Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The shadow that cannot exist apart from the body it follows — Geshe Pema Tsering uses this image late in this 44.5-minute commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend to explain why mind and karma are inseparable. He begins with a recap of the three motivations (small, medium, and great), then works through Nāgārjuna’s sixteen practical guidelines for lay practitioners: respecting parents, observing day-long monastic-style precepts, treating afflictive emotions as the enemy, practising mindfulness and patience, choosing beneficial companions, and — with some lively debate over translation — how to evaluate and conduct a relationship wisely. He then explains that genuinely focusing on benefiting others dissolves self-grasping without requiring a separate effort, before closing with the philosophical foundation: the mind’s nature as “mere clear and knowing” is precisely what allows ignorance to generate karma. The session is conversational, with students asking questions throughout.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 LF 2004 08 31.mp3
UUID: 593e3133-7895-4d1e-8790-b464469e843b
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Letter to a Friend (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-08-31
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 44.5 minutes
Words: ~2,951
Ordinary human beings is working for our own benefit. So we can think work for our own individual liberation and not the liberation of others or to to have our own rebirth, a positive rebirth, but not to work for others. So what this means is that we really need to focus on others if we want to practice perfections. If we focus on others, then our own benefit will come in with that. By achieving Buddhahood, we achieve our own individual liberation.
We don’t have to focus on that individually. If we focus all our activities, all of the six perfections on how to benefit others and don’t focus on self, then the benefit of self comes in there, but we don’t get caught up focusing on self and working towards our own ends. Yeah?
Okay. So that was a brief overview of the three different motivations, the small, medium, and great motivations. And now we go into a more extended description of these motivations and the different practices that are associated with the three different motivations. Okay. So there’s a big lineup of the table of contents section that we’ve come to in the text, which is the sixteen practices that are described by Nāgārjuna, which should be engaged in by lay people practicing ordinary ethics, which is motivation of the lowest motivation.
The first one is to always practice respect to your parents, to always respect your parents. The second one is to take on the daylong vows of the yeah. No. It’s not the Prātimokṣa. To take yeah.
The you know, precepts. That’s it. The it’s yeah. It’s Five precepts. No.
No. No. It’s a precepts. It’s just next for for a loop. Okay.
Right. So they are individual liberated. They are for the vows, individual liberation vows. This It means taking day vows to basically behave like a monk for a day. There’s a specific type of vows that are actually called upāvasa, which are like monks vows.
You take them for a day, but they’re precepts that we usually take here because those precepts are Mahāyāna precepts, and these are precepts that aren’t Mahāyāna precepts. Right? Got that? But they’re like monk’s precepts. Okay?
Well, they’re individual precepts, individual liberation precepts. So you’re right. I got confused because I was thinking those day vows aren’t individual things, so I’m confused. Anyway, so these are day vows that aren’t the normal day vows that are that, you know, people take here and stuff. Right?
That’s the second thing to do. And the third thing is to viewing afflictive emotions as the enemy to be able to do that. The third one is to practice mindfulness. No. Fourth one is to practice mindfulness.
The fifth one is to practice patience. The sixth one is to practice good actions of the body, speech and mind. Seventh one is the way to investigate properly whether the people that you are associated with are going to benefit you or not in accordance with the intellect of a human. Alright? So using your intelligence as a human, figuring out whether the people around you are helping you or not.
The next one is applying the antidotes to neurosis or afflictive emotions when they occur. The next one is putting in effort in creating the seeds which are the antidotes. The next one is recognizing the qualities of the seeds which are the antidotes. Then after that, the way of meditating on the eight worldly dharmas. Then also, in particular, way to get rid of and to abandon negative actions.
Also put effort into the jewels of the Aryas and to abandon negative conditions, also develop satisfaction with the objects, material things that you have. And the last one is in Okay. Okay. Because I thought that it was it seems to me like it’s saying to know when to chuck out your wife or husband or not. Right?
And Geshe-la said, no. It doesn’t say that. It says to know whether the person to to investigate before you have you have a part you take a partner, whether that person will be beneficial or or not, and then how to live in a relationship where in a way that you are taking on positive actions and abandoning negative actions. That’s that. That’s sixteen.
How to how to, like, how to have a Knowing whether No. Knowing whether to get to to to chuck or to or to shuck a person or to take them on. And then where if you decide to take them on, how to behave in that relationship beneficially. Yeah? Yeah.
Yeah. Thought you would tell me. Number fifteen was the satisfaction with worldly goods. He said he said there’s no because the the the second last one’s about objects. If you have questions, you can ask them.
Yeah? Yeah. Yes. Okay. I’m gonna read them from here.
Alright? Okay. The first one, respecting one’s mother and father. Second one, observing upāvasa, which is those vows. Alright?
The next one was and it doesn’t really work. Recognizing afflictive emotions as the enemy, then practicing mindfulness, then practicing patience. Practicing good deeds of body, speech, mind. Finding proper associates is how they’ve done the one about discerning whether people are helpful or not. So it because, yeah, there’s a section that says here is the ways in meditating on antidotes to afflictive emotions, and they’ve translated that here as eschewing desire for another’s wife.
And then oh, the the no. They did the whole bit about wives. And then they and then the last one, they’ve only got nine, and they’ve subsumed the whole others into eschewing desire for another’s wife and and obtaining a proper wife. Anyway okay. So we have getting getting rid of negative using antidotes to get rid of an afflictive emotions.
Right? And then it was the way of meditating the way of meditating in efforts in using effort. And then the way to meditate on the eight worldly dharmas. And then especially the way to get rid of negativities, performing negative karma. Then the next one is the effort with regards to the jewels of the Aryas, the way to get rid of adverse conditions.
Fifteen was the being content with the worldly possessions. And the last was the way to get a suitable wife. And I said, so there’s no husbands in there. And he goes, and it was like to a king. Probably.
Said they yeah. He thinks so because he thinks the old kings of India had lots of wives. Yeah. In the perfection of meditation, the purified excitement and balance, is that in the meditation or just I always never Yeah. When you’re meditating on It’s it’s the practice of meditating meditative concentration concentration is to gradually get rid of these two.
So it’s in the development of meditative concentration, you need to get rid of dullness and agitation. It’s actually focused on what will benefit others, not focused on others’ faults. So it’s like focus on it’s basically another way of saying and develop bodhicitta. So it means to work for towards enlightenment for the benefit of others, not for your own benefit. It means focus on how to benefit others.
It means it means focus on how to get other sentient beings to Buddhahood. If you if you’re focusing on others others, it doesn’t mean hang on. If if you’re focusing on other’s benefits, your delusions go away. You don’t have to get rid of your own delusions, but in order to focus on you know, you don’t need to get rid of your own delusions in order to benefit others. If you focus on others, your delusions disappear.
If you’re focusing on others and trying to focusing totally on others, then you’re trying to figure out how to benefit others. So what you’ll be doing is working towards Buddhahood for your own fit for the benefit of others. And if you’re focusing on others, your benefit comes along with that. Because if you’re totally focusing on others, then you’re working for the best way to benefit them. You achieve Buddhahood, which is the ultimate aim for yourself.
That comes along with it. But if you focus on your own benefit, you don’t get the final benefit for yourself. Yes? Can you tell me what the other prayer is? I think it’s called the foundation of all knowledge.
It’s the one that at the back of the puja booklet. It’s a photocopy from. I think that’s the same prayer. It’s a different translation. Right.
So the per the meaning of this section from their prayer is that that you cannot separate out a mind stream from the karma that it has accumulated. So in the same way that everywhere you go, you have a shadow. Right? And you can’t you can’t have a shadow somewhere without you. Alright?
Your your shadow can’t be somewhere you’re not. You can’t be somewhere where you don’t have a shadow unless if there’s light, you have a shadow. The two things can’t be separated out is what it is implying. The only way you can get rid of negative karma that is accumulated is through purification, either through regret and applying antidotes or through developing wisdom, perceiving emptiness. You can’t lose your karma somehow.
It is attached to your mind stream. So wherever that mind stream is, there is karma. They’re inseparable, the same as a bit a person in their shadow. Right? So this is what it’s referring to is the inseparability of those two things.
The only way that they can be separated is through purification or through experiencing the results of that karma. You really miss this whole shadow thing, didn’t you? Yep. Okay. So the thing about the shadow was that, first of Geshe-la said, no one’s pushing you and no one’s pulling you because you don’t have form.
When you die, the body is separated from consciousness. Right? So the only thing that’s left is consciousness. And as the quote about the shadow said, you can’t separate consciousness from karma. Alright?
That consciousness is is pervaded by the karma. So there’s no pushing and there’s no pulling. It’s just there. So they just put that in. Is it just a What what did they say?
It it just says that the shadow follows the body that results in negative action. But the shadow following the body is supposed to be that they’re inseparable. Yes. Okay? Inseparable mind and consciousness.
I guess they said it’s inseparable mind and karma. Right? So it’s not as if someone’s pushing or anyone’s pulling. Whatever the mind thinks, that’s what’s created. Yes?
So whether there’s the imprint for negative things or the imprint for positive things, then that’s the world that’s created. Okay? So if you have positive karma, the results of positive karma that you’re born in a positive rebirth. The results of negative karma is that you’re born in a negative rebirth. So there’s no separation.
There’s no pulling. There’s no pulling. They’re just they’re not separated. They’re inseparable. They’re inseparable.
Yeah. Hmm? Sorry. Couldn’t When did Peter Pan actually lost his shadow? Peter Pan lost his shadow.
He reckons that he he didn’t really lose his shadow. He’s just mistaken. He said that that he said he doesn’t like the story. No. He doesn’t not like the story.
It doesn’t make sense because the because he said yeah. I tried to explain it to him. He goes, yeah. But there should be, like, logic in it. And the the the the shadow isn’t formed, so how can you how can you sew something on that isn’t formed?
No. Okay. What was the word that you used? You said mind and? karma.
Okay. Mind is its definition is mere, clear, and knowing. Merely clear and merely knowing. So this is the mind doesn’t have, by its definition or by its nature, doesn’t have any form, and it doesn’t necessarily create any repercussions. So that’s all the mind is is a is a clear and knowingness.
Clear clearness and knowingness. Now this word that’s karma is like a Sanskrit word meaning action. Yeah. The actual definition of the word for cause and effect is called karmaphala. And so this is the word that Geshe-la is using, a translation of in Tibetan, which means karma meaning action, phala meaning effect.
Right? So cause and effect. So cause sorry. I got that wrong. karma means action.
Alright? And pala means effect. Right? So action, like this word, if you it’s it’s it’s a version of the verb to do. Alright?
So he said that it it means any action, anything that we do. A body, speech, or mind is karma. Alright? Now the results of that is the other aspect of this cause and effect the of cause and effect. If you have an action, you have a result to that action.
And so the the actual concept of cause and effect of karmaphala is where the the law of cause and effect that comes that comes along and affects a being. Right? Now the basis for cause and effect, the basis for this process is actually related to the I. Right? So any action that is performed is performed if that being hasn’t realized selflessness.
Any action that is performed is performed in relation to an I. I did this. I did this. I did this and so forth. Yes?
That I experiences because that I was the person who performed the action, they experienced the results of that action. This happens in terms of usually with the idea of a solidly existing I, but it can also happen with the idea of a merely labeled I and if it’s a positive result. And so the clear knowingness of the mind takes on the form of an I, on the basis of that I, we perform actions which we have to experience the results of. So so an example of this would be for if if you killed someone, right, and the police came and took you away and put you in jail. Alright?
Now the person who did the killing is associated with you. So you have to bear the responsibility for the killing. So you get put in jail. Now we can’t look at you and see your killing on you because it’s not form, right? But because being who had took responsibility or has the responsibility for performing their actions, they have to that being has to experience the results of that that of that action.
Alright? So there’s no physical form that we can see that that that it hangs around saying that that you killed someone. But because of that action, the results of that are are that you’re in jail. Yeah. Okay.
So, if the mind wasn’t clear and knowing, we couldn’t accumulate karma. Alright? And now the reason for this is that if the mind wasn’t only clear and knowing, then it couldn’t take the form of any object that it focuses on. So, for example, if the mind wasn’t clear and knowing, we couldn’t develop desire because the mind would not reflect and know an object that it is desirous of. Yes?
Reflect as in the clear here and know as in in know it. So, because the mind is clear and knowing is able to take on the form of any object that it is focused on. Alright? And so the way that we create karma is to start as making a mistake, and this is ignorance. Ignorance perceiving self as being inherently existent.
Although the nature of the mind is said to be clear in knowing, the main force of the way we think is actually a misknowing. That means that we make a mistake about an object. And the thing that we’re mistaken about is that we inherently exist. And so having making a mistake about inherently exist and we take a mistaken object being self, then the mind which is clear reflects that idea of self which is a mistake and knows that self which is also a mistake. So in the basis of that mistaken object that the mind has taken, then we then go on to react to other things.
So we have a mind that clearly knows an object of desire and clearly reflects that object of desire. Yeah. And therefore, we’re able to create karma based on that mistake. And if our mind wasn’t clear and couldn’t take on the any object to focus on and didn’t know objects, then there wouldn’t be any we wouldn’t be able to create karma if that weren’t these very definitions. Yeah?
Did it make sense? He wants to know that. Yeah. Yeah. So the the first one, he wants to know if the first thing you asked is clear.
Like, at the beginning, you said is the how is the mind and and karma related? Is that clear now too? Yes. Okay. So Okay.
So these objects can be divided into three. You can have a form, mind, and non associated compositional factors. Alright? karma is a non associated compositional factor. Mind is mind.
So mind is the doer, and karma is the done. So they can’t be separated because one is an action performed by the other. But they’re sep they they can’t be separated in terms of where they are because it’s something done by something. Yeah? But they’re separate things because the doer and the done are not the same thing.
Yeah? Now you’re okay.