Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A story about the first Karmapa asking a complaining student exactly when he meditates — since he wanders all day and sleeps all night — opens Geshe Pema Tsering’s 43-minute session on sustained commitment to practice. He argues against shortsightedness, citing Kadampa master Geshe Gönpawa’s counsel to be relaxed and long-term rather than developing what he calls a “hare-like renunciation” that burns bright for a few days then collapses. Moving into the Lamrim’s three-scope structure, the session focuses on the first scope — arousing genuine interest in future lives — and unpacks the disadvantages of not remembering death: without it, one simply drifts through life absorbed in food and mundane comfort. A Q&A closes by distinguishing gross from subtle impermanence (momentary change, realized through mental consciousness rather than the senses) and explaining why initial-scope practices also become great-scope practice when enlightenment is the practitioner’s ultimate aim.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 LR 2002 04 02.mp3
UUID: 648bff90-fdbd-4b34-a7d2-3008c801f1b6
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Lam Rim 2002 Bodhisattva Deeds (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-04-02
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 43.4 minutes
Words: ~2,793
So yep. Therefore, the great master here also advised that one should have a courage to think that that I shall meditate on impermanence and will meditate on impermanence until I realize the impermanence directly. And if no matter how much time it takes, even for a lifetime, I will meditate it on impermanence until I, yeah, realize it directly. Should not be very short sighted. Like, I shall meditate on this for a couple of days and see how it goes.
You know? Right. Because because even for a certain worldly or mundane job or a work, it takes quite a bit of a time to achieve. And and and yes, even for such a mundane job it takes a while to achieve that so and and what we what we are doing here is completely opposite that we are trying to trying to attain or achieve something which we have which we don’t have any experience or or not used to it since from the beginning beginninglessness Since from the beginningless, which is the we are so used to disturbing emotions and so forth from the from birth to birth and from the very beginning. And and that like impermanence and so forth are the opposite of those which we are not used to it.
And by doing so, even the work must certain mundane job takes a time and a time to achieve something which one has no experience and not used to for numberless numbers of lifetime and doing such will definitely take time. So if really if one really wants to not be shortsighted, then one should really do it towards a demanding job, you know, to try to do as much as you can and put more effort and do yeah. Spend more time on the the the practices. To this, it looks like one should not one should not, you know, go to work. Not not completely.
Not much. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So the great master as we said the great master has advised that don’t be disheartened and always have courage that whatever one does should do it.
One should do it until achieve achieve that. For example, like impermanence. One should have a courage to cultivate impermanence until one one realize impermanence directly. And if it so even if it takes for a lifetime, one one still should have a courage to do so. I would.
That’s Because you think that that because once you think that it is possible to realize impermanence directly, because there have been great masters like Buddhas and so forth who have attained such realizations, and so they have attained —, and why not? Me. But it might take a time, but I should do it. So one should one should not disheartened, always have should be always be a very enthusiastic and then wanted to have have courage to do no matter how how much time it takes. And and and also should not think in this way, think, I wanna quote, I have done this meditation on particular topic for one year or five years.
It’s still not coming, you know. Can’t never think of any excuses. And and thinking that way, it it will take time because from the very beginning, one have one is so used to or accustomed to the opposite one. oneself used to the permanent thinking or yep. Towards the permanent, now when trying to achieve something which is opposite for for for one one where one have been accustomed to.
So therefore, it it it will take time. No. So don’t be disheartened. So it looks like this story of the first Karmapa. One of his disciples approached the Karmapa and said, well, I can’t achieve that.
And no matter how much I meditate on it, I still can’t attain it. And the master Karmapa questioned the student back saying that when did you think? When did you meditate? Because the daytime you just go up and down and wanders everywhere and the nighttime you sleep. So so so yeah.
Yeah. So how come how come you have a time to meditate? Well, when do you meditate? And how come you have a meditate have time to do practice or meditation? Because as we said, daytime, you’re just wanders and, you know, waste that time roaming everywhere, and then that nighttime, you sleeps.
So, yeah, so you can’t develop any realization. It is because you never had a time to do so because daytime you wonders, nighttime you sleeps and even if you do something for one session of meditation you can’t spend the entire session into your practice. Your mind still wonders. So and I can I wonder why you don’t or you can’t develop any realization? So you’re saying that that that habit.
Having without doing a one proper med one session of proper meditation, which is having or presenting or you have including all the requests like motivation and yep actual practices conclusions and so forth that’s becomes the proper meditation or, yeah, proper meditation. And so without doing such a proper meditation session, you know, one or you can’t develop a realization. And and just by reciting the text, so called the Hundred Deities of Tuśita, and then sitting in a meditating posture for one hour and thinking and complaining that I haven’t, I didn’t receive or gain any realization. And that is just not enough practice. All these thoughts arise because of because of being very shortsighted, you know, we of of yep.
The thought of achieving very quickly, attaining something very in in a year or two. So because of having all this short thought, something soon, that’s how one feel disheartened and and tired and so forth. So therefore, the one of the great Kadampa masters said that that one should be very I know. No. The Kadampa master called Geshe Gönpawa has said for, you know, one’s meditation, be very relaxed and have long-term thinking, think for long-term achievement. Mhmm. So and it is very these words are very important. And when one said, you know, be say long or farsighted, which means one should think or look towards the the the Buddhahood. And be excuse me so called the broad minded that one should think, have courage to train in all the parts of the three stages thinking that, I mean, if I do, I can do it.
I can make it. So be very broad minded. And it said that and relax, which means earlier to that said, we brought broad minded, willing willing should have willingness willingness to train in any of the stages, part of this three scopes, and so forth. And by saying so, it doesn’t mean one should, you know, work so hard and until ones get tired and days and nights and so forth. When it says, relax, you know, it means take time, you know, easygoing and one will make it, you know.
So that means then one will won’t complain of being tired and so forth. This is how it said, like, be relaxed or say to take it easy. And and some people, like, goes to the the teaching, you know, or read a book and so forth. And by doing such practices, they develop so called a hare-like renunciation, very easy to blow away. And because of that hare-like renunciation, they work so hard for a couple of days.
I should do this and that. And and and by doing so and that is a sign of not completing anything. So one should not develop that hair-like renunciation. So therefore now one needs to so now therefore it we have reached here to to the point which is to training one’s mind. And as to train your mind, there are three stages: training your mind in stages of the part in common with initial person of initial capacity, common with person of middling and the great capacity.
Now it’s a bit of a confusion part here. Go through the divisions and the subdivisions. So as we said, then training one’s mind, one in three trainings, which has been put the training one’s mind part in common with the initial person of initial capacity, middling and the great capacity. And the first one, which is called training one’s mind in the part in common with the person of initial capacity, it has two main divisions, which is so called the arousing one’s interest in future lives and adopting the method for attaining happiness in future life. And now for the first one, arousing an interest in the future lives, it has two divisions, two subdivisions, which are which are number a, remembering death and the fact remembering death and the fact that you will not remain longer in this world.
And the second one. Yep. Thinking about what will happen in future lives and about the sufferings and happiness of two kinds of rebirths. And then as for the first subdivision, which arousing an interest in future lives, three main divisions subdivisions, which are the disadvantages of not remembering death, the benefits of remembering death, and the actual way of remembering death.
Just a bit of up and down, but you can So now we are on to the first subdivision of that subdivision, which is this disadvantage of not thinking about death. So the and So now we are on to the disadvantages of not remembering death. The first one is called the disadvantage that if you don’t remember death, you will not remember the teachings. Yep. And the second one is the disadvantage that you will not practice even if you remember the teachings.
So if one does not or, yeah, does not recall or remember death, then one will waste one life by by cultivating or thinking for food and the clothes of today and by saying today and today, and it continues, it goes, and at the end one ended up spending whole life cultivating, looking after food, and cult collecting lots of clothes, and that that’s how one wasted one’s life. Because I myself, because I’m not recalling the death, my time is more or less like that, and I’m thinking about food and then in a sudden kind of happiness in this life, of this life, and this is how my time goes. Now what about you guys? So because, you know, in earlier the text remembered if it’s a real practitioner, then if there is a choice, the practice or a work, the practice if the real practitioner will choose the practice and give up the job, and you and you can think of yourself, you know, what you what which one you choose. Yeah.
It is very, very important or or one can one one should think of because because it does not necessarily that that one can practice properly if one remembers death because because there are numbers of religion in here on the non religious person, a religious person that the person of who practice Muslim, Christians, and so forth. But I’m sure they some, they they do remember death, but we can’t say they do a practice. Because when they because we can say that when they remember of death, you know, they seek for a refuge in which is their refuge. And according to us, whether their refuge or their practice is a pure practice or not, it’s really difficult to say. So as we said in the earlier classes, if one recall to death, then one started to get make preparation towards the next rebirth or one’s migration and to this.
No. So yep. And we’ll take a couple of questions if you have. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. When we say the realized impermanent directly, and that refers towards the subtle impermanence, which is called the momentarily changes. Because if one realizes that subtle impermanence, which is momentarily changing, and if one realizes that subtle impermanence directly, then changes of death or impermanence of death is is not a subtle one. The one can Yeah. So “directly realizing impermanence” refers towards the subtle impermanence — not towards like, you know, the cup breaks, or the flood, or fire, or thinking like — you know, that doubt: am I going to die today or tomorrow?
So those are called the gross impermanence, not the subtle one. Is that what your question was? Yes. Or you’re saying: what do you mean by directly realizing impermanence? Yeah.
It is it is been, yep, Directly realized by so called the mental consciousness, not just by the the organs, like the the but eventually, the the subtle impermanence can’t be seen. You know, it’s not the, you know, visionary that one can see. That is to actualize or realize through the mental consciousness. Have you done the Lorig in the study group yet? You’ve done.
Alright. I’m sure you used it. So what it means is because to realize impermanence directly, first, it has to be realized by so called the inferential cognition. And that is so called, for example, take one’s body as example. And our body is impermanent.
It’s also a subtle impermanence because it momentarily changes. So with that reason, that inferential cognition, one realizes the body is impermanent. And through this, then that inferential cognition turns so called the conceptual. So that without those all the statements like body is such and such because of that and that it’s impermanence without that then the conceptual realizes and gradually that conceptual turns into so called the perception and that perception is the one which realize the impermanence directly. And so you should understand here when we said training one’s mind in yeah in the path in common with the person of initial capacity what that means is one’s main aim or final goal is to attain enlightenment. And along with that, because for that purpose, then one trains in the meditation or impermanence and so forth.
So by doing so, the reason why the when it said in common with, once practice not only becomes the practice of the small scope or initial capacity, it also becomes the practice of the great scope as well. That is the reason it says the common width. Otherwise, it just goes straight through the path of the person of initial capacity. That’s why it is so called the common width, because it becomes also the practice of the great scope because one’s main goal is to attain enlightenment. Did you get that?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay.
I can’t quite get it. Yeah. You did, actually. The you you back to your first question, was should one stick, you know, to mainly stick spend one’s life training in the in it for a lower scope and then achieve the higher reput and continue the next in steps in the next life. But So what what Geshe-la says here is that it is like for to take care of the building, the foundation as example.
Your aim is to build a very, very nice and firm roof, beautiful roof. In order to do that, one needs to have a firm foundation. So you’ve got to spend reasonable amount of time to make a beautiful and strong foundation. On the basis of that, can your main you spend lots of time there, but your main purpose or aim is to make the beautiful roof. So likewise, by and spend your entire life even it takes to realize impermanence directly.
The purpose of doing so is to attain enlightenment. And by doing so, you want to spend on that impermanence or the part the initial capacity. But because of your aim to attain enlightenment, which is like a roof, therefore, not only your practice becomes this practice of small scope, it also becomes the practice of great scope as well. That’s what Geshe-la meant. May all those who wish for liberation be found in the family of peace and the Buddha’s taste of Dharma within a long time, while even inauspicious thoughts may not be completed due to the whole and spacious conduct of the Buddhas and their sons.
May human and nonhuman beings limitless in diversity be made to increase the practice of virtue and abandon non-virtue. Never lose heart in any of their lives when guided first by the Buddhas. Whenever someone makes an effort to action in the path of the tenfold Mahāyāna virtuous practice, may they always receive auspicious signs, and may auspiciousness and prosperity spread everywhere.