So seeing the sufferings of the lower rebirths, so but one fears develop and fear within. And due to this, when one practices to free oneself from the from all the sufferings or fear and such practice will become a very pure practice. And doing such practice which becomes pure practice and if one dedicate all the virtues or merit obtained from such a practice towards the betterment of next rebirth, then one’s practice will become the practice of small scope.
And if such practice is done for the purpose of achieving the nirvana or liberation, then that practice will become the practice of the middling scope. And doing such a practice to attained enlightenment, attained Buddhahood for the sake of motherly sentient beings, then then that practice will become the practice of great scope. So it is so when we say if one recalls the death, then one will prepare or get ready for the next life, which means that for example like if one is traveling to Melbourne for example, then for tomorrow morning then one the day before one will make all the arrangements like, you know, making sure there’s enough money for travel, clothes, etcetera. And so likewise, know, to to when one get ready or prepare for the next life, what one needs to do is one needs to do the practice which practice which the other of the practices, either practices of middling, small and the great scope. So in addition to that, which is recalling death, if one thinks of law of causes and effect, then one will not stay there simply wandering or won’t waste the time which then one by if you recall the law of cause and effect, then one will understand or recalls all the actions like doing a positive will give happiness or virtues And likewise, non virtues will accumulate demerits and neutral action will cause a neutral result.
So by knowing such that non virtuous produces produce suffering and the virtuous action will produce happiness, by knowing so, then one will start performing or doing the virtuous actions because it produces happiness. So it is not something one should recall only every now and then on occasion. The recalling of the law of causes and effects as well as impermanence or death should be done continuously or daily. So it is like the businessman who works so hard continuously because of the profit he knows by doing such a project, that no matter how hard it is, but he knows the end the last final result, which is going which will bring him a huge profit.
Because of that, he thinks because of the profit, he will work continuously so hard until it’s done. So likewise, when one recalls the law of causes and effect, but doing collecting positive actions will bring happiness, by knowing so, then one will never stop cultivating the positive actions. So therefore, because we wish for higher rebirth, Therefore, in order to attain higher rebirth, one needs to pursue the practice of, say, the initial stage. And we we also wish the nirvana or liberation. So therefore, in order to attain such such state, one needs to have a practice of the the middling So not only that, we also wish enlightenment.
And so in order to attain such enlightenment, one needs to have one needs to have a practice of the the final stage or great stage and should need to train in in the final stage as well. So because we all wish enlightenment for the sake of all motherly sentient beings, therefore, we need to train in the practice and training in the stages of great scope or final stage. So the practicing or training in the great scope is one of the practices is training in the bodhicitta. And in way there are many ways of practicing or cultivating the bodhicitta or altruistic intention. Many practices which I have taught in the earlier classes many times.
I’m sure you all remember the training in cultivating bodhicitta through training in equalizing and exchanging self and others, or training one’s mind in the sevenfold cause and effect instructions. So whichever method one uses, either way is fine — either trained through the equalizing and exchanging self and others or trained through the sevenfold cause and effect instructions. But but their final result is same. The one is the final result is same, which is to generate bodhicitta, that is to attain enlightenment for the sake of motherly sentient beings. So therefore, one needs to meditate on bodhicitta, the altruistic intention.
In general, there are meditations like the analytical meditation or placing meditation. So likewise, you can also do the yeah. One can meditate on both the analytical and the placing meditation in order to cultivate bodhicitta. So like for example, like through the analytical meditation is one’s analyzing from the very beginning through say the meditation of equanimity, then thinking of renunciation and law of causes and effect, and thinking through the sevenfold causes and effect instructions, and why it is necessary and how it helps, what are the causes and conditions to develop bodhicitta. So thinking, doing such analysis is so called analytical meditation to cultivate the bodhicitta.
And the placing meditation is like first one generate the mind that that I, suppose I need to attain enlightenment as soon as possible in order to free all these sentient beings from the suffering and bring them to the state of ultimate happiness. So by developing such a mind and then placing one’s mind on that such thought or such mind and yep, placing one’s mind on such thought or a wish and then preserve that wish and meditate on such mind continuously and such a meditation is called the placing meditation. So because we are all in the so called the person of the first stage or initial stage, So therefore, it looks like it’s it’s better for us to do the meditation, the analytical meditation in order to attain bodhicitta. Whichever way is fine. So normally some people do placing meditation and some does some do the analytical meditation.
So now we shall do a short meditation here and you can do it either either of the meditation either placing meditation or or the analytical meditation to develop bodhicitta. So now, up till now we have finished recognizing the precious human rebirth and the importance of the precious human rebirth and how difficult it is to find. So now so as we said up to now, we have finished the parts of, like, recognizing the precious human rebirth, how difficult it is to find it, the importance of the precious human rebirth. So after having stated all this this, now it, we have reached at the point where now how one can distill the essence from this precious human rebirth and the way of distilling essence from the precious human rebirth is to training in the three stages.
So the essence are so called three, that’s the small, middling, and the great, which are three which refers towards the three paths, the three stages, small, middling, and the great stage. So in order to attain such, we need, at the beginning of the first stage, need to go through step by step. For example, in order to attain, in order to generate the path of the great scope, one needs to train first. Prior to that, one needs to train in the path of the middling stage. To attain such, you need to train in the small scope.
And before that, to develop the path of the small stage one needs to train in the impermanence and should need to understand the impermanence nature of saṃsāra and saṃsāra is the nature of sufferings. So likewise, in order to attain Buddhahood, one needs to train in the great stage or a great scope. And to generate such path, needs to develop a bodhicitta which we have just done. One needs to cultivate a bodhicitta. Without cultivating bodhicitta, one will not yeah.
One can’t develop the paths of the great scope. And likewise, to attain or generate such a path, one needs to have the great compassion. If any kind of path which one has developed is upheld by the great compassion, then such a practice or such path becomes a part of the great scope. So, and in order to have such or develop such that great compassion, one needs to have renunciation or wish to free from cyclic existence. Without renunciation, one will never develop a great compassion.
So the renunciation is the mind which seeks liberation or wish to free from cyclic existence or attain nirvana by saying that the pleasures, happiness, and enjoyments of existence in saṃsāra are essenceless. It is because by having that renunciation, when the renunciation, then one will seek or wish have a wish to free oneself from the suffering. So without that, without that which is renunciation, then one can’t have a great compassion, which is great compassion which is to free those motherly sentient beings from the suffering. Because renunciation is the one that wish that wishing one wishing oneself to wishing oneself free from the suffering. And without having such thought, then one will not have a wish that is to free sentient beings from the suffering.
So in order to develop the wish to free sentient beings from the suffering, first one needs to have a wish to free oneself from the suffering. Without such, one will not one can’t have or develop a wish to free sentient beings from the suffering. So that is the reason that in order to develop the path of the great scope, one needs to have one needs to train in the first two path in the first two scopes. So to develop a renunciation or wish to free from cyclic existence, one needs to develop impermanence and develop an understanding of law of causes and effect or the karma. Without those, one will not.
So therefore, the great master Śāntideva has said that if one do not develop a wish to free oneself from the suffering even in the dreams, then one will even in the dream, then one can’t one will not develop a wish to free sentient beings from suffering. So, and when we say training in the small initial scope or initial stage, that actually comes the great master said to train one’s mind in the stages in common with the person of initial stage, and there is a very good reason for saying ‘the path in common with the person of initial capacity’ or a stage or the initial capacity or initial stage. Yeah. So for example, like, if, one only seeks liberation for only for oneself without, having any concern for others or thinking of others and such practice would become, called the the the the So, yeah, the excuse me. Having a the having a wish to free or attain only oneself that for the higher rebirth in the next life without thinking of others or concerning having consent towards others, that has become the unique path of the first stage.
Likewise, wishing or wishing only oneself to attain liberation and not thinking of others is that becomes the unique path of the middling stage.. So here in the text, says that training your mind in the stages of part in common with the person of initial capacity. So we said yeah. And that is so called common with the person in initial is because that that one develops the wish not only for liberation but also for the higher rebirth. So but because by wishing the liberation then one will definitely has to one definitely needs to attain the higher rebirth because without higher rebirth one will not attain the nirvana or liberation.
So therefore by wishing that liberation what automatically or the wishing towards the higher rebirth comes along with that. So that is the reason it’s so called the part in common with the person of initial capacity. And then, likewise, training your mind in the stages of the part in common with the person of middling capacity. And so that is that one deep down inside one mind, one wishes the enlightenment. But seeing all the reason, in order to attain enlightenment, one needs to have the bodhicitta.
And without renunciation one will not have or can’t develop the bodhicitta. So therefore training one’s mind in order to cultivate renunciation. Such a training is called the training one’s mind in common with the middling stage of So that is the reason that one needs to train in all the paths because without developing the foundation or training in the first path, one can’t train or develop the path, the realizations of the next stage so which shows that that is the reason one needs to go through step by step So therefore the great master advised here that one should take or travel step by step or in stages and should not jump straight towards the final stage or the final the great capacity because there is great importance or usefulness in training step by step because by doing so it increases one’s knowledge and experience of the practices and that this is very important. Therefore, one should not jump straight to the final one or a big step should go step by step. So, yeah, one should not jump straight towards the great scope because by doing so one will not have a great foundation and because of that one’s practice won’t become a good practice or or very effective practice.
It is like building a house. In order to build a proper house and a very strong house, one needs to first one needs to build a very firm foundation of the building And and without having a proper foundation, one can’t build a proper house or a strong house even when it tries. So the great master or great yogi Milarepa was said to have attained to attain enlightenment within one life and said that in in that particular life, he trained straight into the Great Scope from the beginning. But one should not think that he hasn’t trained he was not trained in the first the initial and the middling capacity or stage because he had dealt with all this in the previous life. He has trained well in that.
And not only that, even any kind of tantric realization, without having without training training one’s mind in the three stages or three scopes, there is no way one can attain any kind of realization of tantric practice. Yes, great master Milarepa, in his previous life, he had been one of the great Kadampa masters. In that particular life, he has trained well and developed the training of the three stages in that particular life. So therefore, one needs to have the training of the three stages in order to train in the tantric practice as well. So therefore, one should take in terms of taking the tantric empowerment, particularly the empowerment of Highest Yoga Tantra. To receive such great empowerment is very important for one to train in the three scopes first prior to taking such empowerment.
No. Look. Without practicing or without any realization or without any trainings in the three scopes, the first initial, middling and the great scope and practicing and without training in all those paths and just receiving the Highest Yoga Tantra empowerment and doing meditation or visualization of one or two deities — doing such may lead one towards the vajra hell. Therefore, it is very important that one should not just take the highest Tantric empowerments, particularly the Highest Yoga Tantra empowerments. And it is very, very risky to do so without training in the path or the stages. And especially, like, you know, in Tibet, you know, the empowerments are not easily or not, you know, easily given to the people.