Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Graphic descriptions of the eight hot hells — beings cut along black lines, crushed between iron mountains, and boiled in cauldrons for cosmic durations — dominate the second half of this nearly two-hour Lamrim commentary by Geshe Pema Tsering. The session first establishes why those descriptions matter: at death you cannot take loved ones, possessions, or even your body, so only Dharma helps. Geshe Potowa’s image of a meditator who sheds all attachment to this life sets up the session’s core claim: genuine realization of impermanence drives practice the way financial need drives work. A Q&A covers whether hell guardians are real beings (they are karmic apparitions, not agents) and why even severe human suffering is, by comparison, happiness. For practitioners following the Lamrim sequence.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 28 2008 08 14 BP.mp3
UUID: 8a15ca48-e589-4893-966f-42ecc996a912
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Lam Rim (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2008-08-14
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 112.4 minutes
Words: ~7,953
So, again, Geshe-la was then telling us to give rise to good motivation and with intention of accomplishing enlightenment for the sake of benefiting all sentient beings, then we are going to study listen and study to to the teachings on on Lambrim, and we are going to practice again the teachings on Lambrim. And in this way, we aim we give rise a proper motivation as well. Would you like to lead the prayers? We have. No.
The Heart Sūtra. One should practice the profound perfection of wisdom just as you have indicated, even until the goddess rejoiced. The Bhagavan having thus spoken, the Bhagavan was. So then we’re approaching the next topic, which is of the the three roots is the third the third root, on the contemplation of of the mindfulness of impermanence and death. And it it goes it is at the time of death, nothing except for the dharma will be of benefit.
And we have this topic. We have the actual reasons decision that is the result of this contemplation. As for the actual reason, we have three, and the first one is is telling us that we cannot take our friends and loved ones along with us. So text, I was reading the text saying thus when you see that you have to go to another world, even if it at that time you are surrounded by loving grieving friends and relatives, you cannot take even one of them alone. Geshe-la was then just again saying the same thing saying again it doesn’t matter our father, our mother, our friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives, loved ones, whoever it is that is around us grieving or none of them will be able to come with us when we die.
So then the next one is saying that you cannot take possessions along. And again, whatever heaps of attractive riches you have obtained, you cannot even take along even a small particle of it. And Geshe-la was saying, doesn’t matter how much how how much wealth, how rich one may be, how many possessions one may have. Again, none of it. All of it will have to be left behind.
And then the the the third reason, again, you cannot take even your body along with you. If you have to give up even the flesh and bones that you were born with, what need to talk of anything else? So, Geshe-la, let’s start briefly saying, so again, are the three reasons. And and so if that is the case, what is it that benefits us at time of death? And the only thing that benefits us is the Dharma.
So our spiritual practice. And then that leads us on the next topic, the decision, which is the the decision. The decision to practice nothing but Dharma. And as for the decision, the topic has three parts. Again, the actual decision itself.
You need to try hard since it is the foundation of the path. And again, how to carry out the practice of all the excellent scriptures of the Buddhas. And the first one, the actual decision itself, because I was going through the text again, then think, at that time, it will certainly come to pass that all the excellences of this life leaves me just as I I leave them, and I will proceed to another world. This will happen today. You should make the decision many times to practice the Dharma without submitting to the power of conditions like the body, frames, and possessions.
And Geshe-la was reading the the last sentence of this of this commentary saying, again, we should not allow ourselves to come under the power of the of the of the faulty influences of body, friends, and possessions. And Geshe-la was just saying, again, the reason we do not actually practice Dharma is because we come under the influence of these three, and we come under the influence of of our body. And, again, we cannot practice the Dharma because of that. So and then again, we have to make the decision. Many times, so again, we we we we stop thinking about our friend family, friends, and loved ones and so forth.
We stop thinking about wealth, material possessions, acquisition of all that sort of thinking about our body. So imagine we make the decision that I will practice only Dharma. And then we approach the next topic, which is the need to to work hard since it is a foundation of the path. And the the text is just saying again that we’re studying although that even though it is it is difficult to practice, again, we should try hard since it is the foundation of the path. Guess I was just saying, again, it is the practice of the path is is hard, but just because it is hard, we shouldn’t leave it aside.
We shouldn’t give give up on it. We should still make effort to practice it. So Geshe-la is saying, again, we we have to we have to it is it is very difficult. It’s very hard, but still we have to make effort. And it is hard because we’re being asked to give up attachment, to get rid of their attachment towards our loved ones, our our possessions, our wealth and possessions, and to our body.
So giving up attachment to these things already is very difficult, and then and then we should make the decision to practice our spiritual practice and and to practice it now from this moment onwards. And and the reason, Geshe-la explained, the reason is that, again, we have this this very good conditions right now. We we have the knowledge of the path, and and we know how to practice it. And there is no guarantee of what is gonna come about in the future. So, again, if we do not practice and we keep on postponing it, there is no guarantee of which bodies or which worlds, in which conditions we will be born in the future, and there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to practice again in the future.
So now is is the chance that we have. And this this is why we need we need to practice. And then, Geshe-la was reading the quote from Geshe Potowa. Again, these these are my meditations and teachings and teachings and teachings and teachings on impermanence, illuminating my appearances. So then and and I was just asking the the translator translated it as my appearance is illuminating my appearances.
And and I was asking, so what what is this expression in Tibetan here actually means in Geshe-la answered, illuminating the the appearances of this life, everything concerning to he himself and to everything in this life. And then so illuminating the appearance of this life through eliminating all the appearances of this life, close relationships, possessions, and the like, and aware that I will go here and there to another life alone without anything wishing to not be attached to this life, I think there is nothing to do other than to practice the Dharma. As long as this attitude attitude has not arisen in my mind, I will sit with the paths to all the Dharma blocked. Is that is that okay? And, again, going back to the last sentence.
And as long as this understanding does not arise all all the the the doorway, all the paths to to that lead to Dharma practice will be blocked. So, again, as long as this realization of impermanence and death is does not arise in one’s in one’s mind, again, the practice of one’s once Dharma practice will be closed or the path of Dharma practice will be closed or blocked. And and Geshe-la was saying, if we would think about it, we can see that this is actually so. Without realizing impermanence and death, we can see how we will not be have any reason. We will not find any reason to practice actual Dharma practice or spiritual practice.
We’ll have no interest in practicing. We’ll be actually involved in the activities that pertain to this life alone. And there is a there is a quote then from Geshe Potowa which says, incidentally, if you accumulate the collections and purify obscurations, make requests to the deities and your guru, and contemplating death together with perseverance, even that which you think will not come about for a hundred years will come about effortlessly for compounded phenomena do not remain static as they are. This one. And then and again, Geshe-la is is saying that this is actually if we make effort and if we habituate ourselves, if we familiarize ourselves, then as Śāntideva says, there is nothing that doesn’t become easier through familiarization, through habituation.
And so, again, if even though there might be something that we think it will take a hundred years to accomplish, if we make effort and we should habituate ourselves, familiarize ourselves, it will happen. And, Geshe-la is, saying how with regards to this meditation of impermanence and death, this contemplation of impermanence and death, how there is how how how how very much so how we are actually able to accomplish that. And because I wanna say if we we it is a subject that we can understand. It is within our grasp for all of us understand if we contemplate it, we think about it, we can see how everything is changing, how we are changing, how we have changed, how we have grown old, how many years ago we were children, how much we have changed in this time and how much we keep on changing. And we if we contemplate, we will gain this understanding.
We will realize this understanding. We just have to persevere with it. And it’s not just I guess I’m gonna say it is not something difficult like the realization of emptiness. It is something very much within our grasp to realize that. And Geshe-la was saying if if we if we then gain a proper understanding of of impermanence and we realize that all these changes in our life are going to lead us to the separation of body and mind to our actual death, when we gain a solid understanding of impermanence, we will gain a certainty about our own death. And when we gain that, then we won’t be able to stay how can I say that?
What’s the word for that? We won’t be able to stay just doing nothing. Just sit. We won’t be able to sit doing nothing. We won’t be able to remain at ease without actually practicing Dharma.
There will be no chance that we’ll be able to sit without not whilst not practicing Dharma. You know what I mean? Is that okay? And, Geshe-la was saying. So without having realized the impermanence in that, think Geshe-la was saying.
We we just like we remain right now unable to to sit doing nothing. We always want to actually work, engage in our in our whatever jobs or activities we do to earn money. We we never want to sit quietly without doing that activity because we think if I don’t work, I I don’t earn the money. I don’t get the money. And that motivates us to continually continually work and engage in our in our money earning activities.
And Geshe-la was saying, but when once in the same vein, when we are realizing impermanence and death, again, we won’t be able to just sit quietly without practicing the Dharma. Geshe-la was saying, by that time, we won’t be thinking about money anymore. We will have already rid ourselves of the desire to obtain money. And we’ll be actually thinking again, you know, with certainty that I’m going to die. You know, I’m going to die.
I need to practice Dharma. It’s the only thing that’s going to help me when I die. And then in this way, we won’t be able to sit quietly without practicing the Dharma. Quietly, I mean, you know, without we won’t be able to sit doing nothing about it. And Geshe-la was saying, the reason we do not actually practice Dharma, we do not engage properly in our spiritual practices, is because we haven’t realized properly impermanence and death.
It’s because we have we do not reflect and contemplate impermanence and death enough. And for a person who has who does contemplate it properly, does a proper job in contemplating impermanence and death, that person is practicing Dharma, is engaging in Dharma. That person is not idle in his practice of Dharma. And so then the actual the actual thing, the actual mind that urges us or that incites us or that causes us to know how to say to practice the Dharma. If I was saying the one that that is cheering and urging us and inciting us saying again you you have you are going to die, and you have no time.
You have no time to waste. You have to practice the Dharma because the Dharma is the only thing that is going to benefit you. The one that does that, the the actual one, the real foundation here is is this realization of impermanence and death. And maybe maybe maybe you can help me find the proper word in English, but Geshe-la was saying there is this this outer person or or this outer thing that incites us and urges us and saying and there is the inner one. And Geshe-la was saying so then there’s the outer person, which is like, you know, our virtuous friend, the text that we read and so forth, all these teachings.
And they are inciting us again. You’re going to die. You you have no time to waste. At times, nothing’s gonna benefit. Only the Dharma.
You have to practice Dharma. So there is this outer one and there is the inner one. And the inner one, Geshe-la was saying, they are the most important one. And and and and that is that that mind that realizes impermanence and death. That’s the the actual, the principal one that is inciting us and urging us to not waste time and practice the Dharma all the time.
And Geshe-la was saying, we do we do think. We do have the aspiration to practice the Dharma. We we all all of us here accept future lives, and we do aspire to attain, you know, a proper rebirth and good rebirth. And we do aspire to practice Dharma. We think, you know, I must practice and and all that.
But this mind that we have that wants to practice is not really strong. It’s not really stable. You is it? It’s not really reliable, is all Geshe-la was saying. And the the reason it is not so we we easily change anything comes up and we change, we start thinking about something else, and we start getting involved with all the things.
The reason that is so is because we haven’t realized impermanence properly. And And just like Geshe-la was saying again, this is mindfulness of impermanence and death is the very doorway for the Dharma for the spiritual practice. And then Geshe was reading the very last bit here again. When someone asked Khampa about moving on to another object of meditation, he said, repeat the previous one. When asked about the remaining ones, said there is nothing beyond it.
And and Geshe-la was just saying again, meaning that we shouldn’t be meditating a little bit. Oops. Meditating a little bit on one subject and then changing to another topic. We should stick to one and develop strong familiarization and habituation with one object of meditation. Repeat time and again.
And then we move on to the last topic, how to carry out the practice of all the excellent scriptures of the Buddhas. Then Geshe-la was going to say that. Thus, if you know how to practice reliance on a spiritual teacher, if you understand the leisures and endowments and the freedoms and opportunities of practicing human rebirth as well as impermanence and death in this in that context of the scriptures and their in their commentaries and sustain them, you will easily find the intention of the conqueror. You will also become aware of them in other context. So, again, by properly familiarizing ourselves with this topic, again, we’ll be able to engage and understand the instructions, and we’ll be able to follow the instructions and and apply the instructions of the teachings.
Whatever teaching we might be reading, we’ll be able to understand. We’ll be able to actually implement them, and we’ll be able also to see the teachings in in other context also in our lives. So then we move on to the next major division of of the text explanation of what will become of you in future worlds and future lives. How to think about the happiness and suffering of the two types of migrating beings and basically the path of beings of small scope. So again, the first of the topics in in this division of the text, the happiness and suffering of the two types of migrating beings.
First of all, thinking about what will become of you in future in future lives. And and Geshe-la was going through the text. That being so, since it is certain that you will die soon, you have no time to spend in this life. And after death, it is not that you become nonexistent. You must take rebirth.
Since apart from the two, there is no other place of of birth, you will be reborn in either the happy migrations or the bad migrations. In addition, since you are not under your own control, since you have no power and no free will here, but under the control of other, which is karma, your actions, you will be born it will be reborn according to a wholesome and unwholesome karma that impels you. Okay? So, again, at the time of death, we are we are powerless. We have to go we are propelled by by the force of our karma, our actions.
So, again, wholesome and unwholesome actions. And we propel to either the bad migrations or the suffering migrations or the happy migrations. And as for the bad migrations, again we have three, the hell realms, hungry ghosts, the the realm of hungry ghosts, and and the animal realm. And and as for the the happy migrations, again, we have three. We have gods, demigods, and humans.
So again, there there is only these six types of migrating beings within cyclic existence. And because we are migrating beings, we are the so called samsaric beings or beings of cyclic existence, have only the six places to be born or the six bodies to take. And it is going to be if if we if we are going to take a happy rebirth, it’s going to be either that of a god or a human. And if it is a a bad rebirth, again, we’re gonna take the bodies of hell beings, hungry ghosts, or animals. And we have to guess I wasn’t saying we have to understand, we have to come to realize that we have only these two options.
There’s only these two places where we’re going to end up as migrating beings we are. And then we approach the next the next topic. From among the happiness and suffering of the two migrations, considerations about suffering. The need to think about suffering. Geshe-la was saying now that all the happy topics are over, and it’s going to be we’re gonna approach a lot of of sad topics, distressing topics.
And then, Geshe-la was going for the text. So I think about the suffering of of bad migrations considering what will become of me if I am reborn in the bad migrations. And Geshe-la was saying again with regards to this topic, which is a lot of suffering. Of the three possibilities of of hells, hungry ghosts, and and animal realms, again, we have a very likely that we might be born in such place as as hell realms. And even though we might not like to hear that, we have already accomplished so many causes for being born in such places.
And Geshe-la was going through these verses of Nāgārjuna. Again, every day remember the hells which are fiercely hot and cold. Also remember the hungry ghosts emaciated by hunger hunger and thirst. Remember and look at animals beset with the sufferings of dullness or you could say stupidity or confusion. Give up their causes.
Enjoy the causes for happiness. Once you have gained that hard to gain a human body in Jambudvipa, endeavor to cut the causes of the bad migrations. And then again, Geshe-la was then going back through the text. It’s very, very straightforward. Again, all this great heat and great cold is making reference to all the different hell realms, which are extremely hot or extremely cold.
And, again, we have all the the the great hunger and the great thirst thirst that is experienced by the hungry ghosts. Again, there’s a great suffering. And, again, all this stupidity and confusion of of animals. And we have to contemplate that. We have to continually remember, contemplate those things so that we can develop an aspiration not to to accomplish the causes of those rebirths, and we have to understand what are the causes, and we have to understand the ways to abandon, to give up those causes for being born in these places, in these conditions.
And, again, I guess I’m making reference to the last two lines. Again, we have attained a human body in Jambudvipa and Geshe-la is saying. We have already attained this this hard to attain, this human body with all the the freedoms and opportunities, which is so hard to attain. We have attained it. And then, again, we shouldn’t miss this opportunity.
We should engage in in virtuous deeds. At the very least, we should avoid the causes for being born in the in the low rounds of existence. I guess that was emphasizing then, again, we should we should definitely not waste this opportunity because if we do not accomplish virtues in this in this life, there is no guarantee whatsoever that we’ll be able to attain another precious human rebirth in the future. So we we should definitely work hard to accomplish virtue virtue’s actions, perform virtuous actions. And Geshe-la was saying.
If if we if we contemplate these topics and we think carefully about them, we have we have we have a lot of reason to to greatly rejoice about it. Saying, we are we are we have attained this this special human rebirth. We have encountered encountered these teachings on Lamrim. We understand them. We know how to practice, what to practice.
And I guess I was saying that of of the billions and billions of human beings that are, you know, how very few get in touch with with with such spiritual teachings. And amongst those few, how very how how very few still even fewer have the time and the opportunity to practice it. So, like, is saying, if we if we seriously contemplate if we contemplate this all these topics here, all these topics here, we we have great reason to rejoice, to be very happy. And Geshe-la was saying again, I mean, you know, every time we we we’re practicing a good deed, virtuous deed, again, we we we have only reason to be greatly happy about it. You know, if if and if we if we were some someone else who does not have any knowledge of the Dharma, who does not accept Dharma teachings, who does not practice, not try to practice and apply himself to spiritual practice and engages in a lot of negatives, what will be what what will be of such a person?
What will be with us if we were such a person? And, again, I guess, I’m, you know, emphasizing how how happy we should be because we we have all this knowledge and in our hands. This one. And, Geshe-la was going for the text, then again for the next topic, which is how thinking about suffering is such a vital point, such an important point. Meditation about the sufferings of cyclic existence in general and of the bad migrations in particular is a very vital point.
For if you thus consider how you yourself have fallen into the ocean of suffering, despair will repel pride and arrogance. Having seen that suffering is a result of non virtue, you will be very careful to avoid negativities and downfalls. Since you do not want suffering but want happiness, once you see that happiness is the result of virtue, you will also enjoy accomplishing virtue. And, Geshe-la was saying, again, by contemplating these topics, these sufferings, impermanence and death and the sufferings and and so forth, again, we will will also give rise to a good or to proper renunciation. Again, we will also give rather contemplative on these topics, on the sufferings.
We also give rise to the wish to be free from all these sufferings. And then, Geshe-la was going through the rest of the text. Again, in proportion to your own experience, compassion for others will arise, and with your own understanding of your own suffering, again, compassion for others will arise. And out of aversion to cyclic existence, you will strive for liberation. For fear of of suffering, you will take refuge forcefully.
And then lastly, these positive qualities of suffering that comprise many important points of practice are stated in the Bodhisattva Way of Life in terms of of suffering already arising in one’s own continuum. However, they are equally applicable to suffering one is yet to experience. And, again, I I was just going back to the last sentence in Tibetan that makes reference to the teachings on the Bodhisattva way of life where where he where Śāntideva was saying that this apply not only to the to the sufferings that have already arise in one’s continuum, that one has already experienced. And Geshe-la was saying firstly it applies also to that which arises in the continuum of other beings, but then as the text is saying later on also to the to the sufferings which will arise in the future in one’s own continuum. And then so then we approach it then in the next the next topic, which is how to think about suffering, how to contemplate suffering.
This topic has a it has two major parts to it. First of all, the actual, which are, again, you see in parentheses, the actual considerations concerning the suffering of the bad migrations. Secondly, how it is necessary to meditate on these until the experienced the the experience arises, until the experience is produced in one’s mind continuum. As for the the the actual, actual the first one, the actual considerations, again, it has three parts. First of all, it’s thinking about the sufferings of the hell beings, then of the animals, and then the sufferings of hungry ghosts.
And I was just saying, you know, how how very happy this is to contemplate all this. As for the first one of those and thinking about the sufferings of the of hell beings, again again, there’s two parts. The actual considerations themselves. And then secondly, the need for fear, the thought that you have already accumulated numerous causes for being born there, that we have already. Yeah.
We have already accumulated. And as for the the actual considerations, again, have four parts which is for the divisions of the different hells. First of all is the great hot hells. Secondly, there is the neighboring hells. Then we have the cold hells and we have the occasional hells.
Or there’s another word for translating that I just cannot remember. But, you know, something like that. And then there’s some measurements. Again, for for the first topic, the great hells of sentient beings. And then we have thirty two thousand yojanas below here.
There is continual revival is the first one of the health and below it are seven more hells each separated by four thousand yojanas. And then we have then the or the first the description of the sufferings experienced in the first one of those hells. The first among the eight, and Geshe-la was saying, are eight hot hells and there are eight cold hells. So the first among the eight hot hells, we have the the one that’s called continual revival. The sentient beings come together and stab each other with various weapons that they that arise by the power of their karma.
Whenever they they faint and collapse on on the ground, a voice shouts out from the sky, you come back to life or just saying come back to life. Upon that, they stand up again and start stabbing as before due to which they experience immeasurable suffering. Is it just faint and collapse or they actually die? I I forgot to have a photocopy of the Tibetan text, so I’m just listening to what Geshe is saying and using the English. My bad.
This one. Then we have the next hell, which is which is black line. It’s literally a black line translating from Tibetan. The hell guardians put put black lines in in the shape of many squares and the lines of the bodies and and the like on the bodies of sentient beings born there, and then later experience the suffering of being cut into pieces by weapons along those lines. And then we have the next hell, crushing hell.
In the crushing hell, the hell guardians, the hell denizens, they how to say? They they pack sentient beings once they have been rounded up between two goat faced or or similar iron mountains, then they are immediately crushed by the two whereupon rivers of blood spurt out from all their orifices. This one? And then we have the howling howling hell. Is that right?
Howling hell? That how you say? The sentient beings in search the sentient beings there went in search of an an abode, enter iron houses, red hot iron houses. As soon as they enter, fires blaze all around and they burn. This one.
And then the with the great howling hell is like the previous one, the difference being that the iron houses the iron house has two layers. And then I was just asking. The water was not as two layers. It’s just maybe and Geshe-la was gonna say in stages. It it has two two stages.
It happens maybe twice. You know, there’s two rooms where people get in their room from the pots. The frying pan is straight into the fire. And then we the the next hell, which is the hot hot hell. In the hot hell, the hell guardians, the hell denizens put the sentient beings into very hot and blazing iron cauldrons cauldrons of several yojanas where they are burned burned like fish.
They are then impaled through their buttocks on blazing iron stakes that emerge at the crown of their heads. Fire blazes out of their mouths, eye sockets, nostrils, and ears, as well as all their pores. They are laid out on their back or face down on the blazing iron foundation and pounded and tormented with blazing iron hammers. And then we have the very hot hell. And, again, an iron trident is stuck into their buttocks so that the right and left prongs emerge from the two shoulders and the middle one from the crown of the head owing to that tongues of fire blaze on their orifices such as the mouth.
Their bodies are wrapped in blazing hot iron sheets and placed headlong into an iron cauldron full of boiling liquid, whereupon they are tossed up down and about as they boil. Then once their skin, flesh, and blood have been destroyed and nothing but a skeleton is left, they are pulled out again and spread out on the iron foundation. After that, when the skin, flesh, and blood have developed again, they are put in once again. Apart from that, it is just like the hot hell. Now we will laugh about it, but once we are born there, there is no no time for laughing.
Then we have then we have the last one of those hell hot hells, which is a hell without respite. The foundation is completely ablaze for hundreds of Yajanas from the east. As it spreads, the force of the fire increases, increases gradually destroying the skin, flesh, and sinews, and bones of the sentient beings to the marrow. Like the flame of a butter lamp, their whole body is pervaded by blazing tongues of fire. In the other three directions, it is similar.
And then, again, continuing with the without respite without respite, as the fire coming from the four directions mixes there, these beings experiencing incessant incessant incessant suffering, and only by their pathetic howling are they understood to be sentient beings. In iron baskets, they are made to jump on burning iron embers. They are made to fall down on the iron foundation to climb up huge mountains of iron, and that’s a bread hot iron. Their tongues are pulled out from their mouths and spread out flat with a hundred pegs then made to be without a wrinkle or crease as though preparing as as as we prepare cowhide preparing cowhides. Then again, they are placed on the iron foundation face face up.
Their mouths are opened with iron tongs, and the blazing lumps of iron are put into into their mouths. Boiling copper is poured into into their mouths and burns their mouth, throat, throats, and entrails before issuing from their lower bodies. Apart from that, it is similar to the very hot hell. This one? Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And again, how long those sufferings or experiences as stated in the Letter to a Friend of Nāgārjuna, again, have this verse.
Even if for a billion years you experience completely unbearable sufferings in that way, as long as the non virtue has not been exhausted equally long, you will not get rid of your life. Your life in those places. Then we have a following here. Moreover, in the Treasury of Knowledge and the Compendium of Reality and and another text which is the actual stages, it is stated that fifty human years are one day in the god realm of the four great kings. Thirty of those is one month, and twelve of of those one year.
Five hundred such years is the lifespan of the beings of the four great kings. All that is one single day in the hell of continual revival. Thirty of those a month, twelve of those a year, and five hundred such years lifespan. The so and then, again, likewise, a hundred, two hundred, four hundred, eight hundred, and sixteen hundred human years respectively form a day in the other five realm gods ranging from the thirty three up to controlling others’ emanations. And the lifespan can be one thousand, two thousand, four thousand, eight thousand, and sixteen thousand god years.
These respectively form a day in the black line through the hot hell, and they can reach from one thousand through sixteen thousand of their own years. In the hell of great oh, And then again, in hell of great heat, they can reach half an intermediate eon. And in the hell without respite, one whole intermediate I guess I was just saying, oh, hell is all this type of of hell is very, very happy, very nice. And Geshe-la was then saying and and, again, having listened to this all these things about hell, there there are still those who pray to be born there and wishing may have been born in such a place. That was a trick.
That was a trick statement. Explain a trick on you. And then if I wasn’t saying that, we don’t say that. We don’t say may I be born in hell, but we say may I not be born in it. But but they say may I be born in be born in hell.
Yes? Basic question. In hell in all the hills, They are emanations or apparitions that arise by the force of one’s karma, by the force of one’s actions. They are not beings who go there and do the job, write down the lines and cut it all into pieces and all that. And again, so mister, I wanna say, for example, we we do perform the act of killing.
Right? And then that that act causes us to be born in the hell realm. And, again, it is not those beings that we have killed that come down to the hells and cut us into pieces again. It is it is the just the the mere force of our own karma that produces those emanations, those apparitions, and that and that make us experience that result. And we might think we might think that, again, because we have performed such actions as cutting, killing, and so forth, again, that these people are going to come down and do the the job themselves, but it’s not actually the case.
These are just apparitions from our own mental, continue from our own minds. In some way? Okay. But I’m real. I’m not just an apparition of your mind, mate.
Sorry. And Geshe-la was saying look the harm that you experience you see somebody is harming you right and the harm that you experience you are experiencing that harm, that pain, that suffering, or the heaviness due to the force of of the karma that you have accumulated, the actions that you have performed in the past. Now the person who performed that harm or or or who caused that harm or the happiness, that person has not arise as a force of your karma. And and that person has not. In the hell realms, what happens and guess I was trying to make this point very clear with the guess, that’s why it took some time.
In the hell realms, what happens is that there there are no other sentient beings waiting for us down there to cut us and and draw lines and so forth. There are emanations. The trooper, I guess I’ll use the word trooper which are emanations or apparitions. And they are the product of we see them but they are just a hallucination so to speak. And they they arise.
They are the result of our own karma. You know? So they are not they. They are just there’s no they there. That’s the thing.
That’s why it’s a bit difficult to to talk about it. They are apparitions. Are hallucinations, and they are that suffering itself. You know? It’s not only they’re not causing the suffering on us.
The suffering is all you know? As as soon as we are born in hell, they are there. You know? That moment. You know?
Like, there’ll somebody waiting for us, and I’m gonna chop them up, draw lines, and all that. You you get you get that? Is that alright? Is that a satisfactory answer? You first.
I don’t know who, but you you first. Yeah. How how is the existence of the known? How it is known to us? Look.
We ordinary beings, we we do not know that. We have no way to know that. We we hear our teachers, the Buddha and the bodhisattvas, they have told us so, and we we believe in them. And I was just saying, like, again, that there are those beings, those those people who who might have attained something the first concentration or concentration above that and if they wish to develop their knowledge they can but otherwise we ourselves have no way to know that. And then there are ways to establish for logic and reason.
So, again again, there are there are ways to establish that through reasoning. And, I I was just giving, you know, for the sake of of illustration. Again, we we can see, for example, that compared to the suffering that we experience here as humans, animals experience a greater suffering than we do. And then, again, compared to the suffering of animals, hungry ghosts experience an even greater suffering. And compared to that, we have the the suffering of hell realms.
And even within the hell realms, we have, you know, different intensities of suffering. So, you know, there are ways to establish it for reason and and gain an understanding of that. Okay? Say that again? People who are unable to practice Dharma.
Yeah. Who’ve been hurt too mentally disturbed, severely mentally ill. Sorry. Two questions? No.
Yeah. There’s two there seems to be two questions there. One question, why are the helms only about physical torment? Is it just about physical torment? And then not about Mental torment.
Mental torment? Yep. So and then just, you know, of course there is mental suffering in hell. I mean, you experience all that pain in your body, of course, and depend there’s a lot of mental pain coming with it. But say you say you just expect certain people in the hell realm of severe depression or Well, we’re talking about human sufferings.
Do you see what I mean? You’re talking about you’re saying you’re taking picking up a human suffering and putting it into hell realms. And hell realms is worse than anything you can think of in human suffering. There’s nothing. And and and it’s like this.
We we and we do that all the time. It’s not it’s nobody’s fault. It’s nobody’s mistake. And we do that all the time because we don’t have another reference. And I was saying I was trying to explain what is happening here to the Geshe, and Geshe was in was in answering.
We think we pick up human suffering and we think, oh, they’re suffering like like they they’re suffering hell. I think, you know, I I pick up like Bangladesh, you know, all the poverty, misery, and disease, all these lepers in India. I mean, this must be like hell. It is not. The suffering that they experience compared to the suffering hell is happiness.
And that’s that’s what Geshe-la says. You know? There’s no human suffering, as hard as it may be, that can compare can be compared to the suffering in hell realms. That what the worst human suffering compared to hell realms is like happiness. It’s like a walk in the park.
Okay? And we do that all the time. We do that. It’s not, you know, it’s not, you know, it’s not your mistake or anything like that. It’s just we don’t have another reference.
You know? But, no, what you you’re picking up so that’s what you did. You pick up a human suffering and say, we have something like that in hell. You wish you had something like that in hell. You wish you would spend whole life of depression in hell because it’s much worse than that.
Infinitely worse than that. It’s not a fraction of the suffering we experience in hell. That’s alright. We have this question a lot. So it’s like this.
And this it’s a very good question. It’s a very good question. And and the answer to that is even better. It is said we hear that all the time that Bodhisattvas, they aspire, you know, wholeheartedly to to go go down there, you know, and and and and alleviate the suffering of all those beings. You know, they see all that suffering and they they they’re so overwhelmed by compassion.
You know? And they have a genuine aspiration, authentic, real aspiration. They really want to go there. But by the very first of that aspiration, they are never born there. They do not go there.
That doesn’t really happen. Still, they have this overwhelming, uncontrollable desire to go down there and and and relieve them because they cannot bear to see someone suffering. It’s unbearable for them. It’s a beautiful thing. Okay?
Okay? When you think about, like, in the human realm, there’s yeah. That’s a bad stuff. I think I know about you. And, again, again, and and this goes back to the answer that was given before.
Again, we do not know those things. We do not know anything. We are ordinary beings. We cannot tell where we are going to be born, how we are going to be born, and about hells and anything like that. We cannot tell anything of that.
Only the Buddhas, the enlightened beings, they can know they know all the work is in in in all the very detailed and subtle workings of actions and their results. They can tell what actions are going to lead to which results and so forth. And and we’re just trusting them here in this case. All we can do is trust in them. When we when we realize emptiness, when we attain, you know, a realization of emptiness based on the union of calm abiding and special insight, then we’ll be able to know those things firsthand.
So then there’s someone saying there’s one way to divide phenomena as manifest, phenomena phenomena which is manifest, phenomena which is slightly hidden, right, slightly hidden, and then extremely phenomena which is phenomena which are extremely hidden. And then for example, such things as as hell realms and, you know, the workings of actions and the results, the law of karma, they are they are stuff which is extremely hidden. We have we ourselves have no way of knowing that. And then we have such such things as, you know, impermanence, emptiness, and so forth, and they are just slightly hidden. And then we have, you know, everything else here, and it’s all manifest.
Okay? Does that does that help? Is that alright? Yeah? So then the the best aspiration that we could have is to be born is may I be born in Tuśita, which is a pure land.
May I be born in a pure land? But the whole point is that, you know, to be born in such places, we need to have very powerful and strong have to have performed a lot of virtuous deeds, very powerful virtuous deeds, virtuous actions. And then we dedicate the the those actions, those virtues, that they may be the cause that leads leads us to be born in such a place. So it’s it’s not enough to just have the aspiration alone. You know?
There’s a lot of hard work involved. And then again, so I didn’t do by the force of these virtues, may I be born into Tuśita. By the force of these virtues, may I, you know, may compassion may may I realize bodhicitta by the force of these virtues. May I realize emptiness. By the force of these virtues, may attain enlightenment for the sake of benefiting all sentient beings.
And this is how we develop those our aspirations, but in in dependence on the actions that we have performed. Is that okay?