Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Verse 46 of Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend — “A conceit arising is prevented by its antidote” — opens this 45-minute session, in which Geshe Pema Tsering begins the text’s sixteen-section chapter on general Bodhisattva advice. He uses the verse to explain why meditating on karma deflates arrogance: sickness, aging, loss, and death are all consequences of past actions we cannot escape, leaving nothing to feel conceited about. The next verse introduces two levels of right view — the mundane recognition that actions have consequences, and the deeper insight into the emptiness of inherent existence — and explains why both are required to leave saṃsāra entirely. Geshe then unpacks the four delusions (that we are happy, permanent, self-possessing, and pure) against the four realities the text prescribes, before closing with a reflection on impermanence as the moment-by-moment flux underlying everything we mistake for stability.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 21 LF 2004 11 23.mp3
UUID: b2dac7e7-ad8d-4a0d-8ee9-990954969d56
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Letter to a Friend (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2004-11-23
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.7 minutes
Words: ~3,957
Okay. Okay. So please develop the right motivation for listening to teachings. The best motivation that you could try and develop would be to think that you’re listening to the teachings from Nāgārjuna’s letter to a friend so that you can develop understanding of what’s being taught. Through developing understanding, can then put things into practice and to putting them into practice, then you can eventually become a Buddha, and as a Buddha be of an ultimate benefit to all sentient beings.
Therefore, in order to help other sentient beings, in order to lead them out of the suffering that they’re experiencing now, then please make that your motivation for listening to the text. So then the one that we just went through with the specific practices of the couple of the Bodhisattva parts. And now what we’re going to go through is what’s called the general advice regarding the practices of Bodhisattvas. Now this has sixteen different sections. So the first thing that we’re going to go through then is the way to use antidotes to get rid of that which is to be abandoned, that which creates suffering.
Causes for suffering by way of analytical meditation. That’s the first thing we’re going go through. Now the second thing it says is putting in effort to develop the perfect view that is worldly or mundane. The perfect mundane view means the development of an understanding of karma, an understanding of cause and effect, because this isn’t a view of a shunyata or emptiness, so it’s still considered to be mundane. So then why you should put in effort to develop the view that s called the transmundane view or the non worldly view.
Now, when we talk about non worldly views, are talking about the paths or the realizations of our aryas, that is, as supreme beings, those who have developed a realization of emptiness. So it describes why you should put in effort to follow the practices that these beings do. The next section that goes through then is how to meditate on these. From the previous two, it shows you why you should put in effort into realizing cause and effect, how cause and effect works, how karma works, and then how to put in effort to understanding the nature of reality, or Śūnyatā. In this next section, it talks about how to meditate on these things.
In the previous section, it’s supposed to try and help you develop belief or certainty about karma and belief or certainty about Śūnyatā or emptiness. In this section, it tells you actually how to meditate on those things. So the next thing is how to get rid of neurosis or destructive emotions. And the next thing that goes through then is how. Achieving liberation is something that we have to do ourselves.
So it says it describes how it’s necessary for us to put in effort to be to to to achieve nirvana ourselves that no one else can actually achieve nirvana for us. No one else can stop our suffering. We have to do it ourselves. The next thing then is the practice of the three higher trainings. They’re putting in effort to practice the three higher trainings.
Once we’ve understood the importance of the practice of the three higher trainings, it then goes on to explain the way that we should put in effort to protect our mindfulness as a root practice of the meditation path. And then it describes how one way to keep us mindful is to meditate on death and impermanence. Because sometimes we lose mindfulness. We get distracted by things that aren’t practicing Dharma. If we remember death and impermanence, then that can bring us back to being mindful and practicing Dharma.
The next thing is how important the precious human rebirth is, how it’s difficult to find and easy to lose. Okay. So the next one says, the instructions of the four turnings of the wheel. Now, I guess, she’ll say, that’s funny because I only thought there was three turnings of the wheel. But I’m sure when we get to that stage of the text, will find out why they’re saying four.
But he said, for now, I can only remember three. There’s the turning of the wheel about the four noble truths, and then there’s the turning of the wheel about emptiness, second turning of the wheel, and then the third turning of the wheel about Buddha nature. So he said, I don’t know of a fourth one, but I’m sure that we’ll get to that stage of the text. I’ll explain it. Yeah.
So he said, so they’ve divided into some other way where there’s four turnings of the wheel, but he’s sure that we’ll get to that. Okay. Then the next thing is Geshe said, okay, so they say four. I only know about three. I only thought there was three, but I’m waiting to find out what the fourth is.
And then the next thing is instructions about practicing higher yoga tantra. So the reasons why you need to put in the next one is reasons why you need to put in effort to make sure that you have all of the right conditions and none of the negative conditions for retreat. So when we’re going to retreat, we need to have the right conditions to do the retreat. Otherwise, it’s not going be beneficial. So this explains the way to set ourselves up for a retreat.
So the next two are the in general, the description of the shortcomings of Samsāra, and then specifically the way that Samsāra has shortcomings for individuals is the next one. And the last of these sixteen things that we go through in this section is the way that effort is incredibly important in order to strive for nirvana and abandon the causes of Samsāra. Okay. So the first thing that we’re dealing with is an antidote for us to help us get rid of that, which is not helpful. The verse is verse forty six from Nāgārjuna’s letter to a friend.
It says: A conceit arising is prevented by its antidote, which is the repeated contemplation of one’s own. And we’re aware that we’ve created it ourselves. Any suffering that we experience, we created the causes for. And if we thought about if we think about that and we think about the fact that we can’t stop ourselves getting sick, we can’t stop ourselves aging, we can’t stop ourselves dying, or we can’t stop ourselves being separated from that which we find desirable. We can’t stop ourselves from losing things that we want. So if we think about all of this again and again, if we keep going over how we’ve created the situations that we experienced through the past karma we’ve accumulated, we are unable to stop ourselves experiencing sickness, aging, death, or losing what we want, this is and that we are completely under sway of our karma, then there’s really nothing that we should get arrogant about.
There’s nothing to get conceited about. We don’t we may think being conceit what is conceit is, is having this idea that we’ve got everything going for us. We’ve got all the good qualities there can be, and we don’t need to do anything. All right? But if we think about our situation like this in terms of calm, in terms of illness, in terms of death, then there’s nothing that will make us conceited.
We can we there there’s no way that this is the Tibetan word is like to get puffed up. There’s no puffing up that will happen because we can’t do anything about what happens to us. Mhmm. Resigned? That’s not the right way of putting it.
We can’t stop ourselves from experiencing this unless we look at karma. Commentary to the session then says is that any experience that we have of illness, of old age, of death, of suffering, of being separated from that which we want comes about because of the karma that we have accumulated in the past. So there’s nothing that happens to us that isn’t a result of our karma, and there isn’t anything that can happen nothing can happen to us unless it is a result of our karma. So anything any experience that we have, any experience of happiness or suffering is a result of things that we have done in the past. It depends on what we have actions we performed in the past.
We don’t have autonomy over what happens to us. We can’t ignore the karma we’ve accumulated in the past and decide something’s going to happen to us in a certain way that want it to happen. So if we this is what we need to meditate on to get rid of conceit and to get rid of arrogance. If we can meditate on this again and again, then we can’t remain puffed up. We can’t remain arrogant.
So if we think on this again and again, then arrogance won’t arise, conceit won’t arise. And if it does arise, it will have less strength. So if we’re continually reminding ourselves of this, then it acts as an antidote to any experience of arrogance or conceit that we may have. Because if we really did have something to be arrogant about, if we really did have something to be conceited about, then we could stop any negative experience that we may have. We could stop ourselves dying.
We could stop ourselves getting ill. But we can’t do this. So really, if we can’t do this, there’s no point us getting arrogant or conceited. And so this meditation practice is acts as an antidote to arrogance or conceit. Okay.
Now The next verse, which is in order to show us why to put in effort to develop the correct or the right view. The right or worldly view that means the right view that isn’t a view of emptiness says, If you desire the higher realms and liberation, meditate upon the right view. Even good deeds by a person with wrong views all have dreadful fruition. So what this means is, if you desire the higher realms and liberation higher realms are said to be reborn as a god or a human, so rebirth in a situation where you have leisure and opportunity, where you don’t experience intense suffering constantly. It’s saying if you want to be reborn into these existences, then you need to develop an understanding of karma, of cause and effect.
This interpretation of karma and what it’s talking about here is an understanding that your actions have consequences, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be an intensive, detailed understanding of the workings karma, of cause and effect of something leading to something else and so on. It is just an idea that whatever you do has consequences, that you can’t just act on whatever your whims are, so that there is some kind of repercussions for our actions. That’s the most basic understanding of karma, and that’s what this is talking about here. Then when it says even good deeds done by a person with wrong view have dreadful consequences, it’s not talking about someone who hasn’t developed an understanding of emptiness or hasn’t developed a very subtle understanding of karma. It’s talking about people that only do what looks like good deeds for their own ends.
They may perform good deeds, but they’re not performing good deeds with any understanding of the consequences or why they’re good deeds. They’re performing what is generally taken as being good deeds because it suits what’s coming into their mind at that moment it suits their fancy at the time. If people don’t have an understanding of consequences, if they don’t focus on the idea of something coming about because of what they’re doing, then even if they do something positive, it’s not going to be beneficial. Because of this, we need to develop an understanding of this right view. Need to meditate upon what this right view actually is.
I have no idea how to do it with my peg. Okay. Alright. Alright. So now this verse actually what it means is that there’s two different elements that two different two different levels with which we can look at this.
Now the first of them In the first line, it describes these. It’s if you desire the higher realms and liberation. The higher realms means to be reborn as a human or a god. Liberation means to achieve nirvana, to get out of saṃsāra completely. If we want to achieve either of these goals, then we need to understand karma.
We need to understand cause and effect. This is what’s called the mundane wisdom, not perceiving ultimate reality but wisdom perceiving relative reality. If we wish to create the causes for ourselves and to experience the effect of of having a good rebirth or the effect of realizing liberation, then the least we need to do is to have an understanding come. Have an understanding that our actions have consequences and not do things just because of some idea that we have that this could help us or to follow whatever it is that we are thinking at the time. That’s the first level that we need to work on.
Then, the other level that we need to work on if we want to achieve nirvana, if we want to get out of saṃsāra, is that we need to relate to the objects we’re dealing with. We need to put in effort and develop a habit of relating to the objects we’re looking at with understanding that they aren’t inherently existent, that they are instances of emptiness, that they don’t exist from their own side. So On the one level, we have this understanding of cause and effect understanding that positive things have positive results negative things have negative results. Working on that basis, we can continue in Samsāra without experiencing sufferings of the lower realms, being reborn as an animal, being reborn in hell, being reborn as a spirit. If we actually want to get out of saṃsāra, then we need to develop a view that sees the emptiness of inherent existence of things, that sees the lack of a substantial self within objects or within ourselves.
What this means is that we need to develop an understanding of reality that negates the way that we look at things at the moment. As ordinary beings, the way that things appear to us is as if they are inherently existent, as if they have a solid entity of their own that we can relate to as a permanent, stable thing. This is the way that reality appears to those with ordinary perception, ordinary beings. For those who have realized emptiness, those who have developed a perception of Śūnyatā, the way they recognize that things don’t exist the way that they had appeared to them, that they exist like an illusion and they can recognize the lack of inherent existence of those things. So with combination of these two views, with the combination of the view of karma, cause and effect, and the view of emptiness, their lack of inherent existence of things, then beings are able to completely wipe out their wrong views.
They are able to completely obliterate anything that could be a cause for them to experience saṃsāra. If, on the other hand, they don’t develop these two views, if they don’t develop the view of karma and they don’t develop the view of emptiness, at the least, they’re going to be reborn in Samsāra as a human or a god, or without any understanding of the consequences of their actions, they could even be reborn in their lower realms as a an animal spirit or a hell being. So without these views, without renouncing or refuting these views of solid existence or the lack of consequences, then there cannot be any truly positive, any truly happy experience. The only things left in that instance are to experience suffering, either suffering as the suffering change in the higher realms or manifest suffering in the lower realms. Indeed.
That’s all I was talking about. In this way, then we can’t we can’t achieve nirvana. We can’t achieve a Buddhahood without developing the antidotes or not adhering to these wrong views. Stop it. Right.
It’s the pig. Alright? Okay. The next verse says, Understand humans as being, in actuality, miserable, impermanent, having no self and impure. Those in whom recollection has not been well established give heed to the four delusions, the source of ruination.
The first bit says, understand humans, Geshe-la said, That’s us, as being, in actuality, miserable. He goes, Now, we don’t walk around thinking I’m miserable. People come up to us and say, how are you?’ and you say, I’m fine, thanks, ‘ But that’s not actually true you’re not fine. Your situation is actually miserable. Why is it miserable?
The first thing is miserable because it’s impermanent. No matter how happy you get, it’s not going to last. You’re never going to be able to experience nothing but happiness. I know that’s double negative, but they have lots of them in Tibetan. The thing we need to know is that there is no self, so experience this happiness.
Is another reason we are not going to be until we recognize lack of self, our misperception is going to create suffering for us. The last thing we are is impure. We may think that we are pure, but if we look inside our bodies, we are not pure. If we look inside our minds, we are not pure either. Geshe-la said that if you’re anything like him, you don’t focus on these things.
You walk around thinking that you’re happy, permanent, you have a self and you’re pure. These four misperceptions to they’ve actually translated this as ruination, which is fairly strong. In Tibetan, it says basically that you’re not going to end up enlightened. Your enlightenment is ruined, shall we say. The four delusions are that we are happy, we are permanent, we have a self, and that we’re pure.
The four the four things we need to remind ourselves of is the fact that we are actually miserable, impermanent, have no self, and are impure. Okay. So the first thing, as humans, that we need to recognize is that if we use perfected wisdom, or the wisdom that actually perceives things the way they are as opposed to the way we want to perceive them, then what we actually experience is discomfort so tortuous that it is inconceivable. I think that’s So Geshe said okay. So this is the way that we need to if we think about it.
If we have contentment, if we think, yeah, I’m I’m healthy enough. I’m rich enough, I have what I need, I don’t need anything else, then we could start to be approaching happiness. As soon as we want something that we don’t have, we suffer for that. As soon as we want to be healthier, richer, with more things, as soon as we want more than we have, then we are suffering for the things that we don’t have. In any moment, there is this constant sense of practicing contentment, without experiencing contentment, have a constant experience of unfulfillment or suffering in this way.
And even when we think that we have it have it all, if we think I have everything that can be excellent, all the excellent bits Samsāra has to offer, have everything, I’m fine. And then even then, because we need to remind ourselves of the shortcomings of saṃsāra of how saṃsāra is nothing but misery. If we look at those things that we have, even the good bits are dependent on karma. Even the good bits aren’t stable. They’re only there because we’ve done something in a tainted way that was positive, a tainted positive thing in the path.
It wasn’t a purely positive thing. Otherwise, it would have led to nirvana. So we have these experiences, but because they’re only the unstable result of the tenuous positive karma that we accumulated in the past, we can’t rely on it. It’s something that’s tricking us into thinking that we’re happy when we aren’t actually happy. It’s difficult for us to remind ourselves that it takes a lot of our courage and strength, so we tend not to.
We tend to just focus on the positive and not try and accept the negative situation of Samsāra as well. So there’s no point so there’s no point getting all happy or the the the word he said was like meditating meditating or rejoicing, going, I have all of these things. The next thing that we need to remember about them is that they’re impermanent. In every moment, any experience of happiness that we have is disintegrating. Any experience of happiness that we may try and cling on to isn’t going to last.
So it isn’t by its nature true happiness. It isn’t by its nature something that is going to make us happy because it’s reliant on causes and conditions. Anything that’s reliant on causes and conditions that’s a result of tainted karma is disintegrating in every moment. We may grasp at it as if it’s happiness, thinking that it can make us happy, but we’re trying to hold onto something that isn’t stable, isn’t going to last. And as we try and keep grasping at things that aren’t stable, we’re going to keep experiencing more suffering.
So there’s lots of things that happen to us in in life. We experience many happy things. We experience many hard things. We’ve experienced suffering. We experience intense happiness.
But what we need to remember is not to get too carried away with any of these things because they’re all a result of the karma that we have accumulated. They’re all just the manifestation of what we planted the seeds for in the past. Whether that’s because we did something positive or we did something negative, we’re going to continue to see the results of these things playing out. We can’t say it’s all going to be good or we can’t say it’s all going to be bad, but recognize, what we need to focus on is that it is all without exception and the result of any actions that we performed in the past. So the next thing that we need to focus on then is impermanence.
Now this is something else that we don’t tend to think about. We don’t tend to think about the way that things are constantly changing in every moment, the way that we ourselves are constantly changing in every moment, the way that other people are and the way that objects are. So we get quite shocked or surprised when things end because we don’t we don’t think of them as being in a constant state of of change and therefore having an an endpoint. We think think of things as abiding. We have this idea that we ourselves are abiding and that other people are abiding.
We think of ourselves today as being exactly the same as we were yesterday and the day before. It only occurs to us that we’re changing when we look at ourselves over long periods of time. So we think that we ourselves aren’t changing. We think that other people aren’t changing. We think that the tables aren’t changing.
But in actual fact, in every moment, everything is constantly in a state of flux.