Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A common misconception — that monks escape saṃsāra because mountains and family life constitute cyclic existence — opens this 45-minute Lamrim commentary by Geshe Pema Tsering. He corrects it precisely: saṃsāra is the continuum of the contaminated body, not the external world. He then argues that recognizing saṃsāra’s faults is the prerequisite for liberation — a prisoner, he notes, only wants out once he grasps the prison’s misery — before turning to the Four Noble Truths as the Buddha’s first teaching. He explains why results are presented before causes in the teaching sequence, and why the Truths are called “noble” because superior beings see them free of inherent existence. The Q&A closes with a striking story: an insect accidentally circumambulating a relic stupa is reborn as the monk Könchog Palge, illustrating how virtuous objects confer merit even without conscious intention.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 LR 2002 04 30.mp3
UUID: 537b5350-db03-4178-bb65-82157ac74cc3
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Lam Rim 2002 Bodhisattva Deeds (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002-04-30
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.2 minutes
Words: ~2,649
So where we are tied up by the rope of disturbing emotions and karma is in terms of rebirths, we are tied up in the rebirth, any of the rebirths of six realms. Yep, six realms, three good migrations and three bad migrations. And in terms of birth, are in four types of birth. Under the influence of disturbing emotion and karma, we rebirth in any of those realms. So cyclic existence or saṃsāra here, some people misinterpret cyclic existence.
Some people think, you know, the mountains and hills, rivers and the earth and being in a family — lay people living in a family — and so forth, are saṃsāra or cyclic existence, and that by becoming a monk or a nun, one is free from saṃsāra. Some people have that sort of idea, but which is wrong idea. So, all those hills, mountains and so forth, they are in Samsāra and they are the matters or things of Samsāra. They are constituents of saṃsāra, but they are not saṃsāra itself. So as for the saṃsāra, there are different sources from the different different interpretation interpretation from the different scholars.
For example, some scholars say that which enters in the mother’s womb is so called saṃsāra. And according to the Seventh Dalai Lama, the continuum of the contaminated — that is, the continuum of the contaminated body — is saṃsāra or cyclic existence. So therefore we need to cut the continuum of the contaminated body. And in order to do so, one needs to abandon the causes the contaminated body aggregates which are which are the disturbing emotions and the karma. So in order to develop a mind that wish to attain liberation or nirvana from cyclic existence, first one needs to recognize the faults or advantages, disadvantages of taking rebirth in cyclic existence. Without knowing the faults of the cyclic existence one will not develop a wish to free from cyclic existence.
It is like the prisoner to free from prison, first prisoner should understand or should recognize the faults, the disadvantages of being in the jail or prison like how many sufferings are there, additional suffering the prisoners suffer than the ordinary people who are not in the prison, so forth. And by knowing the sufferings in the prison, the prisoner will develop a wish to free from the prison. If the prisoner finds very comfortable and happy, easy going in prison, then he doesn’t want to get out or he or she, yeah, do not want to get out of the, yeah, the prison. In the text called the Four Hundred Stanzas it is stated that the scholars will see the faults of cyclic existence, the faults of higher rebirths, and the liberation which is free from cyclic existence. So here the scholars refer to the bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas recall and they find. They recall the faults — the faults of the higher rebirths like human rebirths, gods, demigods — and the liberation which is free from cyclic existence. By seeing the faults of those realms, then they develop a bodhicitta to attain enlightenment. So in order to train one’s mind to develop a wish, attain liberation. There are two ways of developing a wish to free from cyclic existence as we stated earlier: the method through the Four Noble Truths, and the second one is through the twelve links of dependent origination.
And here, which follows training through the Four Noble Truths. So it’s because the Buddha, Lord Buddha Śākyamūni. The Buddha Śākyamūni gave his first teaching was Four Noble Truths and that is and through the training or through the teaching of Four Noble Truths to encourage people to attain a wish to free from cyclic existence through training their minds in the Four Noble Truths.
And the Four Noble Truths was the first teaching of Lord Buddha Śākyamūni and that was taught to the five disciples That is showing the the true suffering, true origin of the suffering, true cessation, and the true path. So he first taught to those five disciples saying, this is true suffering, this is true origin of the suffering, this true cessation and the true path. And after that, Lord Buddha Śākyamūni taught should recognize the suffering, abandon the origin of the suffering, actualize the cessation and meditate the path.
And then after that, the great master Lord Buddha Śākyamūni said, should recognize should recognize the suffering but do not recognize it. And, And abandon the two origins of the suffering but do not abandon it. It’s a very complicated one. Actualize this true cessation but do not actualize it and meditate the path but do not meditate it. So what it means is when it says, Recognize the suffering but do not recognize it means do not recognize it as inherently existent.
So likewise, abandon the true origin of the suffering but do not abandon it as inherently existent. And likewise actualize the true cessation but do not actualize the inherent existence and one meditates the path but do not meditate on the inherent existence. So those are the twelve lines, right? Four, four, four — twelve was the first the wheel of Dharma, the first teaching taught by Lord Buddha Śākyamūni. And so by teaching those twelve lines, some of the disciples attained the path of seeing of the
The path of seeing of the hearers’ path, and some attained the preparation path, and some attained so called the stream enterer. And so this is how it happens when the the time and, yeah, during the, yeah, the time and the disciples, the mind are very, how we say? Not right. When the so fertile, isn’t it? Fertile, you know, like.
Yeah. Good old days. The five degeneration time, that was not during the time of degeneration. It was before. So those five disciples, their minds are very easy to develop realizations.
For example, if we practice and imprint a lot of predispositions in our mind stream and gradually when the next Buddha, the Maitreya Buddha turns the wheel of Dharma and we take rebirth during the time of Maitreya Buddha, Maitreya Buddha and receive just by hearing one teaching easily attains the any yep, the say the realizations. And so likewise, those five disciples, first five disciples, you know, they they have cultivated numbers of predispositions or latencies during the the earlier Buddhas but they are through many practices and and they were born at the time of Lord Buddha Śākyamūni and just by receiving a one teaching they can easily attain the the, yep, realizations. So when we say the first wheel of Dharma, the first teaching of Lord Buddha Śākyamūni and there was only the first teaching, the wheel turning the wheel of Dharma, first one is only twelve lines, the actual teaching. So they are so called the Four Noble Truths. And the truth — which means — actually the Four Noble Truths are the conventional truths.
But the reason why they are called the Four Noble Truths is because in reality they are not just ordinary truths. But they are called the Four Noble Truths, it is because the Four Noble Truths exists the way they appear to the superior beings. And so how the Four Noble Truths appears to the superior beings is they those supreme beings sees the Four Noble Truths are free of inherent existence. And this for that reason, because they see them as free of inherent existence, that’s the reason that that teaching is so called the Four Noble Truths. Yeah.
So the Four Noble Truths, the true suffering origin of the suffering, true cessation and the path. And in terms of cause and effect or in terms of developing the Four Noble Truths, the cause and effect or the way of developing, the first true origin comes because true origin is the cause of the suffering. Then comes the suffering and comes the path, true path. By meditating on the path one actualizes the cessation or attains cessation. So in terms of cause and effect, the true origin comes first, then suffering comes next and then path and the true cessation.
But during the actual teaching, the teaching, the first, the true suffering was taught first and then the origin of the suffering and then the cessation and the path. The reason why those cause, the result comes before the cause in the actual teaching is because the teaching was taught in terms of ways people practice, how practice should be done. So because of the way how the practice is done and for that reason the Four Noble Truths was set forth, the true suffering and the origin of the suffering. By seeing or recognizing the sufferings, then one will abandon the causes of the suffering and by seeing or knowing this liberation or cessation, then one cultivates a path to attain the cessation. So this is how the Four Noble Truths was set forth.
So those who wish to wish to free from cyclic existence must study or train in the four noble truths. The what what what is to be abandoned and what is to be attained. Did you understand? It is a very difficult one here to understand, but you will understand sooner or later, you will get better. And even if you don’t understand, one is still yep.
So one by hearing such teachings, one will, leave a very good predisposition or or imprints on one’s mind. So and so for that reason for that reason, I gone through this explanation because one cultivates numbers of predisposition or Yeah. Because because those five, the five first five disciples, they have, cultivated numerous predispositions during the time of earlier Buddhas and as a result of that, when they first received the teaching from the Lord Buddha Śākyamūni, they attained all these realizations — became stream enterers and so forth.
So for that reason and because this was the first teaching of Lord Buddha Śākyamūni taught and that and so that is yes. For that reason, to to leave a good imprint in our mind stream, I went through all this explanation. So we’ll stop here today and you we’ll yeah. And take next five minutes for question and answers. So when we say the hills and so forth are the things or matters of the Samsāra or so called they are upheld by the Samsāra, because they are also projected by the disturbing emotions and the karma but they are projected by the disturbing emotions and the karma.
But the actual saṃsāra is the continuum of the body or aggregates that continues from body to body is so called the saṃsāra. This one. Yeah. So I think it said the the the mountains or hills so forth are not saṃsāra. It is because they are not the continuum of the contaminated body or they are not tied up by the disturbing they are the result of or projected by the disturbing emotion and the karma but they are not bound by the disturbing emotion and the karma.
And it’s also not the continuum of the contaminated body, so called contaminated body. Therefore, the hills and mountains are not the saṃsāra. So therefore, Geshe-la said, to simplify it then, the samsaric existence is or the saṃsāra is the continuum of the contaminated body. For example, it’s So the saṃsāra is the continuum of the contaminated body or to make it simplified then it should be a part of that person or so called the ‘I’. Whereas mountains and hills or so, mountains, hills, house and so forth are not the part of the so called the ‘I’, the ‘I’ that which is labeled under five aggregates.
So here, they are upheld by the continuum of the person or of the I or so called, as we said, they are part of the particular I which means that to be a part of that particular I or not means that, for example, if doing something for that, for example, yeah, that causes a pain or happiness, not just saying the feeling now here, saying, you know, by destroying the hills or house and so forth, you know, physically, the person won’t suffer anything or get any kind of feeling. So this is, therefore, so this is the way it meant a part of the person. Can I correct here something? When we say practicing the with the motivation of attaining the not only attending only happiness just happiness in this present life is not a practice. Or it’s not a proper practice.
Yeah. That’s what we said. Yeah. To clarify the word you used. Right?
Yeah. And So the way the When you say you? Q: Geshe-la, it’s exceptional case. The so doing you know, the pleasing one’s spiritual guru, for example, like yeah, doing a practice to please one’s spiritual master, for example, like that and such and that practice has become a good practice or a proper practice because, even though you don’t have any like, your main motivation is to please one’s spiritual master. And that practice will become a very good practice actually because, because of the power of the field here in the field, which means the field is one’s spiritual master.
And such practice is so it’s it’s a good practice. And yeah, they are like, because such practice — doing such practice to attract or please one’s spiritual master — and that practice has become a very good practice and cultivate numbers of virtues and it is because of through the power of the field or object. For example, like, the motivation of bodhicitta or bodhicitta and in order to save certain numbers of people and kill somebody because killing a single person means to save the numbers of lives and so the act of killing is a non virtuous action but by doing so one cultivate huge and that is to be done by the bodhicitta or bodhicitta and such practice and such action, there is a non virtuous action because act of of killing, but one actually because it is done by through the under the motivation of altruistic intention, one cultivates. It becomes a very good practice as well as one cultivates the numbers of virtues act virtues or merits. It’s because of the field which is numbers of lives.
Once, the so called — you know — Könchog Palge? The Tibetan name is Könchog Palge. There was the one who became a monk and attained nirvana. Yes, Könchog Palge. It’s a Tibetan name.
And there is Sanskrit name I don’t remember. But he once, he was- And once, in one of his previous lives, he was a little ant or insect, and there was a stupa which contains Buddhist relics, with a huge waterway — a river or moat — circling around the stupa. That insect was sitting on a small leaf or something, and that leaf was carried around to circumambulate the stupa.
And that insect had no motivation, there’s nothing. But as a result of doing the circumambulation and there was a very auspicious coincidence and because through the power of the field which is the stupa that contains the relics of the Buddha, as a result of that, that insect was born as a human, who is Könchog Palge, and later on became a monk and a great practitioner. So it is because of the power of the field. So it is because of the field. So without motivation, if one pays huge respect and makes offerings to the Buddhas, Dharma, great masters, and so forth.
And because of the power of that field, you know, one cultivates numbers of virtues even though there is no motivation. And likewise, and if one disrespects and so forth, it goes vice versa.