Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 44-minute commentary, Geshe Pema Tsering opens with a striking claim: the bullet that kills a soldier is not the real killer — self-cherishing attitude is. This reframe anchors the session’s central topic from the Lam Rim mind-training sequence: what it actually means to exchange self and others (shifting from self-cherishing to cherishing others, not a literal identity swap). Drawing on Geshe Chekawa’s Seven Point Mind Training and Śāntideva’s Engaging in Bodhisattva Deeds, Geshe Pema traces self-cherishing as the hidden cause of personal misfortune — chronic illness, court cases, food poisoning — and of conflict between nations and within families. A traditional story about a Chöd practitioner accidentally killed while settling a spirit-engineered dispute between his benefactors clinches the argument. The session closes by noting that mind training treats self-cherishing and self-grasping as a single root of all suffering in saṃsāra.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 LR Exchanging self with others – Aug.mp3
UUID: ac8ef3a9-fe37-4265-8db9-5f4588224480
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Lam Rim 2002 Bodhisattva Deeds (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.5 minutes
Words: ~3,053
The great master Geshe Chekawa in his mind training text called the seven point mind training stated that, you know, you should give profit and victory for others and take loss and defeat for oneself. And at this point, the teaching was on the training of equalizing and exchanging self and others. What it meant is when we say when Guru master said, give profit and victory to others, which means, and give, you know, all the profits and victories like happiness and so forth in this life for others. By doing so, that you won’t in in reality, you are you are you are not lost because by doing so, we’ll give a long long term or long run happiness and profit for you in future lives. Whereas if you do it or vice versa, you know, instead of getting instead of attaining the enjoyment and happiness of this life, And for that purpose, you know, fighting with others, defeating others, and taking all the profit, one may have certain happiness, but in long run-in future it will bring loss or defeat for oneself.
So therefore so therefore, shows that one should give up oneself and work for the betterment of others. For that purpose, should try to cultivate, you know, the altruistic intention or bodhicitta that is to attain enlightenment for the sake of entire sentient beings. So therefore so whatever action one undertakes, and it should be should should do it for the aim of of bringing sent letting sentient beings to have happiness and to reach the enlightenment. And by doing so, is is working for others. So we shall do a short meditation here with the motivation that for that purpose to bring sentient beings into the state of ultimate happiness, which is enlightenment, for that purpose may all the practices are performed, or practices of listening, contemplating, meditation, yeah, meditation, so forth will become a cause for me to attain enlightenment, yeah, to become enlightened in order to bring sentient beings to the state of ultimate happiness.
And there The the the Yeah. So Geshe-la said that he might have seen somebody sitting on the book, which is not good. Is there any is anybody sitting on the text or sitting on the book? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. No. Is it under the chair? No. That’s under the chair on It wouldn’t be that.
Just like to make this not to be good to under the chair as well, actually. Sorry. In terms of the refuge teachings that the the the text and the books, which are representations of the teaching, second Dharma, second refuge. It’s not good to be placed under yet one’s chair or one’s cushion or to be nakedly left on the floor. It’s always good to keep them elevated as much as one can.
Oh, yeah. So Yeah. Think you can just read this. That. So on that particular motivation, we shall here do a short meditation.
The last week’s question about the eight ripening qualities is a different interpretation, actually. We went through the text, the Tibetan text, not the English one. And it’s actually mainly translated as the eight ripening results, or eight ripening qualities, which is what we normally say. So, yeah, now. So it’s set forth a ripening qualities in which are like long life, long lifespan, great powers, good resources or the wealth, and then being born in a royal caste or in a good caste, And then being born as a human, had good strength or powers, good figure, good colors.
These are the no. And this one? Yeah. It’s sometimes a problem with the translation terms, individual translators with different terms. And what it says is by maintaining patience, you know, and we can what score?
Receive all these qualities. You’re meant to bond beautiful. The next line. Oh. Oh, yeah.
So so now we reach the second division, which is to training how to train your mind by equalizing, exchanging self and others. So in order to do so, before doing so, first one need to know how to change or equalize and change self from others. So when in terms of speaking exchanging and equalizing self from others, it doesn’t mean you have to change self from others. What it means is it it’s one has to change the self-cherishing attitude and cherishing others. Right?
So in order to exchange self-cherishing attitude and cherishing others, first one needs to know what is or which are or what is the self-cherishing attitude and what is cherishing others. So doing so, then first one needs to think about the faults of cherishing self or yourself or self from many points of views, and then and then the benefits of cherishing others from many points of view. So in terms of this, now we need to think about the benefits of cherishing others and disadvantages of cherishing self. So for those faults and the advantages which are stated in the Guru Puja text, in his Guru Puja text, in his Guru Puja text, said that self-cherishing attitude or cherishing self is your self-cherishing attitude is the door for all the miseries or faults. And the attitude of cherishing others is the door for all the good qualities, which means it’s the opposite of self-cherishing attitude.
From through this or from self-cherishing attitude, then all the sufferings and miseries come. And by cherishing others, which means sentient beings or others, then all the qualities like happiness and pleasantness, etcetera, will come through cherishing others. And also, great master Śāntideva, in his Engaging in Bodhisattva Deeds, said all the sufferings of the cyclic existence — which means that the sentient beings in cyclic existence come from wishing for individual happiness or wishing for and working for self happiness. So this implies that although the the root of all the the sufferings of the cyclic existence is the self-cherishing attitude or or the ignorance of self-cherishing attitude.
And also, Geshe Chekawa in his seven point mind training, the sufferings are from self and think of the kindness of others — roughly translated — which means is all the sufferings and miserables when come it’s coming or can come from self-cherishing attitude or concerning or considering oneself more important than others. The sentient beings, others are not for blame. You know, they didn’t do anything. They are very kind. So just be kind to them or or or remember their kindness.
And they are not for the blame, for your miserable or suffering. Because your sufferings and everything come from the self-cherishing attitude. So all these unwanted sufferings you receive, one receives, it’s all all because of self-cherishing attitude, because of wishing one’s to individual or oneself to happiness or to have happy happiness. And because of that attitude, you know, wishing oneself happy, then striving for happiness for self and working to perform all different types of activities. And due to this, you know, and causing and hurting others and so forth as a result, because one has to go perform, cultivate all these hardships or negative actions in order to receive individual happiness.
Due to this, all the suffering comes. For example, all the sentient beings and like in the different realms, like, you know, the hell beings, hungry ghosts, so forth. So because of their individual happiness or individual wishes, and they try to achieve that, and then all the actions of different types of non virtuous actions are performed, like killing and stealing from others, and then being miserly, being miserly, etcetera. So the root of the sufferings lead to the self-cherishing attitude. And because because of the self-cherishing, wishing oneself happy, and therefore due to this and all these different types of sufferings, you know, people face or one goes through, like, you know, different types of disease, chronic disease, cancer, and then the the the the fear fear of enemies and fear of fear of going through the the the the the what’s this called?
You know, detention from the court cases and so forth. All this comes because of because of self-cherishing and and of considering and of working for oneself. And due to this, perform the different action as a result, suffering, different types of suffering comes. Indeed, is that? So all yep.
The trouble between countries, within families, within friends, all this the misery or the chaos, you know, comes of self-cherishing out of the country, you know, our own country’s benefit, you know, causing other problem to other countries and within the family, in the couple, you know, and the friends. And the causes happens because the things are not going or happening the way one wish, you know, and due to this, all the wonderful problem comes. You know? So instead of doing, like, you know, we’re concerning with self wishes, self happiness, and wonder, I don’t care about myself, I do whatever you want.
And so forth. If you say so, not this problem will never come. So in a in a suffering of death caused from, you know, the, you know, consuming poisons or food poison and so forth. So all individual individual who comes from a self-cherishing attitude, you know, wishing to have happiness and like delicious cuisine and all those things, you know, and eating anything while you see. Sometimes you’re not careful enough and encounter with the, you know, poisons or, you know, bad foods, if it caused life, food poison, so forth.
And then it will that will cause one to go through the suffering of death. So all this self-cherishing attitude or self happiness, and both of those which arise in our mind will cause entire miseries and sufferings. For example, like getting killed in a war or in a fight through the bullet and so forth. People might say that he’s been killed by a bullet or so forth. Actually, a bullet is not the one who kills you.
It’s yourself because because of self happiness or self wishing things, and that makes you restless to do something, and of course, what make you to fight with the person to achieve your concern or your wish or your, you know, your your wish. And due to this, an action happens and you got killed. The thing is it was you who activated to kill yourself, not the bullet. So all the faults, the numbers of faults have been mentioned, you know, of the self-cherishing attitude, cause entire sufferings. For example, like, the self-cherishing attitude, you know, steals every goodness from you, like steals your precious human rebirth, steals attainment of higher rebirth, enlightenment, liberations.
And also the Buddhas of the three times have taught numbers of teachings to bring benefit to sentient beings and let sentient beings enter the practices or the Dharma and that self-cherishing attitude even puts you away from doing a practice or entering into the teachings. And for even further worse, that the self-cherishing, by having the self-cherishing attitude, then self-cherishing attitude will make you like a fertile soil or a land to grow all the miserables of cyclic existence. Right. So and for the further even in the worst situation and if one has a strong self-cherishing attitude and that makes you feel, that makes you shameless — or not, can I say the word, embarrassed or something.
So with no embarrass embarrassment and shameless, then will let you do let you make make yourself uncontrolled to any action, even like a very shameless actions, not like in the terms of the, like, starvation times. And if you’re so desperate and then because of the self-cherishing attitude, you might that — that self-cherishing attitude might lead you to perform actions like, you know, killing one’s masters or one’s parents and dear ones just for the mere food. So this self-cherishing attitude has been with you since from the beginningless of the cycle of existence, and it never had a single good quality. Instead, it’s been harming you for all the time and had been a source for the entire faults and suffering. Give me a sec.
I forget to continue. Sorry, So So so the self-cherishing attitude is the one which brings entire immeasurables and the immeasurable negative actions. Example, like, you know, the self-cherishing attitude, which makes you be miserly about things and makes you to criticize, cause you to criticize others. And it’s self-cherishing. It’s the one, you know, if you receive some praise or a praise, you feel happy.
If you receive complaints, feel down. And and roughly and also the self-cherishing attitude in it has lead you to the suffering since from the very beginning of the suffering existence or from the beginningless of the suffering cyclic existence. So up till now, you know, what happened? We have that self-cherishing attitude. And up till now, we never realized, we never recognized that that self-cherishing attitude is the one which is the one for all the root cause for all the miserables and the suffering.
And instead of getting rid of the self-cherishing attitude, which we had from the very beginningless of the cyclic existence, we instead, we’re supporting that self-cherishing attitude. Been supporting. And there is a story in the past in Tibet that the great Chöd practitioner is a type of tantric practitioner who does the so-called cutting ritual (Chöd). They mainly does the cutting ritual practice during the nighttime. And and it turns out that that the cutting practitioner, he built a house or a house or a ritual hut or a cave in a place where there lives one spirit.
So the spirit was very annoyed and wanted to harm the the the the practitioner. And since the practitioner is a practitioner during all this cutting rituals and so forth, and he cannot be harmed by the spirit. So the spirit looked for many ways to harm. So he finally figured out there’s two benefactors for the practitioner. And instead of because he failed to harm the practitioner, the spirit harmed caused a problem between the two benefactors.
And then the two benefactors having a bad time, and they started to have a combat. And during that time, the practitioner went down, you know, probably he saw them — the two owners or the benefactors — were in the middle of action. And he tried to, you know, console them and persuade and settle them. So between that time, all the actions are happening with a sword and things, and accidentally one of the benefactors, you know, hit the practitioner, and practitioner got killed. So so so that happens.
It’s not the spirit who kill the practitioner. It’s it’s he he himself killed because of his self-cherishing attitude or self happiness or self benefit because because those two benefactors helping him. So he doesn’t want to have any hurt because if it’s going to be if he doesn’t solve the problem, they’re going to have a problem for his, what is called, the funds. So this was set forth that he was killed not by the spirit but because of his self-cherishing attitude. So the great master, Śāntideva, in his Engaging in Bodhisattva Deeds also stated that oneself, for the self-cherishing attitude, from the very beginningless of the saṃsāra or cyclic existence had worked tremendously, restless, very hard, being restless, very hard, and always working for the self happiness or and concern for self up till now, for many years and years up till now, but it has never been helpful.
It never brought you any happiness. Instead, it it makes you to cultivate the many causes for the suffering. Right? And, yeah, that is so true because because since from the beginning of the saṃsāra, and we have been cultivating, you know, wishing happiness and and want and and and trying to cultivate the cause for happiness. And due to the ignorance of self grasping attitude, and that direct you towards the negative direction or the wrong side.
And due to this, you know, in in which we think we’re cultivating a cause for happiness, but but instead of doing so because of the self-cherishing and ignorance of self grasping attitude, which is doing a wrong thing up to now and keep cultivating a causes for the causes for the sufferings. And and as a result of this, you know, we, you know, we receive all these types of happiness, sufferings like suffering of pervasive conditioning, suffering of change. It is so true. For example, think of yourself. The moment you wake up in the morning and do your entire activities, you know.
So mostly, you know, we’re doing it for the happiness of this life of thinking how one’s alive and how to maintain one’s life, so forth. And in terms of cherishing others and working for others’ benefits, you know, for attaining liberation or enlightenment could be one or two activities you have done, most of the things just for the self-cherishing attitude. Right? So it is, yeah, it is so true, as we said, from the very beginning of the cycle. We have circled in the cyclic existence numberless of times, in each lifetime, working for self happiness because of self-cherishing attitude and working for the mundane samsaric happiness, working for them.
And as a result of that, we receive the results of those actions which lead you back into the samsaric existence again and then goes to the suffering. And you do keep repeating the actions again and again. So and this is how we circle in the samsaric existence and go through the suffering. So every actions, you know, unless the action has been upheld or activated by the motivation of altruistic intention and the renunciation, then which action every action, you know, unless with those motivation, the rest actions are just brings you into the cyclic existence and goes through the leads to the suffering again. Got So in terms of self-cherishing attitude and self grasping attitude, Usually those are the two types of mind.
But in the teachings of the mind training teachings, they are considered to be one, saying that both of them are the root of all these miserables and the sufferings.